Hello GHI. Will Endpoint Domino be distributed by Mouser?
I don’t see why not buy why not get it from Amazon?
Well for one, Mouser does a better job of getting it to us in Europe with a proper IVA (tax) invoice.
3 Likes
My school cannot buy from Amazon. 
Seconded for Mouser as distributor as they offer free shipping for orders over A$60 to Australia and DHL, UPS options too. Amazon is expensive for shipping in a lot of cases.
3 Likes
reason is this “fees are greater than cost”
Order Summary
| Items: | $49.95 |
|---|---|
| Shipping & handling: | $41.14 |
| — | |
| Total before tax: | $91.09 |
| Estimated tax to be collected: | $0.00 |
| Import Fees Deposit: | $31.88 |
| — | |
| Order total: | $122.97 |
I wonder how mouser managed to beat Amazon at this
Well in the case of us folks outside the land of milk, honey, and country music, it’s probably because they are only shipping your product out of their US warehouses. If I have to order from “amazon.com”, there’s a lot of cost and customs and shipping issues, and the fact that Amazon won’t do B2B orders internationally out of the US warehouses. When I can order from “amazon.es”, “amazon.de”, and so on, they are shipping out of EU warehouses with proper tax documentation and we don’t run into those issues.
Mouser (and Digi) have somehow optimized for this, and even when they ship out of the US, they manage to make it simpler and cheaper.
To me, in the longer term, there’s also a bit of a credibility issue too. If this is a hobbyist thing, then yeah, Amazon is probably just fine. But we’re sourcing every other serious project component out of Mouser, Digi, Farnell, and friends. Even Sparkfun and Adafruit are better at shipping internationally (esp wrt ITAR and related issues). I even drop in on Alibaba before I go looking for project elements on Amazon.
2 Likes
and Guns Martin, awful lot of guns! Is it really that troublesome to get these products? are there not firms around Europe that GHI could subcontract the manufacturing to? Perhaps GHI could acquire a small manufacturer in some part of the EU, then develop a European presence…
I’m from Britain but now live in the United States. My mother lives in Portugal and man, the trouble I’ve had getting stuff to her, even from Amazon UK.
I’m also a “hobbyist” in this department, so as and when I get a board to two, is a minor thing for me, I’m not running an enterprise.
I’ll end here by mentioning a hero of mine, Sir John Harvey Jones, the late chairman of ICI, and a superb pragmatist, sadly his type is becoming a rarity these days.
