Pushcart or Webstore? Which is better?

nightstar

Hi

I am a homemaker and is new to pushcart business and online webstore. I am not IT savvy but still can start a very very simple blog. I need opinions from you whether which one should I go for as a start. I do not have capital to start but $300/mth pushcart rental maybe able to go by. Which one is more demanding? I do not wish to stress up myself.

Bambie

Hi Hi nightstar,

Both modes have got their own different challenges. No doubt a blogstore etc is of higher cost, you will need to spend alot of effort in marketing to get traffic to your website, increasing your visibility and transforming the visitors into buying customers.

For pushcarts, not too sure if you would even be able to find pushcarts that cost only $300 per month. The cheapest that I have ever come across is at $15 per day which works out to be about $450 per month, and that is at the CCs, where human traffic might not be so ideal...

For me, I would prefer to spend my efforts on online store before going into pushcarts, so that I can
1) build customer base
2) build capital
as the cost of pushcarts in good traffic areas really does not come cheap for the moment and I might not have sufficient stock around that can allow me to sell so many pieces to cover my rental and make a profit at the moment.

Just my 2 cents worth...But ultimately, it really depends on you.

nightstar

Hi Bambie, thanks for your input.

I have think of online store which I know is an 'in' thing now. The problem is that my items may be of low value. Example, I send a small home deodorant pack which outside retail price is $8, my cost of goods is $5.50, but my delivery cost (say, I use Singpost) is already $3. In this case, I don't even earn a single cent. I can't mark up high to cover my shipping cost as there may be a pricing policy that I need to comply with my supplier. So, though one good point of online store is I need not pay monthly rental but a big part of the expenses lies in the shipping cost which eats up my profits. Is there a way to manage this?

Bambie

Hi Hi Nightstar,

Hehe, guess not that online selling is the "in-thing" right now, just that it is another mode of selling which alot of students etc have embarked on, selling on blogstore etc, so that they can earn some part-time income while still able to focus on their studies etc.

If you realise, alot of online stores are charging shipping/ delivery cost to the customer, i.e. customers will have to bear the cost of delivery! Not that this is particular attractive to customers, but there are alot of things that we can explore in terms of shipping/ postage.

For eg, you can offer free shipping only when a customer reach a certain amt of order (eg. $50 and above), then you send it out to them? Sending things in bulk will give you a lower postage/ shipping charge, and if you do your sums correctly, you should be able to absorb the postage charge if a customer buy in bulk from you.

However, was thinking if the product that you are selling is something that is very accessible to the customers, i.e. they are able to buy it off the shelf easily from any store, then the issue would be, is there anything to attract customers to buy from you in this case.

Unless you have some very different products that is not so common elsewhere, and they come to your website to buy those products, and then since they already buying something from you, might as well get the deodorant from you at the same time, then it will be a different story, i.e., the deodorant would not be the main product that you are selling, but only as a complementary product on your store...

nightstar

Hi Bambie, thanks very much for your advice. I will certainly take this into consideration if I open my online store one day. My idea is to go for pushcart first to create some immediate awareness of my products to my neighbourhood. When I can generate enough sales to make some profits, I may expand the business to online store as well. I know it is difficult to do pushcart business as I heard many people said so, and I hope my idea is workable. What do you all think?

chuankai

In my opinion, I will take my business online first (2-3 months) before taking it outside. Setting up a online store is not that costly and fairly simple. Using that as a stepping stone, you can judge the receptivity of your items. If the response is good, you then can consider expanding to pushcarts.

By sharing your site through forums, search engines and etc, you can generate a fair bit of traffic on your site. All these at a very little cost and at the comfort of your own home.

xoxoxo

Hi, if you do not want to stress yourself too much, then go for online. Pushcart requires your physical presence if you do not hire sales assistant. For online, if you are not IT savvy, try ebay's estore for a start. For pricing, be realistic. If you are out to do business, then you have to do your sums. If you have to factor in shipping, do so. If after factoring in shipping, you feel that the retail price is too high, then perhaps you need to reconsider if your base cost is too high and if there's any way to reduce them. Good luck

otterised

hihi, i think you can try flea-ing instead of pushcarts~ there's alot of flea mkts organised by CCs. Pushcarts are not necessarily helpful cos like Bambi has said, the costs are too high~ I'm not familiar with your prodts, but I probably wun buy a deodorant pack online when I can readily get it off the shelf in my nearby supermkt~ UNLESS your deodorant pack is not avail in sg~ good luck!

htzmarket

not all CC turnout will be good ;-) so don't get discouraged ;-)

justgift

may you can do meet up instead of postage, you can meet up at selected mrt station and so thus saving $$ also