Amazon E-commerce

Amazon.com has always sold goods out of its own warehouses. It started as a bookseller, pure and simple, and over the last decade has branched out into additional product areas and the third-party sales that now represent a good chunk of its revenue (some estimates put it at 25 percent).

Both retailers and individual sellers utilize the Amazon.com platform to sell goods. Large retailers like Nordstrom, Land's End and Target use Amazon.com to sell their products in addition to selling them through their own Web sites. The sales go through Amazon.com and end up at Nordstrom.com, Land's End.com or Target.com for processing and order fulfillment. Amazon essentially leases space to these retailers, who use Amazon.com as a supplemental outlet for their online sales.

Small sellers of used and new goods go to Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Shops or Amazon Auctions. At Marketplace, sellers offer goods at a fixed price, and at Auctions they sell their stuff to the highest bidder. Amazon zShops features only used goods at fixed prices. If an item listed on zShops, Marketplace or Auctions is also sold on the main Amazon.com, it appears in a box beside the Amazon.com item so buyers can see if someone else is selling the product for less in one of the other sales channels.


COURTESY AMAZON.COM
The level of integration that occurs on Amazon is a programming feat that few (if any) online sales sites can match.

Another sales channel called Amazon Advantage is a place where people can sell new books, music and movies directly from the Amazon warehouse instead of from their home or store. Sellers ship a number of units to Amazon, and Amazon handles the entire sales transaction from start to finish. In all of these programs, Amazon gets a cut of each sale (usually about 10 percent to 15 percent) and sometimes charges additional listing or subscription fees; in the case of Amazon Advantage, the company takes a 55 percent commission on each sale. The Advantage channel is something like a consignment setup, a sales avenue for people who create their own music CDs or have self-published a book and are simply looking for a way to get it out there.

One of the latest additions to Amazon's repertoire is a subsidiary company called Amazon Services. Through Amazon Services, Amazon sells its sales platform, providing complete Amazon e-commerce packages to companies looking to establish or revamp their e-commerce business. Amazon sets up complete Web sites and technology backbones for other e-commerce companies using Amazon software and technology. Target, for instance, in addition to having a store on Amazon.com, also uses Amazon Services to build and manage its own e-commerce site, Target.com.


Target.com homepage
But selling goods isn't the only way to make money with Amazon.com. The Web site's affiliate program is one of the most famous on the Web. Through Amazon's Associate Program, anyone with a Web site can post a link to Amazon.com and earn some money. The link can display a single product chosen by the associate, or it can list several "best seller" products in a particular genre, in which case Amazon updates the list automatically at preset intervals. The associate gets a cut of any sale made directly through that link. The cut ranges from 4 percent to 7.5 percent depending on which fee structure the associate signs up for (see Amazon Associates for complete program details). The associate can also take advantage of Amazon Web Services, which is the program that lets people use Amazon's utilities for their own purposes. The Amazon Web Services API (application programming interface) lets developers access the Amazon technology infrastructure to build their own applications for their own Web sites. All product sales generated by those Web sites have to go through Amazon.com, and the associate gets a small commission on each sale.

Check out Amazon Web Services to learn more about what you can do with Amazon's e-commerce platform.

In the next section, we'll take a look at how all of these programs and channels come together to create a sales and marketing powerhouse.

Amazon

Amazon.com,

 Also called Amazon, is an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company that was founded on July 5, 1994, by Jeff Bezos and is based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest Internet-based retailer in the world by total sales and market capitalization.Amazon.com started as an online bookstore, later diversifying to sell DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company also produces consumer electronics—notably, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo—and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services (IaaS and PaaS). Amazon also sells certain low-end products like USB cables under its in-house brand AmazonBasics.

Amazon has separate retail websites for the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Brazil, Japan, China, India, and Mexico. Amazon also offers international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products. In 2016, Dutch, Polish, and Turkish language versions of the German Amazon website were launched.
In 2015, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the United States by market capitalization,[21] and was in the third quarter of 2016 the fourth most valuable public company.

The logo of Amazon.com
Amazon.com is an online store that sells books, movies, games, DVDs, music CDs, computer software and other items (like Amazon Kindle). It is the largest online retailer right now. It was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and the headquarters is in Seattle. The original name was Cadabra.com but was changed to Amazon later on because it sounded like the word "cadaver". The store is named after the world's second longest river.


Amazon
Screenshot
Type Public
Traded as NASDAQ: AMZN
NASDAQ-100 Component
S&P 100 Component
S&P 500 Component
Foundation date July 5, 1994; 23 years ago (as Cadabra)
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Headquarters Seattle, Washington, U.S
Area served Worldwide
Founder(s) Jeff Bezos
Key people Jeff Bezos (Chairman, President and CEO)
Werner Vogels (CTO)
Andrew Jassy (CEO, AWS)
Jeff Wilke (CEO, Consumer)
Industry Internet
Products Appstore, AWS, The Book Depository, comiXology, Game Studios, Video, Instant Video UK, Instant Video German, Audible, Kindle, Fire, Lab126, Studios, Twitch.tv, Woot, Echo, MyHabit.com(closed), Shopbop,Askville
Services Online shopping
Cloud computing
content distribution
Revenue Increase US$135.98 billion (2016
Operating income Increase US$4.186 billion (2016)
Net income Increase US$2.371 billion (2016)
Total assets Increase US$83.402 billion (2016)
Total equity Increase US$19.285 billion (2016)
Owner Jeff Bezos (17%)
Employees Increase 341,000 (2017)
Subsidiaries A9.com, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Alexa Internet, Audible.com, comiXology, Digital Photography Review, Goodreads, Internet Movie Database, Junglee.com, Twitch.tv, Zappos, Souq.com
Slogan(s) Work hard, have fun, make history
Website amazon.com (original U.S. site)
Various national sites
Written in C++ and Java
Alexa rank Decrease 13 (Global, April 2017)
Type of site E-commerce
Advertising Web banners, videos
Available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Turkish
Launched July 5, 1994

Looking For the Easiest Way to Sell Online?

 by john freech

There is no better way to make money online than to discover the importance and benefits of drop shipping products anywhere in the world. To know if drop shipping is the right business for you, it is essential that you learn what these Dropship products are and how they allow web-based retailers to open up lucrative streams of income in the shortest time possible. Herein you'll learn about drop shipping; the simple definition and benefits it offers to many customers.

What Is Dropshipping? How are Dropship Products Delivered?

It is a retail method where you don't get to keep the products in stock. Instead, they are kept with the manufacturer of the products, or rather the wholesale supplier who has the inventory of the Dropship products. Dropping works in a simple way wholesale supplier ships the goods directly to the customer's ideal location after you have transferred to them customer's orders and shipment details. By drop shipping products, you get to save on inventory, fulfillment costs.

And that's the major benefit of Dropship products. Then again, besides saving you lots of cash on inventory and fulfillment costs, it also keeps your customers from knowing that you are indeed the one drop shipping products to them, as all products delivered to customers have "private label shipping". The wholesale supplier gets to attach a return address on the Dropship products, but the invoice is customized to match your online store. It's a win-win situation.

Reasons Dropship Products are Beneficial to an Online Store

Firstly, you don't need to have lots of money to start up an online store. It is amazingly cheap and easier to start up an online business when you are drop shipping products to customers. It is the simplest thing to do since you'll not need to invest heavily in fulfillment and inventory costs and also start up costs. Irrespective of whether you have money or not to start up your business, you can still deliver a plethora of Dropship products to your customers anywhere.

Drop shipping products also offers you utter efficiency and convenience. If you have limited resources to launch an online retail store for your products, fret not. Drop shipping products to customers anywhere in the world allows your e-commerce business to grow and successfully launch, since you will be entirely concentrating your time on operations, customer service, and marketing without having to worry about fulfillment costs which is convenient and efficient.

In addition to convenience and efficiency, drop shipping offers you mobility. Put another way, you are not tied to an office trying to manage your online business. When you simply Dropship products to customers from all over the world, you become free to operate your e-commerce business in any location you please, provided you have a steady Internet connection, and the fact that all physical fulfillment issues are well-handled; you'll have nothing to bother you at all.

Another benefit of dropshipping products is that, it is a very trusted model. If you do not like dealing with the hassles of increased inventory costs, then dropshipping products is the best option for you. Why? It's the best-trusted model to run an e-commerce business with. Dropship products services are embraced by plenty of major online stores including Sears. So if it sounds like some fly-by-night, sketchy model - well, it's not. It's very reliable, efficient and convenient.

Looking For Wholesalers to Dropship Products for You?

Prior to contacting any wholesale supplier, make certain that all your legal ducks are in row, or rather, ensure you have followed the right legal procedures. Depending from where you come from, it's essential to pass through all the legal channels before drop shipping products to your customers. In the US, for instance, it is imperative to provide a copy of your sales tax and/or a resale certificate, and your businesses employer identification number (EIN) to your suppliers.

