As such, 2012 is certain to be an interesting year in terms of ecommerce trends. We’ll see further movement in some areas, and we’ll see new ground broken, too.

Here are some of the top emerging ecommerce trends for 2012:

• We’re going mobile. The past two years have seen some corporations break into the mobile arena, but it’s been somewhat slow-going. Unless you’re a national brand or a startup built around mobile ecommerce, chances are you’re still working on a mobile strategy. 2012 will be the year that the rest of us catch up and make a comprehensive mobile ecommerce strategy.
• Digital goods move to retail. The failure of Borders and the struggling state of Barnes & Noble presents a stark lesson to ecommerce professionals: digital goods can and will trump physical goods. Many brick-and-mortar businesses will not only begin to have ecommerce offerings via their websites, they’ll actually bring the ecommerce experience inside the physical store via terminal transactions.
• The customer experience becomes cross-channel. This means that the customer can interact with the ecommerce experience in whatever format she wants, and have it fully accessible each time. Ecommerce companies will play their part in the customer experience, but that part will be complemented by retail, mobile, and social media experiences.
• Wholesale vendors moving directly to retail. Ecommerce provides an interesting opportunity for wholesalers. It gives them a relatively reliable and efficient medium with which they can directly reach the consumer. This one will be tricky; wholesalers are going to have to take care with how they approach their branding, or they will risk alienating some of their current base of retail clients.
• Unified digital open-air marketplaces. We can already see this in some areas. In fact, eBay has been doing this for more than a decade. 2012 is shaping up to be the year that more and more suppliers jump into common boats, allowing customers the open-air marketplace experience via a single portal.
• Game on. We’re just beginning to scratch the power of games when it comes to ecommerce. Games – whether they’re for a mobile platform or a social media platform – create a unique opportunity. They allow you the opportunity for customer engagement, but also provide a way to build value. Brand education and name recognition will be boosted in 2012 as we see more and more companies put out memorable games to support their ecommerce platform.
• Retailers move farther toward the value add. This may be more fallout from ecommerce than strictly an ecommerce trend, but retailers will begin to recognize that location is no longer the most important factor in their business. They need to be able to provide a quality product and superior service, both in their offline and online offerings.
• It’s all about real-time relevance. 2012 will be the year that many ecommerce folks really start to put the “social-mobile-local” mantra to use. This means providing customers with the information they need no matter where they are and giving them a medium to share with their friends and family. Mobile integration, social networking, and local search strategies all play into this.
• Free worldwide shipping. In what may help to level the playing field between ecommerce companies across national borders, shipping rates are dropping. Accordingly, ecommerce sites will increasingly open up their physical goods to a worldwide market.

2012 is here. With it comes new challenges and new opportunities in the ecommerce marketplace. Making sure your business is ready for these changes and willing to put them to work empowering your business will, to a large degree, determine your success in the coming months.

See the below video released by dotndot which quickly shows few of the major ecommerce trends for 2012…

Another video Interview with James Vizor, Ecommerce expert – On 2012 trends:

image:sergiolat

• 2012 emerging ecommerce trends
• e-commerce trends
• ecommerce trends 2012
• ecommerce trends for 2012

Most people think their work ends once the web site is up. In actual, the real work starts only after your site is up.

In the case of eCommerce based business, you have to work a lot right from the earlier stage of business. Because, it involves lot of entities like managing the customer, serving their needs and solving their issues. It is more tied to the customer and you have to dedicate your time, energy for customers. Basically, planning helps a lot in effectively managing such eCommerce businesses.

In this article, i will take you through the ways to promote a brand new eCommerce business web site. These strategies works well through out the life cycle of your business.

Release Discount Voucher Codes.

Once of the quickest method to drive sales to your eCommerce site: release voucher codes for every product your sell. These are discount codes which helps the buyer to quickly grab an offer or discount from your site before placing their order.

Your buyer gets excitement to see last minute discounts. However, you have to make sure you are providing the right percentage of discount to the buyer and the right percentage of commission to the referral person.

As a new eCommerce business web site, you could release voucher codes for almost all the products available for sale and people do prefer to buy from you taking discounts. This is one of the quickest method to attract buyers to your site because most of the people are looking for discount or cheaper products every time.

Setup A Blog With Your Store.

