Glenway trophies “ revolutionary new service “

[trophyman4001]

It is clearly the 1st step to moving to direct online selling, where potential profits for Glenway are miles more than dealing with the likes of us.This first step is to build a nice customer database, anyone who hands out those cards is passing their customers on to Glenway. You can say hello to them every year when they sheepishly bring in their old pots for updating.

 

I can forsee massive problems for them with overnight supply ( that is pie in the sky), out of stocks etc. Their customer service to the trade is not the best - they will really have to up their game when dealing with Joe public.

 

Trophex will be mayhem ha ha

[Dean]

'Interesting'

 

Glenway are who we use as our main supplier for trophies currently, but probably not next year based on this...

[w12fod]

Good morning everyone . I tried to get on the forum the other day & couldn’t .so apologies there .

I appreciate everyone’s opinions , but , when have Glenway ever done anything detrimental to the trophy trade ?

We have been drop shipping for customers for many years . Has anyone ever ever heard even the tinyest whisper , that we have followed up anything direct ? No because we are a proper grown up company .

Now we love trophies is an add on to any trophy retailer who wants to use it .

You have probably heard of amazon ! Their biggest single selling to tag line is that you can have it delivered tommorow

The whole world wants next day delivery. Now you can offer next day delivery , without having buy stock or invest in staff you now have an addition to your business, if you want .

Your normal customers will come in your shop & you can sell to them as normal . This is business that would not have been possible before .

Once the site starts & you see money going into your accounts , believe me your thoughts will change .

If we wanted to go direct , why would we have paid THOUSANDS to create a site for you our customers to benefit from ?

I know other wholesalers have been going around stirring things up . Possibly jealous the didn’t have the idea , but either way seems strange that something that has nothing do with them is so important. once again when your account starts getting money credited to it , who will you believe then.

I think most of you have mobile feel free to give me a call anytime

Cheers

Tim

[w12fod]

Just reading some of your other gripes ( should come on here more often) don’t know if I’m allowed to put my phone number on here , but the office will give it you . I’ve been in the office all week & had no messages to call people !! So certainly not avoiding anyone .

The querie withe Engraving plates in the box CRAZY !!! I’ll look into it when I get back !!

Don’t think we’ve ever had so much publicity

Have a good xmas & speak in the new year

[Trendsetting Awards]

Just to reiterate Trends view on the subject

 

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.

[Graham]

Tim,

 

To address a few points.

 

We're in the middle of nowhere with large towns all around us.  We obviously target those towns online.  Now we have you to compete with you online and any revenue that comes to you will be allocated to retailers in those towns most of whom don't advertise online.  We're certainly unlikely to see any money coming into our account that we wouldn't have got anyway and will likely lose out in sales.   Only those with no online presence will benefit from this. 

 

When you send goods to the customer, you'll obviously include some sort of paperwork even if it's only an invoice.  That will have Glenway details on it.  Next time they want to order, they'll just come direct.   I'm not saying you'll go out and grab the customers directly but this way, they are coming to you direct.  

 

With regards to the next day delivery availability, my feeling is that if someone wants something personalised with engraving then they are prepared to wait for it and it's rarely we come across people wanting things the next day.  If they do ask for it in a hurry they are generally apologetic and say something like "I know it's short notice but can you help".  

 

It also gives anyone that wants to work from home a base to sell all your products without doing anything other than passing cards out and offering a cashback system once orders have been placed in lieu of a decent discount to larger clubs.  We already have enough of these in the local area, several of which are customers of yours already.   Many of us have also invested thousands in engraving machines where as the guy that sets up from home doesn't need to worry about that any more.

 

We have no option to accept the website if we pass your catalogues out as the web address is in bold large letters at the top of the front cover, it's not a case of use it if you want too.

 

If you wanted do help us retailers out then building a site where retailers could have their own site automatically filled with your products would have been a way to go.  That way, customers are still buying from retailers and you'll still get the business.  Your current path will ultimately cut the retailer out.

