Setting up an online store.

IDencI

I've got a bit of an odd question here, I want to setup an online store but I'm not entirely sure what to sell. I know your probably wondering what is going through my head, and I can understand why. Starting a business without a business idea isnt possible. I guess it's more for the experience than anything.I was thinking either selling Replacement mobile phone parts or Cycling gear and bike parts. I know these are already don't to death, so does anyone have any other ideas?
Please don't comment on my idioticness :P

pedronomix

be sure to get back to us on that!

jimmii

Loads of ideas but not sharing because I'm doing it myself already! For us what we are doing now is quite different to how we started out as its your customers who dictate where you take it.

Have you run an online shop before? Its a hell of a lot harder than it seems.

I think there is demand for high end quirky bike stuff I know one of the big department stores ordered 50k worth of bike stuff from one of our suppliers so it must be selling well enough!!

IDencI

jimmii wrote:

Loads of ideas but not sharing because I'm doing it myself already! For us what we are doing now is quite different to how we started out as its your customers who dictate where you take it.

jimmii wrote:

Have you run an online shop before? Its a hell of a lot harder than it seems.

jimmii wrote:

I think there is demand for high end quirky bike stuff I know one of the big department stores ordered 50k worth of bike stuff from one of our suppliers so it must be selling well enough!!

I've never ran one before but I want to see how far I can get and what I can accomplish. Do you mind me asking what you started with, or who the supplier was? Don't mean to be nosy!

jimmii

IDencI wrote: »

I've never ran one before but I want to see how far I can get and what I can accomplish. Do you mind me asking what you started with, or who the supplier was? Don't mean to be nosy!

The main cost is attracting people to your site we spend over a grand a month on improving seo and running AdWords campaigns and we're only a tiny online shop and it's nowhere near turning over enough to support even one person for us its just another part of the overall retail package. I thought a website would be an easy addition to our offering but it is a surprising amount of work even just getting the site up and running is a hell of a lot of work and that's before you even think about getting someone to buy something. If you want to start something and see where it goes you are better off starting with an eBay or amazon store that way you don't really need to worry about bringing traffic or sorting out SEO etc.

Not going to go into suppliers details on here I'm afraid!

makeandcreate

What I love about this forum is that people who are busy with their day to day lives, running businesses, organising and working are on hand to offer advice, help, support to all kinds of people asking all kinds of questions. Even those that don't like the answers they are given.
However, what I also like is that they point you in the right direction - they don't hand you a plate.
Asking someone who has contributed hugely to this forum and has built their business from the ground up over the last couple of years who their supplier is - that's a bit more than nosey. Do a bit of leg work then people might be more forthcoming.

IDencI

makeandcreate wrote:

What I love about this forum is that people who are busy with their day to day lives, running businesses, organising and working are on hand to offer advice, help, support to all kinds of people asking all kinds of questions. Even those that don't like the answers they are given. However, what I also like is that they point you in the right direction - they don't hand you a plate. Asking someone who has contributed hugely to this forum and has built their business from the ground up over the last couple of years who their supplier is - that's a bit more than nosey. Do a bit of leg work then people might be more forthcoming.

Sorry Jiimmii, didn't mean for that to come off as rude or nosy just a genuine question!

jimmii

IDencI wrote: »

Sorry Jiimmii, didn't mean for that to come off as rude or nosy just a genuine question!

Nah you're grand! In terms of suppliers the place you find them these days is Google. You'll spend a lot of time going through site after site looking for things and 90% of it is of no interest but every now and then you find something perfect. Even if you're in a shop and see something that might work for you check out who made it and try find them online.

IDencI

jimmii wrote:

Nah you're grand! In terms of suppliers the place you find them these days is Google. You'll spend a lot of time going through site after site looking for things and 90% of it is of no interest but every now and then you find something perfect. Even if you're in a shop and see something that might work for you check out who made it and try find them online.

I guess what your saying is to keep an open mind and when you see something that works follow up on it?
Thanks for the help so far BTW, much appreciated!

jimmii

IDencI wrote: »

I guess what your saying is to keep an open mind and when you see something that works follow up on it?
Thanks for the help so far BTW, much appreciated!

Yeah go where the market leads you basically. So often we have brought things in that we thought they are a sure fire winner and then sell none and other times we end up with things that we thought would be hopeless but some how sell really quick so you have to react to that to ensure you have what people are coming to you for.

One thing I have learnt is if in doubt buy something with a cat on it that always works.

euser1984

jimmii - Sounds like your in a competitive market with all that spending on adwords? Is that where the majority of the budget is going as from looking into it the seo seems to be quite simple with the likes of wordpress plugins. I haven't looked into it properly though so maybe it's not as easy as that?

Have you used facebook for marketing?

jimmii

euser1984 wrote: »

jimmii - Sounds like your in a competitive market with all that spending on adwords? Is that where the majority of the budget is going as from looking into it the seo seems to be quite simple with the likes of wordpress plugins. I haven't looked into it properly though so maybe it's not as easy as that?

Have you used facebook for marketing?

Yeah Facebook has been huge for us we have about 9k on there now. It is a pretty competitive market alright we get pretty high value customers as well so its worth the outlay. The SEO outlay is relatively small compared to the AdWords just about tidying up the site on the back end and making sure we're at the top for our important key words etc.

Graham

euser1984 wrote: »

seo seems to be quite simple with the likes of wordpress plugins. I haven't looked into it properly though so maybe it's not as easy as that?

SEO plugins don't do the work for you, they just make the work a bit easier/more organised.