The meaning of an online store on order in 2017?

Question

Delivery

Good afternoon.
Perhaps I don’t understand something, but .. What is the point of
an online store for an order from China / EU / USA if everyone can independently go to the site and order 10-30% cheaper?
Let's say there is an online store, there are about 1000 goods, the goods are not very cheap (about $ 20 average price), mostly trinkets, souvenirs, but they are sold only in the United States.
Hence the question, how to implement an online store?
Fill in with all the goods, put the status in stock, and when ordering, unsubscribe that they just sold the last position, the next one will be in 2-4 weeks and run to order from the states if the client is ready to wait?
Fill in all the goods, put the status under the order and wait?
Buy souvenirs for $ 500-1000, and this is only 25-30 units out of 1000 possible and try to sell only them, but it can take a month or two or three years, or you can just not guess (the taste and color are like says)?
Also interested in your opinion with the same stores from the EU, China, Japan.
There are many interesting and not very expensive products, there are often discounts up to 70-90%, there are friends in the EU who can buy, receive, send goods.
But the fact of the matter is that only lazy people do not deliver from abroad to Ukraine / Russia)
I would be grateful for any answers, advice, tips, etc.
Thank you in advance

Answer 1

1. The standard markup of intermediaries from aliexpress is 100-200%. Nobody works for 20-30%.
2. It is important to have 10-15 of the most popular models in stock. $1000 is negligible compared to promotion costs.
3. The store can save on order volume.
Well, as Saboteur rightly said - there should be added value in the form of a quality description, quality delivery, etc.

Answer 2

Not everyone can go and order on the English/Chinese website on their own.
Not everyone understands where you can pay abroad.
Not everyone understands what delivery from abroad to the post office is.
If you can guarantee delivery to customers and take on all the hemorrhoids in the sense that you bring the goods to the client’s entrance and only at that moment the client pays you in cash, even 120-130% of the cost, such a service will definitely take off.
But there are big doubts that you can guarantee this, since a lot of goods will be lost at customs, wrapped back, not quite right, not quite there, get stuck somewhere along the way, and the costs will fall on you.

Answer 3

there are different reasons.
someone does not believe the Chinese
, someone is embarrassed by customs.
some goods without certification will not 100% pass the border, returns are possible.
someone needs a LOCAL guarantee (do not forget that an online store within the country can easily be sued if it refuses to provide a guarantee)
again - on aliexpress your eyes run wide - and in your store you can pick up goods more carefully defined models - that is, you create a highly specialized a certain range of shop.
you add intelligible descriptions of goods than the Chinese.
etc. etc. considerations.
but in the essence of your question - no one will wait for a trinket for $ 20 to order from the USA - only individual maniacs will agree.
yes, you need to buy at your own expense, and then wait until it sells for a very long time - welcome to the real world of retail. this is normal for retail, this is natural.
some products you can sell for years (you may be lucky, most will still sell quickly).
I have familiar retailers of goods stocks and a million. and lie for years.
it does not soar them, because "for the assortment" the product hanging on the remnants helps the sales of the product that is going well.
but otherwise retail does not work - unless you have some unique product.
you can fool people that you just sold the last piece.
but Yandex.market will dislike you for this (and it raises sales very well).
for this you will not get good word of mouth - recommendations from buyers - which will help your promotion.
to do like everyone else - to buy the most massively purchased goods in advance at your own expense.
otherwise, it works only with expensive goods - for example, with professional video cameras for 500,000. They are usually brought to order and such buyers are ready to wait for six months ....
well, a 20-dollar product with such competition, except to bring account - no options and you don't have any.
under the order of a 20 dollar product - nobody needs you.
guess not guess with color, etc. and will lie for years if you do not guess - welcome to the world of retail.
the only thing that will save you is uniqueness.
I have a friend who carries jewelry stones from Indonesia to order - with all the desire, it is not so easy to find and order them from abroad.
if you are going to duplicate aliexpress - no way