On-Line buying from Amazon becomes more attractive by the day - Irish Retailers Please Note

[Cervelo]

I'm voting with my mouse and spending my few discretionary euro where I feel valued. Customer service counts for a lot with me and if it costs less and is more convenient for me (I live in the sticks) to get that experience from the likes of AMAZON then so be it.

I used to always try and support Irish businesses over any other business whether it was from Irish suppliers in my business life or Irish retailers for my personal purchases but that has all changed in the last two to three years where now nearly all my personal purchases are done online and for the cheapest price where possible

My main drivers for this turn around really started in early 2019 when I contacted four bike shops in Ireland with the view to buying two top end road bikes, NOT one shop was interested in my business so I went and bought the two BMC bikes online in Germany with a 30% plus discount
Last year I made three online bike related purchases from three online retailers one in Ireland, one in England and the other in Germany,
Guess which one took the longest to arrive and that was only after I had to contact them a week after the other two purchases arrived
Today I'm placing an order with a German online bike shop for some tyres that are €40 each which is at the very least €25 cheaper then I can find here, my order total will be around €500 which is about €250 cheaper than an Irish dealer and that's if they have the items in stock

For me it really comes down to price, why would you pay more then you have to. A couple of euros here or there is not something I'm not going to worry about but when the difference is runs into hundreds if not thousands of euros, well you'd be mad not to avail of the discounts that online shopping can bring

 

[kinnjohn]

Here's one for you to ponder.

2 days ago at about 5:30 pm I ordered two small electrical items online. One from a well known 'bricks'n'mortar' Irish seller, trading for well over 30 years with an online presence for about 20 of those, and the second from Amazon UK. Both items in stock at time of ordering.
P&P for the Irish purchase was €4 + VAT.
P&P for Amazon was free (yet another 'Prime' trial).

I am now in receipt of the Amazon order, ( coming from Manchester) and I have just received an Email from the Irish distributor stating
that they will dispatch my order today ( coming from Dublin ).
I don't hold out too much hope that I will receive it tomorrow, knowing an Post, and because of the bank holiday more than likely it will be next Tuesday.

So, there you have it:-
Free postage from Amazon and its delivered in 42 hours from ordering.
And €4.92 for postage from an Irish company and its not even dispatched yet !

Irish online sellers REALLY need to get their act together, but I fear it is already too late.

Here's one for you to ponder.

2 days ago at about 5:30 pm I ordered two small electrical items online. One from a well known 'bricks'n'mortar' Irish seller, trading for well over 30 years with an online presence for about 20 of those, and the second from Amazon UK. Both items in stock at time of ordering.
P&P for the Irish purchase was €4 + VAT.
P&P for Amazon was free (yet another 'Prime' trial).

I am now in receipt of the Amazon order, ( coming from Manchester) and I have just received an Email from the Irish distributor stating
that they will dispatch my order today ( coming from Dublin ).
I don't hold out too much hope that I will receive it tomorrow, knowing an Post, and because of the bank holiday more than likely it will be next Tuesday.

So, there you have it:-
Free postage from Amazon and its delivered in 42 hours from ordering.
And €4.92 for postage from an Irish company and its not even dispatched yet !

Irish online sellers REALLY need to get their act together, but I fear it is already too late.

In the past, I placed an online order with a well known Irish engineering supplier for parts that were supposed to be in stock,
They were the Irish agent for the parts I ordered,

I also placed an order for the same parts with a UK supplier who was an agent for Uk and Ireland around the same price
The parts from the UK supplier always arrived a few days ahead of the Irish parts, direct from Manufacturer in Germany ,

what was going on was Irish supplier was ordering parts from the same EU supplier after I placed the order and getting it delivered to their office first then charging me extra postage from their office to my home address

 

[mathepac]

Ah the gombeen men, forever with us, forever gombeens.

 

[Leper]

The shopping landscape of Ireland has changed more in the last three years more than it did in the previous thirty-three years. The loyalty you-support-me and I'll-support-you syndrome is dead and gone. Ask any family member of small grocery shops. The vast majority are dead and gone and eaten by the big supermarkets without salt. Big Ben Dunne once said there is always a place of the Irish small shop owner - he was right, the graveyard.

Even heading into my 70's I don't know anybody who doesn't shop online. My nearest and dearest can bang out our postcode like it was her middle name (and even she can't remember my mobile phone number). Every Irish retailer is competing using thimble amounts of water against a torrent of online sales lava. That's before you take in workers rights, employment conditions, dignity-at-work, fire prevention, insurance, PAYE, PRSI, inconvenience against convenience, rent, maintenance, upgrading, bag costs, advertising, staff training, wages etc.

I try to support Irish retailers, but it's getting increasingly difficult and more expensive to do so. In a few years time we'll look back and wonder how Retail in Ireland died and of course deny we killed it.

 

[sharkattack]

Nobody can compete with Amazon at present. Those wiper blades would have been picked off the shelf by an automated machine Christmas morning (no pay cheque required) in Amazon where an employee in an Irish retailer would be on triple time picking up the same item at the same time. Plus remember amazon makes a loss in Europe but other parts of the business more than make up that loss so they don't care. Its all about market share and killing off competition.

But Irish retailers need to up their game overall. Local bike shop here that I've made several attempts to get a part from. Call in one day at 12.40 - note on the window reads "gone to lunch". Went in another time at 9.40 and it still hadn't opened. Don't think they open until 10. They have some chance of competing it they're open.

