How long did your store take?

deniser

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Jun 3, 2008
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My children were born before internet shopping became the norm but there was a lot of mail order shopping in the baby market and I remember ordering most stuff from Boots and Mothercare catalogues.

But the 3 things we bought physically from a shop were:
1. cot
2. car seats
3. pushchairs

The reason for this is that most new parents will need advice with these things, not so much the cot but the car seats and pushchairs especially which car seats fit into which cars, and how to actually fit them properly using the seatbelts in the car. And how to collapse a pushchair is something that would probably still defeat me now (but not as bad as the travel cot!)

I agree with what previous posters have said in that a car seat to me would seem like a product you buy in a shop and not ideal for selling online unless you stock the same models found in shops and undercut them - so that people do their research in shops and then look online to see where they can find that exact model cheaper.

I am not au fait with these things so don't know if your stock is the same as what you would find on the high street?

I can imagine that many people would visit your store whilst carrying out research as well hence the low conversions.

Have you had a good look at the competition in terms of pricing, choice, brands etc?

In answer to your original question, it was probably 7 months before we were getting daily internet sales. I did no PPC but I read everything I could find about SEO and spent about 3 hours a day working on SEO. I don't know what you consider making a wage but I guess we probably reached that stage about the end of year 3. But between months 7 and 36 there was a sharp upwards increase and it was obvious quite early on that it was a viable business. But I have worked many many hours to get to that stage. And continue to do so.

I wouldn't go on mumsnet; they will eat you alive if they get a whiff of anything remotely commercial.
 
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Kerrib4

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Thanks for both of your opinions and input. I understand what you mean about buying car seats in a store rather than online. Unfortunately as I said previously, we did not know this back then when we begun the website. Car seats was what the 'marketing guru' who we paid had came up with. I am actually really annoyed that he chose that niche for us, and now that I know more about market research etc, I don't understand why he chose that niche for us.

I am going to continue with the website for about 3 months and make tweaks to the site. If it doesn't look like it's going anywhere after the three months then I should maybe consider trying something else.

Thanks
 
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TotallySport

Do you know of any websites with what you consider to be good navigation? Just so I can have a look myself to compare it to my site.

About the product pages, I'm actually getting these redesigned soon so that they are more tidy looking and so that the price and buy buttons are above the fold. Do you feel that the other colour links shouldn't be there? The reason we put them there was so people could easily find the other colour options.
I am sure you have web sites which you like, visit them all individually and without looking at their products write down what you like and why and what you don't and why and put a plan together.
 
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kulture

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    It is a good idea to get someone to manage a campaign for you, but consider this first:

    Your conversion rate is low (0.3%). Make sure any person who proposes to manage your campain also has a plan to incerase your conversion rate. If you have a campaign now and get 3 orders per thousand visitors then you will not earn much money. Now if your conversion rate is raised to just 1% (still low) then that is 10 orders per thousand. You are earning over 3 times as much for the same marketing.

    When you select a company ask them if they deal with anyone else in your line. If they do, how to the handle the conflict of interest. It may not be a bad thing, after all they will have specialised knowledge.
     
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    sussexrob

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    On an SEO point of view, I looked at the links pointing to your domain and alot just say babyonthego.co.uk, such as

    http://www.buzzle.com/authors.asp?author=33007

    You need to get more varied anchor text as very little amount of people will be typing your actual domain in

    Get a few of them under your belt and you should seen in increase of traffic.

    As for ranking number 10 for a keyword, that would be the exact match really amount of traffic (although the google keyword tool always over estimaes) , to get a higher amount of traffic for that keyword you need to be a more authoriative site for it so more links for that particular keyword

    Rob
     
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    dataferret

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    It seems the car seat idea is not viable. However you have a site and a domain name. You have a presence online and a position in the search engines. You have invested many hours and some money. Why waste it?

    I suggest you work with the tools you have and change the products you sell to somethin more fitting to your site. Perhaps you could sell everything which keeps a child occupied whilst on the move - toys, games, in-car TV's and so on. Also, perhaps you could sell all the stuff needed by the parent - blankets, carry bags etc. If you had children you would know you need to carry enough kit to stun an elephant and anything which keeps the kids quiet, or fits snugly into a handbag / small car etc is a godsend.

