How To Create An E-Commerce Store And Start Earning Profits

Posted by Steven Wright on Jun 16th, 2009 | one comment

The world of internet has opened many horizons for the buyers as well as sellers. It can be easily termed as global marketplace gathering the people from different countries in closer proximity. It is important to recognize the importance of a good dropshipper’s role in the success of this venture.

It is arguably the best means to make money online nowadays, which can be attributed to the economic downturn the whole world is facing. This has led a lot of people to create an e-commerce store to sell products online through drop ship distributors and manufacturers. Once you create an e-commerce store, you can sell top of the line brands and precious through your website, without having to worry about their manufacturing and distribution. This is taken care of by the suppliers.

Your business gets the opportunity to sell a wide range of products through dropshippers, who even ships it to the customer’s address on your behalf. This gives your online business a very profitable opportunity to focus and enhance profitability and marketability, rather than worrying about product quality and timely distribution.

If you use a directory, you will get access to a list of top selling brands and products that best suits your business needs. This is especially beneficial for businesses that are new and inexperienced to select the right products according to their targeted market. You also have the option of interacting with other members and learn from their knowledge and expertise.

Even if the product is in stock or not, customers can see it online and purchase it without having a nagging sales person around accompanying you in the store. As far as overhead costs are concerned it is far more cheaper when electric bills, air conditioning costs, rent, inventory costs, etc are either completely absent or negligible.

A directory also offers you with huge amount of educational resources that aim to enhance your comprehension of dropshipping and its usability. This is especially good for beginners who have recently started an online business. If you create an e-commerce store without thoroughly understanding how an online business should be managed, then you will most certainly fail.

Therefore, you should find a good directory for yourself, before you create an e-commerce store and start searching for drop ship distributors or manufacturers, which deals in products or brands that you plan to sell. You also have the option of comparing dropshippers on the basis of their price, ratings and even have the option to check feedback from other members about a particular supplier.

A nominal registration fee gives you access to a huge amount of information, along with constant assistance by a team of experts that ensure you maintain your business profitability and marketability. This saves you from worrying about product quality and timely delivery, and helps you focus on taking your business to higher levels.

This is very crucial for any online business that relies on drop ship distributors or manufacturers.

The Importance Of Having A Website For Your Business

Posted by Lena Hellsten on Jun 14th, 2009 | no comments

Internet is expanding like nothing else has ever before. It is becoming faster and more accessible for people around the world and new users are adding up to the numbers in huge quantities daily. This means that it is a great way for any kind of business owner to have their business known to the people that could be interested in their services.

Of course it is still also important to do build a network offline as well, to meet people and build a reputation that way.

Yet, you more or less have to have a web site on the internet as well if you want to become really successful. This will not only help to build your reputation and credibility but it does also give you new ways of finding both business partners and new customers or clients.

For someone owning a restaurant it is very beneficial to have a website set up. In this way you can reach people that are visiting the city who are looking for a good restaurant. A lot of people of today enjoys the possibility of looking at menus and know about opening times online before they choose restaurant and to have a good web site design really can make a difference here. If you dont have a website those people will most likely choose a different place to go.

Getting a website need be neither expensive nor complicated. You can get a good web site design to pretty low costs and the investment is well worth it. If youre choosing a web designer that gives you a web site design that can be maintained easily by yourself you do not need extra costs for continuous maintenance. You simply pay for the web design of your site once and then youre good to go.

For a business that is selling some kind of products you can increase the amount of sales a lot by having a website. With a web design that is attractive to the eye you can get a lot more customers than you can by having solely a physical shop.

If you want your website to be seen by as many people as possible it is not only necessary to have a web site design that is looking inviting for people browsing the web. You also have to make sure that people actually find their way to your site in the first place. This can be done by choosing a web site designer that also makes your website optimized for the search engines (SEO) and that helps you with good internet marketing so that you can rank high in the search engines.

