One of the more interesting business opportunities for entrepreneurs to consider these days is a gift basket business. Making gift baskets is enjoyable, creative and can be extremely profitable as well as allowing the owner to work predominantly from home if they desire to do so. Here are six tips for starting and running a new company in this industry.
1) Look at selling through retailers instead of direct to the consumer. Your profit margins will be lower as you will have to offer a decent percentage as the store owners mark-up but you can make up for this with increased volume as well as reducing your customer acquisition costs. Gift shops and florists are good to target (especially hospital gift shops).
2) Give more gifts. Why spend money on gifts again when you can make your own and give them to your friends and family. Save money as well as get the word out about your business.
3) Don't start out with a product range that is too wide as it will be a nightmare stocking inventory for such a selection of products. Focus on a small range of products and concentrate on doing them well before slowly diversifying your product range as your business grows.
4) Always look for ways to save money on basket decoration. Look into buying in bulk and consider other budget options such as thrift shops, garage sales, online auctions or asking companies for their surplus stock. You can be really thrifty and still have your baskets looking so good that your customers won't know where you are sourcing from.
5) Become a sales representative for a company selling gift related products such as Avon and use these to stock your baskets. Under normal circumstances it can be difficult to sell some of these products but if use them to fill a gift basket they suddenly become much easier to sell. You will also be getting the products at wholesale prices.
6) Use drop-shippers. This system is great if you are strong on product creation but weak on marketing. Drop-shippers will promote your products on their websites and when they get an order they will pass it on to you. they do, of course, receive a percentage of the sale price as their commission.
These are just a few ideas for how to get started and run a successful gift basket business.
1) Look at selling through retailers instead of direct to the consumer. Your profit margins will be lower as you will have to offer a decent percentage as the store owners mark-up but you can make up for this with increased volume as well as reducing your customer acquisition costs. Gift shops and florists are good to target (especially hospital gift shops).
2) Give more gifts. Why spend money on gifts again when you can make your own and give them to your friends and family. Save money as well as get the word out about your business.
3) Don't start out with a product range that is too wide as it will be a nightmare stocking inventory for such a selection of products. Focus on a small range of products and concentrate on doing them well before slowly diversifying your product range as your business grows.
4) Always look for ways to save money on basket decoration. Look into buying in bulk and consider other budget options such as thrift shops, garage sales, online auctions or asking companies for their surplus stock. You can be really thrifty and still have your baskets looking so good that your customers won't know where you are sourcing from.
5) Become a sales representative for a company selling gift related products such as Avon and use these to stock your baskets. Under normal circumstances it can be difficult to sell some of these products but if use them to fill a gift basket they suddenly become much easier to sell. You will also be getting the products at wholesale prices.
6) Use drop-shippers. This system is great if you are strong on product creation but weak on marketing. Drop-shippers will promote your products on their websites and when they get an order they will pass it on to you. they do, of course, receive a percentage of the sale price as their commission.
These are just a few ideas for how to get started and run a successful gift basket business.