The easiest way to find qualified distributors for your Dropship products is to contact original manufacturers of the products you intend to drop ship, but that is after you already know what products you'd like to drop ship. The good thing with contacting original manufacturers, you get to avoid low-quality information and scams, which dubious drop shipping wholesalers' parade. You can also equally find reliable, efficient drop shippers on Google, but you've to be cautious.

Ways to Use Google to Find Wholesale Suppliers to Dropship Products

Initially, extensively search wholesalers. You have to dig deeper into Google listings in order to find drop shippers and wholesalers since most of them are notoriously bad at online marketing and SEO. So, most of them will never pop up on the first pages of Google for terms like "bags wholesaler", or "computer wholesalers". You'll need to dig deep in through 10 to 20 pages of Google's search list in order to find most reliable and efficient wholesalers and drop shippers.

Don't judge a book by its covers. Put another way, if you are looking for wholesale suppliers to Dropship products to your customers, don't ignore those 90s-era, outdated and time-worn looking websites when looking for suppliers. They might look old but don't let their layout and design get you scared. Being a low-quality site does not necessarily mean it's a bad one while a modern and sleek site doesn't mean it can provide a wholesale supplier for Dropship products.

Lastly, use lots of modifiers (or rather keywords). If you are hunting for a wholesale supplier for your Dropship products, make certain not to stop your search at "wholesale" term. Use other modifiers/keywords as well; it's imperative as it will guide you to the right wholesale suppliers. For instance, you can include terms such as "supplier", "warehouse", "bulk", "reseller" and also "distributor" in order to find precisely what you are looking for.

At wholesale2b.com you will find everything you need to get started with your new online business.

We make it very easy for anyone, including those with no past experience. From a catalog of over 1 million dropship products in one single portal, to tools to help you grow your business with the latest selling tools.

Why Do Some Companies Drop Ship, and Why Are There Some That Don't?

In all of the years that I have been working out relationships with companies to dropship (or be included on The Shippers dropshipping directory list) I have learned a great deal in regards to this question. The thing I want you to understand first of all (believe it or not) there are tons of companies out there doing a lot of business (off line) that have never even heard of dropshipping. It has been my job to educate them about dropshipping, and explain to them how it can benefit and expand their business. Once they learn of all that can be done online with dropshipping 95% of the business owners I talk to are ready to get a system set up so they can start dropshipping.

My suggestion to anyone who runs across a company that does not dropship, is to simply just ask them if they know about dropshipping and what it can do for their business? You might be surprised how many business owners are not familiar with dropshipping products. If you can just educate them about dropshipping, and how it works for Internet businesses, you might score yourself a pretty good supplier. If you are uncomfortable approaching a business and doing this, there are many companies out there who will try to establish the relationship for you. They can help educate the business about dropshipping and do everything it will do for them in the long run. So my answer to "those businesses that don't dropship", is simple - they just do not know about it, or the potential tax benefits they could have from growing their smaller business.

The other 5% I talk to have limitations as to what the manufacturer will allow them to do with the product, and some companies are so new (and don't have a budget) to get a dropshipping system set in place. There is also a small percentage of companies that are happy with where their business is at, and they just do not want to have to deal with dropshipping side of it.

Matt Siltala has been working with ecommerce business owners to help them SEO their site since 1999. Matt started by working with a small radio station in Arizona and then has blown up since then. Matt worked with Prosper Inc, among others and mentored thousands of their students to success. Matt now owns his own SEO firm, Dream Systems Media, and specializes in SEO, SMO, and Reputation Management. Matt also teaches business how to budget and how money management can help your business reach it's goals.

How To Buy Legitimate Wholesale Dropshipper Pallets

     By john freech


With the astronomical boost in auction site's popularity, and more and more people going into business for themselves, it should come as no shock that wholesale and dropship companies are booming with business. If you've saved or have the capital to invest in a large lot, pallet, or even truckload of goods you wish to sell, you are just mere steps away from creating a successful business. These items can be purchased for prices ranging from $300-$100,000 (for a truckload). Here are a few guidelines to get your business started:

1) Know your market. It only makes sense that you purchase goods that you have an interest in re-selling. You'd be surprised, however, how many people try to sell things that they have no knowledge in, just because they sell well on auctions sites, or sell well in local markets/boutiques. Having a hobby, or area of expertise is essential to the success of your business. How else are you going to answer questions from your customers?

2) Narrow it down. So, let's say you have a few areas of expertise and aren't sure which types of goods would be most profitable. If your interest is online auction sites there are a few categories that you will profit most from. Electronics, gaming systems and games, authentic designer merchandise (clothes, shoes, handbags), collectibles (heirloom, vintage, estate sales pieces), and high-end beauty and makeup lines tend to sell the best on auction sites. They are a no-fail purchase because you will make money off of these products. They are in high demand now and will continue to be in the future.

3) Get organized. Before you even begin to think about purchasing wholesale, you need to understand that whether you are going to be doing this part time or full time, you must keep accurate record books for both expenditures and income, as you will need to report all earnings to the IRS. It's important to have a spreadsheet or other business software program, or even a business tax booklet on hand to record everything. (Most tax processing companies offer these for free)

Keep in mind, if you delegate a certain area of your home for your business, that room and anything in it or associated with it can be deducted as a business expense. That's right. Electricity, phone, internet, tv (if applicable), homeowners association dues, trash, water, heating oil, etc. You will receive a deduction based upon the square footage of the room in conjunction with the square footage of the home, or establishment in which your business is run.

Think about additional costs you might incur with your business: the cost of the goods you purchase from the wholesale or dropship companies, fax machines, printers, computers, digital cameras, telephones, inkjet cartridges, business cards, mailing and shipping supplies, postal shipping costs, and even gasoline expenses if you do any traveling in conjunction with your business. In addition, any fees associated with auction site's listing fees and final value fees, and any payment fees you incur form accepting online payments, can also be deducted. Jot everything down in your book or spreadsheet. You will be amazed at the deductions that are out there!

You must make sure you apply the same diligence to reporting and recording all income as well. Every payment you receive for the goods must be recorded and state tax must be charged (check with the IRS for your state's policies on in-state purchases from buyers) if the item is purchased from a resident of the state you are selling the item in.

You may also want to request a T.I.N. (taxpayer identification number) from your IRS office. They are happy to provide them. If you have your own business outside of your home, you are required to have one. If your business will be run from the confines of your home, and you won't be registering a name for your business, you don't need a T.I.N. You can use your SSN, for tax purposes. Keep in mind, some wholesale companies, depending upon which state they are located in, require that you provide them with your T.I.N or SSN before they will sell to you.

4) Contact a wholesale company. Now that you are prepared from a legal standpoint, it's time to purchase that load. There are thousands upon thousands of reputable companies you can work with. Many people take advantage of this and try to charge people for this information. I have worked with many great companies over the years, and can recommend some great sources that I have personally used, and still use to this day. If you choose to go your own route and search for your own company, please keep these tips in mind:

Look up a company's credentials. Check the BBB and look at their website to see which online organizations they are listed with. The BBBOnline Reliability Program is the best one. If a company has this logo listed on their site, they are a surefire success and can be trusted. Other things to look for are the quality of the website. Are there lots of pictures and does the site have a professional feel to it? Check the contact methods. Any good wholesale company will have at least one phone number, email address, and physical mailing address listed on their site, as well as an email opt-in list so you can receive mailings when they receive new goods to their warehouses.

Now, test their customer service. Call, or email them and ask them for some information on the type of merchandise you are looking to buy, and see the response you get. Any reputable company should respond to your email within 72 hours. If you call and are unable to reach an actual person, leave a detailed message. Phone calls should be returned within 48 hours. If you call and are able to speak with an employee of the company, tell them who you are and what you are looking for, ideally. They should ask you questions on the amount of money you have to spend, and should be able to offer solutions based upon your budget. Any wholesaler that tells you you have to have a certain amount of money to purchase from them is a fraud. You are the buyer. You know your limitations, and any reputable wholesale company will be able to accommodate your requests, within reason. Please don't think you can buy 1 or 2 items from these companies to "try them out." These companies move goods fast and can't afford to cater to these types of requests. But any reasonable request should be granted.

5) So, you found the company you want to work with: now what? Get in touch with a member of their staff and make them aware of the amount of money you have to spend. (Ideally, plan on at least $5,000 for a good-sized load of goods) and to be taken seriously with wholesalers. This is a general guideline only, from my experience. Request that the wholesaler send you a detailed "mainifest list." This is a detailed list of goods for each lot they have in stock. (Clothing items generally do not come with manifest lists, but the wholesaler can and should be able to give you the brand names of the items in the lot, so you have a good idea if it is a profitable lot or not.) Once you have the manifest list emailed or faxed to you, you can look it over and see the product name, retail price, and sku# for the item, and can then check it's profit margin on the auction site of your choice. Manifest lists will also come with a total retail value of the lot, so you can determine a baseline profit margin, if you were to purchase the load.

