Evans online vs in store prices - why?

[park1]

Just bought some shimano a520 pedals for commuter via Evans. I paid £25 online so am happy. When doing so I noticed the in store price was £40.49.

I can't for the life of me work out why there is a difference? My pedals were in stock at the local branch and I collect from store.

I understand banks trying to encourage online business as it means they can close branches and save money, but Evans seem to opening more stores.

There is a faint whiff of Evans trying to fleece those new to the sport or the less internet savvy, ie new cyclist goes to store, buys bike and accessories (such as pedals) that they could be paying a lot less for online.

I'm not trying to knock Evans, it's just one of those niggling "why?" questions.

Anyone any ideas?

 

[PeteXXX]

It's the same as many other shops. Halfords are the same. What I've done in the past in store is get the phone out, order it as ''click and collect' then go to the till a short while later and show the confirmation email and pick up the goods at the cheaper price.

 

[Dan B]

Pretty sure Evans will match their online price in-store if you ask them. Cycle Surgery certainly do match Evans online prices in-store ;-)

This is more in the nature of a workaround than a justification, of course. A justification might be that the customers who don't know much about cycling are more likely to be needing advice and guidance in their purchases, which equates to staff time, which is expensive, and therefore it's not unreasonable they should pay a higher price for the same product because the overall retail experience has cost more to provide. I don't say it's a very good justification, please note

 

[phil_hg_uk]

I have come across a lot of shops that do this, they always come out with the excuse that the shop had overheads and i always say yes but the shop overheads are still there if I buy it from the shop or go home and order it on the internet ....... duh.

Last year I went to Planet-X in barnsley and bought some socks, when I got home I noticed that they were cheaper on the website

 

[Dan B]

As an aside, Shimano pedals (especially the basic ones like M520, A520) routinely seem to have the hugest difference between online prices and rrp that I have ever seen. Usually I expect to see a fiver or so saving on a £30 product between rrp and online; pedals are often more like 50%

 

[park1]

I think Evans are missing a trick here. If Evans offered the same prices in store it would encourage people to shop in store. Once in store we are all susceptible to the shiny things on offer and may well spend more. It almost seems as if they are investing in bricks and mortar shops then discouraging people using them?

Maybe I should stop trying to answer this question and get on with some work - new pedals don't pay for themselves, even at online prices!

 

[stevede]

Bought a Topeak bag from Halfords yesterday, which online was £17.95 and in store £22.95. Assistant happily matched the web price. I asked was it a PITA for them doing it all the time. He said online pricing generally matched to other big players and indeed, CRC and Wiggle all showed the bag at £17.95.

The additional benefit I had with Halfords, is that I could also use my 10% BC discount on top of the web match. If it's a larger purchase, (recently bought some rollers) then I can get another 10% by buying vouchers through work. T&C's say you can't mix but thus far I haven't had an issue.

I guess like all businesses, if they can get a little more for a product in store then they will go for it. I wouldn't suggest they are deliberately fleecing people as it is so easy to check nowadays with mobile phones, barcode scanners and the like. As mentioned above, the on the shelf immediate availability & advice etc etc has a value. Some are happy to pay a premium for it.

 

[park1]

@stevede I guess you are right.
The flip side as a customer though is if I found out later I'd paid £15 extra in store it would hack me off and effect brand/shop loyalty. I guess Evans know what they are doing though.

 

[jugglingphil]

In store you can get advice from staff, perhaps try on the item, pick it up etc.
On-line it takes a couple of minutes to compare prices from a number of different retailers.
Mark-up has to be different as while the product is the same the sales process is not.

 

[the_mikey]

I don't use Evans, their prices make my LBS look cheap.

 

[IDMark2]

I used to manage a photographic shop, not a branch of a chain, a family owned specialist, we sold everything and I guess there would be parallels to a LBS in the range of customers it had, ie, beginners to making a living pros... Even eight or nine years ago 'showrooming' existed, that is, go into the shop, use a knowledgeable assistant to help you narrow down what product would be right for you and then thank the assistant (sometimes after an hour or more), tell them you will think about it and then go home and search for and buy the product at the cheapest place you could find.
Now, it didn't matter sometimes how tight you made your margins, in the beginnings of internet shopping a 5-10% mark-up on cost was a luxury, and customers would still go home to check it was 'competitive'. In fact sometimes they'd come in with printouts of their shortlist of cameras or lenses or tripods or bags or whatever else, garnered from Amazon and suchlike and would only bring them out after an hour or so of advice and then check the pricing. No shame.

We had a web store presence and charged different cheaper prices on there than in the store. Justification was, if you, the customer, are prepared to do legwork and decide for yourself what product is right for you then you deserve to buy it cheaper than if you don't and have to come in to get advice to help you. Short of actually charging people to come into the store what else could you do? A lot of the time I had the freedom to offer a discount price (from the in-store ticket price) and would pitch at halfway between typical online and an instore price, some fair people appreciated that and paid a little more, some people wouldn't purchase unless it was as cheap.

What will happen in the end is predictable and is already happening in many different areas of business... The little old-style service based establishments will close and go out of business because they DO have overheads, the bigger players will still be there but not have any competition and we will be back to paying whatever they decide and getting their idea of service because there won't be any other choice.

 

[park1]

@jugglingphil that would be true if Evans didn't price match to online prices in store, but others say they do. I guess that proves you can have your cake and eat it!

 

[jugglingphil]

@jugglingphil that would be true if Evans didn't price match to online prices in store, but others say they do. I guess that proves you can have your cake and eat it!

I wonder how many purchases are price matched?
IanDuke summed it up quite well. Buying in a shop is different to buying on-line, should we expect to have cake and eat it? Well, next time I shop at Evans I might be more prepared (as I like cake!).

 

[park1]

@IanDuke i agree with you totally. After a lot of searching I ended up buying my last bike from my lbs as i wanted to try/sit on the bike before bought it, I wanted a shop I could return it too in case of a problem, they offered free servicing for life on the bike (you pay for the cost of parts). All of this and the advice offered outweighed the savings on something like a Canyon/Rose online bike.

Unfortunately price does come into play when it comes to buying the smaller items. I guess I will have no one blame but myself if the shop goes under.

I remember reading something online about the reverse to the norm of look in store and then buy online happening during the Jan sales, where people were browsing online over Christmas then buying the items in store during the sales.

 

[phil_hg_uk]

In store you can get advice from staff, perhaps try on the item, pick it up etc.
On-line it takes a couple of minutes to compare prices from a number of different retailers.
Mark-up has to be different as while the product is the same the sales process is not.

But the store is open and the staff are been paid regardless of if you but in store or online so whats the difference.