    Perhaps you could specialise in selling in-car storage especially for kids toys. Ones which fit on the back of seats with lots of pockets which could be branded, blue, pink, Hello Kitty etc.

    Once you have redefined your product base turn your attention to physical world marketing. Get adverts in church magazines, mums play centres, out of school clubs, day nurseries etc. Also consider running a party plan system and make sure you give out lots of cards with your website clearly printed on them.

    Regarding the abandoned carts, consider serveral different payment options. Paypal, Nochex, Cash, Bank Transfer, Lay Away, Postal Orders etc.

    Make your shipping clearly prominent. Place the cost at the end of the product description if it is a fixed shipping price. People often add to the cart to get the shipping price and then abandon the cart.

    Good luck :)
     
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    Kerrib4

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    i could well be talking rubbish (it has been known!), but if you had a contract with this 'Guru' for a service to be provided - well, he's failed hasn't he? finding you a niche market that just doesn't exist online, how can that be right? don't you have any comeback on this person?

    Yeah your right. I remember some other stupid ideas he came up for us such as remote control hoovers. Now that is something that would never sell. Basically he was coming up with daft ideas for us (I didn't realise this at the time as I knew nothing about business) and I see he came up with good ideas for his own businesses. For example I know for sure that vivalanails.co.uk is one of his sites. That site was a good idea, yet he could only come up with stupid and non viable business ideas for us. To be honest I don't really know what I can do except just continue with it and just change the product range.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    It is a good idea to get someone to manage a campaign for you, but consider this first:

    Your conversion rate is low (0.3%). Make sure any person who proposes to manage your campain also has a plan to incerase your conversion rate. If you have a campaign now and get 3 orders per thousand visitors then you will not earn much money. Now if your conversion rate is raised to just 1% (still low) then that is 10 orders per thousand. You are earning over 3 times as much for the same marketing.

    When you select a company ask them if they deal with anyone else in your line. If they do, how to the handle the conflict of interest. It may not be a bad thing, after all they will have specialised knowledge.

    Thanks, that is a very good point. When I contact the companies I will ensure that they will work on increasing the conversion rate.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    On an SEO point of view, I looked at the links pointing to your domain and alot just say babyonthego.co.uk, such as

    http://www.buzzle.com/authors.asp?author=33007

    You need to get more varied anchor text as very little amount of people will be typing your actual domain in

    Get a few of them under your belt and you should seen in increase of traffic.

    As for ranking number 10 for a keyword, that would be the exact match really amount of traffic (although the google keyword tool always over estimaes) , to get a higher amount of traffic for that keyword you need to be a more authoriative site for it so more links for that particular keyword

    Rob

    My profile website links are just the actual url, but most articles that I write and submit have anchor links in them with the keywords I am using. Can anchor links be added to profile web links? If so, I never really thought about this and will give it a try. Thanks.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    It seems the car seat idea is not viable. However you have a site and a domain name. You have a presence online and a position in the search engines. You have invested many hours and some money. Why waste it?

    I suggest you work with the tools you have and change the products you sell to somethin more fitting to your site. Perhaps you could sell everything which keeps a child occupied whilst on the move - toys, games, in-car TV's and so on. Also, perhaps you could sell all the stuff needed by the parent - blankets, carry bags etc. If you had children you would know you need to carry enough kit to stun an elephant and anything which keeps the kids quiet, or fits snugly into a handbag / small car etc is a godsend.

    Perhaps you could specialise in selling in-car storage especially for kids toys. Ones which fit on the back of seats with lots of pockets which could be branded, blue, pink, Hello Kitty etc.

    Once you have redefined your product base turn your attention to physical world marketing. Get adverts in church magazines, mums play centres, out of school clubs, day nurseries etc. Also consider running a party plan system and make sure you give out lots of cards with your website clearly printed on them.

    Regarding the abandoned carts, consider serveral different payment options. Paypal, Nochex, Cash, Bank Transfer, Lay Away, Postal Orders etc.

    Make your shipping clearly prominent. Place the cost at the end of the product description if it is a fixed shipping price. People often add to the cart to get the shipping price and then abandon the cart.