Typically speaking, and if you purchase "hot" items for your auctions or boutique, you can expect to pay about 20-35% of retail cost from a wholesale company. You can expect to make between 40-80% back from reselling these items, depending upon it's category and popularity!

6) I'm ready to purchase. Good. This is the final step of the process, and the beginning of an incredible journey for you. Wholesale companies should give you a variety of payment options. Some companies will even include shipping/handling in the cost of the lot! This can save you thousands of dollars! Once you are invoiced for the purchase and shipping costs (if applicable), if it hasn't been added, request that shipping insurance costs be added to the lot, to ensure it's safe arrival, and your money back, should these items get lost.

Payment methods vary from company to company. Some allow online credit card processing, some allow Paypal. (Most wholesale companies will charge a 3% fee for Paypal payments.) Bank wire, and money order/moneygram payments are also other options. You don't have to be leery if you've done your research, as these last 2 methods are actually preferred in this business.

Your purchase typically leaves the warehouse within 2 to 5 days, depending upon the size of the load you purchased. You should receive a tracking number from the wholesale company when it leaves the warehouse.

When you receive your goods, be sure to contact the company and let them know of your questions, comments, and concerns, if any. Most wholesalers will let you know that sometimes a few items that were listed on the manifest list, will be missing from your lot when you receive it. It's ok. This happens all the time. Wholesalers will add in comparable items of equal value to the lot in place of these items. So concerns such as these don't need to be addressed with the wholesale company. If you are purchasing new goods, you can expect that around 90% will have retail tags attached. Some will have sales stickers or marked down prices, and some won't. These are all things to expect.

One final note: some wholesalers will require you to sign a merchandise waiver with the understanding that these items are purchased on an as-is basis. This is normal, as these items are sold as-is 99% of the time and cannot be returned.

Congratulations! Your first wholesale load is ready for you to re-sell and make great money!

I am a stay at home, work at home, single mom. I have been fortunate enough to sell goods on eBay fulltime for the last 6 years. I created a website which lists several sites for legitimate wholesale and dropship companies. Contained within those links are access to THOUSANDS of reputable companies. I do not believe in charging for this information, as so many do. These sites and links are listed on my website for FREE! Feel free to visit my site:

[http://www.stefaneaseworld.com]

4 Things to Look For in a Dropshipper

    By john freech

You might be finding drop shippers left and right, but how do know if that dropshipper is worth dealing with? I strongly suggest that you find manufacturers who dropship. One reason you want to find a manufacturer who dropships is you are getting your product straight from the source instead of some middle man who is also getting their cut. Another reason why you want a manufacturer who dropships is so you don't have to deal so much with out of stock issues. Manufacturer who dropship usually have the capability to build the product if it goes out of stock. Which means in most cases, it really never goes out of stock unless they discontinue the product. If you can't find a manufacturer who dropship, find a dropshipper that does a good job of keeping stock. If they inform their customers when stock is getting low, that is always a plus. Even better, is a dropshipper who supplies data feeds. Data feeds can really save you time and they almost eliminate the whole issue of keeping track of stock.

Secondly, you want a dropshipper that requires a tax id number, resale license number, or something of that effect. Real dropshippers require a tax id number. If your drop shipper is open for business to Joe Shmoe, I guarantee the market is flooded and that product has no value. These people who claim to be dropshippers, but do not require a tax id number are selling product at retail or at best, slightly below retail. Stay far away from them.

Thirdly, you want a dropshipper who controls the sale prices of their product. I appreciate dropshippers who make all their customers have a MAP pricing or "minimum advertised price". This means that there is a level playing field. No one can advertise the product below the MAP price. This gives your product value and helps you to have a nice profit margin on your product.

Fourthly, you want a dropshipper that sells niche products. You don't want a dropshipper that is selling the same junk that you can get at a flee market. That's like trying to sell ice to Eskimos. The product that we sold that made us over $32,000 a year could not be found at your local electronics store. If I were to tell you the name of the product, most of you would have never heard of it. I believe in most cases these are the type of items you want to sell. Items that certain niche groups use. You want a dropshipper that sells these kind of items.

I hope this article helped you in some sort of way. Good luck on finding the dropshipper that works best for you.

Want to know more about eCommerce? Find out how Jon Lewis made over $32,000 a year selling products online. Check out his new book eCommerce Action Pack [http://ecommerceactionpack.com].

How to Work Out a Selling Price for Online Business

Find your retail price for your product

It does not matter what you are selling in the online business whether it's gifts, jewellery, clothing or even something in the service sector, if you have an online business using dropshipping. The retail price you charge will directly affect how your online business develops. Working out pricing may seem difficult, but in reality is clear-cut even when you work from home.

Your price has to cover costs and profit. It's no use getting thousands of sales, but not making profit because you're under charging. Some online businesses that work from Home price too low and fail to get enough revenue to give a profit.

The price should be sufficient to safeguard sales; if it's expensive you will not get customers to buy from you. Check you're pricing and ensure they reflect your costs, product demand, the competition and your objectives.

An efficient way to cut prices is to lower your overheads. If your doing the work from home instead of in a shop or office its ideal. When using a Dropshipping Wholesaler to supply your online business you can then work from home without the need to find somewhere to store the stock.

Before you start on your pricing structure, you need to determine the operation costs of your business, even when you Work from Home. To make sure you do not get into a negative cash flow situation your income has to meet all your expenditures which otherwise may diminish your financial funds leading to the collapse of the business. Using a Dropshipping wholesaler can increase cashflow by cutting down on purchasing and stocking products in the online business.

You need to calculate all your online business costs, even if you sat on the laptop doing your work from home, you still have business expenses, such as rent or mortgage payments, council tax, utilities, phone and you also need to allow for your profit, you haven't set up an online business to make a loss..

There are 3 main types of expense. Product costs, fixed costs and Variable costs.

The product costs, is the cost of the goods you sold, even using the Dropshipping process you need to cover the cost of stock, once you have calculated this it will provide your gross profit margin. Wrapping and carriage costs should also be comprised within this total. This working out is imperative to your online business, because at this point it is not viable, your not going to cover the cost of overheads, even when you work from home. The cost of products will be a reflection of your sales; you need to monitor any increase in the cost of the products and adjust the sales price accordingly (or reduce other overheads)

The fixed costs include premises costs, depreciation, salary, utilities, insurance, professional fees etc. If you Work from Home you should still allow for a portion of household bills borne by the online Business, in line with the amount of space used while you work from home. Fixed costs do not change very much, even when the amount of sales fluctuate up and down.

The variable expenses can change on a month to month basis, variable expenses like office and stationary, telephone, advertising, shipping and transport. Even if your doing work from home you should do some marketing to get prospective customers to see you. As you sell more then variable costs should also go up, for example the stock you buy from a dropshipping wholesaler, then as you sell less variable costs will drop. Seasonal periods throughout the year can cause variable expenses to change. To calculate the average monthly costing, determine your yearly cost and then divide it by 12.

Working out the selling price

The mark up formula is used by the majority of retailers and wholesalers and some manufacturers, irrespective of whether you work from home, office or warehouse. It's computed by starting with the cost of the Dropshipping product, and then you add a percentage or predetermined figure to the equation, this then provides your selling price. Be vigilant when doing your calculations new online business owners sometimes get confused between mark-up, which is a percentage of the costs, and the gross margin, a percentage of the sales price.

A manufacturer using this formula would generally multiply the staff product material expenses between 1.05 and 1.3. So a product that costs £1.40 to make will sell for around £1.47 to £1.82

A Dropshipping supplier buying from the manufacturer would multiply the price between 1.25 and 2. So a product costing £1.60 will sell for around £2.00 to £3.20 the wholesale price is generally sold net of VAT or "plus VAT" so the retailer might pay £2.60 plus 52p VAT, totalling £3.12 make sure that you have allowed for VAT when working out the costs. Even if you work from Home with an online business, you're still affected by VAT

An online business would multiply the Dropshipping price between 2.4 and 4 so a product costing £3.00 from a wholesaler would usually retail between £7.20 and £12.00 it is then normally rounded up to the appropriate sales price; in this example the final price would be around £7.50 or up to £11.99. The price should include any VAT unless selling to the trade.

You will probably have noticed that as the goods have passed through the different suppliers in the supply chain that the mark-up has increased. The reason for this is that the manufacturer produces products in large volumes, they sell 1000 items to a Dropshipping wholesaler at for £1600 earning 20p per item giving a £200 profit. The manufacturer will sell a number of product items to the Dropshipping wholesaler so by supplying 20 product items @ 1000 per item giving a total order value of £32000 providing a profit of £4000 per order.

The Dropshipping wholesaler will buy and store these products, then the online business retailer will order from the wholesaler, generally in multiples of 10 units at a time at a cost of £25 plus VAT per pack of 10 (£30 with the VAT), making the wholesaler 90p per unit or £9.00 per pack of 10. The retailer would buy a variety of different items, so they may order 30 lines of 10 units for £750, giving a profit of £270.

