Thinking About Opening a Car Accessories Shop in Kildare

bazb411

Hi All
As above seriously considering opening a shop have a shop organised very low rent just looking for advice on if you think it will be worth it and if anyone has any contacts in the industry i would greatly appreciate.

enviro

A friend of mine had an auto accessory shop in the midlands area for about four years. Roughly around 2 years ago, changed the business completely to provide valet services/attended car wash and tyre sales/fitting. The car accessory supply business just wasn't viable any more. It was a successful transition and the business has been doing well since.

IMO you should research how the car accessory market is doing right now...
Is there going to be enough demand for such a business in the area you are planning to set up in?

Who will be your target market and what is this group buying and spending their money on right now?

Who is offering similar products to the marketplace right now? I would guess Halfords, Planet Auto, Motor factors and other independents.
What strategy will be implemented to take market share from these players?

Also take into consideration the competition and opportunities that exist online.

Alot of people are price conscience and keeping your overheads to a minimum is a must... will a brick and mortar strategy allow you to offer the most competitive prices?

Regarding suppliers... Google it, attend trade shows and/or contact the manufacturer and ask for the contact details for the distributors in your area.

Best of Luck with it.

HellFireClub

bazb411 wrote: »

Hi All
As above seriously considering opening a shop have a shop organised very low rent just looking for advice on if you think it will be worth it and if anyone has any contacts in the industry i would greatly appreciate.

A lad I know tried this a few years back in a town in Kildare and it ended badly. If you are getting into this industry OP, you really need money to invest in stock and by stock I mean actual car parts, because people won't come into your shop to buy furry dice and air freshners, they'll come in for air filters, oil, spark plugs, wipers, exhaust parts, batteries, fuel additives, parts to get their car through the NCT, engine coolant, fuses, bulbs, etc.

Also, you won't make a living selling bits and pieces of accessories to retailers, you'll need to be also selling to trade/garage outlets, who will be looking for credit. Have a serious think about this OP, because what you are describing is a motor factor outlet.

While all of this is going on, you'll be seriously outflanked on price by on-line competitors who are not even based in Ireland. To top it all off, (no pun intended!), you'll need serious product knowledge to be able to sell your goods with confidence and stand over what you do sell, for example, if someone comes into your shop and says they have a Peugeot 206 with a 1.4 HDi engine in it, and they want to know what specification & quantity of engine oil they need for their car, you'll need to be able to advise them that it's a particular specification of oil for that car, (they will already have it in their head that it's a bog standard/cheaper type of 10W40 oil, because their old school mechanic will throw in any oil without thinking of the damage that could be done to a modern vehicle by not using a low-ash/correct spec oil type), so you'll have a customer who will think that you are just trying to sell them a higher spec oil to make a few more quid out of them and you'll be dealing with this kind of sh*t day in and day out!

And any customer, with any car, can come in and ask you these kind of questions, in relation to any part, for any car, at any time. This is just the customer service end, before you get into the financing and the cash flow, the suppliers (who will not give you credit as a start-up), etc.

Think very seriously about it before you commit is my best advice and don't sign any long term lease (longer than 2 years into you), if you proceed...