Aquaforest probiotic method

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Proteus

So how is aquaforest loosing out in the long run.

Because the number of hobbyists that are buying online is miniscule compared to the number of people walking in through LFS doors. We're all blind around here thinking that "everyone" shops online. They don't. It doesn't make sense to me for retailers to push the Aquaforest product, so Aquaforest relies on online marketing. They will be missing out on a huge number of hobbyists.

I don't know, maybe it's a good business model, we'll see how the cookie crumbles.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Myka

Aquaforest is shooting themselves in the foot then. The only Aquaforest sales you vendors are going to get is from people that don't know they can get it cheaper on Amazon.ca and/or people that are willing to pay more to support to support you.

I'm wondering from a business perspective, why would you want to promote a product that will always run the "risk" of someone discovering it on Amazon.ca and ditching out on you? Why not promote similar products like Fauna Marin, Zeovit, or Tropic Marin where all vendors are on an even playing field because those salts are not available for a stupid low price on Amazon.ca?? From a business perspective it makes more sense to promote products that you can a) get a good margin on, b) be competitive.

For these reasons, I think Aquaforest is shooting themselves in the foot by not ending the relationship with Amazon.ca (and Amazon.com) and relying Canadian (and US) reef distributors instead. You don't see other brands doing this - like Tunze, Ecotech, Apex, etc. I'm interested to see how it pans out in the next couple years for Aquaforest. However, I'd much rather support our Canadian retailers than Amazon.

I think I can get the reason behind Aquaforest going through amazon. Amazon can move a large volume of their product and when a manufacturer is getting into a new market, a lower margin and a greater exposure to the new market sounds more reasonable than a larger margin and being competitive. No retailer can move as large of a volume that Amazon can due to reasons stated above already. And manufacturers love a secured volume of sale and although supporting local businesses is important for us, it means nothing to them since they are not from here. To them, the number of products sold matters and who sold it does not; and no retailer (well other than Walmart I guess but they are not in this business) can guarantee volume like Amazon can.

I am all for supporting local businesses and I am ready to take a damage of 10-20% if I get something locally instead of waiting for the thing to arrive at my door step (I have to pick up at the local delivery point anyways) but I can see the reason behind the market strategy of Aquaforest. And honestly, it is working really well for them. Even few months ago, no one was aware of this brand and look what happened when Amazon got them in stock

[Bill@IA]

Originally Posted by Myka

Aquaforest is shooting themselves in the foot then. The only Aquaforest sales you vendors are going to get is from people that don't know they can get it cheaper on Amazon.ca and/or people that are willing to pay more to support to support you.

I'm wondering from a business perspective, why would you want to promote a product that will always run the "risk" of someone discovering it on Amazon.ca and ditching out on you? Why not promote similar products like Fauna Marin, Zeovit, or Tropic Marin where all vendors are on an even playing field because those salts are not available for a stupid low price on Amazon.ca?? From a business perspective it makes more sense to promote products that you can a) get a good margin on, b) be competitive.

For these reasons, I think Aquaforest is shooting themselves in the foot by not ending the relationship with Amazon.ca (and Amazon.com) and relying Canadian (and US) reef distributors instead. You don't see other brands doing this - like Tunze, Ecotech, Apex, etc. I'm interested to see how it pans out in the next couple years for Aquaforest. However, I'd much rather support our Canadian retailers than Amazon.

There is no need for Canadian Vendors to worry what their customer will see Online as Canadian Vendors will easily have better Retail Pricing on AquaForest Salt than Amazon…they just won't be able to ship boxes or buckets of this salt to your door for the same total price you would pay if said customer ordered it through Amazon Prime.

In my opinion Amazon was a big bonus for AquaForest products. Amazon has created a bit of a demand for products that were never used before but now, for some reason, have hobbyists thinking they need Aquaforest Salt to succeed. Really??

[ReefGrrl]

Originally Posted by Bill@IA

I know for a fact Aquaforest is not going to end that relationship.

But Amazon's ecommerce platform is closing, supposedly in July 2016. They've been transitioning to Shopify, which if I understand it, works entirely differently. Anyone know if this is still happening? Here is one of the articles about it:

http:/http://smallbiztrends.com/2015...ll-close.html/

[WarDog]

Interested in trying this brand of salt, so i bit the bullet and ordered the mid range reef salt from Amazon. $78 all in. Im going to be very upset if the bucket is broken.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by WarDog

Interested in trying this brand of salt, so i bit the bullet and ordered the mid range reef salt from Amazon. $78 all in. Im going to be very upset if the bucket is broken.

Well you better buy yourself beer, chocolate or whatever that will help you to overcome that