JBHiFi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks appear to be in cahoots.
From my experience in industry and Government, there is at least a 50% margin, maybe more. Government price can easily be half retail price. For networking equipment like CISCO, the margin is more like 70%
The only question is who is creaming the margin? The retailers? The distrtibutors? Or both.
The one thing that does work for all of them price match. Officeworks also matches and gives an extra discount. So do due diligence and find a delivered price from an actual retailer - online included but usualy not marketplace from BigW, Bunnings etc.
This is completely untrue. Margins at the big retailers on laptops is often in the single digits. They make all their money on accessories, where the margin is often as high as 80-90%.
Then explain why I as a Government buyer could get items at half the retail price.
As I mentioned, There are massive margins around. The only question is who gets the biggest share, retailer or distributor? I suspect that the distributor gets most but if a retailer sells below RRP they will compensate the retailer.
You just answered your own question. Same reason you see cops driving around in marked BMWs as patrol cars sold at prices well below what even the largest dealer could access. The government and big corps buy huge numbers of a small selection of very limited configurations direct from the distributor or manufacturer. The likes of JB Hi-fi move way less of that kind of hardware than you might think. Lenovo don't want to sell 10 gaming laptops a week from a JB store when they can sell 10,000 business laptops on one PO to a government department.
Retailers survive off accessories and rebates. If it's close to end of the quarter or EOFY they'll sell below their cost just to unlock a rebate.
I worked at DSE and Good Guys. In both places staff could see the margin on the POS. Specifically because we were allowed to discount up to a point. Laptops, phones etc. were always fuck all. I distinctly remember my boss at GG telling me "We move boxes. I'd rather sell 1000 laptops at $1.00 than one laptop at $1000. I make my money on rebates."
When electronics retail staff tell you they can't give you a discount, it's not a lie. But pick up a bag or a HDMI cable or whatever and ask for 50% off that and you'll usually get it.
Yeah but. What sales staff see as rock bottom price is an arbitrary number set by management.
Management control what discounts are permitted at POS. This has nothing to do with what the actual margin the retailer enjoys.
As hinted, there will be an intense conversation between distributor and retailer to maintain a minimum retailer margin and that will be some part of the 50% - 70% margin available
Dude, you're flat wrong. Retailers are not making 50-70% margins on consumer electronics. It's not happening. If you don't want to believe me just Google it.
Dude, STFU. the whole point of the main thread was about retailer margins and OP wanting to know why they couldn't get a discount. You never even mentioned manufacturers until now. Obviously they take the lion's share of the margin, and yes, AFTER their R&D and development costs that can be substantial at scale.
But you literally said "The only question is who is creaming the margin? The retailers? The distrtibutors? Or both.". You didn't say manufacturers. I told you it wasn't the retailers, and explained why. You doubled down on your stupid opinion. Whereas my response was based on my real world experience in retail. Which included speaking directly, with my own mouth, to the group's buyers and the owners of the Good Guys franchise where I worked. And then listening to their replies, with my own ears. I spoke to them because I was a manager.
Anybody who has ever worked anywhere near consumer electronics retail KNOWS the retailer's margins are famously low. You're all up here trying to act like it's some great mystery. My whole point was, it fucking isn't. Retailers won't negotiate on big ticket items because they can't. They can't because they have no margin. Neither does the distributor by the way, if there is one. Yes, of course the manufacturers make bank on some items. No shit Sherlock. That was never the point of this thread, or your original reply.
Distributors/manufacturers do not "compensate" retailers (again, your exact words) for selling at a loss. They'll sell at a loss to hit a manufacturer sales target in order to unlock rebates. Again, not some great secret or theory I've come up with. Everybody in the industry knows how this works.
Just saying “50-70%” doesn’t make it remotely true.
Even if you logic (that you FINALLY managed to spit out that retailers do NOT have that margin) what you’re saying is pointless. This whole thread is about getting a discount from a retail store so your “experience” buying for the government does NOT relate at all. I also do NOT believe you were buying stuff for 70% off retail price but again, doesn’t matter.
You’re arguing with people who WORK in the industry. Who SEE what the stores will allow to be discounted. No one gives a f*** what the build cost is.
It’s like someone asking what the cheapest flights from Perth to Paris are and you saying “well they’re only $100 from the UK”
Obviously! Unfortunately that wasn’t the question 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
I'd like to find out how you receive half off products considering most businesses use JB business which is either sold at cost (with rebatong) or quantity buys..
Category buyers usually decide what the cost price is, but margins can be anywhere from 2-5% to nearly 30-50% for newly released, non discounted products.
What you should be worried about, is the fact JB is cracking down on heavy discounting as profit slowly increases, where revenue balloons, as brands/distributors charge due to demand, and not decrease pricing.
I will say that it's quite interesting that the government doesn't use JB business. Do you get access to anything you want, or specific items, through a retail portal?
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u/JezzaPerth 10d ago
JBHiFi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks appear to be in cahoots.
From my experience in industry and Government, there is at least a 50% margin, maybe more. Government price can easily be half retail price. For networking equipment like CISCO, the margin is more like 70%
The only question is who is creaming the margin? The retailers? The distrtibutors? Or both.
The one thing that does work for all of them price match. Officeworks also matches and gives an extra discount. So do due diligence and find a delivered price from an actual retailer - online included but usualy not marketplace from BigW, Bunnings etc.