Posts Tagged ‘drop shipper’

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Struggling to Find and Manage Products You Want to Sell?

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Are you wanting to sell products online to make extra income?  Are you struggling to find wholesalers who will sell to an online store?  When you find a wholesaler and the products you want to sell, are you struggling to organize the information and get back to it quickly when you need it?  What can you do to drastically reduce the time it takes to assemble product information and then make sense of it?

To sell products successfully online, you need some critical information for each product:
1. Market and product research information
2. Current Demand
3. Current Supply
4. Current competition
5. Competitive pricing in eBay Auctions
6. Competitive pricing in major Retail (Amazon)

Once you secure the information for EACH product you want to sell, you need to sort it and track it different ways. It’s a major task to try to set this up on Excel Worksheets. That’s why the team at www.worldwidebrands.com has developed a unique Product Sourcing Tool designed to meet the needs of active online retailers. 

Research

Using a keyword, the Research Tool provides a complete Demand/Supply/Competion Picture for you in one place using simple organized tabs.  For each keyword you use to search, the tool identifies the other keywords used by browsers to find such a product.  This way you can perform multiple product searches to help identify the niche you can possibly sell into.  Your searches can be saved for later to help with trending.  There is no risk of errors trying to cut and paste or re-key information into an Excel Worksheet.

Suppliers

For each keyword search, The Product Sourcing Tool identifies qualified wholesale suppliers willing to work with online retailers and supply wholesale products to sell via Amazon, eBay, Yahoo! Stores or customized websites.  It identifies the wholesale supplier that offer products for dropshipping, light bulk, large volume & liquidation.separately.  Searches can be saved by Supplier.  Suppliers can be located by city, state or country in the tool as well, so if you want to locate a supplier in your region, you can easily locate them.   You can save your Preferred Suppliers separately - Add To My Suppliers.  You can also list suppliers that you cannot review when you see them but want to come back to them - Preferred Supplier.  It’s a fast way of finding retail wholesale relationships and identifying drop ship products.  http://www.worldwidebrands.com/pop_taketour.asp. 

Saving You Time

Time wasting for new online retailers includes:

  • Keying and emailing your company information to multiple wholesalers to request the opening of an account with those wholesalers.   The My Account section of the tool allows you to update the information once and then send an accurate, up-to-date information sheet to as many wholesalers as you need.
  • Looking for specific products you don’t find listed.  With WorldwideBrands.com, you don’t have to do the work.  Just contact info@worldwidebrands.com, tell us what product/s you need to find and we will do the research work for you and find the right wholesale supplier for you.
  • Identifying what’s new.  You can select Show Only Last 30 Added from the Tools’ Dashboard and bingo, all the latest stuff is there for your review.
  • Wasting time researching products that eventually you determine you cannot sell on eBay or Amazon anyway.  The Tool clearly identifies these in the search result before you spend any time contacting the wholesale supplier.

 

Time is of the essence when you start to develop your own online retail business.  As Product Sourcing is an ongoing requirement to keep your business fresh and alive, and growing, it’s important that you have an organized and swift method of getting product information and being able to recall quickly it any time you need it.

Visit the WorldwideBrands.com Testimonials section to hear how many others have saved time finding and managing the products they want to sell. 

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RA or RMA - “Return Authorization” or “Return Merchandise Authorization”

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

What is RA?  You need to know the wholesale term, RA or RMA.  Either refers to product returns.  RA means “Return Authorization”.   RMA means “Return Merchandise Authorization”. 

Most wholesale suppliers have a strict process you must use to return any item.  When wanting to return an item, you must contact your wholesale supplier to obtain an RA Number.   The reason for the return may affect the method of return.  The wholesale supplier may set up a UPS or FedEx, pre-paid pick up.   You must clearly mark the RA number on the outside of the return package.  Once the wholesale supplier receives the product, they will pass you a credit. 

The process is similar with wholesale drop shippers.   Your customers must contact you requesting a replacement.  You then contact your wholesale supplier to request an RA and submit a replacement order.   In some cases, the drop shipper will ship the replacement product even before they receive the damaged product.  This saves the customer having to wait for their replacement to arrive.

UPS, United Parcel Service, has some very helpful hints on handling ‘Returns.’  View this UPS video now. 

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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QOH - “Quantity on Hand”

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Here’s a wholesale term you want to watch carefully: QOH, “Quantity On Hand”. The QOH reveals the quantity of an item the wholesaler has in inventory at any given time.

Some wholesalers keep the QOH in private areas of their web site so that only their retailers can see the QOH of any item. Some wholesalers keep their online retailer interested via email. If you don’t have the QOH for each item you are selling, keep in contact with your wholesale supplier regularly to find out.

This is essential on products you drop ship. Becareful to remove a low stocked item from your Amazon listing, auctions and eBay store when your supplier’s QOH drops too close to zero. You should avoid having back-orders thus being unable to fill your customers’ orders. When you see the QOH stabilize, you know the wholesale supplier has restocked and you refresh your listings. Pay absolute attention to the QOH on hot selling items especially during the holiday season.  Back orders typically result in angry customers and negative feedback.