The retailer then retails each item at £7.99 making a profit of £4.99

The Cost + Formula

Most product manufacturers will use the cost plus formula for pricing. This method is where you start with the materials costs and then add on your staff outlays and a pre-determined quota for overheads then add on your desired profit, this will then give you a recommended selling price for the goods.

Competitive Pricing can be used when there is an existing product price already in the market. Usually whoever the market leader is, they will set the retail pricing, with other business attempting to contend by reducing prices to tempt customers away from the market leader. very often this can be a lethal mistake because in the end it can cheapen what could be a good product that is capable of long term rewards. When you're considering going down this path its worth considering that businesses need large resources behind it to afford to go into a price war and survive..

Price Correctly

To be able to price products correctly, you should be familiar with different pricing structures and know the difference between margin and mark-up. The margin is the sales percentage that's your profit. As an example, the selling price is £16.00 Cost price is £6.00 the margin would be 62.5% then the mark up should come to 166.67% with a gross profit of £10.00. The terms mentioned may commonly be exchanged in order to find the gross margin, although this a frequent misconception. Mark-up and margin are not the same. Mark up percentage is the difference between the sales price and the cost of the product in question shown as a percentage. Gross margin % is the variance between the sales price of the product and your profit. Some traders mistakenly believe that if a necklace is marked up by 50% then you're receiving a 50% gross margin on the sale. But in reality a 50% mark-up will only provide a gross margin of 33%

How to calculate profit margin after marking up.

Begin with the price of the product. Example 1 £5 cost price, mark up by 60% = £8.00 then £3.00 will be the gross profit, To obtain the gross margin divide your profit by the sales price £3.00/£8.00 equals 37.5%

Example 2 £7.00 cost price, mark up by £12.99 =£19.99 now your gross profit is £12.99 to work out the mark-up deduct the cost from the sales price then divide by the cost price £19.99 -£7.00 = £12.99 / £7.00 = 185.43% to obtain the profit margin divide your profit £12.99 by the sales price £19.99 £12.99 / £19.99 equals 64.96%

After you have worked out your online business costs such as rent, wages, business rates, advertising, office costs etcetera. You will then subtract these expenses from the gross profit margin. This calculation will be the pre-tax profit or loss. Although using a Dropshipping company for product sourcing and storage and by reducing costs and time if you work from home in the online business, you still need to correctly price up your Dropshipping products.

UK Dropshippers a Dropshipping [http://uk-dropshippers.co.uk/] company that's free to use, there are no fees to open an account. All goods are priced at wholesale rate. If you want to know how to make money and work from home [http://uk-dropshippers.co.uk/work-at-home/] with part time work with an Online Business, have a look at UK Dropshippers

Should I Borrow Money To Start My Business?

 by john freech


Finding start-up capital for a business can be a challenging undertaking. Whether you are just starting out or trying to take your business to the next level, you need additional cash to make it a reality. Likewise, small business advisors recommend having at least six months worth of operating capital when calculating start-up expenses.

What Is Debt Financing?

When financing a new venture, one of the main options available to most business owners is debt financing. Debt financing refers to loans from a number of sources including banks, government agencies, etc. A loan is the most common first set of financing for most small businesses and studies show that roughly 50 percent of small- and medium-sized enterprises depend on such funding for expenses such as buying equipment and other tangible assets. The main characteristics of a loan include mandatory reimbursement and a fixed rate of interest on the principal amount.

Advantages Of Debt Financing

Withdebt financing, you are in control of your own destiny regarding your business. You do not have investors or partners to answer to and you make all the decisions. Most importantly, youown any and all profits you make.

Moreover, new small- and medium-sized business owners can draw on several sources for loans and long-term debt financing including banks, Small Business Administration(SBA) programs, etc. With many of these funding options, the interest on the loan is tax-deductible. As a result, these programs help shield a significant chunk of your business income from taxes in addition to lowering your tax liability every year.

Many of these loan arrangementsalso have more favorable terms for small businesses than traditional commercial bank loans. If you can borrow at least a portion the money from a friend or family member, you may be able to negotiate more flexible repayment terms than a commercial lender would permit including lower rates of interest and steering clear of paying loan fees.

Disadvantages Of Debt Financing

The disadvantages of borrowing money for a small business are many. In many cases, new business owners are weighed down with large loan payments at precisely the time when they need funds for start-up costs. Not making the loan payments can ruin the owners' credit ratings and make borrowing in the future difficult or impossible.

Many commercial banks also requireyou to assign a security interest in your property to obtain a loan, which may place your personal assets at risk. Moreover, there is always a possibility of legal action against the borrower over any unpaid balance of the loan, even if it is unsecured. Finally, any time you use debt financing, you are running the risk of bankruptcy.

To conclude, deciding whether to borrow money or not is a complex decision depending on a number of factors including your personal financial situation, the terms of the potential loan, and the type of business you plan to open. In such a situation, it is recommended that you take the advice of a financial consultant who specializes in small business issues in exploring your individual choices.

Wholesale forum is one of its kinds of dropshipping directory and dropshipping reviews, where you can interact with different people and share your knowledge about dropshipping and wholesale dropshippers.

Finding a Reputable Electronics Dropshipper Can Be Easy If You Know How

  by john freech


A search for dropshippers electronics may return hundreds of dropship electronics supplier results which may appear difficult and time consuming to sort through.

Learn the benefits of locating the right electronics dropshipping company for you and your business.

The term drop-shipping simply means that you find a supplier who ships products directly to your customers without you having to deal with inventory, taxes, or packaging. As far as your customers are concerned, they believe that they purchased the goods straight from you without having to reveal your hidden source.

A good electronics dropshipper allows drop-ship orders for all registered customers without any hassle nor will they use that information for any personal company use either. Furthermore, you should make sure that they do not hit you with any additional charges whether they are up front or much later on. No reputable dropshippers of electronics will try to conceal any hidden clauses that may cause you to end up paying more later.

After locating a legitimate electronics dropshipping supplier you should be able to simply order from their online website in the same way you would order a product for yourself, but input different delivery addresses to make sure they reach the correct address of each of your individual customers. If the dropship electronics company has hired a good programmer they should be able to provide you a convenient and easy-to-use address book which allows you to add, edit, and delete any new customer shipping addresses on-the-fly during all your checkout processes when paying for drop ship orders. Look out for those companies that try to limit the number of addresses that you can input into your customer address book as that should never be an issue.

To make sure each of your dropship orders are processes without any difficult it is best that you note any special comments, requirements or needs of the customer into the comments box of an order so that your electronics dropshipper will know when preparing a package for delivery. Usually they will always have staff on hand to double check each order carefully prior to a shipment, in case of potential fraud purchases, just in case the shipping address is different to the billing address. If you are a brand new drop-shipping customer the dropship electronics distributor may need additional information for verification purposes such as an email address or contact phone number you to verify your identity before processing the first few initial orders.

Another thing to look for in a respectable electronics dropshipping wholesaler is that they don't inadvertently include self-promoting publicity brochures or invoices with their company letterhead when sending dropship goods to your customers. This is to protect your own reputation as a seller and create more loyalty from your hard earned customers. If your customers do not know the true source of where the goods came from they will not know the exact price that you were given and therefore won't bypass you and go straight to the supplier instead. This definitely helps protects your profits.

The prices shown on the shipping invoice should be different to what your customer had paid you. However, if any of your customers ever inquire about it you can let them know that the total values shown are for customs declaration only. Regardless, a lower price declared greatly helps reduce any potential duty or sales taxes that your customer may incur when receiving imported goods in certain countries. Your customers will appreciate this matter much more when you make them aware of it.

Another benefit of an electronics dropshipper is during situations where your customer may have technical support issues, or maybe they want to return a product. Be aware that they initially will have to contact you first, since they do not know the source of your goods, but a prominent electronics dropshipping company will have technical managers on hand to help troubleshoot and alleviate any problems that may arise from the goods that were sold.

As a final note about import taxes it is your responsibility as the dropship buyer to find out any information about taxes and inform your customers before ordering from your electronics dropshipper. This is important for dropshippers of electronics as the onus shouldn't be placed on the dropshiper electronics suppliers since they should not be the one to accept any responsibility whatsoever for providing tax information relevant to your country. However, a trustworthy electronics dropshipping wholesaler will do whatever they can to help you minimize the tax burden especially if you or your customers have special packing and/or declaration instructions.

Visit DropshipperElectronics.com [http://www.dropshipperelectronics.com/] for more information.

eBay Dropshipping Business - Earn Thousands a Month

 by john freech

For all those people who have been struggling in making online money. eBay has initiated an excellent money making opportunity where one can earn thousands a month with little or no money. This home based business opportunity is known as "eBay Drop Shipping". This provides you with a home based business opportunity that now even an Internet dummy can make thousands a month with little or no money. The greatest thing about it is that you don't even have to stock the inventory which you are about to sell on eBay. Now what this "eBay drop shipping" really is?

