Please can I graba few opinion son my preloved wedding dress shop (opening soon)

I think if your going to open a shop like that, you have found the best area to do it in (an Aberdare girl myself). I think it could work quite well depending on where you are going to set up the shop.

Have no other advice really but I wish you all the best with it.

Nat

Sounds good to me. I would certainly visit a shop like this, assuming the dresses are cleaned well and in good condition I would not be adverse to having a "second hand" dress and a shop with good customer service etc would be great.

Personally I doubt I will sell my dress but if I was I think somewhere like your shop would be a good place to get rid of it....although I'm a little confused as to when the (old) bride would get her money....would it not be best for you to buy the dress up front then sell on....I understand this may impact cash flow but would probably be more attractive to brides wanting a no hassle quick sale. You would have to "guess" the price you could sell on for....I guess you would win some and lose some...

Hope my twopence worth helps, and Good Luck!

Hi Nat,

Thanks for the response! I was thinking the same to be honest. My only fear is that there are a number of local wedding shops in the various villages and towns offering lower price (not designer though) wedding dresses. This makes me wonder if the demand is there for designer or if the people wanting the designer gowns will just go straight to Cardiff. I think it is just getting closer to happening and a few last minute nerves are kicking in! People seem in favour both as sellers and buyers so heres hoping it works. I just think the price of dresses for a few hours wear is crazy!

Do you mind me asking if you do well in this area? We are Merthyr Tydfil so just over the valley from you! Do you do any wedding fayres? I am getting married next August so I am doing all the fayres at the moment as a bride

Hi Emma,

Thanks for the feedback To be hoenst this is an area that has been the most confusing and stressful to work out! We would be doing it by storing the dress in our shop for 6months (covered by our insurance and with a contract) then if it sells the profit is split 50/50, if it doesn't sell then it would be between us and the bride to work out if we both wanted to store the dress for a further 6months.

We are going to price the dresses at 50% of the current retail value providing it is this season or slightly less than 50% if it is no longer in the shops. This would be on agreement between us and the bride though obviously. Also the dress would need to be dry cleaned and with no major flaws.

We do also buy dresses but as we are trying to ensure we have the funds available to cover all bills, advertising and outgoings for as long as possible (we don't have a shop like this is our area so we cannot be 100% sure it will work-same as any new business I guess) so for that reason we are not going to be able to buy a massive amount of stock. In addition obviouslt we don't know what will sell. We have got quite a few Ian Stuarts but I must admit that is partly just so I can go and stare at them all day! And obviouly the Maggies, I am yet to find one of those that isn't fab!

But thanks for your input, we will definately be looking at a buy it off the brides option.

The whole you take and store the dress for 6 months etc just makes me think i'd be as well keeping it in the cupboard and advertising it on ebay, gumtree, pre-loved and all the wedding websites myself. I think if you are going to open a store like that you really would have to buy the gowns from the sellers first as I doubt many people would be interested in a deal like that.

Hi Sloan,

Thanks for the feedback. So far we have had quite a few brides interested in selling their dress this way. Mainly as dresses don't always sell on ebay, preloved etc. Ladies are generally happier trying the dresses on and getting a feel for them in person.

That said, I do appreciate that alot of brides will feel like you and we will be buying as many dresses as possible. In honesty I would feel more comfortable with owning all the stock, alot easier! but as always it comes down to money....I was only 6 numbers down at the weekend but I will keep trying

Kate x

Hi Starstruck,

Your words echo those of a few bridal shop owners ... a scary thought! Do you mind telling me how many sales a 'new' wedding shop averages a week in your experience? Opinion seems to differ on this, although obviously we know this will depend on a number of factors.

When you say 'no money in it' do you mean that the profit margins are lwoer or just you do not think anyone will buy?

I do appreciate that brides want the dream but in these still unstable economical times and with wedding costs and dreams ever spiralling I think brides are starting to get a little more wary of how they spend their money. As you point out though the chasing the dream may result in brand new designer dresses. I know as a bride to be myself this is exactly the sort of dress shop I would have used.

The aim is to keep it boutique feeling, nice spacious changing rooms, good friendly service, plenty of time to look, glass of wine and relaxed atmosphere. Do you not think if the shop acted in the same way as other bridal shops (and possibly beat some of our local ones on service) then brides would be swayed with that? (and 50% off their dresses!)

We did consider bridesmaids etc but we thought it would be unlikely we could match sizes and colours to the brides requirements with preloved dresses.

I really appreciate you (and everyone else) taking the time to give some feedback.

Kate x

I was going to say like Starstruck that if there was a market for this it would already be on every high street. My frined has a dress shop and throws away dresses that were samples and once ceaned are perfectly good because she literally can't give them away. Also as you will only have the dresses you are selling they may get tried on many times, get damaged need cleaning more than once so you would have to allow for that. What would you do if a dress was really badly damaged would you not pay out, I can't imagine being able to insure against wear and tear. Have a trip round some charity shops see how they do with 2nd hand wedding dresses. In theory a good idea but vwery risky I think.

As all the others have said if there was a market for it then they would be everywhere. I think most Brides looking for used or preloved dresses tend to go to Ebay for them. Most Charity shops carry Bridal dresses and I think they would get a better bargain than 50% of the designers price. I know in Clifton (Bristol) which is a very wealthy area they have Charity shops selling designer wedding dresses for a snip of the price.

There is a warehouse near me and they have a lot of second hand/last in season/catwalk show dresses for a fraction of the price and I think they are a good idea. They didn't do appointments so you try your luck when you get there. I do like the idea of the glass of wine - I was very disappointed when I didn't get a glass when I chose my dress Serves me right for watching friends!!

ETA - I have a dress that you can have if you want, i decided to go for a different one and have been trying to sell it on preloved for months Drop me a message on jaimie cameron @ hotmail , com if you would like to see pictures.

Missbowjangles - you have mail

My loooong observations on your plan from being a B2B...

...people buy a sample dress for approximately half the price and this has been used / tried on by many people. Personally if I had a choice of a Worn once dress or an ex-Sample I would take the pre-loved one anyday!

..Saying that as a B2B I wouldn't be prepared to be parted from my dress after the wedding for only 25% of the price I paid for it. Even on an expensive designed dress your talking £400 max and IMO my dress is worth more. I personally therefore think that getting the dresses in would be the biggest challenge.

I am an accountant and experience tells me that this kind of business would be prone to cashflow problems. I am thinking that a bride doesn't usually go to one shop, see the dress and buy it - its a month long + process for some people. I think if you've cash behind you so that you could have a good collection to begin with and not worry about the sales for at least 3 months, it might be a go-er.

Also need to consider the seasonality of the business - everyone knows there is a wedding seasion and busier times in dress shops so you need to keep you cashflow as low as possible.

My suggestion would be to pay people selling their dresses a "retainer" if you can't pay them up front - this would be more attractive. Eg: £50 up front if possible? I am thinking

If you were local to me i would have gone to your store. But i would be a little worried about you having my wedding dress fro six months and it might not even sell. What would you do if it got damaged from all the brides trying it on etc...?

There is a shop near me which sells pre loved dresses. This is it: https://bridesdressrevisited.com/

I didn't actually go to it as they list their stock online and there was nothing I really liked. But saying that if I had found the dress of my dreams and thought it was too expensive I would look for it 2nd hand.

Good luck with your venture!