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RSPB Online Shop (1 Viewer)

IAN JAMES THOMPSON

Well-known member
I don’t know whether it’s my imagination, but it seems to me that the now look and style RSPB online shop has less items to look at and order than previously. I’m wondering whether anyone else has noticed that. I hope it’s just my imagination as I’m not 100% sure. :eek!:
Ian.
 
I don’t know whether it’s my imagination, but it seems to me that the now look and style RSPB online shop has less items to look at and order than previously. I’m wondering whether anyone else has noticed that. I hope it’s just my imagination as I’m not 100% sure. :eek!:
Ian.

Fewer items.....

John
 
I was very disappointed to be unable to find a good car sticker (size of a tax disc or RNLI/NT sticker)
I used to have a really good blue one - if you understand what I mean.
I also had a pin badge in the same design.

I asked the "marketing team" and they had no idea whether these might ever be available in future.
The young lad on the phone didn’t quite get the concept of showing support for an organisation.
 
That’s what I meant. Do you think the RSPB are selling fewer items on the RSPB Online Shop?
Ian.

I have no means of knowing, as I've never counted the number of items available in the past. Too busy birding to count catalogue items.

How do current trends in catalogue size for the RSPB compare with WWT? The Wildlife Trusts? NHBS? M&S? Amazon? If you don't have these figures how can you make authoritative comment on the factors causing the trend at RSPB, whatever it is? (Please understand this is not a proposal that you should go and find out then come back and report.)

And above all, why does it matter? On that I do want you to report.

John
 
I would imagine like most retailers if there not selling enough of certain lines there will stop selling them becauise even though its part of a charity its still a run as a business
 
I'm speculating here, but I guess the lack of a car sticker might be something to do with the RSPBs promotion of sustainable transport - get in free if you arrive by public transport or under your own steam. That said, I suppose you could argue the opposite - NT for Scotland supply car stickers which are meant to be displayed in car parks to show you don't need to pay.
 
This feels like one of your other previous threads Ian.

As a charity any commercial activity undertaken by the RSPB is for the express purpose of generating a surplus / profit that can be used in accordance with the charity's stated aims. If the profit margins at too small or the demand not significant enough to warrant the considerable investment (and therefore exposure) in stock then it would be a prudent decision to temper it's involvement in such market at an appropriate level of risk and reward. It would be interesting to know how much profit the RSPB makes on every £ of optics sold. Other organisations have chosen differing arrangements with optics retailers e.g. the Wildgowl & Wetland Trust and In Focus.
 
One thing that's important to remember is that whilst the internet is huge (and some sites like Amazon are very powerful) many people are not online. The RSPB might well have found that they sell way more through local reserves and far less through their online store; therefore it was better to downsize the online stock holdings since it wasn't returning as big a return. It might also be that things like car stickers and the like were simply not profitable to sell online (where I suspect the postage cost was more than the disk generates in profit/is worth to charge).
If their online store hasn't cornered a strong niche of its own then chances are its just not got people seeking it out
 
Ian, Have you thought of actually contacting the RSPB to see if they have removed items, reduced their range, and thought to ask if yes to either of these, Why?
 
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