alejenobi started this topic @ 09:19 on 31/03/2006
Hi
We are currently trying to set up an online shop selling (among other things) pet accessories, tableware, bags, etc. We envisage sales to be low in the beginning so we plan to approach high street shops and department stores to stock our products too. When we give a recommended retail price / markup, what profit are these retailers expecting to achieve?
Also, there are so many online shops these days, I'd like to know what I should bear in mind when setting up this shop? I've already decided to use Cactushop software for the cart. Should I use a dedicated server (£900 / yr) or a shared server (£100 / yr)? And how many products should I have as a minimum to launch it?
Thanks.
RE: Online shop & Selling to department stores and high street retailers
vengavenga | 31/03/2006 11:46 AM
A shared server should be fine initially so long as (and this is very important) you find yourself a host that doesn't "oversell" their servers and offers good support. Changing from a shared server to a dedicated one later on is normally easy and painless, but it's likely to be some time before you'll need to do that. The money that you save by not going down the dedicated route can then be put towards marketing/SEO.
Another important factor is price ... in most cases, you really do get what you pay for with hosting. Of the two prices you've quoted, the £100/yr for shared is probably about right, but the £900/yr for dedicated seems way to low.
It may be that you've just found yourself a good deal in which case well done, but you really do need to make sure that the server is going to run quickly enough, have minimal downtime and that you are going to get quick support when you need it.
Hope that helps,
Ali
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RE: RE: Online shop & Selling to department stores and high street retailers
seanpearman | 31/03/2006 02:39 PM
I would recommend fashosts.co.uk for your hosting. I have used them for about 3 years now and their service is second to none! I have never experienced any downtime! They also offer load balancing (£45 per year i think) which spreads your site across three servers-I dont know the ins and outs of it.
As far as margin goes I think 25% would be good. You have to consider the amount of space your products will use, frequency of sales etc.
Hope this helps
Sean
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Sean
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RE: RE: Online shop & Selling to department stores and high street retailers
alejenobi | 03/04/2006 11:08 AM
Thanks for that info. I've chosen a host called Redstation. The good thing about them seems to be they have telephone support and not just online support in Australia!
RE: RE: Online shop & Selling to department stores and high street retailers
alejenobi | 03/04/2006 11:09 AM
With regards to the margin. Would the larger department stores like Selfridges (if I could get in there!) still only markup 25%?
I thought they would double or even triple it.
RE: RE: Online shop & Selling to department stores and high street retailers
Ian J | 03/04/2006 02:09 PM
Originally posted by: alejenobi
With regards to the margin. Would the larger department stores like Selfridges (if I could get in there!) still only markup 25%?
Not likely - at the very least they would double their buying in price and then add the vat
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Ian
Factoring ,
Invoice Discounting ,
Trade Finance and
Asset Finance specialist broker.
Founder member of
Independent Factoring Brokers Association
