There is a high demand for the particular product I want to sell, but it's hard to for Australians to find these products in stores, and in order to find one of these products you have to flick through page after page of the manufacturers websites. In my experience, the manufacturer's websites gave me false information and the stores they listed as resellers simply don't stock their products or know anything about their products. Some of these manufacturers do ship directly to Australia though.
There is a need for such a website. I know because I have been searching the web for months to get solid prices on these products but the information is just either not available, or scattered all over the place.
The idea I have for a site is very simple. It should have a very simple range of products with simple information about these products for comparison. The customer should be able to get quick, clear prices including shipping. The products will range from about $500-$1000 AUD.
The catch is that I don't have a warehouse and I don't want to take the risk of buying a bunch of stock and not being able to sell it. I want to on sell what the manufacturers are already selling.
The need for the website exists, but the question is how to turn this in to a viable business model. So, my question is, what is the standard practice here?
Is it common to come to some agreement with the manufacturer so that they ship the product directly to the customer and I get a small cut?
Is it common (or even legal) to take an order for a product, and then simply buy that product from the manufacturer and have it shipped over?
I want to sell products from several competing manufacturers, but I will potentially have things like reviews on the website. How can I negotiate something with the manufacturers so that they don't revoke any agreements in future based on negative feedback etc?