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 Topic: Advice on setting up a camping business
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19/12/2012 at 5:18pm
Location: herefordshire
Outfit: Talbot Dreamliner
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Hi, all :-)
I'm new to the forum. My name is Ellie, I'm 34. I'm married mum of 3 lovely boys.
We are all proud owners of 25 year old Talbot Dreamliner 6 berth.
I'd like to ask you for an advice.
I would like to set up a business of selling camping equipment.
I already have a website.
I could set up ebay shop and Amazon shop aswell.
My questions are:
1. How do you feel about buying of ebay or amazon? because some people love it, some hate it. Ebay is potrayed sometimes as a 'kitchen table sales' and I don't want to be seen as unprofesional.
2. Would you have any idea how to advertise my website cheaply?... if I wasn't selling on ebay or amazon. If I was then I would just stick my business card into the parcel and direct customers to the website.
Thank you for all your opinions :-)
Ellie
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19/12/2012 at 6:04pm
Location: Sheffield
Outfit: lunar quaser ultima & Merc E Class
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good for you....i have no problems buying from ebay or amazon, some of our best buys are from there...hope it all goes well
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19/12/2012 at 6:52pm
Location: North Yorkshire
Outfit: Holi * Perran 4 * Airedale 5
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Personally I have no problem buying from places like eBay and Amazon (much to my husbband's dismay!!) as long as the prices are sensible and the P&P costs are reasonable.
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Helen xx
Mini Mad Mum
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19/12/2012 at 7:28pm
Location: Redditch Worcestershire
Outfit: Mooveo Motorhome F camper & Static
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Facebook is a good way of promoting a business with a page and get all your family and friends to like your page. You can also be listed on here. Good luck,
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Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.
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19/12/2012 at 7:46pm
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How is this going to work, will you have a wharehouse full of stock to allow rapid delivery of orders?
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19/12/2012 at 8:23pm
Location: Staffordshire
Outfit: Freelander 2 2.2GS
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Don't want to put a damper on your idea, but there would already appear to be quite a few sellers on Ebay and the like doing a similar thing and unless you could undercut significantly on price (or offer things for sale that others didn't) I think you would face quite stiff competition. I don't mind buying stuff off Fleabay myself, so long as the price is right (and the feedback). I don't generally buy expensive stuff, just bits and bobs.
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19/12/2012 at 8:58pm
Location: Manchester
Outfit: Vango Maritsa 700; Isis 600 + canopy
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On eBay, I will only generally spend money I feel I can afford to lose if it all goes wrong. Mind you, that probably applies less to businesses on eBay rather than private sales.
It's usually p&p that puts me off, as this can really bump up the cost of a relatively cheap item.
I do agree that it's a very competitive market, so I think you'd need something to make your business unique, make you stand out from the crowd, because I imagine its going to be hard to undercut the big companies prices.
Good luck with it all!
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19/12/2012 at 8:59pm
Location: Lichfield
Outfit: Coachman Amara 450
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I have bought the majority of caravanning equipment online especially on Ebay but I'm finding that during the last year delivery times are taking far too long (up to a week or more) which puts me off buying anything I need rather urgently especially during the camping season. This is mainly down to the sellers dispatch procedure but if an item takes too long I simply don't use them again even if their products are the cheapest on Ebay. This could very well be the same with camping equipment but if you are registed on Ebay in the category as 'Dispatches Items Quickly' then this I think would be a bonus as I think that many are now focusing on this. The proof is in their Ebay feedback because if the majority of buyers comments are 'Received Quickly' then I'm more confident that my item is going to reach me in a reasonable time which I regards as 2 - 3 working days. If you intend selling on Ebay or Amazon you really need to research each item inividually to enable to be competitive as I have found that some products on Ebay can vary as much as £10 which any genuine buyer is going to avoid paying far too much over the odds. Most of all, not everything goes smooth all of the time but the success to most businesses is their good customer service and many UKCS members will post comments on here regarding both good and bad experiences about various companies so you could well get recommended by folks on here that buy from you in the future. All I can do is give honest feedback as an Amazon and Ebay customer but hope that this information has been some help. Finally, good luck and wish you all the success for the future.
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19/12/2012 at 9:17pm
Location: west country
Outfit: None Entered
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Ebay is a brilliant market place (shame they don't pay uk tax). Don't use Amazon. Presentation is just as important on ebay as the high street(spelling). I don't see ebay as downmarket etc if properly presented.
Facebook can be a brilliant and free marketing medium.
There are many others with camping gear on ebay. That doesn't mean folks will not buy your stuff.
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19/12/2012 at 9:41pm
Location: luton
Outfit: adria adora 612dt
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Hi
Ebay and amazon are great markets and realitivly easy to start up but you need to decide.
A the ranges you are going to sell,
B what prices can you get them for.
C what about where you are going to base your self remember the tax mans always looking for his bit.
