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About LinkBacksWeekdays even on none public holidaysOriginally Posted by moogle
Forgot the public holidays
I think all scenarios have been covered now
Weekdays even on none public holidaysForgot the public holidays
I think all scenarios have been covered now
It's ok, we need to adjust the price really anyhow, I'll see what we can do on Monday and update the site.
Example: holiday periods etc...
Regardless of what's actually happened with specific products at Scan, that kind of thing is a feature of stock control systems, just-in-time ordering and lead times.
Suppose you buy 100 of an item at £100. You find you're selling 10 a day and it takes 3 days to get new stock. If you wait until you have less than 30, then you'll sell out before new stock comes in, and that probably results in lost orders. So you order a bit early, say, 40 items.
But you don't want to order too early, because the bigger your stock of a product, the more susceptible you are to getting clobbered if the market price drops leaving you holding excessive stocks that you bought at too high a price.
So you try to balance it so that you run out just as new stock arrives. Hence "just-in-time" stock.
However, that means that at the start of day 10 (in my example), you've got 10 left. Then new stock arrives, which may be another 100 items, but the price has gone up to £110. Now, you have 10 in stock that cost you £100, and 100 that cost you £110. All the public stock system will show (if it were to give stock levels) was 110 in stock. So nine will sell at the original buy price, and you're left with one bought at that price, but 101 in stock. As soon as the next one sells, the price needs to go up because the buy price of your remaining stock was higher than that of the ones you've just sold. If you were selling at £106, and carried on doing so, you'd be making a £4 loss on every one you sold.
Not every price rise is an attempt to maximise profits. It might just reflect changing buy prices. Nor is making maximum profit on any given product necessarily sound business sense. Sometimes you'll find (depending on industry) that there are cashback deals based on quantity sold over a period. And getting towards the cut-off period, you can get some good deals from companies wanting to hit that point. Buying the right car at the right time can achieve this. Also, making enough profit per item but not bleeding customers helps build customer loyalty and helps secure a long-term future, as opposed to making a quick buck and offending your customer base in the process.
But all to often, price rises, and of course, price drops, merely reflect modern stock control systems, and commodity pricing. One of the pressures of the highly competitive nature of mail-order businesses, especially in commodity type goods (like computer bits, where many companies sell identical products and the consumer has plenty of choice in where to buy) is that margins are generally very tight. That means stock control has to be tight, or you go out of business. And that means that companies cut predicted sales right to the bone on delivery times, and if they get a slight surge in predicted sales, we end up with an out of stock situation. It's a necessity forced on suppliers by the aggressive nature of the market. And that, incidentally, is one reason why PC World, etc, always seem so expensive compared to mail order outlets. You can't run that tight a stock system when you have to have display products on shelves in dozens (or hundreds) of stores, as opposed to one warehouse. And, of course, it won't help you much having stock in a warehouse in Durham if it's your Brighton branch that runs out. If the management of stock between branch and a warehouse is a nightmare, you ought to try managing multiple warehouses and distribution centres. That's a major part of the cost of running a Tesco, or a Marks and Sparks ..... or a PC World.
As Saracen has said, we based our ordering on previous sales history "ESO" Estimated stock out and order new stock accordingly, we also have to order more so under a JIT system ( Just in Time ), simply becuase of the recent problems with the $ rate we can't order a shed load of stock to then find the buy price drops and we loose out heavily. But also this can sometimes pay off, if we can buy a lot of stock of a product, knowing the price is going to increase after, a retailer can find itself with a lot a stock of a product at a low price when other Retailer's will only be able to order under the new higher buy price.
It's all about balance.
Last edited by Chris P; 10-01-2009 at 11:25 AM.
Just because your supplier phones you up to complain, does not make it legal.Quoted by ChrisP: If we sold a product too cheap then we would have the supplier / manufacturer talking to us to increase the price because other Retailer's would complain, this is another reason we have to monitor our prices.
I'll let the buffs with legal knowledge take it from here.
We appreciate your honesty ChrisP.
Last edited by Chris P; 10-01-2009 at 12:15 PM.
Blackbadger
I suggest you find out the meaning of price fixing before you post such rubbish - We are not in collaboration with other Retailer's to fix a price, we adjust our prices up to a daily basis, based on our buy prices.. Sometimes we unknowingly have or prices to low, this is why we check them.
Of course you know where our site and and I invite you to point out any prices, which are unfair.
I didn't say that the supplier would complain but of course we have a product unreasonably low, which doesn't happen that often but to explain why is most likely a mistake then because of our close relationship's with suppliers they contact us to tell us - The choice of words "complain" should have been better to make the point clearer
Our margins are always tight and we offer the best prices possible. anyone with an ounce of common sense should be able to see that and I expect posters to have the intelligence to understand this.
We have nothing to hide...
Price Fixing
Idk doesn't seem like it to me. Talking with the supplier isn't the same as plotting a plan for prices with another retailer.
ChrisP
I am not posting rubbish thank you.... I only responded in facts to what you stated.
You say you have nothing to hide, but you have gone back, edited your post to remove what you said. You have even gone and modified my post....
I even thanked you for your honesty, I'm starting to question that.
Well - not wanting a war, I guess people will read what they will into it.
Have a good weekend.
