Posting videos on YouTube is a powerful way to turn prospects into customers. Video can communicate your message more effectively than any other medium. Yet, this medium is sometimes overlooked by wholesalers and manufacturers. Why use video to increase conversions and drive traffic to your site?

Your videos can engage customers and increase revenue-per-visitor by 2 percent when you create and post personalized product videos. Video can also boost your organic search traffic up to 10 percent in visits per day for video-enabled products. The use of video can help you gain market share, discover how to get more business and improve your bottom line.

In the world of fashion, it’s not always easy to engage and retain brand enthusiasts online. However, YouTube is a great platform because it empowers its users to be content creators and influencers in the fashion industry or any other. Just imagine the emotional impact of your content on YouTube. You can create brand awareness and reach new audiences. On YouTube, you can share your message and also engage with your core customer base, possibly resulting in the creation of loyalty and engagement.

In fact, digital media, including videos on YouTube and video ads, can deliver fast, accurate analytical data so you can track the performance, impact, and return on your investment.

YouTube TrueView video ads allow you to promote engaging video content and then analyze its performance. YouTube TrueView promotions sometimes drive traffic to websites with an 18 percent click-through rate, while industry averages are normally in the single digits. Therefore, compared to a cost-per-click search campaign with an average of $0.55 per click, a TrueView video ad campaign could reach more customers with an average $0.06 cost-per-view.

That’s what happens when you target the right audience on a granular level. You can drive potential shoppers to a site where they can spend time consuming product information and actively engaging with your brand.

The trick is to target specific keywords and then leverage YouTube Analytics to gain a deeper understanding of who your audience is, where they come from, and how best to interact with them.

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the planet; it allows you to integrate SEO, referral content and paid campaigns while reaching the greatest possible audience across platforms and devices. Your brand can become more visible through the emotional impact of video because it’s the ultimate medium for engaging an audience and getting them to interact with you.

Placing a call to action on top of your product videos can help curious viewers find new products and related items. Here’s how you can leverage YouTube to ramp up traffic and conversions.

Videos Convert Prospects

Your videos should emphasize your company’s unique selling proposition. Therefore, start by stating the most important reason why a prospect should visit your site. For example: “ABC Fashions provides high fashion apparel and accessories for the lowest wholesale prices on the Internet.” Remember that your company name must be built into your script.

Trust: Start by providing credibility. Tell them about your expertise, how long you’ve been in business, and something about your warehouse or manufacturing facility. Customers purchasing apparel products want to buy from suppliers with quality products they can depend on for prompt delivery, etc.

Benefits: Talk about the benefits of buying from your company. Mention the prices you charge, your workmanship, delivery track record, etc. Imagine what your customers might be afraid of and quiet those fears.

Test: Testing is a must, and here’s what you should test on your product videos:

• Opens: What’s the first mental image for viewers in your video? What is the still image displayed before they click play? How will you capture their interest in the first five to seven seconds? Research says 80 percent of those watching the first 12 seconds of a video will watch for about 70 more seconds.
• Closes/Calls to Action: What is your final mental image? Have you created enough desire to get your viewer to take action? Not every product video will lead to a sale; therefore, some videos will lead to the next demo or to learn more.
• Content density: Don’t try to say too much in too little time, yet don’t make it too slow and non-informative. You don’t need to answer every question but you must create desire. Show rather than tell.
• Voiceovers: Try a male voice vs. a female voice.
• Content Quality: Optimize your script.

In summary, your compelling product videos posted on YouTube and on your website have the potential to turn prospects into customers because video can communicate your message more effectively than any other medium. Don’t overlook the power of video to increase drive traffic and conversions to your site.

The study examined results of a campaign that included a combination of a professionally-produced how-to video along with a user-generated product video created and submitted by an actual product user.

The study’s objective was to answer an important question for today’s digital advertisers: in what way do user-generated videos complement professionally-produced content, if at all? “What we found was strong evidence of incremental benefit with exposure to both forms of media,” said comScore R&D VP Frank Findley in a press release.

“In the campaign examined, professionally-produced content and product videos drove strikingly higher lifts when used together than when either was used individually. While marketers may already be familiar with the effectiveness of professional video content alone, these results suggest that even greater returns can be had by combining their use with authentic, user-generated content,” stated Findley in the PR.

According to the PR, the first group of consumers participated in a disguised exercise in order to determine the sales effectiveness of the professionally-produced content, the user-generated content, and both used together. Professionally-produced content generated a 24.7 point lift in Share of Choice for the featured product and a 16 point lift for the brand’s total line. User-generated product videos drove an 18.7 point lift in Share of Choice for the featured product and a 10 point lift for the brand’s total line.

