Moving our motorbike business to Ireland

Hillybilly4

Muahahaha wrote: »

OP if motocross is what you guys specialise in then that's a pretty niche sector and you should really research your location in Ireland well to ensure there are enough motocross riders / clubs in your area to sustain your business.

If you've built up regular custom through your ebay.co.uk shop then I think you should look into ways of keeping that running, even from Ireland. I wouldn't try to ship from Ireland as UK buyers might be put off by increased shipping times and increased postage costs for an international shipment. To avoid that it might mean placing your goods with a UK distributor who ships them for you from the UK to UK addresses. Don't forget that Ireland is only 4 million people so we wouldn't have anywhere near as many motocross riders as in the UK so if you are doing well online in the UK then you'd be crazy to throw that away. Keep it going and run your mechanic shop here, best of both worlds

Best of luck with it:)

Thank you Muahahaha.

We chose our location (well, as far as was possible, considering what we were needing!) deliberately because it's pretty central for all the tracks we're interested in (both from a rider's and a business's perspective) and there are enough of them. We're on a main road with high visibility and also within easy striking distance from Cork City.

Our online business at present is not the major part of our trade by any means...mostly because, as many of you have pointed out, it's a highly competitive arena and profit margins are relatively small, compared to "real shop" sales. We are but a small fish in a big pond here! Our online (= ebay really) presence is more of a "shop window" to generate real customers who might phone us because they have seen something we have advertised on ebay and who then come and see us in person. We would far rather have real people spending cash in our shop, with whom we can develop an ongoing relationship, than only be dealing with faceless internet customers...however, we recognise that is the way (ourselves included!) that many people prefer or need to shop these days.
Thanks again!

Muahahaha

Ok good to hear you've researched the location well because I was worried there for a bit ! I think if you offer a good service to motocross riders at a decent price then you should have no troubles at all once you're established after a year or two.
Cork is a great place, the people down there are really sound and the county itself has some beautiful coastline for ride outs

Alanooh

Few things, you will have to pay VAT of all helmets etc here in Ireland (VAT free in the UK)

Regarding the eBay if you list on eBay dot Ie and search on eBay dot Ie the UK sellers will still come up first since eBay brought out a new system months back. Be best to keep listing on the UK site as its also cheaper with more extras.


Delivery to Ireland from some UK suppliers can be any where from €15-€30
Other thing is a lot of Irish people presume UK shops are cheaper and buy online there instead.

Best of luck.

OriginV

Donedeal and Adverts are great resources to advertise and even sell some of you're stock, Also it would be a good idea signing up on some Irish online forums to get the name out there and you can maybe even get you're on sale section.

roadsmart

Rathmore?

Hillybilly4

roadsmart wrote: »

Rathmore?

No, not Rathmore. Warm though! Not deliberately trying to be cagey just don't want to be seen as advertising or touting for business lol.

Doylers

Just kept the prices down, decent shipping rates and have good return polices. I buy nearly everything online I have preferred sites based on value and shipping. Theres one site I don't buy tech stuff off because shipping is 10euro regardless of its size or value which madness IMO. In waterford we have 3 places to buy bike gear and the selection is piss poor, all my bike gear comes from the web these days. Cant afford to be travelling to go to cork to get gloves.

Oh while I think of it have lots of information on your site, I don't know if its an irish thing but when I'm looking at bike gear theres usually one line "these are gloves" its like well that was useful, I want to know everything you can tell me about the gear so I can make an informed purchase.

Best of luck with it, hope to see your site and business in the coming months

Del2005

Doylers wrote: »

Oh while I think of it have lots of information on your site, I don't know if its an irish thing but when I'm looking at bike gear theres usually one line "these are gloves" its like well that was useful, I want to know everything you can tell me about the gear so I can make an informed purchase.

Your on the Internet why would the shop need to place anything bar the name and part number on their site? The manufacturer's site will have all the information you need.

cantdecide

Done Deal is very much the "shop window" for bike sales in Ireland IME. Just keep updating your stock lists regularly on DD. Start a FB page... and use it. Always get back to people. Run genuine special offers when you can. Keep updating the thread until you're going. As a langer from Cork, I'll try and throw some business your way the same as I always try to keep business local.

designbydan

Del2005 wrote: »

Your on the Internet why would the shop need to place anything bar the name and part number on their site? The manufacturer's site will have all the information you need.

Giving your customer a reason to LEAVE your site is the worst thing you can do. Imagine if you were in a shop and asked about some gloves or a helmet, and the guy 'serving' you said "they're gloves, if you want more info drive to the rst factory and ask them yourself !" You'd be on here complaining in an instant.

