A Little Advice....

[made-in-colorado!]

   We have a nice little wholesale biz here in Colorado USA.  You can see a few of our listings to see what we sell here...  We also produce many other customized souvenir type products for tourists.

   We are considering moving to Australia and would like to open a gift shop plus sell on Ebay down there.  We are curious about how popular Ebay is there. Are most sales to Australians or are most of you selling internationally?

   Thanks In Advance!!!!

[putney32]

You're welcome!  No, we don't have much aspen, Gum trees are our lot 😄 

and we don't have 'Cowboys' either !!

[superscanner4]

Personally I like your items, I am a skier and I subscribe to Cowboys and Indians magazine because I love all that rustic natural stuff, mountains and the outdoors etc. but I can't answer for the average Australian.

Your target shoppers would probably be in the ski resort areas of New South Wales and Victoria but you would need to do plenty of research, some resorts are open only during the winter season.   Other possibilities could be the wine-growing tourist areas such as the Hunter Valley in New South Wales that attracts a year-round stream of tourists and has a lot of up-market (up-scale) hotels and resorts.  Another possibility - the Blue Mountains tourist area west of Sydney,  Lots of small boutique shops, Bed & Breakfast accommodation and endless supply of coaches full of international tourists.

[motherbear2003]

Sure we do, putney - they all work for ebay:^O

colorado - Australia has the title of "the lucky country" and I'm sure most of those of us who live here, even those in flood and bushfire prone areas, wouldn't live anywhere else in the world:-D  Melbourne is the best place to live;-)

Living costs overall are far more expensive than the US, but then salaries and wages are also much higher.  Our health system has no equal anywhere in the world - imo

As someone else has said, ebay is ebay no matter where you live.

PS I love your lampshade, especially the bear one:^O

[made-in-colorado!]

Thanks all for the replies and suggestions!      Our main business is to sell custom wholesale items to gift shops and galleries here in Colorado.  We sell to everyone from mom and pop shops to airports and national parks.   We use Ebay to test new ideas and new designs mainly before introducing them to the stores we wholesale to....

   That's what we look to do down there...  No desire to live in the expensive cities...  We'll be looking for that sleepy little resort village.....

[superscanner4]

Another possibility - the Southern Highlands area south of Sydney.  A lot of private boarding schools, historic houses with large garden estates, affluent people wanting the rural lifestyle in comfort!  e.g. the town of Bowral.  Many celebrities have property in this area.

You could perhaps find an established homewares business that could import your wares exclusively, you could offer custom-made signs.  As you mentioned if you moved here you would need to source a different kind of timber. 

[superscanner4]

My husband would love your train lampshade!  There are plenty of steam train enthusiasts here!  Australia has plenty of sleepy tourist towns.  Actually - Tasmania is fabulous, if you don't mind the cold!  The whole island state is a series of little tourist towns all within easy drive, and some fabulous national parks. 

[made-in-colorado!]

Bowral looks wonderful!  

   Does anyone know how gift shops purchase their goods down there?  In the USA, we have trade shows that the buyers attend.  Others order from catalogs.  We go out and visit each store individually and then offer them goods that we feel would best fit the stores theme or offer goods that would be best for the location and type of tourist that they cater to.  We offer our own goods and we are also independent sales reps for several other companies....

   Just curious if things operate somewhat similar there....

[austeam]

We haver trade shows such as homeandgiving.com

[austeam]

reedgiftfairs.com.au

[austeam]

My advice is to skip the trade shows until you are large enough to justify a large stand in a good position.

A good opportunity to see Australia is to hit the road and visit the gift stores. Even if you rock up unannounced, say you were passing through thought you would stop in.  It also gives you a chance to see what sort of business they run, what they stock (and hopefully what is selling) which will help you to steer your own growth.

Have you been to Australia before?