|
By using drop-shipping firms to handle your orders, you could route all
your ecommerce site's orders to wholesalers, and they will drop shipped
your order directly to customers.
And you as the online retailer can
eliminate the expense of carrying inventory and the risk of being stuck
with the goods if these goods didn't sell.
Before you get started, consider these seven steps involved in starting a drop-ship e-business:
Step 1: Decide to sell your products with or without your own website
You can start your drop-shipping e-business either with or without
having your own website. If you decide to sell with your own domain
name, then you need to get your ecommerce site up. If you do not want
the hassle of getting your own ecommerce site, then you could build
your online store at eBay. eBay e-store site builder allow you to build
your online store easily.
Step 2: Decide products to sell
Then, you need to decide what types of products to sell at your online
store. You could identify a group of products such as electronic
products, household electrical appliances, cell phones & etc. It is
advisable to identify similar products or products under the same
category to sell instead of totally different category products such as
shoes and CD player.
Because, by selecting products within the same
category, you can give your customers more choice to choose from, and
you can group two or more products in a bundle for promotion or
marketing activities and you get more sales on each transaction.
Step 3: Locate suppliers who will drop-ship for you
After identify your products to sell, you need to look for your
drop-shipping suppliers. On time delivery is important to ensure the
satisfaction of your customers; hence, be sure you check for the
drop-shipper performance record before you sign-up an account with
them.
Discussion forum, message board and blogs are sources for you to
find some hints or comment for the drop-shippers. Or you just simply
key-in the drop-shipper name on the Google or Yahoo search box; you
should get some information of your selected drop-shipper.
Step 4: Set up an account with the drop-shipper
Once you select a drop-shipping company, you need to set up a reseller
account with the company. This can often be done online or by phone,
but some companies will require that you complete and return a reseller
application to open an account. Some may also require a tax ID and a
business license. Most drop-shipping company will charge some fee to
open their reseller account.
Step 5: Advertise the product for sale online
Many online retailers failed in their drop-shipping e-business because
they could drive traffic or visitor to their website and convert these
visitors to the actual paying customers. To get traffic to your product
page (either your website or your eBay e-store), you need to advertise
your products so that your products get exposure on internet and
attract targeted traffic to your product page.
There are many ways to advertise your products. You could advertise on
eBay, use pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement service such as Google
Adword or Yahoo PPC. Or you could go for the cheapest but equally
efficient way in driving traffic to your e-store: Article Marketing.
You could write a review on your products in an article and put your
e-store URL at the end of article or at the author resource box and
submit them many article directories for maximum exposure. Many
internet visitors will drop-by to your e-store via your URL link at the
end of your article if they are interested to know more.
Step 6: The Product Sold & Place Order To Drop-Shipper
Once your have product sold, your customer will pay you on your selling
price via your online payment system such as PayPal. And you place the
order with your drop-shipper and pay them via their payment system at
the agreed price, which is lower than your selling price, so that you
could earn the profit.
Step 7: After Sale Follow Up
Many e-business entrepreneurs will miss out after sale follow up
portion. Just because your customer has paid you and you have placed
the order with the drop-shipper, it does not mean that this is end of
the loop. Because if there are problem occur, you are the one who need
to responsible in the eyes of your customers. Hence, you should follow
up with your drop-shipper either via phone or email to ensure that ship
out your order to your customer.
You should proactively follow up with your customer to ensure they have
received their order and satisfy with it. Offer yourself as the
personal contact for any issues that may arise. This is also a great
way to sell customers more products because if your customers are
satisfied with your service, they may give you repeat orders.
In Summary
By integrating drop-shipping into your e-business, you can forget about
inventory handling issues and find a shipping partner to fulfill orders
for you; all will be done by your drop-shipping partners. By following
correct steps to set up your drop-shipping e-business, you can save
your time and efforts in getting your business started faster.
|
Handy Guides: eCommerce
Gal Recommends...
|
|
Here are
products and guides I personally recommend for building your online
business. There isn't a guide or tool recommended on my site that I
haven't personally used and found to be helpful. My philosophy
is to bring quality, affordability and value to as many
people as possible.
Check out my latest product recommendations.
|
 |
Finally released: the fabulous e-book that closes down the loopholes of all conventional
online marketing methods.
Internet
Marketers and Publishers: Don't stick to the same old slow &
tired methods of advertising and publishing when you can have a
magnificent strategy called RSS doing all of the hard work for you!!!
Read on...
|
 |
If
you want to make lots of money selling ebooks online, but you hate to
write.... or
if you just can’t face sitting down at the computer and
slogging away to produce ebooks, then this message is for you.
Now
you can have your ebook written for you without ever writing
one word yourself, and still put your name on it as the author! Read on...
|
|
