Don't know what an aussy online kite store is trying to achieve by having a HUGE sale, i.e knocking 180 bucks off the list price of a reo for instance and then putting +130 on the smallest size available. Some dude was probably giving himself high fives all day for that stroke of marketing genius. Seriously if you can get away with it, more power to ya but for mine you just come off looking like arse hats. Which is a shame cause I've bought from that particular and liked the guys in there. Dont treat us like idiots i think is the message.

Oh well they just got some free extra marketing :D

Dl33ta said..

Bah!

You can have an extra $50 off though for bringing error to our attention, hows that?

kitebored said..

KPSS Used said..
You can have an extra $50 off though for bringing error to our attention, hows that?

I'm going to start analysing your site for more errors right now! Do I have to blast you in a public arena to get a discount or can I email them through silently?

email privately please to info (at) kitepower dot com dot au

Possibly could be accused of being to quick to blat away on a forum but really it's a culmination of experiences with kite shops in Australia and the level of sevice they provide. You only have to take a look at the other thread raging on about people buying kites overseas to see that Aussie etailers havent quite got it right. I've had at least five ****ty experiences in the last season where I've bought stuff online, and fallen for the buy over 200 or 300 dollar gimmick only to find out that 1) half the stuff on their site is out of stock and 2) free delivery actually means the slowest and cheapest possible mail option known to man.

If you're serious about competing with overseas etailers treat your customers with respect. If your advertising free delivery make it express post or courier. If you dont have something in stock update your page. Don't let orders sit there for five days without updating your customer. If you can imagine someone walking into your store and taking their cash and telling them to come back a week later, or wait till your Uncle Bob can get his ****box working so he can deliver it out to you, you are probably getting close to the feeling of frustration you are generating in your client base and why they look overseas because in reality, its not really so much about the cheaper kites, they are after better service.

It's a brave new world out there and if you don't give your online shop the same attention as your real world shop, take it down or just remove the shopping component so they have to call you to find out. Just cause its easy to set one up, doesn't mean you should.

End rant.

Questions:

1. Would you buy without trying/demoing the gear?
2. If you were comfortable with the sale price and the delivery solution would you pay a wholesale buy now price + Fast freight & insurance?

Sorry, not trying to hijack the post, just asking after spending a very large amount of money to create an E solution (numerous sellers to one buyer – in a different vertical) and had to give up because no one wanted to support e-commerce over bricks and mortar (unless it was them doing it).

I do believe both models can co exist and still give a great experience, if everyone sees it as seamless and beneficial.

If someone wants an end to end marketplace e-commerce software solution software (got one going cheap – within Aust ONLY)

^ ^ ^

DI33ta thanks, the site/software I mentioned above was designed for another vertical, but could easily be applied to Kite Gear (consumables) it wouldn't matter if it were a wholesaler/importer or retailer local or national. Basically 2 years worth of R&D and a bucket load of cash later and no joy due to sealed supply chains. If interested, please either feel free to PM me or anyone else that may be interested and will happily show why it can work, if allowed to by interested parties in the supply chain.

By the way one a quick personal note, as I have mentioned before I do see HUGE benefits in local (Australian) representation. I do however see that perhaps efficiencies could be achieved with a drop ship method (as has been the standard in the US since 2006). Service equals loyalty and your local kite shop is still totally relavent in the e-commerce era. Maybe as people say a hybrid could work and would love to help

Sometimes I think people tend to forget that behind every "etailer" is a bunch of humans!
Totally agree that there are some very crappy ones out there, but in general I think most people in business strive for perfection and excellence, we certainly do at Kitepower.
However there are dozens of little details that can make a consumers buying experience from our website go wrong, from Aust Post or a courier taking too long or worse losing the shipment, a typing error leading to a mistake that the customer sees, but we don't, until told.
Have you ever tried looking at a computer screen all day and making small changes to what you are looking at on the screen? Mistakes can happen.
Let us know and you will be look after by any decent business.

