Glenway trophies “ revolutionary new service “

[Dickie]

Any one know about the new service where you give your customers a card with your account number on

The customer contacts glenway directly to order and they will dispatch the trophies fully engraved to

“Your “customer in 24 hours ?? Sounds a bit weird to me

[Gray]

[Dickie]

Might as well just send them my customer database

[Paul_]

I couldn't believe that myself this morning! Why on earth would we want to do that?

 

However, customers of theirs that don't do engraving (sport shops, gift shops etc) will love it so basically Glenway are trying to cut us engravers out!

[Dickie]

How they going to get say a 500 trophy football club order out in 24 hours fully engraved

[Danny King]

Nice way to create a database......

[cobbcas]

My Customers will be directed to option 1 Me!! & Option 2 Me!!

[Broms Cobb]

How do we know that all these trophy suppliers catalogues don't get customers direct?

you only have to google the name on the front of any and get the wholesaler.

[Matty]

This is a blatant change from wholesale to retail and the 30 percent is just a cover up or a carrot in year 1 which will stop in year 2. For any engraver or trophy shop who use glenway its time to make a stand. Its time to stop lining their pockets and look after our trade. Engraving Trophies at our shops stops the likes of amazon/sports direct entering our market place. If glenway are successful then the trade for trophy shops and engravers could be no longer within a few years...

[Lee]

It’s my understanding that even if a customer doesn’t have your discount code but finds the website by chance (bear in mind they have the funds to push it to number one in any search if they get it right) the nearest account geographically get the 30% (only independents not Timpson, is what I’ve been told) this for someone like me who tries hard but never breaks it online could mean I’m earning more out of trophies than ever before without so much as lifting a phone. I will be the shop window and promote on a local level. From my point of view it could be one of the best things to have ever happened to my business in recent years.

[Paul_]

I think Glenway need to explain in more detail how it works. I had no idea the percentage rate they gave or that they would give the business to the nearest account holder if they end user finds themselves to their website.

That said it still doesn't sit well with me, i'm still not convinced!

[GlossyEng]

Do I understand that the UK’s largest trade supplier of trophies is openly saying that they will control, market and fulfill a website that will be ‘One of the UK’s top-ranked online retail suppliers of Trophies & Awards’? And with their own staff end-user customer facing? What??? Glenway will own all the data/contacts and be free to use them whenever they want to and they’re openly saying that they will be using Google and Social Media to market it which means they will communicate directly with end-users – hope there’s some stringent NDA’s in place to cover the legalities. Online retailers will have the ‘Welovetrophies.com’ retail site competing next to their own as they have obviously budgeted to get it to the top of the rankings, are they going to use Adwords? Scary. They’re even using social media to say that they have/will be using some sort of current affairs TV programme as part of the launch. Why would small shops want to drive customers online where the competition is much stiffer in terms of discounts? Are they now going to start marketing and exhibiting at all kinds of end-user places under the banner of ‘Welovetrophies.com’ and legitimising it as acting on behalf of their customers? Glenway is known to be supplying directly to many organisations so this doesn’t come as a surprise, the bigger guys will have rumbled all this as a blatant attempt to control both the trade and retail market, I hope the trade including us smaller guys stick together and stop supporting them.

[Lee]

I think Glenway need to explain in more detail how it works. I had no idea the percentage rate they gave or that they would give the business to the nearest account holder if they end user finds themselves to their website.

That said it still doesn't sit well with me, i'm still not convinced!

Its all on the inside cover of the trade pack.

[Count Muppet]

I won’t receive the trade pack so won’t know the full details but from what I read...

Glenway are basically saying that in order to carry on trading they’ve decided to start selling direct, but for now they will help out those who have been keeping them going.

Yeah, they are doing this by stealing your regular customers but I’m sure they’d get them soon anyway.

People always shop around, they are bound to come across them.

[Lee]

I don’t see them as stealing anyone, your regular customers will still be in and we can compete on engraving and service, but I see it that they will be bringing us new income that we currently lose to online stores, this will be welcomed by me.

If for any reason I see them closing the door on this most generous offering or it not working in real terms I like anyone would look for other suppliers but for next year I think it will work well for us (small people with no online means of selling trophies)

[GlossyEng]

Hi Guys

 

Interesting thoughts, here’s more to consider:

 

·   Glenway have no interest in lining our pockets, they only want to have the customer data (and sale) which they will own and control for the long term. Once you lose that customer, you will never get them back.

 

·   They are already taking orders from existing trade customers, what makes us think that this strategy is all about making sure that we get a commission? Over the past year or two, they have not been going back to their customers to tell them that they are now servicing the order and offering any kind of commission. There's no way of knowing what inquiries they will be having and where they've come from or whether they have serviced the order themselves - that's what happens when one organisation looks to control the whole retail/trade landscape.