    Good luck :)

    Thanks very much for this really helpful post :). Selling smaller different products was something that hadn't crossed my mind. If we did this it would also mean that everything could be sent cheaper and could be sent throughout Europe (which is a service we couldn't offer just now). I'm going to make a new plan for the business and start this right away. Thanks very much, you may have turned this around for the better for me :D.

    I guess I would just start my keywords etc from scratch. I would obviously need to change my websites title and meta tags - I guess changing the whole title will have no negative effects?

    I completely agree about car seats not being viable. I of course didn't know this when it first started, but thought that the so called 'guru' would know better than me so we went with the idea. I don't have kids either so didn't know that most parents buy them in in store.
     
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    sysops

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    I completely agree about car seats not being viable. I of course didn't know this when it first started, but thought that the so called 'guru' would know better than me so we went with the idea. I don't have kids either so didn't know that most parents buy them in in store.

    I don't think there is anything inherently non-viable about selling baby car seats online. If that was the case, you simply wouldn't have this many large retailers offering them online:

    http://www.mothercare.com/
    http://www.halfords.com/
    http://www.johnlewis.com/
    http://www.littlewoods.com/
    http://www.argos.co.uk/

    I'd say the online market for car seats is thriving, going by the effort made by these retailers.

    No, the real question is, do you have the resources to develop this business?
     
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    Kerrib4

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    I don't think there is anything inherently non-viable about selling baby car seats online. If that was the case, you simply wouldn't have this many large retailers offering them online:

    http://www.mothercare.com/
    http://www.halfords.com/
    http://www.johnlewis.com/
    http://www.littlewoods.com/
    http://www.argos.co.uk/

    I'd say the online market for car seats is thriving, going by the effort made by these retailers.

    No, the real question is, do you have the resources to develop this business?

    Sorry I don't know what you mean by 'do you have the resources to develop this business?' Do you feel I am just not capable or do you mean do I have money to invest? I don't think car seats is a good idea for a new business which sells online only, many people will agree. The shops you mention above have retails stores.
     
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    TotallySport

    I don't think there is anything inherently non-viable about selling baby car seats online. If that was the case, you simply wouldn't have this many large retailers offering them online:

    http://www.mothercare.com/
    http://www.halfords.com/
    http://www.johnlewis.com/
    http://www.littlewoods.com/
    http://www.argos.co.uk/

    I'd say the online market for car seats is thriving, going by the effort made by these retailers.

    No, the real question is, do you have the resources to develop this business?
    I am not sure you can judge the online market by those retailers, all have massive high street presence and most of them offer a collection service, I would expect all to have a fairly good and easy returns policy.

    It would be interesting to see what the big independent online retailers focus on, and I don't doubt there is online demand, but I would think its a lot less than other areas of the baby market.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    I am not sure you can judge the online market by those retailers, all have massive high street presence and most of them offer a collection service, I would expect all to have a fairly good and easy returns policy.

    It would be interesting to see what the big independent online retailers focus on, and I don't doubt there is online demand, but I would think its a lot less than other areas of the baby market.

    Thanks, I completely agree. Plus, if I try to compete with these companies I think I would be setting my goals far too high.
     
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    sysops

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    You're entitled to your opinions of course, but you're both wrong.

    The fact that they have high street presence doesn't mean they don't sell a lot of car seats online to people who haven't looked at them in a shop.

    Oh look - guess who else sells a lot of car seats - Amazon. They don't have a high street presence.

    Resources - time and money.

    Kerrib4 - it feels a little like you're looking for someone to blame for your lack of success. This business could be made to work, but it would take a lot more money than you think.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    You're entitled to your opinions of course, but you're both wrong.

    The fact that they have high street presence doesn't mean they don't sell a lot of car seats online to people who haven't looked at them in a shop.

    Oh look - guess who else sells a lot of car seats - Amazon. They don't have a high street presence.

    Resources - time and money.

    Kerrib4 - it feels a little like you're looking for someone to blame for your lack of success. This business could be made to work, but it would take a lot more money than you think.

