This is my journey as an E-commerce Consultant
Archive for February, 2009
Why I love and lothe best offers on eBay
I have always found that best offers work for an eBay business as long as you are dedicated (or automated).
If you choose to take advantage of best offers always price your item with a view to negotiate. If the asking price is final, don’t spend time haggling and constantly declining customers. Don’t accept best offers on that item.
Managed best offers has increased my cleints GMS by £10K a month (over two months), and a welcome side effect is that some items sell at the slightly higher price initiated for taking advantage of best offers.
Its a win win situation….most of the time.
Occasionally you will get buyers constantly offering very low prices and refusing to believe you shouldn’t take the stupidly low offer. Normally I find if I have declined a £4 offer for a £24.99 item, on it’s last day the same or lower offer is made. Frustrating one offs aside, using and planning for best offers will increase your eBay sales, but you need to be dedicated and consistant.
Sourcing from China? Its the new thing…but they are just SO far away!
1180 days
Sourcing from china has been quite big for a while, but mostly larger corporate companies deal with that kind of thing. But how about the small business e-tailer?
eBay is still in my mind a bargain marketplace, market forces and recession have pushed prices down and forced sellers to throw a wider net to get suppliers. Sourcing from China can give you the prices you need and also bespoke products that would cost the earth to manufacture locally.
A good source of information for Chinese suppliers is http://www.chinafactorybase.com
Qualifying suppliers is another thing, the wholesaleforums has this post on the subject.
When importing products start slowly and build up your trade relationships with suppliers. I have imported Gothic Lolita clothing, synthetic hair and latex from china with no real problems but I had one key rule.
Don’t invest more than you can risk loosing with a new supplier.
I also asked for paid samples and they were happy to send them.
Always check that the products are sold within the safety regulations of the country you plan to sell them from and also hire a third party company to QC your first shipment to verify your suppliers quality control procedures.
Check this article out also about dealing with Chinese Suppliers
Had any good or bad experiences with importing from China? Any nuances that would be lost on us brits that are the norm in china?
Comment!
How NOT to run an online business…buyitdirect.co.uk/acerdirect.co.uk
1181 days
I ordered an Acer One Pink laptop on the 11th January from Acerdirect.co.uk. Once payment was taken I was told that ACTUALLY I had brought from BuyitDirect.co.uk. OK, well I will let that one slide.
A day after payment has been taken I received an email telling me the item was out of stock. OK, well it didn’t say that on the site 
7 days past after getting lots of OOS emails I enquired when the item would be IN stock. I was told the 22nd of January by their support, and I noticed a little note was now with the item stating stock available in ’2-7 days’
I wait.
I email again on the 1st Feb and get told ‘Apologies about this, our supplier have had issues getting these into the UK.’
Alarm bells ring and I cancel my order finally on the 9th Feb by phone.
I wait a week and no refund, so I ring again and I was told by a puzzled ‘supportier’ that the refund has not been done and he will pass it to the account dept today.
I wait again, then email. The response was ‘I have now done this for you’ on the 19th Feb. So it wasn’t done the second time? Third time lucky…or not.
I am still awaiting my refund from a company who had trouble getting the stock into the UK. I am going to have to get quite shirty on the phone to support now.
I could always just pop up to Huddersfield and demand to watch them refund my money or give me the cash. Don’t test me guys, I will turn up on your doorstep.
So, my first on-line ‘avoid at all costs’ scam award goes to:
Acerdirect/BuyitDirect
also known as:
laptopsdirect.co.uk
serversdirect.co.uk
projectorsdirect.co.uk
iviewcamerasdirect.co.uk
appliancesdirect.co.uk
Edited to add (25th Feb):
Rang today and was told I had never rang up and the refund will be processed today. That is 4 times they have processed my refund (I think they are lying to me) so I shall ring up in a bit to check the refund has been processed. I was also denied any evidence of refund. I will wait my 5-7 days then initiate a chargeback, I don’t feel there is anything else I can do!
Moral of the story is, as an on-line business you need to:
- Sell stock you HAVE, communicate this to the buyer prior to purchasing if not.
- Refund if you don’t have the stock
- Refund in LESS than a month if an order is cancelled
- Don’t do a swapsie on the company names and branding. After that point I wish I had not ordered, I always tell clients that consistent branding builds consumer confidence and I am so right!
Edited to add:
I finally have my refund 02/03/2009 16 working days later. (refunds are supposed to be 5 working days)
eBay Designers feel the ‘pinch’
1195 days
We are in a rough recession and only the strong will survive. It seems as though the arena of eBay design is starting to suffer with the departure of Frooition’s Managing Director Grenville Whelan.
Frooition has suffered with redundancies in the last 18 months loosing approximately 7 of its members with Gren making 8.
If Frooition does go under then my 3 clients who use their design will loose it, just as they are about to pay up for the shops upgrade. I already have concerns over the stores working with the European eBay sites.
Worrying times. Looks like I am going to have to focus on creating a compliant store design (which will all be open source) that fits in the new eBay experience and re-work. Templates too.
I do wonder where I am going to get this time from. I suppose I have always known the danger of renting design, it just comes at a busy period when I am clocking up 13 hour days.
Finding Wholesalers for your eBay Business
1202 days
Well, working for a large wholesaler and retailer I am constantly amazed by this world and how it is managed on trust, forum opinions and dubious wholesale lists.
This forum is a hub for wholesalers and information and full of regulars ready to pounce on new buyers/traders who join. There is a lot of good information here, but be prepared for opinions.
This site also drives a lot of good traffic to the UKSportswholesale site that I manage (but did not design, avoid EKM powershop like the plague, THE PLAGUE I tell you!! A shopping cart that does not distinguish countries for shipping, you have to hope your customer picks the right shipping…..) which I would recommend any decent wholesaler that really wants to reach its market.
I have recently received the lowdown on a database of Chinese distributors which I will investigate and review as well as tell you about the ‘Make £££ selling branding sportswear credit crunch buster‘ feature with the Independent On Sunday (and corresponding website by moi) which will be a good in site to how traditional marketing can boost a website.