Many of the eCommerce web sites don’t have blogs and i would say, that’s a major mistake. Blogs are live journals which helps to keep your business active and to share everything with your customers.

For an eCommerce web site, customers are the back bone and it is really required to get in touch with them always. Having a blog helps you to give updates to your customers and also, you could share the latest happening in your eCommerce business.

It actually helps to bring the customers close to your business and they love to get in touch with you. Further, blogs are major source of live traffic from search engines and social media tools like Twitter, Facebook.

• A blog helps your business for the long run, you could go one-step further and give products updates through your blog.
• This way, you could drive visitors related to your products and redirect them to the sale page.

For a new web site, having a blog helps to easily bring quick visitors who could turn into a customer tomorrow.

SEO – Have Detailed Product Description.

Not only for eCommerce based business, for any online based business SEO is the key driver. The major advantage of SEO is that you could drive visitors free of cost and that too for the long term. All you need to optimize your pages for search engines and add more detailed information about the products.

Show images, product videos and add lot of content which explains the product. This helps the customers as well as attracts search engine traffic.

• The recent Google panda update had really affected lot of eCommerce web sites which have less or duplicate content. Have a look on the panda analysis report as well as importance of product description.

This clearly shows that you have to be serious with your product description. Having detailed content adds values to the visitor as well as it ranks well in search engines. If you don’t have enough content, go and add value – you should not miss search traffic because SEO has the power to generate lot of revenue and profits !

Run Targeted Ads on Adwords/Facebook.

Online advertisements are always meant for profits provided you are playing the right game. Yes, because you are investing money – you have to play wise in bringing the right people to your landing page and in converting them to sale.

Google Adwords, Facebook Ads are the two major source of Ad traffic in Internet and by refining the keywords (for Adwords), audience behavior (for facebook) you could easily bring targeted visitors who are willing to buy products from your site.

I would say, this is more dependent on your advertising budget. If you are ready to spend money on advertisements, may sure your ROI is good.

• As a tip, have separate landing pages for Ad visitors and test their behavior. There are lot of tools available for doing a/b split testing, make use of them so that you won’t loose your hard earned money on advertisements.

Capture Leads – Use it Wisely.

You implement SEO, drive search engine. You run Ads, drive targeted visitors. The profits are purely based on the conversion. However, apart from conversion/sale, you should learn to hold the visitors coming to your eCommerce site.

Yes, i am speaking about list building. Ask every user to register to your eCommerce web site or its newsletter and hold them in your record. Once you started capturing their email ids, you could ping them any time with updates.

Further, you could go one-step further and send updates based on the peoples interest.

This way, you could quickly increase your audience base and also, keep them into your circle. Make use of premium newsletter services…

Benefiting With Seasonal Deals.

When it comes to eCommerce based business, one of the most important thing is: seasonal deals. During shopping seasons, you could do the best to bring lot of sales.

• For example, Christmas holidays are meant for discount shopping. Utilize such seasonal time and work towards showing great discounts on every sale.

Also, consider giving gift vouchers or gift items to buyers so that they will be happy to come back to your web site. You could announce through your newsletter and tell every one that you have special offers during the shopping season.

Make use of these best seasons to show that you are in the market to help people with great products…

Show Related/Recent Products.

This is an idea to tweak your sale pages and to increase the chances of conversion. It is true that before placing an order, people do spend time in browsing through your web site.

• Showing related products on every page helps them to quickly find products which are related to their interest. This triggers the visitor to buy more than 1 product.
• For example, if you show the latest collection of Blu-Ray discs on the Blu-Ray disc player page, there are more chances that people will buy discs once they buy the player. Got it ?

Similar, have a separate section to list down the latest products or hot products on each categories which increases the chances of sale because people need products on latest configurations.

Always Monitor Your Competitors.

Every business has competition and when you are running an eCommerce web site, you will face lot of competition. Because now-a-days there are lot of tools available to build an eCommerce web site and hence there are many eCommerce sites in the market.

Unless you do something unique, you could not survey in the market. Spend time to see who are all the competitors and understand the competition – this way, you could tweak your strategies to stand out from the competition. Learn how to dominate and beat competition ?

• Always compete with reasonable competitors, for example: you could not compete with Amazon, eBay on a global market or the biggest retailers like Tesco, Argos, Debenhams in a geographically targeted market like UK.