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

 

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MSRP - “Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price”

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

The second wholesale term to understand is MSRP.

Once  you set up an account with  a real wholesale supplier, you will receive a Dealer Price List from them.   This is a confidential price list.   The column headed:  “MSRP” refers to the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price.  This is the price that the manufacturer suggests you sell the product for.   The MSRP is intended to help you set price levels.  The MSRP is not mandatory.  Within reason, you can modify your price to compete with other sellers in your niche. 

Don’t make the mistake of being the lowest price seller.  You will start a price war where everyone ends up with no profit margin left.  This way nobody wins.  If your Dealer Price List does provide the MSRP, ask your supplier for a MSRP List.  The MSRP can be used as a quick method to see which products offer you better profit margins.

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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Drop Shipping: For Beginners, low cost and low risk.

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Drop Shipping is now a well known term with people selling online.   For Beginners, Drop Shipping provides a low cost and low risk solution.  A Beginner in online retailing, typically doesn’t have a lot of money to purchase inventory.  Drop Shipping provides a wholesale option that allows beginners to start selling without a lot of start up expense or risk.  

For some wholesale suppliers, Drop Shipping is an added service.  Most wholesalers are not set up for single item product sales.  It’s not easy to find a REAL wholesale drop shipper.  There are many websites that say they are drop shippers but so many - especially those advertising in the search engines - are some form of wholesale scam. 

Once you locate a REAL wholesale drop shipper, you will be asked to follow a process like this: 

  1. You apply for and set up an account with the drop shipper. 
  2. The drop shipper sends you product pictures and descriptions that you can use on your retail site. 
  3. A retail customer buys one of the products you have listed.
  4. You email the drop shipper and place an order for the item.
  5. The drop shipper sends the item from THEIR warehouse to YOUR customer using YOUR name and label.
  6. Your customer has already paid you the retail price.
  7. Now you pay the wholesale price to the drop shipper once they ship the product. 
  8. Without touching the item, you make a profit on the sale.

Becareful not to view drop shipping as a magic bullet.  Each time you drop ship products, you will pay a higher wholesale price than when you buy those same products in volume.  Because wholesaling is a volume business, the wholesale price you’ll pay on one item is higher than the wholesale price you’ll pay on an item in a bulk lot.  Typically, the wholesaler maintains separate warehouse space for drop ship inventory, and must pay their employees to go  into the warehouse and pick, pack and ship each individual product for you.  The drop shipper pays for shipping materials and special tracking software.  They have a number of incremental costs to be able to provide this service for you.   Your drop shipping costs will reflect that. 

Drop shipping is an excellent entry point to start selling online.  It is also a low-risk method for testing new products without having to purchase inventory that might not sell.   It’s wise to use drop shipping to identify products that sell well into your customer base.  The profits you make from your drop ship sales can be used to start buying the better-selling products in bulk.  This way you increase your profit margins, and your business grows faster. This is  how most successful online retailers get started.  It should work for you too!

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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Watch Out for a Refundable Deposit!

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Watch out for a Refundable Deposit!

Review the fees your wholesaler says they must charge you.  If you hear ‘refundable deposit’ be on the alert.  There are fees a real wholesaler will never charge.   An Account Set Up Fee and a monthly account maintenance fee, for example, are certain warnings that you are talking with a wholesale scammer, NOT a genuine wholesale supplier.

Some legitimate wholesalers may charge you a small refundable DEPOSIT on opening an account for you.  Typically this deposit gets refunded when you place your first order.  The important word here is ‘refundable’.  A one hundred dollar deposit charged when setting up your account should get refunded to you when you place your first order of at least $100 of product.

The deposit is actually a valid charge.  The wholesaler uses it as a deterent to online sellers who are not really serious about buying from the wholesaler.  Online sellers are building a reputation for being ‘Wholesale Tire Kickers’.  Many eCommerce sellers set up free accounts with multiple wholesalers BEFORE they’ve even decided what they want to sell.  Too often, online sellers never return to buy anything.  It costs the wholesaler money to open these accounts.  The deposit covers their set up costs.  Online Sellers who are not serious typically avoid opening an account that requires a deposit.  

The wholesaler isn’t pricing to make money this way.  It is merely a deterrent.   You must check that the deposit is refundable.  Typically only a Scammer requires a non-refundable account set-up fee.  Beware.  This is not a real wholesaler!

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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3 Critical Dangers of Drop Shipping (Plus a Free Gift)

Friday, May 1st, 2009

Using Drop Shippers to send products directly to your EBiz Customers from the wholesale warehouses is an extremely popular way to sell online, since there’s virtually no cost to get started. However, there are three critical dangers in Drop Shipping that will ruin your business, and you really need to know what you’re doing if you’re going to use Drop Shippers.

I’m going to give you the solutions to avoiding these and LOTS of other dangerous Drop Shipping issues absolutely FREE & I’m going to give you Drop Ship Focus for Free.

Critical Danger #1: The wholesale price of Drop Shipped products is higher than buying them in bulk (several at a time). This is because the Drop Shipper does most of the work for you (packing, shipping, etc.) and charges for that extra work. You need to learn how to price Drop Shipped products competitively in the right markets; otherwise you won’t make any sales.

