rscheffler wrote: SlowDriver wrote: 1bwana1 wrote:
Dr Kaufmann recently told me that the stores now account for almost 50% of Leica sales.
It sounds like Leica eventually might go the Phase One route and no longer sell its equipment at all through retailers like B&H and Adorama.
I would be surprised. I think Leica will still be sold online by such dealers. The whole point of Leica Stores though is to provide a 'proper' hands-on, in-person Leica shopping experience that 99% of brick and mortar stores would never match because they're too busy selling mainstream Canikony+ gear to a generally different type of clientele. Plus, most B&M stores won't want to tie up the cash needed to carry a halfway decent line of Leica inventory.
When I got interested in Leica in 2010, I happened to be in Germany a bunch of times. It was painful to find any place that actually had the gear in stock, even in Germany, let alone staff that could talk intelligently about it without various biases that affected their perceptions about Leica. Granted, back in 2010 the M9 was red-hot and it was nearly impossible to find it and any lenses anywhere as it was. But within a couple years Leica opened a store in Munich and compared to typical German B&M stores, it was a refreshingly good retail experience where I could touch and try whatever I wanted without the usual sales pressure or mental 'pre-qualification' by staff of my 'worthiness' to use their time.
Agreed 100%. The B&M stores are about selling/buying gear. I don't see Leica neglecting that channel as it represents 50% of revenue. The Leica stores are about much much more. They are about providing customer engagement, and a Leica experience. Leica designs its stores around this, and hires its staff with a strong bias toward a background in customer engagement. It is much easier to train someone on a single line of products than it is to find customer experience competent people.
The Leica stores more and more are not just about cameras and photography (although this remains a strong core and is not diminished in any way), it is about brand expansion, and lifestyle esthetics.
Then there is the financial flexibility that have a large network of company owned flagship stores around the World. Leica now has three primarily customer interface models. There are the B&M independent retail dealers. These provide wide distribution for Leica especially in communities that could never support a dedicated Leica store. Then there are the elevated B&M Leica Boutique stores that have the store within a store retail model often found in the luxury space. Finally there are the dedicated flagship stores. These are located in places where the customer profiles and traffic that can support such an operation. They provide the opportunity to expand the brand in ways that independant B&M stores never could. This initiative was actually started back when Hermes owned Leica and is very much in line with classic luxury marketing methods. They have been very successful for Leica in many ways. But within this sector there are actually two ownership models. Company owned, and and privately owned (think Leica Store Miami). The privately owned store can be seen as a sort of keep your foot in the door of franchising kind of thing. I leaves open the possibility to sell the existing company owned stores off as franchises should that ever offer an advantage for Leica.
This diversity is a carefully though out and constructed distribution model for leica. So no, I don't think that Leica will be abandoning its other distribution channels in favor of only having Leica Company owned stores in the near future.
Apr 21, 2026 at 10:36 AM
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