What about a European Warehouse ?

[Applefreak]

8 hours ago, JaySonic said:

Sure, Amazon charge some small fees, but it's very reasonable on a high volume sales item.

High volume means 1000+ units per month. Amazon takes pretty much all the profit and leaves you with the warranty crap they've caused by sending out the wrong part, damaging the package etc. The only reason Amazon is big in the EU is because they pay a flat tax and all the packages sent back are marked as losses so they pay even less then. Before making such a statement, you want to read up on those companies, business practices, Canadian and EU commercial laws and international laws regarding taxation on products. 

The only way to feasibly sell products oversea is to make use of the trade agreement. However that states that a product would have to be made in the EU or Canada and in certain amounts of it in either country to get an exemption from import tariffs. Currently that won't be an option for smaller companies such as LMG. The whole warehousing sending in bulk thing is something large corporations do. By sending in bulk you save on harbor fees and custom fees related to the paperwork. The individual products still have to be paid for. Additionally there is the storage of said container or it's content, trucking fees in the EU, which are quite a bit higher then anywhere else as well as the shipping cost of the container. This only makes sense if you, the customer, would pay the same rates as before but now LMG makes double the profit by basically ripping you off, which is in nobodies interest here. Also keep in mind that profits overseas would have to be taxed, which means they need to open up an office, hire at least some staff for managing it, pay them salaries and still make a profit on their own. Running a business and having to deal with international customs is not something I do for fun or see as a way to increase profit. It is a necessary evil in our economy, one I and pretty much every small company wants to avoid whenever possible. 

[ToboRobot]

Is there an existing company that can do the EU distribution?

 

Why don't some Europeans start a distribution company? 

 

Buy from LTT in bulk, and then do the EU shipping and distribution. 

 

 

[ToboRobot]

On 9/3/2023 at 4:50 AM, Dutch_Master said:

 

 

Full disclosure: I have been contemplating starting a warehouse selling merch for US/Canada based youtubers as official reseller. The only main reason it's not yet reality is lack of funds to actually start the business. And because of that I haven't approached said YT-ers either.

If you have a good business plan, go get funding.

If there really is a massive market of customers just waiting to spend their money (but won't due to shipping/tax), then you can either find investors, or bootstrap the business out of your bedroom/basement/garage, by ordering boxes of merch, and selling it out, and repeating that process until you can self fund a small location.
 

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

2 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

Why don't some Europeans start a distribution company? 

 

Buy from LTT in bulk, and then do the EU shipping and distribution. 

Because that requires quite some capital to start with. Yes, not a lot compared to other businesses, but still quite a lot for a single person or a group of individuals. 

Then you start adding the bulk purchase order, the shipping, handling, warehousing etc. Plus that company would also have to deal with import customs etc.

 

So it is not that a warehouse in EU would have no costs to deal with, regardless of whether LMG or someone else runs it. So either way the product will stay expensive, unless you really find a way to save lots of money on import. And I don't really see how, without going in on either large scale or local "assembly" etc. 

 

Only thing that might change is that it would be less trouble for the customer, but at minimum at the same total costs or likely even more.

[Dutch_Master]

3 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

If you have a good business plan, go get funding.

I don't, so I didn't. It's not good to be reliant on a single supplier, so I must have at least 50% of my turnover coming from different sources then LMG. That's a tall order and not reachable by a single vendor, so I must have a myriad of suppliers, who all ship their wares across the Atlantic (costing $$$$$ including Customs/VAT/Duty/Tax, besides the merch itself) and needing sorting, storage and labelling before any of it can be sold and thus I can make my money back. It's a huge, huge upfront cost that one simply can't bear, even if everything is already sold before it arrives on these shores. And unlikely to be financed by a bank, 'cause it's not a reliable asset to them in case of a default. Which is always a possibility.

[ToboRobot]

2 hours ago, Dutch_Master said:

I don't, so I didn't.

Ok, well come up with that plan, and then you can move forward.  Anything else is pointless right?

