Planning to start creating wooden furniture and selling online

Why would someone buy from you? (What is your positioning/ unique selling proposition)

How will you reach them?

Ideas, even good ones, are a dime a dozen. Execution is where they get interesting.

Yout idea could be great, if you have a great plan for building the stuff, marketing it, selling it.

First offline then try to shift your business in online.and you have to provide Best And Something different Design.

Thanks
Jacky

The concept is fine. Where you need to do work is not in creating the product...it's in finding a steady stream of people who'll be interested in being BUYERS of your products.

And merely listing on Etsy or whatever website is not enough.

It's a start. But you'd be relying on people searching for the specific term, which means they're going online with the express purpose of buying wooden furniture.

I personally would not like to rely on that as my source of income.

I would much rather access existing lists and groups of people who are ALREADY buying similar items.

A great question I learned from fellow contributor "Doctor" ewenmack many years ago now, is:

What do your customers buy or learn about JUST BEFORE they realize they need your product?

In your case... are they moving homes? Did they go through a breakup, and want to change their furniture because the old stuff reminds them of the other person? (I got a nice bedroom suite once because of that reason.) Are they looking for a birthday gift for a family member?

What trigger(s) do they experience just before they suddenly know they need what you've got?

And then you can go there and get in front of them.

Positioning is important.

You can be the low price provider with a good but expensive distribution channel (IKEA). Or you can be the custom, high price leader for customers who want a unique product (there was a company that made desks out of airplane wings.)

Where you show up and who you plan to serve are things you have full control over.

So what do you want to do, and what do you know about your ideal customer?

I would build enough that it's worth opening a small shop, and then selling your creations in a retail store.

If it's high end furniture, it needs to be seen and felt. If you put it on ETSY, you are competing with everyone else that sells the same type of product.

A good alternative is to find someone with a high end furniture store already...and see if they will add your creations to their store. And let them sell it online with the rest of their furniture.

I wouldn't put your furniture on ETSY unless you find other furniture (on ETSY) just like what you want to build and sell...selling at a price you could live with.

How do you download wooden high quality furniture...?

Idea is good.But the problem is that if you do online you should want the facilities to transport to far places and also space for storage. Otherwise the trust of customers will be decreased

gone for a week and see what happens? wow....

ETSY is an awesome start... I would also be looking at Facebook marketplace with images of items you HAVE made and offer your services for CUSTOM work. I PERSONALLY.. would NOT gather enough inventory for a "offline" store. A periodic garage sale of sorts maybe.. but really no need for an "offline" store.

Depending on where you live you might be able to get some of your pieces on consignment. I have a few Craft / knick knack store that allow for this... profit is obviously a little less but considering the cost of shipping you might find it balances well.

I would create a website that is YOURS.. I would suggest building it using WooCommerce - I would personally build it using the StoreFront theme, and then incorporate a inventory plugin depending on how you set this up you can or from Woocommerce to etsy or visa versa.

I would set up ETSY first... you list it instantly has the possibility of traffic. That said there are advantages to setting up the woocommerce store first. Doing it this way gives you the ability to control inventory etc from one backend. IE you sell something on etsy, the inventory is removed form your WooCommerce store and visa versa. Shipping rates and all kinds of stuff.. just makes sense long term.

But again the short term would be to set up Etsy first and get the sales rolling.

SHIPPING - is going to be a HUGE deal for you. Things like furniture I "Try" to use stock size Boxes when I can. and then pad the sides top and bottom with something like this: ( https://www.lowes.com/pd/Insulfoam-C...B&gclsrc=aw.ds ) A bit of a secret is to look for cracked and broken pieces both Lowes and Home Depot will give you a major discount for damaged pieces.

You will want to look at something like "Pirate Ship" to help you save money on the shipping end. Once you are in place a bit and understand what you are sending and how much you can actually get ahold of FedEx, and work out a discount direct. Shipping discounts can be found in a lot of places AARP has a program USAA has one for fed-ex, credit unions and all kinds of other organization so try and figure that out as well.

Any other questions - just ask!

Best of luck man!

*** ADDED *** AND I just saw you are located in Europe... so some of the details will be useless to you but will give you an idea overall what to do

Any idea is a good until it's faced with reality.
To understand idea you need to understand how you'll sell it. So, first step is understanding buyers needs. Many people prefer to buy the packages of full furniture.
So, I recommend you try to to find someone with a high end furniture store to present (or propose) you idea. They know customers needs and help you.

