Online Sales - The importance of buying from local businesses

[dkatchalov]

Well Craig might be gone, but the other one is still out there. He just moved threads.

Anyway, I just haven't found and LDS that has given me the me level of service the online guys have given me. I can't tell you how many times I have sent one of the online guys an email, looked at their website or called their toll free number and got an answer right away. I wish I could find a local shop that had such great service.

My experience with ST and LP vs. my LDSs are exactly like yours. Hence why I spent maybe $300 at my LDS and about $2,000 at ST and LP combined. ST and LP are also very likely to get a lot more of my business when my diving advances. My LDSs aren't.

 

[GeorgeC]

Anyway, I just haven't found and LDS that has given me the me level of service the online guys have given me.........I wish I could find a local shop that had such great service.

This is the difference between being hungry for earning business and complacent for the business you have!

 

[amitsi]

The LDS I used was rude and not helpful during my certification.....

I remember asking them about computers and the guy was like why don't you get your c-card first and then bother me about this....Another time he said I won't tell you till u buy it!

I once rented equipment 145$ worth of it...I fell sick the next morning as soon as they opened and called the LDS, If I could return it...(please keep in mind I had rented it at 6:30pm just before they were about to close)

They refused to take the equipment back....I even offered to take store credit or get charged half for it !!!...nope nothing!

These 3 incidences just changed my mind

I am all for Online suppliers being my virtual LDS..

.I have always had more then a pleasurable experience with Scuba.com, scubatoys and leisurepro.com

I have returned stuff with hardly and questions asked(due to size problems)...I have canceled orders...send them 10 questions on every order....I would pay the online guys more then my LDS for their service

 

[Darnold9999]

I am SOOO glad I live where I do. I have three great dive shops within a 30 minute drive. All glad to see me, all happy to talk to me, all give great advice. No they don't all have exactly what I want, and so sometimes I buy on line. I certainly check prices on line and give them the opportunity to match prices. I have found that all are willing to do this as long as they can make a profit doing so and the price that they have to match is the total amount it is going to cost me to have it delivered - not the "on line" price.

They almost always recommend the gear they have (not always) but frankly that does not surprise me - why would you stock gear that you don't recommend? I have been downsold when I was looking at something expensive and they though something else was better and cheaper - more than once.

I will pay more to get customer service, have a place that will fill my tanks and a place to fix my gear that I trust. The trick as a LDS is to figure out how much more I will pay AND determine if that is enough to make a living.

Bashing on line retailers because you can't compete is not going to work and certainly is no way to get my business. Providing value for the $ I spend is.

 

[Matt S.]

Too bad the OP is gone. I really wanted him to tell me why it is better to pay $80 at the LDS for an XSscuba item with a $50 MSRP.

Explain to me the calculus of that deal, please.

(I can't help it, I keep reading these threads!)

 

[ba_hiker]

A while ago I had a friend who was a marketing major at a local college. She needed a project so we decided to to a business analysis of dive shops in the SF bay area. Note this only covered the bay area proper not Monterey, which as a resort, is a special case...

Our conclusion was that, on a per customer basis, that there are 2 or 3 times the number of stores per customer as other sporting goods stores in the sf bay area. This was based on population, number of divers, expected sales etc.

Given this (and assuming that rent and other expenses were similar) the stores needed to make much more money per customer than other sporting goods stores in order to stay in business. Or there only needed to be about 1/2 as many dive stores as there are to support the customer base.

There are three way that an industry can survive this, 1) drive up sales, make the gear fashionable and generate a preceived need to trade gear often, running up sales 2) fat margins 3) or profitable auxiliary sales (not training as it, as a lose leader, is what brings in new customers and their gear purchases. Otherwise expect consolidation.

One particular store, which we examined in depth, had very high fixed expenses. Rent was not two high, but the staffing coast were through the roof (6 full time employees, three with families) given that I never saw two customers in the store at one time, and saw no customers at all on many visits. Their level of knowledge was not that high, and they sent out all or most of their repair work.

