Posts filed under 'eBay'
When you are beginning your ecommerce business, one of the first hurdles is deciding on what you will sell.
There are a variety of places and means to source product – you need to decide which one will work best for you and your business. Today’s blog post will address a low cost way to enter the market: dropshipping
Sometimes this is the easiest and lowest risk way of getting into an ecommerce business. Simply put, drop shipping is the process of listing merchandise for sale that is owned and warehoused by a third party. Once you sell the merchandise, you notify the drop-shipper who will ship out the product to your customer for you. Sounds easy, right? The secret here is finding a RELIABLE and TRUSTWORTHY source with a product line that is IN DEMAND.
Most legitimate drop shippers will not require a minimum purchase or charge a monthly fee, but there are exceptions to even that rule. Do your homework – research potential drop shippers by entering the dropshipper’s name into a search engine and add the words “complaints” “sucks” “reviews”. Also research what the fees are and figure out if there is a market for their products and what the going rate is. Take a look at private web sites, ebay and Amazon to start. Figure out if it is worth it to sell their products after you factor in the fees that each marketplace charges, the fees from the dropshipper and the cost of the merchandise.
Next up: distributors
August 30th, 2012
So you want to sell on the internet and you want it to be a home based business. What do you do first?
We will be beginning a series of blog posts on starting a home based ecommerce business just to provide some information to newbie ecommerce sellers that need some basic information and guidance.
As always, you are welcome to join the Internet Merchants Association where you can network with others that have been in your shoes.
In our first blog post, we will be addressing product sourcing. Do you have any requests for things you’d like to see us cover in a future blog post? Leave a comment below and we’ll see if we can accommodate your request.
August 23rd, 2012
The Internet Merchants Association has announced their conference agenda for 2009 in Las Vegas, NV in conjunction with the ASD/AMD Trade Show. There is still plenty of time to register, so be sure to go to www.imalasvegas.com right now and get signed up. You do not want to miss this conference packed full of information for increasing your online sales!
AGENDA: Updated 3/11/09
NOTE – The IMA is still adding more speakers, so times and speakers are subject to change. In addition to the agenda below, there will be a Networking Suite open at Bally’s on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights where you can meet the speakers and ask more questions!
March 16-18 Internet Merchants Assn. Las Vegas register @ , www.imamerchant.org & www.imalasvegas.com Don’t miss out – Register TODAY!
Continue Reading March 5th, 2009
The eBay message boards are filled with posts by sellers about how eBay’s new Best Match has taken seller’s items and made them nearly invisible to buyers. The result, of course, is a decrease in sales.
Trying to adapt to Best Match is a challenge for sellers and although time and energy should be put into maximizing Best Match results another essential course of action for eBay sellers is to rely less on eBay driving buyers to your listings and figuring out ways to drive buyers to your listings yourself.
I have compiled a list of ways to drive buyers to your listings to supplement Best Match. If any readers have any additional methods, please add them to the list.
Google Base Store Connector
Use Google Base Store Connector to get your listings indexed in Google Search results. Here is a link to the free program that will send your eBay listing info to Google: http://base.google.com/base/storeconnector/index.html
Alt Img Tags
This is a little bit of HTML code that you add to the photos that you have within your eBay listing. Search engines can only read text. If you add this little bit of descriptive HTML code to your images, your images have a descriptive text attached to them and this can possibly aid in increasing your listing’s search engine ranking and Google Image Search ranking.
Continue Reading January 26th, 2009
Feedback is an issue that causes much angst to sellers both on eBay and Amazon. Many times the negative feedback left is irrelevant to the transaction especially when the buyer has not even contacted the seller. So I ask you – Is feedback even necessary in 2009? How many buyers even review a seller’s feedback? On Amazon the seller’s feedback is pretty much hidden, especially if the seller has the coveted “buy-box”. It is also extremely lopsided since so few buyers actually leave feedback on Amazon. On eBay many buyers do not understand the feedback percentages and don’t take the time to review the comments. This is obvious when you see a seller with 89% feedback, yet all their 99 cent junk auctions have bids.
So what other mechanisms could replace feedback and help reduce scam sellers? Both eBay and Amazon already have the mechanisms in place, they just don’t publish the information derived from these mechanisms to the buying community.
Continue Reading January 8th, 2009
Written by Cyn
I applaud eBay management for taking steps to “fix” feedback on the site. The changes are in the right direction, but there are still some things that could be fixed to make feedback more fair for both buyers and sellers. After much thought, I agree with the proposal that sellers should not be able to leave negative feedback for buyers, IF the following changes are also implemented.
First, I propose that eBay do away with “neutral” feedback as it doesn’t do anyone any good. It is unfair to call something “neutral” that really doesn’t have a neutral effect. I understand that eBay feedback percentage is “Positive Percentage” which is why neutrals now effect the score. However, many neutrals are left as a form of communication rather than showing dissatisfaction on the part of the buyer, and therefore should not be used to penalize the seller.
Second, I propose that non-paying buyers be banned from leaving feedback at all. Isn’t feedback supposed to be only for members involved in a transaction? If an item is not paid for, that is NOT a transaction and therefore that buyer has no right to leave feedback. I understand that eBay cannot tell if a buyer has paid unless that buyer pays via Paypal. However, I propose that sellers be on the honor system to mark an item Paid in their My eBay when a buyer pays with a payment form other than Paypal. If an item is not marked as paid, the buyer would be unable to leave feedback. Should a buyer choose to pay with a method other than paypal, they will risk not being able to leave feedback if the seller does not mark the item paid. However, this would just be another risk a buyer takes when paying with other methods. In addition, it would encourage more buyers to use Paypal – and isn’t that what eBay wants anyway?
Third, I propose that for purposes of Seller Performance, feedback be based on all SALES rather than on all feedback left. This is how Amazon uses feedback. For Seller Performance, Amazon uses a negative feedback percentage that is based on ALL ORDERS. So a seller may show 96% on their feedback profile on the site, but for Seller Performance purposes, their negative feedback percentage may only be .08%. Amazon does not include neutrals at all in their Seller Performance figures.
Many happy buyers do not leave feedback at all and a seller should not be penalized because of this choice.
Fourth, a buyer should be given the ability to remove negative feedback. Amazon allows this and makes it very easy for the buyer to do so. When I receive a negative feedback on Amazon, I contact the buyer and work it out with them. Once the buyer is satisfied they then remove their negative feedback. Most buyers who leave negative feedback never contact me first. This gives me a way to resolve an issue and make the buyer happy. The way eBay has now implemented the feedback process leaves me with no incentive to help a customer who leaves a negative with no contact.
eBay – Great start – Now finish the job!
May 28th, 2008
Previous Posts