The "drop shipping" phenomenon really is that you sell a product of other company and you don't even have to maintain the inventory of the product you are selling. This is near to affiliate marketing but there's a subtle difference between these two. In drop shipping, you transfer the risks of transferring the product to the whole sale drop shipping companies. That happens in the affiliate marketing too so what's the difference between these two? So the difference is that you can even have your company's name, web site's name or your recognition branded on that delivered package which means that the recipient will consider this package to be transferred by your company or website thus making your brand popular. You can ask the drop shipping companies whether they provide this facility. Secondly in affiliate marketing, you get a pre-determined commission on every product. However in drop shipping, your profit depends on the difference between what you have paid for that product and the price at which your customer has bought the product from you or simply the difference between whole sale price and retail price. Are you stunned by the phrase, "What you have paid for the product"? Technically speaking, actually you don't have to pay for the product. This is how it is done.

You sign up for a retailer account in any drop shipping company's website. It is usual that the companies ask for your tax I.D. You search for a product with high demand and modest conversion rate and ask the company that you want to sell that product. Upon acceptance of your application, you ask for some snaps, description or features of that product and post these attributes on the eBay (provided you have an eBay seller's account). Let's say that product cost you $100 on whole sale and definitely you would sell that product for more than $100. After successful bidding, a customer of yours buy that product for say $120 and pays you online. You receive $120 at the spot. When you receive the payment, you place the order to that parent drop shipping company and pay them the whole sale cost of $100. Thus you are pocketing pure $20 profit. When you place an order to that whole sale drop shipping company, you write the address of your customer's location or where the product is to be delivered. Thus all the headache of transferring that product rests with that drop shipping company and you are making online money for just acting as a middle man with no headache of maintaining, storing and delivering the inventory.

Now a question must be boggling in your mind that why would a customer buy from you and why not from any body or any where else? The reply would be because you are offering that particular product at whole sale rate. Now you understand why I kept on typing the term "whole sale drop shipping companies" because you are delivering the items at whole sale rate and the above item or product which is available at $120 at might have cost them $300 or even more if they have bought it from any where else.

So this is an online money making, home based opportunity which is worth trying. Remember I stated at the beginning that even an internet dummy can make thousands a month with this but you sure require some marketing skills to successfully market the product. So try this opportunity and earn handsome money but keep in your mind that this is not some thing where you start making thousands the very next you set up this online business. I reckon you should be patient and consistent to be successful.

I regularly blog about Accounting and Finance, Technology, Blogging, gaming and many other topics.

Please visit my blog, The Usual Stuff

Do I Need A Tax ID To Deal With Dropship Suppliers?

 by john freech


Starting a dropship business is not a dauntingly uphill task. All you need is the right kind of resources and a bit of research. If one were to draw up a flowchart of things to do to start a dropship business then you would only need to decide the items or products that you wish to sell, decide which medium, website or websites that you would use to sell the products, choose one or more dropship companies or suppliers and start selling. Albeit there are management aspects wherein you have to keep amending your list of products, stay upbeat with the best prices and keep altering your marketing strategies.

There is only one point of contention in the flowchart that has not been aforementioned. That is a Tax ID. Dropship companies would need you to have a Tax ID, a sales tax id to be specific, for you to do business with them. Getting a Tax ID requires money, there is some fairly extensive paperwork and you would also need to properly audit your sales records and keep paying taxes, as per the various statutes. Not many people, especially those who are just planning to start a dropship business for the first time, would be interested in either making the investments to get a Tax ID or in going through the entire process of applying, getting approved and bookkeeping that a Tax ID would demand.

Dropship companies would not deal with sellers or wholesale suppliers that do not have a Tax ID and from that perspective you wouldn't be able to get started unless you have one. But there is a solution to the situation. You can start a dropship business without having a Tax ID, for which you would need to work with buying agents. There are many companies and independent buying agents who facilitate the procurement of products and services from dropship suppliers. These buying agents have their Tax IDs and work on very nominal commission. The commission wouldn't hurt your profit since you are not indulging in any futile expenses. These buying agents will help you to get the wholesale costs and you can go about the dropship business just as how you would do it had you dealt with the dropship companies directly.

As you start establishing your business, you can always apply for the Tax ID and pay for it from your revenue and start procuring from dropship companies directly.

Finding such buying agents may be difficult especially if you are looking for an agent that will not inflate the wholesale prices. Fortunately there is such a service provided by wholesale2b.com.

You will be charged the exact same wholesale prices as provided by the dropship suppliers and for a 3% fee + $2.50 per order, wholesale2b will handle all orders with the suppliers for you. This includes both order fulfillment and handling of returns.

Open an account with wholesale2b.com now and start selling over 1.4 Million Dropship Products.

Starting a Wholesale Dropshipping Business? - Do Not Forget Your Tax ID Number

  by john freech

There are several ways of selling on eBay. If you want to clean out your attic or garage you can put the items that are still of any value for sale on the auction site. Someone else might be interested in them. But if you put up a price for them, do not forget to put down included or excluded shipping. This way you can prevent any disappointments for you and your potential customer.

Selling in eBay like described above is free to do for anybody. You do not need to worry about sales tax or income tax or other charges. This is different when you decide to become an e-commerce entrepreneur. Then you do need to put all your tax affairs in order otherwise you will find it is hard to do business with anybody.

One of the popular e-commerce businesses of today is wholesale dropshipping. That is easy to understand since this kind of business hardly needs any investment from your part and you do not need to keep an inventory. You put items for sale on any site you create or on eBay, you receive your clients' money and then you put their order through with your dropshipping company. They will handle the order and make sure your client gets it timely.

In order to be able to register with any wholesale dropshipping company you need to have your tax ID number. That is if you are an American resident. If a wholesale company does business with you without having your tax ID number they could be up for a penalty. Besides you need to pay sales tax for the sold items. If you live outside the US you do not need to have the tax ID number.

But having a tax ID number has it favorable sides as well. You are getting some tax breaks when you are an independent working from home entrepreneur. But to file for these you have to have your ID number of course. You can also go to trade shows where you get in touch with wholesale dropshipping companies and see for yourself what they have to offer you. If you have your tax ID number.

Once your business becomes very successful - and that is not imaginary - you might contemplate hiring some staff. Full time, part time, students... it does not matter who and for how many hours, if you want to hire staff legally you have to have the tax ID number. So it is best to arrange all that in an early stage when you are setting up your business. If you have to wait for your success you will not have anything to fear from the IRS, as far as paying tax is concerned. But you can already enjoy the advantages!

As Seen on BBC News, FORBES and CNN Money
See: Wholesale Dropshipper (Platinum Edition) and Turnkey Store Online
Sonny S. Wilsons built his online business without knowing any HTML programming. He is now an eBay Powerseller, bringing in over $1 Million in yearly sales, selling everyday consumer products. Learn how he uses turnkey wholesale dropshippers to build his business into what it is today in barely 15 months.

5 Steps to an eBay Store

  by john freech

eBay has been one of the few internet business that have grown at an exponential rate over the years.

No matter if the brand is an already well established brand or a new entrepreneur, everyone that the help of eBay in attracting more customers towards its company.

One of the reasons why eBay is growing so fast is that it accommodates businessmen in a lot of ways from allowing them to make banking arrangements to committed customer support.

eBay owns a massive customer base so any product-based business would flourish on it and due to its high client base, your products would be exposed to a vast customer range.

Why should we be using an online auction site such as eBay? Mainly because it is available at low costs, it is exposed to a large customer market and the transactions are pretty easy and convenient.

As any business, success would only come to you if you work smartly and effectively. Choosing products that are in high demand in the market and targeting the correct customer market are the only ways through which you can assure the success of your business.

Apart from numerous, other strategies and steps through which your effective eBay store is guaranteed, following are the five steps which, if worked on properly, would lead to an effective store.

1. The very first thing is to set up an account. To do so, you need to provide your bank details for them to verify your account. After that you need to decide on the mode of payment meaning how you would want your customers to pay you.

2. The second and the most essential part of setting up your store is the preparation of your items for sale. In preparing your products you need to keep in mind the demand of your product and the price of your product. See the market trends and then set a list accordingly. Make sure to check the list of prohibited items on eBay and then start your product selection.

3. Once your products are selected, start preparing lists of your items. A sales brochure should be created having a complete and catchy description along with a picture of the product would do the job.

4. The mode of payment should be selected. PayPal is often the most preferable one, as it provides a complete payment system. Your sales would tend to be higher if you have a PayPal payment mode option.

5. Make sure to receive the payments before dispatching of the products. Once all the thing ends, both the buyer and the seller should leave a feedback on how their experience was. Try to get as many positive feedbacks as possible as that would help you in building a good reputation amongst your competitors.

Before starting off your business make sure to study all the ground realities that are there related to your products. Another important factor that directly influences your store sales and reputation is how you present your store. A store with an elegant and professional look would always attract more customer traffic as these things would help build the customers trust in you. More the trust, higher would be your sales.

