PC Retail

DSGi's international operations...What a joke!

Anyone been to a PC City recently?...you can almost guarantee it will be empty becuase everyone is across the road in Media Markt.

We'd all just like to see DSG show it's vendors a little respect, and for a change actually bother to execute properly on all the ridiculously expensive promotions we are obliged to run, instead of just screwing us for money (particularly now at the end of their financial year)

DSGi needs to PARTNER with their PARTNERS versus threaten them....awkward strategy to say the least!

It's not really though is it? All they're saying is that someone isn't willing to be sold in as many channels as possible, then why should they be stocked at all... It's all about economies of scale...

Media Markt Man/Tesco Kid,
It sounds like you are vendors, yet you clearly are subscribed, or nailed your mast to said Media Markt- Tesco, nothing wrong with that , it's a free EU?.
If you are 'independant' software vendors, I'm more than happy to buy you a coffee at Hemel, and see what we can develop together.
Dave

Dave, All hats off to you for coming on an open forum as such... I can see what you believe you are trying to do, but surely by threatening partners that you deal with, they may decide to same well to hell with you then...

I am sure that some of us Indy's would love to work with the partners that you cast to the side.... I know that a few work with you in "Techguys" disguise now....

The problem i can see is that if you are talking about the smaller ones then just get rid anyway.... give us little guys a chance....

The Multiples like yourselves, Stressco's oops sorry tesco etc still do not and cannot give the service that an Independent can give support wise... this is not me just trying to knock down you guys but it has been proven in a Which report and is shown time and time again when i have customers bringing into me the pc that they have purchased from multiples 3 months before to get fixed....

We unfortunatley at the moment do not have the clout to go to our suppliers and demand anything from them... I wish we could, but with the like of Brigantia and PCA then we have a forum to vent from and to try and get us the deals that can help us compete in the market....

Mr Independent

They used to call it the "Dixons Iron Boot". Very painful and nothing you could do about it when as a supplier you were booted with it. Times are a changing though...
Check your share price, and the 2nd profits warning.
Seems like the boot may be coming back the other way...

Hi Independent sales guy and Voice of the people.
I know Iain Shaw from a previous life and i applaud the guys like you who run your own business, clearly you have a lot to offer, and a healthy independent retail sector is good competition for everyone.
I'm a little concerned at references to Iron Boots and getting rid of little suppliers.
DSGI is no more a macho agressive culture, we are high performance and partnership driven.
It's really not my, or DSGi style to operate in that old school manner.
It's more about choosing partners who have like minded channel strategies, and focussing on the positives and where through collaborative partnerships, ' we' , retailer and vendor can work together to acheive our mutual objectives.

Resources are tight for everyone in this credit crunch world and its about concentrating our resources with those partners who want to work with us,parting of the ways with those that don't and trying to make our way, the best we can.

The Old Boot style is just that, -Old and it's not appropriate in todays' dynamic and challenging market place, the technology markets we operate in, are helping redraw everything, who had heard of Facebook 5 years ago and in this new world partnerships and collaboration are crucial.
Was it Darwin who said (paraphrase: it's not survival of the fittest, it's the most adaptable species who survive-adapt or die).
Have a good weekend

I am a mystery new vendor and we are in the middle of talking to DSGi about stocking a few of our products for the first time. I think the reason that DSGi and other major high street stores are suffering at the moment is that they demand very unfavourable terms of trade from suppliers, things like 120 days credit, SOR, stock rotation and inflating SRP's to fit their margin targets just means that compannies like ourselves are put off from even trying to knock on their door......quite frankly I wonder if it's worth dealing with them, especially as everyone knows the future of electronics and software is the net and people like Amazon can get a p/o to you in a matter of days....DSGi has taken 4 months to even get terms of trade on the table!...markets change well before Retail can act and give you an order......I read this article and thought nothing else but..'same old Dixons'....shame as if they cut out the red tape they could stage a come back and get people back in shops

Hi Mystery Man,
Unveil yourself for us all to see, then call me 07841 220659 and i will sit down with you face to face and work out a potential deal.
I'm not sure you are a software vendor though as the terms you state aren't anywhere the level of detail we discuss for tems.
Dave

Dave, I can't say too much at the moment for obvious reasons....I'm not saying we don't want to deal with the big retail chains but I can see why a lot of vendors would be put off. I get the feeling that DSGi want vendors, especially the smaller ones to grovel and beg for their products to be put on the shelf. 10 Years ago it was the only way...but with e-tail chains increasing market share and the ease to get your products selling fast its tempting to put 2 fingers up to retail when they demand so much red tape.....I'll get of my soap box now

Go for it then mate. If you can get your product infront of as many people across the UK and Europe as DSG can, then why are you even bothering to think about dealing with them?

I find David Johnson's comments quite amazing really.DSGi is not as powerful as it used to be,Suppliers in the past were constantly told that Working with DSGi was all about a partnership.To me a partnership is 50/50 , thats where it all fell down,It was always a one sided partnership and the suppliers constantly got beat up by DSG when things are not going their way.
It is also far harder to do business with DSGi because they cannot make a decision to save their lives,they are so slow in giving you any feedback,they make false promises on deals and opportunities.
At the end of the day there is no Risk to DSGi because most of the product lines they stock are either on SOR or on consignment,yet they still drag any decision out.Unless you are an EA,Symantec,Microsoft etc you will struggle doing any meaningfull business with these guys.
It is a shame because they used to be a pleasure to do business with when they were a proper trading,wheeling and dealing type of company.