We helped launch a high end furniture online store. They had no physical sales but had a very interesting concept. Here's what we found out:

- Really great product pictures will do wonders
- It is very expensive to drive traffic to a new website so if you don't have $10-$20k to burn, maybe it's worth investing elsewhere.
- We found that trade shows work amazing, just need to find the right one.

I would say build a beautiful website and make sure you have amazing pictures, then start looking for resellers (smaller furniture stores), participate in a few trade shows for interior designers, buyers etc.

wow, didn't expect so many useful and informative replies, many thanks, guys!

You see, I have seen one guy from my country selling on etsy and making tons of sales and he selling same furniture which i want to start creating too, this is why I think etsy is good place to sell such furniture, but yeah i think i need first to start selling locally, in my country and if everything goes like planned ,will expand the business and sell on other places.

I am really talented for such jobs like building something, for jobs which requires accuracy, so why not to use such talent for making money and do what i like to do.

Sell them offline, create a brand or name like that for your line of furniture, then opt for online marketing.

I agree for hand made stuff Etsy is a good place to start. They have buyers built in like many other marketplaces. It's worth it even for a test run to see the interest. Once you know what people are buying you can easily expand out from there.

Etsy would be a good low risk way of trying out your plan.

Your business idea is fine. Once you go running the business online. You must choose the creative and unique products. you can select accent furniture, those are aesthetic and creative. I do not know what types of furniture you cherish, but you can include my mentioned product with your business. I think you will be benefitted much.

I would take a slightly different approach.

Rather than making stacks of furniture and hoping to sell it.

You might but you might not.

Either way you'll have large expenses, manufacturing time, storage, retail costs and very possibly agonising cash flow dilemmas ... and on it goes.

So, why not offer a customised "service."

Exclusive, personal, bespoke pieces made to order.


How would you do that then?


Best to advertise locally (maybe glossy postcards targeted to high worth households) and go and see the esteemed prospects.

Listen to what they want, give expert advice, stun them with the perfect design and amaze them with the finished piece.

Imagine the quality and quantity of referrals after they have invited their family and friends so they can "showcase" their masterpiece.


Or offer a unique online design and handcrafted service (based on clients ideas, photo's etc - you could offer to "build in" clients "artefacts" should they wish).


Always good to concentrate on a "niche."

Minimalists, large families, portable, outdoor, storage furniture - choose whatever you prefer based on your knowledge of the market.

You could just make one particular type of furniture - tables, chairs or cabinets...maybe using one type of wood.

And become known as the aficionado for that "brand" of furniture.

All in all...

It's much easier and a lot less pressure making pieces of furniture knowing they are all sold in advance.


Steve

Can you afford the equipment or do you already have some of it .and do you have the skills to craft the furniture .

I personally gravitate to producing ingredients vers finished goods .

I will throw an idea at you if you like building furniture and you have building skills . Get into fixing up buildings in your country filling the rooms with hand crafted furniture and renting them out as air bnb rooms if there is the volume in your country .

But feel free to ignore me .

Are you eyeing crafting furniture because you see someone else doing it and you think making money .

Build a few endtables and other pieces of furniture and see if you can seel them and make enough profit to be worth your time .

If you are a craft person by nature . I have no idea what to say to you about a business without being able to look at the furniture you have the current skills to produce .

MY BEST ADVICE:

Barrie Bedell (son of Clyde Bedell, the famous ad man) has a book called...
131 Stress Reducin' Recession Bustin' Profit Proven FURNITURE ADS.

I have used that book over and over again to inspire me to create all kinds of ads in all kinds of industries.. profit proven ads.

You surely need it on your desk before you launch into such a money/labor intensive effort.

If you call me, I can patch you in on a 3 way call to Barrie... he's in his 80's, he has a few of these books still around, and you'd be smart to get one, or two. Even if you don't start this furniture business... as I said, I've used the book as an idea starter for creating all kinds of ads for cars, investment advice, health products, etc.

It's a GREAT TOOL.

Here is my number: 801-895-9598.

I'm sure you can get the book from him for one hundred bucks or so.

Yours,

Linwood

Another thought... it's best, in this situation to do a number of dry tests, before you ramp up to full on production.
Just thinking.

Linwood

Yes good idea from a business perspective.but how would start out.

Now you can sell everything online better but having an offline furniture store is a good way to increase your sale as well as brand value. We also use both mediums to promote and sell our furniture and we have achieved an amazing result.