The above mentioned 5 steps would help you to build an effective and successful ebay store or get services from custom ebay template Shop design.

eBay Stores and e-Commerce Website Choices - Build It In-House or Hire a Professional?

by john freech

When you have made the decision to get your products online via eBay and/or your own eCommerce website, what is the next step?

First Question: Build it in-house or hire a professional?

Yes, you can build your companies eBay store and website with talent already existing within your organization.

Website design is taught at most high schools or community colleges these days so, chances are good that your employee pool may have budding web designer talent. Are you ready to trust your company marketing and image to that in house talent is the real question?

eBay provides numerous tools and a great deal of information for anyone to accomplish the task of getting a store up and running. The question is... does eBay provide these tips and tricks to help you as a business or to help their business? Obviously, if you are a seasoned business professional you will soon realize that a company such as eBay does nothing without a reason.

eBay Stores

Most of eBay's teaching tools and to a certain extent, eBay's entire growth strategy is based upon making the process of setting up an eBay selling account and consequently an eBay store easy for home based businesses. eBay wants mom & pop to go garage sale shopping with an eye towards making a few extra bucks for the cookie jar. To that end they want to get mom & pop up and running with an eBay store as soon as possible (and funneling fees into eBay).

Just because eBay has based a majority of their marketing focus on home based businesses does not mean that an eBay store is not a valuable asset for any established brick and mortar retailer or other "real" business concern. eBay is simply going after the largest number of potential users of their products. Unfortunately this also leads to numerous eBay store failures...

These home based eBay store owners do not have the prior background, sources or resources to take advantage of the world wide marketing giant and revenue producer now known as eBay. Therefore, while getting your company eBay store up and running may seem to be an easy in-house task for any intern, or kid just out of college with a great computer science degree... the real nuts & bolts set up and operation of an eBay store or e-commerce solution or both in tandem (the best option) is better left to professionals who work with eBay and e-commerce each and every day. If you are reading this because you are interested in moving your business more into an Internet sales based program you should consider the wisdom of hiring eBay and Internet marketing professionals to help you and your company get a head start toward those goals.

Still Thinking About Doing it yourself?

Building an online business requires ability in several completely different arenas: graphic design, programming, database development, Web design, copywriting, photography, and online marketing. This is just a short list of what is required to start from scratch or to add Internet marketing to your sales operation. If you have these skills in-house or if you plan on learning them yourself, please take this advice to heart.

Make a list of your employees' available skills as well as which skills they can learn. When you have a choice between learning a skill that will directly translate into making more money for your company or learning a skill that will let you do cool stuff on the Web, make a careful choice. Decide how much time you really want to devote to learning and doing things that really don't help you sell more products. Do you want to be an online retailer, or do you want to be a Web developer? The highest and best use of your available time & resources probably isn't learning the ins and outs of XHTML, but taking care of customers, finding new products, and promoting your business.

Making it Happen

Anything you can do yourself on a website design or to a eBay Store can be delegated or outsourced. You can hire eBay Stores Certified design professionals to design your eBay store from the ground up, create a custom logo, develop a corporate identity with unique colors and fonts, build your store product database, take product photos, write sales copy, perform search engine optimization on your site, custom-build XHTML templates that do almost anything you want them to do, and even manage your orders and perform customer service. It all depends on your budget.

After you've decided that you need help, you have lots of choices to make. The first decision is the size of your budget, which determines who you can hire. You can find prices for "building a eBay Store" that range anywhere from $300 to $5,000 and up. You can get a bargain using offshore designers (working anywhere from eastern Europe to India), college kids, or even professional designers moonlighting out of their basement. If you want a more "professional" experience, expect to pay up to $15,000 for a complete branding, marketing, and design package from top-drawer eBay store and Internet marketing firm. Both your web e-commerce site and your eBay store should present your branding and image as you expect them to. Getting the eBay image and your website image to mesh almost seamlessly is your goal, this can be quite difficult for even experienced web designers.

Using a CMS or Content Management System type of website design can significantly reduce your web design costs. There are a huge amount of new and exciting options available for web development, do not think you must use a "hand coded" html site to get your branding and image in front of the public. Some companies are even using simple blogging platforms like Wordpress or Typepad as the basis for corporate websites. These blogging platforms are very inexpensive to set up and the software is free. These CMS or Blogging platforms may also be used in conjunction with an eBay store or a with an eCommerce plug in (or both) to craft a unique Internet marketing funnel for your company.

You get what you pay for...

eBay store designs can run between $2,000 to $5,000 from a qualified eBay Stores designer. eCommerce website designs sometimes run in the tens of thousands of dollars with continual maintenance costs and webmaster fees. If your budget makes you choose between the two options, an eBay store is the more economical and faster route to success when managed correctly. Subsequently an off eBay eCommerce site can be developed for your best selling items. This allows you to use the power of eBay for marketing and SEO purposes while saving eBay fees on sales made through your own eCommerce website.

The best part of an eBay stores set up is that once it is installed as you want it, you have very few outside maintenance costs. Your company will have complete control of the products presentation (with the use of a template) and the inventory management is a simple to learn affair on eBay. Advanced tools are available to help with the management of large inventories and to help you create a listing just as you would within a word processing program or text editor.

When you get a quality eBay Stores design, sometimes the results are more than just superficial. Qualified designers improve the shopping experience, which can dramatically increase sales from your existing traffic by increasing your conversion rate. Also, many designs, when set up correctly improve the way your site looks to search-engine spiders, too! (This is the power of an eBay stores "me" page and other exclusive features and benefits of eBay stores packages).

After you determine what parts of the store building process you can do and what you can't do or would rather not do, you're ready to look for some help with the heavy lifting. First, you have to decide what type of vendor you want to work with because there's a big difference between working with a freelancer or independent consultant and working with a large design company or eBay Stores certified design specialists StoresDesigner.

eBay Stores certified design specialists - eBay Stores Designer

eBay Stores certified design specialists (certified eBay stores designers) provide the best overall experience. Your company will get the personalized attention it deserves and you will know that the design is based upon eBay marketing principles. Look at the portfolios of these certified eBay stores designers and decide which firm best represents your companies' image. Stay away from home based eBay stores designers with frilly eBay templates and flashy bouncing mouse pointers. You should be looking more for a corporate image that sells product and more importantly, cross sells more products for your company.

Look at the online stores you frequent in your daily life, think about the type of image and features you would like to emulate for your eBay store. Look at the designer's portfolios and or ask them if the features you think are most valuable are available in their design packages? Some eBay stores designers can deliver very advanced packages designed to promote more than one primary product at a time. If you are looking for growth in your Internet sales segment, these are the designers to contract with. Talk with several designers to find the one you are most comfortable with and the one who you think will represent the image of your company best with an online design. If the same designer can also develop your off eBay website e-commerce design, you should place that designer high on your list of candidates.

Having a web presence for your company which flows from eBay to your own website with the same "look and feel" is very important. Your goal should be to make your customers feel confident in your products and your company. If you (and your design company) have made an effort to create a nearly seamless shopping experience between eBay and your own e-commerce website, the confidence of the buyer will increase and your conversion rate will as well. Drawing eBay shoppers to your website from within eBay is not only possible, but very probable with a eBay store design done correctly.

Ask your prospective design firm the right questions and you will know immediately if you have made the best choice. Example Questions:

Are you a certified eBay Stores Designer?
Do you have examples of cross marketing designs?
Can you create an eBay stores design which matches my existing website or can you create an e-commerce design to match your eBay stores design?
Is SEO important for eBay?
How important is a eBay about me page?
Do your templates appear correct on all of the major browsers?
What kind of changes can be made to the design after your job is complete? (Can I offer a special sale item in my listing template?)
If your chosen designer is not informed in these questions you should look further. Not every eBay or Internet design firm has the necessary skills or background to help your company effectively cross-market your products. Find the right design firm which will give your firm a solid foundation from which to grow and prosper in the new world of Internet retailing.

Scott Pooler - Captain eBay

Article: [http://allbusinessauctions.com/blog/2008/01/23/ebay-stores-and-e-commerce-website-choices]

[http://www.allbusinessauctions.wordpress.com] - eBay Trading Assistant Journal

[http://www.allbusinessauctions.com/blog] - All Business Auctions eBay Business Blog

What Is eBay Best Match And How To Improve eBay Search Results

Best Match is the system according to which listings are returned in response to searches to ensure a better experience for eBay buyers. eBay introduced the Best Match search method in 2006 testing it in regional markets and finally making it site-wide in 2007.

While there was initial seller resistance to the system it has proved to be a workable and fair system.

The first thing to note is that Best Match is not the same as Google Search, which is entirely based on matching words and phrases, uniqueness, arrangements of words and paragraphs, internal website links and external links. eBay Best Match draws on word matches to a much lesser extent and instead brings other criteria into play.

eBay gives advantages to sellers whose deliver a high level of customer satisfaction according the Detailed Seller Ratings, so that sellers with high seller ratings (calculated over the previous 30 days) receive more exposure in the listing. Usually about half of all sellers meet this criterion.

