Nintendo Switch: Nintendo resorted to air freight for Europe and North America, in March

Initially, Nintendo was planning to ship 2 million Nintendo Switch units for March, worldwide. The company ended up shipping 2.7 million units. And it turns out that some of those were shipped to Europe and North America by plane (from the factories in China). It’s a much faster shipping method than boat, but also infinitely more expensive: up to 5 000 Yen / $45 per unit (estimation).

Nintendo resorted to such an extreme measure in order to respond to unexpectedly high demand, and get those units to store shelves as quickly as possible. It’s pretty important to do so during the first months following launch, for various reasons. First of all, consumer interest is pretty high when a new console launches, and you have to capitalise on that interest.

Also, people buying a console at launch are generally pretty passionate, and really want it: making sure those valued customers (who are bound to keep using the console in the long term) can get their hands on one is a must.

Finally, increasing the installed base is quite crucial to convince third-party developers to make games for your consoles, and Nintendo is no exception (in fact, given the low level of support from third-party publishers during the Wii U / Nintendo 3DS eras, it’s quite simply crucial for Nintendo to sell as many Nintendo Switch consoles as possible).

Naturally, Nintendo switched back to sea freight for the Nintendo Switch in April, as air freight remains too expensive an option to be used regularly. Of course, we don’t know if Nintendo is planning to resort to it again in the future, though that will obviously depend on how demand evolves in the upcoming weeks/months.

Regarding the units shipped to Europe and North America, it’s true that Nintendo made less money on those (and could even have lost some), but it’s definitely not an issue for the company. After all, all the games and accessories bought along with the console most likely made up for any loss incurred when resorting to air freight. And even if that wasn’t the case, it will definitely be worth it in the long term (as explained above).

Actually, the very fact that Nintendo resorted to air freight in the first place shows the company thought it would be worth it.

Source: Wall Street Journal
Thanks Cerium for the heads up!