 

·   They’ll be using digital marketing and social media to persuade end-users to go online - in a year or two, our existing or potential walk-in customers will be their customers, that’s the obvious aim and there will be nothing we can do about it.

 

·   What if all the other trade guys follow suit? There will be nowhere for us to buy at trade level. The other trade guys are already up in arms about the move as it’s a direct threat to them. If I believe what I’m being told, this could end up being a huge mistake on their part but the damage to the retailer will be done.

 

·   The bigger guys spend a lot of money with people like Glenway, if they are openly willing to take them on in the online battle as a seemingly valued and loyal customer, what makes us think that we play any part in their future plans? There’s already talk of many of the medium-bigger guys already jumping ship to other suppliers. Remember, Glenway doesn't like having 1000's of small accounts which end up owing them money for up to 90 days+, they would rather deal direct to get a better mark-up and be paid when the order is placed, don't think for one moment that this strategy is designed to grow our businesses in any way.

 

·    Take the point about free engraving but we’ve got to realise that the big boys spend a lot of money with people like Glenway and get much better deals which means they can offer bigger discounts, it’s economies of scale I guess, there’s no such thing as ‘free’ engraving, we all know that.

 

·    Try contacting Glenway to vent your concerns, good luck with that one, any sign of dissent and senior staff have suddenly become 'unavailable'.

 

·    The Trophex show is going to be fun!

 

I really hope this is not a case of the turkeys voting for Christmas, let’s face it, this move is to further the aims of Glenway not the small retailer or the trophy and engraving industry at large,

[Gray]

Here you go. These from Glenway. 100 Engraving plates £7.99 carriage. Could have gone in a small jiffy bag. Could somebody explain the mentality in this. If anyone needs any small items like a key you're stuck for i will be sending them out in a big box.................World's gone mad.

[cobbcas]

Another thought when you have a customer that wants to order 100 medals 6 cups & 2 Shields & 50 cups that need annual updates is Glenway going to collect engrave them & return to the customer only if the customer wants to pay £8 a box each way!!

[CDTL]

Very sad Glenway have decided to do this will now only order from them if all else fails. Swatkins all the way now

[keithm]

And where are Glenway to explain their decision?     

[Trendsetting Awards]

We will attempt to address Windcitys earlier post and the subject of price banding within the response below.

 

We have read the contributions to this topic and feel it is worthwhile to explain our own position moving forward into 2018 and beyond.  Clearly there is much concern, worry etc over recent developments within the industry as expressed in the majority of the posts in this topic.

 

Firstly, Trendsetting Awards are wholesalers.  We have no ambition to be anything other than a wholesaler and have no intention on developing a B2C e-commerce platform.  We respect and appreciate the value added by our customers in between goods leaving us to finding themselves with the end consumer.  The personal service, finishing of goods and aftercare is something that our customers take huge pride in, which results in repeat business for the majority.  We have no desire to try and replicate the quality of service offered by our customers and in many respects it is that quality of service and the complexity of personalisation that has prevented our industry going the same way as many others.  Luckily for us Trophies and Awards require much more to finish and be ready for the consumer than IE a pair of trousers. 

 

Secondly, We do not want to be in a position whereby we find ourselves inadvertently collecting your customers details via a B2C e-commerce platform, as we believe this will do nothing more than fuel negative speculation regarding our future intentions.  Your contacts are your contacts and we would rather it stayed that way.

 

For many years we have encouraged all of our customers to approach us as end users, place an order and see what our reaction is.  We can assure you that we refer all end user enquiries to a customer that supports Trend in their local area.  We know the historic and recent speculation in the trade and have happily encouraged our customers to do this for their own peace of mind.

 

With regard to price banding.  We are a wholesaler and subscribe to a wholesale model that has served us well.   We would like to think that we are flexible, reasonable and fair and would encourage you to contact our sales representatives to discuss the matter of price banding further and an improvement in terms can be negotiated.  However, its always good to hear views if it is felt that we are approaching price banding in the wrong way.

 

Rightly or wrongly the above outlines the direction that we at Trend have decided to head.  We hope that its the right one and would like to here any views positive or negative with regards to what we have said.

[keithm]

Excellent response and one that is very welcome, well done Trend!!!

[Lee]

I did point Tim in the direction of this topic & he told me for some unknown reason he couldn’t reply.

[keithm]

I used to let the committee members know when they were getting a bashing on here Lee, but if they don't monitor this site then it's their loss, I gave up with it years ago.   

[Graham]

We're in the middle of two large towns that we provide quite a few trophies too.  We advertise online and now have an extra competitor.  Any sales won't be allocated to us (if they even will be allocated at all) as both towns have Glenway retailers i them.  Neither advertise online, so we miss out on sales.

 

It also encourages Joe Bloggs to set up from home knowing he's got an instant website ready to go and can just direct people there without doing anything.  Anyone can now sell trophies and offer engraving.