Shopster's Dropshippers, eCommerce, and Selling Online Blog

No, no, no to spam

Everybody hates receiving spam, whether as email, as SMS on their cell phones, or as messages in their Facebook accounts. If anyone has ever tried to convince you that spamming is the best way for your online site to be known, don’t believe him.

Spam is easy to recognize, by the way. The words used are pretty similar. Congratulations, you’ve just won a prize. Thank you for replying (even if you’ve never heard of the sender). We want to share a secret with you. Etc., etc., etc.

Blasting your message is a valid way to market your online site, however. If you have excellent bargains, it is your job to make sure that as many people as possible know about them. Specifically, you want probable buyers to know about your online store’s bargains for the week or the month.

One of the things that you should do is to make sure your message is your own, not a variation on the old themes common among spammers. This means you have to personalize what you send out.

If, for example, you sell accessories for dogs, show a picture of yourself and your dog. Tell them its name and why you’re crazy about him. Then say why you think your fellow dog lovers like the ones getting your message may want to know about this new canine product that you have. You, thus, become a pitchman for your own products, and you are sending out personalized messages. Not spam. Again, everybody hates receiving spam. But most people wouldn’t mind receiving messages about a product or service that is of interest to them.

Regaining lost customers

You know the saying, you can’t win ‘em all. It’s absolutely true. Not all the customers of your online store will be one hundred percent satisfied with the product or service they got from you.

Does this mean that you write them off as one-time only customers? You can, but you don’t have to. Not if you have some spunk, some fighting spirit that tells you not to give up after one failure. And not if you can turn that failure into a future success.

If a customer has given you negative feedback about your service – too slow to deliver, too difficult to order, too many extra charges – it would work in your favour if you were to explain why your service was the way it was.

Nobody likes to feel cheated. Since cheating anyone was never your intention, a rational explanation can be more than enough to clear the misunderstanding between you and your first-time customer.

You can promise to improve in the hopes that he or she will give your online store another chance. If there is little that can be done about the complaint, you can still explain why. If you do, the disgruntled customer might have second thoughts about never ordering from your online store again, maybe even see your point.

The former customer can tell himself, “this online store charges too much for delivery, but at least the owner took the time to explain why. Maybe I should order from him anyway because he seems to really care about his business and his customers.”

Maybe not all, but at least some lost customers can be won back with just a little extra effort on your part.

Your area of coverage

If the products you sell in your online store come from drop shippers, you have the widest possible area of coverage. This means that even if you are based in California, for example, you can have buyers as far away as New York or Alaska or Hawaii.

If, on the other hand, you sell goods that you make yourself, or which come from local suppliers, then your area of coverage will necessarily be smaller.

Going back to the California example, you will probably have to limit yourself to the Golden State alone, or just the northern or southern part. This is especially true if your products can spoil after a few weeks or even days.

There are advantages and disadvantages of having a limited area to cover. The main advantage is that your service can be more personalized. You can have plenty of customers who are within driving distance from your place. If you opt to deliver the sold goods yourself, the close contact can mean plenty of repeat business. Meeting your customers face-to-face can result in their becoming regulars.

The disadvantage will of course be your lower gross sales. Starting small is therefore your easier path to growth. This is the ideal path if your online store is only a small source of income for you, rather than a primary one. Great, if you’re a retiree or have physical limitations, but not exactly ideal if you set lofty goals for yourself.

Whatever you choose – wide area versus limited area of coverage – your online store can take easily take the place of the regular nine-to-five job and its fixed income.

Improve and innovate to survive and prosper

If your online store is doing well enough for you to live comfortably off the income it brings in, you can be content for a while. But do not presume that your store will run on auto pilot for an indefinite period. In all probability, it won’t. Sooner or later, your competitors will eat into your market share if you do not defend it.

The automobile industry teaches us some lessons about the need to constantly improve and innovate products, otherwise the leadership position can be lost. Ford may have been the pioneer among auto manufacturers, but it didn’t take long before General Motors became the market leader. All GM did was to create slightly better cars and trucks. GM, however, did not stay on top for long, after the likes of Toyota came along with even better products that captured the public’s fancy.