Get A Grant For Your E-Commerce Project

Posted by admin on May 20th, 2009 | no comments

Local Enterprise Technical Assistance Scheme (LETAS)

Provides Singapore-based SMEs  a grant to hire external experts to improve your management and operations.

For who?

• All local businesses that want to improve their business with the help of a consultant.
• Your business qualifies as long as:
  • 30% – 100% of your shareholding is local
  • your group fixed assets are worth S$0 – S$15 million*
  • you have 0 – 200 employees (for companies in the services sector)*

* Computed on a group basis i.e. checking up to three levels for corporate shareholders holding 20% – 100% of the total shareholding in your company and one level down where your company owns 51% – 100% of shareholding in a subsidiary company.

For what?

• To subsidise the cost of hiring a consultant to implement quality management and IT systems (e.g. upgrading of computer systems or ISO projects)

How much?

• LETAS provides assistance to defray up to 50% of the total consultancy cost or capped at the following grant amount, whichever is lower.
  

  Project Type	Grant Cap
  Quality Management Systems	S$5,000
  IT E-Commerce	S$5,000
  IT Implementation	S$10,000

Things to note

• SPRING will take into account previous grants awarded to you under LETAS.
• You can only apply for LETAS once for IT projects.
• Hardware and software costs for IT projects are not supported.
• Certification fees for Quality Management System projects are not supported.

Making Your E-commerce Site Work

Posted by admin on May 1st, 2009 | no comments

by Steven Strauss

There are many ways to have your website take off and make money. Traditional business mottos tell you to buy low and sell high, or to remember that the customer is always right. But in the brave new e-world, I think that there should be a new business maxim: Imitate Amazon.

If you do what Amazon.com does, you can’t go wrong. Of all online merchants, Amazon.com is the site and the business that does it right.

So, today we present the cyber-rules of the Amazon jungle:

1. Value the customer above all else. Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has repeatedly stated that he endeavors to make Amazon the most customer-centric business in the world, and a visit to the site confirms this. Amazon offers great customer service. It knows that responsiveness is the key to making online shoppers feel comfortable.It is important to realize that ordering online is different than purchasing something in a store, where you see the actual goods and get to take them with you after your purchase. Online, you can’t touch the actual products and you don’t talk to a real salesperson. You just cough up your credit card number, make your purchase, and send your order off into cyberspace, hoping for the best. For many people, it still seems like a proposition based on faith. So the first secret to getting customers to order from you, as Amazon has proven, is to convince them that you won’t let them down.Amazon first does so by immediately sending you an email confirming your order and telling you when they expect to ship it. Then, when your order does ship, they send you another e-mail with your tracking number. You should do the same; it creates confidence in your store. (Some e-commerce software builds this function right into the software, such as Yahoo! Store for example.) Like Amazon too, you should try and ship quickly and offer returns and refunds.If a customer has a problem, Amazon also responds quickly. For example, I ordered a book from Amazon a week ago and it took them a day longer than anticipated to ship my order. It confirmed my belief in the site when they e-mailed me, saying that they upgraded my order to a “priority” mail shipment because of the “delay.” I got the package the next day. It is things like that which build loyalty.
2. Make shopping easy and pleasant. Amazon has a “three-click” policy that dictates that if a customer can’t accomplish what they want to within three clicks, then the system isn’t working right. Imitate Amazon and make shopping at your store simple too.By the same token, Amazon’s pages are clean and professional. Their use of images, for example, is prudent: never too many, nor too big, so the pages don’t take long to load. They know that their job is to give you the chance to find what you want quickly and easily and to be able to purchase it without a hassle.
3. Offer plenty. What is Amazon? Now, besides being “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore,” it seems to be earth’s biggest store. When you too have a big inventory it tells your customers that you are here to stay and that they will be able to find what they want if they go to you first.
4. Offer great prices. A big reason that people shop online is because they think they will find prices that can’t be beat. That is certainly true at Amazon, and it should be true for your store as well.

While few of us have the resources to totally imitate Amazon, the spirit of the site is one to emulate. You might not become a billionaire, if you remember to Imitate Amazon, you will at least be on you way.