Flea market business can earn sufficient living nowadays?

5Cstreet

Hi,

As running the flea market selling for the past few months, finding that it is hard to have the profit for present living cost. Sometimes, it even could not cover the rental.

Anyone can share your point of view so that can let those new runner be alert and do it better as a long term??

Thanks

MyFashionPalace

i m facing the same problem..
singaporeans like to bargin.. that's the problem?
do you face the same problem too?

Bambie

Same for me too. When I 1st started, I went around bazaars organized by schools, events company etc, and most of the time, only manage to cover rentals at times, and barely able to cover cost of bags and labour, let alone making profit.

What I feel is that at times, the events could have been better managed so that better response to the events can be achieved, increasing the traffic which will most ultimately lead to higher sales for the vendors...

I feel that if you are just doing bazaars/ flea markets, it would usually not be able to sustain day to day leaving, unless your cost is really really low and you prices are a good bargain too, such that at the end of the day, with good traffic, you would be able to gain decent profits.

Feel that bazaars and flea markets are not for everyone, every business...

Just my 2 cents worth.

5Cstreet

Hi friends,

Since we have the kind of thinking that there is no profit at all from flea market/bazaar, then, there should have some tactics which we don't know except low cost of products.

Anyone can share to us how to improve this situation and turn to profit for our living cost as this is a way of being be your own boss nowaday.

Thanks

timtam

I think there is no short cut lor...

If you are hopping around from flea to flea...then I think it is quite difficult. There is no identity. If it is just about buying a product, e.g. for those pasar malam crowds, then I think to the consumers, it is all about price. Cheapest price. This doesn't help us as sellers. Especially when sellers start to compete on price...end up all bleed....

But if you are keen to establish your biz, I feel you should try to retain some identity so that your customers will return to you. Maybe set up your own website, you can "Advertise" it during your flea or bazaars. Then at least if your products are good, your customers can look you up again at your website or find out about your next flea event. Also instead of competing on price only, look at other aspects such as customer service, or unique items, etc.

I began selling in Yahoo auction a while back, and now I do have quite a number of returning customers. I feel they have helped me a lot in spreading the word around. I have had referrals from them, they return to me for new stuff, etc. But all these take time to build up lor I am trying to set up another new site...so cycle will start all over again lor....

Juz my 2c

5Cstreet

Hi,

How is your new website set? I am keen on that so. It maybe help me on the products movement. Ya, How you set up your website and how much it cost?

5C street

bizwise

HI FRIENDS!,

Flea Markets are not that difficult to run afterall!
YEs you may want to set up website to get awareness to the public, however, it takes time to drive traffic to your websites and you might have to incur more cost and time doing it...[your aim is to increase traffic to your stall and not to your website]
From my past experiences, there are 3 things which you need to blend it well before going into the flea market business.
1) Location, 2) products 3) targeted clientele.
It doesn't matter whether you consider the cost of products first, then you look into location ,or clientele... as long as all these 3 MUST BLEND WELL.JUST LIKE MAKING A CUP COFFEE. whether you add the coffee powder first, milk 2nd & sugar last... there are more to it..PM me if you r interested.

newbie

I feel the same here

sithlord

hey.. jus another advice...

been running the flea market and bazaar biz too.. for almost a year...

what i feel is that, should there be a fellow competitor selling something similar to yours and at a lower price... (for example, he sell t-shirts at $10 each while you sell at $12)... it's never advisable to undercut the person back.... coz this lowers your overall margin... and both of you will be drawn into a price war, and the only person who benefits is the consumers.

two things you can do...

Price matching... means you can sell at the same price as the person..

but if you're super confident on the quality of your product... you should jus maintain the original price of your items..., this works sometimes...

====

as for pricing of your products, you can follow a couple of strategies...
please note that fleas are different from bazaars... esp for sch bazaars. Poly bazaars are also different from Uni bazaars.

You should judge on your potential customers and price accordingly... Flea markets are frequented by people looking for a bargain...eg Tanglin Flea Market....so you can't price your stuff too high...

Poly students are 17-20.... Uni students are 19 to 25++ ... so who gets more pocket money, who's richer and who's in a better position to decide the buying for themselves should be quite obvious... An example for me is that a ladies' top that I sell, i priced it at $25.. and it was wacked clean during the uni bazaars.. but the same item did not sell at all during a Poly bazaar that i went...

My point is that you should know you targeted audience well and price your items better.

liquidsanctuary

Well I guess it all comes down to the 4Ps,

Place = What is your channel of your selling.

Product = What is your core benefit of having your product.

Price = What's your pricing strategies.

Promotion = Do you advertise your products, including public relations?