Great explanation of the process. See my posting of Jan 25th #3602.
However, I do not believe, with the Price WaterHouse auditors being used as a guarantee, that OnSale is cashing in on any rebates, etc. etc.
I do know that discussing the pricing situation with them, resulted in a quick answer.
"We don't care if we are uncompetitive, we don't own the inventory, and we don't have to handle the goods operationally".
While this may sound "cavalier" froma retail merchandising view, it's relatively good business, if you are interested is creating a full service portal, or a compliment to a potential portal merger.
Although, we "techs" know what we are buying, and shop quickly thru the internet and find the best deal, the emerging middle American shopper will pay more for the convenience and trust, rather than shop and swith stores for a lower price. That's been a retailing truism for decades.
And OnSale's customer service is absolutely superb, and they make their vendors adhere, contractually, to very strict standards, too.
But, everything is relative. I am just holding for the merger, a la
USA Network, Internet Shopping Network/FirstAuction,Home Shopping Network, Lycos. Diller couldn't use OnSale, since he already owned a retailer/auction (note ISN uses the Ingram catalogue as their invisible 50,000 items offered schtick. But, someone is not going to let USA Network and Barry Diller get that far ahead, and OnSale is the best, in volume infrastructure, partners and relations.
UBID is having problems and is not looking beyond their own business.
Shopping.com has allied with netcom, which is a struggling 2nd level ISP, in my opinion. Amazon is linking with AOL and others.
OnSale is ripe and Jerry Kaplan knows how to market.
ATT-TCI-Yahoo-OnSale would be a killer combo. Or Time Warner-Yahoo-OnSale????
Who knows? |
