Purchasing a viable working website for Childrens items in Australia

I am toying with the idea of purchasing an existing online store which is predominantly involved in babies and children's wear and health etc. I realise that these cost money, but I have no idea of where to go to find such a website. I do not want to start my own from scratch. Imagine I am looking to purchase a "retail" type shop where I purchase the goodwill, stock etc. But... the difference being, that I only want it to be online working from home. I am prepared for lots of input, and running the business from a home computer, and am reasonably "cashed up" to purchase such a site. My problem is , WHERE do I go to find one that is legitimate. I am not looking for a turnkey website as such.

Surely some people have set up sites that promote and sell childrens products, but for whatever reason cannot continue with the business. Just like in a "real life, tangible shop".

Where do I go to find one of these?

Hi yaamba,

Flippa.com (Link hidden: Login to view) is a great place to buy websites including established e-Commerce websites.

You generally do pay a premium when you buy established websites though - there are people out there who make a living from building up websites then reselling them.

For this reason, I think it's worth you at least considering setting up your own website.

We've recently released the Beta version of SaleHoo Stores which means you can setup your own e-Commerce website very easily and very cheaply (for $97 for the entire website including shopping cart and this also covers your first year's hosting fee).

The idea behind SaleHoo Stores was to help people just like you who want to own a store but would rather not have to deal with the time and energy involved with starting a store from scratch.

Really the only difference between buying an established site and creating your own one with SaleHoo Stores is that the cost (SaleHoo Stores will be a lot cheaper!) and the fact that you will have to purchase your own wholesale items and list them on your wesbite - which is really easy ;)

If you want to read more about SaleHoo Stores, check out this post I wrote about it last week:

Link hidden: Login to view

If you do choose to go down the road of buying an established website, make sure you check whether the store includes any inventory and the cost of getting that inventory shipped to you (some stores have 'dummy' items listed but do not actually set you up with items to sell and some do include items but it might be very costly to ship the items to you).

Also ask the seller how the site gets traffic.

If it ranks well in Google for terms like "baby health products" or "baby boy pajamas" then you can expect to get some consistent traffic to your site.

Be realistic with expectations though, it is unlikely that the site will rank on the first page for highly targeted keywords like "baby clothing" which are very competitive in Google.

If the website comes with an active Facebook or Twitter page, then this is great too as it can mean you have a targeted, loyal customer base.

Beware of any data that the website seller shows you such as monthly visits to your website - I have heard of website flippers who pay for large amounts of traffic to go to their websites before they sell them to make them look more popular than they are.

Here is that link again to SaleHoo Stores for you to check out:

Link hidden: Login to view

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Thanks Alice.

I did have a look at your link to the Salehoo "sites" and they certainly do look interesting and might be what I am looking for. Could you give me the links or "addresses" of already existing such sites so that I can have a squizz at some that are already operating? Who knows, I might even purchase something from them.

My only reservation is the stocking of such a store. I already have a few items that I have found suppliers for, but would be stuck as to what else to put in that many others are not already selling.

Prior to submitting my original question, I did of course do some research of my own, and discovered the Flippa.com site. I didnt know whether it was a "fair dinkum" company or one that took advantage of newbies like me. Also at Flppa, all of the sites for sale were US or overseas based. I know that its a small world online, but I would rather have somethng that is Australia based.

Any comments or help from others would be greatly appreciated.

I am not a in big hurry as I leave for China in a few days time for a holiday. Who knows - I might pick up some good suppiers!!!

thanks

Take a look at www.allwebco.com Yaamba. They do store templates and may well have something that you could tweak a little to suit your needs. They do have some store templates there with in built PayPal cart, and they offer unreal support and a good range of applications that you can also clip to your site.

I've used a couple of their templates myself in the past, and have absolutely no issues with personally recommended them. Really well coded templates, not your average junk that floats around the net that you have to recode from scratch.

Enjoy the China trip : )

Here are the links to a couple of SaleHoo Store websites that are up and running:

- Link hidden: Login to view - a local florist

- Link hidden: Login to view - selling squash rackets and squash equipment

Your China trip sounds exciting! I think you will be amazed at how cheap you can source items over there that you can bring back to resell Down Under!

Try to pack lightly in case you find a great deal and remember to make sure you don't get tempted by any fakes or replicas - NOT a good path to go down!

Travel safe :)