After opening a store on eBay that sends orders to its dealers and boosting sales on Shopatron, JL Audio says online orders fulfilled through its car audio dealers is on target to more than double since last year.
The company, which typically keeps company info close to the vest, said its dealer orders through Shopatron have grown “dramatically over the past six months.”
It issued a press release Monday announcing that Unique Sounds of Carson City, NV received a Shopatron order for $12,279 in JL Audio goods on March 3 from a customer in Reno.
It’s actually not a record sale on Shopatron for JL. The speaker/amp maker said its top order was placed a few years ago for $20,000.
The recent order included two Stealthbox vehicle-specific subwoofers, six of JL Audio’s flagship HD amplifiers, a ProWedge enclosed system and two W7 subwoofer drivers.
President Andy Oxenhorn said, “E-commerce has to be made to work in a way that supports our installing specialists and makes the JL Audio line more valuable to them. We are confident that our strategies are putting us on the right track to make this happen.”
JL Audio’s eBay store opened November 25. It sells product at the Minimum Advertised Price. As with Shopatron, orders are directed to a nearby JL Audio authorized dealer to fulfill. The dealer then receives a profit for the sale.
The Internet’s share of car audio and electronics has steadily grown to an estimated 25 to 40 percent of the car audio business. For all consumer electronics the Internet’s share is estimated at 25 to 33 percent.
During Black Friday week 2013, Internet sales accounted for 55 percent of retail sales in consumer electronics, according to comScore.
Source: JL Audio
Photo of JL Audio dealer Unique Sounds of Carson City, NV
Daniel, thanks for the feedback.
To answer your points, we are running a nationwide promotion on TW3’s this month (15% off). This is not a MAP violation as it is part of an official promo. It is being featured on all our online channels and we encourage our bricks and mortar retailers to participate in their own stores as well. We notified retailers about this promo, so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The object is not to take money out of your register… quite the contrary. The purpose of a promotion like this one is to stimulate sales and traffic. A woofer sale leads to an enclosure sale, amplifier sale, wire sale, installation, etc.
While we would all love a world where all customers visit an authorized JL Audio retailer to get expert advice, the reality is that a lot of customers are researching and buying products online. Our program is designed to redirect online sales to our bricks and mortar retailers and to turn online customers into your customers.
This new approach requires a little adjustment, but ultimately it is working to create plus business for our authorized retailers, and for JL Audio as a whole.
Best regards,
-Manville Smith, VP-Marketing, JL Audio
It is great that JL is trying to push more product. However why are they pushing their own TW3 products below MAP pricing? For those of us that took the leap and decided to stock the product are now have money taken right out of our register. Why does JL Audio direct the customer toward their Ebay store instead of back to the store they mentioned having a relationship with? If that isn’t bad enough the customer is also guided toward different product, even though they have not been in the customers car and have not taken the time to qualify them properly.