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Well that was interesting! As the boss of Compass in the UK and having worked my socks off for 6 months to write and load 8000 items as well as advise, research and price the products notwithstanding the fulfilment system and how it would be able to handle the increase in business (I hope!) it didn't take long for someone to have a go at us (see YBW on line thread further down Scuttlebutt, this post being allowed as a right to reply to that thread - Kim)
We thought we'd done pretty well - an attractive site that loads pretty quickly with secure encryption (Thawte 128-bit), a huge range of products and stock availability on-line.
The problem with electronics is that the pricing is very political. Everyone goes to have a look at the price of your Garmin 12 and if that's cheap you're regarded as OK! If not everyone has a whinge and a grumble. When we set our original pricing last December, we had no idea what our competitors were going to do, so we set out our prices to be low but fair and at the same time allowing us enough margin to keep a full time technical department and call centre - and that's getting pretty rare these days! But because small electronics are so politically priced everyone is trying to take the 'low ground' to prove they are the cheapest.
It always amazes me why some customers will spend 1/2 day or more trying to save £3 when they probably bill their time at £30/hr or more!
Compass source directly from factories all over the world, only stock them in one central warehouse and then ship them directly to our customers in 6 European countries where we have sales offices as well as the rest of the world. We do not buy these products through wholesalers or other retailers thereby saving a margin.
We are also very proud of our collaboration with ybw.com and would not want to offer any poor service that might jeopardise their standing. That is why we immediately changed the wording on the opening page. But hey, guys, give us a break. We are growing so fast and I am really proud of my team here who have sweated blood (along with some of the guys at ybw) to raise the game.
DL
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by kimhollamby on Thu Jan 24 11:24:37 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
We thought we'd done pretty well - an attractive site that loads pretty quickly with secure encryption (Thawte 128-bit), a huge range of products and stock availability on-line.
The problem with electronics is that the pricing is very political. Everyone goes to have a look at the price of your Garmin 12 and if that's cheap you're regarded as OK! If not everyone has a whinge and a grumble. When we set our original pricing last December, we had no idea what our competitors were going to do, so we set out our prices to be low but fair and at the same time allowing us enough margin to keep a full time technical department and call centre - and that's getting pretty rare these days! But because small electronics are so politically priced everyone is trying to take the 'low ground' to prove they are the cheapest.
It always amazes me why some customers will spend 1/2 day or more trying to save £3 when they probably bill their time at £30/hr or more!
Compass source directly from factories all over the world, only stock them in one central warehouse and then ship them directly to our customers in 6 European countries where we have sales offices as well as the rest of the world. We do not buy these products through wholesalers or other retailers thereby saving a margin.
We are also very proud of our collaboration with ybw.com and would not want to offer any poor service that might jeopardise their standing. That is why we immediately changed the wording on the opening page. But hey, guys, give us a break. We are growing so fast and I am really proud of my team here who have sweated blood (along with some of the guys at ybw) to raise the game.
DL
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by kimhollamby on Thu Jan 24 11:24:37 2002 (server time).</FONT></P>
