Man I used to hate these sales people annoying me - I thought one sale would earn them quite a bit and that's why they lick their lips when seeing me.
Now I feel sorry for them if this is all they get (according to this article).
https://www.channelnews.com.au/exclusiv-harvey-norman-staff-….
Does anyone work in selling electronics?
Whats a normal commission?
They get a salary, and this is a bonus. However if they dont make sales they probably wont keep their job.
Feeling sorry for them. Why?
On a $2700 computer do you expect they get what, so you wouldnt feel sorry? Keeping in mind the higher the commission they get the higher the price you will eventually pay.
10% of gross profit. You sell a laptop of $3000. Assume 10% margin, 10% of 300 is $30. Simples. They get spivs for special items they are trying to move for whatever reason they feel like, clearing disco items, or supplier paying spivs for moving their stock. On top of this they get bonus % of gross profit for hitting gp targets and turnover targets.
The article covers cost recovery also. Interest free DEALS cost a % of total sales, and can be quite high. This is taken out of gp, therefore commission is drastically lower, that's why push add-ons to get their gp up, warranty, home install, monster cable.
Simples not quite so.
Harvey might up price them, but I worked at another large laptop retailer and the margins arnt there like they used to be for retailers. Often we were making MAYBE $75 off a 2k laptop. At most. Often it was even under $50. Staff pricing was above what we were offloading these for regularly even
You're right but it doesn't allow for the rebates the supplier is receiving not accounted for into the margins.
Most of their money is made probably bullshit extended warranty and marked up accessories.
True. I hate their guts again.
Now I feel sorry for them if this is all they get (according to this article).
🤦♂️🤦♂️
If they sell $50k of product in a week with a 10% margin then the sales person will make an extra $500 that week. Not bad.
But many items still have 30% to 40% margin in them. If a sales person sells $40k of low margin stock and stock and $10k of high margin stock (say @ 30% margin), the sales person would take home $700 extra and will have doubled their salary. Assuming they take 4 weeks off each year, that is ~$70k a year.
Is it fair that 10% of any bonus comes off the commission? Kinda, as that bonus has a monitory value which reduces a product's 'gross' profit. But the bonus only works as they don't hire or train their sales people to be competent enough to move a client to a higher gross item. If they refuse to hire or train their staff above sales assistant level then the staff shouldn't be docked for their lack of competence.
Is it fair that the warehouse's bonus comes from the sales person commission? Yes, at the moment. Last time I was in one of their stores I could see the buy price (this week). Unlike most other retail, it appeared no loads were added to it. This is compared to JB where only a few manager's or trusted sales people get the buy prices and not the 'cost price' (a completely made up number with loads attached to ensure the business can never go under even with the worlds worst sales people). The difference between a buy price and a cost price can be massive, often increasing gross seen by the sales person by 2x or 3x (because 'gross' off cost price is really net profit).
Interesting to note that they don't get paid any overtime/penalty rates, but their "other rewards" such as that 10% of net profit work towards bringing their wages above the award rate.
So if a salesperson doesn't have a good month, they could get paid less than what they are legally entitled to.
Also the problem with a lot of HN products is that the cost to the store often includes a 'Gerry tax' so head office eats up most of the profit before the store can even sell it. This usually happens on major release products (I was there when the PS2 was released, we made less than $2 per unit at a store level).
Wow….
Btw if I buy a product - should I just go up to some random salesman to stick one of their stickers on it? Like stuff thats on shelves I mean.
Yeah that helps them reach their target for the week. Even if there's not much money in it.
some big ticket electronic dont have much margin. they need to sell accessories like cables and bags to bring their margin up.
Needing to make up sale numbers is a depressing thing. When I was working in retail in my unidays, my sales fig were never super high, it was above average most times and sometimes in the top quarter. However my margin was always top 5. I dont slash price, I offer good service and some customers appreciated it. i also sell a lot of accessories, small low cost items with big margin, because most sale person only what to put big ticket items through.
i thought gerry boasting about how HN making profit as a B&M store?
The title makes it sound like the retailer is a monster for only paying $30 for selling a $2,700 item.
The $30 bonus is irrelevant. If the staff are paid above minimum wage and do not receive a "bonus", it wouldn't be an issue.
There is nothing to feel sorry about someone getting a $30 bonus. They are not an essential nor a high skill component of getting the technology into consumer hands.
Channelnews is not a legitimate news site, it's basically an ad site. They are paid to run stories, either in favour of the client or against the client's nominated competitor(s).
The owner (David Richards) has been featured several times on MediaWatch for plagiarism.
Fakenews would be a much more apt name.
Mostly, people in the flagship store Sydney, Auburn needs a real training and motivation I guess. You can check the reviews to verify. I had to go there when I could not find the product anywhere. Otherwise, I avoid it. Especially don't go, there are on holidays. Sometimes I find some employees treat the customer based on race, country.
You will see people waiting to be served most of the time.
Last time I was there to buy a 3000$ camera. The salesperson didn't seem to be interested at all (so I wonder they get any incentives). He was rude and as if he didn't care and treated me as if I am there to buy 30$ stuff. That was also waiting for 20 minutes to be served. Finally had to consult another guy (maybe a floor manager) to get information.
Finally, I bought it (rather than waiting for delivery from online site otherwise price was better in website) But the first guy needed to get the product from back office (I don't know why it was so?). So, had to deal with him again. He was not helpful at all.
I found that in the invoice they write "assisted by" and I asked the counter person if I can remove the name of that sales guy-first guy (as he didn't help me at all actually pissed me off) but the counter lady said she could not do it or there is no such provision. So, I could have called manager bla bla bla but remembered the online reviews (so thought it is a normal thing for the store and why create scene and waste my time as well) so just left taking my stuff….I have found that even the flagship store salespersons had no idea regarding the Harvey normal policies. Even the customer support (I can prove it).
So, I really doubt they get any incentives based on sales (unless some salesperson doesn't like a customer of a certain race, country, etc.).
probably, base rate is just around minimum wage rate too