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Replies

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  Jamie Sessford June 28, 2010 at 11:33pm

  I looked for such a seller and could not find one earlier this year when looking for Leucojeum bulbs (hardly specialist but none to be found). I don't know how many others this represents though. There are many mail-order buisnesses that have stood the test of time - Mr Fothergills, Thompson & Morgan etc. I think the trouble with starting such a buisness is that you need almost instant nationwide recognition (for even a medium size operation).
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  Fenlandphil June 29, 2010 at 6:49am

  I sell a lot of my products off the internet. Carriage is a problem for certain products. Time to pack goods for transit, labeling and booking collections always seem to take longer than I think they should do.
  One of my customers sells similar sorts of products to bulbs on line he uses ebay.
  I have dipped my toe in the water with ebay, I have sold stuff on a buy it now basis with some good results, however if I do it again I will change my pricing structure to take into account the relatively high costs.
  What you might consider is checking out the competition to see what they do and how they do it.
• PRO

  Geoffrey King June 29, 2010 at 9:07am

  This is a supplier we have used in the past
  
  http://www.orchard-nurseries.co.uk/index.htm or http://www.orchard-nurseries.com/
  
  They do 3 Leucojum's
  
  and http://www.floralfireworks.co.uk/ which is now closed and has become http://www.avonbulbs.co.uk/
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  Dave Sewell June 29, 2010 at 9:13am

  You could test the market on the internet. Set up a Wordpress blog based around the subject, invest in some Google adsense to drive targeted traffic to it and then harvest email addresses from interested people. That way you can test the market before any serious investment takes place.
  (Obviously there's a fair bit of work and technical knowlege involved in that simple sentence!!)
  Jamie, did you try Taylors in Spalding for your Leucojum? They have aestivum for £20/100 in this Autumns catalogue.
  dave
  www.the-gardenmakers.co.uk
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  Ben Candlin June 29, 2010 at 8:17pm

  Thanks for the comments guys - I appreciate your feedback.
  
  I have been thinking about ebay, but not sure if I want to go down that route particularly.
  
  Fenlandphil - the relatively high costs you mention are simply the time it takes to package and send out the goods? I guess you are right, I can imagine that kind of task could easily take longer than expected...
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  Fenlandphil June 29, 2010 at 9:52pm

  No not just the packing costs Ben, ebay and Paypal take a chunk in commission.
  
  Ben Candlin said:

  Thanks for the comments guys - I appreciate your feedback.
  
  I have been thinking about ebay, but not sure if I want to go down that route particularly.
  
  Fenlandphil - the relatively high costs you mention are simply the time it takes to package and send out the goods? I guess you are right, I can imagine that kind of task could easily take longer than expected...
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  Kerri Dall July 1, 2010 at 9:27am

  Hi Ben,
  i run Scottish Bamboo a specialist mail order bamboo nursery...as Fenlandphil said, time involved (esp packaging / booking transport etc) shouldn't be underestimated! I am from a mail order background (rather than horticulture) and had 10 years mail order experience before setting this up. You need to keep working at it and don't just expect to put a website live and have the orders to start rolling in...you must account for marketing costs. Ebay is very good for testing the water and has no set up costs or upfrint investment (we still run an ebay shop and it brings good results). Ebay do take their cut but you need to look at this as a marketing cost for getting your product in front of a large audience with benefit of great rankings in google search results etc.
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  Fenlandphil July 1, 2010 at 1:19pm

  Marketing costs, valid point Kerri.
  
  Kerri Dall said:

  Hi Ben,
  i run Scottish Bamboo a specialist mail order bamboo nursery...as Fenlandphil said, time involved (esp packaging / booking transport etc) shouldn't be underestimated! I am from a mail order background (rather than horticulture) and had 10 years mail order experience before setting this up. You need to keep working at it and don't just expect to put a website live and have the orders to start rolling in...you must account for marketing costs. Ebay is very good for testing the water and has no set up costs or upfrint investment (we still run an ebay shop and it brings good results). Ebay do take their cut but you need to look at this as a marketing cost for getting your product in front of a large audience with benefit of great rankings in google search results etc.
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  Ofer El-hashahar July 1, 2010 at 2:44pm

  I have an online shop,
  I do make my living from it- some days are great and some not - but that is the way when you start.
  For me it was my first part of my business plan and it took me much longer than I thought to learn it all.
  
  In the end of the day now it is worth it, Saying that I think I have good products and good pricing- as I import it myself. But it is not Enough as online is very competitive market you need to maintain it all the time- offer many products, keep working on seo, pay per click and send your parcels.
  
  I am sure that you may do well but it is very long learning curve- If you have extra time you can play with it.
  
  first thing to do is to check on google key word tool - how many people are searching for that - on what is called exact term- than remember that many of them are looking for info.
  
  In general there is a very positive graph of how many people buy plants online every year.
  Remember the thumb rule that people tend to buy after they saw a product or a firm 5-7 times. So it means that you will do better with the years.
  
  I personally, struggled with my English more than all but it is getting better every day!