Opening a cell phone store...need help

[jrmaier]

Hey Everyone!

My business partner and I are planning on opening a cell phone authorized reseller store and would like to see if anyone has any good pointers. One item that we are interested in is the average commission per line, what Verizon Sprint and Tmobile are looking for when they see your application, and if you know of any good cell phone distributors( no refurbished).

Thanks for any help!

Justin

[BOG]

I have a friend that owns two stores and does pretty well.

[F360]

Would it not be best to ring the cellphone companies themselves if your serious about this?

[Zeke3Elevn]

Well theres 3 channels... direct and indirect. Direct is your corp owned stores and Indirect are the dealers. There are a Master Dealer and a Sub Dealer. To be a Master Dealer, you need to activate a certain quota of lines set by each carrier (usually 100 lines a month). A sub-dealer works under the Master to achieve thier goal and gets paid directly from the Master.

So you would have to start as a Sub Dealer and then once you hit the point that your activations are up around a 100 per carrier then you can break free and become your own master dealer. Commish varies between carrier and master dealers so your best bet is to contact a master dealer in you're area and inquire about being a sub for them

where are you located?

[youngmoneyblog]

where can you get the phones wholesale? just alibaba? any reputable wholesalers???

[kbud124]

another thing I would take a look at is accessories and services..these are real moneymakers...the margins are accessories are great ..you can sell a $1.25 accessory for $15 sometimes....also, services such as repair or ringtones are very profitable.

best locations for these type of stores are ones with high foot traffic (ie. a mall, airport, etc)..alot of ppl get new cellphones (or accessories) after passing by a store and seeing something they like...I dont really like cell phone stores that you have to go out of ur way to get to

as far as commissions, I heard that certain carriers pay alot better then others ..some carriers may put restrictions on you in terms of what others carriers u can sell at the same location

[Stockripper71]

Is there a place to sell used or new cell phone assesories? We have a national collection program for used inkjet cartridges, toners and old cellphones, but we have stock piles of new and used cellphone assesories; ear buds, charger chargers, wall chargers, jackets/sleeves etc... I want to get rid of them all

[kbud124]

ebay is your friend

[NeeJam]

You need to contact the manufacturer i.e nokia etc direct and/or contact t-mobile etc.

Why? Well selling the phone doesnt bring you the profit its selling you the phone on a network or on a contract you will get paid alot of monney for this. Before carphone warehouse lost its contract with vodaphone they were getting £400 for every contract they signed up! They are in talks to get the contract renewed, however.

So my advice is contact the networks and/or the manufacturer direct

[orange655321]

What kind of resller store? Are you buying real estate? Strip Mall lot? Mall Kiosk? etc? The store model might change some of the advice.