Drop shippers are a useful bunch. There are many positives that come along with having reliable drop shippers. This is especially true for new merchants who lack the space (and money) to store products and the manpower to deal with packing and shipping arrangements. Some more established multi vendor shopping carts names already develop integration with at least one drop shipper. ecommerce web hosting shopping cart integration is unusual, though. One crucial thing to be aware of though, is that the shopping carts cost is usually abstracted from the fees for the drop shipping service.

There are a few things you should think about before deciding a drop shipper. These concerns should be addressed early in order to steer clear of problems later…

If you are going to think about the services of drop shippers, you have to understand that they are the supply chain to your business. You can either source your own drop shipper(s) or opt for one that is integrated with your multi vendor shopping carts provider. Therefore, the drop shipper you decide on should not only be reliable but competitive and trustworthy as well. Along with these 3 characteristics, here are some elements that you would do well to think about:

Inventory

A product needs to be in stock in order for you to make a sale. Needless to say, healthy and consistent inventory levels are essential. Thus,, stock information needs to be up-to-date (real-time) and exact.

As such, product information given by drop shippers (to be displayed on the product page) should be sufficient and exact. It’s because you do not have access to the physical products and so will not be privy to any information save that which is provided by the drop shipper. Commonly requested information: availability of alternative colors, material used, dimensions and weight.

Price

A competitive drop ship price (very close to wholesale, preferably) is the key to selling at higher margins. Remember, you need to take into account competitors’ pricing before you can ascertain on your own. You should also factor in possible future discounts into your pricing calculations.

Just like inventory levels, product prices should be stable.

Variety

It sounds cliched but variety is the spice of life. A good drop shipper should have a significant database of drop ship products. A person may only buy one T-shirt if a variety of sizes are available, but he/she may buy more if the T-shirt comes in several colors as well. Frankly speaking, it also assists a buyer decide by doing a quick comparison.

Return Policy

You have to understand that your drop shipper’s return policy automatically becomes your return policy. Have a very closer look at your drop shippers’ return policies and make sure they are reliable before you opt to adopt them. If you agree to their policies, make sure you clearly express these return policies to your customers on your Terms & Conditions, Shipping or Return Policy or FAQ pages.

Customer Support

A perfect drop shippers get back to you within 1 business day, 2 at the most. In certain cases things do go wrong, even with the best drop shippers, such as an item being delivered in the wrong quantity, or perhaps in the wrong color. When something like this happens, it is essential that the situation be amended as soon as possible. A speedy response time is vital. The faster you hear back from your drop shipper, the relatively fast you can intercommunicate the latest situation to your customer in turn.

Before you make a decision to get a web hosting shopping cart merchant account and sign up for a storefront shopping cart service, you must first choose what to sell.

But what should you sell? A super quick search of best-selling items on the net will inform you that airline tickets, CDs, DVDs, and books have been some of the hot-selling items for years. A little more analysis will also tell you that there’s no point going down that road as certain reputable names have already got those products completely covered.

Therefore best-selling items aren’t always the best items to offer. What then are the elements that one needs to consider before exploring on what to sell?

Demand

Not surprisingly, products are very much easier to sell if there is a demand for the item. You should always try to merchandise products that are regularly in demand.

Consumables are your best bet. The shorter the lifespan of a product, the more frequent the purchase. But of course, the products that you choose should have a perfect lifespan. As matter of fact, merchandising a product with a better lifespan than the ones your competitors are promoting could give you an edge.

If you already have a website supplying sports products, for example, you could jump on the fad bandwagon once a while. You could take a better look at into Serena Williams’ latest trendy-looking tennis kicks or the jersey of a famous player who has just switched clubs. Demand for fad products doesn’t last long so you need to have a good eye for them and sell them while they’re still hot. It would not be advisable to only sell fad products on an online store as it isn’t a very viable long-term venture, unless of course you are considering to make a fast profit.

Product suggestions: Health and Beauty (i.e skincare), weight-loss) products.

Niche

All you need is a proficient storefront shopping cart and a wonderful marketing strategy to get the ball rolling.

Products like line dancing shoes are a niche product with a global demand. And the best thing is that these shoes don’t last forever. The more you utilize them, the faster they wear out. So if your service is wonderful and so is your product, you should be able to get repeat orders.

You don’t have to look far to get ideas on what to sell. Discover around you. If you spot something, ask yourself if you would consider that item yourself. Look at the products that you use. Go to respective places like gyms to see which products fitness freaks use, wear or consume. Tag along on fishing trips and observe the stuff that avid game fishermen use.