 

I'm quite surprised you can't see why us retailers are concerned about this.   

[w12fod]

Hi Graham ,

Good points , I’m afraid I can’t help where you are based . But we look after our own customers & will include postcodes of our good regular customers . But if you market your code they will use it

As soon as an order is placed you will get a confirmation , when the order is dispatched our commission will be added to your account . Glenway will be mentioned nowhere ...

All Engraving is charged all prices are full retail less 2% discount ... you receive 30% of everything Bar carriage .

I agree a lot of people will wait , and a lot of people will want to just buy as normal ..it gives you an added string to your bow.

People often don’t like new ideas , people can be sceptical, that’s only natural . But just wait & see it will be good

 

Enjoy your xmas talk in the new year

[hibsjo(SCO)]

Hi Tim

so my account gets credited with the 30% commision and now that i dont need to buy any stock from you when can i cash out?

its not adding up!

with some of the discounts given out to online retailers how do you think you are going to compete online?

charge for engraving online.... good luck with that

ive got a competitor who is selling from the same catalogue as me but he is charging wholesale prices!! AND engraving is free!!

thats less than half the price of my catalogue prices, hes selling for cheaper than i can buy.........

carry on!

[GlossyEng]

Genuinely perplexed by Glenway’s response which was not really a response at all since it didn’t address one major concern put forward by posters in this forum, which I’m assuming by the majority of responses will be reflective of the industry at large. I’m not sure describing these issues as ’gripes’ is going to apply balm to a festering wound and with regards to the question “When have Glenway ever done anything detrimental to the trophy trade?”, I can almost hear a chorus from the back shouting “The moment you came up with this idea Tim!”.

 

It’s fairly obvious why everyone is sabre rattling as this move is being perceived as an aggressive glove across the face to everyone involved in the industry from the small engraver up to the large retail boys across to the trade suppliers and from the sound of it, I don’t think anyone is falling for the line that’s it’s good for Glenway’s customers and the money on the website was spent on their behalf.

 

To recap on what has been said, here are just some of the major issues:

 

·         Glenway has now has stated that they will openly canvass in the same retail spaces that are the bread and butter of their own customers thus openly competing with them.

·         I have not heard any talk about NDA agreements which stops Glenway from using any data passed over to them for whatever purpose they see fit in the present or future.

·         Why would anyone want to drive their customers online where the competition is stronger?

·         Glenway staff will be directly dealing with the end-user, how can that possibly be in the best long-term interest of their customers?

·         Glenway will be using Social Media to communicate directly to the end-user, again crossing a huge boundary.

·         Will Glenway be using Google Adwords to advertise next door to their trade customers? What a way to thank your ‘loyal’ customers.

·         Putting the website address on the catalogue would be deemed as cynical as it’s encouraging buyers to go to the site whether the retailer wants them to or not, why do it?

 

Hope this is not seen as an attempt to stir anything up, just an attempt to get answers. The welcome statement from Trend hardly seems like a ‘jealous’ company that wished they thought of the idea in the first place, quite the opposite I think, something I’m sure will be welcomed by their customers and the wider industry. I’m not sure either the politics or the structure of the trophy trade is something that can or should be compared with the Amazon model as they are clearly not looking to compete with loyal customers who have put them where they are.

 

Can’t help but think that Glenway have fundamentally got this wrong from every conceivable angle but got a sneaky feeling they think they have all the answers and hope the trade will just roll over and let them get away with it, we’ll see. Over to you Tim…

[grahamparker]

The Internet is certainly making it a lot tougher for all of us not just in the trophy trade but in all forms of retail.

 

Great post GlossyEng welcome to the forum.

[Graham]

I disagree with your thinking with regards to people using a code.  2% isn't going to make whole lot of difference to 90% of the orders so they'll just not bother or forget the next time they order.  You say Glenway will be mentioned nowhere, but surely you'll be giving people invoices at the very least? 

