3 Basic Inventory Points For New Merchants To Ponder Over

desmond — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:23:54 +0000

Starting your own online business is always exciting. However, there is one aspect that many new merchants overlook: Inventory. Not many home business opportunity online owners are aware of this but inventory issues can seriously affect a business. Inventory management is a balancing act which requires serious thought. To avoid inventory problems, many new merchants have opted to employ the services of drop shipping suppliers such as Doba. Such services may suit some merchants, especially those selling more contemporary products. It also solves any storage space issues new merchants might have.

However, many merchants prefer to have full control over every aspect of their business from the get-go. For these merchants, here are a few considerations for making decisions with regards to inventory…

If you are just starting your own online business, chances are you do not have that many products to sell, mainly due to the fact that you lack the space to store inventory. Many home businesses utilize their basements, attics and even garages for inventory storage space. How much space you need depends on the types of products you sell, the product turnover rate and the size of the products.

Inventory Segregation

Even as a new merchant, you should have a rough idea what your top-selling products will be, which products will sell regularly, and which will probably only get the odd order or two. Once you have figured this out, you can segregate your inventory into different classes. Let’s say you run an online shoe store. You can overstock models that sell fast – light weight trainers, for instance. This type of shoe sells well near competition dates. In fact, many shoe stores target big runs like the New York, Chicago, Boston, London and Singapore marathons. However products that don’t have specific high- or low-demand periods, such as regular everyday trainers should be kept at normal stock levels and never overstocked. Just to complete your store, you should also stock (or at least make available on back order) certain niche items like shoes for severe over-pronators.

Economies Of Scale

When it comes to inventory, what is an online business opportunity to make more money? One method is to take advantage of economies of scale by purchasing in bulk. It’s fine to take advantage of economies of scale just as long as the turnover is assured. Otherwise, you’ll end up being stuck with idle inventory. Before purchasing in bulk, make sure that whatever discount you gain justifies the cost of holding on to your inventory until you can move it. Many factors affect the holding cost – some products may need refrigeration, taxes may need to be paid on inventory and some products need special equipment to move them around before being shipped.

Hedging

There are cases when overstocking regular-selling products may bring long term benefits. For instance, stocking up on products that are bound for a price increase in the market. Once the general market price has increased, you can choose to increase your price as well and enjoy the improved margins or maintain the old price and enjoy the improved turnover. The latter could be the better option as it has a better sales angle and may result in you acquiring new customers.Recent Posts:

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Shopping Bots – An Online Business Opportunity To Make More Money

desmond — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:06:37 +0000

Shopping bots are also known as price comparison sites. Consumers use shopping bots’ search engines to look for particular products and then compare prices and other available information such as consumer ratings and reviews.

Shopping bot and price comparison services are growing at a rate of over 30% per annum. Such services have become so popular that many have been bought up by industry giants like Microsoft.

Traffic arriving from such sites is targeted and the likelihood of a visitor ending up buying something is high. Which is why many online stores register with shopping bots. If you are an business opportunity seeker who has just started a web store with an easy shopping cart and you’re looking for an online business opportunity to make more money, making use of shopping bot and price comparison services could be very useful.

Is Your Store Prepared?

Registering your store with shopping bots can be a great way to get targeted traffic to your site but only if visitors see your store as providing quality products with appealing benefits and services along with competitive prices. This is because most shopping bot sites display results along with ratings. Visitors generally stay away from sites that are rated 2 and below out of a possible 5 stars. Because of this, it’s important to ensure that your products are always of a certain standard and that your before- and after-sales customer service is helpful and efficient.

Registration

Once you are confident that your store and products have what it takes to compete with the competition, you can then register your store with shopping comparison sites. Most price comparison sites have a very easy registration process. Once you have selected the appropriate category listing for your store, you can then upload your product feed. Shopping cart solutions like InstanteStore provide easy exports of product feeds for various different shopping comparison sites. Though some price comparison sites are free, a lot of sites charge on a per-per-click (PPC) basis or a flat rate for product placement.

SEO/Traffic Benefits

Comparison sites also work hard to ensure that their sites rank well with search engines. These sites put a good deal of effort into search engine optimization as well. Having your store and products listed on comparison sites provides your store and products with additional outlets for traffic and potential customers. Another good thing about comparison sites is that most of them are affiliated with a few other sites. In other words, if you register with one site, your store or products could be featured on the others for free.

Concerns

There are some concerns about shopping bots. The most common concern is that some bots do not update products feeds often enough. This has resulted in some shoppers landing on products pages only to find out that the product is out of stock or that the price has changed. To remedy this, submit products that have more or less stable pricing and stock levels, and/or update your store products at the comparison sites that you’ve registered with when your product catalog or prices change.

So if you are looking for an online business opportunity to make more money, shopping bots are a valid option. Just remember to make sure that your store’s products, services, and customer service are up to mark before you start signing up.

Have you registered with shopping bots before? Tell us about your experience.Recent Posts:

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Ecommerce Shopping Cart Blog by InstanteStore » online business opportunity to make more money

3 Basic Inventory Points For New Merchants To Ponder Over

Shopping Bots – An Online Business Opportunity To Make More Money