Omega please read this thread. Online accessories

I hear this forum likes photos. In this case, beach photos. 😉

Yeah, ok, thats insane.

A lot of "reasons" get bandied about for Omega not taking retail online... but frankly, and it pains me to say this, they're just not very good at retail.

Sure, they sell watches, and they make money, but no good retailer allows dead stock to sit in stores unsold for years - if an expensive item isn't selling in one location, you move it to another, and another until it sells.

You don't let a variety of £20k-£50k watches sit in safes, unsold for 10 years plus (as they have in London), you don't let your OB "forget" that they have 2 Alaska project sets sat in the safe (as they did in London).... Dead stock is not profit.

But they make money by stuffing the channel (who then grey market what they can't sell), and the Speedy Tuesday (for example) will generate, in excess of £8 million of revenue... so no one's going to starve... and why worry about improving processes for your customers, your staff, or your business, when $$$$$$$$$?

Some of you will read this, and feel then need to tell me I'm wrong, which is fine.

But know this, they have very little idea what's in their own boutiques.

In the UK these boutiques belong to, and are run by Omega.

Not a third party.

Not a partnership.

If you ask for something, they call around and go looking for it.

And depending on if a sales person is trying to "keep something back for a client", they may not tell the truth about what they have when asked.

It is 2017 - who doesn't have live stock control systems?

Ultimately, if you can't manage what's in your own stores.... well... you're not going online are you?

Nice bottomline, Chris. I've been thinking "aha..." until I read your post completely.

Something makes me think it must be more complex than that, though.

For sure there's more to it - retail agreements, AD networks, the very traditional model of ordered at Basel for 12-24 months.

But I think all of that is just extra noise... they need to become a good, well run retailer before they add more complexity to their own internal retail operation.

There's really no valid reason for 50th anniversary Speedmaster sets to still be for sale, and yet there are 2 in London boutiques... at some point in the last 10 years you would have thought they could have picked up that these were floating around, and sold them... but no.

It's just bad business.

I believe this has to do with different people being paid on orders in and other on sales out. Not all of them are concerned about what you describe above. 😀

Oh for sure... and that's why you don't let those people decide how the business runs... 😉

@tyrantlizardrex I think you're absolutely right, they do an abysmal job of controlling their inventory. It's no wonder that there are an astronomical number of Omega watches on the gray market at any one time.

The grey market thing, is, I think a different issue.

3rd party ADs have to commit to buy units (often quite far in advance), which they have to pay for fairly close to delivery... and if they can't sell them at retail fast enough to keep cashflow going, can you blame them for moving them out of the door for less, and getting their money back plus a little margin?

The Omega owned retail channel however... there really is no good excuse for not knowing what they have where.

Seriously! Livestock control systems are a dime a dozen, here's one I found on google:

I love the mix of 1960's telecoms satellite, 2nd generation iMac, and GPS enabled cow. 😁