[codiac2600]

Another sign of change folks, Pentax has opened a pimp'n new webstore.

PentaxWebstore - Home

It's not cheap for the site they just built and too boot it's clean and easy to use plus they have stuff we all want and at rates to make it more affordable to shop at your local store. Pentax is the ONLY company wo cares about retail stores and this site proves it again.

[Marc Langille]

Very nice layout and navigation friendly too! Actually I need a couple of those Eyecup FL's for my MZ-S... apparently it's easy to lose, so a small O-ring should keep it in place.

Thanks for the heads up Chris!

Cheers,
Marc

[Tom Lusk]

What is the purpose of the "Store"?

The prices, as you noted, are not competitive with many retailers - some lenses are $200. more...

I looked at a lense case (soft) for $112.00. Should include a lens at that price.

Is it aimed at overseas buyers? Uninformed buyers?

Is the aim to make those who look at the prices think they're getting bargains at their local shops?

Please clue me in.

Tom (clueless in the 1000 Islands) Lusk

[Arpe]

No Pentax caps! Lucky I got mine

[magnum1]

Lots of "Out of Stock" items!

[mattdm]

What's a "lupe"?

[magnum1]

Is that site actually owned by Pentax?

I don't get it.

Pentax here:
https://pc-wweb.pentax.com/scripts/wgate/zw20_pc/!?~language=en&~Okcode=star...rea=0000000002

Pentax here:
PentaxWebstore - SLR Lenses

Mattdm, a lupe is a maginfier used to view photos or negatives or slides close up. Attached is a shot of the Agfa Lupe I have.

[Tom Lusk]

Site is owned/operated by Suresource:

Based in Shelton, Connecticut and founded in 1989, SureSource provides a complete outsourcing solution for licensed and branded product manufacturers seeking to conduct direct to consumer e-commerce. SureSource's services include end-to-end solutions for website design and hosting, order and payment processing, warehousing, inventory management, picking, packing, shipping, order tracking and returns processing, as well as in-bound telemarketing and customer support.

Lokks like Pentax has partnered with them in an attempt to increase sales - they are NOT doing their retailers any favors, as I see it anyways.

[mattdm]

Mattdm, a lupe is a maginfier used to view photos or negatives or slides close up. Attached is a shot of the Agfa Lupe I have.

Huh, there it is printed right on there. So it's not just Pentax. Weird.

No, wait, Agfa is a German company, and that is the correct German spelling.

I've never seen the word spelled that way in English. But I can clearly see from the product photos that it's not, as I thought originally, just a typo on the website -- it's actually printed on the loupe itself.

[codiac2600]

What is the purpose of the "Store"?

The prices, as you noted, are not competitive with many retailers - some lenses are $200. more...

I looked at a lense case (soft) for $112.00. Should include a lens at that price.

Is it aimed at overseas buyers? Uninformed buyers?

Is the aim to make those who look at the prices think they're getting bargains at their local shops?

Please clue me in.

Tom (clueless in the 1000 Islands) Lusk

As a person who sells in a retail store and seeing what the other brands do what Pentax has done is price their products at an average price of sales tax plus MAP pricing instead of like the Sony site which offers discounts and specials that stores don't or can't offer. Like on the Sony site you can purchase an A700 and get 25% on any accessory purchase, but don't offer that to retailers with the crap margins we now get.

Or what Canon does is force retailers to offer instant rebates which means the book keeping on our end has to be immaculate and if there is one error we lose the rebate. The margin on cameras coming out of Canon, Sony and Nikon are shrinking to an average of $150 gross profit per body if you follow MAP prices which is garbage profit on things that priced over $1000. Online retailers sell camera bodies at average profit of $75 to $20 a body because they have little to no overhead and people gobble them up because of the price. Even less so on accessories like batteries, memory cards, filters, etc. Pentax has a structure to promote retailers and earn them profit if they sell at MAP pricing and still give them room to move and offer discounts or toss in a memory card or something. Olympus is the only company that beats Pentax in gross profit and that is force retailers to sell it because too many stores won't carry Olympus due to lack of trust in the system.

I'm part of the PRO dealer network which is like a meld of thousands of stores who purchase as a whole to match stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Circuit City. I know what things really cost and it's awful whats happened to margins and profitability. Remember when you bought a camera and you got a bag and memory card, lens cloth, etc, now you get a camera and you have to buy everything else?

The reason Canon is canon is because they make thousands upon thousands of camera bodies and lenses and in order to stay business have to sell them all, cutting profitability to retail stores is one way they recoup that by making their prices lower each year so they sell more. The only one who gains is Canon and not anyone else. Pentax is the opposite, they make a product in decent quantities to cover demand and price accordingly in order to keep sales up and things rolling while still leaving room for the market to make money. It drives buyers to buy and sellers to sell, Canon's name is the only thing that sells Canon really. Nikon is another story... ugh not a happy company at all. Another reason why most stores sell just Canon and others sell Canon and Nikon.

Hopefully that explains why it's good that Pentax has the higher price from the website then in a store.

Now that you've received camera store 101 I will now be accepting your money for 102!
A lot of stores are complaining about profits and you'll begin to see things in the next few years that will change the face of online retailing vs. store fronts.

[roentarre]

Thanks for the site. I could find some of accessory I need there.

[tranq78]

Chris, my hat's off to you. I am sympathetic to how retailing is a tough business even at the best of times. Your participation on this forum lets us glimpse what life on the other side of the counter is like.

$150 gross per body. That works out to 25% GM assuming an average $600 sale price; less if the average is higher. It's hard to see how you can run an independent bricks & mortar store on that. A year ago I spoke to a salesperson at my local camera retailer about their pricing structure, and their margins are similar.

Independents already use buying groups. Maybe you independents should also form selling groups on the internet and bypass the Amazon/eBay/etc fees.

[thibs]

Too bad that store is (for now?) US only

[kay]

This is a very good sign! And I am glad they're not trying to compete on price with the Amazons of the world, I think it's great to have an exclusive Pentax-branded online store even if it doesn't generate tons of profits. And I agree with thibs, hopefully they will expand with some international presense soon!