Sometimes one particular item can open opportunities to other items and thus, a whole new avenue for revenue. For instance, a person who buys nicotine gum or patches would probably be interested in improving his health and outlook as well. You could cross-sell products for example whitening toothpaste specially formulated to get rid of cigarette stains, running shoes and other related exercise gear.

Product recommendations: Hair-fall control cream/shampoo for men and women, non-alcohol based perfumes, ‘green’ toys/puzzles and hypoallergenic products.

Margins

Electronic products such as cameras and mp3 players are all the rage. However, the profit margins are pretty low. You would have to move a ton of these products to get a decent amount of profit.

Again, try exploring at the niche market for a same kind of product. Let’s take cameras for example. Not all cameras are durable. How about targeting adventurers for this particular product? You could market durable point-and-shoots, underwater casings, monopods, longer-lasting batteries and other camera gear an adventurer would need. Bear in mind, not all who buy these products are adventurers. A relatively large number of just like the association.

Obviously, do not get carried away by over-charging just to raise margins. Do a bit of competitor survey before you finalize your pricing. Online customers can be very fickle and a difference of just a few dollars could cost you a sale or worse, a customer. Try to market products that have high perceived commercial value.

Product suggestions: Weight-loss and beauty products.

Now that you have a clearer idea of how to go about deciding what products to offer, you can finally put that storefront shopping cart to good use.

We’ve been posting a lot of articles lately on techniques to increase sales with the useful tools offered with some of the ecommerce solutions software in the market. We’ve done so because the holiday seasons are just a few months away and we want our merchants to make the best of this shopping season. We’ve touched on cross-selling and up-selling in earlier posts and we will take it a step further here.

There are quite a few things that even the best ecommerce solution or free shopping cart software can’t help you do. It’s because there’s a lot of psychology pertaining in getting a customer to purchase a product, let alone buy or spend more than they originally planned to. Sadly, web hosting shopping cart hasn’t reached such an advanced state…yet.

Cross-selling and up-selling are great ways to show people to more products they might be interested in but had not thought of. However, getting them to actually consider purchasing those products is a whole other matter. The way you go about win over them is very vital. In order to get customers to buy cross-sell and up-sell products, you have to choose your words properly.

Here are a few suggestions:

Add A Personal Touch

Try to personalize your product suggestions as much as possible. Don’t just utilize “We recommend.” But instead, try using “We think you might like this/these.” This gives a much warmer feel. This phrase works perfect with up-sell items or items which are related (same category).

Generate A Need

Instead of making outright suggestions, why not put it in a distinct way by actually asking the buyer if he or she needs something. If a person has just bought a digital SLR for instance, you could ask, “Do you need batteries?” or “Would you want this camera bag for your gear?”. This method is perfect for products with lots of accessories. This is why guys go into DIY stores searching to get a $5 screwdriver but come out with $200 worth of power tools and equipment which will be borrowed by neighbors and never returned. Mind you, have you noticed how fast food outlets cross-sell? As soon as you order a soda and a burger, you’ll automatically be asked, “Would you like some fries with that?” If you agree, the ever-helpful staff will then try to up-sell the product, “Why don’t you try our large fries? It’s just 20 cents more.” Even if 3 out of 10 customers opt for the fries, regardless of size, that’s already an increase in revenue.

Everyone Wants A Bargain

No one loves to pay retail. If you want someone to buy something (extra) you need to make it worth their while. You need to express the value of the deal to them. Basically let them know exactly how much they will be saving and emphasize what a great deal this is. And it pays to consider your figures wisely here. For instance, given a choice between “Save $1.99″ and “Save 30%”, which do you think would have a bigger impact?

Tell Them The Sky Is Falling

People usually react to urgency. Place some sort of limit or a condition to the items you cross-sell or up-sell. “Available at this price for 15 minutes only” or “Hurry! Last 5 units left” are just some examples of this. Some view cart and checkout pages even employ the use of countdown clocks to emphasize the urgency. This method is excellent for items that are low in stock or end life products.

Curiosity Killed The Cat, But Not The Sale

I read somewhere that you should persuade and not inform when attempting to sell. However, Amazon has started utilizing analytic as part of its up-selling function for some of its products. Lets just say you select item A to purchase. Amazon will list that item along with a few more similar items and state the percentage of people who bought them. Normally, you’d find that most people bought products that cost more than the product you chosen. Basically, yours would be the only one not to hit 2 digits percentage-wise. You would then start to have doubts about buying product A and start browsing through all the other costlier alternatives. Genius, huh?