    Amazon are again another company that is much larger than my store. Manufacturers at a recent baby show even said to me that they thought selling car seats online was not such a good idea for a small company. When it comes to safety people may want to buy from a larger store that they can trust more. Car seats are a major safety item for children.

    If you think I am trying to blame anyone then you have definitely picked me up wrong. I was simply saying that the idea was not great, and is not the best thing for an absolute beginner to try and sell. I don't think it has been a major fail though, I think I have done well to start a business from scratch without any knowledge of how businesses work. I am of course still learning, and I will learn from the mistakes I have previously made. It seems to me like you are saying I am not capable of running a business.
     
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    sysops

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    Amazon are again another company that is much larger than my store. Manufacturers at a recent baby show even said to me that they thought selling car seats online was not such a good idea for a small company. When it comes to safety people may want to buy from a larger store that they can trust more. Car seats are a major safety item for children.

    When someone makes up their mind, they really make it up, don't they?

    Ok, how about this independant?

    http://www.kiddicare.com/

    Large range, and they are doing very well. Why can't you do as well?

    It seems to me like you are saying I am not capable of running a business.

    You keep saying this. I don't know whether you have sufficient skills, but I haven't commented on this either way. What I do know is that you don't have sufficient funds.

    Many people start businesses, both online and offline (but a lot more online) without access to sufficient funds to make the business viable. Given enough money, you can break into any online sector.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    When someone makes up their mind, they really make it up, don't they?

    Ok, how about this independant?

    http://www.kiddicare.com/

    Large range, and they are doing very well. Why can't you do as well?



    You keep saying this. I don't know whether you have sufficient skills, but I haven't commented on this either way. What I do know is that you don't have sufficient funds.

    Many people start businesses, both online and offline (but a lot more online) without access to sufficient funds to make the business viable. Given enough money, you can break into any online sector.

    Kiddicare also have a retail store and they have been running for over 10 years. They also advertise on TV and radio.

    Sorry if I picked you up wrong. I just thought you were impying that I simply couldn't run a business.

    About the funds, I do have quite a bit of savings behind me. How much do you feel is sufficient funds?
     
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    sysops

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    About the funds, I do have quite a bit of savings behind me. How much do you feel is sufficient funds?

    I haven't studied your sector, but in general, I approach new sites like this:

    Year 1: Set a realistic budget for stock and marketing. Mirror the range offered by the major suppliers, and tell the word about it. I'd guess £20k in stock, £24k in marketing. By the end of the year, I would expect to be turning over £5k a month. If it's nowhere near that, then I would call this project a dead duck, dispose of stock and close it down.

    Year 2 + 3: Continue to spend all profits on marketing, to take advantage of the initial fast growth. The business won't generate a return until the end of year 3.

    From Year 4 on, I'd scale back marketing spend to around 10-15% of sales.
     
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    TotallySport

    You're entitled to your opinions of course, but you're both wrong.

    The fact that they have high street presence doesn't mean they don't sell a lot of car seats online to people who haven't looked at them in a shop.

    Oh look - guess who else sells a lot of car seats - Amazon. They don't have a high street presence.

    Resources - time and money.

    Kerrib4 - it feels a little like you're looking for someone to blame for your lack of success. This business could be made to work, but it would take a lot more money than you think.
    I will give you Amazon as a much better example.

    I think i did mention earlier on that for the line they have chosen it would be much harder to complete, but not impossible :p:):cool: (but i might not have)
     
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    Kerrib4

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    I haven't studied your sector, but in general, I approach new sites like this:

    Year 1: Set a realistic budget for stock and marketing. Mirror the range offered by the major suppliers, and tell the word about it. I'd guess £20k in stock, £24k in marketing. By the end of the year, I would expect to be turning over £5k a month. If it's nowhere near that, then I would call this project a dead duck, dispose of stock and close it down.

    Year 2 + 3: Continue to spend all profits on marketing, to take advantage of the initial fast growth. The business won't generate a return until the end of year 3.

    From Year 4 on, I'd scale back marketing spend to around 10-15% of sales.

