Posts Tagged ‘ecommerce’
Who Has The Largest Retail Location In The World? The Internet, That’s Who!
August 13th, 2010 | 
Author:
We often hear about the many thousands of locations where you can find a Wal-Mart, or a Target, or even the remaining K-Marts. But none of these retail giants can even come close to the Internet. I remember when many of us first got online circa 1997. There were only 17% of Americans online and most countries around the world had barely even heard of the World Wide Web. Within a few short years, Amazon-com had become the biggest bookstore in history with literally millions of books at their fingertips. eBay became the largest retail operation in history and the biggest retail business in the world. But those giant retailers that the media always points to aren’t the real story. From day one, the Internet was about offering people everywhere access to products, services, and ideas from everywhere else. The Net was about customizing. Instead of going to Wal-Mart and choosing one of the three products they offered in the category of your choosing, you are able to go online and choose from just as many products as exist. Take something like jewelry. Wal-Mart (and I only use them as an example because they’re in practically every community in America) offers a jewelry area with several hundred items. The Internet gives you quick access to literally MILLIONS of jewelry items. And because most online stores are largely virtual, their costs are extremely low. That means while a discount retail store discounts products 20% or 30%, an online store can discount 40% to 70% and more. And they don’t just do that during special sales — online retailers give those kinds of savings every day. There was a time when people thought they couldn’t judge a product unless they could hold it in their hand. But today, high resolution photographs, experiences provided by other shoppers, independent reviews, and more give shoppers a better chance than ever to find exactly the item they need — AND have total trust that the item will work perfectly for them. So give yourself a fun online shopping spree today. You’ll get products your neighbors can’t find locally, you’ll get those products at amazingly low prices, and you can do it all without leaving the comfort of your home or office.
Related posts
Increasing Your Profits Through Buying Groups – Strength In Numbers
Why Join a Buying Group? Because wholesalers give pricing breaks to customers who buy in large volumes, small businesses are at a disadvantage. They usually can’t afford to purchase in huge quantities like the larger vendors. So many small businesses are turning to buying groups to level the playing field and allow them to compete with bigger sellers. Attorney Harry B. Ray, of http://BuyingGroups.com, explains, “A buying group is a group of businesses in the same industry who combine their purchasing power to negotiate better prices and terms from the vendors.” Buying groups can potentially do a lot for your small business: • Because you’re buying in larger quantities, you get pricing breaks that enable you to be more competitive. • With the combined buying power of your group, you can meet enormous purchase minimums you could never afford on your own. • You get better payment and freight terms. With certain-sized orders, wholesalers will even waive the freight altogether. How Do They Work? There are different buying group models, but two are the most common: • The democratic model — everyone owns an equal share in this type of group. Ray asserts, “This is a good model for a new group because you get instant loyalty from the members if they feel like they own the group. They’ll more likely contribute their time and effort to make the group successful and certainly be more willing to put money into the group to make it work.” In this model, everyone has a say in everything — vendor selection, product selection, group policy, etc. The manufacturer rebates are divided equally among the members. • The benevolent dictatorship model — here, one person, or several people, start the group and own it. An advantage of this model is that it allows decisions to be made quickly. The other members are like subscribers: they get the advantages of belonging to the group, but have no say in the way things are run. The owners can also elect to keep the rebates themselves, or they can keep back a percentage and pass the rest on to the group. What’s Their Financial Structure? Buying groups often use their manufacturer rebates to pay their operating expenses, and divide the remainder among themselves. Since the rebates are found money — money the members wouldn’t have anyway — no one misses them or minds using them to cover business overhead. They also charge a fee to join and participate in their benefits, as well as membership dues. Most buying groups just break even on their investment — their purpose is saving money, not making it. Whether or not you expect to make money is one of the primary factors in deciding how to structure your group. A C-Corp and an LLC (limited liability company) are the most common legal structures for a buying group and generally the most practical. If you’re starting a new group, make sure you talk with your attorney about which one is right for you.
