Retail business owners

[Dogmum40]

Hi All,

How is everyone’s retail businesses doing right now? We run an online retail business and to say it’s quiet is an understatement, is anyone else struggling like we are? We are lucky to get one or two orders a day which is worrying us a lot at the moment

We were due to get a warehouse next month as we had grown out of our current place but had to pull the plug due to uncertainty, this time of year is quiet for us but this is eerily quiet! Obviously with everything that’s going on we did expect some disruption but we are starting to have a few sleepless nights! So I just wanted to check how are you all finding it and if you are quiet are you at panic stage yet or are you actually busy?

Yeah everyone still sells on Amazon and we are thinking of taking off holiday mode to sell over summer but I’d rather stick pins in my eyes at the moment but it might come to it due to how much we lost !

Do you think mumsnet would allow a thread where we all advertise our business / website or is it against guidelines? We are women in business so should he celebrated and help each other out

I'm having a whinge, please feel free to ignore me.

I sell craft stuff. I want to expand my range so thought about crochet as we already do knitting stuff. So I checked my suppliers and found some lovely hook sets. Went on to Amazon to see how much they sell for - and the answer is they don't sell because they are a big, very well respected quality brand and you can buy cheap but very pretty tat from any number of Chinese sellers for a fraction of the cost I can buy these trade. They are also all using FBA, so customer's won't even have to wait.

This is the same with embroidery kits (many of which are knock off copies of well known brands)

I have looked at a number of things we sell and I now believe the reason we're struggling is because I don't sell cheap, nasty, tat but good quality branded items

I’m so sorry you’re having a tough time with sales, we are a reseller and even our market has cheap copies which is baffling!

Have you tried Etsy or like I said above google ads for your own website, it does mean spending money with google which I’m not overly keen about but it has worked for us so might be worth a try! I know an artist friend who uses Etsy so I’d definitely have a look into that too, I don’t know much about etsy but she said lots of craft makers and artists use it so it could help 👍

We tried Etsy a few years ago and the monthly fee wasn't worth it. It's great if you make the items but not so much for the supplies side of it. It may of changed so I'll have another look.

I think the trouble with driving visitors to a website is that the majority of people now use Amazon as a search engine. I'm every bit as guilty of this as my customers. I find I search on Amazon and then search Google, yesterday I was in a hurry so automatically hit Buy on Amazon without considering looking elsewhere.

I also find that buyers don't trust websites as much as they trust Amazon & Ebay etc

This is what we found, we were on Amazon and did really well but the charges for using Amazon was extortionate and also their returns policy for customers is quite frankly shocking.

Anyone can press the refund button and have the money sent straight back without a thorough investigation, We lost so much money back having automatic refunds taken off us and there was no reason for the refunds either so we never saw the goods again nor did we ever know if there was an issue with the item, they just take the customers word that there was a problem and we didn’t get a say, We could raise an investigation but more often than not they still sided with the customer.

Amazon could be a really good business model for sellers if they run it on a level playing field but they just use sellers as a cash cow and don’t believe or even acknowledge anything we have to say, it always the customer is right ( even if they have evidence to prove them wrong)…

Hi everyone,

I just thought I’d check and see how you are all doing with Christmas sales, ours has been absolutely shocking, we are about 50-60 % down on last year and thats saying something as last year was shit due to Royal Mail strikes, but year is worse!!!

This business is now less than part time and we need to make the decision whether to carry on and see it through or just shut it down

Lucky for us it’s online and we don’t have many overheads except stock, packaging and postage/stationery as we do it out of our home but even so we don’t know how long we can carry on propping it up for.

Exactly the same OP. Now having to work for someone full time and gone into 'get rid of stock' mode. After eight years. So sad 😞

We are well down too on last autumn. So depressing. I do wonder why I bother.

Sorry your both struggling too! I genuinely don’t know the answer or how to increase sales, we have tried everything from online marketing and Ads to Amazon and eBay market places, unless you sell essential items I suspect we will all be in a huge downturn in the next year or two ☹️

Another one down on last year too. To add further stress, people have shopped really late this year, so I'm currently at the peak of my stress levels while battling an awful virus. I really don't know if I'll still be doing this in a years time. It isn't worth it anymore.

Interesting you say investing in marketing and advertising hasn't really helped. Ebay is constantly pushing me to buy additional advertising but it does seem to me to be more for their benefit than for the small retailer. At the moment I have not succumbed but I do wonder whether I am making the right decision on this.

Last year we found the more expensive items were still selling and it was the lower end that was knocked. This year it is everything that is down.

EBay have become really greedy @OneInEight. They don't have more buyers so are making 'more' profits by squeezing sellers to keep shareholders happy. This was reflected in their accounts. It can't go on forever.

They seem to give you just enough visibility a few days before monthly fees are due to keep you having the subscriptions. To make the advertising successful means giving your stock away with no margin left for yourself. They already take over 10% in fees then recommend another 10% plus in advertising. Throw in free postage, they must think we get stock for free.

After 8 years I am finally admitting defeat and looking to close this year. It's a shame but there's only so much you can do.

Sorry for the delay in replying I haven’t been on for a while, so sorry about your business, it’s really slow here too we don’t know what to do about the business going forward, our busy time is usually Xmas and it was shocking (and still is) we are an online business so I’m thinking of paying someone to do our social media as to be honest I’m crap at it and hate SM so as well as being quiet due to the cost of living it’s also quiet as I just don’t understand marketing either

Once upon a time the stress of business was all worthwhile because the pay was good and you still had the flexibility. The money is no longer any good, I'm nowhere near as flexible as I used to be these days because I'm working twice as much for less pay, and I'm really questioning my life choices again. Two crazy customers (well one of them isn't even my customer but still thought it appropriate to threaten me with trading standards over a product I don't even sell) have really pushed me to my brink again, where I often teeter at the best of times.

I need to move house because I have a nasty, aggressive bully of a neighbour and I can't even afford to do that. The happy medium is scraping together for a holiday so at least I get a break from both business and home, but then that is unpaid time off. I cannot understand why anyone would want to set up a retail business at the moment.

I have a candle business this time of year is always slow for sales for me. Autumn is the time where I make all the money so keeping fingers crossed for a good Autumn.