    Sounds like a good plan you have there. Now that you've shown me a figure for the first year, I can tell you I don't have as much as that to invest. 44k is a lot of money in the first year. I can understand why you would invest that much though, as it would give the business a massive head start. I will be honest in saying that I only had around 2k right at the beginning of the business, which is more than likely a major reason of why it is building slower. All profits made have went back into the business, and we have been saving up some of my partners wages which is why we now have some savings available, but nowhere as much as the figure you have said.
     
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    sysops

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    I think i did mention earlier on that for the line they have chosen it would be much harder to complete, but not impossible :p:):cool: (but i might not have)

    The thing is, you can always find an angle on which to compete with the existing suppliers. It doesn't always have to be price. Presentation, level of information, speed of service, upsell lines, there are always ways of breaking into a sector. But it takes work and it takes money.
     
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    AndyP

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    Question.... is it just me but it has become apparent throughout this thread that the market was chosen for the OP by some supposed marketing guru (remind me what makes him/her a guru again?) but that aside I am, let's say, a little surprised that the OP has just taken what this "guru" has suggested and gone with it with all the "research" into viability coming a tad "after the fact". To me it's naive but it is what it is. And I hope a huge lesson learned. Would you dream of just accepting your accountants figures without checking them? I don't think so....so why leave something so huge as the market in which you operate to chance? I think the fundamental thing here now is to take stock and decide exactly where to go from here before potentially wasting another penny, pound, minute or hour on the project. When the big decision has been made you can then move forward in a positive frame of mind....right now I get the feeling that its all if's, but's and maybe's and that can't be good. Take a step away, and brainstrom this....and if it were me I would be calling in the "guru" asking for some clarification of the basis on which the market was chosen (although this is something that should have been asked at the time I guess). I do think you need to make some serious decisions though over the next day or two.

    Sysops...I agree with what you have said but I also think you are looking at a text book startup and clearly this isn't the case here or indeed with many startups. That's not to say that a less well funded startup can't make it, it just takes more ducking and diving I guess....

    I think you are probably not really helping the OP here right now as I am guessing that her savings will not come anywhere close to covering the expenditure that you are suggesting.....that said, I still think she has a shot at it....once she has made that big decision to stick with it and kick arse or to move to another field within the sector...which also has merit of course.
     
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    sysops

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    Sounds like a good plan you have there. Now that you've shown me a figure for the first year, I can tell you I don't have as much as that to invest. 44k is a lot of money in the first year. I can understand why you would invest that much though, as it would give the business a massive head start. I will be honest in saying that I only had around 2k right at the beginning of the business, which is more than likely a major reason of why it is building slower. All profits made have went back into the business, and we have been saving up some of my partners wages which is why we now have some savings available, but nowhere as much as the figure you have said.

    Unless you manage to find (or create) a very low competition sector, I don't think it's possible to build an online business on less than £30k-£40k. Those times are far behind us.

    That's not to say you can't set up an online shop and sell some stock - anyone can do that for a few hundred pounds. But building a business capable of earning you a sensible living within a sensible timescale takes a lot more.
     
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    Kerrib4

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    Question.... is it just me but it has become apparent throughout this thread that the market was chosen for the OP by some supposed marketing guru (remind me what makes him/her a guru again?) but that aside I am, let's say, a little surprised that the OP has just taken what this "guru" has suggested and gone with it with all the "research" into viability coming a tad "after the fact". To me it's naive but it is what it is. And I hope a huge lesson learned. Would you dream of just accepting your accountants figures without checking them? I don't think so....so why leave something so huge as the market in which you operate to chance? I think the fundamental thing here now is to take stock and decide exactly where to go from here before potentially wasting another penny, pound, minute or hour on the project. When the big decision has been made you can then move forward in a positive frame of mind....right now I get the feeling that its all if's, but's and maybe's and that can't be good. Take a step away, and brainstrom this....and if it were me I would be calling in the "guru" asking for some clarification of the basis on which the market was chosen (although this is something that should have been asked at the time I guess). I do think you need to make some serious decisions though over the next day or two.

    Sysops...I agree with what you have said but I also think you are looking at a text book startup and clearly this isn't the case here or indeed with many startups. That's not to say that a less well funded startup can't make it, it just takes more ducking and diving I guess....

