Okay, a bit about me and what I want to achieve. I am Australian and currently work in a regular, reasonably well paying job. I have always been interested in selling over the internet but never taken the first step. My wife has a better understanding of eBay and online shopping than I do (as our credit card statements attest to).
SO to start with I want to start selling items over the Net whilst still working in my current job. When I am making enough profit to replace my income from my job I will then start thinking about whether to retire so to speak and take up e-Commerce on a more full time basis. This is obviously well in the future and I am looking at starting with baby steps.
I have decided on what to sell (good quality cookingware/kitchenware) and to start with will be sourcing it from large discount distribution stores and then re-selling it.
So where to now, and this is where I am getting stuck and need a bit of advice?
From what I can see I have 2 options. The first is to start selling using eBay with the associated issues that have all been listed on this site and many others. The bonuses are obviously a mass market to sell to. I have always considered eBay as a bit of a garage sale mixed with large sellers able to sell for cheaper that what I could source. In saying this I am of the opinion I should be able to source stock and re-sell it with a minimum net profit of around 10% per item (after fees/postage etc)
The second option I can see is to start my own eCommerce store (have just received the email from Salehoo re stores). There are obviously advantages to this as listed in the email. What I dont know is whether the store will attract the required traffic to actually sell anything.
I appreciate no one will be able to give me quantitative answer on this but maybe just a good poke in the right direction so I can make a fully informed decision.
Thanks for reading the wall of prose. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Regards
Mick