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DCW hints at more stores

In a wide-ranging interview with Bill McCurry (McCurry Associates) for PMA, Digital Camera Warehouse co-founder Lucinda Dalton outlined what’s changed and what’s remained the same in the DCW company philosophy, and hinted at plans for the future.

(Lucinda Dalton. Source: McCurry Associates)
(Lucinda Dalton. Source: McCurry Associates)

The interview, part of the ‘Marketing Idea Exchange with Bill McCurry’ series, is available as both an audio podcast and in written transcript form (with an extensive array of interior shots of the new ‘Foto Riesel by Digital Camera Warehouse’ store), and gives insights into the thinking of perhaps the most successful new entrant into Australian photo retailing in the past 10 years.

Lucinda explained that the original idea for Digital Camera Warehouse back in 2001 stemmed from an unsuccessful attempt by one of the original partners to purchase a memory card in a Sydney photo store. It was clear there was plenty of room for improvement in the local retail scene…

She confirmed in the interview that DCW intended to stick to the model which it has adopted from the get-go – whether online, in-store or via phone order, the advertised price remains the price.

‘…I think the general consensus was that that couldn’t be done… nobody else was doing it and I think nobody called us on it because they probably didn’t want to help us,’ she told Bill McCurry.

‘But if people are buying just based on price and they can get a better price somewhere else, well then that’s the nature of the beast.’

Although DCW has remained true to this core principle, it has changed in other ways. It has expanded the range it stocks, where initially, in accessories particularly, the offering was fairly narrow.

The interview marked DCW’s launch of the new ‘Foto Riesel by Digital Camera Warehouse’ business in Kent St, Sydney, the retailer’s first venture into a CBD outlet.

With this comes a move into photo printing services, including film processing; ‘the vision is to be able to supply all of our stores and all our customers online so that means Australia wide’ ; as well as an expansion of DCW’s photo education business, which is covered by a subsidiary called Photology

And the future: ‘I don’t know. I’d imagine we would open some more stores,’ she said.

‘There’s nothing wrong with retail shopping in an actual bricks and mortar store. I think you just have to be really clever at doing it and I think you haveto be really clever at doing it in conjunction with an online offering, because they support each other.’

Direct download: PMA_Podcast_Lucinda_Dalton.mp3 

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