Where do Australian 0nline camera stores source their products from?

[Bear Dale]

Where do Australian 0nline camera stores (totally online, no bricks and mortar store) source their products from? Does Canon, Nikon, 0lympus etc deal with non bricks and mortar stores?

[ricktas]

Yes and Yes. They get them for the official suppliers. And Canon, Nikon etc do supply web based stores.

[I @ M]

Jim, I think that you will find that any online, shopfrontless ( is that a word? ) store will simply be importing gear from Hong Kong. It will have been supplied by the relevant distributor to a Hong Kong based retailer who then on sells it to an enterprising web based retailer.

The Hong Kong dealer will simply be an authorised retailer for ######## brand and is happy to make a small percentage on the sale to the online retailer, by doing so, they increase their tuurnover and possibly gain another percent discount from the distributor as a high volume seller.
It is all totally legitimate and the "good" retail price for Australians comes about due to the better buy price for the online seller from discounts to the retailer in Hong Kong, lower overheads, lower taxation rates and the ability for them to live on smaller wages.

I'm not sure however what you mean by "Australian online camera stores" as most are simply based o/seas and don't have any presence on the Aus continent. I can only think of one that does actually.

[Bear Dale]

Thanks Rick, thanks Andrew.