How many have a retail internet business

[Hedgehog Toys]

How many people are in the retail sector on this forum?
Do you have a shop outlet as well and if so does the internet shop pay it's way?

[clairemackaness]

me and not yet LOL

[SillyJokes]

me and yes, it pays and has supported us full time since 2001

[Toon]

I have a unit open to the public but about 95% of my income comes from my websites.

[caroline]

I have a website and shop, the website is currently keeping the shop going, although the shop pays for itself at peak times, eg Xmas and Summer holidays.

[MarkPearson]

My business is solely online and actually works very well that way.

I am unsure if I would consider taking it to the highstreet etc.

[mattley23]

I have a retail website but no bricks and mortar outlet

[Coding Monkey]

Do a bit of market research in a few months, Mark. You might be surprised. Interflora will be buying you out in no time ;)

[Hedgehog Toys]

Yikes,
I have had several calls over the last few days from people wanting to come to the shop....obviously i don't have a shop!!!! Do i need to re-word my website in some way?

[MarkPearson]

Hi Mac,

Unsure how interflora would introduce this type of product.

The way they work is they promote their brand and take orders then all florist shops across the country who have paid fees to join interflora have to product the order if their shop is the closest to the delivery address.

Obviously, they can not produce personalised roses in each shop across the land without a huge set up cost.

And I think if they said to all their shops / franchises that they are going to produce and sell personalised roses and dispatch from one location, the franchises may be a bit pee'd off. Because thats their income, sales.

[SillyJokes]

You could put it on your contacts page.
We get calls like this. They tend to come from Thompson Local (they put us in without permission)

Just say you only trade online and your offices and warehouse are not open to the public.

Believe me, you do not want the public in your store rooms - kids run amok, stock gets moved around, nothing is priced up, they take up hours of your time and then leave empty handed. And of course you are not insured to have the public in there.

I loathe it when friends or locals arrive looking for stuff although you often get interesting insights. It's OK if you aren't too busy but they always arrive three days before Halloween when we are so busy you can't see my fingers type.

[bitsnstuff]

Hi,

I only have a retail website, no physical shop and yes, it pays it's way.

Kate :lol: