News - eBuyer to move into high street retail

[HEXUS]

The large UK online retailer is considering the move from virtual to physical stores.

Read more.

[hb904460]

The owners already have brick and mortar stores with the Wren kitchens shops so maybe a section of those will be used.

[Brewster0101]

Long long fan of ebuyer until they gave me a partial refund on a expensive Corsair PSU that went faulty in 6 months instead of replacing it with stock they had.

Rather buy from my nearest Novatech that is 35 miles away now, although I'd open my arms to a Scan retail shop too.

[raven1001]

I only buy my PC gear from Amazon, best customer service out there.

[Top_gun]

Not sure I can trust Ebuyer after their dodgy review scandal and Amazon hardly pay their dues to the UK. Scan all the way for me. Shame about the defunct Yoyotech, the only decent brick and mortar shop in London unless someone tells me otherwise.

[Willzzz]

You don't have to trust them, just use John Lewis price match

[ik9000]

You don't have to trust them, just use John Lewis price match

??? JL do not do computer components

[ik9000]

Not sure I can trust Ebuyer after their dodgy review scandal and Amazon hardly pay their dues to the UK. Scan all the way for me. Shame about the defunct Yoyotech, the only decent brick and mortar shop in London unless someone tells me otherwise.

Dodgy review scandal?

I find the range on ebuyer less good than it used to be, but have only had happy experiences with them

[Top_gun]

I would if I could, Willzzz. Unfortunately, there are a number of get out clauses with the John Lewis price match service.

[napster113]

Any new electrical shops are welcome in my opinion.

[marshalex]

Be good to get some more competition on the high street, however considering ebuyers primary focus would a high street store really be that wise. Unless they changed the retail focus to mainly consumer focused items then there's not much point

[scaryjim]

... Unless they changed the retail focus to mainly consumer focused items then there's not much point

They already do quite a lot of consumer electronics on the website, even thought it's not the primary focus of the business. Running a set of high street stores to expand that part of the business (plus laptops and pre-built computers, I guess) while offering "collect in store" shopping from the website for other lines (e.g. components) might be workable, if they can get the store locations right.

[MrComputerSaint]

I'm a fan of ebuyer.
I just look at reviews from different sites if it's something expensive before buying.

I welcome their move to retail.

[cheesyboy]

Only good experiences with Ebuyer for me, that's with more than 10 years shopping (albeit infrequent shopping).

It will be interesting to see how they do with this. An Etailer going onto the high street might just have a few innovations over the legacy chains.

Probably, they will effectively use the units as a means of advertising and distributing their online offer, whilst giving a decent selection of household electrics to tick over instore.

The obvious big advantage they have over someone like Currys is that they have such a huge range to refer to on their website, and won't be afraid to reduce their store margins by discounting for Etail.

[Zypher20]

We really need a high street competitor to currys. Yes there is john lewis and fenwicks but these are few and far between and still not always the cheapest. (tho I am going to go into JL tomorrow and see if they will pricematch a TV which is currently £799 and is the same price in currys (£799)without the o2 priority moments offer but will be £749 with the priority moments offer. Think I have a chance?

[keithwalton]

The extra overheads will lead to price rises, and price is one of the biggest reasons why someone would shop with ebuyer.
The other being the ability to order up until late at night and still get it delivered the next day. Just a shame they use yodel!

What I think might work is a network of small stores to be used as pick up points, make use of there existing fast turn around and instead of having it delivered to home / work and invariably missing the courier, have it delivered to a store by lunch time for lunch break pick ups and have the store stay open until late say 8pm for picking up after work (would have to be better than currys / pc worlds by 5pm next day but then the store shuts at 6pm...)

The stores could hold a limited amount of common stock but not much as the store would need to be minimum floor size and staffing that they can get away with