When exposed to both professional content and user-generated product videos, lift in Share of Choice for the featured product jumped to 35.3 points for the featured product and 28 points for the brand’s total line. This shows both the value of each of these media individually and also the powerful synergy when used together.

As noted in the PR, “comScore’s Share of Choice metric is well-documented and independently-validated measure of advertising effectiveness. Share of Choice quantifies the ability of an ad to influence brand preference and has been shown to be predictive of advertising-induced sales. The metric captures actual consumer preference for a brand among a competitive set. Therefore, lifts in Share of Choice have been proven to strongly correlate with in-market sales lifts.”

Another group of consumers participated in a cued exposure exercise and were queried after being directly exposed to the content.

• Professionally-produced content alone resulted in a higher percentage of respondents understanding the importance of the key message presented than user-generated content.
• The user-generated product videos were more successful in producing emotional intensity, key message communication, and ease of relating to.
• When consumers were exposed to both professionally-produced and user-generated content, the combined increases were greater than for either of the individual media exposures alone.

“It seems that professionally-produced content and user-generated product videos are each successful at delivering different key elements to a consumer through video advertising,” said EXPO VP Marketing Jessica Thorpe in a press release. “We found that consumers perceived feature benefits as more believable when coming directly from the brand through professionally-produced content, while the unbiased user-gen videos were more believable in verifying specific product claims, such as superiority and convenience. When used together, all of the perceived gaps get filled in and consumers become more confident in their purchase decision, resulting in better sales effectiveness from the advertising.”

The results of this study revealing the synergy of professionally-produced video content and user-generated product videos in marketing campaigns is valuable information for both retailers and suppliers. For more information, comScore and EXPO will conduct a webinar on Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at 2 p.m. ET on the methodology and result

TopTenWholesale’s newsroom has been publishing wholesale and retail news over the last six years, and our blog has been around since 2005. What articles do you think caught the attention of our readers over the last 12 months? To refresh your memory, below are the articles and highlights for our most popular stories of 2011.

Top Ten Flea Markets in the USA: This article covered the top ten flea markets in the US, from California to Texas to New York with many other states in between. Attending a flea market is a fun experience and most people find at least one good bargain. Maybe that’s why this article was the most popular piece ever. If you missed it, you may want to click the link and take a look.

Buying Liquidation Merchandise and Closeouts: Maybe due to the economy and people losing their jobs, this article was in high demand by those interested in buying overstocks, closeouts and customer-returned merchandise from major retail stores for reselling in stores, on eBay, at local flea markets and online. It’s a good business if you know how to attain low-cost inventory. This is a business where you can purchase for pennies on the dollar and sell at a profit with a little business acumen and sales experience.

Top Wholesale Predictions for 2011: We took a look at what would be the hot products of the year and shared the information with our audience. In 2011, the biggest draws were in electronics with digital products set to be big sellers. Yet, many non-tech products also made the grade. We’ll be writing another piece of predictions for 2011 once we have the data to make some predictions for this year.

Retailers Are Drop Shipping to Save Capital: As retailers felt the recession, they started looking for ways to increase sales without using too much capital. The perfect solution for many was to use drop shipping because this allowed them to take orders online without having to stock inventory. The fact they could ship directly from suppliers saved them money, too. With low overhead, zero investment, no warehousing and shipping to worry about, many retailers went this route in 2011.

A Mini Guide to SEO for Wholesale Suppliers: Last year, wholesale suppliers needed to allocate marketing dollars wisely. SEO remains one of the most successful and cost-effective online marketing tactics, so we decided to review the latest SEO techniques. Keyword research, title tags, meta descriptions, link building and on-page content optimization can go a long way toward gaining better rankings, traffic and conversions.

9 Tips for Preparing Your Website for Holiday Traffic: It’s smart for online merchants to start planning website improvements for year-end holiday traffic in July because if you’re unprepared, heavy traffic can temporarily shut down your site for hours or even days. Our 9 tips suggested what you might work on − things like easy navigation, wish lists, registry options, smart coupons, rewards, global payments, live chat and help desk options.

As Shoppers Move Online, Retailers Go Digital: It used to be that most people shopping for clothes, shoes, electronics or whatever went to local malls or neighborhood stores. However, now that the Internet is available 24/7, consumers have left the malls for online stores and virtual showrooms. That means brick and mortal retailers must be creative to keep their customers. TopTenWholesale tells these businesses how to upgrade their marketing strategy.