[ToboRobot]

3 hours ago, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

Because that requires quite some capital to start with.

No it doesn't.  If there is a big market for this, you could literally crowd fund it with preorders.

"Hey everyone that wants a screwdrivers, we are going to order a box of them and split the order when it arrives."

Rather than, "I wish someone else would do this for me" find a way to "do this myself".

 

You don't need a warehouse, you need a shelf in a room and a desk to store merch and process orders.  You get a warehouse when you need one. 

Did you pay attention to the growth of LMG?  They started in a house, not a multimillion dollar production facility with sets and fancy lights. 

Crawl, walk, run.

 

 

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

3 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

No it doesn't.  If there is a big market for this, you could literally crowd fund it with preorders.

"Hey everyone that wants a screwdrivers, we are going to order a box of them and split the order when it arrives."

Rather than, "I wish someone else would do this for me" find a way to "do this myself".

 

You don't need a warehouse, you need a shelf in a room and a desk to store merch and process orders. 

Sure... crowdfunding.

 

I don't know how you think this would work, but even if you get a couple of hundred preorders in you still need to order the screwdrivers, pay for shipping (cheaper, ok, but takes time) do all the customs and taxes (!!!) paper work etc.

And then pay for shipping all of these further out to the final customers. How much time would this take and how much of a premium would you need to charge?

 

Plus if you want to do this on any type of scale or want to get any type of tax credits etc. you will likely need to form some form of legal company as well.

[ToboRobot]

Just now, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

Sure... crowdfunding.

 

I don't know how you think this would work, but even if you get a couple of hundred preorders in you still need to order the screwdrivers, pay for shipping (cheaper, ok, but takes time) do all the customs and taxes (!!!) paper work etc.

And then pay for shipping all of these further out to the final customers. How much time would this take and how much of a premium would you need to charge?

 

Plus if you want to do this on any type of scale or want to get any type of tax credits etc. you will likely need to form some form of legal company as well.

Yes, running a business is a job.  You would have to accept preorders and the money from those customers, place an order, wait for it to arrive, and then break down the order and ship it to individual customers!  So you need to charge customers enough to cover shipping both ways.  From LTT Store to the EU and then from the EU to customers.

So you need to find out how much shipping will cost.  And then charge that or more. 

Again, crawl, walk, then run.  You are worried about hundreds of orders.  Think about starting with 10, or however many fit in a shipping box.  Sell out.  Do it again, maybe with more inventory. 

But start small.  And build upon your success. 

Yes, you will need to do a lot of paperwork, because you're running a business. 

And now you know why LMG isn't keen to do this.  Because it's a lot of work.  And people who want to buy things and have money, can just order it from LTTstore and wait and deal with shipping/taxes issues. 

Your business model is: resell stuff from North America and make the purchase easier/quicker/cheaper for EU customers. 

 

[GarlicDeliverySystem]

18 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

Your business model is: resell stuff from North America and make the purchase easier/quicker/cheaper for EU customers. 

I understand where you are coming from and that you should start small instead of wanting to go big immediately.

 

My issue is that I am not sold on the idea that you could make it quicker and cheaper for the customers by adding another middle man.

 

Easier, that I can definitely see. You can definitely take over all the shipping and customs stuff, calculate the price ahead of time etc.

 

Faster as well, by stocking all the items before. Which would mean you can't rely on preorders but would need to anticipate demand and place orders ahead yourself. Unless your shipping can beat their regular shipping times, which would mean higher costs (i.e. air express vs via ship).

 

Which means cheaper is probably not gonna happen, unless you can both safe time and costs. However, you would still need to pay for shipping and taxes/customs. So those costs would be there, regardless. I don't know enough about taxation/customs in the EU regarding B2B shipping/imports, though I would assume that only really benefits international companies?

 

So I don't think the business model of reselling with convenience, faster, and cheaper would really work out that easily.

[ToboRobot]

9 minutes ago, GarlicDeliverySystem said:

I understand where you are coming from and that you should start small instead of wanting to go big immediately.

