Thinking of starting an online retail business - please can I have some advice?

ElleWoods

Hi everyone,
I've been looking into starting an online retail business alongside my part time marketing job but quite honestly don't know where to start. It all seems so overwhelming when I think about stocking, building a website, promotion, accounting etc.

I'd struggle to hold a lot of stock at home as I don't have a huge amount of space to store things, although I have a spare room so if I cleared that out it could be enough. The items I'm thinking of selling aren't very large but x100 or something would take up quite a bit of room. I also rent from a private landlord - how would that affect things?

What's the best way of finding a supplier/wholesaler? Would I be better having an eBay shop first before building a site?

Does anyone have any advice, or can recommend any books or websites on the subject? Any advice would be appreciated.

highjewelgreen

Hi there,

I started an online business last year. I started with Ebay and then built my websites after I started to get some funding in from my ebay sales so as not to get into debt.

There are lots of things to think about but in terms of finding a UK supplier (dependent and what you are thinking of) I went to the Autumn Fair at the NEC in Birmingham, they do a Spring one too and I am sure there are other trade shows like it around the country.

Hope that helps a little

Atidi

SoftKittyWarmKitty wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I've been looking into starting an online retail business alongside my part time marketing job but quite honestly don't know where to start. It all seems so overwhelming when I think about stocking, building a website, promotion, accounting etc.

I'd struggle to hold a lot of stock at home as I don't have a huge amount of space to store things, although I have a spare room so if I cleared that out it could be enough. The items I'm thinking of selling aren't very large but x100 or something would take up quite a bit of room. I also rent from a private landlord - how would that affect things?

What's the best way of finding a supplier/wholesaler? Would I be better having an eBay shop first before building a site?

Does anyone have any advice, or can recommend any books or websites on the subject? Any advice would be appreciated.

Based on wht you have said, my advice is don't.

But if you don't want to follow that advice, then at least start small with an ebay and/or amazon shop and see how it develops.

motorguy

SoftKittyWarmKitty wrote: »

Hi everyone,
I've been looking into starting an online retail business alongside my part time marketing job but quite honestly don't know where to start. It all seems so overwhelming when I think about stocking, building a website, promotion, accounting etc.

I'd struggle to hold a lot of stock at home as I don't have a huge amount of space to store things, although I have a spare room so if I cleared that out it could be enough. The items I'm thinking of selling aren't very large but x100 or something would take up quite a bit of room. I also rent from a private landlord - how would that affect things?

What's the best way of finding a supplier/wholesaler? Would I be better having an eBay shop first before building a site?

Does anyone have any advice, or can recommend any books or websites on the subject? Any advice would be appreciated.

You havent got a supplier / wholesaler for these "items" you're thinking of selling but you're thinking of starting a shop? How do you know you can buy the item competetively enough to make a profit, in fact, more fundamentally, how do you know you can buy the item?

At the moment you havent got a business idea, you've got a fantasy.

ElleWoods

Yes, 'thinking' about it. Researching, looking into it as a possibility. After all, everything starts with a thought.

earthstorm

If you dont have room for stock think about dropshipping, so that you set up your online store, once you get an order you order this from your supplier who will then charge you their price, you keep the profit and the supplier will send the item direct to your customer either white label or under your brand. then if you find a certain line is a good seller then you can order a stock of these so that you can then send these out.

Savvy_Sue

You would need your landlord's permission to run a business from home and there's probably a clause in your tenancy agreement to say you can't, so check that for starters. If there is such a clause, you may be able to negotiate as long as you can establish that your biz won't cause 'nuisance'. Nuisance can be caused by large numbers of visitors, or deliveries, or stress placed on any available parking.

Bear in mind that if the property is mortgaged, then your landlord may have a clause in their mortgage agreement not to run a biz.

then there's insurance: your landlord should have buildings insurance, but your stock may not be covered. You may currently have contents insurance, but it won't necessarily cover stock from a biz.

motorguy

SoftKittyWarmKitty wrote: »

Yes, 'thinking' about it. Researching, looking into it as a possibility. After all, everything starts with a thought.

Setting up an ebay store or an online shop is, relatively speaking, the easy bit.

Focus on this stage on sourcing products that you can resell at a reasonable profit (thats the incredibly hard bit), then work on how best to cost effectively market and sell them.

Also, whats your USP? Work out how to compete on something other than price, otherwise you're just joining the race to the bottom - you knock £1 off the price, your competitors do the same etc.

[Deleted User]

We found that it was very simple, the only problem is we are still looking for the customers.
Our product was an adult product and could not be discussed in public, posted on flyers or pinned on billboards – this was our first epic fail!

Anastasia

I have been thinking about an online shop as an add-on to an existing business since last year and not launched it yet. I think the most important thing to do is discover whether it is worth doing, whether you are going to make a profit. You need to do the sums. The cost of the product, post and packing, fees (paypal, ebay, amazon) and what people are prepared for your product.

For me, I already have a job so I had to think about handling enquiries, not being able to post when I am working. I also have limited space and looked into order fulfilment where a company stores your product and posts it for you when orders are received. I liked this company who offer pay-as-you-go order fulfilment.

http://www.orderfulfilment.co.uk/.

They link straight to ebay and can take your orders straight from there. I liked the fact that while I am at work orders would be shipped the same day.

I probably will eventually start my shop on ebay and then my own website next year. I just need to make sure there is a profit to be made.

Cissi

Having built up a successful internet business over the past 7 years (starting from my kitchen table, now with stockrooms, an office and 3 part time employees besides myself), the first thing I will say is: make sure you have an idea that starts with the PRODUCT, ie something that will make you stand out from the crowd. Before you start you also need to make sure that you'll be able to charge the end customer at least twice what you pay for the raw product. Yes, that sounds like an insane profit when you first start out, but you'll soon realise that your turnover will have to pay for storage, shipping (including exchanges, free shipping for items returned within 7 days, parcels lost in the post etc etc), marketing, costs of running your website (or Ebay fees etc), packaging, credit card processing fees, accountancy fees, staff salaries (if you get that far) and MORE! And before you retort that storage would be free as you'd use your spare room - just think what else you could use that space for that would actually bring you money ( a lodger?) and so never forget that this still carries an opportunity cost!

I also don't think you can realistically do it unless you have cash to invest in the business - if it's to grow to any serious size then you'll need some serious investment sooner or later, and don't believe the banks when they say that they'll lend to small businesses - they will, but only if you have assets (such as a house with no mortgage) to pledge as a guarantee.

Harsh, but true! It's feasible but in no way an easy path to take.