Land Warrior Airsoft Ltd - No longer a stockest for ICS

[speed demon]

Ok, here's one for a bit of intellectual debate.

 

Somewhere above the concept of dealers and distrributors who dont retail cropped up.

 

In your views, what would you think an acceptable markup should be for a distributor who only sells to traders and not end users?

[Rob15]

In your views, what would you think an acceptable markup should be for a distributor who only sells to traders and not end users?

In my view I think that's a silly question.

 

What the average consumer thinks is an acceptable markup is going to be very different to what a business will consider acceptable, businesses afterall generally (I'd hope) actually have an understanding of all the expenses involved in running their business and cost products up appropriately. Business expenses vary somewhat depending on location, how they decide to run their business and with other factors such as how much they choose to pay any employees.

 

I doubt the average consumer who isn't working within the industry will really know the sort of volumes of each product are sold either which can be a huge factor in product costing.

[Smoke]

Ok, here's one for a bit of intellectual debate.

 

Somewhere above the concept of dealers and distrributors who dont retail cropped up.

 

In your views, what would you think an acceptable markup should be for a distributor who only sells to traders and not end users?

 

If I was in that situation...?

 

As much as I possibly could. It's business.

 

Much as (as an end user), I'd love to see prices come down as much as possible, so I can afford more toys... When it comes down to the food on my table, and the clothes on my kids backs... The thoughts of an internet forum wouldn't mean jack diddly squat.

 

It's very, very easy to take the moral high ground sitting behind a computer, posting on a forum... But at the end of the day, you're dealing with the real world. 

 

And lets face it... They're toys. A luxury to spend excess funds on. Sure, many people take airsoft very seriously. But this is your bread and butter you're talking about.

[speed demon]

The two posts are interesting, and in some ways thought provoking.

 

For what its worth I would be very happy to just sell to traders. 95% of what I sell goes in that route anyway, but of course I also have a retail outlet. The issue that started this whole thread was Land Warrior did not want to buy from a UK retailer / distributor. What was never mentioned was that buying direct was cheaper too.

 

If a UK (or any other country) distributor existed for ICS or any other brand, most retailers would refuse to buy from them on principal, and either try a back door method of purchase or simply not stock that brand. the airsoft industry is very imature by business standards. The manufacturers want maximum sales and therefore pretty much sell to anyone. The dealers rightly so want to maximise thier profits so look for cheapest supplier. Until the manufacturers adopt a continental model, then a country model, this issue will not be solved. In developing such a model they have to shut the back door to anyone who turns up with a suitcase of cash, and that is very hard, especially in the current climate. Sadly in doing so it undermines the official channels, and seriously waters down the desire to spend money promoting the brand, only to lose sales to grey market imports.

 

For what its worth, comparing airsoft to other consumer products, a distributor mark up of 10-15% would be considered the norm. Dealers then typically add anywhere between 25-40% on top, but they are the ones who have to fund the warranties. It's that 25-40% that the distributors dont want to walk away from that stops the distributor only model from working. Red Wolf UK played that game for 7 years, and now they have opened a retail outlet!

[Smoke]

Isn't the bottom line that no retailer has a written, legally binding contract with ICS. and as such, every retailer is therefore entitled to approach ICS directly to obtain product? On the same theme, they're entitled to sell them on to whoever (legal issues like the VCRA aside) they like, for as much as they deem possible?

 

Were this not true, this whole situation would be dealt with by Lawyers - rather than discussed on an open community forum... Right?

 

As you pointed out. Your agreement with WA was a legal contract. It seems ICS are happy to have 'agreements' with pretty much anyone - If it ain't on paper, it ain't worth *suitcase*.

 

Every business is going to try and source it's product for as little as possible, and sell it for as much as the market allows. Or am I missing something?

[Rob15]

For what its worth, comparing airsoft to other consumer products, a distributor mark up of 10-15% would be considered the norm. Dealers then typically add anywhere between 25-40% on top, but they are the ones who have to fund the warranties.

I don't think that kind of information is really at all relevant to the end user consumer group though, markup percentages alone are completely worthless because they don't take into account the expenses that are deducted from the revenue to give the bottom line net profit.

 

What is relevant to the average consumer is what does product A cost compared to a similar comparable product B and is best for what the consumer is looking for in a product. That kind of information can be obtained by researching and comparing products and prices, knowing what markup a retailer or distributer is adding isn't required because at the end of the day, the average consumer is not paying trade prices.

[Cannonfodder80]

As an end user I believe the practice of having more than one store being supplied directly by ICS (or any other manufacturer) is a good thing as it encourages competition. If buyers are restricted to just the one store for a particular make then the shop is basicly given a monopoly on prices