 

My issue is that I am not sold on the idea that you could make it quicker and cheaper for the customers by adding another middle man.

 

Easier, that I can definitely see. You can definitely take over all the shipping and customs stuff, calculate the price ahead of time etc.

 

Faster as well, by stocking all the items before. Which would mean you can't rely on preorders but would need to anticipate demand and place orders ahead yourself. Unless your shipping can beat their regular shipping times, which would mean higher costs (i.e. air express vs via ship).

 

Which means cheaper is probably not gonna happen, unless you can both safe time and costs. However, you would still need to pay for shipping and taxes/customs. So those costs would be there, regardless. I don't know enough about taxation/customs in the EU regarding B2B shipping/imports, though I would assume that only really benefits international companies?

 

So I don't think the business model of reselling with convenience, faster, and cheaper would really work out that easily.

If only there was some sort of planning process for businesses that could help you figure out if it were a viable option.

If all this work isn't going to be cheaper, why would the LTTstore bother?  Again, they already ship to the EU for anyone willing to pay. 

Perhaps the people saying they would order if there was an EU warehouse, aren't as big of a group as you'd expect, and this would be a bad business decision to make an investment in EU distribution.

Again, doing this small and bootstrapped manner will test and prove the market.  And you will be able to see if it is viable.

[Outta_Hwrw]

22 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

Is there an existing company that can do the EU distribution?

 

Yes - Amazon's FBA warehousing/distro model !

https://sell.amazon.com.au/fulfilment-by-amazon

 

 

22 hours ago, Applefreak said:

High volume means 1000+ units per month.

 

The LTT screwdriver, by my estimate, has sold over 1 million units. A volume consignment of 1000 units for European distribution would likely sell out within days.

I should reiterate what I said earlier, my comments were specifically about the screwdriver, not LTT/LMG selling 1,000 SKU's in the EU. That was a mistake on my part in not making this clear in my first post.

 

On 9/10/2023 at 12:20 PM, Cooldoe said:

Err China and India called and they have much more than that in their country alone

South East Asia ASEAn countries represent 679 million people

Why should they choose Europa over those countries based on your logic?

 

Your logic is disingenuous. The national average salary in India is <$5,000 USD per year. A very small marketshare for merchandise buyers, when many people need to.. you know.. buy food.

 

On 9/11/2023 at 1:32 PM, DeltaBruggemann said:

So you expect Linus to be working 24/7? It was around 10pm his time when he responded. Plus is he not allowed to interact with the community on his own forum? With that logic you may as well go tell Elon to get off twitter and go remove some other useful feature from his cars.

Easy, tiger. This doesn't need to become a pedantic debate.

If it pleases Linus to do so, then that's great. But the founder/director of a successful multi-million dollar business has nothing to gain from spending ANY time on responding to an insignificant nobody like me.

[LinusTech]

31 minutes ago, JaySonic said:

Easy, tiger. This doesn't need to become a pedantic debate.

If it pleases Linus to do so, then that's great. But the founder/director of a successful multi-million dollar business has nothing to gain from spending ANY time on responding to an insignificant nobody like me.

I don't consider our community to be comprised of 'insignificant nobodies'.  I enjoy interacting with people here on the forum and elsewhere. Any executive who is too far-removed from the day-to-day to interact with the individuals who support their business should be fired on the spot.

With that said, I think it's clear that those executives shouldn't be obligated to take business advice from every individual who offers an opinion.

[Ultraforce]

15 hours ago, DeltaBruggemann said:

So you expect Linus to be working 24/7? It was around 10pm his time when he responded. Plus is he not allowed to interact with the community on his own forum? With that logic you may as well go tell Elon to get off twitter and go remove some other useful feature from his cars.

Also, perhaps we should remind JaySonic that Linus's job is not to deal with the day to day operations involving estimating purchasing order requirements anymore.

[Outta_Hwrw]

6 hours ago, Ultraforce said:

Also, perhaps we should remind JaySonic that Linus's job is not to deal with the day to day operations involving estimating purchasing order requirements anymore.

