We were recently approached by an online scuba store in the UK called SimplyScuba.com to review their offering for the benefit of our blog readers. I have spent some time on their website and discovered that apart from a very large range of gear and diving equipment they also have exceptional prices. The website is very easy to use and the pages all have pictures of the items you are looking for. Furthermore they have a nifty facility that tells you if they have stock and if they don’t, just when they will. They accept all major credit cards and most other modes of payment.
I took a random selection of items, the kind of things I would buy as well as a few items Clare and have purchased in the last year and done a comparison.
- I recently bought a Mares Nemo Wide at a good price locally, but a month later decided I wanted the download cable to update my logbook. I paid R1 500. This item from SimplyScuba.com costs half of that.
- Clare bought a Suunto D6 recently: the local price is around R10 000. From SimplyScuba.com it costs R6 000.
- The make of fins I use and have used for many years (I buy a new pair every few years) are Tusa Imprex. My last pair cost R1 200. SimplyScuba.com would charge me R600.
- A 10 or 12 litre cylinder here in South Africa will cost between R3 300 and R3 800, yet their price is almost half of this.
I could go on but a visit to the website and a good browse will show you just how much can be saved.
You can also pick items on the SimplyScuba.com website that should be more expensive to purchase from them rather than at home. Sometimes the results are surprising. For example, we have gloves and hoodies and wetsuits manufactured right here, less than 10 kilometres from my home, yet the price for a local pair of 3 millimetre gloves is 50% more that an equivalent branded glove in the UK. It’s important to research your options thoroughly!
There are shipping/postage costs (and these are very steep, given that SimplyScuba.com, like Amazon, does not ship standard mail to South Africa but only courier – the minimum postage charge is about R550) and import tax (14% VAT plus a search fee to be paid when the parcel arrives in South Africa) for anything bought abroad. These costs are high, but in some instances – when you wish to buy something big and expensive, for example – you may still find that buying the item online with SimplyScuba.com is cheaper, even when you factor in shipping and VAT.
Something you must be careful about, and research thoroughly, are the warranty and repair implications when you shop online. If there isn’t a local agent for your product, you may have to send it overseas for inspection and repair if it fails. This can cost money, so remember to factor it all in.
I know that there are a whole lot of reasons why we pay more in South Africa for goods: not least because of the smaller market, shipping costs, and so on. I spent several years of my life in the import business importing motor spares from many countries (China, Japan, the UK and the USA). Shipping in containers (of all different sizes) with the correct mix of goods is very cost effective. The steel cylinders we buy here are Faber, made in Italy, which means the UK also have transport costs. A vast majority of dive goods are made in Taiwan, China and similar areas, so if suppliers in South Africa bought directly from the manufacturer why does our price need to be so high?
I am not suggesting you now disown your local dive centre but before you rush out and buy expensive dive gear do some research, make sure you know what is available as we have very limited options in South Africa, make sure you check prices and then armed with this information choose where you buy. It’s very important to shop around – dive gear is an expensive purchase!
