Discounts?

[toxicpixie]

I wonder how much is down to the "market stall" feeling in the industry, as generated by shows & most people involved being realtively small hobby-traders as opposed to "high street" businesses as such? Certainly when I started going to shows way back when it felt very much like that ("Getcha loverly Assyrians, twenty for a quid, cutting me own throat!"), but perhaps less so recently. That "market stall" feeling then permeates through to on line sales, so people expect a bit of a price knock off here and there?

[Orcs]

First a  reply about general wargame purchases

- Do you ever ask for discount on your gaming goodies?

I might if it was a big order (£100+) or a large wargaming company. If its a small company (like most wargaming companies) I would not as none that I know are driving Ferraris.

- Is there a certain value of order that you expect a discount on?  (Over £50, over £100, etc)

Most companies that I have bought from seem to give a small discount or free samples if you place a reasonably sized order anyway.
i.e at a show your purchase is rounded down, or a few extra figures are thrown in (command or gunners are always useful)

- Should a discount be expected on larger orders?

A discount should not be expected.- The figures still contain the same amout of work and materials per pack, unless it is an army pack where the work of bagging up individual packs has been saved. Most companies already discount Army packs

- How much discount makes it worthwhile?

A larger discount might make me put in a larger order. Or I might buy it earlier than planned.  I tend to buy what I want when I want rather than wait for discount

I would rather have the company in business than get a discount. If the price is fair I will buy it.  If your buying because of the discount the price is either overpriced normally  or you probably don't need it


Specific replies regarding Pendraken[/size]

- Do you ever ask for discount on your gaming goodies?

No because:-
often you have offered them (ie 20th Birthday, Mongol Starter)
You customer service is excellennt
You are willing to swap and adapt packs and orders
You prices are very reasonable anyway
We know you all work SILLY hours, giving e a discount effectively adds to this
I want Pendraken around when I want to add to an army in X years time
Your postage rate is very cheap

- Is there a certain value of order that you expect a discount on?  (Over £50, over £100, etc)

Defining the size of order is difficult.  Is a Customer who spends £10 a month worth less than the person who orders £120 once a year? 


- Should a discount be expected on larger orders?

If you recive a large order thats your perrogative. If putting together a single order for £100 takes a lot less time than 5x £20 orders, then perhaps a small discount or a few free samples relevant to the order may be appropriate, but its your choice. 

Personally If I had placed an order for £100 I had planned to spend that anyway. I would rather get some relevant extras added.-figures or MDF bases

If the £100 order is for Army packs that are already discounted, or the order is fiddly then absolutely not.

- How much discount makes it worthwhile?

I view a discount as bonus. I am unlikly to order just because of a discount.

As a customer I do not feel I need or deserve discount. Your service is excellent and you are willing to put together "special orders"  This is worth far more to me than a discount.

[Orcs]

I've seen comments on other websites from people who won't buy anything unless they get 20% off? 

I can understand it if its GW prices, but in 99% of cases this is rude and unfair attitude. The hobby can do without people like this as they do not encourage traders to invest in new rangers etc.

At the other end of the spectrum, we've had people asking for discount on 1 or 2 items.  At Salute a couple of years back a guy came over with 2 sets of decals, totalling £5, and asked us 'What's the best price you can do on these?'!

You served me after him and I remember you were rightly very annoyed.  I think your anwer should have been £6 or   @~#* Off

[Paul S]

I'm with most of the comments here.  Don't look for discounts, I know my budget and tend to stick to it.  That's why in show's only ever spend cash not card  .

Have turned them down before as I know that corporate gouging doesn't apply to most of the manufacturers I deal with [nother reason to love the smaller scales  ]

Of all the incentives it's the free P&P that tends to get my trigger - and spend a bit more - oh £5 short of the line, oh well nother pack then

[Wulf]

While I don't ask for discounts, I'll watch for them - or free postage, etc - and preferentially shop there. I'll also boost a purchase just to reach a stated breakpoint, sometimes even if it increases the total spend!  

[petercooman]

If I do large orders, i normally ask if there is a discount involved for the shipping.

For example, here in belhium, the postage cost goes by weight, to a certain weight, and everything after that is the same postage cost. So i ask if large orders take that into consideration. On small orders i don't really expect it.