Actually, disregard that, half the shops I've been to ARE that cheeky to their customers. OP if you're at least willing to be friendly to your customers you'll be doing far better than a hell of a lot of shops here

Hillybilly4

[QUOTE=designbydan;90098431Actually, disregard that, half the shops I've been to ARE that cheeky to their customers. OP if you're at least willing to be friendly to your customers you'll be doing far better than a hell of a lot of shops here [/QUOTE]
LOL.
Thank you to all for your input, advice and, dare I say, support!
We have a FB page for our existing business and will no doubt tinker with that when the time comes.
With regards to product info, I agree with you designbydan...the potential customer should be able to find all the info they need on the site they are thinking of shopping on otherwise they are likely to wander off into the ether and not come back to you.
Thank you cantdecide for the info re Done Deal.
Just to clarify - we will be predominantly catering for the OFF road bike fraternity so we are not going to be stocking ON road clothing, tyres etc. Sorry to disappoint any of you who were hoping for another source for your on road gear!

roadsmart

Google the Paddy Dakar and enter a team (your better half will love it). Great way to get to know the lay of the land and introduce yourself to your customer base.

rock22

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

Just to clarify - we will be predominantly catering for the OFF road bike fraternity so we are not going to be stocking ON road clothing, tyres etc. Sorry to disappoint any of you who were hoping for another source for your on road gear!

Before you posted this, I was going to suggest that you should broaden your range and , hopefully , customer base.

You will find that the customer base is smaller here in Ireland. Where I live, a number of motorcycle shops have gone out of business because of the downturn in the economy.

Motorcyles are seen as a niche business. Off road is an even smaller niche! Whatever you decide, best of luck with it.

Hillybilly4

roadsmart wrote: »

Google the Paddy Dakar and enter a team (your better half will love it). Great way to get to know the lay of the land and introduce yourself to your customer base.

Thanks. Already found out about that one and it's on the list :0) !

Hillybilly4

rock22 wrote: »

Before you posted this, I was going to suggest that you should broaden your range and , hopefully , customer base.

You will find that the customer base is smaller here in Ireland. Where I live, a number of motorcycle shops have gone out of business because of the downturn in the economy.

Motorcyles are seen as a niche business. Off road is an even smaller niche! Whatever you decide, best of luck with it.

Thanks rock22. We have noticed the recent demise of a few shops there, some of them seemed to be longstanding and well thought of too...so that seems a real shame. Perhaps an inevitable consequence of the popularity of online retailing though?! Mind you, on our research and fact-finding trips, when we visited one motorbike shop (twice), we found them closed (as in not open - in the middle of the morning, not closed down) with not even any opening hours displayed...that doesn't really help would-be customers IMHO.

The road bike side of things is sooooo competitive already and, small fry that we are, we would find it hard to cater adequately for that market - having said that, many of our product lines are "crossover" items and our workshop facilities will cater for all bikes, not just off road.

galwaytt

Don't forget safety equip here like helmets attract VAT at 23%.
Buying online from NI or UK doesn't: I don't see how that gap is bridgeable here tbh.

Hillybilly4

galwaytt wrote: »

Don't forget safety equip here like helmets attract VAT at 23%.
Buying online from NI or UK doesn't: I don't see how that gap is bridgeable here tbh.

We'll be beneath the business VAT threshold I imagine and any helmets we stock will come from the UK so...we won't have to put VAT on top...? Am I right in that thinking?

iamtony

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

We'll be beneath the business VAT threshold I imagine and any helmets we stock will come from the UK so...we won't have to put VAT on top...? Am I right in that thinking?

Problem is if your beneath the vat threshold and don't register for vat and therefore cannot get an irish vat number and you will have to pay vat(leaving helmets out of this they are different) when buying stock from Europe of the uk which will put you at a big disadvantage.

They way it works in the eu is when buying outside of your country you give your supplier you irish vat number and they don't charge you vat because your selling the goods and paying vat to the irish vat man you have no way of claiming your European claimed vat back on purchases.

Bottom line register for vat!

And regarding helmets not all helmets are vat exemp in the uk it only applies to standard road helmets, off road and racing helmet have vat on top except child sizes(under 16) although a bit of fiddling regularly goes on.

Hillybilly4

iamtony wrote: »

Problem is if your beneath the vat threshold and don't register for vat and therefore cannot get an irish vat number and you will have to pay vat(leaving helmets out of this they are different) when buying stock from Europe of the uk which will put you at a big disadvantage.

That's the way we operate at present here in the UK. We are not VAT registered here because our turnover is below the threshold...but of course we still have to pay VAT on everything we buy...unless it's VAT exempt of course.
From what I have read, the situation would be the same - our UK VAT registered suppliers charge us UK VAT because we will not be VAT registered in Ireland...or am I missing something?

iamtony

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

That's the way we operate at present here in the UK. We are not VAT registered here because our turnover is below the threshold...but of course we still have to pay VAT on everything we buy...unless it's VAT exempt of course.
From what I have read, the situation would be the same - our UK VAT registered suppliers charge us UK VAT because we will not be VAT registered in Ireland...or am I missing something?

thats correct. It is pretty easy to get the vat thing sorted I'd do it if I were you!

