Mark up amounts are a major contention within the industry, especially given their decline over the last decade. We recently had a great debate on markups in general. One hotly argued point was how much do distributors mark up their products? In other words, when you buy a product from Anixter or ADI or Amazon, how much do they mark it up before selling it to you?
This started with an integrator saying:
"I know I'm paying at least 100% to 150% mark-up on what my supplier paid the manufacturer."
With me retorting:
"That's almost certainly not the case, unless you are getting gouged by your supplier. The ADIs, Northern Videos, Anixter's, etc. are lucky to get 10 point markup on products (maybe 20 or 30% for people who are buying in super low volume). None of them are getting anywhere close to 100%."
However, a distributor / OEM objected:
"Just from my limited experience carrying some of the same cameras that they are carrying, that this is absolutely not true at all. They are making quite a markup, more than 100%. And I know, due to volume, that they are probably getting a much better deal than me when buying from the manufacturer. I am sure they can markup certain products more than others, but they are definitely not working on slim margins. This is just feedback from some of our customers who also buy from these places as well."
One important difference is how distributors like ADI operate compared to OEMs. Buying an Arecont camera from ADI is different from a Dahua camera through an OEM. With Arecont / ADI, Arecont absorbs the cost of global marketing, enterprise sales force, reps, technical support, etc. For a Dahua OEM, those expenses fall on the OEM. Because of that, the markup is higher for the latter case, reflecting the greater amount of work that the OEM needs to do.