Finally, there are lot of work required to promote your new eCommerce business and all you need to Set Goals, Make Plan, Follow and Tweak your strategies until your reach the goal. Learn to avoid eCommerce business mistakes at the earlier stage of your business.

Have Great Day !

image:mcorsaw, im

• best seasonal ecommerce sites
• ways to promote ecommerce business
• to promote a good ecommerce sites
• sales and promotion to launch ecommerce sites
• recent ecommerce sites
• promote e-commerce

1. Web Design

There are many variables that determine how much you will pay for Web design. If you use templates from a free hosting provider, you don’t have to pay anything. Unfortunately, you will also lose branding power, as these same templates are used by thousands of other webmasters. With that said, beginning webmasters should not completely dismiss the thought of hiring a professional designer.

In terms of the cost, this will depend on the following:

• Whether or not a Web designer charges per page or by the hour
• If original graphics are needed for the design
• The site’s complexity, especially in regard to programming and databases
• The designer’s level of expertise

On the low end, a 100-page site could be built for as little as $500. This is especially the case for those who turn to students or freelancers for the work. On the higher end, costs could exceed $50,000. At this range, webmasters would be working with well-established Web design firms.

2. Hosting

Like Web design, hosting has a range of prices. Fortunately, they are more affordable for the average budget. The most basic packages range from 0 to $5, while larger accounts usually cost between $10 and $50. For more expensive packages, you may have access to a plug-and-play template that takes care of the design issues.

Yahoo Small Business hosting is an example. While their templates still possess a cookie-cutter look, you are given more options for designing your site. You could change the colors or mix up the graphics. With free or cheap hosting accounts, you have very little say on how to design your template.

3. Merchant Accounts

Unless a webmaster is making money through affiliate marketing, they are going to need some type of merchant account to collect their customers’ money.

Google, Paypal and Clickbank offer these services for no upfront fees, but in exchange they charge a fee for each transaction. They also limit their accounts to online transactions. With other merchants you can collect credit card payments online or offline, with less expensive transaction fees. However, to do so you will have to pay a few hundred upfront and/or pay a nominal monthly fee of $10 or more.

4. Merchandising

Many webmasters overlook the issue of merchandising, but in reality it represents the heart of e-commerce. You cannot make money without selling something. Of course, you do not have to sell physical products. If you sell e-books or services, you will not have to pay any extra fees.

Things are different for those wanting to sell physical products. If they buy their products through a wholesaler, they will need to pay tens of thousands upfront. With a dropshipper, they pay monthly fees of $50 or more.

5. Bonus Tips

Now-a-days, building an ecommerce website is not really a tough job. There are many open source ecommerce solutions available in the market which you could simply drag-n-drop into your website.  You have to do the ground work first, i mean the business plan (considering its cost) to build up your ecommerce web site especially covering the various aspects as mentioned earlier like the design, hosting, payment transaction etc. Once you  have a business plan ready, you could easily forecast the business towards the growth direction. Also, when it comes to e-commerce business, you have to consider branding which is more important.

Branding Your Website. In general, every business needs a branding approach which shows that your are an expert in the industry and also, you are a professional in the market. People don’t buy products simply from any e-commerce web site, hence you have to show that you are an expert so that they gain TRUST on your business service. In short, consider spending time apart from money in making your web site into a branded one.

When you are able to gain that user TRUST, you could easily convert them into customers and again, they will become Repeat Customers. All these won’t happen in a day or two, it takes time and you have to constantly do experiments and plan it so that you could control the operational costs involved.

Hello my name is Nisha Sandhu I am 26 years old and I am an Editor at whoishostingthis.com, whom I have been working with for 2 years now. I love to write and give online business advice to new and growing businesses, come to our site to check out the latest Dream Host.com reviews.

image: juan

• cost involved in creating e commerce
• cost of creating a ecommerce site
• cost of creating an ecommerce website

The SBA notes that “rules and regulations for conducting eCommerce apply mainly to online retailers and other businesses that perform consumer transactions by collecting customer data”, and that includes data collected during credit card processing.

Being Compliant With Regulations.

It’s crucial to understand and follow the rules and regulations designed to protect customers from identity theft and other fraudulent uses of personal information. This is known as being PCI compliant, and it’s important because it protects both merchant and customer. The merchant service provider that administers your merchant account should be able to answer your compliance questions.

