Forum Archive Index - June 2000

["Nigel Bree" <nbree@kcbbs.gen.nz>]

Ben Dutton wrote:
> [...] Some people like it and find it convenient
> (myself) and some people dislike it, and would rather go to a bricks and
> mortar store (RIL).

For me, I spend around $1000 a year on average just on technical books which
you'd never see in a New Zealand bookstore. All but a handful of specialty
NZ bookstores are like the U.S. mall chains (e.g. Crown), with poor
selection and staff who aren't very clued up. And then there's the great
US/UK publishing divide that can add an extra year on top of the six months
delay for a book to even become available here.

Before Amazon, I was having to use mail order anyway. The difference with
the Internet versus mail order is that successful mail order was often an
adjunct to a specialty retailer's existing business - catalog space was
limited, which gave an edge to a well-targeted catalog. B2C e-commerce
largely removes the need for specialists, by removing the limits on catalog
space as well as retail space.

> 2)  B2C is like any other business with a storefront.

...but you don't have to deal with the politics of limited shelf space. In
many fields of retail there are only a few lines of "blockbuster" products
which dominate - it's like a war between the publishers and the retail
buyers over display area and terms.

> The most successful B2C models are small entrepreneurs that run an
> owner-operator operation that cater to a niche market.

It's good to see that Clear have got their e-commerce PaySafe "starter pack"
sorted out so we can have smaller NZ niche businesses finally able to afford
to be in that space.

> And yes, I do think that Amazon.com and FlyingPig.co.nz will both be
profitable.

No argument about that. One thing that didn't help with Amazon was that when
they launched it was after Barnes & Noble and Borders had spent about five
years agressively fighting each other in the physical world, building
massive stores with wide selections all over the U.S., often on the opposite
side of the street to each other :-). That war was great for consumers but
Amazon would have grown faster otherwise.

> Flyingpig.co.nz have made a good call by tightening their business.

Flying Pig negatives: the website is still has extremely poor usabilty (the
latest round of improvements help a lot, but its navigation is fundamentally
broken), outside of books the selection of products is very limited, plus
the association with Whitcoulls and their awful retail stores.

Flying Pig positives: typical massive e-bookstore range, impressive prices,
but best of all responsive customer service! I've dealt with a fair few
on-line retailers and services over the years, but FlyingPig have been *the*
best, bar none, in dealing with inquiries, problems, and complaints. With
E-trade I've waited a _week_ for a response to an account problem (and the
eventual reply was "call our help-line in the U.S."). FlyingPig also, like
Amazon, have split-shipped orders to me at their cost if they haven't been
able to source an item within the expected time.

Flying Pig unknowns: their affiliate program is a straight copy of Amazon's,
which is patented.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/          New Zealand's home for market investors
To remove yourself from this list, please use the form at
http://www.sharechat.co.nz/forum.shtml.