In talking about the internet for the past few weeks, I have found that a lot of you are surprised by how much influence it appears to have on my business.
As one of the last bastions of brick and mortar, the internet is always something I have to consider when considering how to conduct my business.
Many times, my answer is "I'm not doing that"; but I still think about the competition and how to react to it as well as how to learn from it.
There are a certain group of customers that often (if not almost always) come in to my store, ask questions, look at product, talk to my staff about various trends and so on; and then when faced with making a purchase will tell us "I can get that on the internet for cheaper".
My answer to those customers is- Yes, you certainly CAN. On certain items, I WANT customers to go to the internet and pay less (I'll get to why in a moment). But to use me and my staff as the experts that will advise and counsel you about games you might like, try our demo copies and then turn around and buy a $40 game online for $30 "because it's cheaper" pisses me off.
This kind of behavior is downright rude, and I don't abide rudeness. My store offers more than instant gratification. It offers employees that love games and will help you find the right game for you. It offers demonstration copies of games so you can "try before you buy". It offers a place to actually play the game- and a NICE place, too. (Clean, well lit, smells nice, air/heat, comfy chairs, snacks and a bathroom.) It also acts as a gathering place for fellow nerds/geeks/weirdos like yourself, so you have folks with whom to enjoy the game you buy.
That's worth something. What I do and the place I do it have value.
I'll admit that these rude customers are a very small selection of the folks we cater to, as most of our regulars have learned that what we can't do in price, we make up for in service.
I can't just tell you that our service is great. I just have to let you know that we do our best to give unparalleled service, and our customers let us know when and how we can improve. We do our best to listen and be responsive to the needs of our community, while staying firmly in the black as a business entity.
There are many things I just can't afford to give a discount to my customers and still make money as a business. The margin on many items is very small, and even with direct relationships, volume oriented scales and continued negotiations to get better deals for our bottom line, everyone involved in the chain has to make money for any deal to work. There are times when cutting even a percent more off an item is going to affect someone negatively, and those items are strictly kept in line with the pricing we get from distributors.
Other items offer a lot more flexibility, with some allowances for us to make changes if we so desire. We don't usually come down on those, even though we could- simply because they help make up for the items we make less on, or the items with a lot less room in the margins.
We also have items that are "net price"; which means we pay X and can charge whatever we feel is appropriate for it. Most of the time, we stay right in line with MSRP, and give the net price items a medium price point.
When it comes to the internet, there are items I want you to go find for cheaper. My number one example is common Magic cards. We have over 100,000 common playsets available for sale in our store. They are sorted and put away nicely so that they are easy to find and sell. Our price reflects the labor it takes to sort 500,000 plus cards, the rent the cards take up, and the ease of finding the card you want when you want it.
No more digging through the "penny box"; we actually make shopping easy. If a customer wants to find "Jump"; we look through our boxes and give it to them. If they want to argue because Troll & Toad or CoolStuffInc has Jump for WAY less than we do, we let him go ahead and buy it online. We let him deal with minimum orders, shipping costs, and waiting to get his item; just to save 39 cents.
I want customers to get the best value they can. What they find valuable is probably different from what I put stock in, and trying to accommodate "that guy" is never worth my time, which is infinitely more valuable than 39 cents, or even 39 dollars.
If Warstore wants to sell items to customers at a couple dollars markup, that's great. I hope that works for them. Their business model is entirely different than ours and we can't hope to emulate or copy other entity's operations and make any money. The moment we start responding to instead of acting for, we lose.
We must always act for our best interests, with our customers' interests included in that decision making process. We must always look at our model, our customers, our situation; and act for the best in all regard for OUR standards and no one else's.
The internet, in many ways, it like peer pressure. "Everyone" is offering a discount or free shipping or free blowjobs- but just because everyone does it does not mean it is right for us. We have to make our choices based on our situations and know that we're doing the best we can given what we have. If our customers value something we aren't offering more than what we are, then we either have to adjust or let our customers find the value they want in other options. (My employees will probably object if asked to give blowjobs, though.)
You've been surprised at how much influence the social aspects of the internet might have on my business. Perhaps that's because my business is social in nature, or because those are the areas I focus my attention. What you won't see is commerce sites having any real effect on my operations. I hope my explanation is helpful and gives you insight to what might happen at your FLGS. Every store is different and I can't tell you what they value, but this might shed some light on why they do (or don't) offer discounts and so on.
I'd love to answer questions if you have them.
