Opening an online shop for flashlights

Off-topic Chatter
1

Hi all,
as im searching the internet for led flashlights in my country, Europe - Slovenia, i only find many led lenser, maglite, ansmann, ond other “crap” flashlights. One could find some expensive fenix, olight and few other top manufacturers, but there’s not many to choose from.

For example, this site, which has the most lights to offer at on place: http://www.svetilke.com (yea, it’s pretty poor)

And because there’s not a lot of competition, or maybe the owner doesn’t know much about flashlights, they sell only 1 type of 18650’s, original Fenix 2600mah for 12,95€(16,61:money_mouth_face:. Is that a ripoff or what?

Anyway, i think there is room for such an online shop in our country, as i see people still using their 20-30 years old flashlights, that even my phone light would outperform…

Let’s say i like fasttech shop’s items, but i wouldn’t go so big from the start, and would like to offer only the best budget flashlights, such as skyray king from cnqg, rather than the one from wallbuys for example.

I’m looking for some suggestions, on which lights and other stuff should i be offering.

Thats all for now and thanks for any replies :laughing:)

2

Here you have Xtar and some random lights.

3

Thanks, but, no thanks :slight_smile:

4

Those xtar 2600 mah batts are cheaper in the above link than in the uk.

5

The Fenix batteries are not a rip off, maybe in Slovenia, when I compare with the prices of the sedond shop, which nekdo posted.

In Germany you woudl paid a similar price (round about 12-14€).

About your shop idea: In Germany every shop have to give a warranty of 2 years. If the customer has problems with a flashlight he could send it back to the shop and the shop must find a solution (repair it for free, if the cutomer has used it in normal conditions - the customer is not allowed to open it, solder something or modd it etc. with this the warranty will be cancelt). If it will be the same in Slovenia I would only sell products, which have a good built quality or could repaired easy and cheap.

6

You might be better off being an affiliate for Fasttech.

7

If you wanna resell to people who can’t shop online.

Online you can’t beat the prices from China. Plus anything imported to EU will go through tax and so on so the goods get more expensive in your shop than when somebody buys it with free shipping from China as they don’t usually pay tax and so on because it’s under 22 EUR.

Plus you will need to and want to make some money reselling the goods as well.

That’s why we shop in China and Hong Kong, free shipping, no tax or customs duty, as close to the manufacturer as possible with as least resells as possible to keep the price low.

8

Contact some manufactures about becoming a dealer for them and get wholesale prices so you can make a profit. The key is to provide excellent customer service and fast shipping.

Maybe some people don’t like to wait for the long shipping time to order from China. And maybe some people do not trust some of the international sellers because they are worried about getting fakes or seconds. Some people may be willing to pay a little more to buy from a domestic company that ships fast and provides excellent customer service (before and after the sale) and knows their product well.

Best of all is if you can make some extra money doing something you enjoy. You will have a better chance for success because you’ll have your heart in it to provide the better customer service.

Here are some some suggestions: Make sure your website shows how many of each item you have remaining in stock. You could also put up reviews, comparisons and beam shots on your site. Maybe you could also set up a store on ebay. You could also post in the commercial sections of various forums. After you get your website up maybe you could post in the forums for suggestions to make it better.

Start out small with a few brands and see how it goes, then you can start to expand if it’s working out. I wouldn’t get too much tied up in inventory of each light since the technology seems to be constantly changing and new lights are coming out all the time.

Just go for it and give it a try, if it doesn’t take off you can always sell off your stock and break even. Usually in business you have to take chances, my advice: go for it.

9

@Buwuve
minimum warranty for electronic devices is 1 year in Slovenia, so that shouldn’t be much of a problem and yes, i’d try to do all the repairs, maybe that would give me even a bit lower price with the resellers, as i wouldn’t be sending the lights back, those i could repair myself.

The idea of runing such a business was based on the fact, that there is poor offer of flashlights here, paypal isn’t yet so widely spread and lots of people don’t even know such small and powerful lights even exist. Many of my friends say wow, when i show them my xin-td, which is always with me :slight_smile:
They are used to small led lights for a few $, usualy the ones that run on 3xAAA…

I sure wanna offer the best customer experience, as that is the main reason for your business to run well.

I think i’ll start bulding a list of items i would be offering, and making a market research, to see if there is any interest.

