Getting In On The Custom Computer And Accessory Market
The loss of Radio Shack--both in their change to a cell phone kiosk and their actual bankruptcy--as a mainstay of hobbyists is painful, but some areas never had a custom electronics and parts center in the first place. There's a market ripe for tapping, as general use computers become more boring and the desire to become more technically skilled rises with computer gaming, 3D printing, graphic design, and many other hobbies and career paths too difficult for standard computers. To slowly explore your market while leaving an opportunity to escape and expand at the same time, here are a few computer parts to request from electronics wholesalers.
The Right Here, Right Now Factor
The key to testing an unexplored computer building market is offering low cost options on the sales floor, but offering the ability to special order the more expensive components.
At first glance, many internet and tech-savvy hobbyists and professionals will balk at the idea because of how easy it is to get products from the internet. It's true; online retailed make it easy to grab what you need either in 2 days, a single or same day with extra payment, or within a week. What isn't being considered is the still strong "I need it now!" mentality factor.
What happens when a person's hard drive fails, but they need to finish working on a paper or get back into a live session? When an electrical storm strikes and a power supply fails, how do you get different components in place to figure out what went wrong?
Cheap parts as soon as possible is the answer for many people. One of the growing pains of maintaining a custom computer for any purpose is replacing custom parts, and when a catastrophic failure such as electrical overload, static shock, water damage, or heavy impact may have damaged multiple parts, it's easier to throw in a few cheap parts to figure out what needs to be replaced.
Just be sure to have a good refund policy to make sure customers are understanding and comfortable with keeping these lower cost parts until they can save up for an upgrade, which you can provide. Layaway isn't dead yet!
Core, Low Cost-Entry Computer Building Supplies
Offering low cost parts is great, but what parts are most likely to sell? Which parts are likely to be picked up on a whim when a techie has some extra money to spend on more power or a special project?
Storage drives are a great entry point, because they're used for failure replacement and growth. In addition to replacing failed drives, many computer users who either download way too many movies and games or want redundancy for important files will need an extra hard drive or two.
Another failure risk and replacement piece is the power supply, but this one is tricky. Power supplies don't actually fail often unless there's major electrical infrastructure problems. Unless you live in an area with constant electrical storms and a population that refuses to use surge protectors, keep power supplies at a lower stock, pretty much for upgrades and new builds alone.
Motherboards are just above power supplies, since they can fail if a damaging electrical load somehow gets through the power supply. Motherboards are key when it comes to troubleshooting, as many skilled troubleshooters will want to "milk crate" or "cardboard build" their troubled computers by connecting everything to a motherboard that isn't bolted down yet.
Contact an electronics wholesaler to discuss delivery of custom computer parts to serve your area's need for tech growth.