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Interestingly enough, the culture of returns in Switzerland is very different compared to the US. Also the quality of service vs price makes it a very appealin
by aphroz 4y ago
Interestingly enough, the culture of returns in Switzerland is very different compared to the US.
Also the quality of service vs price makes it a very appealing market but very hard to penetrate. This is why international players have always had issues to do so. Swiss customers care more about quality than price.
On Galaxus you can decide to chose slow delivery so you will not necessarly receive your product the next day. But for the same price: https://basic-tutorials.com/news/galaxus-and-digitec-now-deliver-particularly-slowly-on-request/ https://basic-tutorials.com/news/galaxus-and-digitec-now-del...
Edit: added link
- posix86 4y agoThis might be a factor but it must be stated that the primary reason why international players had trouble penetrating Swiss markets was due to trade regulations which prevent retailers to sell anything duty-free or at a reasonable duty in Swiss markets. This is why Amazon et. al. don't even attempt to sell there; you're simply not competitive if you have to add 8% or something on top of every item. If you open Amazon from Switzerland and search for anything at all, you do get tons of products that seem nice & at a reasonable price, but click on any of them and it will say that the vendor doesn't ship to Switzerland. And this is when you set your location to Switzerland! There's no way to filter for products that ship there, Amazon simply doesn't bother. This is why e commerce stores like Galaxus & Digitec (the tech-products twin of Galaxus) were even capable of getting so large in Switzerland, while in other countries any competition was swept away by Amazon. There are some exceptions to this, e.g. Zalando, a clothes retailer, does deliver into Switzerland... I know that they have large logistics centers in Switzerland and basically send their products b2b, maybe that doesn't pay off for Amazon? I don't know.
- ahtihn 4y agoThis sounds a bit surprising. Tons of online clothes retailers ship to Switzerland. 8% doesn't matter that much, you'll see bigger differences than that for the same item between different retailers within Switzerland. A lot of people here don't shop around and aren't that price sensitive.
- barrkel 4y agoThat's not quite right. I'd say about 80% of products I find on amazon.de are delivered to Switzerland. If Amazon is handling the logistics, then they normally deliver. They don't need to charge German VAT and Swiss VAT is a lot lower. Duty is more relevant to food products. Meat is the big one. If you like meat, it's very profitable to take your whole family on a trip to a German supermarket across the border, since prices are ridiculous in CH and the meat is low quality - particularly the beef, which is from "dual purpose" cows, where "dual purpose" is like 95% milk cows.
- cma 4y agoSeems similar to "Amazon day" delayed delivery.
- extua 4y agoA 'slow delivery' option is a great idea. There have definitely been a few times when I've ordered something and would've been totally happy for it to arrive any time within the next few weeks. At the same time, it would need a different kind of delivery service which isn't totally optimised around speedy delivery.
- eterevsky 4y agoSlow delivery for Galaxus means in a couple of days instead of tomorrow.
- Matumio 4y agoSo far I got the same "day after tomorrow" with that option. But it just seems a nice box the check when it doesn't matter.
- amf12 4y agoIIRC, Amazon has an option to delay delivery and you get some credits.
- amerkhalid 4y agoYes, you get digital credit. It is great for buying Kindle books or renting movies.
- jchw 4y agoOne weird thing is that it seems like they play a bit fast and loose with the actual meaning of this. Several times I've ordered for "Prime day" because I didn't care and then later got a notification because they just shipped it early anyways. No real complaint per se, but it was still odd.
- wendyshu 4y agoOh, how?
- 4y ago
- jb1991 4y ago> Interestingly enough, the culture of returns in Switzerland is very different compared to the US. The culture of returns in all of the EU, too, is very different than the US.
- gggggg5 4y agoHow is it different?
- jb1991 4y agoFor starters, EU law requires the right to return no-questions-asked within a minimum 14 days (many places honor 30 days). In the US, there is no such law, though many retailers do it anyway. Some states, however, have implemented such laws, but it's not nationwide.
- sschueller 4y ago* if unopened and unused.
- jb1991 4y agoIs your asterisk intended for the EU or the US? in the EU, you can return things after using them, no problem
- jsnell 4y agoI've spent a five-digit sum at Galaxus/Digitec, and never returned anything. So the typical product having a 3% return rate is quite surprising.
- oezi 4y agoAs an avid user of Geizhals/Idealo price comparison sites I wonder why you pick Galaxus over other reliable retailers.
- _zoltan_ 4y agobecause I care more about service than about 5 CHF.
- jsnell 4y agoTheir website - and tech in general - are way better than the competition. Their prices are competitive (sometimes the best, sometimes not, but rarely an unreasonable rip-off). I often prefer local pickup over mail. They already have my information on file, I don't need to futz around with making an account. Price comparison sites are fine if I know exactly the item I want, less so if I just have an idea of the category. It's not that I buy everything there. But it is my default option.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y agoBecause consumer protection is nonexistent and it's easier to just go with Digitec/Galaxus where you already have an account than figuring out if this dealer is trustworthy, shipping in a reasonable timeframe, and whether they will be a PITA to sign up with.
- bauruine 4y agoThe filtering system was way, way better than everything else we had for a very long time and they often also where the cheapest. I write was because honestly I haven't visited many other shops for quite some time. But whenever I check on toppreise it's only marginaly more expensive then the other shops. It's convenient to have everything from the same shop where you know you have it the next day. And the "Geiz ist geil" mentality just doesn't realy exist in Switzerland.
- cosmodisk 4y agoI have a feeling not many Swiss buy a satnav, go on a two week trip with it and then return just before the return policy ends.
- sschueller 4y agoSwitzerland didn't have the kind of return anything for any reason culture as the US has had for a long time. The fact you can return a non defective item is something newer and you still find retailers that will not take your item back unless it is defective. So you don't see people to go Jumbo (home depot equivalent) buy a tool and return it a week later after the job is done to get a full refund. In fact even digitec/galaxus will charge you a 10% restocking fee if you opened the item and it isn't not defective in anyway.
- gggggg5 4y agoI have a feeling not many people buy satnavs in 2023.
- nix23 4y agoMany...if your on a mountain and your touchscreen is literately frozen you wish you have a other one...also if you have to trust in a technology you better have 2 devices or a additional map and a compass.
- imp0cat 4y agoI heard people do this with expensive cameras and equipment. Instead of renting, they can buy one for a vacation, then return it when they get back home.
- cosmodisk 4y agoIt was a reference to bygone days, but the practice wasn't that uncommon in certain Western countries...
- amerkhalid 4y ago> the culture of returns in Switzerland is very different compared to the US I am curious, how is it different? Here in the US, I have met seen whole spectrum where some people will never return anything even if it is obviously defective. And others who will return almost perfect items for tiny issues or for not meeting their expectations. I am not sure how I would define the US return culture.