Why are cameras cheaper in the USA than the UK?
The trusted US blogger Thom Hogan week offered his views on why this should be the case, and as an example he compares and contrasts the policies of Nikon on the two continents. “It seems clear that Nikon USA and Nikon Europe have different selling strategies when it comes to pricing. In the US the initial price is pretty much what Nikon wants to see the camera sell for. Sometimes in the USA they get small instant rebates to promote sales, but generally they don't see big drops in price until a camera gets to end-of-life, at which point the Americans might eventually see a 25% overall drop from the initial price. In Europe, Nikon seems to be pricing very high initially, then letting dealers try to find the price/demand equilibrium point. So what happens in the UK and most of Europe is that Nikon gets higher-than-expected initial prices, followed very quickly by a dramatic drift downwards in price. That downward drift is bigger than anything ever seen in the US. The moral of the story is that the longer you wait to buy in Europe, the lower the price you'll pay. So Europe seems to be conditioning people to wait to buy cameras, US is saying "buy any time”."
You only need to look at our current price on the Nikon D3100 to see how true this is. Starting its life in September 2010, it sold for £470 including VAT. It now costs just £330 and to make that Christmas purchase even sweeter, Nikon will give you £20 Cashback direct for every camera purchased. In our view, this is the beginner’s SLR camera of choice – just such a shame that we had to wait three years to get to its correct price!
- 21st November 2013
