business plan

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CV

THE PLAN

Overview

Wireframes

Elevator Pitch

Mission Statement

Domains

JUST SHOPS

Overview

AI Summary 
of this page

High-Ticket vs High-End: The page clarifies the difference between ‘high-ticket’ items, which are expensive but not necessarily prohibitive, and ‘high-end’ items, which emphasize quality and exclusivity along with a higher price point.

Dropshipping Misconceptions: It addresses common misconceptions about dropshipping, comparing it to the skepticism once held towards MTV, Aldi, and the internet. The text argues that major retailers  including Harrods use dropshipping and that it’s becoming more accepted.

Dropshipping History: The concept of dropshipping is explained as originating from mail-order catalogs, predating the internet, and evolving due to business constraints and customer demand.

Dropshipping Business Strategy: The author outlines a strategy for a dropshipping business, focusing on domestic, quality brands, and excellent customer service to ensure a positive experience for customers and profitability for the business

There appears to be confusion between
high-ticket and high-end

Just to clear this up...our website is high-ticket.

High-ticket: This term focuses primarily on the price, which is by no means prohibitive, but can generally ensure the quality of goods is high. 

It's often used in sales and marketing to describe products or services with a high cost, typically $100 or more on ecommerce websites. Not an impulse buy, more considered. 

High-ticket items can be anything from furniture and watches to exclusive coaching programs and software. 

The key idea is that the price point is a significant investment for the buyer.

High-end: This term emphasises quality, exclusivity, and prestige along with the price, which is typically in the £000s.

High-end products are not just expensive, they're also well-made, often from superior materials, and may involve craftsmanship or design elements that set them apart. 

They might be associated with luxury brands or a certain level of status.

So that sorts that out. Mind you, next on my agenda is  high-end (having just purchased high-endshops.co.uk, highendshops.co.uk and high-endshops.com domains, welllll, why not?)

Before I start, I want to dispel a few myths...this is what I want you to see when I say 'more on the word dropshipping'...

Dropshipping...it's not a dirty word. However, there is a problem. 'Dropshipping' continues to be considered by some as scammy, cheap, not 100% ok, something run by 'loan shark' types, ticket touts etc. Which is a shame, and wrong. 

It's a bit like when MTV, or Aldi, or the Information SuperHighway(!) first arrived. People were skeptical, suspicious and wary. They're not now. The same needs to apply to dropshipping.

I've been advised to not overthink the word. And having done some research, apparently ALL major retailers in the top 100 US companies use dropshipping, and are perfectly happy to, and to say so...so let's stop there...all is well.

Some high end suppliers use the word 'dropshipping' openly now. Which is great.

Direct to customer dispatch, or any other variant can be used when I'm approaching suppliers...and they're sure to know I mean dropshipping, but it's getting better now.

Customers do not need to be aware of dropshipping, I can simply inform them that products are dispatched from partner warehouses etc, so all is cool.

I'm only using UK manufacturers and suppliers (tho some products come from Europe, and some from further afield where they are actively offering great benefit to local communities), and wish this entire business wasn't tarnished with the 'bad' elements who do go and buy cheap crap from China and make a fortune - I'm not that person.

I just want to provide an honest, reliable efficient service for the benefit of all and especially customers, to whom we can provide a very personal service due to relatively low volumes, and consider handwritten thank-you letters and free magazine subscriptions etc as part of the service. Big outfits aren't as flexible generally.

M&S use dropshipping, House of Fraser use dropshipping, Wayfair use dropshipping massively - 95% is dropshipped - does anybody really think they have 12,533 coffee tables in stock? Oh, probably.

Manufacturers and wholesalers generally love the concept now - they're getting lots of free salespeople! Why wouldn't they love it? Those who don't dropship are simply in denial...

Arditi (with coffee tables at £20,000+) and Artemest (with a Formula One styled coffee table at £85,000) both use dropshipping (watch this space).

So, it's just newer than traditional routes to market. And now, established.

Here's a good link that gives a balanced view...https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/truth-dropshipping-good-bad-ugly-victor-rwegasira/

Rant about the word dropshipping over - Let's move on

Let's take a look where dropshipping came from. Borrowed from elsewhere, but getting things right...

THE HISTORY OF DROPSHIPPING

According to Wikipedia, “dropshipping is a form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders without keeping stock on hand.” Notice how there is no mention of the internet, online stores, Amazon, or anything of that nature.

For the younger generations that know nothing of life without the internet, this may seem a bit puzzling. But the simple fact of the matter is that the concept of dropshipping predates the internet by about 20 years.

Dropshipping began its life as the unassuming mail-order catalog. 

For those too young to be familiar with the term, mail-order catalogs were small-to-large booklets or magazines that one would receive in the mail and would contain a range of advertisements for various products. 

You would then call the number provided in the catalog, place an order, and have a package delivered directly to your door.

Some companies saw colossal success using this method on a large scale. However, as time passed, a particular business constraint made itself apparent - they lacked the resources to keep up with customer demand. Soon, they realized that the only way to keep up with the growing demand was to find a more efficient way to fulfill orders.

While the dropshipping model is, without a doubt, one of the most lucrative ecommerce models out there, it has come to be portrayed in a negative light for several reasons.

