It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:15 am

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 
Author Message
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New Go shop in Europe - polgote.com
Post #1 Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:29 pm 
Lives in gote

Posts: 532
Liked others: 1
Was liked: 136
Rank: 13k
Wish you every success!

_________________
David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.


This post by bogiesan was liked by: Waylon
Top
 Profile  
 
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New Go shop in Europe - polgote.com
Post #2 Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:00 am 
Gosei
User avatar

Posts: 1810
Liked others: 490
Was liked: 365
Rank: KGS 1-dan
My "problem" with small online shops in this day and age is shipping costs. I'm not used to pay a significant amount for shipping, thanks to Amazon and such.

I was checking out your Tsumego-book-bundle in your shop but since shipping would amount to EUR 20, I cancelled the process.

I'll definitely keep my eyes open for these books (as I still do with Antti's books ^^).

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Top
 Profile  
 
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New Go shop in Europe - polgote.com
Post #3 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 7:10 am 
Judan

Posts: 6087
Liked others: 0
Was liked: 786
SoDesuNe wrote:
My "problem" with small online shops in this day and age is shipping costs.


Shipping costs vary greatly from shop to shop because they differ greatly from country to country and recently even differ greatly because different shops in the same country have to pay very different postages when sending to other countries. Ordinary Amazon shipping costs are higher than postages but, for physically printed books, nothing can beat free shipping from an Amazon branch to a destination in its same country if one has subscribed to Amazon Premium, sees its main value in streaming services and so pretends to oneself that books would ship "for free". Of course, smaller shops cannot compete with Amazon Prime for small orders. Some small go book shops offer free shipping for bulk orders.

EUR 20 postage for one book is, of course, much too high but, unfortunately, can be the actual postage some shops might have to pay. In some countries, this is the consequence of the new UPU regulations, which prohibit commercial goods in ordinary letters. Some shops are lucky to have access to reasonable postages for commercial letters while other shops are required to send every single book as a parcel, which is expensive especially overseas.

Electronic formats of books can be a solution for some shops but do not fit every business model. (And not every electronic format is equally viable commercially.)

I do not know the postages from Poland but can confirm that EUR 20 is an amount that can occur for some unlucky shops also in other countries. I do not know what the UPU thinks. Does it want to destroy businesses of as many small shops as possible and in the end destroy itself because the big players create their own global postal services?

Top
 Profile  
 
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New Go shop in Europe - polgote.com
Post #4 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 7:42 am 
Gosei
User avatar

Posts: 1810
Liked others: 490
Was liked: 365
Rank: KGS 1-dan
EUR 20 were the shipping costs for all his tsumego books (8?). For EUR 20 you'll also get two of his books, so pay ten to get eight?

I don't know anything about UPU but I guess... stop complaining and start refraining (from dealing with UPU yourself) ; ) There are several print-on-demand-sites available, which ship. Amazon also includes its free shipping. Might be worth to crunch those numbers and compare, IF it makes any sense customer-wise of course.

_________________
My "guide" to become stronger in Go

Top
 Profile  
 
Offline
 Post subject: Re: New Go shop in Europe - polgote.com
Post #5 Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:24 am 
Judan

Posts: 6087
Liked others: 0
Was liked: 786
€20 for 8 or 2.5 per book for international shipping is fair, IMO. Of course, you can ask why there is no free shipping for customers with bulk orders. One possible explanation might be revenue after deduction of printing cost and 30% for CEGO/EGF-pro treaty.

Print on demand or print by retail options are often commercially (very) disadvantageous. The order of magnitude is roughly 40% to 95% loss of revenue per book, which can hardly ever be compensated by several times higher sales volumes in small markets, such as go books. (For bestseller thrillers, a revenue of €0.3 per book might work simply due to the very large print runs.)

Currently I am unaffected by the UPU trouble but this can change. Apparently others are affected.

Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 5 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group