Prosper Newsletter: March 2007 > Ecommerce

You understand that the following information is educational in nature and is not intended to be legal, accounting, or tax advice. You are responsible for your own financial decisions and should consult your own legal, accounting, and tax advisors before making your financial decisions.

Tailor Made Success

Starting our E-business in 1996 as an entrepreneur in selling Tailor-made Honeymoon/Anniversary Packages to the South Pacific through the Internet only, we already thought we had a great web-page that generated almost 2 millions in sales. However, through the constant changing of Search-Engines and marketing behaviors we found ourselves struggling more and more every year to keep our sales up and saw our great Search-Engines listings disappearing into Nowhere-land. Working with Chris, gave me a complete different perspective how to see our site and how we are able to improve it. Already minor changes, he suggested, helped us within 2 days to double our quote requests. Working with him over a couple of weeks, we improved the site to a point, where I cannot get enough just looking at it... it's fantastic. Our customers now will visit approx. 5-6 pages where they before only looked at 1-3 Pages. Our orders flow in and we have already doubled our sales within 1 month. I cannot describe how ecstatic we all are about this great success. Our goal is to double our sales in this Year and I am confident that we are on our way, thanks to our coach's fantastic help.

- Claudia S.

Tip of the Month

Domain Name Selection Tips
Choosing a domain name will be one of the most important steps in developing your online business. Therefore, it is critical to invest the time necessary to select the best available name. Be aware that the first name you select may not be available. As you select your domain name, keep the following tips in mind:

  • Always look for short domain names.
  • Make sure it is as easy to spell as possible.
  • Whenever possible, select something catchy and easy to remember.
  • In order to receive a better search engine ranking, include your main keyword phrase, or at least part of it, in the domain name.
  • Choose the correct domain for your business-for example, consider the following domains:
    • The .com domain is reserved for profiting organizations.
    • The .org domain is reserved for non-profit organizations.
    • The .net domain is reserved for Internet Service Providers, and other Internet businesses.
Article

Selecting a Supplier that Meets Your Needs

There are many ways to find suppliers for your business. Whether or not you choose manufacturers, distributors, or drop shippers, there are four basic questions that you should ask. Ask them if they wholesale, if they drop ship, and if they will allow you to sell or promote their items on the internet. You want the answer to these questions to be yes. The last question is if they have a minimum order amount. You want the answer to this question to be no.

The difference between manufacturers, distributors and drop shippers is that manufacturers produce or make the product, distributors are the middle men that distribute items other people make, and drop shippers have items they want to sell and you just place the order with them and they ship them out.

To find a manufacturer, go to local shops and ask where they get their merchandise. You can also go to the internet and use Google to look up manufacturers. Websites such as www.alibaba.com or www.thomasnet.com are also helpful. If you wanted to search worldwide instead of just in the states, try www.thomasglobal.com. You can search for either specific products or different manufacturers. The book Buy Wholesale by Mail by Gayle Bradney and The Vista Catalog are also valuable resources. You can reach The Vista Catalog by calling (214) 333-2111.

To set up a wholesale account, the wholesaler will ask you for your legal business name, your tax identification number, possible bank account information, and references. Any company that doesn't ask for this kind of information is probably a company that you don't want to do business with. If you are just starting out and do not have any references, give names of people that you have worked with in the past, or people that you know that have their own businesses. If you explain that you do not want to set up any credit terms, they might waive the references.

Ask the wholesaler if they have a retail price list, a product library, what their return policies and restrictions are, how long it takes them to ship, and what are the best ways to place an order. Try to ensure that they will be a good fit for your business.

To find a good drop shipper, you can go to Google and type the product name or item in quotes and then add the words "drop shipper" or "wholesaler". You should get a pretty long list of people that can help you. Another tool is www.doba.com. They have done most of the hard work of contacting the wholesalers and setting up the terms, and all you need to do is go in and place an order and then have them ship it to your customer. Another good option is www.theshipper.com. If you have an item that they don't have, they will go out and try to find the item for you. If they can't find the item, they will give you a refund.

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