Your Feedback on a Business Idea

[Whitestone]

Hi Everyone,

I can say that You are more known to me than i am to You
As i read most of the valuable comments, advices and discussion on regular basis.
So thank you for educating me in a lot of things that i never knew.
Not much of a writer, however i thought i take this opportunity to ask ALL of you for your comments on a business idea that i have in mind. So that i can come across all sorts of feedback.

I was thinking that as there is not much presence of made to measure leather garment shops on high streets.(and even if there are any, they are extremely expensive) There might be a good scope. As the only leather available is jackets and most of the time they known/expensive brands. Leather garments can be found widely on internet, however a lot of us might not be comfortable buying the garment before getting the feel of the leather type. And then sizing is also another aspect that cannot be fully understood on online shops.

If i set up a shop in UK, say Manchester. Not High Street to start off,
and place 15-20 type of finished leather hides as samples. So that walk-ins can actually feel the leather and see it.
Mannequins will have different type of Bikers Vests, Long Coats, Kilts, Skirts on them.
Remaining styles can be looked into our catalogue, and if that's not enough to choose from,
we can make them look and select from Google/Internet.
After we understand what they want, we take sizing and payment.
Their garment will reach them in 7 days from the time they pay.
(How will they get the garment in 7 days? It's all figured out and tested, it's a guarantee)

Garments can be: Bikers Vest, Bikers Protective Clothing, Long Trench Coats, Kilts, Ladies Pencil Skirts, Jackets and Blazers, Shirts, Chaps, trousers, Ladies corsets etc etc.

Your thoughts on this idea as the USP of this idea are:
Very Reasonable price as compare to what's available at least 40% less.
Time in which customer will have their parcel to their address.
And above all the option to choose what you want in person and discuss how you want it.

Thanks.

[doL]

I don't know anything about leather goods, so I can't speak to that. But opening up a physical store can be difficult. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't try it. You never know til you try.

[wired]

Considering more high street shops in the UK are closing than are opening, as half the country is in poverty, im not sure its a wise idea, but you never know.

[realdeals]

Don't claim to be an expert but leather clothing doesn't seem to be so much in demand in the UK as maybe 20 or 30 years back. Although, it does seem to be more popular with certain ethic groups more than others, so research into this would be of use maybe.

The question as always would be pricing. There are different grades of leather as I understand it, and you can get some very cheap imported goods at various markets. This really would be a niche area, so you would have to do a massive amount of work behind the seems and explore all factors of it before going ahead.

[richie2065]

A lot of big name leather shops have gone under in the past few years (lakeland leather for one) - although you can get initial shop leases these days for next to nothing shirt term have you thought about gauging the market first by trialling a website only, I know one of your biggeest marketing plus maybe people seeing the items but it would give a good understanding of the demmand?