Online UK model shops with live stock levels
 

Just wondered if anyone knew of any other model shop websites that give online stock levels apart from MK Racing and Microtech. I like to know when order something it is actually in-stock, hence no delays in recieving goods!! I'm not trying to give any particular model shop free advertising on Jimmy's site, just handy info to know!!

Cheers
Simon

I'd be interested to know to, I only used Modelsport but half of their stuff is always marked out of stock... I'm gonna check those you just mentioned.

Cheers!

Demon tell you, they also remind you when its in the basket before checkout

dms racing in whatford almost always have what I need even for obscure or older cars they do take their time to call you back though but I suspect its due to customer demand rather than lazieness.

whats wrong with a phone call to check

Absolutely nothing, but thats not the question. You could say why bother with the internet, its just another service. Not everyone has telephone access during the day all the time, and people don't seem to answer the phones after 8pm!!! Have I justified myself!!

that's what i was thinking

ooooo handbags:lol:

only asked, i never trust just doing it off the net, allways call them myself

I never call, and only buy from places with stock levels..... and never had an issue.... it is just as secure/insecure as paying for it over the phone....

where did i say i dont pay on the net? i just call to check stock is 100% there, if not i go else where

the stock may be "live and showing" but its only as good as the guy pressing the stock levels in the 1st place to get orders in

i have a tab at my local shop, so i just order what i want and pay when we sort it out

Theraceplace.co.uk has stock levels at the side of the parts...

What is it they say about sarcasm?? :thumbsup:

Thanks to all posting relevant information :)

mobile chicane,
thanks for the kind words, you are quite right if we dont phone you back straight away it is not since we are up the pub!!! Some days can be hectic beyond all proportions, but we ALWAYS phone everyone back before we leave work that day (even if it does mean staying really late to do so sometimes)

I agree with Mark, a phone call is not that hard if you MUST know that your order is all in stock, but as mentioned a phone call with a boss breathing down your neck is not always easy, but then if you are online ordering just send a quick email instead, thats not too hard!!

Most shops we know who use a stock checker are all less than accurate, as mentioned before, only as good as the person updating the live stock levels on the system. Today we recieved 6 large boxs from CML including B4's back in stock, new B44 hop ups, Axial kits, the new RC12R5 kits, RC8 new optional parts and tons and tons of spares/everyday items, we had a 7 box delivery from Horizon with new Losi brushless systems, over a dozen kits and 8 pagrs of spares (30 items per page), we had 1 box from Schumacher full of sapres and we had 5 boxs from Hobby Co (Tamiya) with 8!! New kit releases. We had four members of staff working today and apart from serving, answering the phones, replying to emails, processing/packing orders we ALL spent the whole day (9:30am to 7pm) unpacking these orders alone (never mind getting them on the shelves). IF I stress IF, we had a stock checker, NONE of these would be updated on our sytem as of today and anyone looking at our site tonight would see zero stock on ALL these items, we therefore would not get the custom, people would go elsewhere, yet we DO have the bits in that they need......

I see stores everyday that have pages and pages of "none" or "not in stock" "0" or "by special order" on the stock checkers, is this really what people want? How many times have those of you who like the stock checkers had an order arrive WITHOUT an item that said it WAS in stock when ordered, since we have had dozens of people tell us this happens on a "fairly frequent" basis, which to me is a waste of time having it, if it is only a "close guess/probably right stock checker", it needs to be 100% all of the time or not at all IMO.....

P.S. Do MK have a stock checker?? Never seen it myself when we check prices etc, only seem them on Microtech and Modelsport on the sites we price check against.

well said DMS/Darren! Hes got a point peps

I rang at least 20- 30 rc shops off the net on my mobile trying to get part as1598 next day delivery in time for Sunday

did i get them.....no of course i didn't! one placed said were in stock but when rang they told me live stock was obviously wrong

At the same time all the shops that stocked it but were ''no stock'' i had to ring to find out whether that was true as well!

WHO KNOWS I GUESS ITS JUST SWINGS AND ROUNDABOUTS!!!

Thankyou

Yes.

I have implemented enterprise level ecommerce systems for the last 5 years and I have seen many times over that customers HATE not knowing what is in stock and what is not and expect something that shows in stock to be in stock and be delivered fast. It is absolutely unacceptable to have to call up in addition to placing an order online, it adds an unecessary step and it will hurt your business. The only reason shops get away with it at the moment is because most are as bad as one another and customers are resorting to having to call up.

There really is no excuse for any company not to update stock levels, it's a standard part of running any business. If they get loads of boxes of stock and staff is so busy selling and working then they need to employ more people (as they are obviously doing good enough business).

Customers are demanding creatures and they are very fickle when buying online. Loyalty shifts VERY quickly. Look at Towerhobbies for example, good stock updates, good loyalty scheme, reasonable prices, constant discount promotions, etc. (not a great looking site but hey, no one is perfect). There are a lot of UK shops that can learn from them. Those that do will survive and prosper and those that don't won't.