I will sometimes order something if there is a discount mentioned on the site though, like buy 2 get a 3rd free. But that's something different, they state there is a discount, you don't ask for it.

[petercooman]

While I don't ask for discounts, I'll watch for them - or free postage, etc - and preferentially shop there. I'll also boost a purchase just to reach a stated breakpoint, sometimes even if it increases the total spend!  

I do this too. I rather pay, for example, 15 more to avoid 10 shipping. My reasoning is, if i would pay 10 shipping, i don't have anything once the order arrives. If i pay the 15 extra and get free shipping, the 10 that i would have spend on the shipping otherwise, now gives me something in return. So that's profit for me! SWMBO thinks otherwise though.

[Roy]

Whoops! Forgot to answer Leon's questions, before. My answers may be considered blunt, but truthful (or even, just Yorkshire).

- Do you ever ask for discount on your gaming goodies?
No. Wouldn't dream of it. If I was the seller and someone asked it of me, I'd actually tell them to F' off and to Hell with their trade. If I (as the seller) offered a discount, I'd have advertised the fact!

- Is there a certain value of order that you expect a discount on?  (Over £50, over £100, etc)
No. Free postage, after a certain purchase price, is nice though.

- Should a discount be expected on larger orders?
No. You don't get a discount from a grocers or a shoe shop if you buy normal priced items in large quantities, so why should a wargames company be any different.

- How much discount makes it worthwhile?
I reckon, at least, 10% being the norm, in these situations - this based on seeing what other companies offer.

[Ithoriel]

- Should a discount be expected on larger orders?
No. You don't get a discount from a grocers or a shoe shop if you buy normal priced items in large quantities, so why should a wargames company be any different.

Trust me, you're doing it wrong

"Let's do the dance of ... finaance."

[Leon]

Lots of interesting points so far!  

...if they are offering any reduction it's because they already have it built in to their profit margin.

Having worked in Nigeria where haggling is the norm, we would just price our goods higher than we expected to sell them, so when haggled down we would still get the price we wanted.

This is certainly something I think happens with the bigger companies, as they have to price their stuff at a level that allows for the wholesale business.  GW offer something like 32%/35%/38% I think depending on what size orders you place and how often you place them, so they must still be able to turn a profit on those sales.  

Conversely, our stuff just isn't priced that way at all.  Before the price increase, roughly 70p out of every £1 went in bills (unit, metal, VAT, staff, etc).  The remaining 30p is me and Dave's wages.  So if we knock 10% off an order, we've lost a third of our wages.  15% discount, half our wages gone.  On trade orders, which we don't do a lot of, we actually lost money, but they've given us good visibility in countries like the US and have built a customer base there who often start buying from us direct instead.  The recent price increase should improve those numbers and give us a bit more leeway.

The only thing I look for occasionally is free P&P over a certain amount of goods purchased. That's about it think

Of all the incentives it's the free P&P that tends to get my trigger - and spend a bit more - oh £5 short of the line, oh well nother pack then

No. Free postage, after a certain purchase price, is nice though.

Free postage is something we've looked at a few times, or at least a maximum charge level.  Our shipping rates tend to be quite accurate on most orders, but on really large packages, especially international ones, we can usually get a courier for a lot less than what has been charged to the customer.  In those instances, we contact the customers and work something out with them.

We, the unidentifiable bits in the Pendraken Tutti Frutti (gosh, haven't done one of those for ages) don't appear to be clamouring for a discount. Nor indeed is there much groaning about the upcoming price rises. If you are thinking about a discount scheme, make sure it benefits Pendraken. I'm sure we (the blind kittens hanging off the Pendraken teat) want Pendraken to prosper more than we want discounts.    

Thanks for this (and the other folks who've said similar, albeit less poetically...!), we always appreciate the positive feedback we get from everyone.

I do think Wargames Club discounts, or Society discounts are a good thing. But only if such organisations combined spending justifies the discount.

We do offer a number of discounts to the larger societies, so Pike and Shotte, Lance and Longbow, Soc. of 20th C. Wargamers, etc.  The discounts are always on orders over £50.  We don't get that many people taking advantage of them though, whether that's because they don't ask or because we just don't get many society customers, I don't know.

However, you should see me haggle over the price of a car, particularly what a dealer offers me in 'exchange' as I always do my homework first.

