Online homebrew shop

Hi
I am thinking of setting up a online brew shop would you say I am mad or go for it , I am also looking at a shop I welcome your advice. I need to get advice on suppliers I hope it's not a closed shop. Thanks.

How much experience do you have in retail?
How much money do you have to invest?
Do you have a business plan?

If you need advice on suppliers why shouldn't I open my own business?

There are plenty out there already well established, so you have to ask yourself why customers would migrate to you from them? What is going to be special about your shop?

I know my local shop struggled to get hop supplies this year because of the increase in demand from all the new breweries taking the limited supplies available from the hop producers. And Wilco and Tesco Direct are increasingly selling discounted kits.

Good luck to you, but I don't think it's going to be easy entering an already well-established sector.

darrellm said:

Good luck to you, but I don't think it's going to be easy entering an already well-established sector.

Click to expand...

I'm studying Retail Marketing And Management at the Open University at the moment and I think so too.

On top of your points: a lot of Chinese suppliers now sell direct on ebay or amazon.

For example: I bought most of my electronics and even the hose connectors on ebay for a fraction of the costs if I had bought them from UK shops. Takes a bit longer but I have time. At the end it is the same article.

Don't get me wrong, I rather would buy from a UK shop but the objective of retailing is to "add value for the customer".

However, they main question is: what products do I want to sell, what value will it deliver to the customer, how do I choose suppliers and do I manage the supply chain, how do I inform the customers (Marketing communications mix, 4Ps) and so on.

Having an idea is great, but run "yet another online shop" is no idea, it's nothing.

Maybe this helps: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management

BTW: reminds me my next assignment is due on Thursday and I'm sitting here drinking homebrew and answering posts in the internet

GermLish said:

BTW: reminds me my next assignment is due on Thursday and I'm sitting here drinking homebrew and answering posts in the internet

Click to expand...

I think that a valuable use of your time (but then I would say that wouldn't I )

What experience have you got of running a business, sourcing suppliers, setting up contracts, website building, sales, etc.You will be a very small fish in a very big pond. As someone said, how much money do you have, to set the business up, develop the website, buy initial stock, live on until you are making enough to support yourself.

Or are you planning on doing this as a second job? When will you process orders, check payments have been received, arrange for collection/posting of what may be large bulky orders. People will want there orders quickly so you wont be able to leave it until the weekend.

If you go into this venture make sure you are fully aware of what you are doing and not just doing it on a whim.

Or is there a niche area you could exploit? Such as I have been reading a lot recently about people making their own brew fridge. A ready made option at a reasonable price could be a big draw for customers/.

I think it's still very much a niche hobby and as such most people buy stuff online. As someone mentioned most of the bigger breweries have somewhat of a monopoly on hop distribution. A lot of people try to pursue their passion and inadvertently it ends in tears. That said if you have a rock solid business plan and are prepared to effectively lose money for the first year or so before the business grows then go for it!

Clearly two guys in this threat haven't done their homework (yet).

I'm one... :whistle:

As a consumer I know it is easy to make mistakes when buying on line, so I look for a well known name. Does not matter if that name is Tesco or Amazon I want a well known name. If I am going to buy on line then I want to save money. I don't mind spending a little extra in local brew shop he gives me advice, but on line knowing you will get what you have ordered and getting it cheap is all you are looking at.

The likes of Tesco and Morrisons have a bit advantage, they already have a distribution network, so I order on line, then collect in the shop, no waiting in for the parcel to arrive. I can collect at 7pm if I wish. Where Tesco and Morrisons fail is they only provide a part service, you get the can but not the bag of brew enhancer to go with it. So you travel a little further afield and go to Wilko and pick it all up off the shelf.

Where Wilko fails is no one to give your advice. One would hope when you go to a brew shop and say I am looking for something new, I fancy trying a Youngs Scottish heavy or a Coopers English Bitter the shop owner should point out the former needs 1.5 kg or fermentables and latter just 500 grams of fermentables no one will point that out in Wilkos. Also that Light malt should be used for latter not Medium.

To an extent even Amazon has a prompt that people normally buy xyz when buying this product. But in general for service you go to shop, for cost you buy on line. The problem the shop has is people who go to shop to look at the product as ask questions then buy it on line.

So what can you offer, can you buy kits cheaper by buying in bulk, or collecting from manufacturer? If not give up, now a delivery service and a shop may work, and it is not only brewing, I knew a guy with a haulage business, where he found back loads for other hauliers, but also ran a small fleet of his own, his wagons actually lost money, but fact he had his own wagons resulted in the other hauliers trusting him.

Having a retail shop and doing on line gives the on line a trusted look, see how many on line businesses have pictures of their retail premises. I did consider making up fridge controllers then Inkbird arrived and kicked that to touch, I could not build them for that price, and could not do such a pro job.

Yes I could find a donor fridge and build the STC-1000 into it, but how would I deliver them as a reasonable cost? I don't think you can get supplies cheap enough for it to work.

For hops you can set up a contract and get more or less whatever you want as long as you book it well in advance and buy 40Kg+ in 5Kg bales see http://www.charlesfaram.co.uk/forward-contracting/ There is a reasonable mark up on all ingredients and chemicals if you buy them in bulk and repack them but it may be hard to make a living from it. You can always start small part time to test what you could sell. Good luck.

simon12 said:

For hops you can set up a contract and get more or less whatever you want as long as you book it well in advance and buy 40Kg+ in 5Kg bales see http://www.charlesfaram.co.uk/forward-contracting/ .

Click to expand...

Interesting - Charles Faram is the hop supplier to my local shop mentioned earlier in this thread, and this year was unable to supply even basic hops like Fuggles.

Personally, when I put in an order to an online supplier, I look for somewhere that can supply everything I'll need for the planned brews I'll get for the 25kg sack of pale malt that's the bulk of the order. Just so that I'll only be paying one delivery charge.
So breaking into the market can be quite difficult for new businesses that can only stock a part of what people need.

Ale said:

Or is there a niche area you could exploit? Such as I have been reading a lot recently about people making their own brew fridge. A ready made option at a reasonable price could be a big draw for customers/.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a good idea to me, as even though I understand how things work on an intellectual level, that does not mean I want to try and make them work myself on a practical level. I can't be alone in that, even amongst HB'ers.

Slid said:

This sounds like a good idea to me, as even though I understand how things work on an intellectual level, that does not mean I want to try and make them work myself on a practical level. I can't be alone in that, even amongst HB'ers.

Click to expand...

If he did go down that route I want one free for suggesting it

darrellm said:

Interesting - Charles Faram is the hop supplier to my local shop mentioned earlier in this thread, and this year was unable to supply even basic hops like Fuggles.

Click to expand...

I just checked my price list from Jan and then fuggles they only had 2013 pellets and now only have 2014 pellets. I did read fuggles is not popular with growers due to poor disease resistence. The Only UK hops currently not for sale at all are Bullion Jester® Keyworths Early Keyworths Mid-Season Minstrel® & Olicana®.

To give you an idea prices on UK hops are nearly all between £7-£12 per Kg so you can see theres a good mark up.

Hi guys
Read most of the replies and to be honest , it's much easier doing something different and I guess the commitment is way to much when me and my Wife relocate to Spain I will not have the time to do this very time consuming business, but I thank all for there input, we once had a pub and we listened to the regulars who said they didn't like fruit machines , we said okay after a month I put 3 in the pub and made a pretty penny so I have a saying, use your own judgement and that I do Enjoy brethren