MartialArtsMart.com Questions

[Lisa]

For one of my college classes I have to put together a hypothetical business plan, and I've chosen to do an online martial arts supply store. I have a few questions about it, and figured you'd be good people to ask...

1. What are your slowest and busiest times of the year?

2. Has business increased or decreased in recent years?

3. Which weapons are prohibited in Canada?

4. Which weapons account for more of your sales- the more common weapons (dao, gim, staff, etc.), or exotic weapons (like these things: http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/4547.html)?

Any information you could give me would be very helpful. Thanks.

Lisa

[GeneChing]

But FWIW, this is my third job selling swords, so I'll field my humble opinion and Margie can correct me for www.martialartsmart.com

1. Busiest is Dec & Jan. Dec for the holidays, and Jan for everyone who didn't get what they want over the holidays. Slowest is usually around April, probably due to taxes...

2. Right now, the whole economy is down, but hopefully that just post 9/11 fallout. When you factor out the ecomony, Internet sales dramatically increased without any decrease in phone or mail order. So the technology found us some new buyers, and has been especially kind to knitche markets like martial arts. The downside is that it increased "drop shippers" - people who have no "brick and mortar" store and just act as online salesman. That reduced the overall quality of customer service while lowering the competitive prices, so everything went down in quality a notch. The big companies eventually excelled since we could offer that service, but it still had a negative impact overall on the market and the martial community. In the long run, drop shippers do more harm than good.

3. Pretty much everything is prohibited in Canada. Can't even send a staff there sometimes. If you mark it as sports equipment, it betters your odds, but you couldn't even get a sweat band across if it said martial arts equipment. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but Canada is tough.

4. Common weapons. Mostly
nunchuks (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/nunchaku.html) and there illegal in many states here. The exotics are just for fun, but they don't sell that well. There are a few exceptions of course, like these (http://store.yahoo.com/martialartsmart/45-78.html) do well, but so few people practice the exotics that they are quite a luxury, really.

Good luck with your report. If you wind up actually setting up a store, you'll have to let us introduce to our parent wholesale company - www.tigerclaw.com ;)

[Hau Tien]

Originally posted by GeneChing
3. Pretty much everything is prohibited in Canada. Can't even send a staff there sometimes. If you mark it as sports equipment, it betters your odds, but you couldn't even get a sweat band across if it said martial arts equipment. OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but Canada is tough.


Odd... when I came back from Taiwan, I had mailed my gim back to avoid trouble with the airlines. I labelled it as "Martial Arts Training Apparatus". Didn't have any trouble at all with it.

Likely just depends on who is checking the packages at any given time.

Do you know of any references to check to see a list of "illegal" or prohibited weapons in Canada? A search both myself and Lisa did resulted only in:

Prohibited Weapons:
a) Any knife with a blade that opens via gravity or with a spring (IE: balisong or switchblade)
b) Any prohibited weapon

Heh... not that helpful:)

[Lisa]

Thanks, Gene!

[GeneChing]

At my previous company, we had staffs stopped at the border and returned. That was a while ago. But I'm not directly involved with shipping anymore, so Margie would be better suited to answer that one (if she can ever get off the phone with all those eager customers...)

[M_ArtsMargie]

Gene****you are pretty much right.

Lisa***Canada weapons that are illegal are the nunchukus, ninja/sharpened items, manriki keychains. It is harder to get items that are made in china to get past customs. If the item is for training purposes, then we can send it. But the customer has to have a business license/martial art school in order to order it. A regular retailer, such as myself, would not be able to purchase illegal items.

GOOD LUCK

[Lisa]

Thanks a lot. My business plan is coming together quite nicely, for the most part. My biggest problem right now is the financial part of it. I have to come up with start-up costs, and a projection of revenues and expenses for the first year. The only thing that's giving me trouble for costs is inventory. As for revenues, I have no idea where to start.

Again, thanks. You've been a big help.:)

Lisa

[Lucas]

I have not ordered gongfu pants through martial arts mart before so i'm asking for opinion on what would serve me better. I cant tell if both of these have extra room in the crotchal area...cuz i need it...ahem. :cool: also are they of the same grade cotton, or are the standard ones more durable? I'd like to support the forum sponsor so I want to order these here

Standard black cotton pants
http://www.martialartsmart.com/11-17.html

Light weight pants
http://www.martialartsmart.com/l11-17.html

or perhaps i would be better served with elite cotton?
http://www.martialartsmart.com/11-85kp.html

[GeneChing]

First off, the lightweights (http://www.martialartsmart.com/l11-17.html) are not cotton. They are man-made cotton - a popular Chinese synthetic material. These are good for the hot summer months and very inexpensive. And they have a pocket.

My personal recommendation is for our standard Kung Fu pants (http://www.martialartsmart.com/11-17.html). This is what I wear to practice. The cotton softens up nicely after a few washes. They are durable - it takes me some time to go through a pair and I use them constantly. It's actually one of my favorite products, as they've served me very well for years.

As for the Elites (http://www.martialartsmart.com/11-85kp.html), to be honest, I've never used them so I don't have that much of a personal opinion on these. They are popular with the Karate folk as these don't blouse at the ankles. Diamondback weave was all the rage a few years back. It reminds me of ripstop materials.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Your size charts suck !
Seriously.
Who the hell is:
5-5" and 125lbs ?? other than a woman ?

[Lucas]

Cool, thanks Gene, that was very helpful!! I'm going to start teaching my girlfriend kung fu so I'm looking at getting some pads from MAM too! I'm liking the discounts I'm seeing. Wish I could make it down to the clear out sale :(

any idea on how long that 30% will last on the clap target?

[GeneChing]

Strangely, we don't get that many complaints on our size charts. The most size complaints we get are that we don't offer sizes XXXXXL sizes for a lot of items.

L: I don't know how long the sales will last. So not my department.

[Lucas]

okay cool. i better buy sooner rather than later just to be sure i get the discount.

[Featherstone]

but the gear is good! Recently bought a kf uniform, hot for the summer but good none the less!

[Lucas]

the size chart is just there to make me feel like a super beefcake of manly manliness!