I realize there's been a ton of threads on retail and what to stock. I've gone through and read many of the recent ones. However, many of them are from 6 months to a year or two ago. I know I've read about PCX expanding his retail services, and there was a great post by stro in a thread about what all he was carrying.
I'm getting ready to expand my retail offerings. I'm getting tired of referring people elsewhere when they are looking for parts or components that I don't have. Currently I've been stocking cables, wireless usb adapters, wireless routers, wireless mice, wired keyboards/mice, some usb sticks (8gb&16gb), and different adapters, couplers, etc. And of course, I have a huge supply of used parts in the back that I will sell if someone wants something and doesn't care if its used (RAM, pci modems, network cards, etc).
My only competition from a retail standpoint is the local Walmart. The nearest Best Buy/Staples/etc is a 45 minute drive away. I know I won't be able to compete on price with Walmart for everything.
I'd like to know what kind of items are working well for everyone else now, and what items aren't. I'd really love to hear from those of you with larger stores like PCX, SprinterTech, stro, and ComputerPro.
I'm tossing around adding the following items:
-LED/LCD Monitors (1 or 2 choices on size)
-Printers
-Printer ink (except there's so many to chose from, I would only stock ink for printers I sell, and special order other types)
-Laptop cases & cooling pads
-External Hard Drives
-Couple models of laptops, couple models of desktops, not super expensive, and not super cheap either. Probably $500-$800 range.
-Assorted sticks of RAM. Probably 1GB DDR, 2GB sticks of DDR2, 4GB sticks of DDR3.
-Hard Drives. Probably 500GB & 1TB SATA drives, both desktop and laptop size. Possibly an SSD or two. These would be drives we would also use in repairs. Would it be worth it to get them with retail packaging? If not what's the best way to keep them displayed on a retail shelf?
I'm really torn on the following:
-Tablets. iPads, Microsoft Surface, random Android tablet of the week. Droid tablets are all I can get from D&H. I'd prefer to stick to iPad and Surface, but don't know where to get them and if there would be enough markup to make them worth it.
-iDevice accessories, like cases, stands, docks, earbuds, etc.
-Desktop components like processors, motherboards, etc. that are rarely used in repairs.
-Video cards. GPU tech advances so fast and the prices change so fast I feel like these are better to customer order
Once I start adding more items, what's a good way to get word out about them? I thought about taking a few full or half page ads in the local classifieds paper that gets mailed to everyone in the community, and laying out a bunch of different items we sold, along with prices.
I really want to redefine our business to be more of a go-to place for all of your electronics needs, not just a place you go to for repairs.
I'm getting ready to expand my retail offerings. I'm getting tired of referring people elsewhere when they are looking for parts or components that I don't have. Currently I've been stocking cables, wireless usb adapters, wireless routers, wireless mice, wired keyboards/mice, some usb sticks (8gb&16gb), and different adapters, couplers, etc. And of course, I have a huge supply of used parts in the back that I will sell if someone wants something and doesn't care if its used (RAM, pci modems, network cards, etc).
My only competition from a retail standpoint is the local Walmart. The nearest Best Buy/Staples/etc is a 45 minute drive away. I know I won't be able to compete on price with Walmart for everything.
I'd like to know what kind of items are working well for everyone else now, and what items aren't. I'd really love to hear from those of you with larger stores like PCX, SprinterTech, stro, and ComputerPro.
I'm tossing around adding the following items:
-LED/LCD Monitors (1 or 2 choices on size)
-Printers
-Printer ink (except there's so many to chose from, I would only stock ink for printers I sell, and special order other types)
-Laptop cases & cooling pads
-External Hard Drives
-Couple models of laptops, couple models of desktops, not super expensive, and not super cheap either. Probably $500-$800 range.
-Assorted sticks of RAM. Probably 1GB DDR, 2GB sticks of DDR2, 4GB sticks of DDR3.
-Hard Drives. Probably 500GB & 1TB SATA drives, both desktop and laptop size. Possibly an SSD or two. These would be drives we would also use in repairs. Would it be worth it to get them with retail packaging? If not what's the best way to keep them displayed on a retail shelf?
I'm really torn on the following:
-Tablets. iPads, Microsoft Surface, random Android tablet of the week. Droid tablets are all I can get from D&H. I'd prefer to stick to iPad and Surface, but don't know where to get them and if there would be enough markup to make them worth it.
-iDevice accessories, like cases, stands, docks, earbuds, etc.
-Desktop components like processors, motherboards, etc. that are rarely used in repairs.
-Video cards. GPU tech advances so fast and the prices change so fast I feel like these are better to customer order
Once I start adding more items, what's a good way to get word out about them? I thought about taking a few full or half page ads in the local classifieds paper that gets mailed to everyone in the community, and laying out a bunch of different items we sold, along with prices.
I really want to redefine our business to be more of a go-to place for all of your electronics needs, not just a place you go to for repairs.