Hi, I live in Chiang Mai and run hill tribe tours together with my husband. I am thinking of adding another stream of income by selling textiles/accessories/bags online. I know some expats have made a living through selling online (ie; via ebay, independent online shop, Etsy), I wonder if any of you have had experience doing this, and could share your experience or have any advice/tips? How does one go about doing this? Is it even a profitable/viable option?

Any advice much appreciated

It appears to me that the market is saturated. Just do a search and you will see that hundreds if not thousands of people, both Thai and farang, are selling textiles/accessories/bags on-line from Chiang Mai. Some of the websites allow you to see how many pcs. have been sold and when. Some have not had a sale in months. I would look for something that has not already been done to death.

Just my 2 satang worth...

I know a few people that tried,but returns, shipping costs, ebay fees etc. pretty much quashed that business after a few months.

One thing I have noticed is many other countries balk at buying online from Thailand or even China based companies.

So to that end if for instance your target was the USA & you want to use Ebay etc...

Have a US based family member or partner & stock them with some start up inventory.

Then when selling on Ebay you can say ships from USA & that tends to get more customers.

Like it or not folks are still wary of buying from such a distance that delivery could take weeks.

If they want faster the cost is too high for them. Same as if you offer it yourself...it would eat into your profit too much.

Better to ship some bulk ahead of sales time to your intermediary in the country or countries you intend to mainly sell in

Specialize in niche items, not easily found or items that are made for a specific application.