Online comic and collectibles Store

CHOPSK

Hi, I'm doing a bit of research at the minute into creating an online store for all things comic book related (floppies, TPB, Models, collectibles etc) that will cater for the Irish market initially as there doesn't seem to be any available.

The main question that I'm looking to answer, is there even a viable market for such a site and by this it comes down to numbers. Is there sufficient numbers of people that have a need for such a site.

I find the international shipping on other online stores is a killer and puts me off if I'm on the fence about a purchase.

A few friends and have been looking at developing such a site for a few months, we all have "day jobs" that we will be keeping so making a huge profit isn't the motivation. We will be investing our own money for the stock, site development and other various cost.

Before we go any further we want to make sure there's an audience that would use any such site.

We'd appreciate any feed back and if anyone has anything to add feel free to ask.

Antibac

I would say that there would be a decent market for that kind of stuff. I know shops like Big Bang do a lot of business by post & they don't have a website.

What about getting a stall at the like of Dublin Comic Con or MCM? It would open it up to a massive audience & might be an easy way of advertising?

CHOPSK

Antibac wrote: »

I would say that there would be a decent market for that kind of stuff. I know shops like Big Bang do a lot of business by post & they don't have a website.

What about getting a stall at the like of Dublin Comic Con or MCM? It would open it up to a massive audience & might be an easy way of advertising?

I've got stuff through the post for a Big Bang and Dublin City comics and collectabiles, one of the big drivers behind us persuing the development is despite the mentioned shops doing great jobs it can be hard to know what stock they have on hand unless you know what you want. I'd personally like to be able to browse a site and pick up some things randomly and have it in a day or two.

The stall at a con is one plan we have had once the site is up and running to get the name out there. We've been to a number of comic cons and seen the large numbers but will those numbers transfer to actual sales is what we need to find out.


Thanks for the feed back.

Fysh

That's a tough question that I don't think you're going to get answered on a forum, unfortunately. You may get some sense of individuals who are keen on the idea, but not any quantifiable metrics that would be useful in terms of setting a budget, planning marketing, etc.

So, things I'd suggest (based on bits and bobs I've seen good shops do):

• plan a detailed survey about the buying habits of your target audience. What product types do they buy? How often? Do they subscribe/have pull lists? Would they commit to a minimum number of pull list items in exchange for discounts? Do they follow Previews or other catalogue sites? How much (broken down by range) do they spend on each category per month? Is that a regular spend or depending on what is released? What do they look for in an online shop? Work from there to see what kind of sales patterns you might expect, and what your turnover & profits might be. Consider that getting useful information may require spending money, e.g. an inducement to fill in a long, boringly detailed survey. Even entering people into a raffle for a good prize might be enough.
• investigate what good shops do in terms of providing customers with new product info. The Big Bang have a mailing list; Gosh! in London have a website and blog which regularly mentions the week's releases and what's coming up soon. A website with a browseable "in stock" view is a nice idea
• consider running an ebay store for a short period to try out your planned stock/budget. EBay has its own issues, but it provides a ready-made shop system and thus could be a low-risk way of testing the idea out.
• Figure out how you make yourself distinctive and what you can do that others can't. Why should a customer come to your shop over buying from Big Bang, or any of the many other comic shops who sell through eBay or their own websites?

MarkHall

Fysh has solid pionts.
Very hard to fault the big bang or dcc. As well as selling the books they are the only stores to regularly give back to the customers by hosting events and having pros over.
They've also got an established customer base that's been built over time. I do think the brick stores help as well with their mail order.

The main competion you'll have is why would one order from you crew over the other Internet options?
While the Irish flag is great to hoist. Customers won't make it their main concern. Especially if it's cheaper elsewhere. And that a where not having a shopfront will hurt.

It's always nice to have other options. But it might be a shakey start up for you.
Floppies are a tricky beast to master. And preordering helps with that. Preorders needs exsisitng custimers. But I wouldn't like to be investing into that from the start as it will be the biggest drain. Merc and Graphic novels can be shifted later. (Be it a week, month or year) but Floppies have a limited shelve life till they become back catalogue.(unsold stock) which you might get lucky on down the line and they become worth more than you paid for them.
But there isn't the market for that as there once was.

TheDoc

I did originally find the lack of online websites frustrating, since, well, everywhere has a website. But once I was going into the shop enough at Big Bang and talking to the guys enough, realised it wasn't that much hassle to organise delivery of my stuff. They send a newsletter via email so I can keep tabs on whats new or coming out, and its just an e-mail to amend my pull list.

In saying that, because the delivery is so handy (and it is cheap, plus getting all my singles bagged and boarded) they have kinda lost the spontanous purchases I used to do. I used to go in knowing I wanted A,B,C but would end up dropping easily €100-120 a trip. Especially pop vinyl that I'm big into, I'd always grab one, along with maybe some volume or collection of something.

So I know for me personally, if there was a website that had a good stock of pop vinyls, graphic novels and TPB, I could easily see myself using it. I've kinda curbed my TPB buying since I ran into a massive backlog of singles, but I was using BookDepository, who have free shipping and it wasn't that long to wait. And had a great selection.

The stock control aspect though you mention is definitly a big thing. Big Bang is still a trip for me, and I know I can ring or e-mail but sometimes you are just idly thinking of something, you are at the PC, and you're like "ugh if only I could check online".

I think it could be a succesfull venture, but it does look like a slick niche market where the established people are well drilled, have a good customer base etc. Might be an idea to look into a niche within a niche and building out from there. As mentioned above, pre-orders are a big driver for gauging what to order in terms of singles, and potentially even TPB's and others. You don't want a situation where you are sitting on idle stock for months not selling. And you ideally don't want a situation where you are acting as a middle man in terms of waiting for customers to place orders, before you order stock. Customers figure that out quickly and those delays turn people off.

And as an online front, with no actual store, I know as a customer I'd have expectations you would be able to sell for cheaper. If you just maintained the market rates for say a Pop Vinyl, I'd probably prefer going to a shop to just idly browse around at other stuff. The purpose of online should be driving spontanous spending from customers, but also driving RRP low to entice customers. You should still be able to maintain a decent margin ,consdering you wont have a store presence.

Probably starting somewhat safe and small, with the safe options and products and see how it goes from there?

Nervous Wreck

^^That last paragraph is a really good point.

For me personally, I buy a lot of comics and I'd have no interest in this... for the most part, I buy from Big Bang and that's the only place I'm really interested in buying. A website, while convenient, just wouldn't suit my needs/wants as a comics customer. Also, comics shops have it tough; I like to support them as much as possible.