This is Brian Mulreany, co-owner and sales director at The Executive Shaving Company.
I read this thread and I would like to reply to some points.
- The price differences between Connaught Shaving and The Executive Shaving Company.
Connaught is a retail and trade supplier, selling brands such as Feather, Connaught are buying at a trade price from Feather, they then sell Feather products to us with a mark-up hence the price difference. This also applies to some other products that are supplied by Connaught.
Proraso, we buy from a well-known trade supplier and add a standard trade mark up. Someone noted that a Proraso aftershave we supply at £33 is available on eBay at £17. That may be the case, there is a grey market where eBay sellers can buy brands such as Proraso and Gillette from firms who are now no longer trading or from liquidators. These firms usually have limited stock and will quickly move onto whatever else they can source to sell off at way below the suggested retail prices.
- Boycie83 – thank you, you spotted a pricing mistake on Super Shave X blades, they were priced at £60.00, we have now corrected that and changed the price to £20.00, our mistake, now fixed.
- Although we are an online company, we welcome drop in shoppers who can pay by card or cash.
- Mike Smart – you can filter any product range or brand by price – low or high and even by fragrance where applicable. We do promote our own brand above others, we are 100% confident that they are at least the match of any other brand and they are competitively priced. It makes complete business sense to promote our brand in favour of a competitor brand.
- AJC347 – you say we are 'relatively competitive'. In fact, our prices for Varesino, Pocket Scents, Proraso, Trumper, Truefitt, Extro, Fitjar, Castle Forbes, Muhle, Merkur, Parker and more are exactly at the ‘suggested retail price' the brand requests.
- Roy – you mention our high shipping costs, UK shipping is £3.99 for a track and trace service no matter how many items you buy and no matter how heavy the package is. Single, small items such as blades are cheaper. UPS and DHL next day delivery is £6.99.
In 2019 we subsidised UK shipping by £5k, international shipping by £4k.
- Our prices on Amazon and eBay are higher than on our own website as these sellers demand a heavy commission on every sale. We never sell cheaply on Amazon or eBay.
We know our business well and for us to remain in business we need to make a profit, people need to understand that. Our profits are healthy but not excessive. By contrast, we were approached in 2018 by a leading UK wide retailer who wanted to stock our shaving creams and balms, the buyer told me she needed a 300% mark-up, so we would sell to her at say £8.00 and they would sell the same item at £24.00. We don't make 300% or anything like it on any item we sell.
The Executive Shaving Company has around 1,900 SKUs, by far the widest range of any independent seller in Europe, we bring our customers top notch products from India, USA, Spain, Italy, Norway, Ireland, Germany, France, Belgium and more, we have a 5 star rating on Trust Pilot and we genuinely strive to exceed customer expectations.
From time to time, we have sales where real bargains can be had, we also do occasional competitions, a £60 Alpha Shaving Brush was won by a customer only last week.
Members of TSR can claim a 10% discount at checkout.
The Executive Shaving Company has six full time staff and all are paid in excess of The Living Wage, we also pay employee pensions and sick pay over and above the minimum government rates, without profits we couldn't do all that.
I hope this clarifies matters, if anyone wants to get in touch, please do so: T: 0141 880 3040 or
brian@executive-shaving.co.uk you will get a reply.