Hi, I am in the early stages of opening up my own business. The business will be selling of things that have to do with anime/manga/cosplay. I eventually would like to have both an online store attached to a website along with an actually physical store.

The thing is I am unsure which one to start off with first. Is it safer financially to open up an online store, and then branch out into a physical store front? What is a good marketing technique for something like this? Should I do like on 2p2 and buy space on popular anime forums?

Is there a market for this sort of thing as a store front where you are at?

Easier to do an online store even with a RL demand. Rent, license (?), effective local advertising, manning the store (employment), security is difficult/expensive/time-consuming. Can even empirically test demand locally with the website as well.

Think about this... if you open a physical store you are serving a locale. You are serving the neighborhood and anyone that can or would seek it out or happen upon it. A retail location is open maybe 8-10 out of the 24hrs in every day.

If you have an online business... you are serving everyone in the world who has access to the internet. You are open 24hrs a day, every day of the year. BOOM!

I actually just did business with a guy that has a very successful online business. He now has a very nice home office (tax write off) and a separate storage building where he stores his merchandise before shipping it. I asked him once if he had a store I could come visit to check out the stuff he sold and he laughed kinda and said that would be very stupid.

He commented to me that he wanted to own a business, not manage a store.

-Hiway

Yes, there is. I am currently in Austin but will be opening the store in Houston, if I do indeed open a store.



Yes, those things seem to me as if they will eat at profits if I do a store front, and by that I mean its a lot more money to do that and I just don't know if it will be worth it in the long run unless the store takes off.



Ok thanks for the input! I agree, I guess its better to do an online store and if it ever gets big enough or there is enough demand then a store could be done.


Is it worth it to also become an amazon and ebay seller while still having the the online store? Should I do all 3 or just use my own site as my own store? Has anyone ever been an amazon/ebay seller and made enough profit to justify it?

you should not be thinking about opening up a business if you haven't done the research yet.

you need to do your due diligence, then after you've done the due diligence, you can come with all of the information and ask good questions.

I will probably be going the online route, as it seems less strenuous and I won't have to man a physical store. I think I will be going with amazon since it seems you can build a site and have your stuff linked to them as well and they can process everything for you.

Do you guys have any recommendations on where to get my website designed? There are a ton of places online, and my dad has used some of them, but I didn't really like what he got.

While this is certainly true and I agree an online store is generally better than B&M you are either forgetting or failing to mention that you are also COMPETING with everyone else in the world selling what you're selling.

Online store. Depending on your computer skills / graphic design skills a online store is a cheap project -- $500 is about what you need.

B&M requires space which isn't cheap to rent -- commercial space here is about $25/sqft + operating for undesirable areas. You might be able to go for less by being in a really low traffic or depressed areas but realistically you are at min $12/sqft. You can also realistically expect at least $10-15k to get the store open before you make a single sale.

I don't think there is a market for a B&M store and that online is the obvious way to go.

Do you have any computer skills?

Do you have any artistic skills?

So is a B&M store. The difference is a B&M store has so much overhead that it can't compete with a online store on price.

He obviously means literally the world... A B&M in Texas is not a direct competitor to a B&M store in New Zealand. Online they could be.

Anyhow certain products (physical size) and price points tend to fit online stores better.

Small physical size with high unit costs are perfect as the delivery cost is negligible to the total value of the purchase.

A B&M will slam you on cheap goods that are bulky, as they are far more efficient in distributing these types of goods through their DC's etc and onto the customer.

To the customer there is no 'delivery cost' for picking up from a store - whereas even if you could hit a better price point online - after delivery cost may make the total purchase value more for the customer then getting it from their local B&M. Obviously exceptions but generally this will be the case. Plus pick/pack charges & warehousing isn't that cheap.

Yes but both the B&M in Texas and the B&M in New Zealand would be in competition with all online stores and given the product they would lose.

Shipping is a variable cost that you'd only have to be concerned about once you actually have a sale. Rent is a fixed cost that you'll have regardless of sales. Likewise B&M requires either a massive time commitment or staff which again is a fixed cost. There is no way that shipping can ever represent a hindrance as it is a negligible fraction of the cost of having a B&M.

More importantly online really limits the risk of loss. He seems completely unprepared for this and the risk of failure is very high. If he fails with a B&M he is out at least $50k but if he fails with online he is out $1-2k.

With respect to warehousing my guess is that a basement or spare room in his current residence will be more than enough. If he does need warehouse space it is typically 1/3 or less the cost of commercial space.

I can program but I have 0 artistic skills.



I am afraid to put a lot of money into something I have never done, before. Atleast online I know how most of the things work.

If you can program then I suggest osCommerce. It is pretty easy to figure out and free.

An easier alternative would be one of the many SaaS options like BigCommerce or AmeriCommerce but there you'll be paying a small monthly fee and you're actually worse off than with osCommerce because of the limitation on customization. The SaaS options are really for people who can't program themselves or don't want to bother.

Not having any artistic ability is not a big deal if you are happy to start off with just a plain looking store. If you want customization you can look around for someone to do some cheap graphics for you.