Related posts
Posted in About Internet | 
Tags: distributors, EBAY, ebiz, ecommerce, estore, home ebiz, online store, products, sell, wholesale, wholesalers | 
No Comments »
How EBay PowerSellers Source Products – A PowerSeller Shares His Secrets
If you want to know how to succeed at something, it’s a good idea to talk to someone who already has. Renowned eBay PowerSeller Skip McGrath offers some helpful insights on how you can find product sources for your online business. Once you’ve determined what you’re selling — where do you go to get the goods? Sourcing with a Pro According to McGrath, one of the best sources for products is local distributors because they’re easy to find. Go to http://smartpages.com and you can search by type. Just enter the word “wholesale” and your zip code and you’ll get a list of manufacturers and wholesalers within 100 miles of that zip code. And under the company name, you’ll see the kind of products they carry. For traditional wholesale suppliers, like gift and merchandise manufacturers and overstock distributors, McGrath recommends several online sources: • http://Liquidxs.com helps you find surplus branded merchandise and collectibles • http://Liquidation.com sells goods by the pallet load • http://SurplusSourcing.com offers closeout items at steep discounts BEFORE you use any company, research them to make sure they are genuine wholesalers and not middlemen. States McGrath, “The rule in wholesaling is the closer you can get to the manufacturer of a product, the better your price is going to be.” If you don’t have time to do the research, check out OneSource at http://WorldwideBrands.com for genuine, pre-qualified wholesalers who will work with E-Biz owners, or try the wholesale search engine at http://SkipMcGrath.com. Alternative Sources Nearly every medium and large city in the U.S. has a merchandise mart or gift mart. They’re like indoor malls where product manufacturers have their showrooms. You can see the products and pricing and place orders. Once you’ve registered at a mart in person, some even have online sites where you can shop the market. These marts aren’t open to the public, and neither are the tradeshows that come to your area. So to get in, you’ll need the following: • A sales tax number or a resale certificate • A business card or letterhead that shows you’re a company • A commercial checking account — they may want to see a check in the business name The good news is once you’re registered with these marts, you’ll likely get an invitation and tickets in the mail when tradeshows come to your area — which saves you the trouble of registering for those. Close to Home A rather surprising source of resale merchandise is eBay itself. McGrath confides, “On eBay and all of the other online auction sites out there you can often find tremendous bargains.” Sometimes other sellers don’t recognize the value of their goods, or they don’t photograph them well or write a good title or description. If you know your product market and take the time to present it well, you can turn over some amazing deals in your own backyard.
Related posts
Posted in web |
Tags: AUCTION, EBAY, ebiz, ecommerce, estore, home ebiz, internet store, online store, products, sell, wholesalers |
No Comments »
Questions To Ask A Potential Web Designer
For an individual or a corporate to get due recognition and develop their business, they will need to let others know of their existence and what they do. This is possible either through PR activities or by creating a well planned out website. For a website, seeking the professional guidance is the ideal solution and some questions that needs to be asked of the potential web designer could be : 1. Experience How many years has the web designer been in this line of work? This will give an idea about aware he or she is of current advancements in the field, such as Ajax, table-less layouts and Web 2.0 design styles. 2. Samples of their past work What are the sites they have created? Ask them for samples or URLs that you can take a look at to build confidence in their capabilities. Look for designs that are stylistically similar to what you have in your head. Even better, ask if the designer has ever done work in your particular industry. 3. Industry exposure What kind of industries have they been involved with? Who are their clients? This is so you can judge their ability to understand your industry and create a site that will suit your needs. 4. After sales service What kind of service do they offer clients once the site is up and running? Do they help in updating it if any changes need be made or in acquiring more web space and so on? 5. Visibility through search engines Do they help in getting your company website listed in search engines or provide a full search engine marketing service? Having a pretty website is all very well, but you need people to visit it. Ask the designers if this is something they have practical experience with. 6. Copyright and security issues Will they make sure that the data and images used on the site are copyrighted and protected so others cannot copy them? And the security settings which will be useful while monitoring the traffic. Also, try to ensure that you have details of where they have licensed images and photographs from. This may save you problems in the future. 7. Duration How much time will they require to do the design, layout, and upload the same? This will give you good insight into whether they are efficient or not. A good web designer should not take more than a month, but this also depends on the time dedicated by the client. 8. Fees and charges While hosting your site on a domain, you need to pay registration charges which will be a one time payment. What will the overall cost in designing a website, with say a minimum of about 5 pages and couple of interactive links? The base charges levied for such a site would be around Ј300-Ј500 and every additional page will be an extra charge. Does the designer’s fee include designing, editing, and installing required software? 9. Links and Animation Do they also help incorporating links to other sites through this and putting in flash animation videos or pictures? 10. Online shopping carts For companies looking to sell products and services online, check the designer’s portfolio for examples of real, working ecommerce websites. 11. Ownership Who will own the design, logo, and images that have been used on the site? Make sure to let them know you will be the sole owner so that you can move the site to another host if necessary.
