should retail refill stores focus more on sales?

[jc-toronto]

As a matter of fact, this business is going crazy. More and more people come into this market, thinking to get shares from this multi-billion market. I once saw in some small towns or cities with a not-big population but with several ink refill retail stores and there are more coming. Who will survive and prevail in the final stage? I do not know. But there is one thing I am pretty sure is the one who gets the most sales will be one of the winners. some retailers put prices at the first place and unfortunately make a discount on the quality as well, or, some charge high prices but can provide better quality and customer service. The latter will have a better chance for sure. The situation in Canada is, we have a smaller population here, which means, in every single location, it seems we have a comparatively fixed customer group. We have to spend more time to market the products to get more shares which will help us increase the sales. What if we have a strong supplier who can provid solid support for local retailers. Obviously, lower costs inkjet cartridges with premium quality supported by full assurance will finally change the portions for refilling revenue and compatible and remanufactured inkjet cartridges sales revenue in a refill retail stores gross sales revenue. Who will refill an epson now if he can buy a compatible new here in Canada at a same or lower price? Same thing can happen to Hp and Lexmark. That's why there are more better-performing online sellers for inkjet cartridges. As they know their purchasing channal as well as how and to whom they can sell.

 

[Manuchau]

As a Canadian retailer, I can tell you that I am always looking for a quality supplier. I have found for the most part, that when I purchase remanufactured cartridges for resale, I am often disappointed with the quality, and they often have a high rate of return and a short shelf life as well. This does not serve retailers, distributors, or end customers well.

Your remanufacturing business business will do well if you will stand behind your product. There is always room in the market for a good distributor, and I, for one, am willing to try your product.

I have contacted your company this morning and look forward to receiving your catalogue.

 

[websnail]

I think any business is going to need to balance their goods costs with the price they can charge... I'm currently going through this whole routine with a CIS kit I've put together that handles things a hell of a lot better than some of those out there already.

Problem is the costs mean I'm looking at much higher price to make it profitable.. I can easily see most folks saying "Oooh expensive!" and going with the other options and then when they've found them lacking, come calling... So, overall I figure I'll probably make sales more from providing good support, a reliable product and not skimping on things like ink quality.. That and I can tailor some of the kit to suit whereas standard kits are one size fits all.

I guess it really depends on whether you want to play numbers games or taker a longer term view... and then, whether you can actually do that

 

[Guardian]

Yup, in my opinion only the quality and service can win in the end. Times are changing, people are getting more and more aware of what's going on in their lives, and while say 10 years ago some wannabe-refillers could get away with amateur approach and lucky charms, now people will just go and buy some Tesco/whatever brand and that's that.

Obviously, without promotion and all that marketing vodoo it's tough (impossible?) to stay alive, but I can say one thing:
When I first started work in the store, I could count customers disappearing. Slowly, but inevitably they had enough of not working, malfunctioning refills and when competition have opened a store nearby (like, half a mile away) only business account customers allowed us to survive. Some of the customers stayed, the new ones were showing up here and there, but still, it was slow.
Then we've invested into equipment and changed store's policy to 100% guarantee. I mean, it always have been 100%, but now we really mean it. So if customer complains, we're sorting the mess out. Yes, it was tedious at times, and we were taking heavy losses on ink/labor/compatibles but right now the pinch is over, and I have much more work than I'd like to It was natural, in order to prevent misfills (I know that word doesn't exist) we had to acquire knowledge and tools, not more customers to thin-up failure rate.

Act local, focus on the customer and quality. You could be surprised how many customers you can get (or lose) by word of mouth. Whole families are lining up sometimes, or people are buying refills for their friends. In these rotten times, people can be really taken aback by honesty and reason. Well, low prices help too Still, I've found that quite a lot of our customers don't mind paying a bit extra because they know us and trust us. They feel like they are doing their social duty by recycling their cartridges (truth of course), whereas other sources are unknown, possibly unreliable and definitely not caring. Works for us