The facts I wrote do not suggest Price Fixing
You said "This is" price fixing when clearly it is not - This was written by you are "This is price fixing". I suggest again you be careful of what you accuse a Retailer of as this in itself has implications. I edited your post because you were trying to inaccurately state a fact but still responded to the comment, that I edited.
I edited my post simply because it was unclear not because we have anything to hide....If we had anything to hide I would have removed the thread, but we did not. Instead I addressed your comments directly to explain.
I'm off to do exactly that - " Have a Good weekend "- I also hope you have a good weekened.
I'll say again " We have nothing to hide"
Best Regards
The best thing is if you find the price too high don't buy it!! Wait until it drops to a price you are willing to pay!!
Moogle i'm not having a personal dig at you here dude but what you've said is contradictory - unless i've misunderstood what you mean, in which place please correct me.
'24h or more, maybe sometimes less'
So the 'today only' can be less than 24hrs then ? - Which is just what 'joepineapples' mentioned.
When has it not?
Well the thread was originally about the GTX 295 price. The BFG one was in 'today only' on Thurs AM for £420.
It then shot up to £454 in the afternoon.It wasn't on sale for a full 24hrs at the original price.
I think this is what 'joepineapples' was reffering to ??
However, ChrisP stated that they raised the price of it after they realised the price 'was wrong and ridiculously low'
He didn't indicate if this was an internal error eg: someone miscalulated the price , OR they saw other retailers were selling it much more expensive.
Interestingly at the time he clearly stated that Scan price is based on the 'buy in price', but then in the same post reffered to the fact they check to see if they are selling items 'too cheap'.
I was a little worried at the conatations of this at the time (but impressed with the honesty) and indeed posted a little joke about price fixing which ChrisP deleted. Rightly so, I then apologsed.
If Scan prices are based on buy in price, why couldn't they keep it on sale at £420 - it was obviously enough for them margin wise untill they saw the others selling em at Circa £450. So they increased it.
My concern was if every e-tailer had the same philosophy and compared prices against each other to make sure they weren't selling stuff to cheap, whats to stop them all keeping prices inflated ?
I know its all a balancing act re prices, and business have to make a profit. Also I have read and digested what was later posted about not wanting to upset the supplier's/manufactures by selling stuff to cheap. But this also concerns me, why should retailers like Scan be pressured into selling goods higher than they would like to keep suppliers and therefore other less profitable retailers happy.
Its survival of the fittest after all....... Scan is obviously very fit (see i'm creeping now because I don't want to upset anyone)
Finally I'm glad that at least 1 E-tailer seems to be keeping prices low, its not hard to find GTX 295's for £390 - £410 (granted not in stock yet - but early next week i'm told). I hope they don't suddenly bump up the prices aswell.
Hopefully they'll bring some heavyweight clout and much need competition for the consumers.
Last edited by slickric21; 10-01-2009 at 03:18 PM. Reason: removed link other e-tailer
Well it does contradict what I said but it's very minor, well I see it as that
Examples would be as in when Today only changes very late in the day like lets say 2pm. Then the next day it changes at 11am or maybe 12pm. Less than 24h but I'm not complaining what with the nice deals there are
It also can be more than 24h sometimes too when the scenario above is played out with the times swapped, and also on weekends and over public holidays or just when Scan don't feel like changing it
As for the BFG card I hadn't noticed that. I thought joe was complaining about it being not exactly 24h long and missing a today only deal etc.
I wonder if the Stock situation maybe reflects their price.... I would also say nothing is Guaranteed in this business in my experience anyway.
Is it £390 or £410 £20 differnece on todays market is a high margin big difference.
The way some retailers work is they know they can not get the stock in quantity as easily as others ( someone with a good allocation ) so the undercut the pricing of the main sellers take the pre orders at the lower price and hope to get enough to then place an order with a distributor.
Numbers and allocation a lot of the time depends on reputation and relationship with your distributors in short if it was as easy to just sell to who you wanted then the market would be a mess so there is a structure in place were stock allocation to retailers from distributors. Scan are not into market games we try to keep it "Simple" We have stock its at this price its competitive and btw we also have a a good customer service department.
Sure I can spend all day scouting the internet to see I can SEE it cheaper whether I would buy from them is a totally different point. As Chris has mentioned pricing is Real time if we can confirm more stock is available we will usually discount it on TO or if we have overstocked we will generally do the same.
There should be no issue here as the facts remain
If you do not want to purchase it at whatever price then dont there is no pressure but please do not try and guess or state that we are price fixing when the facts are not clear.
Regards
Last edited by Mossy; 10-01-2009 at 04:17 PM.
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Zotac GTX 295 £392
BFG GTX 295 £407
XFX GTX 295 £410
All same e-tailer, inc free delivery.
Yeah good point.
I know what you're saying there is a lot more than just price.
You've got to consider the ordering process, delivery, aftersales support etc etc.
Scan is usually exceptionally good on at least the 3rd point.
If I did want one i'd have bought it for £392 from the company who generally do well in all 3 of my above points, oh and to the other bit I don't believe I did.
Thanks for enlightening us with the rest of your post btw, interesting to see how things work certainly.
Regards
See you all next week when the GTX 285 surfaces !!!!!!!!!!
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