Archive for October, 2009:
Written on October 27th, 2009 by Special Author no shouts
Drop shippers are a useful bunch. There are a lot of positives that come along with engaging reliable drop shippers. This is especially true for new merchants who lack the space (and money) to store products and the manpower to deal with packing and shipping arrangements. Some more established multi vendor shopping carts names already develop integration with at least one drop shipper. ecommerce web hosting shopping carts integration is unusual, though. One essential thing to be aware of though, is that the shopping cart costs is usually single out from the fees for the drop shipping service.
There are a couple of things you should decide on before selecting a drop shipper. These concerns should be addressed early in order to prevent problems later…
If you are going to make use of the services of drop shippers, you have to comprehends that they are the supply chain to your business. You can either source your own drop shipper(s) or opt for one that is integrated with your multi vendor shopping cart provider. Suffice to say, the drop shipper you select should not only be reliable but competitive and trustworthy as well. Along with these 3 characteristics, here are some elements that you would do well to decide on:
Inventory
A product needs to be in stock in order for you to make a sale. Needless to say, good and consistent inventory levels are important. As such, stock information needs to be up-to-date (real-time) and exact.
As such, product information provided by drop shippers (to be displayed on the product page) should be sufficient and exact. The reason being you do not have access to the physical products and so will not be privy to any information save that which is given by the drop shipper. Commonly requested information: availability of alternative colors, dimensions and weight, material used.
Price
A competitive drop ship price (very close to wholesale, preferably) is the key to selling at higher margins. Bear in mind, you need to take into account competitors’ pricing before you can make up your mind on your own. You should also include in possible future discounts into your pricing calculations.
Just like inventory levels, product prices should be consistent.
Variety
It sounds cliched but variety is the spice of life. A great drop shipper should have a large database of drop ship products. A person may only buy one T-shirt if a variety of sizes are available, but he/she may buy more if the T-shirt comes in multiple colors as well. Psychologically speaking, it also aids a buyer make up their mind by doing a quick comparison.
Return Policy
You have to understand that your drop shipper’s return policy automatically becomes your return policy. Have a close look at your drop shippers’ return policies and make sure they are reliable before you choose to adopt them. If you consent to their policies, make sure you ultimately express these return policies to your customers on your Terms & Conditions, Shipping or Return Policy or FAQ pages.
Customer Support
An excellent drop shippers get back to you within 1 business day, 2 at the most. In certain cases things do go wrong, even with the best drop shippers, such as an item being delivered in the wrong quantity, or perhaps in the wrong color. When something like this happens, it is crucial that the situation be remedied in as short a time as possible. A quick response time is vital. The faster you hear back from your drop shipper, the quicker you can interact the latest situation to your customer in turn.
Written on October 26th, 2009 by Special Author no shouts
This is the time when hosted shopping cart providers report an increase in sign-ups as well.
So what do you need to do to get ready for the virtual holiday crowd?..
Before we discuss more about store preparation, here are a few more attractive notes about holiday shopping:
* Men outspend women by as much as 15% during holiday shopping
* Rural shoppers are more likely to visit online stores than urban shoppers
* Consumers search for characteristics rather than prices
Do keep those points in mind as we go on to store preparations.
Product & Packaging
It seems dull, but it’s really true: consumers usually look for gifts this time of the year. Now, you can’t redesign your products but you can alter the way you package and market them to match customer needs. Portable MP3 players, digital cameras and watches make wonderful gifts and are usually hot items for the holiday season.
What if, for example, you own an online shoe store? It gets a bit challenging because shoes don’t actually come across as natural gifts, and various brands measure sizes differently, making shopping for shoes for someone else a bit of an art. So how about selling unique holiday gift certificates, complete with holiday packaging? Make sure the designs for men and women are distinct but equally eye-catching.
However, most shoe stores do allow exchanges for different sizes. Fortunately, you can still work on making the packaging as appealing as possible so that you are able to offer your products as bona fide holiday gifts.
SEO & Marketing
Once you have an idea of what the market wants with regard to your products, you need to be certain that your site is fully optimized with all the essential keywords (What does this mean? We’re not going to go into this here, but check out our other posts about keyword research and usage for more information). Consequently, you should go all-out with your marketing campaign to take full benefit of this once-a-year buying phenomenon (well, of course there are other holiday periods throughout the year, but the year-end holidays are still when most shopping is done).
Ensure that you make full use of the tools your top website ecommerce hosting carts has to provide such as newsletter broadcasting, a basic piece of shopping carts technology. A relatively large number of shopping cart providers offer this feature for free. Start the ball rolling with your existing customers by enticing them with invitation-only discounts, early bird promotions, recommend-a-friend deals and tie-ins.
And just because the holidays are over does not mean the shopping season is over. The only thing shoppers love more than holiday sales is post-holiday sales. According to statistics, over 60% of shoppers make purchases during this period. So make sure you are ready for that. As a matter of fact, if you were a bit late with your holiday prep, you can still make up for it by well equipped your store for post-holiday sales.
Reminder
With all the excitement (and maybe even panic while you ruminate over the points presented above) in the air, its easy to miss out on one very essential factor – the inventory level. Ensure that the items you are heavily promoting are properly stocked. If you are using the services of a drop shipper, ensure you have enough stock during this festive season. You must give this special attention because your drop shipper might be shipping the same products for other merchants as well. Not being able to deliver what your customers have ordered before the holidays will cost you customers and any hope of future sales, so be certain you have enough inventory.
Written on October 25th, 2009 by Special Author no shouts
Cross-selling is an awesome way to create sales without much problem. Amazon has been credited as the innovator in Internet cross-selling and because of their (heavy) investment in this sales technique, the rest of the Ecommerce world has established a winning way to improve sales and that’s what top web site ecommerce hosting are introducing cross-selling feature as well.
