Kogan, an Australian online retailer, announced today that it would start selling Canon and Nikon DSLRs, among other electronic gear. The initial prices are substantially lower than retail prices for the same merchandise elsewhere in Australia, which has caused quite a stir.
Kogan has not been clear on where its supply of these products come from – stating only that,
we are ensuring we smash the competition on price by cutting out the middle-men – sourcing brands like Canon, Nikon, Apple and Samsung higher up in the supply chain, and selling direct to you through Kogan.com.
As noted by ZDnet.com.au, the Nikon D3100 is priced at AU$409 on Kogan.com, while competitor sites like CamerasDirect.com.au sell the same camera for AU$569.
While prices like this would normally be considered “too good to be true” (and, therefore, suspect of a scam), Kogan seems to be for real on these deals. Questions about warranty validity were quickly answered by Kogan, stating that it would offer a warranty in-house where international warranties for the products did not apply.
Canon Australia offered no comment to ZDnet and other media outlets that inquired about Kogan’s announcement.
Reading the terms and conditions on the site, Kogan has a subsidiary called Kogan HK, located in Hong Kong. There is a note on their website saying:
http://www.kogan.com.au/website_tc/
Products which are supplied by Kogan HK are those Products which carry brands other than “Kogan” – these may include, but are not limited to, Products which carry the following brands, “Canon”, “Nikon”, “Apple”, “Samsung”, “BlackBerry”, “Motorola” and “ASUS”
These are Grey Market imports being imported as single items from Hong Kong (to circumvent GST).
Nothing illegal about it, or even underhanded, but it is just a Grey Market import site done up nicely with some very good marketing.
Nice work on the attention to detail Tim. Thanks for commenting.