Roast my Idea - Wrap & Bow (x-posted to Entrepreneur

[bonita24]

Hey folks,

My wife and I came up with an idea last night and wanted to see if some of you more experienced entrepreneurs could offer up some advice. I've posted this on r/entrepreneur , but haven't received a bunch of feedback so I figured I'd try posting here.

With the holiday's upon us, one of my wife's favorite activities is wrapping gifts (yeah, she's kind of weird). She loves wrapping and wanted to try to turn her passion into some spare cash for the holiday's and perhaps beyond. Most people hate wrapping gifts.

We also happened to watch a news story a few days ago and noticed that lots of people in our community are getting packages stolen off their porches at a pretty alarming rate. PO boxes are rather inconvenient since they usually come with a 3 month commitment and are only open during normal business hours (8-6) and waiting at the post office is a hassle.

Lastly, who likes having kids/ S.O.'s snooping around for gifts?

So far we've identified 3 problems.

• People hate wrapping gifts or don’t have the time/ energy to do it until the last minute. How many kids get unwrapped gifts from Santa?
• Most people can't be home to accept deliveries that could get stolen if left unattended and PO boxes are a pain to deal with.
• Keeping gifts secret from prying eyes

So we've come up with a solution - Wrap & Bow.

Wrap & Bow takes the stress out of the holidays. Shopping for Christmas gifts is always fun, but what about the wrapping part or worrying about packages getting stolen? Not so much fun... It's difficult to juggle home, family, work and still find time to make sure your packages get delivered safely and wrap the gifts you're sharing this holiday season. No stress, no mess. Let Wrap & Bow do the work for you.

So I bet you’re wondering how Wrap & Bow works.

• Buy an item online and have it shipped to our PO Box. No more worrying if you'll get home in time before some Grinch comes to take away Christmas. You send us the shipping info and we track it for you.
• Buying gifts at the store, no problem. We can meet you and pick it up for storage, wrapping, and delivery at a later date.
• We contact you when the item is received. With your permission we open up the box and inspect the contents. Everything is verified and photographed for you. We’ll even handle returns if the wrong items are received.
• If gift wrapping is desired, we’ll wrap the gifts based on your selection from our wide array of designs, tags, and themes. We can do anything from basic wrapping jobs to elaborate themes. Pricing based on size.
• We store your gifts in a secure facility until you’re ready to take delivery.
• We’ll deliver your wrapped/ unwrapped gifts in especially designed Santa Sack up until Christmas morning (limited appointments available).

Proposed pricing is as follows:

Small: $3.00 Examples: iPod, cell phone, most jewelry/watch boxes Deluxe Themes + $1.00 and up

Medium: $5.00 Examples: iPad and tablets, shirt box, journals, hard-bound books Deluxe Themes + $2.00 and up

Large: $8.00 Examples: large clothing boxes, medium kitchen appliances, shoe boxes. Deluxe Themes + $3.00 and up

Extra Large: $12.00 Example: anything greater than 11x17x8 Deluxe Themes + $4.00 and up

Deliver/ Storage Fees (10 - 15 Items) :
Nov 27 – Dec 17: Pick-up/ Delivery of gift(s): $15.00

Dec 18 – 23: Pick-up/ Delivery of gift(s): $25.00

Dec 24 / 25: Delivery of gift(s): $35.00

Storage Only (You Pick Up): $10.00

We have 3 SUV's, and we're going to have a delivery schedule set-up (still working out the bugs on my scheduling app) and notify our clients via text message when we are 15 - 20 mins away from their home. Our monthly fuel bill is about $120, so we anticipate that to go up a little for the 4 week delivery window we have planned.

So what do you guys think?

We plan on launching this week to our friends, family, and co-workers this week and getting our website up for our local area.

What pitfalls do you see that we haven't though of yet?

Since it's enviably going to be asked.
Our total cost for doing this is as such:

Website with hosting: $15 bucks.
Planning on putting together a simple site with a description of our services, our service area, contact form, and billing page.

Small storage unit with 24/7 access and security gate: $35/ month rental.

PO Box - $30 a year.

Wrapping paper- Bought about 40 rolls after last Christmas. Like I said my wife is weird.

Her inspiration - Shitty Amazon Gift Wrapping, this Gift wrap options from 27 online retailers, and this

 

[nathan12]

@bonita24 I like the idea but even with the pictures, I would have a hard time trusting you. I wouldn't want my wife to open an empty box on Christmas!

 

[meganbaker1984]

@nathan12 Agreed, while it seems like this would likely make sense for friends/family/coworkers, I think it might be difficult to convince total strangers to hand over multiple $200-$1000 items until the holidays. Additionally, how will you deal with people who may attempt to scam you, such as those who hand over a box they want wrapped and then later claim the item inside was swapped/stolen?

I don't think there is a huge upside ($15-$50 per customer) to deal with the hassle involved in the trust issues as well as inevitable delivery/pickup problems. What happens when someone wants to pick up their items rather than paying your fee to deliver? Do you meet them in a parking lot somewhere? I would not hand over a $25 doll to some stranger in a parking lot, much less a $500 iPad. If you meet them at your home or the storage locker then that runs the risk of possible (however unlikely) theft issues. Even if you don't meet people at the storage facility, thefts at these places do occasionally happen; how will you handle the loss of thousands of dollars of other people's goods?

I would suggest trying it out this year with friends/family as you said; if it is a hit, then consider branching out next year, but I think you will have issues with strangers without a dedicated physical location.

Best of luck to you.

 

[godspell]

@bonita24 From a business standpoint - it's seasonal - so let me know if you can expand it to other holidays or gift baskets.

 

[sujiro]

@bonita24 Give it a shot!
Maybe see if you can get some businesses on board with you. Give them some pamphlets with a form inside for customers to fill out (or a weblink) People can buy gifts and leave them at the store and you can collect, wrap and deliver them.