Sourcing For Your Products
Getting Started
In starting an ecommerce business, you need to get the basis right in order to avoid an unpleasant experience in doing business.
Our core objectives are to help you understand the act of setting up and running a small effective online business that you can grow into an empire.
Here we will be looking on how to easily connect with dropship wholesale suppliers for products you could easily sell on your Estore or some other marketplaces.
We will be looking at some B2B Marketplaces like World Wide Brand, Wholesale2b and Doba.
For An Estore Startup, when you are sourcing for your products it is recommended that you do the following step by step.
Search for new products from your desired categories (You could build your Niche name around the category you are interested in) and negotiate for a wholesale discount that suits you well. Build an Inventory of your products. This is usually a virtual inventory of products you have chosen. Thereafter you are to obtain the Data Feed of all your Virtual Inventory Products seamlessly so that you can put them up for sale. Manage and track your business orders. It is advised that this should be done in one unified place. Carry out order fulfillment in respect to your customers’ requests.
The major advantage of using any of the B2B Marketplace assistance is that for the model we are looking at, the Dropship Wholesale Suppliers provide you assistance in inventory and order fulfillment.
Care should be taken to provide accurate details about yourself and your Ecommerce Business Setup. This ensures smooth flow of dealings between the Dropship Wholesale Suppliers, the B2B Marketplace and yourself.
Finding Dropship Products
As we partner with some of these major players in the industry, we help you find products and genuine suppliers that you could work with and build your online business
With most of our suppliers, you could sort or browse for products using product categories and their sub-categories.
If you prefer, you could search for and discover products from the brand name they are under.
Another important way to search for products, which we use often is by keywords. Input the keywords in the Product Catelog Search and search for products according to your Niche.
There are lots of ways to find out products from the directories of these wholesale suppliers in our access. One important fact is that as you continue on it you discover your own preferred way of searching out product.
The advantage you are having right now over the average online surfer is that lots of reliable dropship wholesale suppliers are arranged in these directories for you to choose products from.
Listing your Products
Once you have gotten enough products in your virtual inventory list, you then need to place them in the marketplace you intend to sell them. This could either be on your website or in an online marketplace like eBay or Amazon.
In our model we are using an Estore, eBay and Facebook as our selling places.
We believe that no matter which marketplace works best for you, it is always advisable to have your own retail online store to supplement any ecommerce retail business you do.
To put up your product list, you can do it in any of the following ways
By manually downloading product images and descriptions from the individual product page. By using Data Export option to export the required data from the product source. You could use the FTP or API Integration to transfer all related files of the products to your website or marketplace.
Whatever options are made available by the product supplier should be okay as we do know they usually provide very easy to use product listing methods.
Your Estore Best Practices
- A Well Organized Inventory List
- Your inventory list should be well organized in order to have a smooth flow in the way you sell your products.
- The norm is that businesses usually organize their product list by categories, by suppliers, by brands etc.
- Whatever way you choose to organize your product inventory list, let it correspond to the way you do manage your business. This is because it plays a major part in streamlining the products management process.
- Search Out New Products Always
- Do your best to as often as possible search out new products and best deals and include them.
- Featuring fresh items and great deals will definitely boost your sales efforts.
Regular Product List Updating
Just like the point itemized above, you need to always update your product list. Things like your inventory count and availability of products, current prices and any other relevant information should be updated and accurate. You will need to build a good working relationship with all your suppliers and set your inventory list notification at a date that works well for you.
Note and abide with Suppliers’ Fulfillment and Return Policies
As an operator of an ecommerce business, you have to fully understand your wholesale suppliers’ policies as they affect your operations.
This is necessary for you to be able to adequately relate with your customers and fulfill their orders taking into consideration the Suppliers’ fulfillment and return policies.
Always Place Your Products Order Quickly
Make it a habit to place your order to your supplier as close to your customer’s. This will hasten the time the customer gets his product.
Also the time it takes to get products to your customers affects your rating in any marketplace.
Be Accessible To Customers
One of the major turn off in ecommerce transactions is when you are not accessible to your customers to listen to their issues before, during and after sales. Make sure your customers are getting answers about their orders addressed as quickly as possible.
Provide All Necessary Support To Your Customers
No matter which marketplace you are using (your website Estore or other online marketplace like Amazon and Esty) you need to always be ready to provide necessary support to your customers like Order Tracking Services.
You get the Order Tracking information for your customer from the supplier. Always ensure your customers are in the know of their product movement.
Always Handle Returns Professionally.
You should fully understand the suppliers’ return policies so as to be able to address