Critical Danger #2: You should only be using ONE Drop Shipper per web site. If you use multiple Drop Ship suppliers on your web site, you run the very real risk of your Customers ordering products from different Drop Shippers in the same order. The danger here is that since your Customer’s products are coming from different Drop Ship wholesalers, they (or YOU) will be charged for shipping several times over. If this happens, you WILL lose the sale.

Critical Danger #3: Drop Shipping is a low cost ENTRY POINT into a successful online business, but is not meant to be a permanent solution. Most people don’t realize this, and don’t use Drop Shipping correctly in order to advance their business to more profitable stages.

So, those are three of the Critical Dangers of using Drop Shippers. There are others. Don’t despair, though; there IS hope, and plenty of it!  I’m going to show you how to avoid those dangers and many more so that you can make YOUR EBiz as profitable as possible, and put the most cash in your pocket. AND, I’m going to do it for FREE.

WorldwideBrands.com has been teaching people how to use Drop Shippers for ten years, and is considered the best in the industry. Our product “Drop Ship Focus” contains a video series about dropshipping and over 20 hours of audio interviews with experts in the eCommerce and wholesale industry.   We’ve sold it in the past for $97, but now we’re giving it away FREE.

Through this special link, for a LIMITED TIME, you can have Drop Ship Focus ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Click Here Now to get your FREE copy while you can!

DON’T FORGET - WE LOVE FEEDBACK!!!  Tell us what you think
about Drop Ship Focus or ask your drop shipping questions here!

PLEASE SHARE THE GIFT WITH FRIENDS AND COWORKERS

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Wholesale Prices are for Retailers NOT the Public

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Worldwidebrands.com’s customer support desk is frequently asked:   Can you help me see the wholesale supplier’s prices BEFORE I decide to apply for an account with them?!’ 

Wholesale prices are for Retailers NOT the Public.  Here are the two main reasons why:

  1. Wholesale suppliers compete.  They only expose their prices to people who have been approved for an account with them.   
  2. If consumers can easily determine the wholesale prices for products, they will try to squeeze retailers for unreasonable discounts.  Both the wholesaler and the retailer must make a fair profit to stay in business.   By keeping their wholesale prices confidential, wholesalers protect their retailers.  

This helps you understand why wholesalers require you to to prove that you’re a legitimate retail business, with a Sales Tax ID, to set up an account with them BEFORE they release  a Confidential Dealer Price List.

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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Keep Your Suppliers as YOUR Secret

Monday, April 27th, 2009

 

Be careful to keep the wholesale suppliers for your stores as your ’secret.’  The more success you achieve selling online, the more likely other online sellers will want to copy what you do.   They will try to copy your layout, branding style and marketing techniques.   To compete in your successful space they will certainly want to offer the same product lines - especially when you are a successful niche seller.    They are likely to do everything they can to identify your wholesale suppliers.   Don’t make the mistakes that most eBiz owners make.  You can give away your secrets without even realizing it. 

Use a different Model Number in your online store than your wholesaler’s Model Number otherwise you’re disclosing your secret!  Let’s say your wholesaler uses “Model Number: 12345,” you should create a different Model Number in your store.  Any search on that number will always take your competitor directly back to your store.

The new number should make sense to you.  Don’t pick something complicated.   You will need to maintain a cross reference list (or spreadsheet) so that you can look up the wholesaler’s model number when ordering from the wholesaler.

It’s different if you’re  selling popular products, for example, consumer electronics.  Internet users (and competitors)will search by model number to find the product and its suppliers.  You want Traffic to your store only.   Most successful online sellers select products within a product niche.  The very popular products are sold on large retailer sites and quickly become overstaurated because Beginner Sellers make the mistake of trying to compete with big box sellers at cheaper prizes and end up going out of business.  

 The trick of using different model numbers is very effective for eBiz Sellers specializing in niche product lines.

Click to review more of Chris Malta’s “Wholesale Tips”

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Interacting with a Wholesaler and Dropshipper

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Interacting with a Wholesaler and Dropshipper
When selling online, to make the most profit per sale, you need to source products at real wholesale prices.  A wholesale supplier, especially a dropshipper, will only work with retailers.   You must be established as a legitimate, legal business before they will set up an account for you.

A Sales Tax ID
A wholesale supplier needs  a Sales Tax ID for each Account they open.  You must you must be a legally established business to obtain a Sales Tax ID before you can sell their products.  If a wholesaler tells you that they don’t require a Sales Tax ID to set up an account for you, they are porbably a true, factory-authorized wholesaler.  Search engine queries often lead you to middlemen.  Paid middlemen adverts in the search engines often lead you ‘pretend’ wholesalers.  They buy from the REAL wholesalers.  They mark up the wholesaler’s price and squeeze your ability to make sufficient profit.

Home Business is Still Business
Many propsective online sellers avoid doing the  ‘legal paperwork.’  However it is so easy and inexpensive these days.  Don’t let a few sign-ups prevent you from earning suitable margins in your online business.

Click here to see more Wholesale Tips.

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