Running your own online shop has nothing to do with having brilliant engineers. Selling worldwide to more than 200 countries, with (at minimum) dozens of currencies to support, plus different sales tax regimes in every country, not to mention issues of fraud prevention, timely international money transfer, etc. etc. is not an engineering problem.
The complexity of this kind of global operation should not be underestimated (if you’re unfamiliar with selling worldwide, look up online the difference between a payment provider and a merchant of record).
A small enterprise of Steinberg’s size would need to devote considerable resources to managing all of this, and it’s simply not within the core competencies of most businesses of our size. It’s precisely the kind of thing that you outsource to a company that specialises in it.
You probably buy from many other music companies of a similar size to Steinberg. I would be willing to bet you that none of them are running their own online shop, and instead rely on a third party to act as their merchant of record.
Sorry, I am not buying it. Those sound like excuses rather than solid reasons.
I know that taxes are complex, as well as currencies, but I also know that there are existing solutions for those already in place. You don’t need to outsource an entire online shop operation. You could (and should) build your own on an open-source platform and utilize existing tools to manage all of those chores you are so afraid of. Everything can be customized.
My company sells worldwide, although certainly not on the scale of you guys, but I am not clueless about the process. When you run your own operation and utilize existing tools, you could replace those existing tools if one becomes unreliable. You could also change hots/ servers.
What you are doing is repeating the same mistake you already made. You are putting all of your eggs (or balls) into someone else’s basket again.
I’ll say it again: you’ve learned nothing from this experience, so I wish you luck.
It is humbling to witness the depth of knowledge and skills (some) forum members are prepared to share here. It has been an education to realise that not only is this place awash with hardware and software engineers who put Apple, Microsoft, Steinberg and others to shame, but there is similarly a remarkable group of business and commercial experts who are willing to educate us all with their entrepreneurial insights, free of charge. What’s the odds of that?
To all Steinberg employees: Cancel these childish attempts to set up a partnership with another online shop immediately. Change your leadership. Get some hots/servers without further delay. That is all.
We are certainly considering in the medium term to engage a second merchant of record in order to provide some redundancy in the unlikely event that our new partner runs into difficulties.
I really can’t figure out where all this aggressive negativity is coming from. It’s as if Steinberg somehow harmed you buy not selling you more stuff for like a month or whatever. I mean, Jesus, talk about a first-world problem when the sky is falling because you can’t consume money on what for most people is surely a hobby!
Something tells me that wish isn’t particularly genuine.
Which makes your statement very sad indeed , as you say Steinberg have been a successful business for a long time in the Audio software world and i don’t think they need to take a strange thinking customers advice on how to run their global market .
Mind you it is the internet , im a strange customer as well , are you my sister ?
Yes, they have been very successful, and then look at what happened.
If Steinberg were perfect (nobody is) and invincible, and if there were no advice to be given and nothing to be learned, the theme of this forum thread wouldn’t exist, as the closure of the online shop wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
But it did, so here we are.
Some examples - that I‘m aware of from the top of my head - that are/were also using Nexway are antivirus companies like ESET and Kaspersky. Not exactly small operations and also companies who certainly could develop something themselves- if it would make sense in a business way for them.
Another big store provider for example is Paddle.
At least in the software business, it’s really not uncommon to outsource this stuff, it’s rather the norm I guess.
It is not uncommon, but it is also not the only and necessary way to go about it.
Whoever chose the path of Asknet, like Steinberg did, is now having to rethink the whole approach.
As another relevant example, there are ready-made, all-in-one, easy online shopping solutions like Shopify that many merchants choose because they are easier to get going. That to me, is akin to the approach Steinberg took with Asknet, and something I would never do.
Those platforms can just “turn off” your store, and you can do nothing with the content, while with an open-source solution, you can move it anywhere you want. You are not putting all of your eggs in one basket. One payment solution doesn’t work out, you pick another one.
There are solutions out there that will take care of all your various currency and tax needs and get everything neatly organized for your accountants. It is not like Steinberg would have to figure out what to charge each state/ country one by one. All of that already exists from a variety of providers, pre-configured and ready to be implemented.
As an example, it took ten years until Universal Audio was able to write correct receipts for the German customers.
These are service providers.
And I’m pretty sure that your receipts will not apply to German law if I’m not a private customer. At least your website is not conforming to German law.
Normally, you are not allowed to do business in Germany. 5 minutes of research.
It is absolutely common to use third party providers. And there is nothing irresponsible about doing so. It’s obviously a more ideal solution for them, as it is for countless other companies. Sheesh, lighten up a bit.