PCI compliance is shorthand for being compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which lays down requirements to ensure that all merchants who process, store or transmit credit card information do so in a secure transaction environment. The standards are administered by an independent body called the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), established by the five major payment card brands (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB International).

• PCI compliance is required of all merchants who accept and process credit, debit and/or prepaid cards branded with the logos of the above mentioned five participating companies.
• It’s important to note that merchants must ensure that they are PCI compliant even if they use a merchant services provider to process credit cards. PCI guidelines define a service provider as a third party that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data on behalf of another entity, such as a merchant.
• Using a service provider may help reduce a merchant’s risk of exposure to fraud, and it can make it easier to validate compliance; however, it does not exclude the merchant from his or her PCI compliance obligation.

Data Security on eCommerce Business.

Data security should always be a top priority for your eCommerce business, not only to keep cardholder and merchant information safe but also to avoid the numerous direct and indirect penalties associated with non-compliance.

• For example, issuing banks and credit card processors can be hit with fines of up to $500,000 for PCI compliance violations, and these fines typically get passed along to individual merchants through increased transaction fees.

Perhaps of even greater consequence, non-compliant merchants found at fault for a data security breach end up paying hefty fines and footing the bill for expensive forensic audits and credit card replacement costs. They can also lose their merchant account – and with it their ability to accept credit cards – which can result in major damage to their credibility, reputation and customer loyalty.

• Before setting up an eCommerce business, consult with your merchant services provider about establishing the right merchant account for credit card processing on the Internet – and ask for a full explanation of PCI compliance and its ramifications for your business.

image: debtcovered

• guest post ecommerce

The fact is that the smaller systems really can’t handle significant expansions.  They’re not designed to make the jump from small business to medium-sized business. They can do some things, but can’t do others. The best solution is to look at your needs first, and then get a customized ERP package to make sure you have all the systems you need in place.

The huge number of different functions and applications which modern businesses carry come with a few drawbacks, not least of which is the fact that they tend to be “off the rack” systems. The inventory software, for example, is a standalone, function-specific type of software, designed to do one job. Being a standalone system creates problems upstream, because the data from that system, naturally, has to be transferred over to other systems as part of the balance sheet.

The result is inefficiency. Even an industry standard type of accounting software like MYOB requires laborious data entry and conformity with its own norms. It can’t extract data from external sources. Reports have to be extracted from one system and put on another.

Quaint as this may be, the added work represents a significant cost to business. Resources are diverted to number-crunching and mindless, largely useless duplication of data.

Customizing your systems

ERP software is a new class of software, designed to manage business systems as an integrated whole. This, not at all coincidentally, also happens to be business accounting best practice. It makes the entire spectrum of business information easily accessible from a common system, not multiple systems.

Imagine a system which can integrate:

• Sales reports and figures
• Inventory
• Ordering
• Accounting reports
• Ecommerce data
• Human Resources and OHS
• Customer relations management data
• Risk management
• Financial management
• Project management

The whole idea of ERP business management software is to simplify and customize core business operational functions.

With these systems you can use a “dashboard” screen to have all your real time business information at your fingertips, literally, whenever you need it.

You’ll find that the ERP systems achieve real productivity gains in administration, and particularly in accounts. These systems are true business systems, designed to promote better functionality and to eliminate wasteful, counterproductive practices at source. The true beauty of the ERP systems is that they’re also scalable. You don’t have to get lumbered with some gigantic dinosaur of a system which has lots of functions you’ll never use.

Other major positives for ERP systems include:

• Technical support
• Upgrades
• Easy expandability
• Security built in
• Consultative advisory services to make sure you get a fully functional system suitable for your business

If you’re expanding your business, you need to look at the ERP systems to fully appreciate what they can do for you. You won’t be disappointed.

image: ruaa

• better business systems
• business systems i need
• ecommerce \add comments\ notify me when new comments are added
• what u need in expanding your business

1) why should I buy this? And 2) Why should I buy this from you?

• If you can engage the viewer and address their concerns clearly, they will be more ready to buy from you.

You will want to have at least four paragraphs each ranging from 100-200 words for a total of about 500 words on your homepage.  You will want to focus on the benefits of the products and not so much the features.