    I think you are probably not really helping the OP here right now as I am guessing that her savings will not come anywhere close to covering the expenditure that you are suggesting.....that said, I still think she has a shot at it....once she has made that big decision to stick with it and kick arse or to move to another field within the sector...which also has merit of course.

    Thanks AndyP,

    Like you said, I am going to do some more research and brainstorming over the next couple of days, but right now I am thinking of getting rid of my car seat stock and stocking other baby items. Smaller items would be ideal as this way we would be able to send everything throughout Europe easily and more cheaply.
     
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    sysops

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    Sysops...I agree with what you have said but I also think you are looking at a text book startup and clearly this isn't the case here or indeed with many startups. Tht's not to say that a less well funded startup can't make it, it just takes more ducking and diving I guess....

    I think you are probably not really helping the OP here right now as I am guessing that her savings will not come anywhere close to covering the expenditure that you are suggesting.....that said, I still think she has a shot at it....once she has made that big decision to stick with it and kick arse or to move to another field within the sectore...which also has merit of course.

    Andy - I know what you're saying, and I know how some of my comments come across. But what drives me to make them is the sadness I experience when I see people plough a year or two into something which has a 95% chance of failure (based on the starting conditions). I've seen this happen many times, and I've seen it a couple of times with close friends, and it always upsets me.

    To be clear - I think it's possible to break into any online sector, and make a viable business. But it's far harder than it was a few years ago, and it takes a lot more money than it used to (unless it's a new or very uncompeted sector).
     
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    Kerrib4

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    Unless you manage to find (or create) a very low competition sector, I don't think it's possible to build an online business on less than £30k-£40k. Those times are far behind us.

    That's not to say you can't set up an online shop and sell some stock - anyone can do that for a few hundred pounds. But building a business capable of earning you a sensible living within a sensible timescale takes a lot more.

    I am in a much better position than I was this time last year, so I do have a lot more than a few hundred pound to invest - it's just deciding how to invest it. This is something I will need to think about. My partner actually started an online business last year with a couple of is mates, buying and selling car parts, and they are doing very well. They are selling on average 6 items per day. They started their business with under 2k.
     
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    TotallySport

    Thanks AndyP,

    Like you said, I am going to do some more research and brainstorming over the next couple of days, but right now I am thinking of getting rid of my car seat stock and stocking other baby items. Smaller items would be ideal as this way we would be able to send everything throughout Europe easily and more cheaply.
    Personally I think you need to sit down figure out what will make you drive the business, from the OP you didn't choose the line of business your in, and there is no point flogging a dead horse, if your interest and passions are for something else, it might be an idea to simply start again with a new focus, new products and a new market.
     
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    Kerrib4

    Free Member
    Jun 6, 2009
    301
    7
    West Lothian
    Personally I think you need to sit down figure out what will make you drive the business, from the OP you didn't choose the line of business your in, and there is no point flogging a dead horse, if your interest and passions are for something else, it might be an idea to simply start again with a new focus, new products and a new market.

    Yeah I guess your right, it's just the thought of starting again. Plus, I do enjoy doing what I doing just now. I will definitely think it over though.
     
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    T

    TotallySport

    Don't get me wrong, if you sit down and think baby stuff is the way forward then by all means go for it, however don't think you need to stay with baby things if you think although baby stuff is good, Music equipement is better etc. (you could always look as complementry but not competition business) from your other half.

    Good Luck what ever you choose.
     
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    deniser

    Free Member
    Jun 3, 2008
    8,081
    1,697
    London
    If you did want to make a go of the car seats then the best way to do this is to provide the information everyone is looking for (and visits a shop for);

    1. which car seats fit into which cars
    2. a video clip showing how to fit the seat properly - you could do this in Youtube but link it to the product page.
    3. answer commonly asked questions about car seats
    4. legal requirements about who can sit where in the car and in what sort of seat at what age and height

    That should ensure you lots of traffic as well as a few more sales I would have thought.


    Have a look at these:

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/product...llows-me-to-check-car-seat-compatability-with

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/857965-VW-Passat-and-3-child-seats-How

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/966725-Group-2-car-seat-with-5-point-harness-reclineable-and

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/960328-Mamas-amp-Papas-Trekker-Car-Seat-does-anyone-have-one

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/954005-lightweight-car-seat

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/949508-Group-1-2-3-Isofix-car-seat-do-they-exist

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/946394-toddler-in-booster-seat

    etc etc. there is sooooooo much information you could add to you site to make it the authoritative place to go for car seats and to set it apart from other sites.
     