Priceless Pricing: While consumers have always been price sensitive, they seem to be more so today than ever before. Actually, the new Gen X and Y consumers are even more price sensitive than older consumers. John Stanley gives some advice on pricing strategies and examples of effective consumer pricing you can use to get more conversions.

7 Tips for Optimizing Images and Videos for Your Site: Whether you’re a supplier or a retailer, you’re likely to have a lot of product images and even videos on your site. These are digital assets that need to be optimized for top rankings, and if you’re not doing this, you’re leaving money on the table. We give you the top SEO tactics for optimizing your images and videos, which you can use to attract more traffic and conversions.

5 Tips for Creating Effective B2B Newsletters: Since email is one of the most popular online marketing strategies, all B2B marketers should take advantage of the power of email to enhance their image and sell more product. Email is a cost-effective way to nurture your customers and prospects by creating and maintaining relationships over time, namely throughout the long B2B sales cycle. Top Ten Wholesale gives you five important tips for creating effective B2B newsletters.

B2B Merchants Must Optimize for Mobile and Tablets: Smart B2B merchants will be optimizing their sites for mobile and tablet users since they will soon outnumber computers and laptops. More and more of your customers can now connect directly from their handheld devices, and that means your website must visually accommodate all these users. Top Ten Wholesale tells you how to minimize your site while maximizing your visibility in the SERPs.

Google Product Search Drives Merchant Sales: Google Product Search continues to be very important for online merchants because this price comparison shopping service helps drive customer traffic to merchant websites by displaying their products in the organic links. While not all online merchants use Google Product Search, it offers retailers the opportunity to display specific products in search results. Top Ten Wholesale tells you the benefits of Google Product Search and how to submit your product feed for display in search results.

Demonstrating your products with video can boost online sales. It’s fun, entertaining and accessible for viewers and merchants alike. Videos are a big aid to making purchasing decisions, and they can be fairly easy to create. As a result, many web merchants are making product videos to increase conversions. Video can also give your site more visibility in search results. However, some online videos leave a lot to be desired. Below are some tips for making effective product videos.

As with all marketing tactics, there is no guarantee your videos will increase sales, but you can increase the probability of driving more sales by following the tried and true rules below.

Feature Your Top Selling Products. If you don’t know where to start, you can use the “80-20” rule, which says most of your sales will come from your top-selling items. Therefore, to get the most from your video efforts, start with a video of these products on the product page. Most online merchants have hundreds of items in their catalog; therefore, choosing your most popular items to feature in video is a good way to start.

Make Product Videos Short. Long videos do not increase sales because most shoppers have short attention spans, so you want to keep your videos short and sweet. Short videos also help you keep your production time and costs down. It’s wise to keep your product videos down to less than one minute. If you have complex or pricey products, you can extend that about 50 percent; however, don’t go beyond 90 seconds because the vast majority of viewers will ignore anything longer.

Test Your Videos. You must conduct A/B tests to determine which videos perform better for different types of products and different audiences. You won’t know what type of video performs best for your products and client base until you test several versions. To do this, create and upload a few versions of a product video for a limited group in your catalog and monitor performance in terms of conversions and purchase behavior. Then determine which version gave you the best results.

Use Captions in Your Videos. Captions within a video have a tremendous effect on click-through rates and conversions. Research has shown that when two videos are the same except for captioning in one and not the other; there is an 8.3 percent difference in their conversion rates favoring the captioned version.

Add User Reviews to Your Videos. User reviews and testimonials are quite common in ecommerce, and they add trust because shoppers tend to trust ratings and recommendations from their peers. You can increase trust and get more conversions by adding existing user reviews to your videos.

Add Your Videos to Site Search. Research shows that users searching your site are two to three times more likely to make a purchase than users who are merely browsing. That’s because searchers have clear user intent; whereas browsing visitors are likely to be casual traffic. Therefore, you can use video to capitalize on the quality traffic using site search by indicating the availability of videos within every item’s search results. When you indicate an item has a video, this increases the likelihood the visitor will click to view and then buy it.

Use Your Videos in All Online Marketing Efforts. You can get the most out of your videos by linking to them from your email marketing campaigns, uploading them to your social media profiles, and optimizing them with tags and deep backlinks to boost your SEO efforts.

Beat the Competition for the Holidays. Adding videos to your site not only helps improve sales, it creates a better user experience for your customers. With the holidays coming up, now is the time to add a few select videos to help drive your holiday promotions. Video can grab traffic away from your competitors, improve your site’s stickiness and give you a great way to capture more sales during the holiday season.

