PODCAST: Let’s Talk About Ecommerce – Q&A with Keller…

Over the last nine months, I’ve received several emails and blog comments regarding ecommerce. I decided to combine all of those questions into a 45 minute Q&A podcast where I can share my answers with all of you at the same time! Topics include: Can …

Great Podcast Keller. Thank you, I really enjoyed it you've given me some great direction that I needed to help me move forward with my Ecommerce store.

Your site get hacked? Looks like Google has nuked you from their results.

Hi Keller!

I think drop shipping is a great way to do business. If I was to get involved I would want more accurate inventory but I guess that is a gap in the bridge today. Real time inventory is a big seller when we sell our e-commerce software.

It would be nice if Networked solutions would take the time to develop some sort of integration module for the larger drop shippers. I imagine your customers aren’t’ so happy to find out they will be waiting 7 or 8 weeks for a cookie jar.

Getting into contact with the manufactures is the best but like you said sometimes it’s not always possible. They normally don’t like dealing with anyone under a certain amount of money or sales. But like you said they charge fees and or slightly higher.

I will have to look up your 10 question one must ask a drop shipper. I’m really interested in starting something like this. I think it has great potential to increase my income by a side project. I see that actual article in your related resources right now which is really convenient.

If I was to get into it I think I would prefer to work with apparel and footwear. More geared towards sports and recreation. I would like to do something that I like or have an interest in.

It’s funny you mentioned making a standard price for shipping. Our e-commerce software does carbonization which means we know the weight, size, and all other specification needed to determine the shipping cost. Some of our clients actually make more money from shipping then they do from their products. But you have to remember our clients are large mills so they sell their products pretty cheap. We are also integrated with ups and FedEx and store all the postal codes and zip codes in the untied states.

I bet many people forget about sales taxes. It’s nice to see that your business has increased 100 percent each year. Sorry you had to pay that back but at least you’re making money.

Nice list. Let us know how things work out.

FresheVenture pagerank's gone from 6 to N/A??!! How is this possible?

Thanks for the heads up. I don't see any news on a recent Toolbar PR update, so I'm hoping this is a temporary issue. I noticed none of my pages have PR anymore. Either the toolbar is acting funny or my site has been penalized some how. Humm… looks like I've got some investigating to do.

Great podcast and site. I actually do a mix of dropshippers and ship myself which is working, though with now 12 stores, life is a bit more hectic than I would like sometimes :)

I agree on working with the manufacturers being a much better way to go then using someone like Doba. I've found that by not limiting myself to dropshippers, I can offer a lot greater variety than my competition that go that route. Also so much of the stock Doba and others carry are liquidations, they can sell out without notice and then you have to disappoint a customer. After 9 years, a lot of manufacturers will work with me since I have a proven sales track record and often lower or eliminate minimum order requirements, ship a rush order directly, etc. I've dropped some manufacturers over the years that have proven difficult to work with, but have great relationships with many.

Personally, I've found USPS Priority Mail is the ideal way for me to ship the products I send – I have daily carrier pickup so they come to my door every day and are a LOT cheaper than any other carrier. I do use UPS and Fedex occasionally – mainly when I have to do an overnight shipment – but find Priority Mail excellent, especially for small things such as jewelry that I can send first class mail for under $4.00 just about anywhere.

I am thinking about outsourcing shipping within the next year or so, but haven't done a lot of research yet. Like you, I would never outsource processing – credit card security is very important to me as well – only I can access card information that is stored on a secure server only until I process it and then is permanently deleted. I did outsource bookkeeping for a while, but it ended out not working out so well and I'm now back to doing it myself.

It is challenging being a 1 person shop (with occasional help from friends during holidays), but I wouldn't trade it for anything :)

Wow – 9 stores! And I though my plate was full :). I don't often get feedback from store owners on my blog, so it's great to hear from you Lori!

I'm growing more and more discouraged with UPS these days. My damages seem to be increasing and their rates really are high. Unfortunately, I don't really have a choice in the matter as my dropshippers will not ship USPS. So, it's something I'll just suck up for now.

It was really great hearing about your experience Lori! Please come by anytime and fill me in on more ecommerce stories.

It would be nice if Networked solutions would take the time to develop some sort of integration module for the larger drop shippers. I imagine your customers aren’t’ so happy to find out they will be waiting 7 or 8 weeks for a cookie jar.

My customers don't wait 7-8 weeks for cookie jars – why do you think they would? NS has a way of automatically sending orders to dropshippers by email, which can be a huge time saver.