• Explain to them, how the product will benefit their lives ?
• A great option is bulleting a list of benefits of your product and your company showing, what sets you apart from your competition ? why you are the better choice ?
• Look at how I used call to action marketing on my website myautoblogging.com

Now that you have explained the products benefits, you need some calls to action and sales incentives to get them to buy.  It is amazing how when you add a simple phrase, how it can impact your conversion rate.

• Some words for creating sales incentives are “Free Shipping” or “25% off”.
• Then add some calls to action like “These prices won’t last; get it now!

a nice call-to-action !

Believe it or not they go a long way in by tempting shoppers.  It is important that you place these sales incentives and calls to action at the top of your page above the fold then deep link them to another product page within your site.

When you effectively use calls to action or sales incentives you are providing a way to measure site success, you bring focus to your site and offer direction to your users.  You will want to limit the number of choices so that each one stays distinct from the others.  You do not want to confuse the viewers you want to lead them around your site.

Some great calls to action words that clearly tell the viewer what to do are:

• Call Now
• Buy Now
• Register Now
• Subscriber Now

Are you looking to add a sense of urgency or sales incentives try these:

• Limited time only
• Order now and receive a free gift
• Offer Expires on May 10

When you are adding your calls to action, it is important to ensure they are highly visible and not crowded around other text.  You will want your action words to stand out and be seen.  You can use alternate colors or highlight words to grab the viewer’s attention with your sales incentives also.

As you are creating your call to action marketing efforts size is important too.  The larger the call to action the more of a chance it has to be recognized on the page.  Remember these calls to action words and sales incentives are not only intended for the home page but for every page.  You do not want to have a visitor come to a dead end then leave without making a purchase.  This is not to say that it has to be large and the same on each page but you will want to have something that leads them toward your ultimate goal.  Click here now to view other call to action marketing incentives.

When you effectively use calls to action and sales incentives, you are creating a successful site that can generate real measurable returns.

image: expoundinteractive

• call to action words list
• call for action sales
• call to action words marketing
• make sales call to action website
• sales call to action phrases

All of the challenges of managing inventory must be addressed through efficient business practices, and the following online inventory management applications have been designed to enhance the control necessary to maintain proper levels of supply and sales inventory.

Inventory for today....

1. Connect-2-Field – For the service-based business, this powerful online tool is specifically designed to work with smartphones. Each employee accesses the online application through the website and performs all paperwork electronically. Inventory availability can be verified and requested from the proper location without leaving the job site. Parts requests can be sent to the office for a courier to deliver requested parts while work continues. Communication is enhanced because each employee updates his work status and paperwork online for review by office personnel. Office personnel can read the information and provide the necessary information to complete the job.

2. Visual Online – Local software installation is not required with Visual Online, so easy access from absolutely any location is simple and convenient. All functionality is available to the user who wishes to verify existing inventory at each location, order replacements, and run reports to monitor actual inventory. Each department, location, and warehouse can be managed separately for appropriate delivery scheduling. User permission can be limited to certain inventory stores to prevent overlap.

3. Megaventory – Custom transaction types can be defined for the business with unique product return and credit handling policies. Megaventory will closely control all aspects of ordering and managing an inventory across multiple locations by providing tight user permission controls that prevent duplication of effort. When inventory levels drop below preset levels, alerts are sent to the appropriate users for immediate action.

4. Zoho CRM – Beyond the standard Customer Relationship Management functionality found in most CRM applications, Zoho takes convenience one step further by maintaining preferred vendor lists. Inventory is managed entirely through the web interface to order the appropriate number of items directly from vendors for delivery on time to the correct location. Complete integration of the inventory function makes sales quotes, price books, and invoices consistent with all other aspects of the sales cycle.

5. Bright Pearl – For businesses with a storefront and a website operating concurrently from the same inventory stores, real-time information is paramount to satisfying customer requests without shortages. Bright Pearl grants the website customer the ability to reserve a product in the online shopping cart and marks the product as “allocated” to prevent the salesperson behind the counter from selling the last item on the shelf. Certain products can be marked for “online sales only,” or “store only,” and the application will track the availability with up-to-the-second accuracy.

6. Unleashed – Businesses that currently use Xero accounting software will benefit from the ease of the Unleashed online inventory management application. Full integration occurs when the online accounts are established in Unleashed. Careful inventory monitoring is possible because of the real-time updates that occur from the ecommerce store and the point of sale in the storefront. Supply, sales, and office supply inventories are tracked and reordering is simple to initiate and complete.

