Major Industry Change re: Online Scuba Sales....

[daniel f aleman]

PADI is under new leadership as of last year, Jim Bowden of Austin, is the new President and COO - times a-changin'...

 

[RV]

Well, I agree that PADI is acknowledging what is already happening. But at least they are embracing it instead of resisting it. If not, they would get left behind in it's dust. Now I'm not a "go padi" person, but for the industry as a whole I think this is a positive change.

I wonder how many 'brick-n-mortar-only' shops that are PADI and don't do any internet sales will this piss off though? I'm sure plenty, but it's the same ones that need to change themselves.




Boy, Aqualung needs to read this clearly. Otherwise they are doomed. They make a good product, but they are already being left behind by many other high-end manufacturers. Question is will they admit they are wrong and change or be hard-headed and go down with their ship? I expect the later.





Actually the originator of this post, Phil Ellis, is a perfect example of your post about grocery stores. He ran a small local dive shop in a medium sized town that is hours away from the ocean. It's obvious that sales were not huge in this envronment. Just like a small grocery store trying to compete with the new big-brand stores in town or any internet grocery store. Here, people could go online and buy the same scuba gear for 20% to 40% cheaper. It makes it hard for him to compete. He could either suffer from the internet or use it to his advantage. Now he operates a very successfull local store and internet commerce site. For his local customers, they can now get internet pricing at a walk-up local dive shop. For everyone else, they great prices remotely/online and still get can get great customer service. It's the best of both worlds.

You'll find several dive shops that have chosen this model and are thriving because of it. Scubatoys, Dive Sports, and more. Some have just seen the change before the others. Ironically, within a 1 hour drive of me, we've had 4 local dive shops go out of business in roughly the past year. Almost 10 failed LDS's within 1 hour drive in the past 10 years. They couldn't compete in the changing business model. It's that simple.





I would actually pay extra for that. We pretty much buy the same things every week anyway. start with a standard online list, edit it slightly per week as needed, click submit and bill my credit card and the grocerys show up at the time I requested on my order. I'd pay an extra few bucks for this.

exactly...
Just like PhilEllis is doing, he's has a store front and sells on the internet. Personally, I like wandering around in a dive shop but there aren't any to wander around in where I live anymore. The one shop that was big enough for wandering closed last Christmas.

 

[fire_diver]

I also think dive shops could act more in a Pawn Shop role. Many divers like to buy used stuff, and there is a market for it.

I was shocked to find that my LDS (which is 100 miles away) does this. While talking about a class with the owner, a girl walks in and asks if they will buy back her gear. Sure enough, he bought her gear and put it the back to be inspected/tested. I commented that my daughter wanted to get certified and some good, used gear would be perfect for her. He said he had a bunch of used/loaner gear in the back. Just bring her by to find what she liked.

FD

 

[jpsexton]

Thanks Phil for posting this. Hopefully if PADI is behind the change the rest of the hold outs in the industry will wake up.

Maybe this is the crack in the dam!

 

[RJTY]

Hmmm. I wonder how many years it will be until we can actually dive online. Virtual Scuba. Just think of all the money we can save. No equipment, no travel, no air, no boats, no training.

Everybody has posted good points, however I will continue to shop and train at my LDS for scuba and other local stores that I respect for other things. I am not trying to change peoples minds, maybe just venting a little.

 

[Ron Brandt]

Boy, Aqualung needs to read this clearly. Otherwise they are doomed. They make a good product, but they are already being left behind by many other high-end manufacturers. Question is will they admit they are wrong and change or be hard-headed and go down with their ship? I expect the later.
.

They will never admit they are wrong and have PO'd many of their long time LDS relationships....need we say anymore?

Ron

 

[PerroneFord]

Did that email from PADI actually say "Proactive"? Good God. Don't they know Al Gore invented the internet in 1992? They're WAY behind.

 

[mike_s]

exactly...
Just like PhilEllis is doing, he's has a store front and sells on the internet. Personally, I like wandering around in a dive shop but there aren't any to wander around in where I live anymore. The one shop that was big enough for wandering closed last Christmas.

I bet that shop is one of the ones I was talking about closing this past year. (The Dive Site in Hoover. He had a HUGE opportunity area to sell to. His closing to me was just proof that his business model wasn't working. ).

 

[lamont]

so PADI just discovered "click and morter" which is something like an 8 year old term...

they're less than a decade behind the curve now...

 

[Puffer Fish]

I'm not surprised at all. Their position has no potential to cause them any harm, since they don't sell equipment.

I suspect SCUBA shops will gradually move towards charging reasonable (non-subsidised) prices for training, service and air and only sell equipment as a favor to their training/service/air customers.

Most equipment will ultimately end up coming from a few large internet vendors, since the small vendors can't compete either in person or online.

This will probably mean that instead of a $500 OW class and $2000 in equipment, it will be a $1000 OW class and $1500 in equipment. The people who will really get hurt will be the DSs that don't do a lot of training.

Air fills and service will probably go up quite a bit, since the cost will no longer be subsidised by equipment sales.

Ultimately, it's going to be terrible for the manufacturers, since a few large vendors or a buying group can dictate terms that the manufacturers can't refuse, but also can't live with. IE. If they sell at the price demanded, they lose money and go out of business in a few years. If they don't sell, they lose almost all their sales and go out of business now.

I'm not just pulling this out of my *****. I've been in retail and manufacturing for a long time, and have seen this cycle repeat several times in different product areas.

Terry

PS. "*****" above was originally an "a" followed by two asterisks and was changed by vBulletin.

Excelllent overview of the issues. The only thing that can save mfg, is if they have a high demand product. Then, they are not going to get hurt. Make a me to product and life gets ugly, really fast.