New business venture?

[staveleymum]

I am seeking some feedback from mums regarding a new venture I am considering.

I am a bit fan of saving money and I use Ebay and charity shops to look for great quality clothing for my kids. However, with postage costs and the time it takes to trawl charity shops I have wondered if there is a better way.

I wonder if there was a shop within driving distance to you that sold second hand baby equipment and clothing would you be interested. It could be used as a place for parents to sell items and buy (where you can look at the items and dont have to pay postage).

The idea would be that I would take a commission on all items sold (to cover expenses and make a small profit).

Is this something that you would consider using to buy or sell baby things. I really would appreciate your comments.

Thanks in advance

Heidi

Heidi this business model was used prior to Ebay. I noted these shops didn't last long. I don't know why.

I'm pretty sure this idea was on dragons den. I can not remember the outcome though.

HERE

There used to be a shop that my mum used when I was little (so about 30 years ago)! I just think sometimes its nice to see things you want to buy and if you can keep overheads down then it might have potential.

Overheads. That's a big one. The overheads will likely be too large for you to make a profit.

There are so many ways to buy second-hand baby clothes and items now - ebay,gumtree,Facebook selling pages, adverts in local papers, preloved, etc etc

Then there are loads given away.

It's often cheaper to get this stuff through one of the above avenues, a second-hand shop will price to cover overheads..

I can't see there being a huge market now and would question whether it's worth it given the work to put in, along with the overheads.

Your prices would need to be high and people selling would have to be daft enough not to get more money by another means of selling ;)

It's a great idea but I've seen 4 or 5 set up and disappear very quickly in
my town. So for whatever reason it doesn't really work. I guess because high street clothes are pretty cheap, 2nd hand ones need to be even cheaper, plus take off commission and there's nothing left for profit.

I think bigger, regular sales in church halls etc might work but not a fixed shop.

There was a lovely shop near us, only took in good quality baby and children's clothing (up to about age 10). It was a fantastic shop. We took things in and got money when they sold.

It closed after about 5 years, the rents were just too high and the workload was massive.

We had one locally when my grandchildren where small and it was a fantastic little shop what she found though was that the mums wanted designer items more than everyday items and she had a lot of stock which didn't sell fast enough so it took up a lot of extra space on her display rails and mums got fed up with seeing the same items on offer she closed after about 2 yrs due to high rent and council rates.

www.choicesclothes.co.uk/
This is near me and is fantastic.

Hi fellow mums !
I don"t know if there is anyone else out there that struggles with the same situation as Im finding ? My little girl is currently five , but I often have to dress her in a size 6-7 just because of her height . I get increasingly frustrated because it seems to be that as soon as a child is over the age of four in clothes shops they want to have them looking like mini adults especially I find in Next !
I don"t particularly want to dress my girl in garish colours , black and white and leopard print !! I stll want to dress her in ditsy prints and cute little girl clothing , they have all the time in the world to be mini adults . I always shopped at Monsoon , JOJO ManmanBebe , John Lewis but noticed a real shift in the design and styles once like I say they turned four or above .
Which leads me to say I have recently been thinking about setting up my own Ebay shop , does anyone have any advice on doing this eg- where to start , would you recommend and more importantly what would you mums out there like to see me selling ? is there a particular need for anything you are having trouble finding on the High Street ?
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated mums or dads !

Hi Orlagh you will prob have more response setting up your own thread on the board