johnmayo wrote:The thing I don't get about Heroes Corner is how they can afford to offer some of the aggressive discounts without losing too much money. In other words, are they operating under a sustainable business model?
This was brought up during our interview (IMO it was brought up a few times with different wording, but I digress...).
They stated flat out that while they aren't inclined to reveal all of their business strategies, they aren't in business to lose money or barely break even.
They stated that if they relied solely on selling monthly comics, they would likely go out of business. I take this to mean that like many retailers, they make the majority of their profit on "high ticket" items. They also seem to use sales to get customers into what I'll call "long term buying".
For example, they used agressive discounts to get customers into Secret Invasion and Final Crisis. They currently have a deal where if you buy 2 trades from the same series, you get the current issue of that series for free.
I guess they feel that potential long-term sales (or at least good will) are worth making less profit in the short term.
Unlike an LCS (and like other online retailers), they only order what's already been paid for by customers, which is also an advantage when it comes to discounting. I have no idea how (or if) Cameron separates ordering for DCBS, IST and his brick & mortar business, but if it's combined, there's still some risk (related to B&M stock they may not sell) that HC doesn't have.
With that, it's interesting to note that despite HC's "agressive discounting", many people have found that there's not much difference in the price of their orders. For me, I appreciate their prompt response time (via email), the fact that they've set up a forum on their website so you can interact with them directly, the faster shipping via FedEx (free for orders over $75), free bags & boards, and a website that (in my experience) always seems to work when I want to look up information regarding my orders.
