Luxury wares

poshbiz

I had in mind to start up an online business selling some unique merchandise to a specific market. Although I have a few things - mostly homeware, some imported from France and other countries, I do not see much margin in their sales - but these are originals. I was also thinking of taking the reproduction route and including clothes too.

I was wondering if anyone knows where or how places like Cath Kidston, Boden, The White company, Isabela Oliver etc. get their supplies. Their quality is far superior and specific than the other tat you get from china. I could not find anything on the internet as there is loads of suppliers, but not what I'm looking for. Did I miss something in Alibaba? Are these shops suppliers in the UK, I might have heard that Laura Ashley has a site in the UK, but I waited for months for some furniture from them which I think came from India.

While I would not be directly competing with these companies, I obviously do not want to spend much more than I could.

Also I would appreciate if someone were to tell me about their first encounters with opening up a business and dealing with suppliers - even from china, india etc, whether they had to travel to the place or not and was the quality what they expected?

Thanks

bris

These stores do not "buy in" there supplies from wholesalers. The have teams that design their product and source the factories required to make their own. The quality control at their chosen manufacturers is what makes the difference. Every thing is supervised by their own people to give them the control they need to put a superior product onto the shop floor.
You can't do that unless you have a huge budget and can liase with factories in the far east.