Online retailers and general merchandise vendors are adding video to their websites because they know video can boosts sales and conversion rates. Well scripted videos can also reduce shopping cart abandonment and product returns. However, it’s not enough to simply post a video on your website. Merchants must know how to optimize their videos for better user engagement, know what metrics to monitor, and then further optimize the videos to improve performance. Below are five tips for optimizing your videos for better engagement, maximizing video performance and increasing product sales on ecommerce sites.

Use Your Site Data. You can increase viewership, making your videos more effective with the power of the data in your analytics or log files. Search engines depend on keywords. Therefore, you want to tag every video clip on your site with relevant keyword metadata so search robots will pick up that content and include it in the SERPs. Your videos are only useful for marketing if they reach the right audience, and the metadata on your videos will help reach your customers.

Keyword tags are also useful for customers once they get to your site and browse your products. For example, if you sell computers, the metadata can help you associate related video clips on “how to buy a computer” with the right SKUs. You can even organize automated playlists by topic, and cross-reference or recommend additional products by building links through secondary keywords. A tag for “keyboard” might also point the way toward “monitors on sale.”

Brand Your Videos. The best retail videos are those that have a presence beyond your website (read YouTube). However, when consumers share your videos, you lose control over the way they are presented. That’s why you want to brand all your videos with your logo and the identifying features of your website. Free video platforms don’t allow for a lot of customization, but  premium platforms provide publishers with the option to choose from video player templates, or an option to access platform APIs where they can create a look that identifies your brand.

Automate Mobile Distribution. The sheer number of mobile operating systems, streaming protocols, and digital platforms on the market make it difficult to publish video on a website or app that is accessible to consumers across all mobile devices. Therefore, you need to find a way to automate your mobile distribution process. Services are available for providing automatic video transcoding with the intelligent, device-detection capabilities required to ensure every mobile consumer gets a good video playback experience. Finding the right partner can make your video automatically accessible across iPads, iPhones, BlackBerries, Android apps and all devices.

Accelerate Delivery. Performance is critical. If your video starts, hesitates or stutters on playback, prospects will click somewhere else. Tubemogul found that over 81 percent of online video viewers clicked away when they encounterd a clip rebuffering. Bad performance can negate your investment and leave a bad impression with potential customers. You can improve video streaming performance with web acceleration services. This speeds content delivery so consumers can access large video files quickly without a glitch. Most online video platforms either include acceleration services or partner with companies that offer such services.

Monitor Relevant Metrics. Measuring the impact of video differs widely from measuring response to other online marketing tactics. Audiences engage with and share video content in different ways, and you need measuring systems that reflect these differences. You must use video-specific metrics to evaluate the performance of your videos. In addition to measuring how many users click Play on a video, you’ll want to look at things like Time Spent on a Video Clip, What Sections are Most Popular, Number of Users Sharing a Link, Number of Users Embedding the Video on Another Site, and How Consumers Rate or Respond with Comments and/or through Social Networking Sites. Tracking these factors against purchase behavior can provide key insights as to how effective your videos are, and how they can be optimized further to increase conversion rates.

To summarize, online retailers and general merchandise vendors can boost sales and conversion rates with video. It’s important for merchants to know how to optimize their videos for better user engagement, know what metrics to monitor, and then further optimize the videos to improve performance. The above five tips can be used for optimizing videos for better engagement, maximizing video performance and increasing product sales on ecommerce sites.

As a wholesaler or retailer, you likely have a lot of images of general merchandise and all kinds of products on your site, and many of you also have videos. If you’re not optimizing these digital assets, you are leaving top rankings on the table for your competitors. By using SEO tactics to optimize your images and videos, you can attract more traffic and sell more products. Below are seven tips for optimizing the images and videos on your site.

1. Use Top Quality Images on Your Site
Quality images not only enhance the look of your website, they can also bring you a number of SEO benefits. If your site uses great images, visitors will stay longer, increasing the time spent on your site. “Time on site” is a ranking factor for all major search engines. It’s just one of the many algorithm ranking factors used to determine whether a site has authority. Another reason for using quality images is the fact that these images will draw more links to your site. This can earn a large number of quality backlinks, which give your site authority and improve your organic rankings.

2. Use Descriptive Keywords in Your Image File Names
It’s important to give your images file names with relevant keywords so you can find them quickly when needed and search bots find them when crawling the web. In addition, many users will submit images with UGC posted to your site. So, depending on your content and where the images reside, ensuring the use of relevant keywords in file names can improve your SEO benefit.