That's an interesting point though, are cars one of those areas that British folks are OK to haggle over?  I know in other countries it's certainly more common, but we're quite reserved in the UK.  I've haggled over cars myself, but that's about the only purchase I've done it on.  I always feel embarrassed to ask anyone else.

Defining the size of order is difficult.  Is a Customer who spends £10 a month worth less than the person who orders £120 once a year?  

I think some companies would say yes to that, but it's not something I'd agree with.  If you've ordered one pack or a hundred, you've chosen to come and spend your money with us and that's just as much appreciated as the next customer.

If the £100 order is for Army packs that are already discounted, or the order is fiddly then absolutely not.

We do discount our army packs by around 10%, not so much for the time involved as it's almost the same as doing them individually, but it does encourage people to spend that little bit more.  It's also a lot easier to take those to the shows than haul multiple packs of 3500 codes around the country!

You served me after him and I remember you were rightly very annoyed.  I think your anwer should have been £6 or   @~#* Off

That's right, I remember now!  It was right at the end of the day I think, and he claimed he could get them cheaper at another stand down the aisle, even though I was the only person at the show carrying those products...!

For example, here in belhium, the postage cost goes by weight, to a certain weight, and everything after that is the same postage cost. So i ask if large orders take that into consideration. On small orders i don't really expect it.

That's interesting on the postal rates, as in the UK they increase quite dramatically as the package gets bigger.  Once you get upto 15-20kg it starts to level out, but anything international can be a nightmare to ship.  500g upto 1kg packages to Australia is about £12 I think, so we usually lose money on the small-mid range Aus/NZ orders.  Anything over 2kg is pointless sending through Royal Mail as it's extortionate, so we have to move to couriers on those ones.

No. You don't get a discount from a grocers or a shoe shop if you buy normal priced items in large quantities, so why should a wargames company be any different.

Again, a very good point.  Do people ever ask for discount when they do their weekly shop in Tesco, or when you've had your car repaired by the garage, or when you've gone out for a meal somewhere.  I know some of these places will offer various deals all the time, but these are often the companies/corporations declaring 100's of millions in profit every year, yet people feel more at ease asking for discount from a small business making just enough to get by.

[Leman]

He is Scottish you know.

[Leman]

He is Scottish you know.

Leon stuck a massive post in before I could send mine.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

I like nothing better than watching local (local) small shop owners faces when they say "£2:80!" And I say "No, call it £3 for cash!"

[Ithoriel]

Yes, especially like the look on charity shop workers faces when they realise I'm haggling them up not down :-)

I've done deals on things with Tesco. It's harder work with them than it's really worth most of the time though :-)

With haggling you need to pick your moment and deal with the right level of staff.

I've sweet talked the people discounting the nearly-out-of-date stuff to knock a bit extra off things I wanted and I've talked managers into letting me have things that were clearly just taking up shelf space a bit cheaper. Staff in between don't really have the lee way to do deals in my experience.

I've also persuaded restaurants to knock a bit off the bill or give us something extra if there's been a glitch.

"I'm sorry, sir, your table will be ready in five minutes."
"No problem, we'll just sit over there 'til you're ready. I'm sure you could rustle up a couple of cocktails for us to help us while away the time."

[petercooman]

That's interesting on the postal rates, as in the UK they increase quite dramatically as the package gets bigger.  Once you get upto 15-20kg it starts to level out, but anything international can be a nightmare to ship.  500g upto 1kg packages to Australia is about £12 I think, so we usually lose money on the small-mid range Aus/NZ orders.  Anything over 2kg is pointless sending through Royal Mail as it's extortionate, so we have to move to couriers on those ones.

Just had a looksie, the rates for national packages in belgium:

0-2kg : 5€
2-10 kg: 6€
10-30 kg : 10,50

And for example from belgium to the UK:

Everything up to 10 kg is 16,40€
Everything that is more is 39,69€

Off course you'll have to buy A LOT to get above 10kg.I think that would be several 100 worth of £ !!

Actually it's the jiffy bags that cost us more:

0 g - 100 g :  3,69 €
+ 100 g - 350 g:  7,38 €
350 g - 1 kg:  12,30 €
1 kg - 2 kg:  24,60 €   

So when over one kg, you are better off putting it in a box 


Edit:These are all prices for regular costumers, companies get a discount based on volume i think.