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About James E. Dion
Expertise
Most questions about trends in specialty retail, how customers are changing both in the US and Europe. Demographics for all countries as they relate to retail trends and issues. Store Operations, Buying and Merchandising.

Experience

Past/Present clients
Microsoft, Harley-Davidson, Ritz-Carlton, Hummer, Ace Hardware, Coleman Spas, Aldo, Intel, Dell, Safeway, New Balance, IBM, Kodak, Bata International, Nortel Networks, Honey Baked Ham Co., Man Alive, Highsmith
B.S Chicago State University M.S. Chicago State University PhD (abd) Illinois Institute of Technology

You are here: Experts > Industry > Retail Industry > General Retail Business Issues > Starting a business

General Retail Business Issues - Starting a business

Expert: James E. Dion - 11/3/2009

Question
A pleasant day to you Mr.James Dion.
I am Jeric Tibayan from the Philippines.
I'm thinking of starting a business here at the Philippines
and right now my problem is finding suppliers..
I'm thinking using the net and find customers that would like order item from me and then I'll order from my supplier.

Right now I'm thinking finding cell phone suppliers..
Hoping to find Nokia, Samsung, SE suppliers selling items items cheap price preferable wholesale or near wholesale price...

my questions
Q1. Are there suppliers that sells on those prices at order basis?
Q2. If i do get suppliers, how much should a retailer sell the item? Should i add maybe 10% of the cost of item?
Q3. Right now i only know 2 ways where i can get items to sell. Either (1)I find supplier (2)Buy at a store with lowest price.
Can you give me some tips or any idea getting the items to sell?

Hope you can help me start my business..
Thank you in advance....

Answer
Dear Jeric,

I admire your willingness and desire to start your own business and as you are discovering it is not as easy as it would appear to be. Vendors who sell the products you want will generally only sell to dealers who are purchasing quite a high volume to get the lower wholesale price, your idea of getting an order and then buying the item might only work after you had quite a long relationship with a vendor, likely not in the beginning. Vendors are not set up to ship one at at time, if they were, they would sell direct to customers and not need retailers! You might be able to find wholesalers or jobbers who would sell smaller quantities to you, but you would have to pay on delivery and again, they generally require a minimum order. For you to order even small quantities and carry inventory then requires that you likely make at least a 20% or higher for the expense of carrying the inventory. Not an easy business to get into today. The web makes it very easy for customers to find the low price retailers on most items and unless you can find something that is exclusive to you, it will be very difficult to build a web business. Good Luck!

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