Dave
Tried ringing your phone to see if I could get a cup of the free coffee as we are an independent software company that would love the opportunity to work with DSGi in all areas in the UK and Internationally but could not get through. I guess you have had a good number of calls recently.
Yosemite Technologies has a great new product, FileKeeper that is getting some rave reviews and would sell extremely well in all of your channels so I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you. Plus I was pleased to read that heavy iron boots are out and 120 day payment terms are not the norm

My number is 07714 227693 if you get time between all those cups of coffee.

Peter

Let’s face it; Dixons has no longer a competitive edge on the High Street Market because they are not doing anything different.
Consumers used to love shopping in Dixons because Dixons provided them with second to none service and new Gadgets, this is no longer the case.
Consumers have to now struggle to find someone to serve them and when they do the level of interest is somewhat disappointing as well as their knowledge. Especially when you’re at the checkouts and no one is there to take your money.
This is precisely why so many people are purchasing products from the internet because they would rather find out about the products themselves, rather than having all the hustle and bustle buying from a high street store.
I can not see a future for Dixons on the high street in the next 5 years because they have let the consumers down. It is a great shame, because Dixons has been more of a friendly family business and when they used to invested time and money on their staff.
It shouldn’t be all about money!!!!
This is why most manufactures know this; however DSGI still think they are a big player in high street electronics. It’s about time DSGI looks at the bigger picture and not as far as hand in front of face.

Totally agree with most comments - apart from David's! To make it easier for readers, let me translate some of his comments:

"It's more about choosing partners who have like minded channel strategies" = choosing partners who are willing to spend the most money on paying for our marketing and filling our pockets.

"Resources are tight for everyone in this credit crunch world and its about concentrating our resources with those partners who want to work with us" = our profits are down, along with our share price and reputation so we need you guys to make up the difference and pay us for everything that we can possibly put a price tag on.

These guys used to be market leader but have not moved with the times, their online business is apalling and shockingly behind the times - an area in today's world that should have been given priority 2 years ago. However, I'm sure they will fix it, and charge their vendors a monthly extortionate fee for doing so :-)

Hiya all, I thought I would add to this debate by stating DSGi is made up of 1000's of people who are trying to make a living, clearly its a PLC so the shareholders have expectations, profit.
So the people that are employed do there best to improve customer service, and come up with strategies to move the company forward. You as a customer get to choose where you shop, and DSGi is a customer to the manufacturers and they can decide which companies are the best place for it to shop, fitting in with the strategies.
I'm Done :)

Hi Mr Coker,

Perhaps you should get out on the High Street a little more before opining that "I can not see a future for Dixons on the high street in the next 5 years". Dixons have had no stores on the UKs High Streets for some years now. Much of the hyperbole around DSGi's performance has been driven by poor performance in European markets such as PC City in France and UniEuro in Italy. DSGi's UK business' is pretty sound with Currys still a great business popular with millions of customers every week

Reply to Maizy,
Thank you for pointing out that the stores called Dixons is no longer on the high street and Dixons, (meaning the short for DSGI, DIXONS STORES GROUP INTERNATIONAL) who had changed the stores name to Currys Digital to incorporate small white goods in 2005. I'm sure you would agree that most people would still associate Currys Digital as Dixons, because nothing has changed in terms of point of sale, operations and the look of the stores, other than the name and selling small white good appliances. So in theory when I say Dixons on the high street any normal person would associate it with the group. It also proves my point that even the group is trying to move away from the high street and concentrate on e-commerce, this is probably why they have branded their website as Dixons

I know why people use pseudonyms but personally I hate not knowing who it is making comments. I am still convinced that The Truth from another thread is connected to Microsoft! I can understand where Dave is coming from here and only wish we could get Distributors in the UK to work with us as if we were one account rather than many. I am wondering where we have crossed paths before Dave - if you truly believe that a strong Indie service presence at a neighborhood level is a good thing would you get in touch for a chat if you have a spare fifteen minutes?

having witnessed the mis-selling in dsgi related stores and lack of customer service or employee product knowledge, i would not want my product associated with such a company.
And out of interest mr Johnson, are you another 90 day consultancy victim who has to re apply for his job. The last two people i had contact with in hemel, no longer have positions withing dsg .... 1 has even moved to carphone warehouse... so i think my company would have to be in a bearish downfall before i am desperate enough to deal with dsg (i) ... your shares explain everything.

You may find that David Johnson is long gone from DSGi but the company are still not announcing it.There is a number of staff from their Software Division that do no longer work there.
May be if they got their act together in the first place and actually actioned some of their plans rather than talk about them then they will still be enjoying the comforts of the Hemel HQ.

comforts of hemel HQ? have you been there?!!

reading all these comments about DSG has just put me off, is it relly worth supplying them with our products? is it that bad out there?

Customer service ? Haven't been in to a dsgi store in a long time - the prospect of battling with a salesperson - to buy just what I want WITHOUT the 3 year insurance plan upgrade thingy is just too much to even think about. There must be little profit in selling the basic kit and perhaps it's much more profitable to hammer poor customers into submission to buy the product insurance upgrades (or attach items). Makes me cringe to walk into a store now - I go in to check out the product then go somewhere else to buy it. It may have changed recently of course but once bitten twice shy.