Hey guys, seems like alot of guessing and skepticism so let's try to address them all here.
Why do we accept PO at Conventions?
As part of our commitment to licensors, XM is required to market and build awareness for our licensed products. At the moment, the best form of marketing is to attend Comic Cons where we show products and engage with customers in person. The Cons exclusives or POs also help to drive traffic to the event, earning us brownie points with the event organizers so they provide us better incentives to return to participate in future cons. Con sales also help us defray the convention costs which are pretty high, considering we have to attend quite a fair number of them over several countries. I don't think it's uncommon for companies to sell something (in our case we only have POs to sell) at conventions.
Agreed! We've been working on our new website but due to many changes in licenses, regions and backend (and a recent update from PayPal for developers), the launch date keeps getting pushed back! @.@. It's definitely a top priority for us now and I really hope we can get the new site up in the next couple of weeks. It will have instant order and payment via CC and automated inventory management so we can improve the current manual way of sorting out orders. The current method is ineffective and needs to go.
Here's our side of the story but it doesn't apply to all retailers, just some. There are A list characters, B listers and even C listers. By the very definition of A list, they are popular. Which means demand surpasses the B listers and C listers. Obviously it's easier to sell A listers and require more efforts to push B or C listers. Some retailers only want double allocation of A listers but - 50% allocation of B or C listers. See how the skewing effect works? If the normal allocation number was say 100 pcs, they want 200 of A listers and 50 of the B listers and possibly 20 of the C listers. If they don't get 200 A listers, they consider it that their allocations are 'cut by half'. Or if they ordered 5 pcs of Kraven but expect 50 of the next A-lister and they don't get that allotment, they feel their 'entitled allotment' is being cut. I don't think that's a fair way to describe it though.
There is also a linear process which makes it impossible for XM to 'turn around and cut orders'. I can put my hand on heart and state that XM never sets allocation in advance to resellers, and after they have confirmed their orders, we turn around and cut it. Firstly, allocations are given to Distributors, who then confirm their allocation numbers and then go out and get sales. The issue is some retailers ASSUME they will be getting X number and start selling when they aren't supposed to. That's the problem.
I'd like to also share my view on market changes in Singapore especially. When we first started, our brand was new and people didn't know who we were so they mainly bought our products from SG retailers. As we grew in Brand awareness, the SG customers started to approach XM directly and in Cons. If you lived in SG, you would probably prefer to build a direct relationship with XM HQ rather than with the resellers. Let's not forget resellers sell lots of other brands/products... XM only sells XM so it's our core. It's a natural progression, not that we are trying to take business away from resellers. It is not as simple as one would think for us to turn away customers who walk into our store and tell them to go buy elsewhere. Some customers would find that ridiculous and get upset.
Another example is the Malaysia distributor Lil Monster Fiasco. Some customers prefer to buy from XM direct because they feel more secure as they are locking down their orders directly.
Again, this isn't us trying to be greedy, it is a natural shift of more orders going direct to XM and less with resellers as the market changes.
Bundling of products
XM do not bundle our products ever. It seems Distributors on the other hand, may bundle products time to time as a sales strategy to balance out their inventory. We can't really govern how they run their businesses as our role is manufacturer and producer. Some distributors have feedback that the reasons why they often have stock imbalance is due to customers ordering from multiple sources (fear of not getting one) and when once these customers get a confirmed piece, they cancel their other orders. This leads to inaccurate allotments of inventory so my understanding is some distributors use bundling to balance out their inventory. I'm not supportive of such practices to be honest... if anyone here knows of such bundles which seem unfair, please email me at
bryan@xm-studios.com. We can have a word and try to dissuade them from doing so. I agree it hurts XM more than it helps. Another solution is create lesser ES of B/C listers which you would have noticed is already happening. Fun Fact: Customers in China knows who's Venom. Most, however, don't have a clue who's Kraven or Vulture.
Understanding allocations and channels
First off, let me state one obvious thing. All this drama isn't really because of the 'shady way we conduct our business'. Case in point, I don't see this sort of drama in our Kraven or Vulture threads. Period.
It's pure math and logic where demand far surpasses supply, not everyone wins and get their pieces, tempers flare and answers/reassurance are demanded.
So let's be transparent. I know I must have shared these stats somewhere before but here it is anyway again. (note that market is changing every day so this acts as a reference for most products in most territories)
Our typical allocation breakdown;
1) 10% for walk-in retail (Prestige members only)
2) 10% for online
3) 30% for Conventions and special events (bear in mind we run about 5 activities a year)
4) 50% for Distributors
Since we are in Venom's thread this means;
1) 99 pcs for walk-ins prestige members. When we reach this number, we stop selling.
2) 99 pcs for online orders. (we received ard 300 orders in 2 mins which explains the big waitlist)
3) 299 pcs for 5 conventions (60 pcs per activity per territory)
4) 500 pcs for SEA, CN, HK, KR and EU. We have 15 distributors at the moment so that's an average 35 pcs per distributor. Of course some distributors get more, some gets less but this is a general breakdown as a reference.
No other way to say it but as you can tell from the breakdown, alot of folks aren't gonna get Venom.
We stuck to our promise since day one to keep ES low because we believe that a collectible is not meant to be easily obtainable. Good things shouldn't come easy. A collectible is like a trophy that you proudly show other collector friends. Not so much fun when everyone you're showing it to says "yeah I have 2 of them. One on display and the other one for flippin'." If we were truly shady or greedy, we'd be making more but hey, those who have met us in person can attest we are honest to goodness folks.
It's no secret its not easy to get XM products, particularly if you don't reside in the approved zones. As more people within the approved zones start to appreciate XM products, naturally less will find their way to unapproved zones, and at greater costs because scarcity breeds value (plus lack of bulk shipping discounts).
On an ending note, I hope collectors stay resilient, persevere and push hard ahead to acquire pieces they truly want (XM or not). I do sincerely believe that when you get an XM piece in your hands, our balance of art direction, essence of character, quality and thought that goes into each and every piece won't disappoint. And even if you don't manage to get what you want - try to enjoy the journey of the hunt, make new friends along the way (stay away from flippers), throw darts at pictures of Ben and Me etc etc BUT don't forget to enjoy the journey of the hunt. This hobby is all about collecting and trading... its just a matter of when as long as you never stop looking. For those who give up because they don't think we are worth it, I hope we can change your mind one day. For those who are on this journey with us, welcome aboard. Even better things are ahead.