It’s indeed come to a good results for them, so why shouldn’t it work for you??
Sales information:
* Repeat customers spend 30% more on average than new ones.Repeated customers will spend about 30% more on average than new ones.
* Merchants report that referrals among repeat customers are in excess of 100% more than non-customers.
* Studies have highlighted that it can cost up to 6-10 times more to sell something to a prospect than to market that same thing to an existing customer.
* Up to 65% of a company’s dealing comes from present customers.
That’s great, but how do you go about utilizing advantages of the ability of cross-selling?
Most secure ecommerce shopping cart solutions produce cross-selling features. At InstanteStore, this feature can be in affect at the Feature Activation page (it’s under the Manage Your Store heading on the Admin Control Panel). There you can select to either manually or automatically select products to cross-sell.
The manual selection process requires choosing specific products to cross-sell, letting you to modify the products that will be shown as cross-sell products. For instance, you can cross-sell specific bicycle helmets that would go best with specific bicycles.
The automatic selection process will effortlessly group products that are purchased together by customers at your store as cross-sell items. This is essentially helpful if your store features products or services that customers usually tend to buy in bundles.
Cross-sell items are prominently displayed at the product page as well as on the shopping cart. This gives customers the contingency to very easily add products that they may find excellent to their shopping carts.
Cross-selling tips:
* Cross-sell products that are naturally related. For example, if your customer just bought a bicycle, you could suggest mobile pumps, carriers and lamps.
* Timing is key. The InstanteStore shopping cart applications features a cross-sell on final payment page option that will display cross-sell items at exclusive prices on the final payment/thank you page after a customer has just completed an order. Research shows that customers who’ve just bought something are probably in the mood to purchase even more, so offering customers who’ve just bought something related products at a discount is a fantastic way to fully capitalize on their purchasing momentum.
* Try introducing a mix of product prices. You don’t usually have to always cross-sell only low-priced products. Low-priced products are ideal for impulse buys but products that meet customers’ needs head-on can go for higher prices.
If you are using a top web site ecommerce hosting like InstanteStore, then you should make good use of the tools that are obtainable. The cross-selling feature has demonstrated extremely useful for many merchants over the years. If you already have a perfect customer base and want to raise your sales figures, this aspect is certainly something you should try.
Written on October 24th, 2009 by Special Author no shouts
Before you decide to get a web hosting shopping carts merchant account and sign up for a shopping carts service, you must first decide on what to sell.
But what should you sell? A relatively fast search of best-selling items on the net will distinguish you that airline tickets, CDs, DVDs, and books have been some of the great selling items for years. A little more analysis will also tell you that there’s no point going down that road as certain prominent names have already got those products completely covered.
Thus, best-selling items aren’t usually the best items to trade. What then are the elements that one needs to consider before finding on what to sell?
Demand
Needless to say, products are easier to sell if there is a demand for the item. You should always try to market products that are normally in demand.
Consumables are your best bet. The shorter the lifespan of a product, the more common the purchase. But of course, the products that you choose should have a reliable lifespan. As a matter of fact, selling a product with a better lifespan than the ones your competitors are promoting could give you an edge.
If you already have a online store selling sports products, for example, you could jump on the fad bandwagon once a while. You could survey into Serena Williams’ latest trendy-looking tennis kicks or the jersey of a famous player who has just switched clubs. Demand for fad products doesn’t last long so you need to have a good eye for them and sell them while they’re still hot. It would not be advisable to only sell fad products on an online store as it isn’t a very viable long-term venture, unless of course you are looking to make a speedy profit.
Product suggestions: Health and Beauty (i.e skincare), weight-loss) products.
Niche
All you need is a proficient storefront shopping carts and a perfect marketing strategy to get the ball rolling.
Products like line dancing shoes are a niche product with a global demand. And the best thing is that these shoes don’t last forever. The more you utilize them, the faster they wear out. So if your service is wonderful and so is your product, you should be able to get repeat orders.
You don’t have to look far to get creativity on what to sell. Kick off your search around you. If you spot something, ask yourself if you would consider that item yourself. Look at the products that you use. Go to specific places like gyms to look through which products fitness freaks use, wear or consume. Tag along on fishing trips and observe the stuff that avid game fishermen use.
In some cases one particular item can open opportunities to other items and thus, a whole new avenue for revenue. As an example, a person who buys nicotine gum or patches would probably be interested in improving his health and outlook as well. You could cross-sell products example whitening toothpaste specially formulated to get rid of cigarette stains, running shoes and other related exercise gear.
Product suggestions: Hair-fall control cream/shampoo for men and women, non-alcohol based perfumes, ‘green’ toys/puzzles and hypoallergenic products.
Margins
Electronic products like cameras and mp3 players are all the rage. However, the profit margins are pretty low. You would have to move a ton of these products to get a perfect amount of profit.
Again, try exploring at the niche market for a same kind of product. Let’s take cameras for example. Not all cameras are long-lasting. How about targeting adventurers for this specific product? You could market durable underwater casings, monopods, point-and-shoots, longer-lasting batteries and other camera gear an adventurer would need. Keep in mind, not all who spent money on these products are adventurers. A lot more just like the association.
Suffice to say, do not get carried away by over-charging just to raise margins. Do a bit of competitor analysis before you nail down your pricing. Online customers can be very fickle and a difference of just a few dollars could cost you a sale or worse, a customer. Try to market products that have high perceived commercial value.
Product ideas: Weight-loss and beauty products.
Now that you have a clearer idea of how to go about deciding what products to market, you can finally put that storefront shopping carts to good use.
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