Tactical Purchasing

It really does matter when we shop because we can save huge amounts of money with conscious timing. Take for example UAD’s end-of-year sales, which they exaggerate for quite some time with a so-called half-year sale in the summer too. In this case, we can pocket the expensive plugins of hundreds of euros at a fraction of the price. But what about the real gear.In their case, logistics comes up as a non-negligible plus factor, because transport problems tend to appear at the end of the year, when the transport companies are overloaded to the extreme. In the big rush, there is a much higher chance that the goods will be damaged or lost in the middle of the hurry, so it is strongly recommended to buy before the Christmas madness for safety reasons. The truth, however, is that this mindless mandatory obligation has been pushed forward for quite a few years now, because companies start Black Friday sales already in November. For many, this is a good reminder to shop for yourself and not just look for the gifts you want under the Christmas tree. Since the competition in e commerce is getting fiercer, the companies step on the gas pedal in the sales race to such an extent that the one-day Black Friday been extended to last for a weekend, but later further expanded to weeks, so it grew to such an extent that we now refer to it as black weeks.

It is fair to ask if the companies are really taking action in this case or is this just a mean tactic on their part? Well, on the software front, I think we can legitimately live with the suspicion that if we get a plugin for 40 USD at the end of the year, it may not really be worth 300 as shown in the list price, here it is more about trying to associate value behind the virtual product, struggling with this against inevitable depreciation and obsolescence.

In the case of hardware, there are quite a few end-of-year sales, which are often also worth taking advantage of, but several factors play a role here. The players in the trade chain are motivated to do business by different factors. It costs the manufacturer money to store already manufactured products, which eats up the planned profit. In order to avoid this, he tries to sell his inventory to his distributors as quickly as possible, thus transferring the storage problem to them. The distributor’s task is to distribute goods to the stores, so in return he receives a large margin according to the traditional commercial model (which is starting to completely change recently), so the stores have the opportunity to pass on this and thus share the profit with them. Yes, but when the end of the year approaches, the sales numbers promised and included in the contract for that year become an increasingly pressing obligation. In case of non-fulfilment, the given company may even lose its brand representation. In this case, after some consideration, they calculate that if they are now earning less or absolutely nothing from the sales of the last 2 months, is it still worth keeping the brand and to this end, they might start massive promotions individually. For us, as end users, this is truly an excellent opportunity to get hold of our long-desired equipment.

However, regular customers and people working in the trade know exactly that the end-of-year inventory clearance is absolutely nothing new, but there are two other tactically important periods when it is worth buying. A common advantage of these two times is that you don’t have to worry about something running out or not arriving on time, or encountering other logistical problems, since the market typically has very little traffic at this time. These two pitfalls in sales statistics occur right after the famous end-of-year stock sweep and in the summer. Another common point is that in both cases it has to do with vacations. At the beginning of the year, the companies are still busy with the closing of the previous year, and therefore traffic only starts around February-March. On the production side, due to the shutdown at the end of the year, there is no production, so the assembly plants have nothing to work with, which means that the dealer will not have much to sell. Or just wait! The products that were not sold out in the end-of-the-year sale have already become a burning problem for stores and distributors the following year. So, in this case, it is possible to bargain even further from the remaining goods, but sometimes the company itself is forced to withdraw, even at a loss, since it has to order the next batch soon. These rare but all the more valuable loots are especially worth hunting down in stores. Feel free to inquire and bargain, because even if the store doesn’t have it, the distributor may still have such an extra-mod discount product, and the store can routinely ask about it.

The other spending period is in the summer, when people absolutely do not spend on gadgets anymore, as their budgets are more likely to be spent on travel and vacations or parties. For example, people don’t start buying cameras when the weather is already tempting for outside activities, but typically 1-2 months before, so the big shopping starts around May. Well, it’s no different in the music industry either, because those who need instruments for concerts or for mixing/podcast/broadcast or any kind of recording technology to prepare for this project, then they also want to make these investments before the upswing of the concert season, i.e. before the good weather arrives, so that they still have time to prepare the materials. . All this means that we will see a distinct summer decline in traffic. This is exactly what the summer promotion is supposed to compensate for. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, for example, the UAD half year sale, but other software or hardware companies also have massive promotions. During such summer purchases, I usually get products 20-25% cheaper, and all this conveniently and quickly, since there are hardly any customers at this time. I enjoy this special attention and calmness, that there is time to talk and there is no rush like when 15 people are waiting behind me and because of this the seller has neither time nor energy to provide quality service due to the conveyor belt effect. It is especially useful to take advantage of this calm and peaceful period if we want to buy a product that we can try in the store. In the case of synthesizers, it is a blessing to be able to try them in such a way that there is no constant bustle around us, such as at an exhibition, but in the case of studio monitors, a calm and controlled environment is mandatory.