Harvey Norman Launches Daily Deals Site

neil on 07/04/2011 - 16:47
Last edited 07/04/2011 - 16:48

http://www.hnbigbuys.com.au/

2011 and HN finally opens up an online shop. Products are not what I would consider in demand and the prices are expensive. Additionally, almost everything is sold out.

Example
Brother PT-90 Label Maker
HN $26 + $5shipping
Officeworkds $10.55

The Delimiter article is the first I have heard about the site. Delimiter makes a similar point:

It’s common for daily deals to be shared around through social media channels, but the deal – which is listed as being sold out — has attracted relatively little interest – with no re-tweets on Twitter and just eight recommendations on Facebook.

Sounds a bit fishy with everything sold out.

Via [Delimiter]

General Discussion

Comments

  • Ashlea on 07/04/2011 - 16:51
    +2

    LOL

  • issh on 07/04/2011 - 16:54
    +1

    Isn't the website/store based in China?

    EDIT

    ~yep

    From Here

    After the GST uproar, Mr Harvey later said he would create an overseas-based website that would skirt paying GST by shipping to consumers directly from China, a move that Myer adopted by creating Myfind.com, which offers "one-off special buys for online shoppers".

    sorry. gerry what was that?

    • scotty on 07/04/2011 - 17:45
      +3

      The HN BigBuy site is actually hosted in Singapore.

      However if Harvey Norman Big Buys is run by Harvey Norman, an Australian company registered for GST, whatever you buy on it will still need to include GST, even when the website is hosted overseas.

  • BoltThrower on 07/04/2011 - 16:57
    +2

    Everything sold out?
    That seems Hardly Normal to me.

  • samfisher5986 on 07/04/2011 - 17:20
    +3

    Why would they start off with such average products?

    Surely they could do better then this…

  • Gaz1 on 07/04/2011 - 18:57

    Maybe they are fine-tuning it before an official launch?

  • neil on 07/04/2011 - 20:07
    +2

    They need to play on their strengths. There are plenty of players in the one thingo a day market, so what does HN have that others don't. They have a huge buying power where they can buy say 1000 widgets for the site and any excess stock can be sent to the stores.

    They also have many physical store locations and distribution centers. Instead of a COTD/Zazz system of 1 distribution centre perhaps they could go for a hub/spoke system similar to what FedEx does. So use that idle time in the middle of the day where HN employees are doing nothing, and have them shipping out orders from each store/distribution centre. AKA a Bittorrent distribution vs. direct download.

    • pauly on 07/04/2011 - 22:15

      and have them shipping out orders from each store/distribution centre.

      Agreed! A good start would be to introduce the long due harvey norman online store, which he still doesn't seem to have. But I read somewhere (totally unjustified) that he can't do this due to some franchise agreement.

  • sane on 07/04/2011 - 20:56

    “I haven’t got any choice. I’ve got to cannibalise our stores.”

    Doesn't sound like he's grasping the possibilities with both hands, does it? Sooner he retires and hands over to someone less out of touch, the better.

  • amberdbrickell on 07/04/2011 - 22:32

    I had to go look as I could not believe that EVERYTHING would be sold out…but low and behold it is…what the???

  • A Banana4scale on 07/04/2011 - 23:04

    Website FAIL? looks like servers are down from all the Traffic

  • neil on 10/04/2011 - 15:24

    Today's deal, http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/42664, looks a lot more promising.

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