Since that time three stores have close, to not reopen. In my mind this is a good thing. I would rather have a small number of good local dive stores (I do know of three, which I patronize when I think its appropriate) than the current crop of good/bad stores. Unfortunately i fear that the best stores will close and leave the cr**py ones

 

[bubbleblowindude]

I actually have a connection which adapts a USB to yoke / DIN fill adapter. This way I can plug in to an online scube retailer and get an air fill. I also connect and find several people in my local area who want to go diving with me, and someone who will shoot-the-sh_t with me when I want to spend an hour of my "day off" just BSing about diving. Forget the LDS who has light and heat bills to pay, provides a boat for me to dive from, and gives me advice on local diving...I get what I need ONLINE!! I'm with you guys!!! Screw the local guy who does this stuff because he loves it and chooses to live at the poverty level so he can pass along his experience to his customers. Poor SAP! By the way, that reminds...I gotta ask for a raise! How am I supposed to live on $85,000 as a software developer? Thank god I'm not a scuba shop owner!

 

[jpsexton]

Anyway, I just haven't found and LDS that has given me the me level of service the online guys have given me. I can't tell you how many times I have sent one of the online guys an email, looked at their website or called their toll free number and got an answer right away. I wish I could find a local shop that had such great service.

I have to admit I do have one LDS here that does provide a very high level of service. The problem is the cost of that service is that everything is sold at retail. I'm just not willing to pay that, period. I do my research and 98% of the time I know exactly what I want so giving me a good price is how you earn my business. I'd venture to say that allot of the people you see here are exactly the same way.

 

[Randy43068]

I buy online to for a couple of reasons.
1) the dive shops don't have the gear I need.
2) I like to support my favorite charity... ME!

If you think for a minute that the LDS buys his merchandise from the highest priced supplier, you're sadly mistaken. I take the same approach, buy the quality I need from the lowest price source.

I haven't needed the support of an LDS for years now.

 

[mike_s]

A while ago I had a friend who was a marketing major at a local college. She needed a project so we decided to to a business analysis of dive shops in the SF bay area. Note this only covered the bay area proper not Monterey, which as a resort, is a special case...

Our conclusion was that, on a per customer basis, that there are 2 or 3 times the number of stores per customer as other sporting goods stores in the sf bay area. This was based on population, number of divers, expected sales etc.

Given this (and assuming that rent and other expenses were similar) the stores needed to make much more money per customer than other sporting goods stores in order to stay in business. Or there only needed to be about 1/2 as many dive stores as there are to support the customer base.

There are three way that an industry can survive this, 1) drive up sales, make the gear fashionable and generate a preceived need to trade gear often, running up sales 2) fat margins 3) or profitable auxiliary sales (not training as it, as a lose leader, is what brings in new customers and their gear purchases. Otherwise expect consolidation.

One particular store, which we examined in depth, had very high fixed expenses. Rent was not two high, but the staffing coast were through the roof (6 full time employees, three with families) given that I never saw two customers in the store at one time, and saw no customers at all on many visits. Their level of knowledge was not that high, and they sent out all or most of their repair work.

Since that time three stores have close, to not reopen. In my mind this is a good thing. I would rather have a small number of good local dive stores (I do know of three, which I patronize when I think its appropriate) than the current crop of good/bad stores. Unfortunately i fear that the best stores will close and leave the cr**py ones

This has been an interesting thread to read. Especially the above post.

For comparison, we've had 10 local dive shops within a 1 hour drive of me close in the past 10 years. That's right... 10 LDS's closed in the past 10 years. 11 if you include one that really merged in with another.

In that same time, we've had about 3 new ones open. One never really opened before they went under due to several operational issues, one is a small low overhead shop that has been open for about a year and the other opened about 8 years ago and has overcome all the rest with a competitive sales model and customer service to back that up.

In the limited "land locked market" we are in, it's clear that the shop that is prevailing is doing so because of it's competitive business model and customer service. This secret isn't exclusive to just the dive industry, but it appears that many LDS's just "don't get it". Oh well. We'll just wait for their going out of business sales.