Re: UKNM: Price matching

[Nick Sweeney]

> Localised pricing will become a serious issue next year when the civilised

> nations of Europe adopt the Euro alongside their domestic currency. There is

> no obligation to have a single price across Europe, but given the easy

> comparison (all prices must be quoted in both currencies) it will be

> difficult to avoid in many cases.


With the important proviso that sales taxes will still vary between EU

countries, and transactions occurring across borders remain subject to the

arbitrary sway of the local Customs and Excise. Harmonisation is a long

way off, as any landlord in Kent will tell you.


Consider CDNow: their recently-launched European warehouse has, I'd

suggest, placed them at a marketing disadvantage on this side of the

Atlantic. What you gain in delivery charges, you lose in having to pay

local VAT, and from having to deal with local pricing structures. 


The Gomez album, for instance, is $12.99 when shipped from the US, $18.99

from Europe - "comparison" here not only includes delivery costs, but also

a risk-assessment on whether the import gets taxed on entry. CDNow aren't

stupid - in most cases, the European price only appears for items

difficult to source from the US.


(Recent reports suggest that packages from Amazon, CDNow and others are no

longer able to pass through Customs so freely. More reason to have friends

in the US.)


> As shopping online increases it will also become difficult to justify

> localised pricing and easier to compare prices between competing outlets.


Again, I'd suggest that import duties and sales taxes make that sort of

transparency difficult, particularly if you regard "competition" from the 

global perspective that the majority of successful net ventures take. If

net commerce has made any impact, it has been to redefine the meaning of

"local" to mean something like "within reach of a FedEx van".


Comparative marketing on the net so far has been about subterfuge - the

exploitation of disparities in local price structure, brand strategy, and

taxation. It's grey market, outlet store strategy. Not Dixons and Boots,

but Dixons and Richer Sounds.


Nick Sweeney