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    deniser

    Free Member
    Jun 3, 2008
    8,081
    1,697
    London
    If you did want to make a go of the car seats then the best way to do this is to provide the information everyone is looking for (and visits a shop for);

    1. which car seats fit into which cars
    2. a video clip showing how to fit the seat properly - you could do this in Youtube but link it to the product page.
    3. answer commonly asked questions about car seats
    4. legal requirements about who can sit where in the car and in what sort of seat at what age and height

    That should ensure you lots of traffic as well as a few more sales I would have thought.


    Have a look at these:

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/product...llows-me-to-check-car-seat-compatability-with

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/857965-VW-Passat-and-3-child-seats-How

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/966725-Group-2-car-seat-with-5-point-harness-reclineable-and

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/960328-Mamas-amp-Papas-Trekker-Car-Seat-does-anyone-have-one

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/954005-lightweight-car-seat

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/949508-Group-1-2-3-Isofix-car-seat-do-they-exist

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/946394-toddler-in-booster-seat

    etc etc. there is sooooooo much information you could add to you site to make it the authoritative place to go for car seats and to set it apart from other sites.
    I can see you have some of this information on your blog but I think you want to make a big feature of it on your main site with the information possibly on the home page itself.
     
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    S

    S-Marketing

    Completely agree with Deniser. What you want is for your site to be 'the place to go' for advice in seats and suchlike. The fact that you sell the seats should be second on the list of priorities. This will get the traffic and the trust, THEN you can concentrate on converting traffic to sales.
     
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    Kerrib4

    Free Member
    Jun 6, 2009
    301
    7
    West Lothian
    If you did want to make a go of the car seats then the best way to do this is to provide the information everyone is looking for (and visits a shop for);

    1. which car seats fit into which cars
    2. a video clip showing how to fit the seat properly - you could do this in Youtube but link it to the product page.
    3. answer commonly asked questions about car seats
    4. legal requirements about who can sit where in the car and in what sort of seat at what age and height

    That should ensure you lots of traffic as well as a few more sales I would have thought.


    Have a look at these:

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/product...llows-me-to-check-car-seat-compatability-with

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/857965-VW-Passat-and-3-child-seats-How

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/966725-Group-2-car-seat-with-5-point-harness-reclineable-and

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/960328-Mamas-amp-Papas-Trekker-Car-Seat-does-anyone-have-one

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/954005-lightweight-car-seat

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/949508-Group-1-2-3-Isofix-car-seat-do-they-exist

    http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/products/946394-toddler-in-booster-seat

    etc etc. there is sooooooo much information you could add to you site to make it the authoritative place to go for car seats and to set it apart from other sites.

    Thanks for the ideas. We do already have car seat fitting videos for most of the car seats on the actual product pages. I will look into the other ideas.
     
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    Would be great to be getting 800 visits per day. Do you have any marketing tips for gaining more web traffic?

    According to google adwords keyword tool, one of my keywords is getting 18100 hits per month, but I am finding that I am not getting all that many visits from that particular keyword. I am number 10 in google for that keyword just now.

    Thanks

    Hi Kerri,
    to increase your traffic you may want to have a chat with a user on this forum named Gordon (his user name is monkeyclap)
    He will give you a free assessment and some free advice as to to the best place to start with PPC,
    all the best,
    Anthony
     
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    Kerrib4

    Free Member
    Jun 6, 2009
    301
    7
    West Lothian
    Hi Kerri,
    to increase your traffic you may want to have a chat with a user on this forum named Gordon (his user name is monkeyclap)
    He will give you a free assessment and some free advice as to to the best place to start with PPC,
    all the best,
    Anthony

    Hi Anthony,

    Thanks for advising to speak to Gordon. Gordon has contacted me regarding PPC, and it will be something I will be looking into when my website is finished being worked on (we are getting product pages redesigned and more products added to the site).

    Thanks again :)
     
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