Related posts
Posted in Site Development |
Tags: design, ecommerce, web design, web designers, website |
No Comments »
Integrating A Website With Your Business
It has been one of my continual themes when talking with clients about their websites that their site needs to serve their business. When I work with a client, I look at their website as an extension of their business model. I take a look at their overall business and evaluate: * How do they make their money? * Who is their public or target audience? * How can their public be promoted to? * How can the web be used to help automate their business? I’ll listen to what they want to achieve with their website and then recommend options to help that website achieve the points above: making money, automate and promote to their target audience. Anybody looking to put up a website for business purposes needs to look at this. Too many business sites are very poorly thought out and underutilized. A good website is a lot more than good design. A good design and some content means only that a website is acting as a glorified brochure. Its better than nothing and any business today which does not at least have that really needs to get on the ball. However, beyond design, you can look at how the site will achieve the points above. Now, a business which is all web-based is very straight-forward in this department. A web-based business is going to want to collect payments from customers via the web, so we’re going to want a secure payment system on that website. We also want that website to be well-designed so that it does not confuse people and attracts the customers’ eyes to those things which make the business money. We’re also going to want to discuss how the web can be used to promote. A business which is not web-based would want to consider what they can provide on the web to extend their business. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses may have a storefront or may need to deal with clients in person, but what can they do on the web to extend their reach? Promotion is paramount to success in business and on the web. A website can perform any of many promotional tasks such as: * Collecting sales leads by asking visitors to fill out a form. Perhaps give them some free, valuable content in exchange for their information. * Collecting email addresses for use on a mailing list * Auto-responders sending targeted emails automatically based on customer’s indicated interests on a form * Providing metrics on customer interest using landing pages and keyword advertising * Running polls and surveys to find out what your potential customers want * Running free articles which educate your customers on the subject matter of your business and get them interested. A website is a footprint on the internet which is viewable worldwide. Depending on the nature of your business, visitors located well away from you may not be that useful in terms of potential clientele. However, there is no reason why you cannot still gather information from them to use with your local clientele. After all, if they arrived to your website, they were interested enough to come. They are a public for you regardless of their location. Perhaps you can even find a way to change your business model to include these people which are not located locally to your business. In terms of automation, keep something in mind. A web server is simply a computer. Computers are great at doing repetitive tasks that humans either hate or would find a huge waste of time. For this reason, it is always a good idea to look over those business functions which are repetitive and see if your website can serve to make your life easier. For example: * Sending your email newsletters could easily be done using your web server. Click a button and email your entire mailing list. Easy. * Auto-responders can take care of automatically emailing your customers relevant information at regular intervals. * Automatically compile sales statistics and email them to you each morning (if you do web sales) * Export sales transactions directly into your accounting software to avoid typing them all in manually. There are a number of ways a web server can be used to serve a very real business function and actually do some of the work for you. A lot of this comes under the heading of programming. Design is design, however making the site actually DO something means it has to be programmed. So, if you are skilled in this area, you can do it yourself. Or perhaps you can hire it out to somebody. Before any of that, though, look over your entire business and the website you have and see how it can be utilized to make your business easier to manage or actually drive in business. Unless your website is personal in nature, then it is through the lens of business that your site needs to be evaluated.
