What are “Abercrombie & Fitch” playing at?
This post is Internet-marketing based… but with a twist.
“Abercrombie & Fitch”, the US retailer, opened a store in London recently. Apparently, they are pricing their goods in their UK store at “pound for dollar”… which means an item in their London store would cost £50, but in their US stores the same item would cost $50. Here’s the story, from the Telegraph.
Now I’m not a financial genius, but I know that an exchange rate of $2 to £1 means that the UK prices should be half the US prices.
By setting the actual amounts the same, regardless of currency, the British are actually paying twice as much as the Americans for the same goods.
It seems that Abercrombie & Fitch are aware of the issue. Their reponse? To block people from Britain accessing their USA website. Clicking on Abercrombie.com takes me to uk.abercrombie.com.
Nice.
(of course, you could always use a proxy server to see the site, if you were really interested)
So, is blocking site access by IP-address or geo-location to support differential pricing a valid Internet marketing method? What do you think?
According to the Telegraph story…
—
Mike Kramer, Abercrombie & Fitch’s CFO, said that the London pricing followed careful scrutiny of the UK market.
“We did a lot of research looking at other brands in London and how they are priced, and we want to price our brand accordingly. We are an aspirational brand, and want to price ourselves as such,” he said.
Kramer added that prices are “continually” under review.
He said that the decision to block UK consumers from the company’s US website was a deliberate tactic “because the pricing is different”.
—
Hmmm. I’m not sure I’m buying that.
Literally. 
May 3rd, 2007 at 12:38 am
There must be hundreds of Internet nerds who,while not being interested in clothes from a shop in Savile Row,be at this moment pounding the keys to find a sweet solution to this evil proposition. When they do they will issue it to the media and those who want to can then buy the stuff at its proper market price.
Its evil because its against the principles of a free market which Americans are supposed to believe in. The £ per $ was always used in the computer industry in the same way by US Co’s twenty years ago before cheap PC’s but the Internet is changing everything for the better.
By the way how do you use a proxy server?
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:45 am
>By the way how do you use a proxy server?
You just type your web-address into the proxy webpage (Google for them) instead of your brower window. It then masks your IP address which allows you to see geo-restricted content.
I use them to check out landing pages of CPA ads that I want to promote, but which are only supposed to run in the USA/Canada.
Neil.
May 13th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
how do you see the website? how do i use a proxy server?
could anyone please post the answer.
thanks
May 17th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
They do this for Canada as well. The abercrombie.com site will redirect to abercrombie.ca where the price point for a product will be fifteen percent more.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Hi Anonymous,
Interesting. In an era where lots of people can easily learn about this “rip off”, I wonder whether it will positively or negatively impact profits? Will the spreading news damage the brand and therefore the long term profits? Or are customers not particularly interested in whether or not they’re being ripped off?
Neil.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
I understand the company’s issues. I live in the UK and as much as i would not like to be ‘robbed’ by the company and their prices I already understand that all goods in the UK are much more expensive to buy than what it would cost in the US. Abercrombie & Fitch have obviously done their research, the prices of their UK store is not much different to other stores in the UK at the moment.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Yes, Danny, but aren’t the goods made in China, like almost everything nowadays? If so, how can there be such a price differential?
I saw a USA website yesterday offering a service for $595 which was well over tripled for the UK market. Compare…
http://www.bioeden.com/feesgifts.php ($595)
and
http://www.bioeden.co.uk/FeesGifts.aspx (£950, $1900)
OK, so a service is very different to manufactured goods, but it’s still a comparable service, at more than three times the price.
Neil.
August 16th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
I have to agree that the pricing is ridiculous, albeit expected. Yet, I am bewildered why the nation is so suprised by the ‘pound to dollar’ mark up seeing as the disparity in pricing between the US and UK can be found in most products. Just take the most obvious parallel: Ralph Lauren Polo clothing is pretty much priced in exactly the same way - check out their US website (fortunately it is not blocked).
I guess we should blame such high prices on the strength of our currency. Maybe we should succumb to joining the Euro?…I think not.
August 17th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
>Maybe we should succumb to joining the Euro?<
Don’t even suggest it in my presence!
Neil.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:50 am
This is just retarded. It almost sounds criminal.
Not shopping at abercrombie until they fix this. (that’s if they even bother)
cheers.
ray.
February 19th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
To be honest tried using free proxys for this and A+F must have figured a way out of this too, even tried adjusting my regional settings to USA, I think their sites pick up the uk IP.
Tried an IP blocker and the site wont work, to be honest your best bet is take a long holiday to the usa and buy loads and sell your spoils on ebay when you get back or check ebay sellers with more reasonable prices.
I find this whole thing a joke, I bought a polo on holiday in Newyork for £15 only to find the A+F site here is selling it for £50.
There’s got to be a way round this to stop these monkeys who are already getting paid for theyre goods ripping off us even more on for what we pay. This country and its taxes are a joke without the yanks chipping in and having a pop!
February 26th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
check www.CheapAbercrombie.com