Another online etailer?

[doopydug]

A good friend of mine locally has taken early retirement and already spends a lot of time with computers. Has a wee bit of cash to play with and is thinking of setting up a computer hardware store along the lines of Tekheads, OcUK etc etc.

I pointed out that it's a pretty saturated market and margins are a helluva tight but he seems determined to go through with it.

What do you guys thiunk- is there space for yet another one? how could he differentiate himself? Any suggestions on what I should say to him?

[Agent]

To be honest, there is already LOADS out there (look at the sticky in bargain hunt). Those company's have huge financial backing too, which would make them very hard to compete with !

[këö¬t]

if he is going to make such a buisness, he's going to have to specialize.
overclocking seems saturated, small form factor seems semi-saturated. are there any other fields?

[Swafe]

i dont know what sort of margins pc shops get, but if he opened a local shop he would do better, i mean ebuyer must make not much (%wise) where as pc world would make a bomb, how about a little pc shop?

then margins would be more and he could still make money, and on the high street he has dixons and pc world, and u could easily sell for less than pc world and still make a decent profit

cutting pc world outta tha market would be good as well

[5lab]

he could buy overclockingstore.co.uk and the copywrites and so on - then he'd start with a trusted name

[Anders]

I would say that making an online store successful is far more dependant on gaining a trusted name than having low prices. Who here would buy from an unheard of website that has just opened in order to save a couple of quid? Not many I suspect/hope.

I would say Swafeman maybe onto something, there is definitely a lack of knowledgeable, reasonably priced physical computer shops.

I wonder how much theoverclockingstore.co.uk name, etc. would cost.

[Stringent]

Thing is though, with the likes of PC World, people are more likley to go there to buy stuff and or get their computers 'serviced' than a small PC store.

But I will say the one near me has been helpful and handy when I have been in dire need of stuff. Cheaper than PC World on some bits

[Anders]

Yeah brand name is important for shops as well. However, so is location, all PC Worlds that I can think of tend to be those big out of town ones. If he could get a good spot in a city centre then that might give him an advantage.

Hmm, thinking about the shop idea more. Running a shop would be a full time job, i.e. someone needs to be there for the shop to open. This makes it a lot more hassle, expensive and risky versus opening an online store.

[doopydug]

Thanks for the replies guys. Opening a physical shop is a very good idea I think - there are a few around here at the moment but they open and shut like a hookers legs.

Even in that market, they have to be singled out as special to succeed I think

[DR]

I really wouldn't both too unless you are going to have a store in london or the centre of brum.

[doopydug]

Went into the local shop today (just a wee town where I Live) and it seemed quite busy - good levels of stock too!

There may be hope yet