Ecommerce Start-up

[Dduke87]

Hi All,

I am in the process of starting a online retail shop for woman and men's clothing, accessories etc. I am currently creating the site through shopify and have my payfast business account setup.

My question is, where can I find a wholesaler for decent clothing in RSA? I do not mind to import, but I cannot afford to wait for between 30 and 60 days for a shipment. I would prefer dropshipping, but if it is not possible, then it is not a train smash, and some of the clothes I want to be plain (no name brands or patterns) as I want to print my own brand on them.

My other question is, will payfast be sufficient enough as a payment method or will I need to create another method?

Any advice on what to avoid from people who have these type of start-ups will be appreciated. I do not want to make too many mistakes, especially not costly ones.

Thank you.

 

[WAslayer]

So you want to sell clothing and already have most else in place except for a supply of the very thing you want to sell..?

Once you have that supply issue sorted, why should people buy from your online store instead of going to the likes of zando or superbalist..?

 

[Dduke87]

Because the items that I want to list will either be branded by my own brand or it will be items that are not listed on the other online shops. If I do compete with another smaller online shop that has the same items listed I will be able to cut my profit margin a bit more and sell it for cheaper (my overheads will remain minimal).
There is a demand for various clothing items that places like Zando and Superbalist do not stock which forces the end user to go to a smaller online shop and they tend to be quite pricey.

However, like I said, I need a decent wholesaler first that sells quality products either in RSA or outside, with a option for quick delivery.

 

[Dduke87]

Oh, and nothing thus far has cost any real capital to setup, thus the reason for doing it this way around. The actual product itself (in this case just the clothing part of the shop) will obviously take a bit of capital and the pictures of the items can be uploaded fairly quickly before the site goes live.

 

[TheMightyQuin]

Hi All,

I am in the process of starting a online retail shop for woman and men's clothing, accessories etc. I am currently creating the site through shopify and have my payfast business account setup.

My question is, where can I find a wholesaler for decent clothing in RSA? I do not mind to import, but I cannot afford to wait for between 30 and 60 days for a shipment. I would prefer dropshipping, but if it is not possible, then it is not a train smash, and some of the clothes I want to be plain (no name brands or patterns) as I want to print my own brand on them.

My other question is, will payfast be sufficient enough as a payment method or will I need to create another method?

Any advice on what to avoid from people who have these type of start-ups will be appreciated. I do not want to make too many mistakes, especially not costly ones.

Thank you.

Vat and duties on imported clothing will kill you deader than a dodo..

 

[Johnatan56]

Because the items that I want to list will either be branded by my own brand or it will be items that are not listed on the other online shops. If I do compete with another smaller online shop that has the same items listed I will be able to cut my profit margin a bit more and sell it for cheaper (my overheads will remain minimal).
There is a demand for various clothing items that places like Zando and Superbalist do not stock which forces the end user to go to a smaller online shop and they tend to be quite pricey.

However, like I said, I need a decent wholesaler first that sells quality products either in RSA or outside, with a option for quick delivery.

Often there are exclusivity agreements in place in regards to importing a lot of brands, do check up on the ones you plan on importing.

Supply chain should have been first as well, rest of the business does not matter without it.

In terms of payment, payfast is good enough until you get into high volumes where there are other options that could be better.

And as above stated, there are taxes to check as well, I somehow doubt you took them into account if you haven't even set up supply yet.

A clothes sales store like yours should have rather started as selling privately via FB and then moved on to store once successful. The market is quite saturated.

 

[theratman]

No advice here maybe @thetextileguy can help if he's still around on the forum. Good luck OP.