Whether it's down to those ticket tout types, seasonality, cutthroat competition, low-quality products, long shipping times, poor customer service, or the risk of overselling, both customers and dropshippers alike often experience less-than-satisfactory situations when buying or selling dropshipped goods.

But the question is, does it have to be like this? Is the negativity surrounding the term dropshipping inherent in the model itself, or is it a result of customer-inconsiderate business decisions made by up-and-coming entrepreneurs looking to make a quick buck?

THE SIMPLE ANSWER IS NO; IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS.

Take a minute...

While many dropshippers have achieved success in recent times, the average consumer is becoming savvy.

People want to know where their products are coming from, they’re happy to pay more for quality, they expect products to be shipped in a timely manner, and they expect issues to be resolved with care.

Any failure in quality, shipping, or customer service will lead to long list of non-returning customers and probably, at the very least, a handful of negative reviews directed toward your business.

Fortunately, however, a new wave of dropshipping is on the horizon and it will benefit consumers, brands, and dropshippers alike.

START A DROPSHIPPING BUSINESS WITH DOMESTIC, QUALITY BRANDS

Make your dropshipping business a pleasurable experience for both you and your customers with domestic and high-quality brands, quick delivery, low inventory risk, excellent customer service.

So here's what I'm gonna do...

Dropshipping is a business model continuing to gain popularity. 

It involves retailers abstaining from stocking products themselves. 

Instead, when a customer orders, retailers procure items from third-party suppliers who directly ship to customers. 

This negates the need for inventory storage and order fulfilment.

In fact, most top online retailers increasingly rely on dropshipping, or so called third-party (3p) sales, to do their business.

Wayfair is 95 % dropshipping.

In the US all top 100 retailers use dropshipping now.

A dropshipping supplier on our books manufactures or sources a product, say a coffee table, and sends Syncee all the current inventory levels, vivid imagery, and comprehensive product data.
The supplier lets us know of the new product/s.

We request coffee table info from Syncee four times daily, now to include the new table along with hundreds of others.
We offer that coffee table for sale on justcoffeetables.co.uk or maybe another online platform (such as Instagram or Pinterest)

A customer places an order for the coffee table on justcoffeetables.co.uk, and loves the simple process. 

We have systems set up with Shopify that means justcoffeetables.co.uk informs them and 
Shopify processes the order, automatically notifying supplier and thanking the customer.

The supplier prepares and sends the coffee table to the customer. They love it, delivery was so quick, and the handwritten letter fab!
A 5       review is posted!

I have been interested in this business model since around 2009, when it first became 'a thing'. At the time I was working in London at the BBC. 

My store was to be known as Big Dave's Shops and would sell anything and everything. It didn't transpire; tools were embryonic, clunky, and, well, fairly useless. Fast forward fifteen years and look where we are now! 

I have worked in the web industry since 2000 until recently as an IT Consultant.

Clients ranged from individual ecommerce clients (the first payment gateway I developed was in 2004 using EPDQ from Barclays) through to major corporations and companies, the most notable being BBC, Tesco, Honda, Currys, YouView and Jacamo. My CV is available on the CV page in downloadable .pdf format.

The expertise I gained and knowledge I amassed is substantial and leaves me in a great position to finally flee the (admittedly highly-paid) 9-5 and strike out on my own.

The confluence of various factors has led to now being the ideal time.

These include:

I've joined a dropshipping mentorship program which is going great. I've bought a bunch of domain names, the websites aren't live yet. They're all niches, mainly within furniture, but all beginning with Just or Shop followed by the niche name.

I'm being mentored by a guy who made his millions, bought a villa, lay on the beach and got bored day one! He chose to impart his knowledge on others (for a fee of course, which is 100% ok in my book).

He is Lex Bell of Dropship Circle. He only mentors three people at a time (per month). He's always there online, we WhatsApp quite a bit and he responds to emails quickly and efficiently. He knows his stuff. As I've found out even more by attending his 8pm meetings on Sundays and Wednesdays.

It's a six month mentoring program so there's between 10 and 20 people in the meetings normally. So far Lex has answered every question really well as people face obstacles etc, which I undoubtedly will.

As mentioned the business is based on niches...so for instance I'm not building a website for 'furniture', or 'living room'...instead concentrating on the lower-level niche, like 'coffee table'.

We build a Shopify website, research and sign up suppliers, add their products to the site using csv files from them, ideally 50+ products. I don't have the website up yet but have chosen coffee tables for my first site. Advertise this using PPC on Google/Instagram etc with a daily spend limit. Hopefully get a few orders (28/02 - some of the above has changed since first writing, you'll see in The Plan and Wireframes pages).

Take a look at https://www.shopify.com/blog/is-dropshipping-worth-it

An image from the above article...2020-2030. The furniture and appliances sector looks set to grow dramatically from now to 2030. 

Fashion looking good...let's see where justwomensbags.co.uk, justwomensfashion.co.uk, justwomensshoes.co.uk, shopwomensbags.co.uk, shopwomensfashion.co.uk get to. And, for the US market, as below, justwomensbags.com, justwomensshoes.com. 

Not forgetting men - justmensfashion.co.uk, shopmensfashion.co.uk, justmensfashion.com.

Nice.

A word on AI

I said earlier that I'm not going to use AI anywhere in this business plan - and I'm not, certainly not to rewrite what I'm saying, buttttt...I will use it for research and stuff, as per the page summaries at the top of each page.