Chinese electronics shop

[flibbage0]

With the huge growth of companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO (some of them have even been chosen to be the flagship nexus device for Google).

Currently people are buying from China and are facing long delivery times (several weeks), problems with payment and end up paying duty, if anything goes wrong they are pretty much screwed.

I was thinking surely there is a gap in the market for an online shop based in the UK to sell these goods?

[Simpo Two]

But the online shop still has to get them from China; you're just moving the problem up a level.

[flibbage0]

Simpo Two said:

But the online shop still has to get them from China; you're just moving the problem up a level.

A good point however you could say the same for food delivery companies or estate agents or any business.

It's just making it more accessible for the public

[PBDirector]

flibbage0 said:

I was thinking surely there is a gap in the market for an online shop based in the UK to sell these goods?

Option 1: create landing pages and buy some online ads to find out if people will whip their card out to buy a Chinese state sponsored spying device.

Option 2: post the question to a forum full of miserable old men who think a phone is used from the back seat to the driver and who think China's what you drink high tea from.

Excellent choice op.

[Simpo Two]

Option 3) Stop relying on reselling cheaply-made foreign goods which simply bleed our cash overseas.

Britain got rich by selling stuff not buying stuff!

[flibbage0]

PBDirector said:

Option 1: create landing pages and buy some online ads to find out if people will whip their card out to buy a Chinese state sponsored spying device.

Option 2: post the question to a forum full of miserable old men who think a phone is used from the back seat to the driver and who think China's what you drink high tea from.

Excellent choice op.

Go on Hotukdeals and the number of people that are buying or are interested buying these phones/tablets/laptops has gone up considerably, just do a quick google search of the companies I've mentioned, they're big and are taking huge chunks out of the market share from the likes of Apple and Samsung

[flibbage0]

Simpo Two said:

Option 3) Stop relying on reselling cheaply-made foreign goods which simply bleed our cash overseas.

Britain got rich by selling stuff not buying stuff!

You do realise that a majority of phones people buy are manufactured abroad and their respective company is usually based in either USA or South Korea, either way the money is leaving the country?

[Simpo Two]

Hopefully you can take on Tesco: https://www.tesco.com/direct/huawei.event?source=o...

[Leroy902]

flibbage0 said:

Simpo Two said:

Option 3) Stop relying on reselling cheaply-made foreign goods which simply bleed our cash overseas.

Britain got rich by selling stuff not buying stuff!

You do realise that a majority of phones people buy are manufactured abroad and their respective company is usually based in either USA or South Korea, either way the money is leaving the country?

I wouldn't try to make sense of people spouting rubbish on here. He's probably got a 'British made' Dyson vacuum.

[C0ffin D0dger]

Thing is you can buy a lot of these devices, gadgets etc. on eBay from someone who has already landed the items in the UK for you but it comes at a significant premium.

Personally I'm happy buying from Banggood, Gearbest, DX and the likes as the majority of the time the package escapes import duty (don't wish to tempt fate but I've never been caught) and can put up with the 2-3 week wait for my stuff as I'm saving a load of money. Again not wishing to tempt fate but never had anything go missing either.

I suspect there are already quite a number of large players looking to import and sell these devices en masse to the UK market. I guess another issue with some of it is that these devices aren't 100% UK complaint e.g. a lot of the Xiaomi phone don't support Band 20 used by some operators in the UK for 4G so whether you'd be able to sell these legitimately in the UK is questionable.

[schmunk]

Simpo Two said:

Hopefully you can take on Tesco: https://www.tesco.com/direct/huawei.event?source=o...

I agree Huawei is not a good example - their devices are now available direct from all of the major UK providers, albeit often the Asia market receives 'fancy' models that we do not.

There could be a market for the other smaller brands (OPPO, Blu, Teclast, Elephone, etc.) but in practice are there enough people who want to buy an off-brand phone for a relatively small saving (after the OP's costs) who would not rather buy direct from China for a larger saving?

[Hoofy]

flibbage0 said:

Simpo Two said:

But the online shop still has to get them from China; you're just moving the problem up a level.

A good point however you could say the same for food delivery companies or estate agents or any business.

It's just making it more accessible for the public

That depends. These businesses you've mentioned actually have the stock and it's local. Is this your plan? To order stock in and have it local? If so, providing you choose the right products, I don't see the problem. You will just have to keep ordering well in advance.

[AlanQ]

Be aware that even if you don't manufacture them you would be placing into the eu marketplace and so responsible for all the necessary certification and also liable if they unexpectedly turned into pocket warmers.

[Simpo Two]

Leroy902 said:

I wouldn't try to make sense of people spouting rubbish on here. He's probably got a 'British made' Dyson vacuum.

Thank you, but it's a simple fact that vast amounts of the West's wealth have gone east.

schmunk said:

are there enough people who want to buy an off-brand phone for a relatively small saving (after the OP's costs) who would not rather buy direct from China for a larger saving?

Exactly.

[singlecoil]

PBDirector said:

...China's what you drink high tea from.

High tea is eaten rather than drunk (although one would expect tea to be served also).

[sgrimshaw]

Don't think there is a gap here.

Plenty of people already doing this.

Look on Amazon or Ebay for some of the items you think there is a gap for ... chances are there will be some sellers in China etc and some in UK. The UK prices will be much higher and delivery times shorter.

You pay a premium for someone else to have brought the goods in from China etc.

[Some Gump]

@ simpo

Which smartphones are made in the UK then? None, as far as I can tell.

[daemon]

flibbage0 said:

With the huge growth of companies such as Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO (some of them have even been chosen to be the flagship nexus device for Google).

Currently people are buying from China and are facing long delivery times (several weeks), problems with payment and end up paying duty, if anything goes wrong they are pretty much screwed.

I was thinking surely there is a gap in the market for an online shop based in the UK to sell these goods?

Funny, having just a couple of months ago imported a Xiaomi Mi Mix (and am now about to import a new screen for it as i dropped it ) i was thinking the same.

However, as has already been pointed out, lots of sellers already doing it at the moment, and i think most people are able to avoid customs duty on one off purchases, thus it keeps the cost reasonable, however if you were importing regularly or in quantities would you be able to do that without getting hit for big customs charges?

Interestingly i see the people on ebay reselling Xiaomi mi mix screens are looking £179.99 for one, yet i can get one off a chinese site delivered here for £100 ish, so theres definitely a markup in the market.

Risk would be you having to deal with faulty devices / returns and any associated customs risks.

Worth maybe considering an ebay shop to try it out?

But even at that the chinese sellers are advertising directly on there so your phones are going to look expensive compared to the ebay listings that ship from china OR even worse, the ebay listings that look like they are uk based, but ship from China.

My guess is that most people who have chinese phones on their radar already arent averse to importing them themselves.

[daemon]

Mind you, this guy seems to have punted 33 of them at an on paper £140 gross markup per phone...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xiaomi-Mi-Mix-Pro-6-4-Sn...

[jammy-git]

Some Gump said:

@ simpo

Which smartphones are made in the UK then? None, as far as I can tell.

Wileyfox. They do actually make good phones, my girlfriend has one and loves it.