We come into contact with a variety of people from all across this enormous industry we’re immersed in, and it never ceases to amaze me to see how many remarkable minds there are behind the strategies and efforts being put into play every day in the wholesale and retail business. Here then, is an excellent piece of step-by-step advice from one of the biggest dropshippers in the business, and a chance for you to get some of this valuable information for yourself. You’ve already made the decision to set up a virtual shop, so now the time has come to take measures to ensure a successful presence on the Internet. However, even though selling online is a lot like any other kind of business, there are some distinct characteristics that make this a whole different animal. Although a solid business plan is essential, as well as the implementation of an order management system, a way to accept payments, and a way to field those crucial customer questions that can make or break the deal… there are a few other things that make this kind of selling environment unique.

Guest Blogger Suzanne Lucas, Communication Manager of Shopster eCommerce, offers some tidbits to help newbies and veterans alike, as the never-ending search for concise and useful information on starting an online storefront continues:

Shopster offers a suite of Dropship and eCommerce solutions for small to medium sized businesses, with thousands of online merchants from around the world relying upon Shopster as it simplifies the complexities of online retail, allowing merchants to manage their store, transactions, and supply chain relationships in one easy to use place.

Products: Not all products are ideal for online selling. Products that require a lot of face-to-face selling time, like mortgages, are probably not a great choice, neither are those products that are common goods but have a high shipping cost (think a red wheel barrow). A place to start when trying to figure out what to sell online is to consider what you would want to buy from an online store.

Dropship Suppliers:  Now that you’ve got a product you want to sell, you need a supplier to source it from. A good supplier will be able to get you access to quality products at a reasonable price, and they’ll reliably deliver on their orders. Furthermore, when selling online take advantage of dropshippers. Dropshipping is a popular process online, where a supplier will ship products directly to your end consumer. This method lowers the risk for retailers, as orders are only placed only after the product has been sold to a customer. We like to call it no cost inventory.

Website and online store: Now you need a website and store to start selling online. Don’t be intimidated by this part as it doesn’t need to be complicated, expensive or require a computer science degree. There are many online ecommerce solution providers that for a nominal monthly fee will give you a hosted online store and website, access to an order management and purchasing system, as well as a shopping cart so you can make selling easy for your customers.

With the recent popularity of dropship suppliers, there are solutions available that offer a fully integrated system between the suppliers inventory data and your online storefront. Shopster is the leader in this integrated space, with over 1 million dropship products in their virtual network of products and an easy to use online store builder.

Customer Service: Last but not least, since you’re not going to be able to greet customers face-to-face, you’ll need a means of communication to field questions, comments, and concerns when necessary. This can be as simple as a phone number, email address, and set business hours where you make yourself available to answer customer queries. I would also strongly suggest creating a specific business email to do this. Would you buy something from a website with the contact email softkitty29@hotmail.com? Make your business professional, as it will pay off with sales.

This is just a taste of what Shopster has to offer, as they continue to offer the retail and wholesale sellers out there a new and exciting way to connect with sources and buyers. Thanks to Suzanne, you now have a great resource to use as a sort of virtual checklist as you embark on your own journey to setting up an online site that sells! Be sure to check out the pages on our own Toptenwholesale.com site for the best in search results that are geared to finding the information you need, and nothing you don’t.