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#Post#: 218--------------------------------------------------
My 3 month or so Evaluation on the Electronics Market
DIR By: SHOPafrolix
Date: June 25, 2013, 11:22 am
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I've now come to a decision regarding the selling of Tablets PCs
and cheap Chinese mobile phones etc. I use the word selling, and
not retailing as I've discovered the difference !
From several months ago, buying 100 M009's off Hardware Heroes
when he closed, to Buying from Pete and 6 other suppliers, both
UK and China supplied, this is my conclusion.
Firstly, Selling Tablets.
Ebay/Amazon - Sorry, not enough profit margin compared to the
work involved and returns risks. Pay £45 for a tablet to sell at
£59 with £9 P&P less the fees to pay leaves £5 profit, which is
great if you get no problems/returns. Or is it? Most returns are
from people who haven't a clue what tablets do and/or have much
higher expectations of them. A fair chunk of returns are due to
faults, from buttons not working, speakers crackling, batteries
not charging, software crashing, WiFi not working etc. All in
all, expect 30-45% returns on your £5 margin product !
Secondly, Retailing tablets
From your own retail premises. Yes ! Great ! You can sell for
£10 more with no selling fees, as long as its an add on to an
existing B&M business, as you'd never make enough to pay
rent/rates/bills etc. So, profit jumps to £24. Downside is, less
turnover. eBay etc are great for foot traffic and unless you
have a very good high street store you just won't sell enough to
make the initial investment financially worthwhile. (£5 tied up
at least). This goes with your own online website too - just not
enough traffic. Problems and returns are decreased though. Why ?
Because you can explain to the customer exactly what Tablets
are, what they do and how they work. Downside is, once you've
explained its basically a large phone without the telephone
function, they don't want one ! When you say its really for
browsing the internet using Apps, but only in your own home on
WiFi, they don't want one ! But, you still get the faulty
returns, which generally you can't return to China for
replacement due to postage costs! At least you've made some
money in the meantime though !
Next , Cheap Mobile Phones
Not experienced selling these for too long BUT, wow, sales are a
lot higher. Faulty returns are a lot lower - this is getting
better ! However, complaints from customers saying its not an
iPhone, even though your listing states its not, you say its a
basic phone/text/camera. You say to pay £500 for an iPhone if
thats what you want, not £40, and that its suitable for a child
of 6 - 12 years. But no, they still buy and then return for a
refund after they've played with it. Worse is instore retailing,
as once you've shown them a demo, they 90% don't want one. But,
they like the Samsung Note Android 4 look a like, but not the
£150 price tag, you just can't win !
Conclusion
You now know why Pete and others sell these as Drop shipping or
B2B. I would never recommend sellers to sell these at low
margins on Ebay/Amazon/eCommerce. Ask a higher price and retail
them via other channels, but expect low turn over with higher
profits and less hassle. If you don't have a B&M store or
facilities to sell off line, then you'll be working for the
equivalent of £2 / hour, its just not worth it. From now on, I'm
only selling these direct to customer. Yesterday I sold 4 Si68's
at, wait for it, £59.99, with no ebay selling fees. I
demonstrated the phones and explained what they can and can't
do. 3 buyers walked away, 1 bought a i9220 at £159.99 and
another bought 2 tablets instead, but has already returned a
faulty one this morning ! (volume - button sticking). I'll still
list these on Ebay, as I've found a lot of buyers within a 10
miles radius will phone to inspect/buy in person instead of
buying online. I'll be using ebay listings to drive buyers to my
store, where I can make a worthwhile profit. I've dabbled in
Drop Shipping. I have a seller/sourcing guy in China who will
drop ship, as with Pete. I've had stock of 50-100 phones in the
UK which I've invited 4 DS sellers on ebay to sell for me, 2
being forum members, but again, the profits versus hassle isn't
worth it, as I offered a 100% money back/exchange service. Plus,
even though the sellers could make £9 per phone whilst being
some of the cheapest on ebay, still under cut each other down to
£4 profit - well sorry, but if DS sellers don't make enough
profit, then they'll pack it in and neither will I.
#Post#: 219--------------------------------------------------
Re: My 3 month or so Evaluation on the Electronics Market
DIR By: toysandgifts
Date: June 25, 2013, 11:56 am
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Brilliant thread. Should be sticky (or added to a new section I
had in mind, I'll email you the layout later)
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