Appropriate inventory levels are essential to maintaining sufficient cash flow in any business. Aging inventory can expire or become obsolete without anyone realising the products are on the shelves unless accurate inventory information is kept. When all aspects of the inventory are visible through electronic reminders and accurate reports, inventory management is integrated into other business processes. Dependable inventory information enhances employee productivity and reduces frustration for those who depend on sufficient inventory to complete job duties.

In addition to being powerful inventory management applications, security within each tool is designed to protect all business-related information in these online applications. Technological security protocols are maintained to prevent breaches of the website and the database where information is stored. Business owners can be confident that use of an online inventory management tool will not compromise confidentiality or competitive advantage within the marketplace.

James Adams blogs and is a reviewer for CartridgeSave, an online shop for discount ink cartridges.

image: justif

• online inventory management
• inventory management tools
• best free inventory management software for online store
• online supply inventory system
• product online inventory system
• simple inventory for online store

You might have only a few products, why do you need a shopping cart? A robust shopping cart system will allow for easy expansion, accept multiple currencies, offer your customers suggestions, and allow your customers to review your products. Online shopping carts are great for business owners who have a lot of similar items. You do not have to spend anything to get a full, feature-rich shopping cart. One of these open-source solutions should do the trick.

1. Zeuscart: Only a few steps separate you from having a fully integrated, fully functional shopping cart system on your site. You do not have to know HTML coding with Zeuscart, but you can tweak and customize your page to match your tastes. You can tag your products and organize them according to their popularity, maintain real-time inventory control, and highlight your featured products. The interface offers purchase-based suggestions and recommendations to your customers. You have unlimited categories and sub-categories at your disposal.

2. Magneto: Manage your catalog easily and effectively with the Magneto Community shopping cart. Multiple payment options are supported. Each facet is configurable to your store’s requirements. Customers have the option to download products directly from their account, ship to multiple addresses, and filter their personal search results. Each product that is placed into the site can have multiple images, perfect for clothing lines. You can easily offer coupons at a single store or at multiple stores. Your commerce site is search engine optimized.

3. OSCommerce: The developers of OSCommerce are continually striving to make their product better. This site uses basic HTML product descriptions and numerous forms of payment. There is support for shippable and downloadable products. The software itself is completely multilingual, offering English, German and Spanish by default. This shopping cart keeps track of varied statistics, highlighting them on the customer pages. OSCommerce offers an automated display of specials and draws the attention of visitors to the site. You can also create bestseller lists with OSCommerce.

4. OpenCart: OpenCart has a host of features within its suite. It can handle multiple languages and currencies. Users can input their reviews and ratings. There is detailed back-end reporting so that store owners can get a well rounded idea of how well their store is doing. You have unlimited products and categories at your disposal. You can offer related products pages and information pages. You can sell either physical or downloadable products. Offer the latest featured products for the perusal of your visitor. You can also install Google Analytics on your site. After setting up this software, there is minimal effort needed to get it going.

5. TomatoCart: One complaint that customers have about shopping online is that they have to create an account to shop for their goods. With TomatoCart, users do not have to create accounts to purchase products. You can integrate many features into your shopping cart, including a newsletter, emails and wish lists. As a vendor, you can offer downloadable, virtual and simple products. You will receive support for your products and inventory control at the touch of a button. You can offer your customers suggestions, feature different products, cross-sell, and upsell all of the products within your site.

A great shopping cart system will save you time and money. It will generate more sales by automating the process of up selling and cross-selling your products. It will keep your users informed by performing many auto responder functions. The best shopping cart systems will offer a great community and support system for questions and concerns. Set up a feature-rich shopping cart system on your site, automate the process, and spend more time on vacation.

This post was written by James, a tech analyst who reviews Dell ink cartridges at a supplier of printer cartridges for homes and businesses throughout the UK.

Image: Rick Harris

• a lot of shopping carts
• rich shopping carts
• tomatocart how to add Indian currency

1. Doba: Doba has over 1.5 million products for you to sell on the auction sites. They sell from a wide range of vendors, exhibit at trade shows and are an eBay certified provider. Doba considers itself to be the sourcing expert with products from Mattel, Kodak, Sony and Dell. Here, you can find something perfect for everyone. Offers a 7 day free trial.

