I attended an online lecture for retailers on what stock items a shop should select for sale. Some of the points I thought were pretty good, so I took down some notes. Here are a few
- Seasonal items are trouble. If you handle them, what you are buying is products for a short time. For similar reasons, avoid fad items. The fad goes, and you are stuck with the goods.
It is better to take products that give you a whole year of sales.
- Delivery is one of the most significant problems in retail in Australia. Our delivery system is expensive and not particularly good.
Avoid large and heavy items as they have high transport costs that will eat into your margin.
Fragile goods are trouble.
- You need to know your price points that people are comfortable in trading with you.
- You want products that people like, so check the online reviews first. Any problems will reflect badly on you too. You want products with good reviews.
As a rule here, electronic items are trouble. Returns and queries are much larger with these products than most other lines.
- It is better to get a branded product with a large existing market than get an exclusive deal with an unknown product. In other words, it's best to be a small fish in a big pond in retail, then a large fish in a puddle.
But check first if the brand gives you a fair chance to break into their product. If others are selling at prices like what they are offering you, what is the point of handling the item?
- Before buying items over $50, people want to see them first. This is a significant problem for many online stores but a big plus for shops.
- At any one time in the shop you need new products to experiment with, as a rule, you always need 15 new products in the shop.
Let me know if these tips are helpful.
