The more affordable options here in NZ, are largely bad options. They are either old gen main brands, or bad brands. The greater public should be able to do better.
My question would be what exactly you offer over buying it overseas.
You can get cheap tablets delivered from China for peanuts. You can get name brand tablets delivered from Amazon for $30 over retail when you use Youshop.
As I see it you would either drop ship (which doesn't really offer anything over buying direct) or buy in stock and wear the risk of not selling it - particularly on something like tablets which lose value just about daily. Then if you are selling you would wear the cost/effort of dealing with warranties, which on cheap android tabs in particular could be significant.
The margin you would add to actually make money would probably price you over buying direct (unless you buy in bulk, see risk in carrying stock) which would further limit your audience.
You would also be competing with the likes of The Warehouse Group on the cheap tablet stage - good luck with engaging in a price war.
Now if you wanted to start a business selling tablet accessories - that's a different story. Low per unit price, large markup, to some extent an underserved market, particularly if you target slightly niche products (such as ANY windows phone product).
wasabi2k: My question would be what exactly you offer over buying it overseas.
You can get cheap tablets delivered from China for peanuts. You can get name brand tablets delivered from Amazon for $30 over retail when you use Youshop.
As I see it you would either drop ship (which doesn't really offer anything over buying direct) or buy in stock and wear the risk of not selling it - particularly on something like tablets which lose value just about daily. Then if you are selling you would wear the cost/effort of dealing with warranties, which on cheap android tabs in particular could be significant.
The margin you would add to actually make money would probably price you over buying direct (unless you buy in bulk, see risk in carrying stock) which would further limit your audience.
You would also be competing with the likes of The Warehouse Group on the cheap tablet stage - good luck with engaging in a price war.
Now if you wanted to start a business selling tablet accessories - that's a different story. Low per unit price, large markup, to some extent an underserved market, particularly if you target slightly niche products (such as ANY windows phone product).
Well there's a few assumptions implicit in all that. Firstly, that all tablet consumers would even consider buying direct from china, or from amazon etc. Most consumer goods can be purchased cheaper more directly from the producer, or from a large overseas supplier. Most consumers don't do that with most goods, for a lot of reasons (risk, time delay, specialization, product range, convenience, warranties, customer service, and many more).
I would be buying stock, not drop shipping. And I would be wearing the warranty costs (yes, that will cost me money), but that means people can buy with a sense of safety.
I know very well which brands are good from china, and which aren't. And in that, I'd be providing a high quality selection of products, which in addition to the warranty protects the consumer, and with the stocking keeps price low, even compared to direct.
Yeah, I would be competiting with the warehouse etc - but their cheaper tablets are basically bad tricks on the consumer, various forms of terrible. I wouldn't be competiting with them on price alone, but on different points. My webstore is a tablet specialist store. Not a large chain. You can buy a computer from a large chain, but there is a lot of business in the smaller retaillers all the same. And there are more mobile phone based retail and repair stores these days than you can shake a stick at.
And yes, I would be offering accessories for everything in one place, something for every tablet I stocked - cases, keyboards, memory cards, screen protectors, micro usb cables, joypad dongles, eventually game adapters - and i'd be trying to have a decent form factor variety, covering phablets and powerbooks. And I'd also be offering these in package deals with tablets too. And some aftersale support. I know my ways around android a little for example, can update the OS, fix problems and so on. I'd consider doing screen repair as well, at some point. Something to chew on.
Sure there are risks. There always are in business. The margins are going to be pretty thin, in order to keep the prices low, and cover the risks and costs. There will be higher margins in the accessories than the tablets. But I am not looking to become a millionaire, just run a useful to the public business and make a little profit. And frankly its kind of a needed service IMO.
The big brands are overpriced. Overhyped. Over-respected (apple for example, their latest phone is nonsense, badly manufactured, average speced, most features copied). The cheaper stuff here in NZ is either old gen stuff thats bad to use, or bad brands/products. While computers long ago opened up offbrand markets, and smartphones are going there as we speak, tablets have yet to properly.
Cool, not trying to shoot you down - just playing devil's advocate. Sounds like you've considered my points already.
I guess a challenge would be educating consumers as to why your tablets are better. From experience a lot of people buy a cheap tablet from Noel Leeming, it breaks immediately, so they decide they need an iPad.
wasabi2k: Cool, not trying to shoot you down - just playing devil's advocate. Sounds like you've considered my points already.
I guess a challenge would be educating consumers as to why your tablets are better. From experience a lot of people buy a cheap tablet from Noel Leeming, it breaks immediately, so they decide they need an iPad.
Best of luck.
I appreciate that. All feedback is useful :)
Yes, I am doing a lot of planning and thinking about all this.
Yeah, the will be one of the major challenges, educating consumers. I've test sold a few of these tablets, and had some very happy users.
I will/am. Yeah, for all the other things I am considering, moat/differential is a pretty big one, especially longer term. So thanks for reminding me of that/pointing it out.
How to deal with more and more competition coming in, that needs to be part of my growth/future plan.
Powerful enough for 'office' type software suite. Expandable - microSD and USB 3.0 (full size). HDMI out (can be compact) No (zero, zip, nada) proprietary port formats. Competitive accessories market. High performing Wi-Fi. Minimal (or removable) bloat-ware. Good battery life. ONGOING FIRMWARE SUPPORT
Built in mobile data I'm in two minds about: It's elegant to have it built in, but then it isn't upgradeable. A USB port allows a dongle to be used. A dongle is clunky, but easily and cheaply upgradeable.
Price point under $500. Local purchase and protection of the consumer guarantees act is worth something to me. I'm very unlikely to buy a phone tablet etc of an obscure overseas company on e-bay or amazon. Further neither e-bay or amazon provide much info on the specs of the items offered.
There's something similar across the ditch - I'd recalled seeing this guy on Whirlpool (the West Island equivalent of GZ) when I was researching tablets a few years back.
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