Please put the PoF sale on your site!

[Rogue.8235]

12 hours ago, costepj.5120 said:

Many manufacturers already do this via factory outlets don't they? The trade off from the consumer perspective is that you might save some money but the choice of available styles and sizes can be fairly limited.

 

That seems to be the scenario of selling excess inventory.  Retailers aren't buying it and/or didn't pay for it and/or shipping issues and the like.  So rather than writing it off as a sunk cost, just sell it directly to recoup the costs.  

The other strategy is goodwill which helps from a branding perspective.

 

8 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

In the case of ArenaNet and Amazon, you also potentially get broad exposure. There have been a lot of threads on the forum despairing that GW2 would be a more popular game if it was only marketed more. Using Amazon's vast global reach to get GW2 out in front of other gamers and even non-gamers is part of the trade of losing part of the profit that would have been gained by selling directly.

So many industries, it's standard that you can get their products a little cheaper third party than you can get from the source. That seems to be how they solve the issue you're describing. The supplier sees that there is enough value to be gained from selling through the third party that they are willing to take the loss.

I think, in this case, nobody would care except that Amazon in some regions was not part of this partnership for this sale. Only ArenaNet and those Amazon regions really know why.

 

Yep, that's the reason to use retailers in the first place.  You're essentially outsourcing the marketing and sales processes to the retailers.  

As for the specific instance, yeah we can only speculate what's going on in the background.  It is safe to assume that such a decision just isn't on a whim without reason.  As for the complexity of the issue brought up in this thread and the complexity of the solution, again, we can only speculate here.  It is fun to think about, though.

Another thing, a lot of businesses that produce the products and sell directly to consumers still outsource the bulk of eCommerce to a third party (usually in the form of an easy to use platform).  One of the key things is to remember what you're business' primary goal is and not to deviate too much into things it's not designed or built to do.  

Example, a company that produces spoons really isn't equipped to handle information security on its own.  Hiring a couple people to do it is bound to lead to some very bad situations.  Outsourcing it to a firm that specializes in information security is the best way to go.

That's why the meme in business school is that the solution to any question in class is outsourcing.  Just outsource it all.  They all specialize in the stuff, not me.  I'm just the ideas guy around here. 😛