FrankHarveyHiFi:
SteveR750:I have thought about this even to the point of setting up a Home Demo company. Maybe the answer is to charge a fee for the loan of the demo equipment which is refunded or offset against the purchase of a brand new unopened unit. Most manufacturers won't open up an account without a shopfront, so this would more thn likely be a non starter.
As for the emo kit, who cares what it looks like so long as it works, so the odd scratch and dent is not important - personally I'd write off home demo kit against the added sales loaning it out might generate.Emo kit?
That is one way of looking at it, but the other way of looking at it is that that product did cost something. If you have a 'loan' product, and it gets loaned out 20 times but no one actually buys one, writing it off will cost you. Even if you sell two or three, at best you'll be even. Unfortunately that doesn't make for a lasting business. Certain retailers who have disappeared over the past couple of years have proved that just selling stuff cheap doesn't mean your business will flourish and that you'll be trading within a year or two.
Again only a personal opinion, but retailer listening rooms are almost a total waste of time as a means to selection of anything other than the cheapest of kit.I disagree here. If you took 100 people who had bought a product blind, and 100 people who had auditioned products in a demo room and made their choice based on that, which ofthe two groups do you think will show the most returns?
I'm sure with enough capital you can source equipment from a manufacturer without a shopfront, depends on what terms you want to trade I guess.
Of course the real test is whether it sells more units and at a greater profit. I have no idea whether it would work or not, but if I had £20k odd knocking around I'd try it. There is plenty of experience of shop based retailing, and on-line retailing, but little if any of "I-come-to-you" retailing, at least not i consumer electricals anyway. I know that if my dealer offered to spend an afternoon at my house with several different units then I'd happily pay for that service rather than have to drive into the centre of Cardiff, park up, spend an hour in a strange unfamiliar room which bears little resemblance to what it will sound like when I get home. It seems to me like a good opportunity to make more money, even if you don't make the sale, which is surely better than offering free demos only to then have the customer buy cheaper elsewhere.