Whatever your products or services sold, keep in mind that the market can be quite fickle. Customers can change loyalties very quickly if they feel that they get more value for their money from your competitors.

Bear in mind that no matter how great or how seemingly superior are the products you sell, there is always room for improvement. Sometimes, the innovation that catches fire can be little more than a change in color or a tweaking of style. Other times, the first to adopt the latest technical innovations surge to pole positions.

Remember Commodore computers? What about Wang computers? These former market leaders bit the dust when they failed to recognize that the public’s taste was changing. A wise owner of an online store knows that the only constant is change. Keep pace with the market if you do not want to fade to oblivion.

An example of a perfect niche marketer

A recent news story tells of an American who opened a store where everything sold was “Made in the USA.” The products in his store ranged from wooden toys to maple syrup.

His eclectic selection of products could be considered odd, even unwise by some experts.

Some thought that the store was doomed to fail. Instead, it became an instant hit.  He had apparently struck a raw nerve with the buying public. The American man’s nationalist streak was triggered by seeing some of his friends and relatives losing their jobs because US manufacturers were seemingly surrendering to foreign competition. Either that or the manufacturers themselves were farming out their production to overseas companies. Our man rightly believed that there are still numerous US-made products to be proud of, and that his fellow Americans wanted to buy those products if only they knew where.

He simply put one and one together, and came up with a winning formula. He had tapped into a market that was always there, but which no one had recognized as well as he had. Perhaps many other businessmen had thought of the brilliant idea, but no one took the necessary action of actually putting up the Made in the USA store until he came along.

We say bravo to him, a classic example of a niche marketer.

And he hasn’t even gone online yet, but we can expect him to do so in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, the smart entrepreneur is considering opening a few more branches of his all American store in the coming months.

If you have what you believe to be a brilliant or inspired idea for your online store, you can take the cue from him.

An example of a perfect niche marketer

A recent news story tells of an American who opened a store where everything sold was “Made in the USA.” The products in his store ranged from wooden toys to maple syrup.

His eclectic selection of products could be considered odd, even unwise by some experts.

Some thought that the store was doomed to fail. Instead, it became an instant hit.  He had apparently struck a raw nerve with the buying public. The American man’s nationalist streak was triggered by seeing some of his friends and relatives losing their jobs because US manufacturers were seemingly surrendering to foreign competition. Either that or the manufacturers themselves were farming out their production to overseas companies. Our man rightly believed that there are still numerous US-made products to be proud of, and that his fellow Americans wanted to buy those products if only they knew where.

He simply put one and one together, and came up with a winning formula. He had tapped into a market that was always there, but which no one had recognized as well as he had. Perhaps many other businessmen had thought of the brilliant idea, but no one took the necessary action of actually putting up the Made in the USA store until he came along.

We say bravo to him, a classic example of a niche marketer.

And he hasn’t even gone online yet, but we can expect him to do so in the not too distant future. Meanwhile, the smart entrepreneur is considering opening a few more branches of his all American store in the coming months.

If you have what you believe to be a brilliant or inspired idea for your online store, you can take the cue from him.

Push vs Pull Method

In marketing your online store to your target consumers, you have two choices. One is to reach out to them through various means. This is sometimes referred to as the Push Method. The other option is to do everything to make them come to you, also known as the Pull Method.

There are distinct advantages to either way of bringing in paying customers. With the Push Method, you have to go out and aggressively introduce your site and its products and/or services to your would-be customers. You do this through such means as linking up with other sites, having stickers, flyers and posters made giving the name of your site and posting and distributing these all over town, soliciting the aid of your friends and relatives to tell their own networks to head to your site. In other words, just like the field-based salesmen of old, you go out and sell, sell, sell.

The Pull Method, on the other hand, is equivalent to having a store with various sales gimmicks, tons of flash to make the public take notice, and a lot of enticements once they’ve entered your facility. So instead of you going out and selling, it is you luring the buyers to come to you. Car showrooms do this frequently by having festive atmospheres with balloons and barkers, free food, carnival rides for kids, live entertainment, etc. They also resort to newspaper ads and TV and radio commercials.

