Shipped versus Sold.

[Silent_Buddha]

Heh, looks like all that stuff got put in a couple years after I left the retail industry.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rangers]

Interesting on shipped V sold, THQ just announced Homefront has sold "over" 1m, but shipped 2.4m!

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=126377&page=1#

Shipped can be a LOT higher than sold. So when you see GT5 shipped 6m or whatever, sell through could be a lot less.

 

[swym]

Eh? Why would MS have to pay them? It's just as beneficial to the retailer as it is to MS...
In this case, it's actually far more beneficial to the retailer than it is to Microsoft if sales/stock level information is provided to Microsoft.

Perhaps this is where we think differently, but I never said that it's not important to the retailer - just that I believe it is even more important to the supplier. The retailers don't want stock to go too low (or too high) so they obviously benefit from letting the supplier have partial access. But do they need to supplier to have real time data about every unit sold in each branch even if their system allows that?
So it's not a question of who needs it - it's not a zero sum game and both sides will benefit from this. But the question is who's gonna pay the bill?

Also: large retailers can (and in fact MUST) create a fully automatic supply chain that will feed each supplier with inventory status. But is this something that smaller and local retailers can afford? Do you have a system like the one dobwal mentioned in every shop in the US?
This is still something that costs money (although with the advancements in technology it's becoming cheaper and cheaper with time, so perhaps my point doesn't hold today as it did in the past, and dobwal does have a point here), and not every retailer or can afford to run such a system.
After all, if you are just running a local shop then isn't it cheaper to just call the supplier every time your stock dwingles? that's why I think that even if the big chains are tracked in real time, you can't have real time sold through numbers for 100% of the market, only statistics and estimations (and that's what NPD does anyway).

 

[AlphaWolf]

Also: large retailers can (and in fact MUST) create a fully automatic supply chain that will feed each supplier with inventory status. But is this something that smaller and local retailers can afford? Do you have a system like the one dobwal mentioned in every shop in the US?

what smaller and local retailers?

 

[ShadowRunner]

Interesting on shipped V sold, THQ just announced Homefront has sold "over" 1m, but shipped 2.4m!

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=126377&page=1#

Shipped can be a LOT higher than sold. So when you see GT5 shipped 6m or whatever, sell through could be a lot less.

Indeed, although it is in no way linear. Also a game that just came out is harder to guage interest for and so they likely overestimated demand in that case, is different for games that have been out for a while. Take another game that was in higher demand than predicted and you would have a very slim difference between shipped and sold. Id say for any single game you probable want at very most a million sitting on store shelves, after first couple weeks of release.

 

[goonergaz]

Indeed, although it is in no way linear. Also a game that just came out is harder to guage interest for and so they likely overestimated demand in that case, is different for games that have been out for a while. Take another game that was in higher demand than predicted and you would have a very slim difference between shipped and sold. Id say for any single game you probable want at very most a million sitting on store shelves, after first couple weeks of release.

Agreed, I think to suggest there could be 'a lot less' would be wide of the mark looking at the current selling price (which is still relatively high, suggesting demand is still quite high), conversely Homefront is already sub £30 in some places suggesting high volumes of unsold stock.