If you are buying in bulk then you will find the postage less of an issue and can be accounted for in your pricing though obviously it's good to get the best deal for yourself and the customer. As Parallax are the manufacturer of the products you want to sell they should be able to do fairly good discounts even on smaller quantities if you are acting as a dealer as you also add value in terms of customer support and advertisement.
simonl said...
I'd really like to get others in the UK enthused about this stuff too, and that's my drive - but then economics drags me back to reality :-(
I think we'd all second the notion of getting people everywhere enthused with the Propeller.
Another approach may be to buy not direct from Parallax but from Digikey or others where you can get zero shipping costs on a large enough order. They may not stock the entire Propeller range ( some nudging there could lead to it ) but you'd give customers a wider inventory to choose from ( any Digikey part ). Most people need ancillary parts anyway for their projects and a one stop shop would have benefits.
Like 'PCB pools' you could build up orders until you reach the free shipping value. I'm sure many would accept the long lead times offset to reduced cost.
Yeah, Coley mentioned Digikey yesterday. I've never dealt with them - mostly because their on-line store's blocked where I work - but had a closer look last night; that looks like it'll be worth pursuing.
As for lead times; are people really prepared to wait (say) 3-4 weeks for their parts? That'd sure make things a bit easier for me, but I'm not sure it's what customers would be happy with - what say others?
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Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-) BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
I've certainly made request to digikey for certain devices that are not yet in their inventory.
They carry lots of MAXIM/Analog devices stuff, but may not have the most uptodate....you can ask them to give you a quote on something new....Parallax products included.
If enough people ask, they might start to stock.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ <FONT>Steve
What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!
You might get free shipping from digikey but what about your profit margin? I think you would tire of compiling orders and re shipping if you didn't make anything out of it.
simonl said...
As for lead times; are people really prepared to wait (say) 3-4 weeks for their parts? That'd sure make things a bit easier for me, but I'm not sure it's what customers would be happy with - what say others?
When the cost of shipping is more than the price of the item ordered I'd be happy to wait a few weeks rather than not buy at all which is what usually happens.
Equally important is the shipping method itself. With most couriers I end up having to take a day off work for delivery or a 40 mile round trip to collect it and that adds considerably to the cost. Being able to pickup from a post office / sorting office is so much more convenient.
Graham makes a good point about the profitability of any venture versus the effort you'll need to put in. Time is money and the more successful or popular you become the more time you'll spend in just checking, repackaging and posting orders out. It's a decision only you can make.
My nightmare fear was a thousand separate orders for individual Propeller Chips. Just cutting up anti-static tubing, stuffing, labelling and posting a thousand letters would take its toll. It soon opens ones eyes to why handling charges and markups are high.
conversely lots of little orders of the same thing can be dealt with very efficiently. Personally I think the digikey thing would be a nightmare unless it was fully automated.
The way I got into my business was by accident, I asked for a quote for 100 lipoly cells because I didn't think they would take me seriously, they got a bit confused and actually sent them before I even agreed that I wanted them, I set up a simple website in a weekend, found the perfect envelope and mailing method and operated very much like a factory line, very quick and efficient. If you do have lots of parts you must organize them well, I used those nice flip lid SMT boxes for all my small parts and bought a heat sealer and layflat tubing for packaging.
So an alternative way of doing this might be to not even try and set up a proper business but instead choose a popular item such as the raw chip, have someone in the states forward a bulk purchase to you to lower the costs (I'm not suggesting you should mark the package as gift or anything, hmm) and sell those items in an efficient manner, pack them up ready to go, get a label printer etc.
@ Fred : But then you also have sales taxes in most states, and what we get in the UK are free state services in return for the tax paid, so it's six of one, half dozen of the other.
As I think the thread has made clear, the biggest problem with importing things isn't necessarily so much the VAT, but shipping costs of US companies and their chosen agents.
Comments
Graham
I think we'd all second the notion of getting people everywhere enthused with the Propeller.
Another approach may be to buy not direct from Parallax but from Digikey or others where you can get zero shipping costs on a large enough order. They may not stock the entire Propeller range ( some nudging there could lead to it ) but you'd give customers a wider inventory to choose from ( any Digikey part ). Most people need ancillary parts anyway for their projects and a one stop shop would have benefits.
Like 'PCB pools' you could build up orders until you reach the free shipping value. I'm sure many would accept the long lead times offset to reduced cost.
As for lead times; are people really prepared to wait (say) 3-4 weeks for their parts? That'd sure make things a bit easier for me, but I'm not sure it's what customers would be happy with - what say others?
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
Cheers,
Simon
www.norfolkhelicopterclub.co.uk
You'll always have as many take-offs as landings, the trick is to be sure you can take-off again ;-)
BTW: I type as I'm thinking, so please don't take any offense at my writing style
They carry lots of MAXIM/Analog devices stuff, but may not have the most uptodate....you can ask them to give you a quote on something new....Parallax products included.
If enough people ask, they might start to stock.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
<FONT>Steve
What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!
Graham
When the cost of shipping is more than the price of the item ordered I'd be happy to wait a few weeks rather than not buy at all which is what usually happens.
Equally important is the shipping method itself. With most couriers I end up having to take a day off work for delivery or a 40 mile round trip to collect it and that adds considerably to the cost. Being able to pickup from a post office / sorting office is so much more convenient.
Graham makes a good point about the profitability of any venture versus the effort you'll need to put in. Time is money and the more successful or popular you become the more time you'll spend in just checking, repackaging and posting orders out. It's a decision only you can make.
My nightmare fear was a thousand separate orders for individual Propeller Chips. Just cutting up anti-static tubing, stuffing, labelling and posting a thousand letters would take its toll. It soon opens ones eyes to why handling charges and markups are high.
The way I got into my business was by accident, I asked for a quote for 100 lipoly cells because I didn't think they would take me seriously, they got a bit confused and actually sent them before I even agreed that I wanted them, I set up a simple website in a weekend, found the perfect envelope and mailing method and operated very much like a factory line, very quick and efficient. If you do have lots of parts you must organize them well, I used those nice flip lid SMT boxes for all my small parts and bought a heat sealer and layflat tubing for packaging.
So an alternative way of doing this might be to not even try and set up a proper business but instead choose a popular item such as the raw chip, have someone in the states forward a bulk purchase to you to lower the costs (I'm not suggesting you should mark the package as gift or anything, hmm) and sell those items in an efficient manner, pack them up ready to go, get a label printer etc.
Graham
As I think the thread has made clear, the biggest problem with importing things isn't necessarily so much the VAT, but shipping costs of US companies and their chosen agents.