Introducing Thomann, the marketplace for musical instruments

 

The evolution of e-Commerce allows us to move an increasingly large segment of our shopping online. This phenomenon benefits both general marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, as well as specialised platforms that focus on a single segment of the market.

 

Just like in brick-and-mortar shopping, you can choose a general store for buying a broad selection of items from toilet paper to electronics, or a specialised shop where you can expect a wider variety of products from a single vertical.

 

If that vertical happens to be musical instruments, chances are that you’re looking at thomann.de.

 

 

What is Thomann

Founded in 1954 by Hans Thomann Sr, the company started out from a back room of the family’s farm in Bavaria, Germany, selling mainly brass instruments to musicians. Today, Thomann is the largest music shop in Europe, specialising in all kinds of instruments as well as sheet music and recording equipment.

 

Screenshot of thomann.de’s homepage

 

The company has one physical store in Treppendorf, Bavaria, and - according to its website - possesses the largest warehouse on the continent. Thomann’s online store is available in 19 European countries, including the UK, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland.

 

The company is still run by the Thomann family, giving it a genuine family business vibe. Moreover, most of the physical store’s employees are musicians themselves, allowing Thomann to provide its customers with in-depth professional service and unparalleled expert advice.

 

Luckily, this experience is not restricted to in-person shoppers.

 

 

Shopping on thomann.de

Product listings on regular marketplaces tend to feature the bare minimum of information, including a short description, price, sizes (where applicable), and possibly customer reviews if available.

 

Well, you can expect a lot more when clicking on a product listing on thomann.de.

 

Besides the regular basic information about a product, most thomann.de listings provide in-depth analysis of the instrument in question, complete with sound samples, videos, as well as the opportunity to turn to a knowledgeable member of staff for even more information.

 

Screenshot of the top part of a random product listing on thomann.de, displaying the product picture and price as well as the option to turn to an employee for advice

 

Screenshot of the second part of a random product listing on thomann.de, providing sound samples and specifications of the product

 

Screenshot of the third part of a random product listing on thomann.de, providing a product explanation and video

 

Screenshot of the fourth part of a random product listing on thomann.de, providing in-depth analysis of the most important product features

 

Depending on the location of the shopper, delivery times vary between a few days and a business week.

 

Thomann sources products directly from manufacturers, doesn’t allow third party sellers on its platform, and ships all items from its warehouse in Bavaria. The company works with world-class brands like Yamaha, Bose, Gibson and Shure, but it also carries products from its in-house brands like Thomann, Stairville and Harley Benton.

 

Thanks to a combination of in-depth knowledge, professional dedication and unparalleled services, Thomann managed to hold its position and even grow its market in a business dominated by giants like Amazon, AliExpress and eBay.

 

 

Thomann.de in numbers

The online store, launched in 1996, has around 20.4 million monthly visitors. Most of these visitors are located in Germany (21%), France (11%), Spain (7%), Italy (6%), and the Netherlands (4%).

 

The company reported an annual sales value of around $1,435 million for 2022, while its revenue is estimated to be between $2-5 million.

 

 

The IP protection of musical instruments

Grab an elastic band and stretch it across your fingers. Voilá, you just created a string instrument! But is it equal to a Stradivari violin? Most definitely not.

 

Unfortunately, it’s not always that easy to tell if an instrument is fake. Thanks to Thomann’s work methods (sourcing directly from manufacturers and not allowing third party sellers onto the marketplace), it’s quite unlikely for a counterfeit or grey market instrument to make its way to the platform.

 

However, there are many other marketplaces that are less strict with their procurement methods and don’t try to exercise full control over their supply channels, which means that IP infringing instruments may get listed and sold both on- and offline.

 

 

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Kessler and Sons, a popular music instrument dealer in the US, has recently noted an increase in counterfeit and grey market instruments offered online. The company remarks that it’s usually quite hard for laypeople to tell the difference between a fake and a real branded instrument, especially before purchasing it online.

 

The problem has become so widespread that well-known brands like Yamaha have started issuing guides for their customers to help them identify fake products.

 

Screenshot of https://asia-latinamerica-mea.yamaha.com/en/products/contents/proaudio/counterfeit/index.html displaying the difference between an authentic Yamaha analog mixer and two fake ones

 

Check out our guide for identifying fake products in any industry

 

A common trick of fraudulent instrument sellers is using the real brand’s product picture on the listing. This helps convince shoppers they’re viewing the real deal, even if the price is much lower than what they’d see on the brand’s website.

 

Fraudsters often protect themselves by featuring real details of the fake item in the product description, hoping that would-be buyers won’t notice the difference between a solid sterling silver (authentic Yanagisawa saxophone) and nickel-plated gold (fake saxophone) body. Once the purchase is made, this information allows them to feign innocence, should a customer complain after receiving the product.

 

Unfortunately, grey markets are also present in the trade of musical instruments. As Kessler and Sons notes, it’s often possible to purchase authentic branded instruments from distributors not authorised to sell them in the US.

 

This creates problems for customers when it comes to after sales services as well as repairs under warranty. Not to mention the issues brands face due to the significant price and trust erosion within their authorised distribution system.

 

Find out all about grey markets and how to eliminate them!

 

All-in-all, we can sadly conclude that the market of musical instruments is not immune to fake products, grey markets and IP infringing fraudulent sellers. Luckily, we’ve got quite a few tools that will assist your brand in detecting and eliminating such infringements both on- and offline.

 

 

Online brand protection for musical instruments

We second the observation made by Kessler and Sons about fraudsters using genuine branded pictures on their product listings. An alternative to that is when fraudulent sellers create their own, slightly different version of the same picture, trying to avoid detection.

 

Whichever the case, the solution is our image monitoring service. Our in-house image monitoring software, infrimage finds all of your IP protected pictures as well as fake versions of them anywhere on the internet.

 

If you feel like you can do this alone, infrimage is also available as a subscription software. Thanks to its intuitive operation and easy-to-use features, you’ll get the hang of it in no time

 

Discover infrimage now

 

To catch fraudsters who refrain from using copyrighted imagery, we recommend a round of marketplace monitoring. This service detects potentially IP infringing product listings on over 150 marketplaces worldwide.

 

In addition, fraudsters may use single webshops, fake brand pages and many other corners of the internet to attract customers. Our domain monitoring service detects your brand name, product name, or any other keyword you want us to check for in domains, meta descriptions and HTML text.

 

If you need to gather court-admissible evidence against fraudulent sellers or learn as much as possible about the origins of the infringing product, our test purchase service will meet your needs on both fronts. We conduct test purchases in over 50 countries, allowing you to determine if the products are fake or grey market, where they come from, and much more.

 

Finally, we can enforce your rights and ensure the swift removal of any IP infringing content from the internet, including pictures, product listings, ads, domain names and much more.

 

 

Conclusion

Thomann is the largest marketplace for musical instruments and equipment in Europe. Although the platform’s operation doesn’t encourage fraudulent sellers, there are many other outlets where fraudsters can infringe on your IP rights, stealing your revenue and sullying your reputation.

 

Contact us and let’s put a stop to that together!