So you either go out to sell, or pull them in to sell. Done properly, either of the two methods works. You can apply one or try a combination of both. Whatever you choose, the point is to sell a lot of your products or services.

Use Fair Bait to Lure in Customers

Whether in the physical world or online selling, any sales tactic that does not fool the public is considered part of fair competition.

As an example, a store that sells a late model car for the ridiculously low price of $9.99 will certainly have a lot of inquiries, at the very least. For as long as that store really does sell a fairly new car for the crazy sum, they can bring in potential buyers. Just one car is enough, and whoever wins the impossible bargain can thank his or her lucky stars. Everyone else can take a look at the other nice cars on the lot, which may not be quite as cheap, but which are solid bargains nonetheless.

That one car sold will not necessarily be a loss for the store as it can be considered part of their advertising expense.

Since thousands may be interested but only one will get to buy the car, what the seller does to entice his other possible clients will determine whether he can sell the other vehicles in stock, or get lynched and run out or town.

Obviously, if the seller has other good to great deals, then the potential buyers will still shop around and maybe buy.

This tactic works just as well online as with a physical store.

Online sellers can announce that they are marking down some items to ridiculously low prices, which they then sell on a first come, first served basis. The other items in his online shop will also be sold, but at a smaller discount.

Selling a few items at a loss or at break even cost is the bait that brings in the buyers. Hopefully, a surge in sales will be your reward for a neat marketing gimmick.

Seek out the specials

The pricing of the goods that you get from your drop shippers are generally fixed. This means that you sell at the same prices as all other clients of the drop shippers, although they will usually give volume discounts for their outlets who perform exceptionally well.

Presuming that you’re online site’s sales are neither spectacular nor terrible, is there a way to get more from your drop shippers?

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. Not that your drop shippers will give you more at the expense of their other reliable retailers. This is simply bad business. But there may be items that your drop shippers will have an excess of, and which they want to sell off as quickly as possible.

Or, your drop shippers may have the last few stocks of certain products that have been phased out or replaced with a newer model. These stocks are still relatively new, and still in their original packaging. Nothing wrong with them except for their being last year’s style.

Now as a sales person, you know that somewhere out there are consumers who may still want the product, who do not believe that perfectly good products can become obsolete.

Ask your drop shippers for a list of these products every so often, maybe on a quarterly basis.

On your site, you don’t even have to sell them as bargains. Call them classic or refer to them as rarities and you wouldn’t be far from the truth.

You the seller know what you’re selling, while your buyer knows exactly what he/she is paying for. Everyone is happy, including your drop shippers. You helped them move some slow to non-moving items from their warehouse, and they owe you one!

Standing out on eBay

As the world’s biggest online market place, eBay is a place where great fortunes can be made. But for every successful eBay entrepreneur, there are dozens of others who barely earn enough to justify the time spent on posting their products or services on the site.

The key is to maximize the appeal of whatever it is that you are selling on eBay, or any other online selling site for that matter.

As the old saying goes, don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle. You may be selling the exact same product or service that other entrepreneurs are pushing on eBay, but a few carefully chosen words to describe what you have to offer will make all the difference in the world. It could mean a steady stream of dollars into your account, or a woeful trickle of nickels and dimes.

But first, ask yourself. Would you yourself buy that product or service you’re selling? If your answer is a definite yes, you should be on your way, if not to a lot of wealth at least to substantial income.

Know your strengths and weaknesses. If you feel that your abilities as a wordsmith are lacking and you are unable to  craft the words and phrases that will attract more buyers, then seek some help. Professional writers may be too expensive, but you probably know someone who at least qualifies as a talented amateur. He or she may be willing to fix your copy for a song, or a friendly meal.

Don’t be too shy to ask for advice from those who have had greater success than you on eBay. A lot of sellers are more than willing to share their “secrets” because the idea of being a mentor makes them feel good about themselves.

Remember, somewhere out there is a much broader market for your products or services. You just have to reach out to them properly. Don’t sell the steak, sell the sizzle.

Happy selling !

