Any San Francisco courier company can tell you that you're always going to need more documentation to support any international deliveries than you do when you're just shipping domestically. Shipping internationally means dealing with many more laws and regulations. There are also more fees and taxes which need to be paid. The documentation is an important part of allowing the powers that be to make sure that all those laws are being followed,...more
1. If you want to start a business but you're not wading in cash, drop shipping is a way to get started without having to spend a lot of money on inventory. 2. If you want to start a business and you are wading in cash, drop shipping is a way to get started with a product or niche you don't know. You don't know what will sell or in what quantity? No problem. Once you learn you can move to buying in bulk. 3. If you want to start a business, you...more
The usual view on drop shipping is that it is not necessary to know anything about your product or your niche in order to start up in business. This is true. But you will need to learn. Research shows that stores which make it easy to ask questions (and get answers) find it easier to make sales. A toll free number shows that the shop is 'real' and that if you have cause for complaint there is someone to answer it. At first you will have few calls, you may never have many, but you do need to display the number. How will you answer if you know nothing about your product? If you employ someone else to take the calls, how will they find the answer? Most drop shippers supply descriptions for their products as well as pictures to allow you to add these to your store. It is good practice to rewrite these descriptions, making them into original text. One result is that customers will find it more difficult to search for the same item on the web and check out prices. The other result is that you will find as you rewrite that you have questions yourself. Get the answers from your drop shipper and include them on your web pages, the more information you supply about the product the more...more
Using a drop shipper can be a great idea, but be wary of the following mistakes that can be made.1. Accepting the first drop shipper you find without looking carefully at their operation is a mistake. You need to find out everything you can, your business will depend on them. Using only one drop shipper has advantages, but is the same as putting...more
Some drop shippers are deservedly popular. They make life easy and a lot of people want to sell their products. They supply useful descriptions as well as pictures of the product, they supply in your name, not theirs and they keep their stock up to date. The problem occurs when shoppers can do easy comparisons between items. You may find that yours...more
If you've decided to build an online business on the drop shipping model, your first move will be to find a niche in which to operate. By narrowing your focus to this one area you will be able to target specific search engine keywords and bring your web store to the attention of those who are looking for the goods or services you provide. Niche operation is sensible, but finding the right niche can be a problem. It's almost impossible to say what the right niche consists of, but it's easy to list some things you should always avoid. The first is lack of commercial intent. Most people begin by working with a google keyword tool to find out how many searches there are for a specific term in any one month. This is very useful. It tells us that people are looking, but it doesn't say why. If I were to choose a general term such as jewelry, having made sure I was spelling it correctly for the region I expect to sell in (in the UK for example, it is quite different) I could look the keyword up in google to find an enormous number of searches, but that wouldn't tell me how many people were planning to buy, how many were planning to look, how many were hoping to read celebrity gossip,...more
Sales and Promotion The Internet is thick with advertising platforms, paid and free. Many people use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to promote products. Build online communities, participate in forums, or comment on blogs of other...more
It's been described as the "Rock Star of Adhesive Strips." It is the ultimate packaging and shipping supply. It is sturdy, durable, and reliable.It is duct tape. And it is the King of Shipping Tape.It was in 1985 that the fictional action-adventure...more
Drop shipping is a business model which allows anyone to set up an e-commerce store to sell physical products without spending a fortune on inventory, warehousing, market research and shipping. If you like to learn by doing, then drop shipping is...more
Each day millions of tonnes of cargo are shipped via the world's fleet of 50,000 merchant ships. Although goods are transported all over the world, the vast majority of ship movements are confined to specific routes - otherwise known as 'sea lanes'...more
Most people in business have by now heard of something called ISO 9000 certification. This is a quality standard which reaches across many industries. Achieving ISO 9000 is one of the highest possible endorsements in terms of the quality of the...more
Many years ago the 20 foot shipping container was invented for shipment of goods. The first shipping company to use the shipping container was Matson. The height and length of this steel container van is ideal for shipment purposes. However, as years...more