The chance of a lifetime: You are asked to start a bike shop. How should it be done?

[Big Dave]

>> You are too intelligent for that. .<<

Nah. I just know the margins.

[Conquiztador]

I often get motorcycles that originate from the HB in my shop. With many, the standard of butchery needs to be seen to be believed.

I always find myself wondering if it's your handiwork.

Now you are just being pathetic. And as normally contributing nothing. Go away.

[Conquiztador]

>> You are too intelligent for that. .<<

Nah. I just know the margins.

I have an idea too. As a result you would realise that if nothing changes there will only be a few big shops splattered around the country. Like what happened with supermarkets, Mitre 10's etc. Perhaps is just the way of the future? A "Bike N' Save" or a "Bike 10 Mega" in a city where there is more than 70,000 people. The others will be like the small towns today: No Post offices, no banks. Dying.

[bogan]

So anyhu, mindless insults aside, do you reckon a online shop could be set up in NZ which provides competitive pricing to those overseas (taking both GST and Postage into account). By my reckoning it would be preferable to start of with a bang, so it would have the buying power to get parts direct from the manufacturers, but said bang would only come from the motorcycling industry getting parts from there so it would need to be competitively priced for them as well, and they would also want to change to this new approach.

Perhaps and easier strategy would be to just mirror the stock available at other online stores, and place bulk orders to keep the freight costs down, the savings on freight costs then pay off the local postage and GST. Thoughts? (not insults, long walks off short piers are recommended for curing such behavior)

[Katman]

Perhaps and easier strategy would be to just mirror the stock available at other online stores, and place bulk orders to keep the freight costs down, the savings on freight costs then pay off the local postage and GST. Thoughts? (not insults, long walks off short piers are recommended for curing such behavior)

Bulk orders cost bulk dollars.

[bogan]

Bulk orders cost bulk dollars.

yes but if you read my post, bulk orders cost less freight. 10 parts together may cost 75% of 10 parts seperately, ample room for GST and local post

[Katman]

yes but if you read my post, bulk orders cost less freight. 10 parts together may cost 75% of 10 parts seperately, ample room for GST and local post

So you save $50 on $50000 of parts?

[98tls]

Motorcycle businesses live or die on the strength of their workshop.

Profit from bike sales or parts will not cut it.

Agreed,spent many years selling Toyotas in Wellington years back,Even with a Brand name as bankable as Toyota the only way the place stayed afloat was through the workshop and used car dept.From memory there was about 12% profit in selling a New one at full retail,very seldom it was done in fact ive seen them sold at a loss if it was say at the end of a 1/4 just to have a sale.

[PeeJay]

yes but if you read my post, bulk orders cost less freight. 10 parts together may cost 75% of 10 parts seperately, ample room for GST and local post

You dont think thats already been thought of?
Wholesalers already do this.
Warehousing, staff, finance, etc etc etc etc all have to be paid for while these parts are sitting around.
The big online shops in the states actually stock very little.
Drop shipping ex manufacturer or getting stuff in as required.
Thats why it sometimes takes a week before your goods are shipped.
It aint easy when you are 10-15000km away from the manufacturer

[Virago]

yes but if you read my post, bulk orders cost less freight. 10 parts together may cost 75% of 10 parts seperately, ample room for GST and local post

You would find that in the wholesale market, such large discounts generally don't exist.

Granted there would be some savings in bulk purchases, but these are offset by costs.

You can certainly make savings by purchasing $50,000 in stock, rather than $5,000. But where does the extra $45,000 in capital come from?

[bogan]

So you save $50 on $50000 of parts?

my example was 75%, dunno how that equated to what you got.

A quick check on a site (all in GBP, but it scales accordingly anyway)

1x part 18.80
1x shipping 13.58
less vat -4.82
27.56 which is 275.60 for 10

10x part 188.00
1x shipping 41.04$
less vat -34.11
194.93

so 10x bulk order you pay 71% of a 10 1x orders.

In this case a saving of $80, 24.36 goes to GST, 10x postage at 5 bucks each (probly overstated as in GBP still but meh) so you still have $5.64 profit, fucking win! Yeh I know theres running and labour cost to add, but just ballparking it looks feasible.

[Katman]

my example was 75%, dunno how that equated to what you got.

A quick check on a site (all in GBP, but it scales accordingly anyway)

1x part 18.80
1x shipping 13.58
less vat -4.82
27.56 which is 275.60 for 10

10x part 188.00
1x shipping 41.04$
less vat -34.11
194.93

so 10x bulk order you pay 71% of a 10 1x orders.

In this case a saving of $80, 24.36 goes to GST, 10x postage at 5 bucks each (probly overstated as in GBP still but meh) so you still have $5.64 profit, fucking win! Yeh I know theres running and labour cost to add, but just ballparking it looks feasible.

Do you understand the concept of 'sitting on stock'?

[sidecar bob]

You would find that in the wholesale market, such large discounts generally don't exist.

Granted there would be some savings in bulk purchases, but these are offset by costs.

You can certainly make savings by purchasing $50,000 in stock, rather than $5,000. But where does the extra $45,000 in capital come from?

The standard rule of parts stock for dealerships, is that you only stock stuff that sells at least once a month.
When i was managing the parts division for the local Kubota & Hino dealership, one of my guys cut a deal with the filter supplier for 1000 diesel filters at a small saving without telling anyone, we nearly strangled the cunt when they showed up, me not happy & big boss REALLY not happy.
Stock sitting around for three months is eating you up, it could be money in the bank getting interest, or, if you borrowed the money to buy it, it is costing you to sit on the shelf every day.

[Conquiztador]

Do you understand the concept of 'sitting on stock'?

"Up yours" comes to mind... But seriously: You would clearly make sure that it was an item that there would be a turnover on. To buy in 10 Hesket cranks is not the answer...

[bogan]

Do you understand the concept of 'sitting on stock'?

"Up yours" comes to mind... But seriously: You would clearly make sure that it was an item that there would be a turnover on. To buy in 10 Hesket cranks is not the answer...

I should have clarified, 10 parts can be the same part or different ones, I just did the same part cos otherwise it would have tsken ages to research.