Oh come on, friend. I'm just making a few spontaneous comments to a forum community I recently joined, because I'm going to build my first (and last) computer. I enjoy the LTT channel, and enjoy the youtube content they publish, even though it's been over my head for a few years. And I have a very high level of respect and admiration for Linus, in how he and his team have orchestrated an incredibly successful business model.

As to your 'reminder' suggestion to me... with all politeness (to you), I just dont care too much about the day-to-day operations of LTT/LMG anymore than I do about Mitsubishi's corporate structure, the company that manufactured my refrigerator. Linus & the other 'on-screen' team members are the products I consume from the business. Sure, I saw something about the appointment of a CEO, but

I'm also not a 'critic' or 'hater' of Linus, LTT, LMG, or other on-screen staff. Don't give the slightest crap about the recent dramas, but am happy that the channel is back to creating content. Great to see my second favorite LTT team member on-screen again with Anthony being a part of the 'Soviet Mouse' video. I wondered for a while if he got fired.

Anyway, there was no malice in my Amazon suggestion. Nor was there any malice in responding to Linus (the KING!). I'm BLOWN AWAY by the product launch of the screwdriver, and the subsequent $7 Million in sales. No doubt some early risks in allocating serious $$ towards R & D, including engineering & design staff.   I would like to think that LTT/LMG are netting a very nice profit from this one product alone. Risk = Rewards (sometimes)

Bloody Linus responded to me again in this thread. Kind of surreal... I'm now engaging with a guy that until yesterday was a person on my screen, and to my mind, a brilliant entrepreneur who came into the social media sphere and, under the LTT/LMG banner, earned themselves a position of authority, influence and profit. Im not a fanboy... but Im not.. NOT.. a fanboy

I probably have to respond to him now, as much as I think it's a complete waste of Linus' time to give a milligram of energy to me, some random nobody. And I've been a bit uncomfortable for the past 24 hours that... I've upset him Not my intention, OK @Ultraforce ?

The only way out here is for me to leave a smart@ss reply to Linus, hoping that I brought a smile to his face, repaired the bad vibes I've inadvertently inflicted upon him, and deregister my forum profile.

Apologies to you also @Ultraforce, if my forum posts have placed you in a negative headspace.







 

[Nathat23]

9 hours ago, JaySonic said:

The LTT screwdriver, by my estimate, has sold over 1 million units. A volume consignment of 1000 units for European distribution would likely sell out within days.

I should reiterate what I said earlier, my comments were specifically about the screwdriver, not LTT/LMG selling 1,000 SKU's in the EU. That was a mistake on my part in not making this clear in my first post.

The initial wave of screwdrivers was 100k units which was then upped to 150k. I'm not sure if there's been more ordered since then but I think its well under a million and closer to 200k-250k units.

[Outta_Hwrw]

47 minutes ago, Nathat23 said:

The initial wave of screwdrivers was 100k units which was then upped to 150k. I'm not sure if there's been more ordered since then but I think its well under a million and closer to 200k-250k units.

From memory (cannot be trusted!) there were scheduled dispatch roadmaps, or 'tranches'. Expected delivery dates based on the PRE_ORDER transactions.

Seem to recall each tranche being more or less the figures (units) you're claiming, but.... and there were at least six tranches. Maybe ten tranches. What I'm trying to say, without being an a-hole, is that I disagree with your (IMO) grossly underestimated figures. I think LTT/LTM sold a shed-tonne more than you think.

DEMAND was far exceeding SUPPLY for that Bespoke-Mod ratchet driver. An incredible position to be in, taking retail receipts of $$$ for a product that's 'coming a few months later'. It's the ultimate crowdsourcing campaign, but leveraging LMG's own ecosystem to dictate future production.

This  is.. as far as my observation allows.. is a SEVEN MILLION DOLLAR SCREWDRIVER.

And that's frikkin awesome. Linus is KING

https://www.lttstore.com/products/screwdriver