3. Optimize Your Image Alt Tags with Keywords
Besides naming your image files with relevant keywords, you also need to include industry-related keywords in your alt tags. All major search engines, including Google, Yahoo! and Bing, index the alt text for images in addition to the text content on your web pages. If your alt attributes for the images on your site are keyword rich, this can give your site a lot of SEO juice. Note that your keywords must be relevant to the image, and the alt text should be brief. If you deviate from relevance and brevity, it could work against you.

4. Optimize Your Videos with Keywords
Make your videos keyword-rich by using your most relevant keywords in naming the videos displayed on your site. Be aware that your video’s title, description and tags are also used by search spiders and can enhance the SEO value of your website.

5. Use Keywords in File Name, Title, Description and Meta Tags
It’s important to use relevant keywords and know the character limit when creating your site video’s File Name, Title, Description and Meta Tags. Consider keywords that people would use to find your videos. A title should have about 65 characters or five to nine words. The description allows you to use up to 1,000 characters. Consider starting it with your website address. Example: “From http://www.toptenwholesale.com, this video shows retailers basic buying strategies for sourcing wholesale products globally online.” Then continue to describe the information in your video. Search spiders will pick up the keywords when crawling the web for information. Using relevant keywords in all the right places will ensure your videos get indexed and well positioned in search results.

6. Create a Video Sitemap
It is important to create a video sitemap listing all the videos on your site. You can use the Sitemap protocol to provide search engines with information about your video content. Video content also includes the web page where you embed your video and the URLs to the player for your video. Each URL entry should contain the following: title, description, play page URL, thumbnail URL and raw video file location or the player URL. Search engine spiders will crawl through your video sitemap to index the videos. The video sitemap is important as it gives your site more authority to enhance your search engine rankings.

7. Submit Your Videos to Video Sharing Sites
It’s important to submit your videos so users will find them in search results. You can submit your videos directly to video sharing sites like YouTube, Metacafe, Vimeo, and others. Another option is to use TubeMogul, a free service that uploads your videos to a number of video sharing websites and tracks results. These sites include: Google Video, Metacafe, MySpace Video, Revver, AOL Video and YouTube.

Conclusion. When you optimize your website’s images and videos, you go a long way toward improving your site’s search engine rankings. Using the tips above will help users find your images and videos while boosting your site’s visibility in the SERPs.

Soft fedora hat 4 asst colors black_red_purple_white adult size

5 to 10 eac $2.25 eac

15 to 35 eac $2.00 eac

40 eac & up $1.75 eac

Before spending too much time looking for the source, those looking to find the best deals can turn to reputable and well-known suppliers like Hayes Specialties, a company that brings the best of wholesale novelties directly to dealers at prices that must be seen to be believed.

This is a supplier that carries thousands of terrific gifts and novelty items for prices that are far below what dealers might expect to pay.

There are, of course a diverse and practical selection of categories to help make the selection proces even better. With so many products in stock, it’s easy to see why Hayes Specialties can get the right kind of wholesale novelties to any kind of customer.

Knobby ball 7 inch 65gram deflated red and blue assorted colors

12 to 108 eac $0.50 eac

120 to 228 eac $0.40 eac

240 eac & up $0.34 eac

Some examples of categories found on the Hayes Specialties website  are:

• Hayes Specialties New Items
• Overstocks
• Wholesale Gift Items
• Wholesale Novelties & Toys
• Wholesale Gaming, Bingo & Poker
• Wholesale Party Supplies
• Wholesale Seasonal Items
• Raffle Drum & Raffle Supplies
• Popcorn/SnoKones/Cotton Candy/Etc
• Carnival Hats

In addition, there is a large and useful online catalog that brings sample images and descriptions to anyone who wishes to know more about the product selection. With everything from sizes, color choices, and quantities listed, it will become a convenient place to assess which goods might be particularly suitable for any buyer in the business.

Another way to become familiar with the product offerings on the Hayes Specialties website can be found by visiting the TopTenWholesale TV post, in which a virtual tour of the Hayes Specialties booth at the 2010 ASD Las Vegas Show will bring their products to life. There is useful information about the company, as well as the best and most attractive items on sale.

Comet ball

50 to 200 eac $0.15 eac

250 to 450 eac $0.14 eac

500 eac & up $0.13 eac

Featured in the video is Jim, from Hayes Specialties. Jim says: “It’s all customer-driven, our customers tell us what they’re looking for. Hats are one of the biggest categories that have been selling like hotcakes, raffle drums have proven themselves to be an extremely popular category for bingo and gaming. Hayes has everything from brass drums to acrylic drums, and everything in between. These items are perfect for corporate events, casinos, schools, fund raisers and charity events. And they are good profit drivers for everyone from the most humble local flea markets, to the biggest fortune 500 retailers. Hayes sells to people at every level of a variety of industries, and can handle orders large or small, while offering $100 minimum orders at the trade shows, and online sales at $50 per order. With thousands of products priced from $1 and up, you should give Hayes a look!” That’s exactly what customers will discover after touring the site, and watching the video.

