My online experience started with selling odds and ends on eBay. It seemed like a good way to make some extra money, and so many people were doing it. After a while I started to look at what my actual costs were including time to package, mail, and list items. Was it worth the cost? So I decided there had to be a better way, and I came across a friend who asked if I had tried using a Dropshipper. ( For those unfamiliar with this, it is where a company houses and then ships the goods to your customers. Your customer makes a purchase through you. You then turnaround and place the order with the Dropshipper, and they ship out on your behalf)
WOW! To have no inventory cost, someone else to package and send the goods with your name on it, what could be better?
As I found out there were hundreds of dropshippers, and they all had different policies, so I narrowed the list down. I knew that heading down this path would require a bit more knowledge and skill than I possessed at the time so I started to look for a interactive agency that could not help in build our store but provide solutions that would drive traffic and increase customer retention.
Now that I had these dropshippers with literally thousands of products, how can I list them, and get them sold. eBay was not option, because every item would cost me a listing fee. So I found similar sites, with good traffic, that did not charge a listing fee, but charged on the actual sale.
As my story continues: I was looking for ecommerce solutions partners to help in my online business and provide guidance on what elements that I need to have in order to attract and retain customers. I was able to come across eCommercePartners. They provide a total solution for those that are looking to build a exommerce website and help to drive traffic and increase sales. I was also able to align with a business partner where they offer inventroy that I can list for free and then get paid for each sale that I make. Not a bad way to get started! I signed up for free and listed some of the items, on iOffer, and sold some. Had them shipped and made a little bit of money. Then as I was trying to upload inventory every other week, I thought it would be great if I could just get people to my eMall store where finding a company that could help with the professional web design. Then they could see the entire inventory, they would make the purchase, and then I would get paid on the difference between the wholesale cost, and the cost I had listed on my site. The question was how do you get traffic and visibility without spending a lot of money initially? Plus how can I create a secure payment gateway for my customer to pay that was cost effective and secure.
Tags: ecommerce