The manufacturers might be bringing this on themselves. One has been out of stock for some time of 2 Rail locomotive wheels, one is being aquired, but has been historically stubborn about re-running 2 Rail conversion pieces and parts. And one has had back orders for their 2-Rail flex track for some time. Looks to me like there is a supply problem to keep railroads from expanding, building, and growing. If I have to wait until a locomotive is released in the future to get the benefit of parts such as 2 Rail wheels that turns me away. I see a supply problem with future purchases. I find it incredibly interesting considering all of the additional modeling time with the COVID scenario the last year. Where is their marketing and listening ability? I don't recall seeing them at the O Scale Meet last year prior to the pandemic.
RTR locomotives and cars seem to take much longer to get stateside than normal and that's probably part of it too. It may behoove them to come out in the open and ask how they can improve and what products we would like to see. They are bringing it on themselves when they gamble with even the simplest things such as new roadnames on existing models. I'm only speaking for me, but sometimes I would buy a lot more over time, if they weren't produced in a ton of roadnames at once in a limited production, but filtered in batches. This would likely conflict factory production schedules.
The absolutely critical thing is going to be model detail and paint accuracies. If the details are wrong such as a hood door that shouldn't be there, a missing stanchion, fans not centered, inaccurate paint and the price point is $200 more than a competitor sales are not going to repeat as the customer begins to think prototype accuracy doesn't matter.
Also, I know there are a lot of factors, but maybe figuring out a way to lower prices so more O Scale 2-Rail converts can cross over.
Beth's website if fairly easy to navigate and see what's in stock. Other sellers however are not, just a written description of the item. Better, faster, easier to use internet platforms could assist with sales volumes as well.
There are also other outside factors that could be limiting sales, such as the ridiculous price of plywood - $56 at Home Depot on Friday night when I checked...
These are not at all meant to be gripes or stubborness, but discussion of ways to new opportunities.
