Using The Internet To Create Your Own Retail Business
The amount of people using the internet is increasing dramatically year on year and many of those new users are using the internet to purchase products online. It is even possible to use a third party to hold stock and deliver to your customers when you pass on an order.The number of possibilities are endless anyone can make a decent income online provided they are willing to explore the opportunities available and put in some work.
If you want to sell directly on your website then the traditional way is for you to buy the stock, sell it and then arrange the shipping to your customer. The problem, of course, with this is acquiring and holding the stock so that you are always able to fulfill the orders that come in. You will want to keep your customers satisfied and if you start sending emails that are explaining delays in the orders then very quickly you will start to lose you customer base.
A way around this is to join a dropship scheme. A dropshipper is a wholesaler who holds stock for a particular item or range of items. The dropshipper will have a number of clients who will, in effect, sell the dropshippers products for him. The client (you) will promote the items and once a sale is made then an automated response should be sent to the customer explaining that the order is being processed. The next part can be automated or can be done manually. You will then place the order that you have received with your dropshipper who will then package the item and include an invoice and packing note on your behalf with your address details and then arrange delivery to the client.
Some dropshippers will give you some code to place on your site which will enable you to price up each item individually. The order will then be automatically sent to the dropshipper who will again arrange for the shipment and then they will pay you the difference between your advertised price and the wholesale price.
Many successful shops on auction sites such as eBay are really backed up by a dropshipper and the store owner doesn't bare any of the nornal risks associated with holding large amounts of stock.A seller on eBay may run the risk of paying fees on unsold items but that is more than made up for on the times when multiple bidders take the final price significantly above the wholesale price. If this happens then the winner of the item will obviously pay his agreed amount but you can offer every other bidder in the auction a second chance offer to buy the item at the maximum price that they bid. This of course means that provided your supplier has many items in stock that it is possible to fill many orders with just one advertised item on eBay.
One you have sold your item then you will be charged an additional fee based on the sale price of the item and also an additional fee if you accepted receipt by PayPal. You should take all of these factors into consideration before making your second chance offers. It may though be worth considering selling at a slight loss to some people if the dropshipper can be trusted as this will enhance your reputation on eBay with better feedback which will enable yo to make significantly more sales later on.
You may consider at the start of your eBay business that the reputation building is more important than making a profit and you could buy a small amount of stock of an item on eBay and sell them on again. If you cannot quite bring yourself to trusting a drop shipper at this stage of your business then this is a good way to ensure that you have overall control and that you know in your own mind that everything was completed properly. Ultimately though once your reputation starts to become established then you should move to drop shipping so that you can spend more time selling rather than packing.
If you would like to consider other home business opportunities then you can find some easy to access programs at: www.successhomeworking.com
Stuart Smith is owner of SuccesHomeWorking.com and writes on a variety of subjects. To learn more about starting your own home based business earning 6 streams of income visit http://www.successhomeworking.com.
