DJI Adds Enterprise Drones to Online Store in Surprise Move
It’s no surprise that DJI is the world leader in consumer drones, with a market share north of 70% globally. But DJI’s enterprise division, which provides aerial drone solutions to industries like agriculture, mining, construction, surveying, and more has been offering it’s enterpise drones operating exclusively through a network of authorized dealers.
Drones like the Matrice 300 RTK, Mavic 2 Enterprise and Phantom 4 RTK that were previously only available through dealers will now be available for purchase online, directly from the DJI website.
“The Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced starts at $6,300 so you better be 100% confident that it’s the drone you need and it will do what you need it to do. That is what a dealer is there to help you with.”
In a competitive sales environment, dealers also now have to compete with the product manufacturer for online sales. Unlike consumer drones like the recently released Mavic Air 2 that shoots 4K video and captures 48MP stills, DJI’s Enterprise drones are designed to complete business-critical missions ranging from crop analysis to solar panel inspections, construction modeling and more. Chosing the proper aerial solution for your enterprise without the assistance of a knowledgable, experienced dealer will likely lead to wrong-drone syndrome as under-researched purchases lead to orders for the wrong type of UAV.
The price tag on Enterprise drones is a multiple of even expensive pro-sumer drones like the Mavic 2 Series, which starts at $1,249. With a price tag almost 6x the Mavic 2, the Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced starts at $6,300 so you better be 100% confident that it’s the drone you need for your organization and it will do what you need it to do. At the top end of the product shelf, the Matrice 300 RTK starts at $13,200.
DJI Enterprise dealers are now also subject to a new set of rules governing how they can bundle and price the drones they sell, and strictly forbids price reductions.
DJI’s Online Store is selling the Enterprise drones at the same MSRP as dealers, so given a choice between buying directly from DJI on your own, our paying the same price from a local dealer will also provide service, advice and guidance we think informed buyers will chose the dealer channel.
However DJI has added further pain to the dealer network by forbidding dealers from discounting bundled products from other manufacturers that are included in the same bundle as DJI products. Wait. DJI won’t let you discount other company’s products?
For now, dealers have been caught off-guard for now. In addition to re-examining their marketing and how to continue to differentiate themselves from the new competitor this development also opens the door for dealers looking to explore new other UAV products that already compete with DJI. Companies like Autel, senseFly already have growing footprints in the Enterprise market and this has the potential to help them make further inroads with an established dealer network.
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