Possible Online Store in Melbourne?

[swanny]

Hey guys,
my brother and I were thinking about starting an online store for speedcubers. But after the expenses of making the domain name, PayPal etc, it would become quite expensive.
There are so many good stores on the web although half of them are in the US and they other half are in China. We thought it would be cool if the speedcubers of Australia could access quality products from there homeland.
If we decided to make the online store;

1.what products should we stock
2.Do you think it would be popular??

BTW it would be professional with paypal and stuff....

Thanks!

 

[aronpm]

There's already an online store in Melbourne.

 

[Tim Major]

There seriously isn't enough market, for 2 stores in Melbourne. In case you didn't know about my store, see my signature. It really wouldn't be a good idea to have competition in Australia, more importantly in the same city.

 

[pappas]

There's not much point because Tim already has a store and if you offered lower prices than Tim you wouldn't make a profit.

 

[edw0010]

Thats Business for ya thou! Wouldnt be good for tim, but would be for people wanting to buy stuff!

 

[Inf3rn0]

Thats Business for ya thou! Wouldnt be good for tim, but would be for people wanting to buy stuff!

He probably isnt going to make a substantial profit selling below Tims prices. Besides it would be unlikely he could supply below Tims prices due to larger costs such as a domain name. Perhaps then if they offered the same prices it would come down to customer service etc. but I can see no reason why Tims service wouldnt be satisfactory. So basically I dont think he will sell much product at all so in my opinion his store wouldnt last very long (Seeing as there probably isnt much money for him in it). Thats business for ya thou!

 

[edw0010]

He probably isnt going to make a substantial profit selling below Tims prices. Besides it would be unlikely he could supply below Tims prices due to larger costs such as a domain name. Perhaps then if they offered the same prices it would come down to customer service etc. but I can see no reason why Tims service wouldnt be satisfactory. So basically I dont think he will sell much product at all so in my opinion his store wouldnt last very long (Seeing as there probably isnt much money for him in it). Thats business for ya thou!

Agree completely when you put it like that Thats business for ya thou!

 

[Carlos]

The existance of a store in the same city is not a good reason for not openning another one, even if the city is considered small.
The competition certainly will offer better conditions for people who is willing to start cubing, and that's the point. If you want to stay selling well, just be a good store. You can even set some partnership to allow bigger grow of the number of speedcubers there.

Edit: I suggest Dayan Guhong to be stocked.

 

[swanny]

Yeah,
I was thinking dayan guhong, F-II, AV

 

[Dene]

The thing is, people already know Tim well. This won't necessarily give him the business of new randoms, but it gives him a huge advantage in the field. He is already trusted and can easily be held accountable if something goes wrong. I know where I would rather go.

 

[swanny]

good point...

 

[bigbee99]

I don't know about Australia, but in the US, opening a paypal account is free, and a domain name is around 10 USD a year... Although hosting costs a bit more, but it shouldn't go over 25 USD for a month for maintaining a website and paypal.

 

[swanny]

yes but I live 10,000 miles away!!

 

[bigbee99]

yes but I live 10,000 miles away!!

But even then, it shouldn't cost that much more. I'm just letting you know, I really don't think hosting the website and paypal is going to be were most of the cost is.

 

[swanny]

maybe i should just make a cubing store for just the HOLE world

 

[Inf3rn0]

maybe i should just make a cubing store for just the HOLE world

Nothx just move to Nz and make a Nz one so I can have my cubes quick.

 

[swanny]

I don't see what everyones fuss is about...... There is like 20 in China

 

[Inf3rn0]

I don't see what everyones fuss is about...... There is like 20 in China

And about 60x the amount of people, I assume total population has something to do with cubing population of a country. Also I dont think anyone has said NO DONT MAKE A STORE, just explained to you why it may not be the best of ideas.

 

[TimMc]

Domain, hosting, tax work...
You can create an ABN for free and register a .com.au for about $24 for two years. Web Hosting would then cost about $40 a year, but it varies depending on what you need. If it's just a few static pages then hosting would be very cheap. You may want to setup a Paypal Merchant account which has its own fees, but generally just takes 2-3% commission from each transaction.

Existing market
A lot of enthusiasts already buy online. You'd have to consider the time that you spend preparing and order and the cost of postage.

I honestly don't think that there are enough enthusiasts in Australia that would make it viable for you to place bulk orders with wholesalers to start reselling. I'm sure that you could eventually sell them, but you'd have a lot of stock on your hands and new puzzles keep getting manufactured all the time... rendering old ones obsolete.

Stock
You could get significant discounts of products if you buy them in bulk (100+). But you might have to pay if you're importing over a certain amount...

Something that costs $12 could be reduced down to $3. So you could buy at $3 and sell at $12, but keep in mind that someone else overseas might be offering free postage (included in the price). If you sold it locally for $4 plus $6 postage then you could undercut the international market by $2 and encourage locals to buy from you.

You have to consider the time you spend going from your place to the nearest post office and whether it's worth it. And the time it takes to write out addresses, confirm addresses, resolve issues where the customer has given the wrong address etc.

Legal?
You don't want to break the law by importing and selling something illegally. Try to make sure that you're not infringing on anyone's rights etc. Creating an online presence for such activities is the best way of getting caught.

There are heaps of stores in China because they aren't necessarily faced with this legal dilemma that the rest of us are.

What do you want to achieve with setting up an online store? Profit? Encourage others to cube?

There are other ways of making money, and with that you could purchase heaps of cubes at a very low price and simply give them out for free. ^_^

Tim.