PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Buy.com is looking to take on the UK’s online technology retail sector, going head to head with the likes of Amazon, Ebuyer, and DSGi.
After a somewhat muted UK launch in February, the huge US e-tailer will be looking to ink deals with more distributors this year, and then to aggressively expand its product range to fortify its position.
In the US the firm operates in a wide range of sectors, but in the UK it will be concentrating exclusively on the technology market. European MD Eoin Matthews told PCR that the low-key nature of the firm’s arrival here was very much a deliberate move, and that it is more concerned with ‘the long game’.
“Rather than spend the marketing dollars on pushing the name at this point, we’re focussing on the very bottom line channel. And we’ll be putting a lot more resources into expanding the catalogue and getting distributors on board. Our goal for the UK is to get a very broad range of tech and media products this year.
“We wouldn’t be going into the market if we didn’t think we could compete, but we look at it as a very long-term game. There’s been plenty of experience in the last few years with different people trying to break through the market, which has shown that you have to be in it for the long run, and we definitely are.”
Buy.com does a great deal of its business through marketplace channels, mostly associated with sites like eBay. According to Matthews, independent stores in the US are increasingly utilising avenues such as Buy.com to bolster shop sales, highlighting that it could be a potential life raft for smaller businesses struggling here in the UK, too.
“If you look to the US, what you see is a lot of the smaller single store bricks and mortar guys have come up with very innovative hybrid models. Some have used their physical bricks and mortar buying skills to become great hybrid businesses, where they sell through their own site, through Amazon’s marketplace, through Buy.com’s marketplace, and eBay. And they’ve become very nimble effective online marketers. Maybe not on the scale of bigger firms, but they are very important contributors to the marketplace.”
To read out full interview with Buy.com click here. Alternatively to read our blog on it, and fellow US firm Best Buy’s launch, click here.
