What gives a greater incentive to buy: discount or service? This is a question we often ask collectors who are friends of L'Orologio, including members of the L'Orologio Club.
More generally speaking, I wonder if the Italian customer base is one that values the shopping experience to the point of overriding it over convenience.
A few years ago, you could hear shopkeepers complaining about the constant demands for discounts from a public that was (apparently) only interested in price. Thanks to control policies on the part of the manufacturers, this type of controversy has become less pressing, especially if we are talking about mid/high-end products. While the debate is fortunately shifting to another side: the comparison on the quality of service offered by dealers, whether multibrand or single-brand.
From this point of view, the discourse is articulated: it goes from the evaluation of the professionalism and training of sales personnel to that of the proposal of additional services.
On the first point, the feeling is that those who regularly buy fine watches prefer to turn to traditional family-run sales outlets, where they can talk directly to the owner, who is often more experienced and knowledgeable than a store manager, however good and well-prepared. Italian retailers, in fact, not infrequently have close, decades-long relationships with the owners or top managers of watch manufacturers and a deep knowledge of both the history and recent evolution of the market.
On the other hand, in addition to investing more and more in the training of sales personnel, single-brand boutiques usually offer additional services that contribute to customer loyalty according to standard procedures, which give the regular buyer a greater sense of security. Not to mention that many boutiques are turning into veritable salons, suitable for hosting presentations and events, with even rare pieces available that cannot normally be found through other channels.
The choice then becomes increasingly difficult, and it becomes primary to choose which added value to favour.
But above all, in the face of these arguments, does it still make sense to gloss over the shopping experience in favour of savings?
