How does one go about becoming a DVD retailer/distributor?

[Malcolm Singh]

Hi, I'm new to the Forum and I hope this question is not out of bounds.

I am interested in setting up a DVD online retailing/renting business and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how one goes about doing this.

Any help would be appreciated.

Malcolm.

[FoxyMulder]

If you want to do retail get yourself a good web server and either pay to have someone design your webpages or do it yourself, you will need an SSL thats a secure certificate which i believe includes 128 bit encryption so that transactions are safe, heres the web server i currently use although i don't do retail but this should give you an idea of costs as far as the web design part of it goes.

http://www.lunarpages.com/plan.htm

[philipjg]

Don't want to spoil the idea too much but I think you'll have trouble purchasing the discs for cheaper than you could buy them from retailers such as cdwow and play anyway.

Try looking at distributors such as www.the.co.uk and www.goldcat.co.uk for an idea of prices.

There are a couple of websites that specialise in rental copies of discs but I can't recall their names right now, sorry.

[Malcolm Singh]

Thanks for Foxy Mulder and others who have replied so far. Apart from the technical setup, does one need to purchase the DVDs or can one enter into a rental arrangement with the DVD distributors before renting on-line? Any info on this is greatly appreciated.

Malcolm

[sjp1966]

Don't want to spoil the idea too much but I think you'll have trouble purchasing the discs for cheaper than you could buy them from retailers such as cdwow and play anyway.

Try looking at distributors such as www.the.co.uk and www.goldcat.co.uk for an idea of prices.

There are a couple of websites that specialise in rental copies of discs but I can't recall their names right now, sorry.

I called both of these companies with regards opening a trade account with them as i have my own company. Golds return my email saying that they will send me some info, but they never did and THE.co.uk sent me some information via email.

However the buy proce they were giving me was not that great, i cross referenced some of the pricing with Play, and Play are selling them cheaper, plus i would have to pay VAT and delivery on the items

so that leaves the question, what distributor is supplying people like Play

[Greg]

I would imagine possibly the same people? but perhaps Play are buying much larger quantities so they get them at a lower price?

[Smurfin]

I thought about this a while back, but you need to ask yourself this question: "Why bother?"

Just look at the market...Play, CD-Wow and others...there's no niche anymore, the market is swamped and you need to ask yourself again: "What can I do that the others don't?"

Well you sure as hell won't be able to compete with the big-boys prices, so imho there's little point. You're a good 2 or 3 years too late I'm afraid.

[sjp1966]

smurfin, i think your right, too much headache for too little gain (if any)

[Greg]

Also a lot of the big companies which you will be competing with would have long business plans with losses forecast in the early periods and only realising profits in later years. I think Amazon are only just starting to make a profit after their many years of trading.

To get a decent website to compete with play, cd-wow etc and the start up costs could make this very expensive. Could you afford to not see any profits for a few years? Basically working for nothing.