Coyote

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

That's the way we operate at present here in the UK. We are not VAT registered here because our turnover is below the threshold...but of course we still have to pay VAT on everything we buy...unless it's VAT exempt of course.
From what I have read, the situation would be the same - our UK VAT registered suppliers charge us UK VAT because we will not be VAT registered in Ireland...or am I missing something?

the vat limit for goods in ireland is less than the uk which might make a difference.
uk = £81,000
ireland = €70,000

Hillybilly4

Coyote wrote: »

the vat limit for goods in ireland is less than the uk which might make a difference.
uk = £81,000
ireland = €70,000

Oh we'll be below that for sure

Hillybilly4

rock22 wrote: »

Before you posted this, I was going to suggest that you should broaden your range and , hopefully , customer base.

You will find that the customer base is smaller here in Ireland. Where I live, a number of motorcycle shops have gone out of business because of the downturn in the economy.

Motorcyles are seen as a niche business. Off road is an even smaller niche! Whatever you decide, best of luck with it.

Hi again - hope you've all been able to get out and enjoy your bikes! We are having a rare weekend off from racing so it's back to business planning!

We've been giving thought to rock22's suggestion (thanks) of broadening our range and, although we will still remain off road specialists, it does seem after all that there may be "room" for another online shop offering road bike parts. (I say this having been trawling previous posts on here for recommendations for online shops, following up the links and finding many of the stores to be disappointing.)

So, hope you don't mind me asking, but what parts etc do you road bikers tend to buy online or, what would you like to be able to buy online that maybe you have difficulty obtaining at present?

Thanks in advance for any input!

Peanut2011

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

So, hope you don't mind me asking, but what parts etc do you road bikers tend to buy online or, what would you like to be able to buy online that maybe you have difficulty obtaining at present?

All I can tell you buying online would be preference of mine for any consumables you can think of. Anything from service parts to tools to enhancements for the bike....

The only thing I am no longer buying online is boots and clothing, unless I can check the size locally!

The biggest downfall IMO on the local shops is not having prices displayed on the web as well as in the store!

I would say have that bit sorted right and have competitive prices on that, you will have returning customers!

BlackWizard

Prices on the site and prices on everything in the store would be really really nice

Hillybilly4

BlackWizard wrote: »

Prices on the site and prices on everything in the store would be really really nice

That's what I've been noticing with some online stores - some of them simply look like a catalogue, with no prices and/or no means for actually shopping for the goods online without making a phone call. Or, you click on a store department...and it's empty!

Peanut2011

Hillybilly4 wrote: »

That's what I've been noticing with some online stores - some of them simply look like a catalogue, with no prices and/or no means for actually shopping for the goods online without making a phone call. Or, you click on a store department...and it's empty!

And another downfall is the "customer service". For some unknown reason many shops do not answer e-mails, which is really frustrating!

Hillybilly4

Peanut2011 wrote: »

All I can tell you buying online would be preference of mine for any consumables you can think of. Anything from service parts to tools to enhancements for the bike....

The only thing I am no longer buying online is boots and clothing, unless I can check the size locally!

Thanks all for the replies.

We will most likely be offering chains & sprockets, brake pads, levers, cables & hoses, filters, tyres & inner tubes, lubes, bike cleaning products, workshop tools, bike stands, handlebars & grips, lights/indicators, fork seals, bearings, plastics & graphics, paints, security products etc. We won't be selling boots or clothing - other than off road kit (and most likely to order only), gloves, off road/dual purpose helmets and goggles, that sort of thing.

On the workshop side we'll be offering bike servicing, engine rebuilds, shock & fork servicing, wheel building, tyre fitting, seat recovering etc.

We'd also (hopefully) be running a trade stand at race meetings (that's still something to be looked into as obviously it depends on the meetings' organisers and their existing arrangements...don't want to be treading on toes!), offering a bike collection/delivery/recovery service (inc. to/from the UK). Longer term we're also thinking of offering biker-friendly accommodation which could include workshop facilities etc.

Oh and buying & selling used bikes of course

And in our spare time...

Hillybilly4

Hi again! We shall be at the Vernon Mount mx track, Cork this weekend (19/20 July) with the West Mids Pre 85 club for the Munster Motorcycle Club 2 day Intercity Classic, with a brace of racing Maicos and a bit of a trade stand if anyone would like to come and say hello! Look out for the bright orange gazebo. There will be cider...

Hillybilly4

Well, we've been over racing now a couple of times...Munster Motorcycle Club's Intercity Classic at Vernon Mount in July and Southwestern MX's World Motograss Championship at Cobh at the end of last month.
We also had permission to operate trade stands at both these 2 day events and so we not only had a blast but have also begun getting our name "out there" and making useful contacts on the racing scene. The trade stands actually did very well too which was encouraging.
Had hoped to do the Paddy Dakar this year but it clashes with a championship meeting we're already committed to...hopefully next year!
Our property purchase is taking fooooreveeerrrr to complete and so we're a bit lot frustrated that we can't get on with registering our business name, getting our .ie domain and website sorted etc but hey ho...