Consumers buy appliances on the web—sight unseen, Brand Source reports

Buyers of major appliances are surprising retailers with their willingness to make major purchases over the Internet without seeing their purchases in a showroom first, Bob Donaldson, e-commerce manager of Brand Source, tells Internet Retailer. Brand Source is a buying cooperative for independent appliance retailers. It also helps those retailers create web sites through an agreement with JGSullivan Interactive Inc., a Chicago-based agency that develops web sites for appliance manufacturers, then makes the site template and contents available to retailers so the manufacturers have consistent product presentation on the web. “What surprises our members is the number of people willing to go online and spend $2,000 on an appliance without ever seeing it,” Donaldson says.

The independents still have a lot to learn about using the web, though, Donaldson says. For instance, many have yet to understand follow-up, he says. “The biggest failure so far is that retailers aren’t getting the web customers to come back to them,” he says. “Whenever they make a delivery, they should have leave-behind material telling customers the next time they’re shopping for an appliance, they should come back to them, either in the store or on the web.”

Brand Source operates an e-commerce web site that completes sales and then directs the customers to local retailers for fulfillment. Independents often fail to understand that if a customer buys from BrandSource.com at a lower price than the customer would have paid in the store, the sale is a saved sale; many look at it as a sale at a lower price than they would have gotten otherwise. A customer who is price shopping on the web will buy from the retailer that gives her the best price, he says. “The customer is going to buy online,” Donaldson says. “The fact that they still bought from that member is a saved sale.”

The Brand Source arrangement also allows independent retailers to extend their product assortment, he says. “Retailers can’t stock everything,” he says. “But on the web we can.”