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Thread: Ideas For Shops

  1. #1
    Registered Member incka's Avatar
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    Question Ideas For Shops

    I want a high cost, high profit niche to sell but I can't think of any... I was thinking of tying in with the family tree making boom and offering heraldic wall shields, but of course they are custom made, so therefore I would have to make them. Idea of the window... I'm still thinking, anyone got any ideas for me. The product should be sold for atleast $75 and have aleast 25% profit....

  2. #2
    Registered shim's Avatar
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    Good question, incka!

    Will you want to drop ship or store the inventory yourself? I'm just trying to get an idea of size limitations.

  3. #3
    Senior Member chromate's Avatar
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    Another thing to keep in mind is shipping costs and the strength of the pound.

    1) If you're using the search engines for traffic, it's likely that most of your customers will be in the US. Shipping to the US will add expense, especially if the product is heavy or large. This may not be a problem if the buyer pays for the shipping - but if it adds to the cost considerably, they'll just buy elsewhere (if they can).

    2) You're going to have to combat the crazy exchange rate of about 1.8 at the moment which will make it harder to make a decent amount of money. Of couse you can put your price up, but again, people can shop elsewhere.

    I would also love to start an ecommerce store. But in todays economic climate, it almost seems impossible for someone in the UK. Unless you're targetting UK shoppers and or the product is something that's really hard to get in the US but easy to get here in the UK.

  4. #4
    Registered Member incka's Avatar
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    I've got an idea, but I don't have enough to fund it, the products are an average of £400, and I would need a veriety of stock. If I go ahead with the idea there is some people here who might be interested in link exchange with the site.

  5. #5
    Administrator Chris's Avatar
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    Fur coats.

    The UK is definitely going to be harder to do this in than the US. The US is huge, so sometimes things can't be found locally. The UK is geographically much smaller and so in general there are shorter distances to drive.

    So if there is one suppler of widgets in the US there isn't a good chance you're close enough to drive. In the UK if there is one supplier, there is a much better chance.

    Plus the overseas shipping thing sucks too.

    UK only store might work, but it'll be harder than if you were in the US.
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  6. #6
    Web Monkey MarkB's Avatar
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    Or, a UK site sourcing UK products, with free (or discounted) postage to Europe and the US.

    Incka, sell UK candy and soda to ex-pats living in the US
    Stepping On Wires - the new blog

  7. #7
    Future AstonMartin driver r2d2's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Chris
    Fur coats.
    I'd have thought that clothes would be quite hard to sell over the net? Or at least you would get a lot of returns I think?

  8. #8
    Administrator Chris's Avatar
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    Clothes actually do very well online. Lots of clothing companies have had success by offering through their websites.

    The reason is selection. Brick and mortar stores cannot carry all sizes, websites can. Plus you can easy search through all the products a company offers.
    Chris Beasley - My Guide to Building a Successful Website[size=1]
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  9. #9
    Senior Member chromate's Avatar
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    Originally posted by Chris
    Fur coats.
    If anyone is going to do this, please make sure it's fake fur. Without wanting to kick off an animal rights campaign on here, the way they "obtain" the fur is absolutely sick in the head. I hope that no one on here would want to support the industry. Fake fur's a different matter obviously

    I think for the people from the UK, the main thing to consider is shipping to the US is going to be a real pain. Plus almost a two dollar pound making life very hard to make any decent money. I had an idea of selling guitar / instrument strings. The shipping would be really cheap and there would hardly be any returns. However, profits would be really low on each item, so I'd have to sell at least 20 packs a day to make it worth while. Probably not very likely! However, people regularly want new strings so if I got a lot of return customers it may work out. Dunno.

  10. #10
    Registered Mike's Avatar
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    Fur coats is a good idea. They can be sold for hundreds.
    Don't you just love free internet games ?

  11. #11
    Senior Member chromate's Avatar
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    I would rather sell hardcore porn than sell fur coats (read message above)

  12. #12
    Registered Member incka's Avatar
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    Nice idea chromate

    I've been looking at shipping rates... You can ship from the UK to china for basically nothing... I think it's because all the ships take goods from china have nothing to make money on on there return journey...

  13. #13
    Senior Member chromate's Avatar
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    Shipping from China to the UK is pretty expensive though. I made a few contacts through alibaba.com and was going to get a few samples shipped over for another idea I had (which I still might do). The products were light and not bulky, but the shipping was ridiculous. It'd work out cheaper if I was getting a bulk load though, but these were just about 7 sample items.

  14. #14
    Registered Member incka's Avatar
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    Yeah, my dad has a timber business and buys EVL (Engineered Veneered Lumber) from there... He buys about 100 tonnes at once, but it still is really expensive... The weak dollar is good for him... He has bought loads of timber from US companies and is making massive profit on it... The business is new though, so has to pay for start up costs, so he will only just break even this year...

  15. #15
    Registered Mike's Avatar
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    Originally posted by chromate
    I would rather sell hardcore porn than sell fur coats (read message above)
    Yeah, I'm not too keen on how they cut the fur. I said it as a relative of mine inherited one, which she didn't want so decided to try and sell it off somewhere.
    Don't you just love free internet games ?

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