Increased fees on product listing websites
Current mood: energetic
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Many of us online sellers have been confronted at some stage with product listing websites, such as Ebay and the like, raising their fees. Of course depending on whether you are running a business or just selling the odd article, will determine how much the increase hurts you financially.

Most sellers retaliate showing their anger, but history shows that such increases will not be withdrawn and probably not stop, so we either live with it or leave it. There are many other services you use that increase their rates every year, for example suppliers, couriers, insurers etc, but we expect and accept this a lot easier because these costs are not being taken at source when a sale is made even though it all comes off of the gross sale amount.

For those running a professional online business, when you plan your budget you do need to include an amount allocated to the possibility of an increase in outgoings. New businesses should think about this when drafting their business plan. This should cover everything from postal rates, supplier prices, currency rates if you have an international business, internet provider, domain rental, packaging, taxes and product listing website fees. In addition you will be claiming for these expenses on your tax return, and this also goes for non-trackable items lost in post for which you refunded the customers.

Some sellers decide to only list on one listing platform and therefore their sales are directly dependent on the success of that website.  So if that particular platform disappeared tomorrow then those business would go too. Now, there are of course various business strategies that are used by online sellers and this is no different to offline businesses. If you run a more passive business and you were to sit back and look at the relationships you hold with external parties, ones which you cannot survive without, you will realise just how dependent you are - how would you stand if one of them terminated the contract or if you deemed them too expensive? Other business are run more aggressively with the motto "don't put all your apples in one basket". This puts you in a position where you remain in control. But you do of course need to plan well ahead. For example use more than one shipping service and have one as a secondary solution in case the first goes on strike. If you go into cooparations have as many as possible so that if one closes, your core income is not damaged. The same goes for your main income, being product sales, where you should ensure that your online presence gets stronger day by day. Although one platform may bring you a healthy amount of sales, it can lead you into a false sense of security. While using listing platforms as a form of outlet, you should also launch your own website. Keep asking yourself "what if" questions - would your business survive if there were no listing platforms? How would your sales suffer if one platform went offline for some time? Then create and continually update a strategic plan.

Chaz
Online Selling

2:48 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

The Secret - Law of Attraction - Postive Experiences
Current mood: fascinated
Category: Life

Well we could all do with a positive boost! Now that The Secret has spread across the globe through all types of media I thought would be great to launch this blog as a place to log positive experiences of those who have used the secret and read those of others.

So I will start! Used the technique and within 2 days was given a Mobile pre-paid card as a present. The same day received a card from Google as they wanted to pay me. Carry on I say.

Chaz

10:42 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Video Clips - Promoting your online business
Current mood: curious
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

How many of you are using this online selling tool? Here is an interesting article on how more and more are promoting their business by producing and uploading video clips to community sites. It would be interesting to learn from those using this method to advertise what percentage increase it has had on their internet sales.

Chaz

4:42 AM - 5 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Customer Service - Retention Tool
Current mood: awake
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

For many online sellers one purchase per customer is the norm and quite often their feedback ratings on listing sites reflect this routine. Even those with a high positive rating may not necessarily experience repeat business.

The answer lies in the service they provide to customers. Processing and shipping an order is not the start and end of a seller-to-customer business relationship.

It has often been proven that a customer returns to where they had a positive shopping experience. There are many ways in which a seller can maintain the post-sale interest of a customer with little or no extra costs.

A few examples are: distributing a monthly newsletter, post-sale service survey, notifying customers when new stock is online or when a special offer or sale is being held.

But most importantly, sellers must maintain communications as soon as a customer sends an enquiry or places an order. For example they may have questins about a product or trading and shipping terms. Reply to all messages as soon as possible. Be reachable if possible by email, fax, mail and telephone.

Author: Chaz

2:37 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Amazon aStores
Current mood: curious
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

Has anyone tried the aStores? Well I have. It's in beta, it's free and cool. From joining their affiliate program through to finishing my aStore it took me about half an hour. They allow you to feature 9 products from their site and you can add pages which complement your own site. It uses [[[[[[iframe]]]]]]to enable the buy button.

It was a cool addition to my site Online Selling.

Have fun.

Chaz

4:48 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment