First post.
You don't see bots going after amiibos anymore cuz they made more. It's simple.
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How can companies like Nintendo really combat scalpers and their bots?
- Thread starter PunjabiPlaya
- Start date
First post.
You don't see bots going after amiibos anymore cuz they made more. It's simple.
And honestly it's not smart business. This is a one off item that they're probably making $40? Profit on. There are no more games for it, just the console. Nintendo makes their money on software sales. They want to sell switches and 3ds's so the owners can buy games for each which will give them the same profit margin on the item, but many times over per customer.
This whole thing is a spectacle for Nintendo to create hype and get their brand in the news. They are purposely making a limited number to make the demand for these things reach a boiling point. "Can't get your kid a classic SNES? Well they'll probably like the Switch!"
C.Olimar788
Member
1: Do pre-orders and do not close pre-orders for at least a few weeks. Make the dates of the pre-order period clear to consumers.
2: Produce the number of consoles that were pre-ordered, plus however many you want to stock the shelves.
3: ???
4: Profit.
2: Produce the number of consoles that were pre-ordered, plus however many you want to stock the shelves.
3: ???
4: Profit.
Well, it's more like that the scalpers got their fill long before reprints came out for the ones they snatched up, and they had already moved onto bigger and better things. Lucina went from being a mark-up dream to "please, will someone come to our store already and buy up the rest of them" in over a year's time.
But seriously, buy our Lucinas.
outunderthestars
Banned
I know this is GAF and we often lack perspective but there is a huge gap between an $80 retro box and. $300 console in terms of customer demographics and interest in a $300 console.....
The Illiterati
Member
I love that Nintendo has some people convinced that the SNES classic is so special that they can't simply make MORE. They HAVE to stop making them. They cost too much to produce, or they're made of rare earth minerals or or or or
Dunnymeister
Member
If they take payment upfront that becomes moot.
In an ideal world, the order of events would be:
1. Have a period of time for pre-orders. All pre-orders before X date are guranteed. The customer is charged when the pre-order is placed.
2. Make enough to fill all pre-orders
3. Send out orders
4. Have a limited supply of extra stock for people who didn't pre-order for whatever reason
Problem solved.
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
They gotta make the Gameboy classic tho.
Would be great if this is allocation is the first of many preorders...each one getting bigger for the snes classic. Doubtful that this would happen, but would be funny seeing the scalpers lose out on their big profits as they realize that the allocation is much larger than they expected.
They'd go in for the first few rounds of preorders, only to realize that everyone that wants one is starting to get one.
At this point though, a lottery system similar to what many stores in Japan do for the switch, is probably the only way to totally avoid scalpers taking control of the supply at the current manufacturing capacity.
Marty Chinn
Member
No, it's not very simple because there are a ton of factors involved such as supply chain, production, shipping, storing, retailer orders, etc. I'm not saying Nintendo needs to sell out on day one, but at the same time you can't overstock either and then let that inventory sell for months in the channels because you still have to be producing them in the production line rather than leave them stopped until the supply runs out. It's a very fine balance of supplying enough to keep up with demand but also to have a continuous supply being restocked. Retailers and Nintendo are not going to want to store in warehouses large inventory because they over manufactured. These things take up a significant amount of physical space per unit which means the storage cost isn't something to hand wave as being a non factor. We don't even know the numbers at this point, nor what the non preorder supply will be at launch, nor what the restock rate will be. But to say it's just so simple, do preorders and then manufactured based on those is grossly over simplifying a much more complicated process.
Allow direct sales through nintendo.com for a specified period of time with no limits, just pushing delivery dates back. Allocate units to all of your regular retailers so they are happy. Use a 3rd party logistics partner to handle the shipping of individual consoles to people so you don't have to build out a huge warehouse and hire people. As others have said..no returns, and charge immediately for the pre-orders.
