WP e-Commerce Plugin

While you might not think about WordPress as a platform for online retail, it is really a complete solution.  More than just a blog engine, it has the tools and programming hooks that make it equal to many commercial content management systems.  The plugin developer has claimed that it can sync with Shipwire’s inventory and auto-shipping API.  Designed just for people hoping to expand their business online, it lets you take your existing blog and expand it into a full retail site. Do you run a successful WordPress based site that is looking to expand an ecommerce branch, merch perhaps? Instead of starting a whole new site for your store, you can keep WordPress and use WP e-Commerce.

This WordPress plugin really is the perfect solution for small, independent store owners.  With just a couple clicks of the mouse, you can set up a full ecommerce system capable of processing credit cards, handling transactions, generating receipts, etc.  And while there are other ecommerce systems, this is one of the best integrated into WordPress, and has one of the largest communities of supporters built around it.

Why Use WordPress for an Online Store?

There is more than one other CMS for online retail, and many of them are fantastic. This plugin is perfect for those already utilizing WordPress, or whom are familiar and comfortable with WordPress.

If you use Shipwire’s fulfillment services in conjunction with the WP e-Commerce plugin, you’ll be able to rely on their back-end systems for distribution.  If an order is placed, Shipwire will manage the shipping for you automatically, and even distribute tracking to the customer.

What is Shipwire?

Shipwire makes it possible for the small online retailer to ship on a scalable magnitude, faster, more efficiently, and without the need for your own warehouse. With a full fleet of tools, you can quickly deploy almost any style of site.  This WP ecommerce plugin is not the only platform to which Shipwire will cooperate with. Shipwire seamlessly functions with dozens of the top ecommerce content management systems on the market.

In all, this WP ecommerce plugin is going to help you automate and run your ecommerce business more successfully if you’re running your store on WordPress.

Incoming search terms:

• e-commerce plugins cash
• wp ecommerce
• wp-ecommerce ebay
• ecommerce plugin ebay
• setting for shipwire with wordpress ecommerce
• shipwire china
• ebay wp plugin
• wordpress e commerce shipwire
• wp e commerce ebay
• ebay shipwire

Step 1: Generating Ideas

Think niche. Don’t go to the first most common thing you can think of. Write down no less than 100 product ideas.  It sounds like a difficult task, but here are 6 ways to get 100 ideas:

1. Write down any ideas that have been lingering in your head.  If you have thought about starting an ecommerce business, chances are there are some of these in your brain, get them on paper.
2. Write down any niche product you can think of (especially ones that would be commonly bought online).
3. Expand on broad ideas by branching them out. (Illustration below)
4. Carry a notepad and write down an idea whenever it comes to you.  Don’t have a note pad? Use your smart phone.
5. Keep your ears open, and look for needs, and think of products that can meet those needs.
6. Browse categories on sites that sell millions of different items, like eBay. Drill down to the sub categories and keep your gears spinning. Browsing through these will jog your mind to other ideas

Branch your ideas out.

Step 2: Qualifying Ideas

Now that you have ideas, you need to put them through the wringer in order to find out what are good products to sell on your website, or in your eBay or Amazon store. The 3 main aspects you need to do most of your research on are the following:

1. Find Your Customers – If your goal is to earn $3,000 a month, then you need to make sure there are even $3,000 a month worth of customers in your market.  You can do this by using tools like Google Keywords. Use tools like Compete and SpyFu to get a good handle on your competition and glean any info you can about your market by capitalizing on your competition.
2. Source Your Products – Find the best suppliers by using services like SaleHoo, calling manufacturers, and searching trade magazines.  For more info, check out How to Find Vendors.

Finding $3,000/Month in Customers

Use Google Trends to make sure your market isn’t shrinking. Use Google Traffic Estimator to find out if the searches are there for your market.  When looking for what are good products to sell on your site, you’ll need to take in to account the average pricing and profit margin of your product. If your common product is $50 with a $5 profit, and you can count on a 1% conversion rate, then in order to make $3,000 a month, you need to sell 600 units a month.  At 1% conversion, that means you need to reach 60,000 visitors a month.

