How to give away jewellery e-commerce site for free?

[sotap3]

My wife tried to build a jewellery e-commerce store 2 years ago. It didn't do that well due to various reasons.

We have around £13k of stock which we want to get rid of at cost. Retail value is probably over £40k.

Have been trying to find buyers on flippa to get the e-shop + trademark + photos + everything else for free and just buy the stock at cost (or even discounted), but have been unsuccesful.

She has got a job now and not interested in this business any more. Any ideas where I can find some potential buyers for this?
Website is ethereagallery.com if it makes a difference.

 

[fisicx]

Just dispose of the stock.

Don’t bother even trying to give away everything else.

 

[AlanJ1]

From a jewellery background here.

Have you looked at scrap value? You are going to struggle to get cost back for this (or even half of cost imo). You are selling "generic" "unbranded" goods (of which I know the manufacturer for most if not all of it).

Unless the site has turned over significant money and has lots of customers you really have no value here.

 

[sotap3]

Yes,

Just dispose of the stock.

Don’t bother even trying to give away everything else.

Yes, just want to dispose of the stock but how? You mean for the value of the metal only?

 

[sotap3]

From a jewellery background here.

Have you looked at scrap value? You are going to struggle to get cost back for this (or even half of cost imo). You are selling "generic" "unbranded" goods (of which I know the manufacturer for most if not all of it).

Unless the site has turned over significant money and has lots of customers you really have no value here.

Fair enough, if the only option is to scrap for the cost of the metal I might as well keep the items for gift giving etc.

 

[AlanJ1]

Fair enough, if the only option is to scrap for the cost of the metal I might as well keep the items for gift giving etc.

Yeah, you need to see it from a buyers perspective when selling and what they are getting. In reality it's a bunch of stock that never sold.

 

[fisicx]

Next local car boot sale, school or church fete. Get it all mounted on boards and flog it off cheap.

 

[hikiwari]

It didn't do that well due to various reasons.

@sotap3 What were the "various reasons"?

 

[sotap3]

@sotap3 What were the "various reasons"?

Couldn't get cost of customer acquisition low enough to make it profitable.

 

[KeithGreen]

Might be worth trying Rightbiz as a low cost advertising platform. Advertise as a business opportunity, and give an asking price as "offers invited" doesn't work.

 

[WaveJumper]

Check out local summer fairs and street markets, walked through one (sorry dragged through one) with wife at the weekend and had to stop at three jewellery traders ...... and yes she ended up buying something and even some smelly candles on the return trip

I only wanted to walk up the high street to visit Halfords

 

[KeithGreen]

Also try the Businesses For Sale category on eBay, or as a joblot pallet stock.

 

[Picture Bute]

I buy stock lots regularly of the kind of size/value that you're talking about. You'll be doing well to get 10% of what you consider to be your wholesale value. You'd be better trying to sell it for cost at car boot sales or keeping it and giving it to everyone for birthday and christmas gifts for the next five years. Either solution could take you a significant amount of time.

 

[pandora]

You could try an auction house that holds General Auctions, they might lot them up in batches, market traders buy these types of lots, but you would probably have to enter them without reserves and be prepared to get very little for them.

 

[Ditso]

My wife tried to build a jewellery e-commerce store 2 years ago. It didn't do that well due to various reasons.

We have around £13k of stock which we want to get rid of at cost. Retail value is probably over £40k.

Have been trying to find buyers on flippa to get the e-shop + trademark + photos + everything else for free and just buy the stock at cost (or even discounted), but have been unsuccesful.

She has got a job now and not interested in this business any more. Any ideas where I can find some potential buyers for this?
Website is ethereagallery.com if it makes a difference.

You could maybe try and contact a competitor who would probably take the stock if the discounted price made it worthwhile. £13k is quite a bit for someone just starting out but they might take it 1k at a time.

 

[Picture Bute]

You could try an auction house that holds General Auctions, they might lot them up in batches, market traders buy these types of lots, but you would probably have to enter them without reserves and be prepared to get very little for them.

I know someone who did that for a whole shop worth of shoes and trainers via a company called Sweeney Kincaid. They got fractions of the fractions they had been willing to accept, after fees etc. Absolute last resort if the only alternative is throwing it in a skip.

 

[pandora]

I know someone who did that for a whole shop worth of shoes and trainers via a company called Sweeney Kincaid. They got fractions of the fractions they had been willing to accept, after fees etc. Absolute last resort if the only alternative is throwing it in a skip.

I think that Sweeney Kincaid are a commercial auction, selling building equipment, work vehicles, inventory from insolvencies etcetera, I was thinking more of a general auction that sells mainly everyday chattels, small traders buy stock from these for fairs, markets, eBay, car-boots and the like. That said, it is true that any return is likely to be meager! Another alternative would be to try to find someone to take over the site or incorporate it into their own site, paying you for the stock as and (if) when it sells.

 

[fisicx]

@sotap3 - I've just looked at the site and there are all sorts of things that could be improved. With the right sort of marketing you could easily reduce the cost of acquisition and improve conversions.

Not sure shopify (or maybe just the theme) was the right choice for your business. It looks very corporate.

 

[Onthebrightside]

I regret I'm going to add to your woes.

You're selling plated jewellery at extremely high prices and the majority of people won't pay those prices for it.

Chinese jewellery supply chains are knocking out similar stuff at a pittance with low import costs. As a reference www.8seasons.com who on the link below is selling 18K gold plated chains at £2.26. This is the sort of plated stuff people will buy as 'trend' jewellery off of market stalls and your average price is going to be somewhere between £9.99 to max £25.00 I would estimate (depending on whether you in a wealthy area). https://www.8seasons.com/eco-friend...eel-link-chain-necklace-unisex?childId=702334

People are far too tech savvy to pay those sorts of prices for plated jewellery when they can get it cheaper on Amazon or one of the overseas sites. Yours may be slightly better designed or a higher density of plating, but they still won't pay it because it's only 'plated'.

I ran a high street shop with website making and selling jewellery similar to yours and when I got cancer and had to close it we had to chuck the jewellery into local charity shops. I think in total the charity shops made about £1k from the entire stock over about a year and a half.

The people on here advising you to save time and further funds/efforts on reselling are absolutely correct I regret to say and I apologise for not being able to offer any light at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Picture Bute]

I think that Sweeney Kincaid are a commercial auction, selling building equipment, work vehicles, inventory from insolvencies etcetera, I was thinking more of a general auction that sells mainly everyday chattels, small traders buy stock from these for fairs, markets, eBay, car-boots and the like. That said, it is true that any return is likely to be meager! Another alternative would be to try to find someone to take over the site or incorporate it into their own site, paying you for the stock as and (if) when it sells.

Sweeney kincaid sell everything from make up bags and sports socks to JCB's and everything in between.

 

[NickZ]

Sell the stock and if possible the site to a competing business.
That is how I would try it 1st.

 

[sotap3]

Thank you all, that was very sobering feedback, really appreciate it. Thankfully I've written off the cost and would rather keep it for personal gift giving than sell it of for a huge discount.
I bought myself a lot of gifts and a valuable business lesson.