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We buy regularly from Ingram. Perhaps it's our choice of product but it seems Ingram are the only ones stocking it.
We get charged £9.95 plus VAT for delivery on every order. You are not able to add items to an order already placed, you have to pay another £9.95. On Monday we had the unfortunate occurance of placing 3 separate orders with Ingram (a case of customer comes in "can you get..." minutes after having placed an order). Not even our account manager could add items to an order we had placed just minutes earlier.
Whilst we have built carriage charges into our retail prices, so we are not out of pocket, the annoying thing is all three orders came consolidated in one shipment, but we were still charged 3 x 9.95!
As pointed out by Matt, how come Joe Public can buy it cheaper at ebuyer or Simply Acer? Surely Ingram are making enough from us by this difference in price alone. Racking up the carriage charge is nothing more than an insult, given the carriage charged elsewhere.
Forbes' statement about inefficiencies of "ordering very small numbers of product at a time" says it all to me. Welcome Mr. Ebuyer, can't be bothered with you Mr. Indie.
Garry - Garry.biz - Independent etailer
I'm afraid chickens will come home to roost over the next 3 years. The boom years have seen governments cuddle big business, the rich and the famous. The ordinary Joe, the small businesses have not been ignored however. Some attention has been given to actually putting obstacles in their way. Certainly, none have been removed or lessened. The Competition Commission and OFT have ignored the existence of the small business sector.
I have seen a few downturns in my time. We can't blame Ingram. It is in business for it's shareholders and it will squeeze every penny from those who can't bully it. However, volume is king when everyone is buying. When buyers thin out things change. Big business contribution to the economy will be lengthening dole queues as in the past. Small businesses will be the prop as in the past.
In 3 years time politics may well be a different beast with less arrogance. Globalisation will be a semi dirty word. And attitude to big businesses may well change out of all recognition. We may even become a "needs" based society rather than "want" based. Small businesses serve the needs of society. Big business trade on the wants hence the big marketing budgets. Things change quick - look at DSGi.
What goes around, comes around. Small business will again become important to the UK. We just need to make sure we play a long game.
"Zorro" - Unidentified
