Sourcing electronics for resale

AtaStrumf

I'm looking to start a specialised home theatre computer on-line shop. I'll need the likes of PC components, routers, network equipment, media tanks, network media players, external HDDs etc. Where can I find a supplier for that? Where do the likes of elara.ie, komplett.ie etc. get their stuff from? Is there a wholesaler for these sorts of things? Would I, as a small business stand a chance against these giants? My advantage would be expert advice both on the site and individually to customers and excellent after-sales support.

TheWaterboy

www.alibaba.com might be a good place to start trying to source what you need.

Unfortunately though I think you are 3 years too late with this idea. If im building a house yes I would love the whole specialized home theater but if money is tight it will be the first thing to be shelved. In boom times people spent a fortune on this stuff but not now. You are also competing against big big stores who will have much lower prices than you. I wish you good luck with it but I would do a lot of research to see the viability of it first.

Atlas_IRL

Check some of Sean Gallaghers videos he might mention it. I went on a conferance where he was talking about his company Smart Homes. They done really well inthe boom but now that industry is dead they have had to chage their business strategy completely. My cousin was in this as well(home cinema, fibre optic installations etc) all gone with the housing bust

AtaStrumf

I keep hearing about alibaba.com and similar sites, but is there no easier way? Are there no distributors in Ireland or UK where you can get this sort of stock from? I haven't been able to find what I want on the likes of alibaba.com. The choice there seems to be very limited. It would be a complete nightmare to source nearly every item from a different supplier.

In relation to the housing bust and it's impact on this sort of business I wouldn't really be into that high end type of work anyway. I'd be more into affordable, simple stuff like media players over a network, not setting up a home multimedia centre with all the bells and whistles. By having lower overheads I'd try to undercut the big boys, but as you can see I've still no grasp on where to get the stock from. I was under the impression that there would be a distributor/wholesaler in Ireland or UK where I could order stock from and then have a lower mark-up that the rest of the crowd in ROI. Given the rip off prices I thought it shouldn’t be all that difficult. Am I being a bit too naive here?

antoinolachtnai

Sure, you will find a distributor for any of it if you contact the manufacturer, but don't expect to get the gear for much less than the lowest retail price you'd get online. To get any reasonable sort of discount at all, you will be looking at taking the product in quantity. The margins are abysmal on most of this stuff. Electronics retail is not a good place to be at the moment, and the regional distribution business is not much better.

I am not saying that your business idea is bad, by the way, just that you shouldn't base it on making any markup on the gear. You also have to price realistically. Providing great after-sale support to customers is an expensive business.

Don't expect to have lower overheads than the big guys! Komplett.ie et al are basically sheds beside a motorway with a fairly compact sales and marketing department. The overhead per item is pretty tiny.

AtaStrumf

I see your point antoinolachtnai. I guess I'd have to see the wholesale prices first and then figure out if there's any real profit to be made there.

Does anybody know of any distributor here or in the UK that will carry a wide selection of Netgear, ASUS, WD, etc. stock?

You see if you keep your eyes and ears open there's always a few hot products that sell like hot cakes, but I suppose sourcing them at a good price is the tricky bit.

antoinolachtnai

Sure, but I don't think you'll like 'em!

netgear will have one or more distributors appointed for ireland most likely. Midia most likely is the main one - http://www.netgear.ie/buy_from_reseller.php?res=1&county=dublin for the list. A number of these are distributors rather than companies that sell to consumers.

Anyway, keep trying and thinking about it.

AtaStrumf

I saw that list as well, but since elara is on it I thought they sell to consumers, but I guess I better ring a few and check

antoinolachtnai

Nope, some of them are trade only as far as I know.