The flip side of this arrangement is that

1. sellers with more than 5% dissatisfied buyers in the 30 days preceding the search and

2. sellers who have low ratings according to the Shipping & Handling Charge Detailed Seller Ratings

get lesser exposure on eBay best match search result. Decreased seller ratings will mean decreased visibility.

Everything else being equal, including price, and time ending, the seller rated lower in either or both of these ratings will be sorted lower that of the other seller. Buyer satisfaction is not the only feature of eBay Best Match.

Keyword relevance is important (although not as important as it is for Google Search). Historical buyer behavior on eBay for similar searches may also affects your search result ranking.

If your listings are not ranking high in eBay search results, you should address all the following factors and try to improve them through competitive pricing and better service. The factors to address are:

o Keywords

o Item specifics

o Price and shipping costs

o Feedback

o Detailed seller ratings

o Shipping & handling detailed seller ratings

o Return policies

Also make sure that the form of listing, the auction end time and the all-round presentation of the listing is user-friendly and logical. Bear in mind that the philosophy underlying Best Match is "relevance". Make each and every piece of information you key in regarding your product entirely relevant. Do away with superfluity.

Nobody knows exactly how eBay Best Match works. If your listing is not "working", i.e. not attracting buyers, then before blaming Best Search you should "rethink" every details, descriptions and photos of your listings too.

If a product is search for, found and bought then this will reflect in the rankings. If a product is rarely searched, sometimes found and rarely bought then this will be factored into relevance calculations and therefore might display higher on the page in subsequent searches.

Jenny How is a full time eBay Powerseller. She has been earning a living from eBay since 3 years ago after a surgery which left her with facial paralysis. She publishes free eBay tips [http://www.jennyhow.com] and practical guides on how to sell on eBay [http://www.jennyhow.com].

More in depth articles and tips posted at her site [http://www.jennyhow.com]

How to Improve the Revenue You're Currently Getting From Your High Ticket Consulting Business

  by john freech

Running a high ticket consulting business is tough. It needs a lot of attention and a lot of hard work. It is but just right that you get the kind of earnings that you deserve from this endeavor. Here's how you can make that happen:

Get a powerful website. The first thing that you need to focus on is to ensure that your website represents you well in the online arena. Your first time visitors will surely not waste their time coming back is your website is just a waste of their time. So, invest on getting a knockout website. Ensure that it's visually-appealing and content-rich. People who are giving you a visit must be convinced that you (the person behind your website) are someone who is credible and someone that they can really trust.

Invest time and money on your advertising campaign. I am sure you're going up against a lot of people who are also trying to earn decent living through this endeavor. To make sure that you get ahead of the pack, I suggest that you make your marketing campaign even more aggressive and targeted as much as possible. Invest money in using paid advertising tools (search engine marketing, banner and PPC ads, and paid links) which are proven to offer you with great results in as little time as possible. Then, invest time in using article marketing, blogging, social media marketing, and in writing and distributing informative ebooks.

Referrals. Always give your buying customers 100% satisfaction. Ensure that you offer them the best solutions to the things that they're going through and expert advice on how they can reach their goals. You cannot afford to let these people down. Why? It's because you need them to recommend your services to other people in the online arena. Having a lot of people that can attest to the effectiveness of your offerings can surely help in influencing the buying decision of your prospects.

Offer free sessions. Whenever I go to the mall, I always encounter sellers asking me to try their products for free. One time, a lady offered me to taste her newest brownies. The other time, I was asked to try a chair massager. These sellers understand that in order to get people to buy from them, they need to make these people see what's in store for them. If their prospects are impressed, then they'll surely make a purchase. You should do the same to boost your sales and revenue. You can do this by offering free sessions to all those people who have previously expressed their interest over your offerings.

By the way, would you like to get the newbie-friendly insider's secrets to building a stable, thriving business online... year after year? Swing on by our friendly Business Builders Cafe at http://infobusinessuniversity.com/cafe for the latest freshly-made marketing techniques... that just plain work beautifully. You'll love what you receive!

Owner Financing Real Estate - How to Improve Value by Selecting the Best Interest Rate

  By john freech


The interest rate a seller agrees to accept when providing owner financing to the buyer has a large impact on the investment value.  Unfortunately, many sellers overlook this important decision.  Here's why the percentage charged on a seller carry back is such a big deal.

Inflation Fighter

Each year it seems the cost to buy the basics just keeps going up.  It's not your imagination; it's inflation.  In fact in July 2008 that inflation rate was 5.6 percent higher than in July 2007 (based on the Consumer Price Index reported by the U.S. Department of Labor on August 14, 2008). Worse yet, some basic items like energy increased 29.3% over that same time frame.

So what does inflation have to do with seller financed real estate?  Well a seller would need to charge an amount at least equivalent to the inflation rate just to break even!

Return on Investment

Rather than just breaking even, a seller desires a return on their investment.  By accepting an IOU or payments from the buyer that money is tied up. Plus, once the property is sold the new owner will be the one to directly benefit from any increase in property value.

The seller is now acting as the bank and should expect a return at least equal to what a bank is demanding for a similar loan.   The seller does not have the protection of private mortgage insurance that many banks require adding another level of risk that should be rewarded by an increased rate.

Since the buyer is saving the costs a traditional bank might charge for a loan (points, underwriting fees, origination fees, etc.) it is reasonable to expect them to pay above what a bank would charge. On average, it is recommended that a seller financed transaction be set at 2 to 4 percentage points higher than bank rates to compensate for these matters.

Improves Resale Value

If a seller ever desires to sell their future note payments for a lump sum of cash, they will quickly realize how important the terms are to investors. While they look to a variety of factors to determine pricing, all things being equal, a higher interest rate results in a higher purchase price from an investor.

For example, a seller holds a private mortgage with a balance of $100,000 with monthly payments of $1,110.21.  If the mortgage rate is 6% and the investor wants a 9% yield then the offer would be $87,641.  Now if the rate was 4% the offer would decrease to $81,623.  On the flip side the offer would increase by thousands of dollars to $95,274 if the face rate was 8%.

For simplicity of comparison, these examples assume the monthly payment amount remains the same and there are acceptable credit, equity, and documentation.  But you get the idea, the higher the interest rate the more valuable the note.

No Take-Backs

The time to give serious consideration to the interest rate is at the time of creation.  There are no take-backs or do-overs.  The percentage you agree to accept at closing stays the same for the life of the note.

The only way to change it later is to get the buyer to agree and execute a formal modification.  It's highly unlikely a buyer or payer is going to agree to have their interest rate increased at a later date (unless there is some advantage to them).

Be sure to give the amount of interest charged on a seller financed note serious thought.  It will affect the value of your payments not only today, but also far into the future.

Tracy Z. Rewey has been making money full time with owner financing for over 20 years.

Gain knowledge from a well-known cash flow expert and author through real life examples. Read in-depth articles and sign up to receive a free weekly eletter at: http://www.noteinvestor.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Tracy_Z_Rewey/310629



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2404314

How to Improve Sales - Revealed - 5 Targeted Steps to Multiply Your Sales

Every business owner dreams of multiplying their sales as this would literally mean more profits and business growth. Here's how you can improve your sales:

1. Goal setting. What they say is true; goals tremendously help people succeed in their endeavor. So, before you go ahead and sell your products, set up attainable, measurable, and specific goals first. Don't worry as doing this is relatively easy. Just think of the things that you would like to achieve like secure at least 2 sales in a day or 14 sales in a week. These goals will keep you on track and they will surely keep you motivated.

2. Learn the art of humor. Truth be told, being serious and sounding too stiff can dramatically decrease your chances of making a sale. Experience has taught me that having the ability to make your prospects laugh is the easiest way to their credit cards. Relax when doing your sales presentation. Be ready to think on your feet and make some situations sound humorous. Keep a positive attitude all throughout.

3. Prepare ahead of time. Before you meet with your potential buyers, make sure that you are prepared and ready. You need to know what to say when and how you can address common objections. You must also have ready answers for all their product-related questions. Keep in mind that productive meetings will surely lead to the next step of the sales cycle.

4. Focus on the needs and demands of your prospects. Instead of doing your sales pitch the moment you meet up with your clients, it would be better if you can discover their needs and demands first. Ask probing questions and get your prospects to talk about their problems and their goals. By knowing all these information, you'll know easily how you can present your products and services in a way that these people will find them more valuable and enticing.

5. No pain, no gain. If you want to be successful in increasing your sales, you must break through from your comfort zone. Invest time and effort to become a better seller. Your may attend trainings and seminars that can help you improve your selling and persuasion skills. Also, you need to spend time analyzing your weaknesses. Ask yourself, what are the things that I am doing that cost me sales? Knowing these information can help you create an action plan as to how you can convert your weaknesses to strengths.

