Feasibility of setting up an online store

kiss_me_now9

My LO starts nursery two days a week next week, and I don't go back to my day job until early May (going back on reduced hours as well, so will have two days a week at home) and I'm once again considering the dream that I've had for a long time -  setting up a little online shop.

For context, I love stationery and planners, stickers, washi tape etc. and have been active in this maybe niche but booming on social media hobby. I have a growing youtube channel focused on it and a healthy (but could be healthier with a bit of effort!) instagram. The gap in the market that I can see is - outside of etsy - a lot of the shops you get that are UK based only really sell cutesy and Kawaii based artwork - I prefer classic art stickers, florals and watercolours etc. (For example these are two of the biggest sticker shops in the UK atm - https://sutekistickers.co.uk/ and https://misopaper.co.uk/browse/products/stickers/ - Miso paper has some of the things that I'm talking about but is still very heavy on the Japanese style products). I would love to create something UK based that only stocks things like https://sterling-ink.com/collections/february-2023-collection and I think this would actually work really well. A curated shop that sells more upmarket designs than pop culture ones. Later on if it took off I could add in notebooks, journals, paper and other ephemera. 

I've always had in my head that I would want to sell my own designs but I think after 3 years of trying to create and make stickers of my own and failing, this isn't really feasible. But providing products that someone else has created seems more realistic. (I would not be drop shipping or a print on demand service).

I can get my head around building a website with shop functionality, marketing it, getting traffic to it and taking/packaging orders. But I can't figure out how you get stock in or actually start a project like this without committing 500% to it. How much capital do you need to invest? How do you approach people to stock their items? I would love to hear opinions - good and bad (I suspect there will be more bad than good!) about this idea.

DullGreyGuy

What the hell is LO? Internet suggest Loan Officer. 

To be honest, if you've gotten the identifying the target market and how you get them to buy from you then you are 95% of the way there and well beyond what many people get to by the time they launch and often also by the time that the majority of them fail. Too many have a "build it and they will come" attitude and then don't understand why after 3 months their site has had 5 visitors, 1 order (and that was returned). 

Firstly, do you know who is manufacturing these things or distributing them? If you do then yes it's as simple as approaching them by phone or email. You need to have it clear in your head what volumes you are looking at in terms of number of SKUs (unique products) and volumes of each SKU - so you want 50 different designs and 100 units of each (so 5,000 boxes). Some companies have minimum sales requirements that can either be reasonable or crazy however if their minimum is too high they may suggest someone who they supply who's a reseller. 

Secondly, remember you are no longer a consumer in this relationship, it's business to business so you don't have the statutory protections like cooling off periods etc. As such read any T&Cs and ensure you understand them and agree to them before buying. If the 5,000 boxes of stickers arrive and you decide they're too big, you cannot send them back. 

You will need to invest in stock and marketing budget... you say you know your market so that will tell you if you can go to market with just 5 different stickers or need at least 500 different stickers. How much you hold of each again will depend on the rate your planning to sell at but also if there is a minimum order by SKU... Mrs wanted some yarn but the only place she found it was £20 per hank but she found the manufacturer that sold cones that has equivalent of 200 hanks but were only £50 a cone so she got excited until they said that they don't sell by the cone but by the box of 8 cones. 

Generally, the more you try dealing with on day 1 the tougher it will be and the more chances of missteps but too little and you may be paying for a lot of leads from people that aren't interested in your 5 options. 


As long as you present as a reasonable person and want to buy in sensible numbers companies are reasonable... he says still looking at the 8 cones of yarn on the shelf (they said each could be a different colour). If you come across as a time waster or start talking about joint ventures when you don't have an investor from the Dragons Den onboard etc when people will think their time will be better spent answering the next call. 

PS. where are you going to keep your stock? Most do keep it at home and don't think of the consequences but it can be an issue for things like Home Insurance who may be happy with clerical work but not stock. Know of a £300,000 claim that was declined for a house fire as the person hadn't declared they were storing hair colouring products at home as a mobile hairdresser 

kiss_me_now9

Thank you for your very comprehensive and useful post @DullGreyGuy - my apologies, LO is little one/baby  

Re: currently, most sales of this kind of sticker are done through either the designers own website/shop or through etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/designingliefde/?etsrc=sdt or https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/kolourcafe?ref=yr_purchases). It's not casual in the sense of the number of sales, but very much small business where most people have started selling their designs on etsy as a side business and then grown to be able to do it full time (as I believe both those sellers linked have). 

Useful to know about purchase and trading changes as a business to business buyer thank you! 

I would be planning to keep my stock in our external office (not currently useable but will be by summer). Fully secured with lockable PVC windows and door and we plan to put a hefty security recording system in as my OHs gaming computer - worth about 5k - would also be going in there. Would it have to come under business insurance then? 

DullGreyGuy

My wife has had some similar ideas but to sell into the LatAm market rather than UK as if you think the stationary/sticker we can get here are limit you should see what's available there. A childhood frustration thats probably now made worse by the window into the rest of the world online 

This is also one of those things where "handmade" becomes questionable in my mind... looking at the first link that very much looks digitally printed to my eyes and so is "handmade" now anything not created by AI? Anyway, rant over. 



If the external office is an outbuilding on your property then that still is your "home" for the purposes of Home insurance and declarations. As mentioned, many don't think to mention it and get away with it but some lose big when they don't. Annoyingly you may struggle to find someone who allows you to keep stock (some may be ok as long as its under £Xk and not highly flammable) but even if they are ok with it your home insurance won't cover it. Business insurance is more nuanced than personal lines but yes you could by business insurance that includes stock cover but that doesn't mean it doesn't have to be declared on your Home insurance. 

Obv if this is some office you rent on an industrial park and not within the bounds of your home then no problem!



Are these the people you think will be your suppliers? Do they have any other stockists? Getting a maker to go from B2C to B2B is fairly difficult unless you can first of all promise scale and secondly they have the ability to meet that scale. If they are lucky you'll pay them 50% of retail, if you're lucky it will be 10%, so they have to see what they'll get in return. The worst case scenario for them is you pay them less than half the price and all your sales just canabilise theirs. Sure they save some overheads not dealing with individual customers etc but they also lose the upsell/cross-sell/repeat sale opportunity. 

It's doable, Mrs had a few shops stocking her pottery but always left the cheques were lean. They sold in very different places though so little loss of sales. 

Savvy_Sue

Excellent responses, but I'd add to the insurance question the issue that you need to declare 'the business' to your mortgage provider or landlord. A social landlord won't unreasonably refuse permission, not sure in what circumstances a mortgage provider would get antsy.