Shipping/logistics and storage (fulfilment) for items to the UK

[spronzygruntfuttock]

Hey, 
I'm looking for a UK based storage and shipping solution for a new business that makes specialist musical instrument parts.  The plan is to ship items to the UK from China ready to purchase and avoid the inconvenience of customs and waiting for shipping.  Ideally the service will stores the stock and can send them out when an order is recieved.  The volume to begin with is going to be quite low (single numbers per month) because the products are very niche but the important thing is scalability for the future if/when I get more mainstream exposure.   Any recommendations?

[jckl1957]

You are asking a fairly specialized question.

Only mentors can reply in this part of the forum and we mainly respond to questions about Ebay policy.

Maybe ask on the business seller board?

You would need a business account rather than a private account as you would be trading.

[spronzygruntfuttock]

OK, perhaps I missed something mentioning this part of the community was for policy questions.  But the alternative you've suggested is going to involve jumping through more hoops than I otherwise need to at this point in time.  Maybe I'll try asking somewhere else.  Thanks for your reply.

[tobiasd4]

You are asking other sellers to give away info they may not want to, especially if you will be in competition with them.

[spronzygruntfuttock]

I think you're not letting a lack of insight prevent you from making assumptions. And for that reason, I'll respectfully withdraw from this exchange. I've had some helpful recommendations from another website.

[papso22]

Are you aware that your current listing says the earliest you can post is August 5th?

The suggestion to ask on the business seller board where more members can answer was an eminently sensible one, as was the warning that they might not want to.

If someone buys to sell, ebay policy, and the law, require them to use an ebay business account.

[*vyolla*]

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If your initial volume is going to be as low as single numbers per month to start and this is a niche product, I'd first start like most businesses do and have the items sent to your home and send them out from there, just test the water to see if its a viable business first. 

It is possible, if these are specialist parts, that you'll find that potential buyers will instead go to a specialist who can both supply and fit them. In this case you'll need to do a little research and perhaps some marketing spend to target the suppliers/fitters.

You can research scalability whilst this is all going on. You'll then have a better idea of what's required.

You do need to trade on an eBay business account though (you can have more than one account).

[spronzygruntfuttock]

You make a couple of good points there, thank you.   

I travel a lot for business.  My main gig is exporting steel curtain wall components from China to SE Asia, India and the Middle East.  I'm not going to be at home all the time to personally fulfill orders.  The day job still pays the bills atm as the income I've made so far from sales on this carbon composite venture will be reinvested.

I doubt very much that anyone will be supplying AND fitting these products because they are labour intensive to make, need space and specialist equipment to make efficiently and require a lot of experience, particularly with epoxy resins, to achieve the precise tolerances necessary.   The finished products also have to be fitted by an experience guitar technician as a matter of course due to the fractions of millimetre involved in achieving a high quality installation on an instrument.