Related posts
Posted in About Internet |
Tags: Business, design, development, ecommerce, Internet, multimedia, video, website |
No Comments »
Everybody’s Doing It: 5 Reasons You Should Have An EBay Store
Testing the Waters If you’ve ever dreamed of quitting your job and going into business for yourself, you may have considered online retail. But opening your own web site is quite an undertaking — you’ll need to acquire a domain name, integrate shopping cart software, design your web pages, optimize your copy, and the list goes on. And all those services will cost you money up front, which means you’ll need to have some capital set aside. So before you tell your boss what you really think of his toupee, you may want to consider trying a somewhat simpler option first — the eBay store. Running an eBay store is a great way to get a feel for whether or not selling online suits you. It’s a simple entry point that lets you test the waters, without committing a lot of your money or time. The cost is only $16.95 a month and the first thirty days are free — a pretty safe investment. 5 Benefits to Choosing EBay EBay takes care of much of the busywork associated with running an E-Biz . There are numerous advantages to starting an eBay store before creating your own web site: • EBay hosts your site, provides you with a URL, a shopping cart, and an easy-to-use tool that lets you quickly design an attractive storefront. • EBay takes care of search engine optimization for you — making sure that you’ll be listed with the major search engines, as well as the minor engines they feed. • When you start an eBay store, you have an immediate presence online — from Day One, you have 170 million customers. • EBay provides an 800 number with live support. • EBay offers workshops, at no extra cost, on how to implement the various tools they offer. 3 EBay Tools You Should Be Using EBay even offers built in channels for growing your business. Janelle Elms (http://JanelleElms.com), successful e-business author and lead instructor for eBay University, tells, “What amazes me is how many sellers are not taking advantage of all the amazing tools that eBay gives you for that $16 each month.” She quickly lists a few of eBay’s biggest untapped resources: • An opt-in newsletter to keep your eBay store in front of your customers. A series of clicks and pull down menus, and your newsletter is ready to go in a matter of minutes. A simple source to keep your customers coming back, but many people don’t even realize that option is available to them. • RSS Feeds (Really Simple Syndication). Once you turn this button on, all your buyers have to do is click on it, and every time you put new products in your store or up for auction, they’ll get an update telling them what you’ve added. Says Elms, “An RSS Feed is basically a legal version of a pop-up ad.” • Printable brochures of your eBay store to send out with every package to show your customers what else you offer and to remind them to shop with you again. EBay stores are user-friendly — anyone can run one. In addition to being a great proving ground for your online retail skills, you may find it to be a very profitable enterprise in and of itself.
Related posts
Posted in web |
Tags: AUCTION, EBAY, ebiz, ecommerce, estore, Home Based Business, home ebiz, Internet, online store, products, sell |
No Comments »
How To Prevent Fraud On EBay! – 4 Signs To Watch For
Of the millions of transactions that transpire on eBay each day, only an infinitesimally small percentage are fraudulent. However, even that small percentage means that fraud does still occur. How do you, as a seller, avoid becoming the victim of a scam? By recognizing common signs of fraud: 1. “Phishing” expeditions. According to eBay guru Skip McGath (http://SkipMcGrath.com), “phishers” send out mass emails, posing as eBay, or any company, and asking the recipient to confirm their password, which they use to hijack their account. • Advises McGrath, “Any email that’s really from eBay will be on your My eBay page under your My Messages, NOT in your inbox.” • Always log into eBay — or any password protected site — by going to the site from your favorites bar, or by typing in the URL yourself. Never log in on a page you opened through an email link. No matter how authentic the page looks, there’s a good chance you’ve been redirected to a phony site. 2. Unauthorized suppliers. You need to verify your suppliers — not everyone that claims to be selling wholesale products is legitimate. • If someone claims to be selling you wholesale items, but doesn’t require your Tax ID number, they’re not legitimate. • If you see a drop ship site with name brand logos plastered everywhere, they’re very likely NOT an authorized dealer — accounts with large brand companies are extremely difficult to establish, and the logos are copyrighted material. • If you’re using a new supplier, start out with a very small order to test their service and examine their products. If you find they’re fakes, you’ve learned your lesson at a minimal cost. 3. Counterfeit cashier’s checks and money orders. Be particularly careful with international buyers who need you to send an expensive item to an “agent” along with an exorbitant fee. • Before you send out a buyer’s item, or forward any “agent’s fees” from their check, take that check to your bank and have them call the issuing bank and verify the check is good. If it’s not, you’ve saved yourself a lot of money. And if they tell you it’s good and turn out to be wrong, you aren’t the one taking the loss. 4. Sites or auctions that don’t accept PayPal or credit cards. • PayPal performs very thorough background checks and is committed to going after perpetrators of fraud; and credit cards let you file charge backs. • If a supplier insists on being paid with a cashier’s check or money order, that may be an indicator that they’re not a good product source. Don’t let a few dishonest people scare you off of eBay altogether. There are plenty of genuine suppliers there, and not every user is trying to cheat you. You just need to be aware of what’s out there, and proceed with caution. The vast majority of transactions that happen on eBay are completely above-board: it’s one of the safest eCommerce platforms around. Assures McGrath, “You can buy $10,000 Breitling watches on eBay that are perfectly legitimate. Just take those steps, and make sure you know who you’re buying from.”
Related posts
Posted in Internet |
Tags: AUCTION, distributors, EBAY, ebiz, ecommerce, home business, Internet, online safety, online store, wholesale |
No Comments »