 

[NoRegretsCoyote]

Plus remember amazon makes a loss in Europe but other parts of the business more than make up that loss so they don't care.

True but this depends on €8bn of largely which presumably flow back to the US.

How these are priced makes a big difference to profitability in the EU.

I kind of doubt that (17 years after its set-up) its EU arm is essentially loss-making on retail.

 

[noproblem]

My late mother wanted to buy something from the local shop (busy, busy) a few years ago. I was driving her and when she came back after buying what she wanted I noticed her in very bad humour. She said she would never go back again because the owner wasn't there, at least she didn't see him and she would buy what was needed in Tesco from then on. A few days later I brought her to the Tesco outlet, she bought what she wanted, when I was putting her purchases in to the boot I asked her did she meet Mr Tesco. I got that look from her, as if I had no idea of how busy Mr Tesco was. I'm just saying all this because people's expectations have become crazy in what's demanded and reasonable. I agree that Amazon and others could indeed ruin the high street shopping experience, then again that won't stop me from buying Amazon shares. Does that make me a hypocrite? I don't think so, but then again! Maybe it's time for retailers to give shoppers a better experience when they shop, more places to sit down, wider aisles, entertainment of some kind, easier to understand pricing, friendlier staff and when something's wrong? Sort it and with a genuine smile. Ensure staff know what products are in a shop, where a customer can find it and bring them to where it is, open up checkouts and not have long queues at one till when there's 10 more closed and staff having a fag outside. Yes, there's an awful lot more our retailers could and should do. Loyalty to a store may be gone, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be fought for again though.

 

[PGF2016]

Maybe it's time for retailers to give shoppers a better experience when they shop, more places to sit down, wider aisles, entertainment of some kind, easier to understand pricing, friendlier staff and when something's wrong? Sort it and with a genuine smile. Ensure staff know what products are in a shop, where a customer can find it and bring them to where it is, open up checkouts and not have long queues at one till when there's 10 more closed and staff having a fag outside.

All of the suggestions will increase costs at a time when trying to compete with a mega-corp with a far lower cost base.

And I would say a lot of those ideas were implemented years ago by Feargal Quinn and ultimately customers preferred lower prices.

 

[mathepac]

I'd settle for having things priced properly in the fridges and on the shelves. SuperValu yesterday, four items stacked side-by-side, three priced, one not, the unpriced item being the one I wanted. I asked a sales assistant did she know the price, she didn't and took one off to the check-out to scan. Returning she gave me the price, but said she was sure they were on an offer of some kind. Off she went again returning with the information that they were BOGOFF for the week. I bought two.

I happened to be in the same shop this morning for paper and Lotto. There were the same four products stacked side-by-side, three priced, one not. Noone in SuperValu seems to care, why should I?

 

[noproblem]

All of the suggestions will increase costs at a time when trying to compete with a mega-corp with a far lower cost base.

And I would say a lot of those ideas were implemented years ago by Feargal Quinn and ultimately customers preferred lower prices.

It's the overall experience people want, retailers need to pull up their socks. Too much academia being brought into the retail side of things and the common touch being lost. As for costing more? I personally don't agree, but that's my opinion and we won't go there. Going shopping is bland, a task to get done, boring boring boring. It doesn't have to be. They try at Christmas, there's a feel to it and people SMILE, they're enjoying it. Start there, tap into it and we'll take it from there.

 

[WolfeTone]

Can any Irish online or bricks 'n mortar retailers match or better it for service?

Unlikely, as it is unlikely that you would enter a bricks and mortar retailer and find the goods in such poor condition in the first place. Even if you did, the prospect of you actually buying it in such condition would be minimal.

 

[noproblem]

Unlikely, as it is unlikely that you would enter a bricks and mortar retailer and find the goods in such poor condition in the first place. Even if you did, the prospect of you actually buying it in such condition would be minimal.

You'd be surprised

 

[PGF2016]

As for costing more? I personally don't agree, but that's my opinion and we won't go there.

How can wider aisles, more seating and entertainment not cost more?

 

[arbitron]

Some businesses act like they do not want your custom. It is bizarre. A few of them seem to view Fawlty Towers as a how-to guide.

A local pub re-invented itself as a gourmet food store during lockdown. It's a popular place because of its location but I always found the service poor. I was cajoled into giving them a chance as it looked very nice from the outside but the owner almost seemed put out by our presence despite us spending quite a bit. Against my better judgement I visited again recently - every business can have a bad day.

Again, yer man was like a demon, getting visibly annoyed at customers for no reason. When the woman ahead of us asked for a bottle of Coke, he pointed at the fridge and shouted "Can you not see we only have cans?!" We made a swift exit and won't be back.

Contrast this to the local supermarket I worked in as a teenager. You could be late for your shift, you could be slow, you could make mistakes and they would forgive you - but if you were rude or ignored customers then you were out on your ear. Many years later that same (overpriced) little shop is thriving despite the arrival of Aldi and Lidl. Good customer service has stood to them.

 

[DublinHead54]

But Irish retailers need to up their game overall. Local bike shop here that I've made several attempts to get a part from. Call in one day at 12.40 - note on the window reads "gone to lunch". Went in another time at 9.40 and it still hadn't opened. Don't think they open until 10. They have some chance of competing it they're open.

This reminds me of a parable I once heard:

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed. “I have an MBA from Harvard, and can help you,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middle-man, you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening up your own cannery. You could control the product, processing, and distribution,” he said. “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually to New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “Oh, 15 to 20 years or so.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right, you would announce an IPO, and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”

“Millions – then what?”

The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”