2. Shopster: Shopster has plenty of products available for reselling on its network. It places inventory management tools and social networking at your disposal. You can start selling from Shopster for free on a limited basis, or you can opt for their $39.95 per month plan.

3. Worldwide Brands: Worldwide Brands does not consider itself wholesalers or middlemen. They do, however, provide you with a resource of over 8000 certified dropshippers which provide over 8 million products. Gain access to their valuable database for $299. Set up relationships with the wholesalers and get to work in selling products.

4. Dropship Access: DropShipAccess provides you with connections to name brands such as DKNY, Ferrari, Symantec and Tommy Hilfiger. You can choose to sell from many categories, including books, music and computers. With their free seven day trial, you can get a risk free sample of their services.

5. Urban Load: The specialists at Urbanload sell your customized items. You can choose designs which have been placed on keychains, mouse pads, and t-shirts, selling them within your store. Urbanload offers a 30 day free trial, then the pricing goes to $19.95 per month for services. Sell your own designs or pre-made designs.

6. Dollar Days: Choose from a variety of items ranging from candles to hand tools to fleece blankets. This is a wholesaler which ships to dollar stores throughout the country. It collects all of the resellers in one place, providing a lot of products from which to choose. You are charged an annual fee of $99, and a monthly fee of $15.95 for their services.

7. National Dropshippers: National Drop shippers provides over 100,000 wholesale products. You can create your own store with all of the products coming from National Wholesalers. With the store, you don’t have to get accounts with each dropshipper, that is handled directly through National Dropshippers. Their monthly fee is only $7.49. You can also select their $199 lifetime membership.

8. Megagoods: For a small drop shipping fee of $1.50 per order, you can advertise the items from Megagoods on eBay and other auction sites. You can purchase home theater systems, scooters, cellular devices and televisions through Megagoods. Sign up for the free 30 day trial. If you don’t like it, you can cancel the service.

9. EZ Wholesaler: EZ Wholesaler brings you items direct from the manufacturer. You have a vast selection of household goods, Ginsu products, home and garden products and trinkets to choose from. Purchase your items by the case or less than a case. The standard service is $9.95 for the first month, then $19.95 monthly.

Drop shipping is not a flash in the pan venture. Thousands of people are making money off of drop shipped products every single day. You can make a fortune with these great deals.

James writes about productivity in the workspace for an online office supplies store specializing in office furniture for businesses in the UK.

Image: Uzbeckistan

• gogo dropship

Many sellers import some or all of their products from China, as it is an option that can result in higher profit margins. In importing products from China, you buy goods directly from the manufacturers and thus pay much less. You can then sell them in America for up to 80% more than you originally invested.

Avoid Being Scammed.

However, there are some dishonest suppliers out there, and it is imperative to keep in mind some basic information to avoid being scammed.

• An extremely important tip to keep in mind when importing goods from China is to avoid purchasing brand name items, particularly clothing, purses, foot wear, and electronics. These run a very high risk of being fake imitations of the genuine items.
• DVD box sets are also to be avoided, as they are typically pirated and burned copies.
• Selling these counterfeit items can result in, at the very least, earning a bad reputation for yourself as a seller and your business in general. At the worst, you could run into some considerable legal trouble. Either way, you will be stuck with a lot of useless merchandise that you cannot sell.
• Don’t allow yourself to be manipulated by attractive domain names that include brands such as Nike, Gucci, etc. Scam artists use this tactic to lure in foreign importers and to lull them into a false sense of security. If a domain name includes a popular name brand, it is almost certainly a scam and should be totally avoided. Many unfortunate importers have gotten sucked into this trap only to have the site go offline shortly after investing, and have then found themselves out of a potentially substantial amount of money.

Beware of Scams !

Research Before You Import.

It’s absolutely crucial that you do your research.

• Google the company you are considering and look into alternative business databases, as well.
• Even more importantly, look deeply into customer reviews. Even scammers can have shiny, appealing advertisements. By looking into customer reviews, you can be certain if the site is legitimate or not.
• It is also important to look into contact information, as scammers will usually not provide an authentic (if any) address, phone number, and fax.

Read more Ways to avoid money making scams.

This is a guest post by Corry Cummings.

image: peteswede

• import online from china
• import ripoff china
• some import websites from china