Every bird store online has a great selection, and plenty of options. Some offer different things that others don't, but what should I do to make my site a viable option? I know that this site won't create enough money for me to retire. I just want to make a big of extra cash, and since my job requires me to be at my computer most of the day, I might as well make a little extra money. Please any ideas would help, and if you have any pointers as to where I can start my quest of making an online store that would be great. Right now I'm looking at different wholesalers, and if you have used any or know of some let me know. Right now this is just a concept, but within a month I would like to make this a reality.

You have too much energy I am trying to think of things that are hard to find on online stores for birds and I don't really know of any off the top of my head. But do you watch Suze Orman? She had someone on her show last weekend who wanted to start an online store (selling puppy clothes lol) and she told her that she wasn't ready. One of the things she said to do what figure out profit margins. Other stuff like that before she did it. Not sure what else....anyway I dont have any tips but that.

Yeah I've been working on pricing and working out what a good margin of profit would be. The biggest brick wall in my way is that most wholesellers won't even let you look at their inventory and prices without showing proof of business. I have been able to bypass one company's security to look at their inventory, and right now I'm trying to find the products advertised on other sites so I can see how much they're selling it, and trying to figure out what will sell more frequently. Most wholesellers offer drop shipping, so I don't have to keep much inventory. I need to get an idea of what I can do before I should move forward, and get the expensive paperwork started on setting up a business.

One concept I'm working with is placing information about what products work best with what bird. A lot of websites will tell you what works good with what bird, but they don't really go into why, and leave out quite a few different breeds. From time to time we see people on here who don't know what to buy their quakers because toys and cages for them are usually labeled for conures and cockatiels. I want my store to be helpful to bird experts and novices. That's one of the problems is that a lot of stores don't give you enough information about care and raising. Partly for legal reasons I'm sure, and partly because they're a store, and not a bird support site. Now if I can only figure out how to blend the two.

I guess what I need to know is what sites everyone goes to when they shop online, and what they are looking for usually when online. So if you don't have advice tell me a little about why you're online shopping and where.

I guess I won't help much since I'm a bit different case... but anyway...

It's really difficult to find ANYthing suitable for a quaker here, talking about food (pellets, treats and such), petshops only have seed mixes, toys (I mean good and suitable toys), so I buy most of these things through eBay. But it gets really annoying when I find a great toy and then I find out that the person is not willing to ship worldwide or they would ship worldwide but the shipping would be like 30USD (and the toy costs 8USD)... when I know it's not that expensive at all, because I had other things shipped for half the price or less.

And there are many online shops who for some reason I don't understand wouldn't ship worldwide and that is a real shame for both sides I believe, I don't get the things and they don't get the money...

So if you think about starting an online shop, please consider us, overseas people who might be interested as well and ship worldwide and have a paypal account ready

One more thing with the paypal, don't insist on people using only their verified mailing address as for example here, you cannot verify it since the banks don't cooperate with paypal. So this is another thing that makes my shopping online difficult...


And now I've just realised what I would appreciate in an online shop - have some sort of online advice centre, that helps me decide what I really want to buy quickly and so I buy it. Otherwise if I had to wait for an email I may well change my mind if I really NEED that

My biggest problem that I've been trying to overcome is international shipping. Most of the products are drop ship products, but they won't deliver internationally. However I am working to overcome this problem. This weekend I'll focus on that issue, and see what I can do to make everything more convenient for you. I may have to find a european distribution company.

Anyways thanks so much for the insight. I'm trying to make sure that I do make a website as helpful as possible to everyone I can.