When the going gets tough

It’s a cliché, we know. It’s a popular phrase that you will see in a lot of motivational posters sold in bookstores and gift shops. Motivational speakers also like to mouth this line. But this cliche also happens to be true. When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

But what does it mean, you may ask. It only means that you will never win if you give up too easily.  You’ll never get that girl (or guy) if you back off the first time she says no when you ask her out for a date. You’ll never get that promotion if you are afraid your boss will reject your request if you ask. And your online store will never get off the ground if you decide to virtually abandon it even before it has gotten a chance to attract enough customers.

Perseverance is one of the things that anyone needs in order to succeed, whether it is in business, sports, politics or relationships. Remember that Abraham Lincoln lost just about every election he ran in before he aspired for the presidency. The result we all know. Not only was good old Abe elected, but he ended up as the greatest president the US has ever had.

Perhaps you also know that Albert Einstein was an utter failure in grade school, barely passing some of his subjects. Yet he is now considered the most brilliant scientist of all time. Jack Nicholson was languishing in small roles in cheap B movies at the start of his career but became one of the most awarded actors of his generation.

How many success stories in online selling involve entrepreneurs who refused to give up? You know the answer to that one. Plenty. Why not be one of them?

Creating a database

There’s no such thing as an online store that sells anything and everything to anyone and everyone. Every attempt to create such a site is sure to fail.

What you need to do is to find your niche market and concentrate all your efforts in serving the needs of that niche. You may, however, need to know more about your niche. This requires your creating a database which will give you a clear idea of who buys your products and what their backgrounds are.

There are several ways of reviewing your database, which is essentially a list of all the clients you have had since you started your online store. Even if you don’t know the full details of each client, the information you already have may be enough.

You can break them down by areas, for one. The addresses where you ship your goods tells you right away where the bulk of your customers are. Do they live in cities, or are they mostly from the suburbs?

The names of your clients also tell you what their gender is. Are they mostly male or female? Your database may not be 100 percent accurate owing to some names which can be male or female, but these would belong to the minority. First names like Lee, Jeanne or even Alex can be either male or female. Some clients who only give initials can make it hard to fathom their gender.

If you want a more comprehensive or precise database, you could start immediately by asking present and future clients to provide you more info.

The more you know about your clients, the easier it will be to know what they want or need from your online store.

Look at the bright side

The state of the US and world economies may be far from good, but at least the worst is over. Keep this in mind when you think that your online store is not doing as well as you want it to.

We all agree that the global meltdown of a few years ago was bad, so bad that it was being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s. In hindsight, we can see that it wasn’t as terrible as some economic analysts had said.

One of its saving graces is the online-based economy.  There was no repeat of the dotcom collapse of the previous decade. Instead, what we saw and what we continue to witness is the survival and even the thriving of online stores.

If your own online store is surviving despite the poor economy, think about how it could boom when the economy picks up steam, which it surely will. This is one of the facts of life we have to live with; your country’s economy and the world economy as a whole experiences upswings and downswings. Unfortunately for most of us, the last downswing was a haymaker. A lot of businesses closed down, and countless families lost their homes.

But by all indications, the worst is over. The expected recovery may not be happening as fast as we want, but at least it is taking place. In the months and years to come, things can only get better. For owners and operators of online stores, therefore, good times are on the horizon.

Continue to operate your store, look for ways to improve your site and the service you provide, and ride the crest of the next economic upswing. It could happen sooner than you think.

Looking for new products to sell

If your online store is based on your hobby or special interest, you can beef up your line up of products or services by looking out for non-traditional suppliers.

An online seller of baby clothes, for example, met a woman who liked to knit. She asked the lady for some sample of the booties that she made and her new friend obliged.

The new product proved such a big hit that it became her online store’s top seller.

This is but one example of an entrepreneur finding a new supplier and their partnership earning tidy profits for both of them. You can follow this lead no matter what line of product or service your online store specializes in. All you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities such as this.

It will not always be as successful as this example in all cases, but at the very least having new products to offer old customers can result in additional business.