If you can achieve Google’s #1 result for your keyword, you’ll get between 25-39% of all the traffic from that keyword.  So if you take 3 keywords and work on SEO to achieve Google’s #1 result, those keywords will need a combined traffic estimate of between 154,000 – 240,000 searches a month.  Now that you have found your $3,000 a month in customers, you can move to check your competition.

Utilizing these basic methods, you’ll discover that finding out what are good products to sell on your website is not only achievable, but it’s easier than you think!

Incoming search terms:

• e-commerce ideas
• good ecommerce ideas
• what are good product or servives to sell on e-commerce

1. Speed
   Both how quick you are to ship, and how quick it takes the order to arrive at your customer’s door are significantly important when shipping for eBay transactions.
2. Price
   Shipping price can be a major deal breaker when a customer is on eBay.  Once the customer has chosen which item to buy, they then look for the best deal.
3. Communication
   Make sure you have a clearly written shipping policy, Additionally, it is a huge plus to provide tracking information to your customer as soon as it is generated.

Ship Quickly

Once a confirmed order is in, it benefits you greatly to try to get the order out the door as soon as possible.  This not only lowers returns rates, but keeps your customers happy, and more likely to write you a positive feedback and spread the word about your business.

If you are shipping for eBay orders from home, or from an in-house warehouse, it can be tough to ship quickly every time,  particularly if you are not doing this as your full time job, or do not have full time staff. One secret tool a lot of successful eBay and non-eBay online retailers use is outside shipping fulfillment, like Shipwire.  When using a service like this, you send all your stock to them, and they ship your items, on time, for a reasonable fee.  A key benefit is that they have many warehouses.

One could, for example, send half their stock to the West Coast warehouse, and half to the East Coast warehouse, and Shipwire would automatically ship from the closest warehouse to that customer, saving on cost while also shipping quicker.

This also helps if you live in a cold climate.  If you have a snow day, your customer still receives their order.

Offer Subsidized or Free Shipping

Another ecommerce secret which is extremely helpful when shipping for eBay orders is to offer subsidized or free shipping.  Of course, if you offer low to no reserve auctions, this could be risky, but once you’ve established the pricing of your items, you can be more confident in this method.

How do retailers offer free shipping? They simply work their costs of shipping into the item.  It is a psychological marketing tool that people feel like they’re getting something free, when in fact, you are just shifting the price to the item itself.

Another method is to subsidize the cost of shipping by offering something like $5 flat rate shipping.  You could also set thresholds on free or flat rate shipping.  For example, “all orders of $50 or more are shipped free”.  This not only gives the psychological edge on the free shipping, but tries to push your customer over $50, thereby increasing your profits.

Send Tracking Numbers

Any experienced online retailer will tell you that the most common email they receive from customers is requesting a tracking number or shipping status.  By shipping quickly and having the tracking sent automatically to the customer, you have alleviated more than half of your customer service time.  This means more free time!

When using UPS or other online label printing shipping services, you can enter the customer’s email address for an automatic tracking email to go out to your customer.  Another benefit to a fulfillment company like Shipwire is that they integrate with many shopping carts, not only automatically issuing a carrier tracking number, but also sending a personalized email from you with their order contents, tracking numbers, a tracking link and any message you want to put in there.

Shipwire, when integrated with a shopping cart, including eBay’s, can process and ship an order automatically, without the need for you to even man the helm!  When an order is placed, it immediately sends the order to your warehouse and ships that day or the next, and automatically sends tracking to your customer.  This is a huge lifestyle benefit, as it allows you to be away from your business while it runs itself. You could be on a beach, and your orders still get shipped, automatically.

The information and tips above are designed to help you have a better understanding of the process of shipping for eBay transactions, and other online retail transactions.  Now get out there and sell!

Incoming search terms:

• how to ship on ebay on a snow day

Once you’ve located your supplier in China, contact them to request the MOQ (minimum order quantity), pricing, lead time, payment terms and product specs.  Make sure to pay close attention to what you’re ordering, how much it costs, shipping details, and customs requirements.

Purchase Orders & Pro Forma Invoices

The standard way to place an order with a supplier in China is to issue a PO, or purchase order.  This document basically outlines what you’re ordering, quantity, lead time expected, shipping method and more.  You can find free MS Word templates for purchase orders here.

