Can retail compete against online?

_Whimsical_

nlgbbbblth wrote: »

I don't understand why a company would have an issue with employees getting personal mail delivered to the office. I realise that it's "policy" for some of them but it always struck me as unreasonable.

Just a reminder that Parcel Motel exists for anyone in this position. For 3.50 you can have parcels delivered to a postbox,even goods that only ship to the UK, and have someone sign for your parcel. I know "use parcel motel" has become a boards manta, but just in case someone here isn't aware of it thought I'd mention it.

Discodog

restingpilgrim wrote: »

Maybe so but it has nothing to do with companies allowing delivery for their employees as they are not the retailer. Your quote is rubbish.

Well my experience is that, if you are pleasant to people, you have plenty of neighbours & friends who can receive a parcel on your behalf. There are only a few couriers so if you are nice to them & your postie, there is never a problem.

pleasant Co.

Discodog wrote: »

There are only a few couriers so if you are nice to them & your postie, there is never a problem.

Bit of a catch22 if you're not able to collect a package due to being at work though :P would you ever meet the courier or postie operating your route.

my, I fear we're vaguely treading the lines of off topicness, teetering, but relevant I guess considering this would effect online's ability to compete with retail. :cool:

Discodog

pleasant Co. wrote: »

Bit of a catch22 if you're not able to collect a package due to being at work though :P would you ever meet the courier or postie operating your route.

my, I fear we're vaguely treading the lines of off topicness, teetering, but relevant I guess considering this would effect online's ability to compete with retail. :cool:

It's critical that you ensure that the retailer puts your mobile number on the outside of the package. Most couriers will phone you.

I find that a tenner every Christmas works wonders with my postie. He signs for my packages & knows where to leave them.

I think that retail can compete. I will happily pay a reasonable amount more to buy locally. But retailer location is a factor especially in a City of two halves like Galway.

Shelflife

Yes in some cases there are many short term savings to be made. If we take a standard purchase of €500 online or a local shop of €520. Yes to the purchaser there is an initial saving of €20.

However there is then a loss to the exchequer of €97 of vat and assuming a 20% margin to the local retail and an effective tax rate of 50% thats another €42 lost in income tax. so thats a direct hit of €139 lost to the tax man and €42 lost to the retailer. thats a total of €181 lost to the local economy.

But the customer has saved €20 so thats only a net loss to the economy of €161.

If we take that to its logical conclusion and every one wants to buy online we have a net loss of €161 for each item and the local shop will close down, resulting in job losses, loss in rates and now the retailer is on the dole causing a furthur strain on the local economy as now the window cleaner loses a client,his accountant loses a client and all the local shops that the retailer used are now down on profits and turnover and so it continues.

The govt then ups local rates (property tax) and income tax rates in order to fill the gap of the monies now gone from the country and the original customer ends up paying extra tax of €5 per week and thus the original saving of €20 is now completely wiped out.

Im not saying that ineffecient retailers should be subsidised but we need to see the big picture as well.

restingpilgrim

Why do you believe there is a loss of VAT of 97 euro when online retailers have to charge VAT as well to supply in Ireland. Also most businesses are companies and would not be paying a marginal rate of 50% and it is highly unlikely that any non companies are raking in such profits that all their sales would generate a 50 % tax rate.

gordongekko

restingpilgrim wrote: »

Why do you believe there is a loss of VAT of 97 euro when online retailers have to charge VAT as well to supply in Ireland. Also most businesses are companies and would not be paying a marginal rate of 50% and it is highly unlikely that any non companies are raking in such profits that all their sales would generate a 50 % tax rate.

If you purchase through parcel motel the vat goes to the queen

Mrs OBumble

Discodog wrote: »

Well my experience is that, if you are pleasant to people, you have plenty of neighbours & friends who can receive a parcel on your behalf. There are only a few couriers so if you are nice to them & your postie, there is never a problem.

That works well if you live in a rural area, or even some estates.