If you have a site that sells pet supplies, there are a lot of small and medium-scale businesses that you can tap. Even if you sell regular consumer products, you can go the extra mile by tying up with an engraver who can put the name of the buyer on the item for a nominal fee.

It’s these little add-ons that will give you a slight edge over your competitors. A lot of the time, that slight edge will be enough for browsers to opt to buy from you rather than your competitors.

Using CPM to go places

Dreaming for success and planning for success are two different things. With the former, your online business will likely go nowhere, while with the latter you will probably generate very decent profits.

Just as no architect will build a house without a plan, so too should your online business not move forward without a blueprint. Otherwise, you would just be wasting your time.

One simple way to plot your success is through the critical path method, or CPM. In its simplest form, the CPM is a chart that states what steps you should take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

You do not have to be a management expert to use the CPM method. Your chart should begin with Point Zero, which is the time you decide to take your online business seriously. You have to have fixed goals of what you want to achieve within a specific time frame.

Say you want to have a fully functional website selling car accessories within 30 days. You’re starting from scratch, so where do you begin and how do you reach your goal? Can you create the website yourself, or do you need help? Will that help be from a friend, relative or professional? How many hours a day will be needed to finish the task?

To the best of your knowledge, estimate the time frames needed to hit definite targets until the end goal is achieved. Then get to work. Stick to this blueprint of yours religiously, adjusting it only when necessary.

On a day by day or week by week basis, you will at least be achieving some goals. If all goes well, you will have your fully functioning website within the time planned.

Congratulations. You have just applied the critical path method.

No man is an island

Do not for a moment believe that the old saying, “No man is an island” is old or clichéd. It is as true today as when it was first coined. It’s only the terminology which has changed.

Today’s buzzword is networking and it means exactly the same thing as the old saying suggests. If you want to succeed, you have to connect with people who are in your line of business. Joining an organization of like-minded entrepreneurs can produce a number of rewards.

If, for example, you have an online business engaged in men’s fashion, it would do you well to take part in trade shows, conferences and social events where men’s fashion takes center stage. This rule is true for whatever line of business you are in.

While it’s nice to think that you are a one-of-a-kind business, the simple truth is that you are not. What you are is part of an industry. Your approach may be a little different from others, but the products or services you sell are not so unique as to be the only one of its kind in existence.

Accept that you belong to an industry and you can begin to move around, meet your competition, and exchange ideas with your peers. In doing so, your knowledge of your chosen industry continues to grow. You are able to foresee trends, and your executive or management decisions will have solid foundations.

If your online business does well, you will eventually be considered as an industry leader. That’s pretty high in the coolness factor, isn’t it?

Describing your inventory

About the only disadvantage in having an online store instead of a physical store is that buyers cannot see and touch the actual merchandise. This is not a problem when what you sell are items that everyone is familiar with, whether it’s watches, shoes, laptops or magazines. It becomes a problem when you are selling something that potential customers are not that common.

The only way to overcome this disadvantage is for you to describe your products in such a way that the buyer’s curiosity is piqued to the point that he or she just has to buy your goods. This means using colourful language. This means that you have to be more of a creative writer than a journalist.

Journalists deal in facts. So a leather briefcase would be described as follows – black leather, 14” X 18”, 1.8 pounds. All very factual, but doing little to help the potential customer make a buying decision. A creative writer, on the other hand, would describe the same item as follows – rich, full-grain, handmade leather bag ideal for the executive on the go, it easily carries your laptop or tablet alongside important documents, cell phone, charger and even a change of clothes, yet weighing a mere 1.8 pounds.

See the difference? The first totally accurate description is clinical and cold, while the second description is more imaginative and appealing. Looking at the item on your online store and reading the colourful description will lead the browser to tell himself, I have to get this.

Hobbies make a great business

A lot of retirees find a new source of livelihood because of their hobbies. But you don’t have to wait to retire to turn your own hobby or special interest into products or services to sell on your online store.

You may be an accountant whose spare time is spent collecting records and cassette tapes (in the past) to CDs not so long ago. Or you may be a mailman who just happens to collect vintage magazines or toy robots. Or you may be a teacher whose hobby is collecting coins or stamps.