Milk slime 1 dozen dsp box milk carton box with white slime

1 to 2 doz $9.60 doz

3 to 5 doz $8.40 doz

6 doz & up $7.20 doz

Hayes Specialties has been a leading importer of wholesale novelties, plush toys, and dozens of other products for over 40 years. You can share the fun as you join Jim and Jason on a virtual tour of the Hayes booth at the ASD show in Las Vegas, and see why they should be the first on your “wholesaler radar,” when you’re looking for your next novelty purchase. Click the graphic below to see the video, and remember to check out all the other great videos on TopTenWholesale TV while you’re there.

You think this is all the web has to offer?

TopTenWholesale.com has heard the call, and our response to the unparalleled demand is something that has been designed and tailored to suit the needs of our customers, with a dazzling new B2B Wholesale Video site that makes it easier than ever before to post and view up to the minute videos as they go live on our newly designed interactive environment. This is what you have all been asking for, and we’ve delivered. Let’s also take a moment to look at some figures that Pew Internet and American Life Project has come up with, in support of video on the Internet:

“Comedy or humorous videos, rising in viewership from 31% of adult internet users in 2007 to 50% of adult internet users in the current survey

Educational videos, rising in viewership from 22% to 38% of adult internet users

Movies or TV show videos, rising in viewership from 16% to 32% of adult internet users

Political videos, rising in viewership from 15% to 30% of adult internet users”

(source: Pew Internet and American Life Project)

Not sure if TopTenTV.com is for you? It’s time for you to shed your doubts, and become part of the new wave of business leaders who understand that technology is here to help us, in spite of anything an unpredictable global economy might bring. Take a look at the rich set of features and tools that are available to those of you who are ready to take a large step forward into the future of content distribution, by giving you access to the following:

• Users are allowed to upload their own videos directly to our system, for maximum impact with minimum fuss, by letting our servers host the content!
• You can embed and permalink to your videos, to enhance user experiences on your own site. Give your viewers a chance to see what you’ve posted on TopTenTV.com, and increase the value of your own site as you increase traffic with eye-catching content at the same time!
• Make your message clear and powerful, with 100MB of upload space for your videos!
• Most major file formats are supported, to keep you from spending too much time with tweaking your content, and focused on making your own business profitable!
• Use tags to bring search optimization within easy reach, as you let the world know what the key points are, by supplying the most effective key words!
• With a comprehensive and targeted selection of channels, give viewers the convenience of going straight to where they want to be, so that your videos get maximum viewership!

You’ll even find me doing video from China!

Click the link to see my blog!

This is just a taste of what’s in store for you if you decide to take a trip through the newly launched, totally high-tech, and wholesaler friendly forum that was designed just for you! See how easy it is to Find it. Source it. and Profit! with TopTenWholesale.com, and our exciting new TopTenTV.com site.

With the new Concord Retail Division ready to give assistance to their customers at all levels, assistance and advice is available on topics such as store locations, lease negotiations, technical assistance, store layout/schematic designs, store fixtures, shelving selections, POS systems, training, product selection, and any other needs customers may have.

A highly valuable resource, Concord Dollaritem.com TV!

In addition, a Joint Venture program has been created for Domestic and International customers who wish to open new stores in USA and abroad. This Joint Venture program offers customers the total experience and abilities of the company. This collective knowledge is combined with their qualified customers abilities, to form a strong retail operation team that really works. Twenty-eight years of industry experience serving wholesale and retail customers both in domestic markets, and in overseas locations, has provided a vastly unique perspective of what works well in the retail industry, and what doesn’t maximize on opportunities that present themselves.

All of this is being put together to assure successful strategies for customers who want to make the most of an ever-changing business climate. We are putting this know how and our wholesale business to assure success of our new retail operations. Customers who are interested to change their business, start a new business, or obtain a business visa to work in and stay in USA can contact Concord for more details.

ASD/AMD Show

Top Ten Wholesale went to ASD/AMD Las Vegas and, maybe, should have launched satellite cameras and Big Picture macro lenses to take in all of the huge ASD/AMD trade show from March 15 to 18. Fortunately, trade show directors (big shout out to Chris, Dell and many others!) streamlined show navigation and traffic, with special market sections across four trade shows at all three venues.