I have to agree with frogger, if i am looking for an item and it has 0 stock next to it i will look elsewhere. The shop may have it in but i am not going to call up to check "just in case".

If there is stock, they get my money, simple as. I always check the shops with stock counters on the site first too. Its just easy that way.

Not having a stock counter is like Dom turning up to a national and keeping his stuff in the van. It just doesn`t make sense.

Frogger, whilst I accept the "principal" of everthing in your post, I do have to disagree with how it applies to OUR industry.

You say it is as simple as employ more staff. Firstly good, honest, trustworthy, effecient, polite staff who know about R/C cars do not grow on trees!!! There are opnly a few of these people. To employ the average person full time in a retail shop would set the avaergae owner back around £14K (minimum) per annum plus tax's. To afford an extra payrol of £14K a retail shop in our business needs to take an extra £80K per year JUST to pay this persons wages and break even. This is not like most other industries, customers want the price, the price drives down the profit margin which makes it not possible for staffing like that which you see in sports shops for instance (where mark ups are far bigger and staff out number customers by two to one!!!)

To compare to Tower Hobbies in the US is like comparing a McDonalds burger frier to Gordan Ramsey!!! Tower employ over 500 people and turnover millions per year, they SHOULD be perfect, but they still are not.

For a customer to phone (or email) is not as hard as the ever growing "lazy" generation make out that it is. The time it takes to send an email or make that call far outways searching through all the "stock check sites" to find one with your item thats showing as "IN"!! Sending an email is definatly quicker than waiting the extra few days for stuff to arrive from the US!!!!

Bit unrealistic there, the shops who dont employ this type of system will do just fine, just ask the scores of regular customers who happily use them already and have no need to check stock etc. They already recieve a fantastic service and "most" parts they order arrive in timely fashion. I am sure a LOT of UK shops would love to "earn" like Tower but "learn" I doubt it very much.

I know how the UK retail industry compares to the US industry very well, it's my job. We do business in all segments of the retail industry and consumer goods, product manufacturing, the whole works. If something is true then it's the fact that its not easy. The problem is some think it is, some think it's as simple as putting a catalogue with a paypal system online and suddenly they are up there with other online retailers.

It's not just in hobby shops that people are spending less and less money, it's in all high street retail stores country wide while online spending is increasing in double figures every year and the predictions for 2008 and 2009 are sky high. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realise that in the near future a bricks and mortar only business will find it hard to compete and survive.

Stores that do online business well can grow from nothing to multi million pound businesses really quickly. Tower hasn't always been a big successful company, they started somewhere as well. Cain at RCModelImports do a very good job of his online store and his online stock levels are usually spot on, so does Andy at RC Direct, maybe it's because they run online only shops that they can focus on it more.

So the sentiment of post is to highlight that it's very tough but necessary for shops to make the effort of treating their online stores with more priority than their instore businesses. Your local instore clientelle is nothing compared to the potential of your online clientelle so if you want to survive and prosper it really is the only way forward.

Don't get me wrong, the idea of a local shop is still very appealing but only if I can go there and pay similar money for something I can get delivered to my door step by tomorrow. A lot of our bricks and mortar customers are still driving customers into their shops with stuff like order online and do in store pickup.

As a consumer I am fickle, I want to find the stuff I want very easily, I want that stuff as cheap as possible and I want it now and if I don't like it then I want my money back. That's the reality businesses are facing and it's those stores that get closest to giving consumers what they want that will become 500+ employee companies that make millions, the rest will always struggle to make ends meet.

Frogger, when I saw that you were replying to the thread a few minutes ago, I did wonder what "sort" of reply that the thread and indeed I was going to get!!! Some people cant discuss things civilised on forums, BUT I have to say what a well written and spot on reply you have just added!!! Well done.

It is difficult for shops, most people know that, but some shops do seem to enjoy making it harder for themselves than they really need to with below par service. Good stock, good service, keen prices, swift delivery and knowledge backed advice is all KEY to our hobby/business etc which is what we as a shop try to offer. The online side of things is ever growing as you say, it now forms over 65% of our business alone, which is why (for those who have been to our store will know) we changed the shop around 18 months ago to be more focused on the mail order side with a far smaller shop frontage.

We recently have implemented several key changes and improvements to our website since we recognize the growth in this area, BUT for the reasons I have already given, of staff costs etc, we cant justify a "fully functional" stock checker at this time, it simply would not be as accurate as it needed to be, which for me would not be good enough.

Lets all face it, as you say, in an ideal world we all want everything in stock in surplus, the cheapest possible prices, next day delivery (same day if we could), no quibble refunds, free delivery and 24 hour access to answers to every R/C related question we can think of............but we wont experience all of that in this industry, in this country for some time to come, the r/c industry simply is not big enough here.

