New e-store concept

[Cobrainside]

Hello,

I am planning on opening an online based e-store soon, I plan on selling basically anything I find interesting or not-so-accesible for people in my city from any type of accesories to electronics.

Profit?
- Will buy in bulks/lots/wholesale to get cheaper prices on accesible products.
- Will add-value to not-so-accesible products for being available.

Why buy from me?
- I will deal with import/export job
- fast shipping
- secure online payments or direct bank deposits or online transfers
- ship worldwide and overnight

Who will buy from me?
- have a 30,000 customer list from past ventures that will know about it
- will advertise in gift shops and people i know owned stores in my city


Any comments, ideas, suggestions, proposals are welcomed

[Health4WealthGuy]

Sounds like a great idea Cobrainside. But have you considered the headaches of inventory, warehouse space, shipping/receiving and product returns? Drop shipping might be the answer. Check out this article from Entrepreneur.com

[Cobrainside]

first of, thanks for taking time to reply to my thread

second, i read the link.. mostly I knew about it, but it is always interesting to read that kind of topics..

about your comment, my niche is actually my market.. almost 'every' product is a niche here because it is not easy to buy stuff and get it shipped to my city through internet....

So basically my work would be to choose and get a good quote on real 'hard/rare' products or even get a higher quality than the ones offered here for my clients...

Retailers here sell stuff almost 2x the price you can find on internet, but not everything you can get shipped here.. that is where I come in,

What do you think?

I plan on having a physicaly store as well to get more 'traffic' if needed, but expenses would go real high in that scenario

[justmont3]

I was wondering, what state/country are you located where the import/export of accessories/electronics be so unaccessable?
also,what would the accessories be, specifics or general categories, and or electronics?

[mxer210]

justmont raises the questions I was just going to ask. But people go online to buy something they already want, not just to buy things they see on the whim. And also, why would I make repeat visits to your store? To look for "interesting" items? How would you market this and what would your marketing tagline be? Not to discount your idea, but I think it has some flaws that need to be improved upon.

[Cobrainside]

My location is North East Mexico.

Product line, I plan on having it renewd oftenly..

Advertising, well I mentioned I have a 30,000 customer database.. I might be adding a forum area for customers/people to spend time on he site.

About unaccessibility.. many online sites DONT ship to mexico or have a very slow and expensive shipping method available, plus there might be problems/delays because of customs... ill have that job done

Also, Ill accept payment methods different to CC (besides), so people without a CC (many in Mexico) can pay for stuff they couldnt before...

Also, as i said before.. many electronis are 2x more expensive here than elsewhere because of profit, importation duties, broker companies, costs of having a physical store etc....

Problems so far:

- Why would they be a repeated visitor?.. forums, renewed product line often, offers... prroducts tht need stuff once in a while (coffee machines, printers)...

- What products to offer? I still dont have an exact product list ready, but I do have an idea.. Ill start with a small list, see what works and what doesnt... then continue...

Will work on that, share and see what you guys think.. thanks for tking the time to read and reply, I really appreciate it..

And if anyone is interested on selling mexican products in USA/CANADA.. we can try to work something out.. there is a huge market and I only know of a few sites offering that .. well a new thread might be needed for that, anyways thanks again

[estoreguide]

New Mexico...

I would look for ecommerce sales statistics before I invest in an estore.

From what I know, most central and south American stores stick to physical storefronts simply because of the high rate of credit card fraud on the net in those countries.

Most stores who do have online stores require allot for online buyers to make online purchases such as faxing in a copy of the credit card, front and back, drivers license, electric bill etc... Other stores simply make the customer make a direct bank deposit and then have them send fax the deposit slip... That's how bad it is with credit card fraud on the internet. I don't mean to discourage you...just something to think about.

Try to find a business in your near area which uses an Internet storefront and ask them how well it works for them? If I can help you in any way then please let me know. email me at info@estorefrontguide.com

Kind regards,
Jorge Fernandez
www.estorefrontguide.com