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Record Stores as a Business
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| DJ Dingel |
(I did try searching before I posted).
Can anyone give me information about running a record shop as a business? For example, how much markup is there on records (They're selling them for $10, what are they buying them for?)?
If anyone can post links to information about typical profits margins or that kind of thing, that'd be great.
Thanks! |
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| Vert |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Dingel
(I did try searching before I posted).
Can anyone give me information about running a record shop as a business? For example, how much markup is there on records (They're selling them for $10, what are they buying them for?)?
If anyone can post links to information about typical profits margins or that kind of thing, that'd be great.
Thanks! |
I'd find a guy who runs one in another area, and ask him about that stuff, as long as you are nice, and not close competition, I'd bet they'd tell you a bit..
es |
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| DJ Dingel |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vert
I'd find a guy who runs one in another area, and ask him about that stuff, as long as you are nice, and not close competition, I'd bet they'd tell you a bit..
es |
Yea, I'm not seeking to start my own store, it's an academic project. |
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| Monkey Mouse |
| A $10 record costs a store $5.50-$6.50 before their mark up. |
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| Vert |
| quote: | Originally posted by Monkey Mouse
A $10 record costs a store $5.50-$6.50 before their mark up. |
Any way to find a distributor that would sell them to me for that much ? :D
es |
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| DJ Kibon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Monkey Mouse
A $10 record costs a store $5.50-$6.50 before their mark up. |
That's roughly what I figured it would be, not a terribly bad margin either. It also means that a vinyl store would be relatively easy to start as a business, compared to higher price items. The local stores I've seen don't have a huge amount of inventory, and I would imagine that turnover is probably quite good (so long as you have people coming in to actually buy the vinyl).
From a business perspective, it means that you don't have to maintain a high revolving line of credit for the sole purpose of having inventory to sell (compared to selling, say, snowmobiles). In fact, it's one of those types of businesses that you could hypothetically start up with a credit card. I can also see why people would consider either opening online vinyl stores or using an online presence to supplement sales, because it's something you could easily run out of a basement (for the online-only variant). Unfortunately it's also a real niche market though, the City I live in only has two DJ vinyl stores currently, and supporting a third might stretch things.
As for Vert's question, good luck getting your record store to give you the name of the distributor(s) they use. I also highly doubt that a distributor would be willing to deal with you for small volume orders, it's just not the nature of their business. |
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| Vert |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Kibon
That's roughly what I figured it would be, not a terribly bad margin either. It also means that a vinyl store would be relatively easy to start as a business, compared to higher price items. The local stores I've seen don't have a huge amount of inventory, and I would imagine that turnover is probably quite good (so long as you have people coming in to actually buy the vinyl).
From a business perspective, it means that you don't have to maintain a high revolving line of credit for the sole purpose of having inventory to sell (compared to selling, say, snowmobiles). In fact, it's one of those types of businesses that you could hypothetically start up with a credit card. I can also see why people would consider either opening online vinyl stores or using an online presence to supplement sales, because it's something you could easily run out of a basement (for the online-only variant). Unfortunately it's also a real niche market though, the City I live in only has two DJ vinyl stores currently, and supporting a third might stretch things.
As for Vert's question, good luck getting your record store to give you the name of the distributor(s) they use. I also highly doubt that a distributor would be willing to deal with you for small volume orders, it's just not the nature of their business. |
Just as I thought.. an online store would be kind of a fun venture though.
es |
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| DJ Kibon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vert
Just as I thought.. an online store would be kind of a fun venture though.
es |
Not sure which country you're from, but it would be interesting to see where setting up the e-commerce back-end is these days in terms of difficulty. I redesigned the website of a company I was working for roughly 3 years ago (prior to starting College/University), and at that point setting up e-commerce in Canada was a HUGE pain in the ass.
At that point in time, you had to get special "card not present" credit card merchant accounts, accepting VISA & Mastercard meant having at least two merchant accounts (as no single Canadian bank was allowed to offer more than one type of credit card, both for their cardholders and for their business merchant accounts), find a transaction processing gateway service provider (of which there was barely a handful to choose from), then get your shopping cart back-end to actually work with the whole mess. |
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| Vert |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Kibon
Not sure which country you're from, but it would be interesting to see where setting up the e-commerce back-end is these days in terms of difficulty. I redesigned the website of a company I was working for roughly 3 years ago (prior to starting College/University), and at that point setting up e-commerce in Canada was a HUGE pain in the ass.
At that point in time, you had to get special "card not present" credit card merchant accounts, accepting VISA & Mastercard meant having at least two merchant accounts (as no single Canadian bank was allowed to offer more than one type of credit card, both for their cardholders and for their business merchant accounts), find a transaction processing gateway service provider (of which there was barely a handful to choose from), then get your shopping cart back-end to actually work with the whole mess. |
I have a tad bit of expirience in the we b hosting arena, and I know they use an online service to accept credit, forgot its name, and paypal. USA here.
es |
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| DJ Kibon |
| quote: | Originally posted by Vert
I have a tad bit of expirience in the we b hosting arena, and I know they use an online service to accept credit, forgot its name, and paypal. USA here.
es |
Probably Cybercash (unless the name changed), that was the big one in the States.
If I had to do e-commerce again, I would seriously consider running the store through a third party provider, so long as it could be done transparently (to the buyer). Specifically the actual order processing back-end, or at least the transaction aspect, particularly if it would also mean not having to worry about setting up merchant accounts. |
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| Vert |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Kibon
Probably Cybercash (unless the name changed), that was the big one in the States.
If I had to do e-commerce again, I would seriously consider running the store through a third party provider, so long as it could be done transparently (to the buyer). Specifically the actual order processing back-end, or at least the transaction aspect, particularly if it would also mean not having to worry about setting up merchant accounts. |
I know yahoo does that stuff, don't know of any others. I don't think it was cyber cash, it was some type of system that you bought an account, then you could accept credit card payments.
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| DJ Mil0 |
| ill probly open up a record store lattter on in my life, basicaly so i can be surounded by vinil all the time and make a liveing for it lol |
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