Is this a service you would use?

[wildwildsouth]

I've inherited quite a bit of money and am planning to open my own business within the next couple of years. I have a few ideas but this one I feel is genius. However, people I speak to in real life about it don't seem that impressed.

My idea is a shop that does wrapping. It would sell lots of wrapping paper, sellotape, scissors etc but on top of that it would offer a wrapping service.

So someone could come in one gift and ask to have it wrapped really nicely with ribbons and bows etc. Or someone could come in with their full Christmas presents needing wrapped. Maybe the ones they have for their kids from Santa, they might choose just a basic wrap which would cost less etc.

There would be trolleys etc near the entrance for people with lots of things needing wrapped.

Is that a service you would use?

And meant to say this doesn't seem like a good "investment" for inheritance money if you want to make money.

No. Plus many shops do gift wrapping anyway when you buy the gift. You can even get gift wrapping including on Amazon.

Being completely honest the idea of buying a gift and then going to you to get it wrapped to then take it back home is a lot of faff and not worth the hassle or money. Don’t get me wrong my wrapping is terrible but that’s ok and the person who receives the gifts will just laugh it off.. all part of the fun! Sorry but I’d try to think of another idea that will bring you profit.

Are you any good at it though? I mean really good.

No sorry. Maybe somewhere fancy like London? But wrapping is a total waste of time, effort and money to me. It’s not environmentally friendly either. I throw in a reuseable bag or wrap in newspaper or something, or I don’t bother. I wouldn’t use this service, sorry!

No. They hassle to drop it off. Then pick it up. Plus the cost would make it much easier for me to wrap it than to have you wrap it. Why not a gift store. Selling mice gifts and offer to wrap there and then as people buy their gift? A wrap shop on its own i can't see working tbh. But you never know. Good luck with whatever you decide.

@NannyR

Maybe it might work better as a mobile service, where you wrap people's Christmas gifts at their home. Another good idea would be to use environmentally friendly wrapping as your USP, paper tape and string, recycled or repurposed paper, reusable cloth gift bags, that sort of thing.

This is a much better idea

I would however use a tree decorator for Christmas, as long as you respect MY style and don't impose yours

But the faff of booking someone to come to the house, wrap the presents at a time when no one else is around, even if you also decorate the house and do a few fashionable balloon things...

Honestly, no, it's not even the money, it's just sound like too much bother. I'd be quicker wrapping myself.

No, I wouldn't use it. You would be throwing your money down the drain.

As people have mentioned the eco problems with wrapping in general are something a lot of us are trying to reconcile.

Perhaps your usp could be eco wrapping so recycled and/or recyclable.

It can be hard to find eco friendly wrapping paper etc especially around Christmas. I live in Oxford and I could definitely imagine that being popular.

Also if you still want to go ahead in any format it's going to be most popular at Christmas so maybe make it a pop-up shop instead.

I think you’d have to collect and return the gifts to make it appealing and I think you are looking at a very small demographic

Have you done the maths on costs (including paying yourself a wage) and that you’d have to pay per item to break even. This will hugely vary depending on whether you need premises.

I can't see anyone making lots of money here. I might use a pop up shop around Christmas as an impulse buy if I'm time pressed and have bought gifts on the High Street.

Like others have said I'm not going to buy gifts online and then transport them to another location for wrapping. By the time I've transported them and labelled them I might as well have done it myself. There is also the worry of the wrong gift getting the wrong label.

No but my local shopping centre has a pop up stall in the middle of it that wraps presents I think £1 for small £2 for medium £3 for large and it appears for a week (ish) at Xmas. Seems to do okay but not overly busy (obviously well enough for it to keep appearing though!) but I don’t see it being successful at any other time of the year.

What will you do if you damage the item as you’re wrapping? Or you mix up peoples gifts, either for different customers or gifts a customer has bought for different people?
We offer this where I work and it’s expensive because the boxes/wrap/ribbons etc aren’t cheap, plus on average it takes at least 15min per item.
Sorry to be so negative but I’d hate to think of you putting all your money into this and it not going well!

I think it work better if you were going to someones house to do it. A bit like a high end decorating service for Christmas decorations. Rather than them coming to you with all their stuff. Not sure you'd make much money but maybe there's a market for it with the instagram etc is the area you live in quite well off?? I think you'd have to be offering something pretty spectacular to make it worth it though. I wouldn't personally use it for just a one off gift. Maybe you could work with florists etc that work with high end clients.

I'd possibly consider it if it was offered free at the checkout or in a store where you pay a bit more for the product but it comes wrapped but otherwise I mostly order online (or I do it in stages from about September onwards for Christmas anyway)

I can't see how it's of any benefit to me to traipse everything to your location, wait (or go home and come back) for everything to be wrapped neatly and then lug it all home again..

Also you'd need to really think about your pricing. Most wrapping paper is no more than a pound if that so you'd need to think about how much you're charging..If you charge say £5 per gift thats a cost that'll quickly mount up for something I can easily do at home (albeit not as neatly but neatness isn't something thats ever really bothered me to be honest, the papers getting ripped off either way)

I wouldn't. I don't love wrapping but also I don't hate it enough to go through the effort of dropping it off and picking it up, nor would I be bothered about paying someone to come to my home to do it.

Also, wrapping paper etc is easily obtained at the supermarket etc so I wouldn't go out of my way to go to a special shop for wrapping paper. Also, my local shopping mall has this service at Christmas so if I were inclined to get the present wrapped I would use them while I was there shopping.

I think it would be a very specific market who want this kind of service. If you open a shop you are limited to local people. If you did it as an online service where people could send you the presents (either themselves or if buying getting them shipped to you) or you buy them and wrap them you might make more money than having to pay shop rents etc.

I wouldn't use a wrapping shop but if you came out to my house in a nice little van with all your wrapping goodies I'd pay for you to wrap all my Christmas stuff, it is the one job I really hate and would pay to be able to contract out.

Nope.

As that's what gift bags - which you can reuse multiple times - are made for.

No. It sounds shit sorry. You'd probably do alright at Christmas tho. Don't be disheartened you'll think of something marvellous I'm sure

No, definitely not!!
Have you considered that there is a reason it hasn't already been done?

I wouldn't want to be responsible for other peoples goods left for wrapping. You would have to be very diligent to ensure you knew who gave you what (or they might leave an empty box accuse you of theft)

My local shopping centres have people who do this at Christmas but they are volunteers raising money for charity.

I have seen virtual assistants offering Christmas card writing services, and professional organisers offering Christmas tree decorating services so I could see present wrapping working as a similar service where you pick up or wrap on site. E.g a business person wanting 60 boxes of chocolates personally wrapped for their employees. Not something I would use though. I don't think it would work in a bricks and mortar shop unless it was an additionally service in a gift shop.

"It’s a really great idea!! Lots of thought and creativity behind it"

It really isn't! Don't encourage the OP to blow her inheritance on this

Bookshops, cosmetics companies, jewellers all offer free wrapping at point of sale. Many others (eg John Lewis) offer wrapping for a small cost.

I wouldn't lug all presents to be wrapped and them lug them all home. I wouldn't trust a company not to lose them or muddle them up.

You'd have to have massive storage area in a high traffic (so high rental) zone for what would have to be a very low price service.