The secret tricks of Singapore’s video game shops

Video game retail is a tough business. And while Qisahn’s owner Soon Qishan is a savvy businessman, he has experienced his fair share of obstacles over the years.

Cheap is not always the best

Back when the store was just setting out, Soon’s store made people nervous. “I thought it was a scam,” said 22 year old Jonathan Gan, then a student. Qisahn’s super affordable prices could sometimes be too good, and would make potential customers wonder if they were getting themselves into anything illegal. After all, that was a period where piracy was rife and PSP games were easily downloadable from the internet.

Soon also admitted to getting plenty of complaints then. “Distributors would get a lot of complaints about me, about my pricing and business,” he said. “There was a lot of chatter from everyone.”

Things died down after a while, mainly because Qisahn was surviving, even thriving. When Diablo III launched last year, the shop received 20,000 preorders – its highest numbers of orders ever for a game. Its preorder pricing had been just S$64.90 ($52.40) if customers purchased more than four copies, compared to the official price of S$89 ($71.80) from Asiasoft. When Pokemon X & Y came out two weeks back, it had a preorder price of S$48 ($38.80), the lowest on the island, and earned approximately 3,000 to 4,000 orders.

“Those who are still in the business with me, or who have been in the business longer than me, know that I’m actually out to make money,” Soon said of his fellow video game retailers. “They know these are just little tricks that I use to try and get customers.”

They understand that to compete with me, pricing is not exactly the best answer. If you want to look at pricing you first have to look at cost, and their cost will always be higher than me, because if you choose to launch in a shopping mall your cost will naturally be higher. So they focus more on their retail experience.

“They just do it differently, because shopping is not just price,” he said, citing Gamescore’s launch ‘trick’ for Pokemon X & Y. The video game retail veteran based in Singapore’s Funan Digitalife Mall snagged about 250 – 300 sales during the morning of launch day alone in spite of having a higher price than Qisahn. They did so by handing out homemade Lava Cookies (an edible in-game Pokemon item) and including a lucky draw with each game’s sale. “That was a very smart move,” Soon said, of the Lava Cookies. “I liked the move a lot. That’s how people survive.”

Tricks of the trade

There’s more to the retail business than just gimmicks, though. Soon is well aware of that. “Do people know that the advertised price might be lower, but the non-advertised price might not be the lowest?” he asked me as we were talking. I shook my head; I had absolutely no idea what he was even referring to.

So what’s next?