Major Change to the Games Workshop Retail Landscape

At the moment GAMA Trade show is happening and for the most part Games Workshop enthusiasts are being distracted by the Shadow Wars Armageddon Necromunda style game teased at the event.

The real reason to go to GAMA though is for you know trade, and the biggest under reported news is Games Workshop is making a dramatic changes to a bedrock retail policy.

In May Games Workshop is going to remove the restriction for retailers to sell online, more importantly the ability to have web carts. This means your local store can sell any Games Workshop product easier online without placing an order over the phone. This will cause a major disruption in the retailer market and is quite a chance in direction for Games Workshop.

The current online discounters will immediately have competition, having to compete with everyone all at once. Initially this will be good for the Brick & Mortar stores, but it will quickly turn into a wild west as everyone will be competing with everyone for the same space. Once things even out it will surely leave a lot of local shops in a worse position. Many questions still remain to be seen, as the Minimum Advertising Price policy wasn’t released, we don’t know if another hammer is coming, like allowing retailers to sell without a retail location. Also will Games Workshop return to annual price increases, now that they feel frisky with good sales?

Part of me thinks this large of a change is because Games Workshop is about to make a deal with a large retailer to sell product and demand products to be sold through a web portal.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens in May, but certainly this should help the consumer, just not necessarily the Mom and Pop.

Games Workshop Details on the Change

From 3 May 2017 direct Trade Accounts of Games Workshop, and retailers purchasing from Authorized Distributors (together being “Retailers”) will be able to sell Games Workshop products (“Products”) through webstores, third party portals and auction sites (at an instant purchase price only). These sales will be governed by the following requirements:

• All Retailers are required to have a bricks and mortar store which displays and sells Products that fulfils Games Workshop’s In Store Requirements.
• Any online sales channel is required to fulfil Games Workshop’s Online Store Requirements.
• No images or text taken from Games Workshop’s websites may be used by any online sales channel with the exception of the authorized imagery as provided by Games Workshop.
• Rewards under the Trade Account Stockist Program must be used by and only for the benefit of a retail store. Rewards cannot be used for the benefit of any online sales channel.

To support Retailers in furtherance of achieving the goals of protecting its image and reputation, promoting its brand and providing excellent resources that are key to maintaining the hobby culture for game enthusiasts, Games Workshop is implementing minimum advertised pricing policies with effect from 3 May 2017. From this date any Retailer advertising Products for a price which is more than 15% below the MSRP will be subject to a series of consequences starting with a notice of non-compliance, through to the removal of discount, and potentially leading to the termination of their account with either Games Workshop or its Authorized Distributor.