|
Let's look at another way of making money online. We've already
seen the content website, now lets look at the products selling
website or e-commerce site if you will.
One common wrong assumption by many entrepreneur studying a market
to establish a business in make is they mostly look only at demand
and price. Not that there is anything wrong with that but one
should not forget to look at the supply too, that is... how much
competition is there? Another thing to keep in mind also is that
price is NOT the only determining factor in the success of a business.
It's a big one but not the only one.
Starting out, you will not have the same buying power as huge
retail stores. These big stores are in a position to negotiate
big price discounts with suppliers and, unless you're a millionaire,
you're not.
You will need to win your customer over with other factors which
we will discuss. This is where the entrepreurial talent is important.
Building a successful business takes alot of work, research, work,
time, determination and also... work and research (the duplicates
are intentional by the way).
Since most startup entrepreneurs have big ideas and small wallets
and ideal solution for them is wholesale drop shipping. Drop shipping
is a method of retail sales where you have the supplier ship the
item directly to your customer so you only have to purchase the
product one at a time and ONLY after you've made the sale so there
is no initial investment required to purchase inventory! You've
just eliminated the biggest capital requirement for your business!
Drop shippers are the perfect
supplier model for small business who don't have the time, money,
space or resources to buy, manage and ship inventory.
But wait, you haven't finish your business plan. Although drop
shippers are great, they are in no way a shortcut to success and
that's mistake alot of newbies make. They think they can simply
join a drop shipper put a few items for sale and expect profits
to come soaring in. Or they look at the latest popular items like
Ipod or tickle me elmo and wonder in amazement why some people
are selling it cheaper on ebay that the drop shipper is! Surely
this drop shipper doesn't have real wholesale price and is trying
to SCAM me... so they'll go running around, arms in the air screaming
scammer, scammer!
This person should have done more research. If the item is popular,
you can bet the competition is popular too. Wholesale prices vary
from product to product too... some product you might be able
to make 50% profit on while others only 2%... the basic economic
principle of supply and demand determines this. So what do you
do if you want to find products that you can sell and make a profit.
Let me repeat myself and say WORK and RESEARCH. You will have
to do alot of research to find items that
a) Don't have too much competition in.
b) You can make a decent profit by selling.
Don't expect these to fall into your lap either, it will take
time and effort or else everybody would be doing it.
So now that you've find your product(s) that you want to sell...
time to upload them to your e-commerce system, if you don't already
have one, NoMinimum.com can supply you with a very robust system
that will allow you to grow your business as big as you can take
it!
Now, you've got to sell the products! Although it's not the purpose
of this article, we will still give you a few pointers.
-Relate to your buyers. If you find a product niche.. design your
site to appeal to them. Write articles for them, interact with
them. For this reason, it's important to choose products that
you appreciate yourself as its alot easier to relate to your buyers
and to sell something that you are knowledgeable about yourself.
-Offer super customer service. Next to price, customer service
is probably the most important determining factor of success of
store. It will help you build reputation customer loyalty and
return purchases. It can also do the exact opposite if you don't
offer good customer service. This includes after-sales service!
Invest in good customer service, the returns will be ten-fold.
-Encourage people to singup for your newsletter or create an account
at your store, anything to get their information. Did you know
that it takes an average of 4 visits before they will buy something
from you? What if they come to your store never to return simply
because they forgot about it?
You can increase visitors re-visits by giving them an incentive
to give you their email address.. like a free gift, monthly draw,
surprise discounts, etc... then you can send them follow up offers
which in return increases the number of times you visitors return
to your site. This will translate into more sales!
-Once you've finished building your site and have done a few test
runs and know that you site is ready for the success you are craving
for it... you will need to advertise! Some of you might say a
big "DUH" to this... but you'd be surprised at how many
people think that they can exchange a few links, submit their
site to the search engines and be listed at the top of these engines
and generate a vulcano of sales like this without spending a dime
on advertising.
Sorry to burst your bubble but that's not the way business works.
First, it's very hard to get top ranking in search engines. Why?
because there are thousands of other sites that want to be at
the top just like you.
Second, search engines listings are VERY rarely enough to run
a business on... you will need to open your wallet and invest
in advertising. Be careful where you spend it however, since you
now have a niche to target don't just blindly advertise anywhere
in hope someone interested in your products will see you ad. Go
get them directly! Advertise in a way that targets them directly!
That's it for now, stay tuned as we continue through the other
ways of making money online!
|
|