✂--------------------------------------------------------------
End of thread, cut along dotted line
Infernostew
Member
1. Make enough meet preorder demands
2. Make enough for people to impulse buy while shopping
3. Add a VC store where you can purchase more games
4. Maybe even add online play for addition one time cost
5. Profit
2. Make enough for people to impulse buy while shopping
3. Add a VC store where you can purchase more games
4. Maybe even add online play for addition one time cost
5. Profit
Marty Chinn
Member
Allowing direct sales through Nintendo.com would probably not please retailers because everyone would go there, especially if guaranteed which means they would be taking significant sales away from them. It's the same principle as to why the PS Store sells digital games at the same price as retail games so that there isn't an unfair advantage which would cause harm to their retail distribution.
Probably true, but retailers aren't going to drop Nintendo with 2 of the hottest holiday gifts of the year over something like that. Plus, they'd still get their reasonable supply of units they can use to get people in stores. Many hardware companies sell direct now. Apple, Google, Microsoft...nothing new these days.
Honestly, this is just a shitshow. They have so many people willing to pay them money and all this will do is generate more negative press. It's straight up stupid business. The only answer is "make more", and all the "but they can't just..." responses should be invalidated by the fact that it's Nintendo's job to figure out how to make more.
Just make more.
Just make more.
dragonyeuw
Member
This idea probably sucks for reasons that I'm too tired to consider at the moment, but I think Nintendo needs to act as the sole distributor for this item, at least for the initial first few months before sending them out to retailers in mass numbers. As in, you can only acquire one directly through them via preordering with deposit. That gives them firm production numbers especially since you are asking people to make a financial commitment up front, better control over restricting the number of units that can be ordered and overall better control of the pre-order process..
Pros I guess....?
1) The order process is being funneled directly through the manufacturer in an open but controlled order process. The customer doesn't have to deal with limited retailer allocations causing 5 seconds sellouts like the bullshit that was happening today.
2) Eliminates bot programs since an order can only be created by a deposit, and put any other safeguards in place to ensure every order is being generated by a person and not a bot.
Ahhhh, beaten to the punch. I was writing up my post as you posted this I guess. Glad I'm not the only person who thinks along these lines.
Pros I guess....?
1) The order process is being funneled directly through the manufacturer in an open but controlled order process. The customer doesn't have to deal with limited retailer allocations causing 5 seconds sellouts like the bullshit that was happening today.
2) Eliminates bot programs since an order can only be created by a deposit, and put any other safeguards in place to ensure every order is being generated by a person and not a bot.
Ahhhh, beaten to the punch. I was writing up my post as you posted this I guess. Glad I'm not the only person who thinks along these lines.
aspiegamer
Member
If restrictions like one per order, one per address, etc, can be done on other hardware, there's zero reason Nintendo couldn't for this. They simply don't care enough to even request it. Do. Not. Care.
But really just make more.
dragonyeuw
Member
I think they're underselling it at $80. Make it $99, shit make it $119. If people are willing to buy $250 bundles from think geek, with Mario underwear, Toadstool coffee mugs and Zelda trifoce lamps and whatever else shit thrown in, just to get their hands on one the market is obviously capable and willing to pay more than Nintendo's asking price for these things. That was proven with the NES mini and it's happening all over again.
Ninja Scooter
Member
lmao
dragonyeuw
Member
delete
ArtHands
Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
I can just imagine the reaction easily right now if they raise the MSRP lol
"$500 for a SNES classic? These parts probably cost just $5! Fuck off greedy Nintendo!"
UberTag
Member
You're not wrong. The fact that they're underselling what it's actually worth and then artificially restricting supply shows this is functioning by design the way Nintendo of Japan wishes it to.
They believe all of the "hot holiday item that can't be found anywhere" buzz that drives news reports, long lineups and retailer lotteries is what brings casuals into the Nintendo ecosystem to muse about the Switch, the 3DS, Mario, Pokemon or any of their other many properties.
They believe this offsets any negative blowback by shorting their loyal fans of a highly sought-after product because... hey, they're already indoctrinated. They'll still support Nintendo. The fact that they're upset is a good thing. You don't need to fight for these people because they're already part of the ecosystem.
This is their mentality. This will always be their mentality. And no amount of verbal bullshit spewed out of Reggie's mouth about how they'll do better each and every year will change that.
This is crazy and anti-consumer. You should have every right to sell whatever you buy immediately after buying it (weird software licenses should be gone too).