Generally, unless you have a long term relationship built with the supplier, you will need to pay 100% prior to shipment.  Sometimes this is divided up into 2 payments.  For example, 50% deposit prior to production, and 50% balance post-production/pre-shipment.  Email your PO to your supplier and ask them to issue you a PI (pro forma invoice).  The PI will act as your PO confirmation.  Make sure to read over all the terms on the PI before sending payment.

Sending Your Payment

After confirming that everything is accurate on the pro forma invoice, you need to send payment, according to the terms within.  Generally, unless you’re working with less than $1,000, your supplier will demand “TT” (telegraphic transfer), which is more commonly known as a wire transfer.  Most of the time you’ll need to go into your bank and fill out the wire transfer forms there in person. Some banks allow you to call in or fax your wire transfers.

Now you’ll need to confirm to your supplier that you’ve sent the payment, and ask them to confirm that they have received it.  Once they confirm that they have received it, production can begin.

Receiving the Order

When your supplier is ready to ship, make sure they accurately fill out customs forms, including the value you paid.  Don’t try to have them claim it as a ‘gift’, or reduce the commercial invoice amount to appear like you’ve paid less to avoid fees.  This is not only illegal, but it isn’t worth the trouble, and could cause your order to be held in customs for weeks, or even worse, confiscated and destroyed.

Once all the customs forms are in order, you just need to wait for the shipment to arrive.  If you’re having the order shipped via an express courier like UPS or FedEx, the cost will be much higher, but the speed is much faster, and documentation process much more simple.  Make sure to work in shipping and customs costs into your cost of goods when figuring out your profit.

If your order is much larger, you should contact a customs broker and have them deal with the shipment either by air or sea.  A customs broker is like a travel agent for your order, taking care of all the details of shipment, customs clearance, etc.

This post is the very basic reader’s digest version of how to order from China.  It is highly recommended that you do more research on the subject prior to actually ordering from China.  You can find many books on how to order from china on amazon.com, or your local bookstore.  Also check out Importing From China With Success for a very affordable instant download with much more information on the subject.

Incoming search terms:

• how to order from china
• order from china
• how can we order from china
• how do i order from china
• how to make orders in china
• how to order product from china
• orderfromchina
• ordering from china proforma
• ten dollar beats dr dre

How do some online retailers sell items so cheaply?

The simple answer is they buy in such huge quantities that they get dramatically low pricing from the manufacturers.  This allows them to wedge in a margin and either make a larger profit or offer the goods for less than their competition.  While you are probably not able to make a $250,000 purchase order with a vendor and get these deep cuts, there are things you can do to get the best deals possible from the best vendors out there.  Here are some tips to follow when looking for new suppliers:

• In order to keep your costs per unit down, try keeping away from vendors who charge extra fees.  Fees such as monthly memberships are a trap for ecommerce newbies.
• It is essential to take your time conducting thorough pricing research.  This will give you a realistic idea whether or not you can compete in your particular market.
• Only deal with vendors who guarantee all their products.  This will ensure that returns or customer issues can be passed off to your vendor instead of you having to carry that cost.
• Look into importing from China or India.  Due to the rock-bottom labor costs, your margins will be greater if you acquire your goods from overseas vendors.

How do large online retailers find these amazing vendors?

There are a few ways to find the vendors you’re looking for:

1. Contact product manufacturers directly – You can find manufacturers by visiting manta.com and other business directories. Give them a call, tell them you’re  with yourwebsite.com and and ask if they can provide you with a pricelist and order minimums with price breaks.
2. Take advantage of wholesale directories such as SaleHoo, which has over 8,000 of the best suppliers information online.
3. Attend trade shows, buy trade magazines in your niche, and do anything else to get exposed to vendors in your niche.  There are tons of ways how to find vendors selling the merchandise you are looking to sell.

By using the simple tips above, you’ll surely avoid some of the beginner mistakes involved in how to find vendors and be thorough in your search.

Incoming search terms:

• how to find vendors for e commerce
• how to find vendors for your eccommerce website
• finding vendors for e commerce site
• how to find vendors
• how to get vendors for e-commerce