Setting up books business on the web.

rebeccalb

For about 20 years my family have been selling paperback books on market stalls. However with the weather being worse than before, and changes in the time, I think its time we offered an online option.
My question is how to go about it. I've looked into ebay and amazon, but the fees are too high for it to be profitable. So I'm not sure which roaad to go down next.
Would be grateful for any advice. Thank you

soolin

rebeccalb wrote: »

For about 20 years my family have been selling paperback books on market stalls. However with the weather being worse than before, and changes in the time, I think its time we offered an online option.
My question is how to go about it. I've looked into ebay and amazon, but the fees are too high for it to be profitable. So I'm not sure which roaad to go down next.
Would be grateful for any advice. Thank you

It may well pay you to use Amazon to get started while trying to build up your own buisness via a persoanl website.

Books though are a dying market- if they are standard ex chart paperbacks then the postage alone will make them uneconomical to sell online especially when th elikes of Amazon can churn out standard paperbacks for £3.66 delivered brand new. Most paperbacks are too big to go as a large letter so your minimum postage is going to be £2.20 packet (unless you can start turning over thousands and get a post offcie business account with a set rate)

So looking at a minimum price of £2.20 for postage, plus say 10p for packing and say another 20-30p per item for fees to whatever merchant payment service you use , you would need to be charging near new prices just to break even