D what about your own seperate website. Selling direct to the end user you need a few reviews and for google to bring you up in the first page during a search.
E who is going to deliver for you.
Admittedly i buy from ebay a lot and after over 300 transaction i have never lost a penny.
Hope this helps.
Kevin
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camping low monte in Spain March 2016
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19/12/2012 at 10:46pm
Location: flint north wales
Outfit: swift challenger 480se 2002
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hmmm e/bay is great but tends to contain mostly chinese junk ,and a lot of it although it states mailed from the u.k actually comes via hong-kong .i try to steer clear of these if possible ,and thoroughly go through feedback with a positive attitude before i buy ,postage is the main problem on there and slow postage as others have stated has been caused by e/bays own methods of clamping down as what they deemed excess postage (i.e they weren't getting there cut) without realising the actual costs of p&p these days .
unfortunately amazon is going the same way .money can be made on either site but its dog eat dog these days
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20/12/2012 at 4:26am
Location: None Entered
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Both Amazon and Ebay are a good and cheap way to start any business just beware of the fees and look at them thoroughly, perhaps start on free listings days with up to 100 items, a good place to start, any advice, help problems with both of those sites please feel free to ask me if you do not have the experience with them.
Ebay and Amazon certainly cannot be classified as 'kitchen table sales' . They are stiff competition to all retailers and those retailers truly know it after all it is the likes of eBay that have put many antique shops and others out of business, I know of 2 locally who openly admit this.
I buy off both of those sites regularly and in 10 years have never had a problem both the UK and other countries, my feedback being way over 1,000, love 'em both.
Amazon from your point of view would be excellent as there are no listing fees, it is free to set up and free to list, the FVF's are more but you simply include that in your costs. Perhaps combine Amazon and Ebay Free Listings. List the same item twice and try the Free shipping method on one of those as well as another of that same item with separate shipping fees. Test the water with Ebay by joining as a Private Seller first, once you are up and running as a business it would be advisable to register as a business user for obvious reasons plus some savings.
Where Ebay is concerned you can simply find what sells successfully by going to completed items just type in the product that you are looking for you will easily see what sells and for how much. More importantly you will be able to see what does not sell or if things are perhaps overpriced.
Use both Facebook, Twitter and Google to advertise, it works.
Create stores on Ebay and Amazon and get a business mail account, there are big savings with these accounts in postal fees similarly with carriers depending on volume of sales which obviously will be small to start but you know what they say about little acorns.
As far as competition goes, not a problem, go to your competitions pages and sites, look carefully at their listings, learn from their mistakes and their good points. Emulate the good ones and disregard the bad, ultimately you simply have to make your goods more attractive on your site than goods on the other sites this you can do by wherever possible creating a more attractive site or at least as good as your rivals, this is not pie in the sky it's from experience. Try to give as much detailed information with perfect pictures every time, it helps enormously to sell a product.
Go for it girl, if you don't try you will regret it forever, just don't take unnecessary risks and tread carefully, there is a shed-load of free advice out there.
Post last edited on 20/12/2012 04:38:26
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20/12/2012 at 9:14am
Location: Fife
Outfit: Adria Adiva 552PH
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When you say "camping equipment" what exactly do you mean? This is a very broad statement. Camping equipment can be anything from backpacking to caravanning/motorhones. I think you need to think carefully about the range of goods you are going to sell and make sure you do your market research thoroughly. As someone said make sure you get your spelling correct on your ads; doesnt look good if the spelling is poor.
Go for it and good luck
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Mine's a Pint!
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20/12/2012 at 9:21am
Location: None Entered
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If selling online you need to not only be cheaper for items than local dealers but be able to offer a good delivery service while still keeping prices competitive. I used to buy a lot from eBay but increasingly find my local dealer to be the cheapest with no worries of items being list or damaged in transit.
There are big players in the market who struggle to compete with small independents online. In my opinion you need to be selling something pretty unique in order to do well online.
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20/12/2012 at 9:51am
Location: East Lothian
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Very few people have a problem buying from ebay or amazon as evidenced by the millions of transactions that take place each week
Facebook is a useful supplement to your website, but it alone won't bring customers flooding in, you must ensure all your website text is relevant to what people will search for on Google and ensure that the relevant search headings are coded on each of your webpages (H1's H2's etc.)Metatags are okay, but Google reads the text and will pounce on headings (the H codes) and bring the site further up the search results
This said, there are an awful lot of sites already selling the same stuff, you'd need something unique to make any real money
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20/12/2012 at 10:15am
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If you are setting up, you need to source your products from a good supplier and give a full explanation and description of the product.
We use a local shop (Camping & General) because they are the same price as on line, they have experts who know what they are selling and can give advice, the products are always good quality.
Anyone can sell cheap crap to the public, once. To make a business with a reputation requires more thought
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