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Newegg stepping outside of the tech space?

November 14th, 2008 |

Author: Will

Newegg, Inc. has a new (new to me, anyways) area called Newegg Mall that sells things non-tech. It’s almost Amazon or Buy.com like. I purchased a Bulova watch from Newegg Mall out of curiosity the other day and it was received very quickly. I paid for rush shipping, but Newegg still processed the order same day, even though I had an issue with my shipping address not being on file correctly with American Express. I resolved the issue with American Express in the morning Tuesday, and Newegg still processed the order on Tuesday with time to have the order ship for receipt on Thursday. Not bad!

I noticed through correspondence that it was Newegg that placed the order, but the fullfillment was actually through World of Watches. It’s interesting to see how they’re leveraging third parties to handle the completion of the orders and expanding their inventory in the process. Amazon pioneered this model years ago and it seems other companies are following this business model today. If it works, why deviate, right?

The pricing was the bottom line. I received a $595 watch for $100. When taken to the local Fred Meyer jewler to have it sized, I was told that no jewler in the area could possibly have done better in their pricing and that the watch I received was “among the best”.

What’s even more impressive is that Newegg’s re-sold rate for the watch that Word of Watches was fullfilling from its inventory was better than the pricing on World of Watches’ own website. You can’t beat that!

I would rate their service level at Newegg Mall a 9/10 simple because of their call center having to dispatch my request or call to a customer service rep when I call in, then the rep calls me back. They’re quick to call back, but it would be less irritating and tedious if I were able to reach a customer service representative at the time of calling in the first time.

Check out Newegg Mall today. They rival companies like Overstock.com, Buy.com and Amazon.com and were polite when contacted for customer service.