Hello all,
I'm looking for some help with some market / feasibility research for a start-up I'm looking into with a friend. We're looking to offer a subscription service for runners to have their favorite brand of training shoes delivered to their home address in intervals consistent with their training volume (so essentially we will be sending out shoes every 300 - 400 miles).
Logistically we crunched the numbers and it's looking feasible - we'd collect average weekly mileage and calculate reorder points from that, offer rates that are consistent with the cost of supplying the shoes, and offer the price per pair at a discount of retail given a subscription of ~1 year.
The issue we're running into is properly estimating COGS. How much will it cost to purchase each pair of shoes, who can we buy from, and in what quantity do we have to order to get to these prices. Before we even think about diversifying our catalog we need to consider these initial costs.
So my question has to do specifically with the team dealer and manufacturer relationship. How much are the manufacturers likely to sell to the dealers for? In what quantity? Is it feasible for a start up to work its way into a similar relationship with a manufacturer? What kind of prices could we expect from a team dealer? What other options are there regarding wholesale purchases? Pretty much any insight will help us find a good jumping off point.
Thank a ton in advance,
tlomba