Kitepower Australia said..

Sometimes I think people tend to forget that behind every "etailer" is a bunch of humans!
Totally agree that there are some very crappy ones out there, but in general I think most people in business strive for perfection and excellence, we certainly do at Kitepower.
However there are dozens of little details that can make a consumers buying experience from our website go wrong, from Aust Post or a courier taking too long or worse losing the shipment, a typing error leading to a mistake that the customer sees, but we don't, until told.
Have you ever tried looking at a computer screen all day and making small changes to what you are looking at on the screen? Mistakes can happen.
Let us know and you will be look after by any decent business.

I had moved on from your oversight and onto a more general rant about the quality of kite online stores given my own personal experience. You have to admit getting punters in with free postage on orders over 200 or 300 and then sending it standard aus-post is pretty crap service. Once the item is shipped and you give the client their tracking number that's all the comms they need. My point was directed at the process between hitting the buy button and a shop putting it in the mail. To date my experiences with multiple kite shops, getting that part right, has been less than awesome. Yep people make mistakes and those that make mistakes in business a lot lose business. It's not a jab at KP in particular, as I said in my initial post, the face to face service from KP has been great every time Ive been in.

As an aside do you guys realise google is flagging you as a malware site right now?

If I have waited 6 months to save up for a new kite, I don't normally mind waiting a few extra days for regular post.

Dl33ta said..

Kitepower Australia said..

Sometimes I think people tend to forget that behind every "etailer" is a bunch of humans!
Totally agree that there are some very crappy ones out there, but in general I think most people in business strive for perfection and excellence, we certainly do at Kitepower.
However there are dozens of little details that can make a consumers buying experience from our website go wrong, from Aust Post or a courier taking too long or worse losing the shipment, a typing error leading to a mistake that the customer sees, but we don't, until told.
Have you ever tried looking at a computer screen all day and making small changes to what you are looking at on the screen? Mistakes can happen.
Let us know and you will be look after by any decent business.

I had moved on from your oversight and onto a more general rant about the quality of kite online stores given my own personal experience. You have to admit getting punters in with free postage on orders over 200 or 300 and then sending it standard aus-post is pretty crap service. Once the item is shipped and you give the client their tracking number that's all the comms they need. My point was directed at the process between hitting the buy button and a shop putting it in the mail. To date my experiences with multiple kite shops, getting that part right, has been less than awesome. Yep people make mistakes and those that make mistakes in business a lot lose business. It's not a jab at KP in particular, as I said in my initial post, the face to face service from KP has been great every time Ive been in.

As an aside do you guys realise google is flagging you as a malware site right now?

Thanks, yes Google is flagging the site. The flag is incorrect but we have to wait until Google realise the reason for the flag is long gone. There never was any malware on our site, and it is perfectly safe to visit our site, always was.
There was a hack on a server that was hosting our site and several others. The hack involved some code inserted in all the website URL's that only affected the Google search bots, that rank websites and crawl the web 24/7, ordinary visitors to our site were served the normal version of our site. Anyway our site has been moved as a further precaution and has a new IP address, but this has not registered with Google yet.

On the other issue. Australia Post is often the quickest service across Australia, if a customer wants express shipping they have the option to choose that.

surfingboye said...

Dl33ta said..
You have to admit getting punters in with free postage on orders over 200 or 300 and then sending it standard aus-post is pretty crap service.

I think that is pretty unfair...
As long as the shop gets it to the post office the same day (ie. if ordered before 1pm), that is all a shop can do.
If you want it next day, cough up a couple of extra blue notes $$$.
Or go to your shop in person.

Why would you expect it sent express, lol.

When I used to work at Kitepower Qld, I remember packing nearly everything as express post and kites and boards nearly always went through a courier. I can only ever remember sending small things like $50 stunt kites through the normal post system. PLUS I remember how upset the boss would be if something wasn't at the post office the day it was ordered. I can guarentee that this kind of service was very close to the top of the bosses priority list.