Should You start an online Adult Shop

We recently received a comment that asked the following questions relating to opening their own online business. We will attempt to answer to the best of our ability. But as you read you need to understand that starting any business today you need to be ready to change at a moments notice. The world of business and retail is changing so fast that one of the most important things you can do is stay in tune with your customers. For those that are up to the challenge, I have 6 recently question that I have answered hopefully to help all those that want to start online sex toy shop.

I am wanting to start online sex toy shop here in Brisbane. What advice would you be able to provide in where to start.

To start an online adult shop you can start it from anywhere not just in Brisbane, but the strategy is the same. The first is get a good domain name (we are selling sexytoys.com.au for $1100 contact us if you are interested) once you have a domain name depending on how much money you have you need to make it into a website. The cheapest way is to set up as an affiliate like sexy toys above it’s free and you get 20% of sales, but because its free every one sets one up. The second cheapest is to run off wordpress, but that is a whole nother article. The easiest way to do this is to use Shopify or bigcommerce they have small hosting packages at 29 usd a month and they are easy to use. But to do this you will need products, or dropshipping.

I am worried my investment wouldn’t survive with the competition growing strong,

Yes you investment of both time and money is up against some really good competition. Some of these have been around a long time and some would be startups. But your main competition will be from eBay and Amazon here you will find people selling sex toys at ridiculous prices. For instance, a satisfying pro $99 in a shop, $59.95 in an online store and sometimes from $20 bucks on ebay and alibaba (sometimes fake). So going in the online sex toy business is not for the faint-hearted or lazy.

What smart strategies could I apply for instance with an online shop could I still be able to make it up to the top of if I invest my efforts?

Sell what customers want (research, research, research).
provide outstanding customer service
Help customers with advice and knowledge.
forget taking on the big guys find a point of difference.
don’t try to be the cheapest (no money in it unless you sell heaps)
work out a business strategy taking into account you will not make money until you sell something

How expensive is to buy from the suppliers here in AU in comparison to buying checp stuff somewhere else, I know the quality is sacrificed but for somethings, I could get around could I?

This is a good question, some things from Australian suppliers are expensive but you know you are getting a genuine product. If you buy from overseas you are buying in usd and then you have freight in USD so initially it may seem cheaper but in the end, it may not be remembering you need to resell. Here’s some calculations for you.

Buyng from Australia. Product A: 40 AUD + gst + freight at approx 15% = 51 AUD ish
Buying from overseas. Product A: 29 USD + freight at min 20% = 34.80 usd (no gst) 47 Aud if you get gst or freight is more than 20% Australia is cheaper.

How much investment do you recommend I should keep aside to begin with?

If you are going into the sex toy business only bet what you can afford to lose. I will break down some cost and some return time frames.

Setting up a store if you do it yourself $20 domain name $100 hosting for 1 year (getting Adultdesign.com.au to do it $500-2000)
Setting up facebook , twitter , youtube, linkdyn, instagram ( 500 bucks)
Stock : Drop Shipping hard to do, Affiliate free good to start buying maybe a 30 product range 2000 to 3000.
First sale 1-5 months depending on promotion and effort

So for 5000 to 6000, you are off you will want at least a 30% return on your money for your effort you can get 10% in the stock market. Of course, you can do it cheaper or more expensive but I think the

Do I need to register an online business? How can I do that? Really appreciate any advise.

Not really you get a domain set up a shop and sell stuff, but if you want to be a real business you need to at least get a business name. Tax is not something I can offer any advice on sorry.