E-Commerce Startup

[Samh8]

Hi all,

I'm a complete newbie to the business world. I currently work for a small manufacturing company, but would like to start and try to build a side business that one day I could be running full time. I'm just not sure the best way to go about it.

I'm thinking about starting an online pet supplies store. I was thinking about maybe opening an eBay shop to start it slowly and build from there and eventually have my own website / store. But now I'm not sure if eBay is very popular these days with the way Amazon has taken over.

I'm looking for advice / suggestions on the following:

Is eBay still a good way to sell your goods?

Due to space restrictions, is it possible to build your business from only a handful of products?

Is the pet supplies market overcrowded and I should be looking at alternatives niches?

Anybody that has been / is in a similar situation, what advice could you give?

Any help / suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[WaveJumper]

Welcome to the UKBF @Samh8 the pet market is huge but there are also a lot of companies doing it, Ebay and Amazon are probably a pretty good place to start but what are you going to be offering that others are not, what is going to be your USP that makes potential customers want to buy from you.

If not done so already I would do a lot more research and see what others are offering, then maybe you need to check where are you going to source your product range.

Generally I would say if you are wanting to build a side hustle do / pick something you really enjoy and look too see if there are opportunities there for a business. Wishing you the best of luck

 

[Samh8]

Hi, thanks for your reply. I'm currently going through the research stage and trying to figure out my USP.

In terms of sourcing products, I'd prefer to source from the UK rather than China/overseas, but I'm just trying to figure which is more cost effective. Due to starting with low order quantities I would think that shipping from China wouldn't be as cost effective.

I'm also unsure of the best way to find suppliers. I'm under the impression that you're better to find local wholesalers/manufacturers that don't come up as easily on Google, as these tend to be cheaper than the more popular ones?

Will continue to research ??

 

[fisicx]

Is eBay still a good way to sell your goods?

Yes it is

Due to space restrictions, is it possible to build your business from only a handful of products?

Yes

Is the pet supplies market overcrowded and I should be looking at alternatives niches?

Yes and Probably

Anybody that has been / is in a similar situation, what advice could you give?

Find something you can buy in bulk at a low cost. Store in your garage and sell at boot sales. You will make more money doing this than you will trying to sell on eBay.

If you want to make even more money, offer your services as gardener/cleaner at the weekends.

Unless you have something niche or different selling online is getting much harder.

 

[Samh8]

Hi, thanks for your comments. I'm currently researching to find products, USP, etc.

Regarding the weekend work, it's not so much about the money at the minute, but more that I'm looking to build something for the future that I can move into full time if possible and maybe even get my family involved in when kids grow up.
I have been doing some extra work at weekends but finding it difficult not spending as much time with family. (Although I understand that it will take a lot of my spare time to start an online business too)

Appreciate your comments though ?

 

[fisicx]

If that’s the case selling small quantities on ebay isn’t really a good place to start.

There are thousands of people all selling the same tat for pennies of profit.

As you have discovered, finding the right product is hard. And even if you do find something the life of that product is often short lived. You will need to constantly find different things to sell and you will need to buy in bulk.

I brought some car parts the other day and needed to confirm the spec. Chatting to the seller and he buys container loads of stock. It’s the only way the business is viable.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Your questions are good ones - often overlooked by start ups.

In a nutshell, small range of niched products is definitely the way to go.

That could be

Breed-specific
Ailment/condition-linked
Vegetarian food etc etc,

Crowded markets are for people who don't understand niches!

 

[fisicx]

We buy cat food in bulk (got 5 of the things). This means 200+ tins per order. 30kg of dryfood. 6 bags of cat litter. Their business works because they ship tons of the stuff every day. You can't compete with this.

But if you source Christmas clothes for cats and dogs you could do OK. Then look for Valentines of Easter clothes next year and so on. Only problem is it's a bit late for Christmas. The factories want orders many months in advance. I seem to recall someone saying Christmas orders need to be in by July each year.

 

[japancool]

I'm doing the same thing.

I'm not going with ebay/Amazon. The fees are too high, and there's too much competition.

I've worked out my niche, and I'm going to sell via my own website. Marketing will be via Facebook initially, because that's what I'm familiar with, but Instagram is probably a better option (considering what I'm going to sell is visually appealing).

As for shipping from China, it depends on how you get it shipped. For small quantities, you would probably be best getting shipped by a courier like DHL or Fedex. Yes, it's more expensive, but the goods get to you quickly and you can turnaround stock more rapidly.