 

As someone else has pointed out (might have been elsewhere), say a rugby club buys 50 x A1202A's, that's £374.58.  I buy them in, it costs me £154.50.  That's £220.08 for me plus the engraving cost on top.  If they come to you direct, the sale price is the same, but now I only get £110.12 (30% of the revenue - the 2%)  That's £90 less from one order without any engraving charges that I'd usually get 100% of rather than 30%.  (All prices ex VAT)  I know I don't have to do anything but I quite enjoy my job and I don't mind doing it.   If the website is just another string to our bow and I don't have to use it, can I look forward to receiving catalogues with no mention of it soon?

 

I know you can't help where we are located but we will be affected.   You've introduced something that clearly a lot of people are going to be upset with.  Have you ever done anything detrimental to the trade?   In the past you've put engraving prices in catalogues.  It's not up to you how much we charge for engraving.  Also it wasn't that long ago you went into some sort of deal with Sports Direct.  Just because it didn't work out for you doesn't mean it wasn't a bit of a kick in the teeth for the other retailers.  I know it's up to you how Glenway runs it's business but if it's really for your customers then perhaps we could have been consulted beforehand?    It would have been good to find out this in advance with it being sold to us rather than a bunch of catalogues, codes, cards and an air freshener turning up on the door and we're left to figure everything out.

 

I hope you're right and it is good but I'm a long way from being convinced this is good for anyone other than Glenway.

We hope we do have a good Christmas, thank you. It could be our last turkey for a couple of  years......

[Michael]

I'm just thinking from my perspective, I'm a small independent shoe repair shop with only me working and no website.

I don't do too bad on trophy orders, although last year lost my biggest one to an internet company.

More often that not with the bigger orders I'm doing them with free engraving and sometimes with a discount as well to secure the order. I can only see this as a benefit for me as I haven't got to spend time during the day or even working late or Sundays engraving!

[MartyCoggs]

I don't think they've thought this through, or are being economic with the truth.

 

NO ONE will pay full retail price with engraving on top online, so they'll need to discount heavily to get any orders.  It's easy to compare prices online and buyers will usually try the top 3 or 4 ads/listings. compare them and then in 90% of the time pick the cheapest. As hibsjo(SCO) said there are people online selling at wholesale with free engraving. Do Glenway really think people will pay full whack or with a pitiful 2% discount when the big online retailers do this??

[Broms Cobb]

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.

With Timpsone being in every town and selling the trophies which one gets the commission?

[Lee]

Apparently it doesn’t include them, that was one of my first questions to Tim.

[Broms Cobb]

Apparently it doesn’t include them, that was one of my first questions to Tim.

thing is, if I was them and all independants got commission and I did not?

Little miffed to say the least - how long before they get dropped?

[Gray]

That's what I think of it.

[simon1]

That's what I think of it.

     

Yes 

My customers my profit  !!!!

[Lee]

So I'm Chatting to a friend about it all this mornings & typed in the domain.........heres what I read "Coming soon Jan 2nd" 10.30am! not even live! not the best of starts!

[Dean]

We'll only be using them sparingly in the future from now on then...

[Gray]

Just replied to Glenway's latest email.

 

"Sadly you have lost my trust with your new approach to stealing my customers from me."

[Graham]

Site is live,

I know Tim said they'd be charging for engraving, but they've  gone in cheap - £1.00 per trophy plate, £10 to engrave on glass.

 

[Michael]

 

Site is live,

I know Tim said they'd be charging for engraving, but they've  gone in cheap - £1.00 per trophy plate, £10 to engrave on glass.

 

 

That's what I would charge so no problem here, saves me a shitload of work!!

[Gray]

'Interesting'

 

Glenway are who we use as our main supplier for trophies currently, but probably not next year based on this...

Use Trend Dean, Their trophies are just as good and I wasn't let down once last year. And free delivery once a week. Only niggle I have is that the trophies don't come with plates, but on a big order I have requested free plates and they always oblige.

[grahamparker]

Trend are great and have been our main supplier for years.