The turnover of the business's you mention (and I am NOT knocking them) will be far less than some of the larger stores in this country and a small fraction of the likes of Tower, this alone will make it possible for these guys to keep thier sites well updated and accurate. Indeed a few years back when we were a lot smaller and internet business was not so swift we too could of managed things like a stock checker really easily, but not nowadays, not with over 24,000 online products to manage, there just is not enough time in the day, pherhaps we should apply to "him upstairs" for an extra hour or increase the days in the week to 8!!! LOL

:) please don't for a minute think I am knocking you or any other UK shop, brick and mortar or online. I want everyone to be successful and making millions because it'll be good for everybody.

How much ?
 

This isnt a negative idea its a suggestion, I have no idea how much and how hard it is to set up which is the reason I'm asking but how much does a point of sale bar code system cost to set up in a small high street shop, my local wine and sundery shop has one and it monitors there stock for them ?

Zedman,
They are big money, we looked into one a few years back, i am sure they may be cheaper now, BUT the biggest problem is when we go racing on a sunday and take stock trackside with us to sell, we cant take the scanner too, so how would we be accurate over a weekend on our website and how much work would it create logging in all sold items from a weekend on a monday morning, this is why we never got one.

Frogger,
I like your train of thought, I will let you know when we make our first million!! LOL

not sure on how big the software/hardware is, but surely you could have a laptop trackside and be able to keep it 'up to date' this way? just a thought - i've no idea on the system on hand so i'm just giving my amatuer suggestion! :)

Always go for the easy option )
 

Always go for the easy option )

Sell the stuff track side but keep the tab with the bar code on, ie give the punter the gear but tell him u need the card board bit, take a sellotape dispenser to reseal his bag ( for every probelm there are many solutions ), )))

Ohh and when u get back to the shop monday just put everything through as a cash sale on one order, should take 3 mins max (scan bleep, scan bleep etc ) tax man is happy also )

Off topic but just to explain the issues with computer managed stock and electronic stock control.

I now work as a department manager in a medium size supermarket i am responsible for 18 aisles and many thousands of stock items. we have 8 artic lorries a day arive at the store and all of the stock is computer managed. the system is live but, here is my point, we only have an inventory accuracy of 80%. to acheive this figure i have 16 hours of labour spent a day checking inventory accuracy. computer managed stock sytems are fantastic but sadly you need to involve human beings who very carefully stuff it up everyday for you.

as far as till systems in a small store couple with inventory management you are looking at about £15000 for a robust system linked to a website. this requires constant updating and you have to program your entire stock database which means for each item in the store keying a 13 digit number (barcode) attaching a sku and description for each item setting up pricing sub categorising the products for ease of search and then inputting your stores entire inventory into the system.

i would be surprised if any uk stores run anything like this or could even justify the cost.boring but i get paid for it.

Exaclty the feed back info I was wondering about
 

Exaclty the feed back info I was asking for, since the customers started the thread lets try to help our model shops with as much info and help as possible to enable them to help us )

At £15K I think we will manage just fine without it!!! When we looked it was only around £3K for a fairly standard basic system, I winced at that, for £15K per year I can add another memebr of staff, far more use!!!! Just need to be sure that they would add £80K to our turnover to justify their payroll........

Its funny reading this thread, the absolute 2 best shops I have dealt with in terms of "friendliness" over the phone etc are actually DMS and Tower!!!

DMS always ring me back if they can't answer straight away (in fact I need to return their call at the moment) and items always arrive quickly, plus they are a pleasure to deal with.

Must say too though, Tower are EXACTLY how I'd want large businesses to work in my experience, their website is great for giving product info/stock status, and when I've rung them they too are just really friendly and helpful, just understandably lacking in detailed knowledge of the products in comparison. We in the UK really can learn a lot from US customer service generally.

so keep up the good work to both!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Dont believe it mate, we are a miserable bunch really!!!!! LOL

Your cheque is in the post to you, £10 per compliment I think is the going rate............:lol:

I always phone even if the shop has a stock checker as even the best systems will take time to update and refresh also if they have what I want I can reserve or order it there and then so its not out of stock when I do go and collect it.


having delt with RS for about 10 years and having many disapointing trips to trade counters where parts should be but arent I prefer the direct phone call aproach.

Just a thought with the lazer zx5 being as cheap as it is for bits I genraly carry almost a complete car in spares so I can repair trackside or next day I then have a week or 2 to restock my spares no panic :D


unless richard saunders wipes out my chassis and top deck at 4m 30s into the last 4wd final when I'm actualy winning for a change :o

Yeah to add - i rang DMS about some parts 5 mins before closing one night. Very nice, polite and helpful fella. :thumbsup:

If someone rings our place 5 mins before close then the ice maiden who is our secretary gives them a very frosty reception lol.

You are the lucky one then, now we know who!!! LOL

Being serious, thanks for the kind words.........