Thanks for all replies :slight_smile:

10

But you can buy AA and AAA flashlights in any grocery shop/post office/gas station, you name it. People sure aren’t interested in something they don’t know, and i have the will to explain them how better the leds have become. As i’ve said, i was first among my friends with such a fl, it was a xtar b01, 2 years ago, after a.few days of usage, i bought 1 for my dad also, and hes been using it regularly since.
Once we were outside with my friends at some place, it was dark and a car was driving towards us. I light it up from some distance, and it was the Police… After asking us what are we doing, one said, can you show me your light. I did, he looked first at mine, then at his, gave me the (you beat me look) and left, leaving a big smile on my face. If i could supply our policemen with flashlights, that would be some business for sure :slight_smile:

11

you don’t need to comment anymore, if the two words are your best output :slight_smile:

12

Other than being in the Slovenian language, how is having a website going to get people in your country to learn about these flashlights? I could create that website even though I don't know a single word of Slovenian. It'd be much better if your website was in addition to a store with a physical address that customers could come in and actually see how much brighter flashlights could be.

13

For the first few years, you won’t need a store front. I think opening a gadget store would be my dream job. Flashlights, multi tools, and knives would be what I’d sell.
Contacting manufacturers, would mean less money out of your pocket to get inventory, and should be seriously considered. Thrunite would be a good place to start, they have affordable and quality lights. Sunwayman has some budget offerings.
Reselling stuff from china won’t get you very far, the occasional defective light will kill your profit margin, you’d be doing it for the love of it and may end up taking a loss.
You’ll need to carry an inventory which means dedicating some storage space, preferably in your home (don’t rent a storage untill you have regular income)

14

Hi koyotee selling lights online is quite a fun thing to do…depending on your budget, you can try buying 1-2 of some popular lights maybe sipiks or ultrafire and other popular lights suggested by other members. Try to get an idea of which lights tend to get peoples attention and response faster…From there you can narrow down on which lights to bring in bigger quantities in the future…

15

Good idea on sales to police and any other industry/ sport /hobby etc needing flashlights. You may try to go for some contract/bid deal to re-equip an entire police force.

As for which lights to sell I would say to start become a dealer for at least one of the high end (non budget) companies, some average customers and professional clients (like police) may want those over the budget brands and it may help your store build legitimacy. Then have a mid price line (Solarforce, Shadow or Black Shadow comes to mind?) And then the budget lines, go with the manufactures that have good lights and allow you the best profit margins. Look on alibaba.com and aliexpress.com you can import directly and get quantity discounts that will become your profit margin.

Yes have a great website, but I agree with leaftye, just putting up a website alone most likely won’t cut it. Although I don’t think its necessary to start out with the high expense of a brick and mortar store at first, that could be VERY expensive and put you out of business fast (unless you can afford to take a loss for a while) You could try setting up temporary table/booth/kiosk at industry/sporting/hobby shows & events or just at a shopping mall to sell and promote your products & website.

I also think the key to an online sales site is where your site is advertised and how well it is optimized in the search engines, I have clicked on many banner/side bar ad’s while online because something interesting caught my eye. Maybe you can get a side bar ad for your site on some different industries/sportsman/hobby forums.

You have a good idea with the Police. Now think about other possible customers who are not (yet!) flashaholics. Come up with ideas to get your products in front of these non-flashaholic people and make some sales and you may start something. Think out of the box!

The best advertising is word of mouth. Make one customer satisfied and he (or she) may send you up to 10+, that’s basically how it works here on BLF, haven’t we all bought lights from sellers that were recommended in posts of fellow members here?

Fire/Rescue/EMT, Sportsmen, Mechanics, repairmen/technicians of all kinds need great flashlights, and some may not yet be enlightened about good flashlights, I have known EMTs and SAT/Cable techs still using crappy incan lights! Some don’t know about this LED light revolution!

The hard core flashaholics already have favorite online stores where they are buying from, so it may be a very competitive arena trying to market to them at first until you become better established.

Of course don’t listen to the naysayers! Especially if they don’t offer any good reasons why you shouldn’t do it.

16

I suggest getting some convoy lights and seeing if you can sell them at a high enough margin to make it worth your while.

17

How about starting your own thread?