By the way, would you like to get the newbie-friendly insider's secrets to building a stable, thriving business online... year after year? Swing on by our friendly Business Builders Cafe at http://infobusinessuniversity.com/cafe for the latest freshly-made marketing techniques... that just plain work beautifully. You'll love what you receive!

Checkouts & Security - Your Web Host Is Key

From a commercial site owner's perspective, the checkout is the most rewarding of all site pages. It's the reason the site was built - to generate sales. Smooth, hassle-free transactions.

Unfortunately seven out of ten visitors who place an item in their carts never complete the sale. Many times, the problem lies in the site's checkout - its look, feel, security and most importantly, its ease of use.

Your web designer and host should offer a tool box of checkout solutions free, or at preferential pricing. Your web host should also provide the server security you want and need.

What Do Potential Buyers Expect At The Checkout?

The same thing they expect in a brick-and mortar outlet. Convenience, no long lines, security and politeness. So, how do these visitors' needs translate to a site's checkout design?

Convenience:

Numerous payment options are a convenience. Naturally, any site must accept credit cards - the big ones, any way. But what about PayPal, electronic bank transfer or how about an old-fashioned, hard copy check or mail order? The more ways to pay, the more sales are made. And a one-click checkout option for regulars boosts sales even more.

No Long Lines

Clear, easy-to-follow directions on every check-out page. And limit the number of checkout clicks and checkout pages.

Security

And plenty of it. Buyers expect complete, secure encryption of their transactions. They want to see the padlock lower-right, the http s in the address box and an SSL secure logo. Or no sale.

Politeness

Checkout copy that's reassuring. The ability to back out to previous pages and a follow-up thank-you/confirmation e-mail are all ways of demonstrating commitment to customer care.

Checkout Apps

Checkouts are available as separate applications that simply bolt on to your site's back office. Some of these checkouts are open source, while others cost a few bucks.

osCommerce is an open source application that's under constant development by experts from the ecommerce community who volunteer their time to refine this free and fee-free software. It's a great option for start ups - simple interface, straightforward administrator's console and compliant with all site servers - a critical consideration.

MIVA Merchant 5 comes in at the other end of the checkout spectrum, providing numerous checkout options, a feature rich administrator console, sales metrics, visitor tracking and many more features.

Most web hosts offer open source checkouts as part of their applications libraries, a real money saver when first starting out. And upgrading to a more sophisticated checkout is easy for the site owner and the hosting service.

Web Hosting and Checkout Security.

If you've been in business on-line for a year, you have a great deal of sensitive data stored on your web host's server. Names, addresses, credit card numbers - a veritable treasure trove to any script-kiddie or cracker. The information collected during the buyer checkout process must be secure for the sake of your business and for the sake of your buyer's confidence in your enterprise.

Regardless of whether you opt for an open source checkout or spend big bucks on the out-of-the-box supermall edition, your web host should provide site security in several ways.

SSL Certification

In order the take credit card payments, sites must be SSL certified and receive an SSL ID code.

Any reputable site host supports SSL certified secure connections. So, if you subscribe to a shared hosting package, in which you share server space with other sites, you'll be able to use the host's SSL certification to accept credit card payments through your site. There shouldn't be a charge for this since the host must have the SSL cert any way.

Is There A Steel Cage Around Your Checkout?

If a site accepts credit cards and uses other payment options (PayPal, Paystation, etc.), it must be secure. Now, a site owner can (and should) install quality software on the business system, but that's just the beginning. What kind of security does your hosting service offer?

Sensitive customer data, names, addresses and credit card numbers, make small sites attractive targets to hackers. And since this sensitive data is stored on your business system and your host server, that web host better have state of the art security on its shared and private servers.

And not just one layer of protection - a firewall and virus zapper. To protect the business and keep check-out transactions private, web hosts require multiple layers of security to protect against a variety of digital malpractice: brute force attacks, wardriving, malware injections and other forms of server intrusion.

Today's most advanced (and reliable) security is capable of defending itself automatically, detecting suspect incoming data and diverting it before it even reaches the host server.

Sure, any site owner must locally defend against intrusion with top-flight malware protection installed on the office computer or network. But without a secure server, the doorway to the www is wide open and anyone can walk in.

Downtime

Another important feature to consider when searching for a hosting service is downtime. When an on-line enterprise suddenly finds itself off-line due to a server malfunction, you might as well close up shop until the problem is solved.

Regardless of what checkout application you employ, from low-cost open source to high-priced tools that do it all, a host that can't deliver reliable, consistent service is going to cost money in downtime.

What kind of reliability should you expect? 99% plus. That's right, almost perfect uptime. Today's technology makes 99% reliability achievable. And that's what any site owner should expect from a hosting service.

The Bottom Line? Your Bottom Line.

When looking for a web host to connect you to the www, it's essential that you and the host consider checkout options to determine that the package you select is compliant with the host's servers and other hardware.

A well-equipped host should offer a toolbox of useful applications including an open source (free) site design and management package. And as you grow, it's important that your host be able to upgrade your checkout app without any downtime. Remember, you may start out small but you'll grow, your business will process more and more orders and you want to make sure your host can grow right along with you, offering everything you need to expand your on-line empire.

For shared hosting accounts, you should be able to use the host's SSL certification to enable you to take credit card orders. This service should come as part of the hosting plan, not as an add-on.

Finally, learn all you can about the host servers' security. Look for multiple layers, hardware- and software-based firewalls, virus detection, spam shooters and other 'at the gate' features to keep intruders at bay.

Working with your web host, you'll be able to design and develop an on-line checkout that's simple to use, accessible to customers 24/7/365 and impervious to threats from the outside.

Then, it's time to hang out the 'Open for Business' sign.

Frederick Townes is the owner of W3 HOSTING. W3 HOSTING provides secure, fast, reliable and professional web hosting services suitable for any business, small or large. With HTTP and PHP Acceleration your site will load faster than ever and a variety of other included features make W3 HOSTING a leader in the web hosting arena.

Website Usability Tips And Tricks For The Rest Of Us!

Website Usability is more than just placing a navigation bar in the right spot and allowing users to search the site. It is an intricate art that not everybody can easily implement. This tip aims to identify some of the key factors that come into play when designing a usable and functional website.Firstly, the site must contain a clear, concise yet simple navigation system. According to web usability expert, Jakob Nielson, a good site navigation system should answer three questions:


Where am I?
Where have I been?
Where can I go?
Your site's navigation system should answer these three questions quite adequately providing you include these basic elements in your design.

Keep it consistent. The navigation system should be in the same place on every page and have the same format.
Use appropriate text inside links. Don't make your visitors guess where a link is going to take them.
Use CSS to emphasize text links.
Always include text links.
Add a text-based site map.
Include a home page link inside your main navigation system.
Site logo links to home page.
Include a site search box providing your site is large enough.
Secondly, you must ensure that you keep the content clear and simple. Keeping your content clear and simple allows users to easily scan the text and find what they're after. You should also keep all important content at the top of the page. Never leave the important text for last as people usually never read this far down the page. Some other important things to take into account are:

Avoid using text inside images whenever possible.
Add ALT and TITLE attributes to all images.
Contrast, contrast, contrast! In other words, don't use light green text on a yellow background as people simply cannot read this!
Thirdly, you must support your brand. Ensure that you keep colours and typefaces consist, that your page layout is consistent and that you generate a custom error page designed to match your site and branding. Custom error pages will assist users in finding their way back to your site rather than leaving them in the dark. You should also include your positioning statement and other marketing tools on each and every page of your site to enforce the brand you've worked hard to create.Some other important usability tips have been outlined below also.

Provide for visitor feedback. Forms are critical to the success of ecommerce sites. Without forms, you can't have a shopping cart. But any site usually needs at least one form to allow for user feedback. A form helps you hide from email spiders and also helps you control how user feedback is formatted and sent.
Test the site on real users. Remember that you're the designer so of course you effortlessly use the navigation system, love the content, and understand the value proposition. But now it's time to get user feedback - before your online users start sending it in.
Present complete contact information including your business phone number and postal address. A street address is preferred, but you may want to use a PO box if yours is a home-based business. Visitors will probably prefer to contact you using email or a form, but they feel more comfortable with a site that allows other contact methods.
Remember your international users. Your forms should never require information they may not have - like area codes or ZIP codes.
Keep feedback forms short and clearly note which information is required to successfully submit the form. Take care to design accessible forms that all visitors can use.
Web usability is all about designing a website for your visitors instead of for yourself or your client. A site that conforms to user expectations makes visitors more comfortable and more apt to visit again and recommend the site to their friends. If you are having a site developed or are developing such a site, remember to check off each of the tips outlined in this article. They may well determine whether your site will be a success or a failure.
Written by Jon Bergan - Jon is the owner of Bergan Blue, an Information Technology, Identity and Marketing orientated organisation focused on bridging the gap between the online world of the Internet with the offline world of Marketing. Please visit http://www.berganblue.com.au/ for more information.