We're talking about an $80 product that plays games from the 90's.
. Honestly Nintendo is like Disney. They sell enough to satisfy your thirst but wanting more down the roadHawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Everyone lol
Marty Chinn
Member
Simply not true because the holidays are coming up and that alone guarantees scalpers. Also with an unknown time frame, there will always be people who want it sooner than later and scalpers will take advantage of those people too.
primovinny
Member
Basically this. If Nintendo is the only supplier of the console and it can only be obtained in a specific website they own, they can actually gauge demand and produce enough to everyone. Nintendo needed this for NES to know how popular it would be and by the time SNES were to be released they would know how many are enough. Sometimes it seems Nintendo have absolutely no control over their business.
Let's cut Nintendo some slack here people. It's not like they could simply analyse what happened with the NES Classic and plan their strategy better this year. It's not like they have preferred status at manufacturers who'd be able to give them all the capacity they needed.
We can't expect them to operate at the same level as a behemoth like the Raspberry Pi Foundation, a non-profit charitable organisation with a turnover in the single digit $millions that can ship large quantities of simple, low power SoC computers to the point where they can even give them away free on the cover of magazines.
Nintendo are merely a multinational consumer electronics and entertainment corporation with a yearly turnover in the multiple billions of dollars. How are they supposed to know how to gauge things like consumer demand and manufacture sufficient amounts of product? They only have 35 years in the business of mass producing consumer electronics for God's sake.
Marty Chinn
Member
Without numbers how do we know that they didn't plan their strategy better? I mean already we've gotten preorders from almost all the retailers unlike last time. For all we know, they had as many units available for preorder as they did for the entire NES Classic run. We also don't know how many additional units will be at launch and we don't know what their restock rate is going to be either.
Nintendo is more well aware, but so are people. How many people had no idea the strategies involved on getting notifications for the NES but now have since learned as a result? Things like that just makes things even harder in ways. Without more info and numbers, how can we say that Nintendo didn't respond based on the NES Classic at this point in time?
Hot products sell, and they sell fast. Even iPhones sold out for several years at launch; is Apple incompetent because demand kept increasing and they couldn't meet it each year? Microsoft sold out of Xbox One X preorders, why aren't we criticizing Microsoft for not being able to meet demand too?
I think I'd rather have more information before I jump to a conclusion that Nintendo didn't do anything this time around.
dragonyeuw
Member
That's not true. Scalpers will be over any new product of mass appeal until supply eventually catches up. The Switch launch was overrun with scalpers and its still to this day a hard product to find both on shelves and online. And that's a product which Nintendo will be producing for the next 5 years as their flagship console( and already been on the market for 5 months)......so what do you think is going to happen with a product that's being pitched as a limited time item? Scalpers are going to be over every single shipment wave that comes out from now till Christmas. Nintendo didn't help matters by outright saying they aren't committing to further production beyond 2017. There is absolutely no way this thing ends up less than a total shitshow from now till 2018.
UserNotFound
Member
That isn't why Nintendo is taking their time...
Remember, these are lawful games sold lawfully with permission by publisher Nintendo and carefully curated as to present the best image of what the Super Nintendo was at that time. Half of this is intentional and half of this is the licensing agreements. They also don't want people distracted from this sideshow and want Switch owners, but they clearly do not understand the market for each device is completely different.
I would've much more preferred a Switch NES and SNES Classic collection on 2 carts at MSRP. At least pretend you have a new console that exists and that people want to get their hands on.
Dark Ninja
Member
One way would be to make really bad products so no one wants them
But really there is no way scalpers exist in anything that is "collectable"/demand
But really there is no way scalpers exist in anything that is "collectable"/demand
D.Lo
Member
The Wii U was actually their solution to Wii demand issues.
Maybe next time you can wait a few hours before posting then, and then be part of the conversation instead of just dropping a rant and hiding your reasons for not replying behind spoiler tags.
This and this.
The fault is entirely on Nintendo. Love their products (except amiibos), hate their go-to-market strategy.
Open preorder 3 month Before launch.
Let people preorder all they want.