We could focus on person-to-person buyer-seller interactions.

All-Access Passes. Every registrant got an All-Access Pass to Gift, Value, Variety Merchandise, Jewelry and Military-Tactical Outdoor Shows … multiplying access to more exhibitors and more product categories. As we cruised through all the venues, ASD/AMD became all-in-one opportunities for Buyers to add complimentary products to their merchandise mix, compare price points and leverage diverse exhibitors and products.

How To Navigate ASD/AMD

Spotted in Special Show Sections

Individual shows broke into markets and specialized sections. The combined Value and Variety Merchandise shows gathered 2200 exhibitors (275 new to ASD/AMD) into one-stop product sourcing, which made it more manageable and time efficient to track down exhibitors by market … Fashion Accessories, Toys & Novelties, Licensed Products, Health & Beauty Products, Smoking Accessories, Military Tactical Outdoor, Value Apparel, Tools and Hardware, General Merchandise and Closeouts.

Value-Priced General Merchandise. Dominating discount general merchandise exhibits in the Las Vegas Convention Center, we saw discount store inventory source Kole Imports and 4 Seasons General Merchandise , with its sports and outdoor hot items – including Flashing Clicker Balls – and its large home décor exhibit, featuring seasonal gifts, novelties, flowers and more.

Via Trading boasted a big presence in the Closeouts special section of the convention center, befitting a one-stop source for Overstocks, Closeouts and Customer Returns. And, tip of the hat to Jacobs Trading Company — direct-source specialists of customer returns, overstocks and shelf-pulls for discount/surplus stores, flea market vendors, auctioneers and online wholesalers and retailers. Jacobs Trading Company’s hot show commodities were electronics (video games) and value-price apparel.

Apparel, Accessories, Specialty Gifts Sellers Spotted. Ranging from manufacturer-direct irregulars, first-run and overstock inventory … to liquidation lots and narrow-market specialty items. We met up with R. G. Riley source of manufacturer-direct (Gildan, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, Russel, Delta) irregulars and casual clothes for men, women and children. Plus GENCO, home of liquidation auctions (Fixed Price, Sealed Bids) supplying over $5 Million in liquidation, below-wholesale retail inventory every day); and Great Lakes Wholesale . All at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

We found specialty clothing, gifts and accessories exhibitors, including Emby Hosiery , Trans USA Products (v. cool LED key rings), Eagle Emblems , Fun Express and Knockout Decals. PLUS the Seasonal & Holiday Specials – food, gift and party supplies; health & beauty products; supplies for babies, pets, household) lines from Jasmine Trading .

ASD/AMD’s dedicated market sections also helped us find booths focused on lifestyle or product segments, like Hip Hop Wholesale , Accessories West Imports , Cesti Handbags , Selni Neckwear and Capico Accessories . Oh … saw the latest in fashionable and functional shades at Jay-Y Sunglasses’ large booth.

Putting “Skin” in the Game. It was nice to sense the large booth and presence of Perfume Center America , as well as “second skin” sellers at Dealer Leather and Leather Impressions.

As the largest national gift show in the Western U.S., ASD/AMD’s Las Vegas Gift Show presented 360 exhibitors (more than 100 of them new to this show), with section breakouts for Home Décor, Gourmet Foods, Religious-Spiritual Products, and Plush & Dolls.

Full Bling Ahead. The Jewelry Show at ASD/AMD runs full-range at the Mirage Grand Ballroom and Events Center: From Fine and Custom Jewelry to Fashion and Costume lines; from loose gemstones and beads to engagement/wedding rings, diamonds, and estate jewelry. The jewelry show, too, was clustered by dedicated product categories for every-sized retail channel, working at all price points.

Hellos to jewelry designer-manufacturer-wholesaler J. Good and to Philips International Cool Jewels .

Right Merchandise Mix-Ups. A great feature of ASD/AMD is its wide-open, wide-ranging variety – where fine jewelry buyers cross paths with sword and knife sellers; where men’s / women’s / children’s discount apparel wholesalers easily cross tracks with all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes.

The Military Tactical Outdoor Show again appeared alongside ASD/AMD’s three main trade shows — so that buyers who focus only on their pre-show shopping lists can mix their merchandise lines and boost profit margins. We saw these profitable merchandise “mix ups” with Military Collectibles (like Sczo Supplies), with deeply discounted and popular Military Surplus Clothing, Government Issue Surplus Merchandise. Even motorized vehicles and ATVs … plus the leather “biker” apparel and accessories that go with the machines.