But if you're a blow-in living in an inner-city apartment, and most of your friends are people who work, then it kinds falls down.

Redhairedguy

I have spent at least a grand and a half over the years in one of my favourite shops in the city. Now however, I'm finding the exact same stuff online for less than half the price of what I'm getting charged in the shop.

I genuinely would rather buy locally and support the local business, but when the price difference (including shipping) is half that of local prices; I'm torn between my loyalty to this shop and that of my wallet.

skinny90

It depends on what the product is...take for example clothes.majority of clothes tend to be margin rich so the difference to buying online to that of a b & m store can be quite a lot.same with components...peripherals...accessorise in general,what you could get for 10-15 quid you could or less than a euro sometimes on eBay.i also have the patience to wait for those kinda stuff.
When it comes to bigger stuff games consoles... I don't know laptop...tv...camera even a suit(what i like to call big purchases)if the difference is roughly 10-20 il prob pick up in store purely because I'd be like a child at Xmas waiting to get it delivered or shipped but also the fact that these are products that can breakdown.so at least the service(tho questionable sometimes)

skinny90

So to answer your question yes I do generally think business overall can survive ecom competitors however to do so they need to adapt and change what they do. Comparing galway to where im from as a city I see Galway as a very positive city that has such potential to grow however there is also a lot of negative wealth(basically people/business's even those who arnt greatly affected by the downturn being caught up in all the dull news holding on to their money almost afraid to invest

skinny90

Redhairedguy wrote: »

I have spent at least a grand and a half over the years in one of my favourite shops in the city. Now however, I'm finding the exact same stuff online for less than half the price of what I'm getting charged in the shop.

I genuinely would rather buy locally and support the local business, but when the price difference (including shipping) is half that of local prices; I'm torn between my loyalty to this shop and that of my wallet.

What did you buy?

Redhairedguy

A load of graphic novels.

ben.schlomo

Redhairedguy wrote: »

A load of graphic novels.

I think you meant comics .

Redhairedguy

ben.schlomo wrote: »

I think you meant comics .

I'll pretend I didn't read that...

In certain circles a man could get shanked for a comment like that, brah! :pac:

MadYaker

The only thing I really buy online are PC games. In some cases shops can be cheaper. A while ago bought a pair of Bose headphones for €114 (on sale) in HMV in galway, the same pair were €150 on amazon. I also could never buy clothes online. I have to try them on first.

I think if brick and mortar shops are relying on people who aren't computer literate for their market share then their days really are numbered. Its irrelevant whether or not people have a credit card, all Irish banks are now giving their customers visa debit cards in place of the old laser cards so now everyone can shop online if they want to.

GekkePrutser

MadYaker wrote: »

The only thing I really buy online are PC games. In some cases shops can be cheaper. A while ago bought a pair of Bose headphones for €114 (on sale) in HMV in galway, the same pair were €150 on amazon. I also could never buy clothes online. I have to try them on first.

Computer games were until recently one of the few things I did buy locally - in order to get them quickly upon release I didn't mind spending a bit extra over the amazon price. I used to love the midnight launches that Game used to do.

But since HMV and Game are gone there's only gamestop and smyths left. But I found Gamestop to be more expensive than HMV was (usually between 5-10 euro more or so) and in my experience smyths rarely stocks on launch day, so now I just preorder those from Amazon too.

What surprises me is that there are so few Irish webshops. In Holland there's a huge online market, every high street electronics or computer shop has a webshop too. But there seem to be very few here, especially for computer parts I always find myself having to look abroad.

I think this would be the best way to compete, in Holland the webshop phenomenon has been around much longer, since the early 2000's, there's huge pressure on the margins due to some large automated price comparison sites, but it hasn't killed retail and most webshops have survived all this time. A lot of them have special agreements with the post and you can order as late as 23:30 for delivery the next day which makes it much better to order nationally instead of through amazon.co.uk.

I think that would be the best way of keeping retail and VAT revenues in the country: by embracing local online retail.