Make however Many preorderet. Send out mail to those who preorder wont be delivered with first batch and make sure in mail that yours Will be in next.
Maybe not all get it at launch but better Than paying scalpers imo
Let people preorder all they want.
Make however Many preorderet. Send out mail to those who preorder wont be delivered with first batch and make sure in mail that yours Will be in next.
Maybe not all get it at launch but better Than paying scalpers imo
First I heard about this thing. I find it a little extreme to forbid you from pre-ordering in the future if you cancel a pre-order. Sometimes you just change your mind. If someone does it on a regular basis though, enforcing something like this could be a potential solution.
dragonyeuw
Member
I tend to waver back and forth on it being a deliberate artificial shortage to create buzz, but I would say in support of the idea that it's not about 'making money', they don't leverage these 'shortages' in a way that tangibly benefits them on a bottomline spreadsheet. There's probably not alot of margin on each unit, so the best way to actually make any decent bank would be to make them widely available for an extended period, eventually the money will come in through volume of sales. Clearly that's not the intent here. If they actually wanted to maximize the amount of money they could make from these things while maintaining a short production window, they'd be selling them north of $100. Problem is that they underpriced the NES mini on the first go-around, so they can't now turn around and price the SNES mini at a level that is actually more in-line with what the market is willing to pay. Hence the very small bump in price while throwing in a second controller which costs them pennies to make I imagine, but increases the perceptual value of the unit. If Nintendo could do it all over again, I'm betting the NES classic would have been priced well over $60.
All that to say, clearly it's not about the most money they can make on these things. So it has to be about something else. Buzz? A viral marketing tool to give Nintendo that 'boutique' brand feel? I won't argue for or against it. But as a longtime fan, it's annoying as shit. There was a point when their products stood on their own without having to rely on whatever these tactics are intended to accomplish. I think there's only so many times they can go to the well, then again as pissed off as many of us are here, out of principle I should say fuck Nintendo and not buy this product, right? Suuure..... if a SNES mini was dropped in my lap for MSRP tomorrow, I'd buy it. I imagine several others pissing about it would do the same. They have us by the short and curlies and know it.
John Caboose
Member
This is what the Nordic distributor Bergsala is doing, except they're making stores outright charge USD180 (vat included) for the thing, no shitty accessories included.
bytemovies
Member
Scalpers will always exist for Nintendo products, it is an inevitability of Nintendos business strategy. The problem is less about scalpers existing and more about loyal fans being pissed because they have to pay more to stay loyal fans. Frankly speaking, that is the price of being a fan. If you love something the market will try to exploit you, that is how it is designed and you have already signalled that you are willing to spend more by being a fan.
If Nintendo wanted to actually help their fans they would coordinate preorders centrally and communicate it through Nintendo Direct or other channels that are in touch with their core consumers. They can definitely improve their relationship with their fanbases but it's unpredictable how much return they would get on their investment. Apple definitely maintains solid relations with its core consumers but Apple is also positioned in a much higher priced segment of its market. Nintendo also doesn't really need the marketing that comes from an enthusiastic evangelical following, Nintendo is already one of the most recognized brands in the world and the constant sellouts of their products already generate media coverage. Thus, to Nintendo there is no business incentive to do anything other than what they are doing.
So yeah, I'm sorry to say it but frankly Nintendo doesn't care about you. Unless Nintendo pulls another Wii U out, don't expect any concessions from NoA.
If Nintendo wanted to actually help their fans they would coordinate preorders centrally and communicate it through Nintendo Direct or other channels that are in touch with their core consumers. They can definitely improve their relationship with their fanbases but it's unpredictable how much return they would get on their investment. Apple definitely maintains solid relations with its core consumers but Apple is also positioned in a much higher priced segment of its market. Nintendo also doesn't really need the marketing that comes from an enthusiastic evangelical following, Nintendo is already one of the most recognized brands in the world and the constant sellouts of their products already generate media coverage. Thus, to Nintendo there is no business incentive to do anything other than what they are doing.
So yeah, I'm sorry to say it but frankly Nintendo doesn't care about you. Unless Nintendo pulls another Wii U out, don't expect any concessions from NoA.