Used Clothing

[LolliL]

Good Morning Everyone.

I’m starting my own online business selling unwanted, used, not worn, not wanted children’s clothing etc. I didn’t realise it would be so difficult trying to source suppliers, Mums/Dads for such items. I’m sure once the ball is rolling and your “In the know” it will become easier.
Any help or advice would be massively appreciated 😊

Many Thanks for reading...

Lorraine

Are you planning to pay people for the items?

You'll need to look on EBay/ FB selling sites and see what stuff is selling for and offer similar or more. I'm not sure how you'll make much money as most people sell their things themselves without the middle man.

Are you hoping people are going to send you stuff for free so you can make a profit?

When actually they'd rather donate to charity shop so charity benefits?

There was a used children's clothing shop round our way, which quickly found it needed to diversify into gifts too. Then it folded. The owner said, in retrospect, it was not a viable business because of eBay and other swop/give sites. Sorry to pour cold water.

Most people sell items themselves, or swop/pass on, or give to charity shops. Essentially their established routes for all outgrown clothing that is in excellent or good condition.

And are probably only getting rid of very few articles unworn and only occasionally.

On MN I have seen numerous threads advising people that there is no real need for people to use a business when selling old children's clothing. I can't see that that advice changes when only interested in a subset of second-hand clothes.

Sorry, that means the reason you are having difficulty is inherent in the business model, not because of people not being 'in the know'

Used but not worn??

To be honest I sell mine at Nct sales or via Facebook/eBay

When I was a kid there were a couple of local shops who sold good quality second hand clothes. You'd drop your stuff off and they would pay you for the items which they would then sell on for a profit.

Those shops are long gone because people decided to ditch the middle man and take the profit for themselves.

If you're hoping to be given items for free, then places to look would be free cycle and the likes. But they frown upon asking for things which are going to be sold on and sooner or later those people get found out and booted off.

If you want stock you are going to have to do the legwork of trawling charity shops and car boots sales for the things you are looking for at a price you are prepared to pay. And then obviously doing all the laundering etc to make sure they are in a saleable condition.

You could have a stall at a boot sale.

The issue with online is postage, unless it is very high end items then the postage costs do not make it worthwhile. There is very little money to be made in the resale of clothes especially if you need to give others a cut.

As others have said, it is very easy to sell on unused, or even nice but used, children’s clothes these days via eBay/FB/NCT sales (up to age 8 anyway). It’s also worth bearing in mind that, by the time tiu’ve Accounted fir postage, you may be looking at simikae prices to buying something new from a supermarket/primark etc. Many people would prefer cheap but brand new.

If you do want to go down this route, then you need a USP/niche. There is a website (started off as an FB page) called “Mini Boden Preloved”. The lady who runs it sources Mini Boden stuff. I dint know where she gets it all from, but she will buy bundles of stuff in good condition from her customers. She is very strict on condition and there is a minimum bundle size.

She then sorts the clothes by size and girl/boy and lists them - with photos and descriptions - on her website. It’s all very clear, easy and professional.

Her prices are prob a bit more than supermarket prices, but you also know you are getting Boden quality and designs. I have bought a few things from her for the dc, great service.

No idea how you'll do that? I got 3 big sacks of clothing which consisted of cardigans, jumpers, shirts, pyjamas, long sleeved tops etc. for my 2 year old and all 3 bags cost me around £60. Very cheap and majority of them were from baby gap!