You are therefore likely to have a huge collection worth a small fortune, and a lot of people out there would pay good money to buy your treasures. Presuming that you are willing to turn these goodies into cash, you now have products that you can sell on your online store.

Don’t worry about running out of things to sell. You can also turn your online store into a trading post, where like-minded individuals who do not have their own online business can sell their stuff. For your troubles, you get a small commission, of course.

If your special interest is not a product but a service, you can still sell your services online. Is yoga, or dance, or martial arts your passion? You can offer to teach or to lecture or to host get-togethers, not unlike the Tupperware parties which were popular decades ago. Again, all for a small fee.

Everyone has something to offer everyone else, be it a product or a service. An online store has become the best way to go. All you have to do is set up that store. So what are you waiting for?

Online shopping sites wage fierce competition

For the global consumer, these are truly the best of times because the countless online shopping sites are waging a fierce competition to give them the best products and services at the lowest possible prices.

Nearly everything that the consumer desires can be cheaper when purchased through the online shopping sites. But not always. There are still too many sites that do not deliver what they promise. This means that the old saying of caveat emptor or buyer beware still holds true.

Before buying anything at any of these sites, consumers should stick to the old rule of finding out if a seller is dependable or not. This means taking some time to do the necessary research before clicking that buy button as it is not always the case of what you see is what you get.

For starters, this means sticking with the reputable brands, whether one is purchasing a case of soda, a pair of jogging shoes, or a branded handbag. In fact, every buyer should make sure that anything he or she plans to purchase is the real deal.

Sad to say, not all sites that sell products or services give the same kind of money back guarantee that most sellers at eBay offer. This is especially true for online shopping sites that offer products at prices that are too good to be true.

Another old saying works just as well online store or actual physical store.  If the price is too good to be true, it almost certainly is. It is one thing to get a healthy discount of say 20 to 30 percent from the regular retail price of an item, an another thing when the discount is an impossible 80 or 90 percent. Never forget that the seller must still earn a profit of some kind.

There are exceptions to this rule, of course.  Closing down sales are usually done when a company is about to close down. In such a case, the seller wants to liquidate all of his inventory even at a huge loss. But the items sold are usually old stock. They may never have been used, but their marketability is long gone.

An example would be basketball shoes carrying the names of yesterday’s stars. Those Patrick Ewing shoes may have been retailed at more than $100 when the New York big man was still an active NBA player. Now, they can be had for less than $10, free delivery included.

There are exceptions to this rule. The ever-popular Chuck Taylor All Star high-cut rubber shoes have been around for more than half a century, but they are still top sellers for its manufacturer Converse.

Today’s stars such as Kobe Bryant or Lebron James will see their shoes or jerseys sell at top dollar, but it’s a safe bet that buying them from an online shopping site will still be cheaper than getting them at the mall, or worse, at the Staple Center or wherever the stars call home.

Which online drop shipping stores to pick

At first glance, online drop shipping stores seem to be all alike. Some will even sell the exact same goods at the exact same prices, as is the case with low cost consumer gift items.

This being the apparent case, you may conclude that it doesn’t really matter which of the online drop shipping stores you do business with. You are, after all, a retailer, while they are for the most part the wholesaler or manufacturer.

Whether you are dealing with Timex watches, RayBan sunglasses or Levi’s jeans on your website, it shouldn’t matter where you get your supply, right?

Wrong. It does matter. The price at which you obtain goods from online drop shipping stores is just one factor to consider when choosing which ones to do business with. Even when they are exactly the same.

The speed with which the online drop shipping stores deliver to your customers what you order from them is one important consideration. If, for instance, you work out of California and the bulk of your clienteles is from the West Coast, then a drop shipper based in New Jersey will take longer than one based in your part of the country.

Online drop shipping stores also have different policies in the case of returned goods. Some will assume the mailing cost, some will charge that expense to you.

The guarantees for the products may also differ. One online drop shipping store may offer a 30-day guarantee, another a 60-day guarantee, and yet another a 90-day guarantee.

Frontline operations may all be the same for the drop shippers, but backroom operations tend to differ from company to company. Choose one that works best for you.