Booths With Buzz. These featured new products that attracted lots of trade show attention: Varabella with a uniquely designed 4-in-1 purse. Smoking Everywhere , among many new suppliers of electronic, smokeless and flavored faux cigarettes, smoking accessories. Plus Ortery , a light box/photo capture device.

“Cool” In Eye of Beholder. These caught the eye of ASD/AMD attendee – Susette of Top Ten Wholesale – as Cool Products: 95 and Sunny’s glass nail files (lifetime guaranteed) and hand-painted wine glasses. (It’s true!! I was gifted last season with a giant and gorgeous Happy Birthday hand-painted martini glass. Yes, it’s a work of handcrafted art; and it is way cool.) M&M General Fashion (colored fashion eye lenses). Peace Electronics’ “fun novelty items” including caps with hair extensions.

At first, I thought this Cool New Product tip might look like this …

Knit Cap with Hair Extensions

But that’s an OLD hot product, Pet Halloween Apparel

Rasta Cat Halloween

Here’s the real deal, the foldable Magic Visor with three fun changeable heads of hair … Gray (salt ‘n pepper), Brunette or Blonde.

Magic Visor Fun Hair

Email Peace Electronics at PeaceEle@aol.com for more on Fun Hair.

Linking Qualified Buyers and Sellers Globally … with Refined Marketing Tactics

Hat tip, again, to ASD/AMD show managers, who keep expanding the range of product Buy/Sell opportunities, and who also refine exhibitor floor plans to help show goers navigate through this major trade show to find the right deals.

A proven online path to linking up with the right wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers is by using search engines, ad networks, product directories and other industry vertical channels that are customized to the needs of Buyers and Sellers in the general merchandise, footwear and apparel industries.

Pinpoint Vertical Marketing Strategies. Free insider tips were available at ASD/AMD Las Vegas’ Industry Seminars. Topics covered: Branding; Buying and Selling Online; Email Marketing; Boosting eBay Auction Profits … and a basic Understanding Search Engine Marketing.

Beyond the Basics. Top Ten Wholesale.com (a media partner of ASD/AMD) publicized its link up with global product source Manufacturer.com (which remains HQ’d in China) … to drill down into the worldwide supply chain. Anyone see that sea of white bags at both Sands Expo and the Las Vegas Convention Center?? That’s where two global brands …

Top Ten Wholesale

and

Manufacturer.com

met.

No borders!

Search marketing opportunities refined for vertical, industry B2B searchers … Ad network reach … and industry Product Sourcing Directories of Top Ten Wholesale – plus, now, Manufacturer.com – are part of a global network. It includes Wholezilla, Off Price Network, WholesaleU, Top Ten Trends, Industry News Feeds, Professional Blogs. And more.

Benefits Beyond the Basics:

· Reach product sourcing Buyers and Sellers at every level of the supply chain;

· Gain visibility among qualified industry prospects and customer leads … who are in specific product category search mode. Vertical search prospects are ready to deal;

· Pinpoint advertising, rank on search results pages and reach an insider network of wholesalers, contract manufacturers, resellers, chain store buyers, auction power-sellers and retailers … 24/7/365.

Get an Individual Profile from global partner Manufacturer.com or check on Advertising with Manufacturer.com .

Benefit way Beyond the Basics with expert, insider vertical networking and search marketing through Top Ten Wholesale Advertising . You put the entire JP Communications Network to work for you, too!!

The new policies, most of which will go into effect in July, are aimed at improving the buying experience, rewarding top sellers, and keeping users from leaving the site. Let’s take a gander at the key policy updates:

• Sellers will no longer be permitted to link to any non-Ebay websites selling goods or services. Linking to Ebay owned companies like StubHub or PayPal, however, is still a-ok.

• Rather than creating multiple listings for similar items (think 10 pairs of jeans in 10 different sizes), sellers will be able to include size and color options in one listing.

• The 15-listing limit on identical product listings will be lifted.

• Discounts for Power Sellers.

• A new primo Power Seller level, Diamond Seller, will be initiated for sellers with over 50,000 items sold per month or $500,000 in sales per month.

• Sellers will be required to include more detailed info in their listings, including their processing and handling time, return policy, and item condition.

While surely well intentioned, the changes aren’t going over too well with a large contingent of users. During a town-hall type meeting, sellers got the chance to step up to the mic and voice their – strong – opinions. Check out some of the emotional “feedback”:

Like it or not Ebay is making changes this summer and dedicated users are going to have to go along for the ride. Time will tell if the updated policies prove beneficial or if they backfire and drive folks away – it’s very curious to what changes sellers are going to have to make to their business model in this latest Ebay era.