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China Wholesale Electronics
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007
It is no secret that today China has been branded as the worlds "electronics factory" due to the ever increasing technological advances and brand popularity gained in the consumer electronics niche. Having said that, it has become the largest producer and supplier of consumer electronics products in the world. Chinese consumer electronics products are becoming increasingly popular not only because of the great deals that they offer but also because of the quality of products and services that they provide. Many satisfied customers from around the world can agree to the exceptional quality of services that Chinese suppliers provide.
The phenomenal economic growth in China has had an ever-increasing effect on world trade, and in the world of re-selling products on the Internet. Anybody looking to source products just has to start their search in the Chinese wholesale markets. Many Consumer Electronics re-sellers in the United States and Europe are aware that the way to make a quick fortune is to order in bulk from China, and sell at competitive prices locally.
China already has a good reputation for quality clothing, shoes, and basic commodities, but increasingly China wholesalers are turning to high-technology products.
With this in mind, importing consumer electronics from China is quite simply the way to go at the moment! Of course you can look elsewhere on the internet, but the main point that I would like to make here is that Chinese electronic products are manufactured and exported cheap without compromising quality.
Just Remember, your goal in buying goods from China is to buy low and then sell high. Where do you find these suppliers and manufacturers? Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, the problem of having to locate reliable suppliers from China has been passed on to your fingertips. Doing business can’t get any easier than doing it online. Search them out one by one and contact them through email, and even give them a call to make yourself feel content that you’re about to do business with the right people. I can’t emphasize more the importance of really building good relationship with these suppliers. These wholesalers are not picky as long as you build good relations with them and they are really into exporting their goods to US and European markets. So before your competition already starts capitalizing on it, take advantage of importing consumer electronic products from China now, whether it is for business or for pleasure.
There are a few excellent resources on the internet with a lot of expertise in sourcing China wholesale products. You can visit this website at http://www.alibaba.com , which offers excellent advice, and can immediately supply details of Chinese manufacturers for your chosen product.
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Tags: advice, alibaba.com, BestDealsMarket, china, Doing Business Internationally, electronics, ezinearticles.com, Product Sourcing, source, Stephen Alfred, tips, wholesale
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Make Money on eBay - Product Sourcing Criteria
Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
Locating products is a prerequisite for those who want to make money on eBay. It is also where the real fun begins. At times locating products can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. That is especially true when trying to add "hot" products to your offerings. It is possible to locate almost anything, but for the "hottest" products, the price that will be required will mean little or no profit.
Start by examining your main suppliers. Look at a set of criteria similar to this:
- Products Must be in Your Core Sales Areas
- Product Quality is as Represented
- Customer Service Must be Outstanding
- Reasonable Prices
- Prompt Delivery
- Products must be in our core sales areas - for a supplier to be on your list, they should handle products that are within your core sales areas. To make money on eBay, every supplier must be able to support your core business area, with other "great deals" as a bonus. Purchase and then pass those "great deals" onto your customers.
- Product quality is as represented - this is really about trust. You must be able to trust your suppliers. When they say that a particular product is a certain way that is exactly what you expect to see when the product arrives. When they recommend a product that you are unfamiliar with, you need to be able to count on that recommendation to be true. If you cannot trust your suppliers, eliminate them from your list.
- Customer service must be outstanding - you should expect nothing less than outstanding customer service from your suppliers. This includes prompt replies to questions, quick turnaround on purchases, and notification of "hot deals" when they become available from the supplier.
- Reasonable prices - most eBay businesses are on a very tight profit margin. You need to count on your suppliers to provide the lowest possible pricing on their products. If there are ways to reduce prices, you need to know. The less you spend on products, the better the pricing for your customers! Everyone wins with this approach.
- Prompt delivery - you should look for two things in delivery. The first is pricing. As fuel prices increase, freight becomes a bigger and bigger part of the overall cost of merchandise. Look to your suppliers to do everything possible to keep freight costs down.
(We have also started working with another businesses to coordinate shipments, for example. By combining our freight, we can typically obtain lower freight costs.) The other piece of the freight equation is speed of delivery. Once you’ve paid for the merchandise, it is money that you need to turn around to invest in new merchandise as soon as possible. You cannot make money on eBay if you pay for freight and then have products just sitting in someone’s warehouse. To that end, expect your suppliers to ship immediately upon receipt of payment. Be sure to track your incoming shipments to ensure delays are minimized.
The list actually looks much like the list that eBay buyers use when they decide whether to bid on products, and then whether to give positive feedback or not.
In addition to your good old standby suppliers, develop a back-up list of second-tier suppliers. These suppliers are either recommended by someone you trust, or that you have found at tradeshows, in newsletters, or through some other means. Possibly you have completed only one or two transactions, but some issue kept them from making your main supplier list. Look to these second-tier suppliers for products when your main suppliers cannot help with a specific product that will make money on eBay.
As a part of the process, ask each supplier that cannot furnish a desired product to recommend another source. While this rarely meets with success, there will be times when you hit a homerun using this approach.
If your main suppliers and second-tier suppliers are unable to provide a product, conduct an internet search. When you reach this point, know that you are going to be investing a lot of time not only looking for the right supplier, but also in investigation of prospects.
Before we ever deal with a new supplier make sure that the supplier can provide the desired product. Work to determine a price. If all is looking positive, ask for references before you buy. Only after checking references should you move forward with a purchase.
Always be very conservative with your first purchase from a new supplier. There are just too many unscrupulous sellers who provide inferior products, poor service, or have other issues. You will not make money on eBay with these problems.
Don’t forget that many who make money on eBay manufacture their own products. This is another great way to do something that you really enjoy for a profit!
To Your eBay Success!
(C) 2007 Bob Hamilton All Rights Reserved Helping people get started on eBay Visit http://www.onlineauctionsmadesimple.net for a Free Dropship Report!
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Tags: bob hamilton, ebay, ebay sellers, ezinearticles.com, onlineauctionsmadesimple.net, Product Sourcing, source
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Markup On Cost Versus Gross Profit Margin
Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
One of the most effective ways to improve the gross margin you earn on each sale is to focus on gross margin rather than markup on cost.
As I have written many times, it’s easy to get into a markup rut; that is, into the habit of using the same old markups over and over again to arrive at your sell prices. While this is certainly a convenient way to price merchandise, it is not healthy for yours or your company’s gross margin.
One of the most effective ways to optimize gross margin when pricing is to "think gross margin." In other words, think in terms of how much gross margin you wish to earn on a sale and price accordingly.
The way this is done, of course, is to divide the cost of the product(s) you sell by the inverse of the gross margin you wish to achieve.
What’s the inverse of the gross margin you wish to achieve? Well, here’s how you calculate it: To arrive at the inverse, subtract from 100 the gross margin you wish to achieve. The example I used in my gross margin book was 44%.
When you subtract 44 from 100, you get 56, which is the inverse.
Then divide the cost of the product by 56 and you’ll arrive at the price you must sell the product for to earn a 44% gross margin.
If your cost were $1 and you divided $1 by 56, you’d arrive at a sell price of $1.79, which would yield a gross margin of 44.13%.
But if you really want to optimize gross margin, you need to go one step further by testing what the market will bear. Right now, a lot of your competitors are low-balling commodities to try and buy some business, but there are several thousand products that you sell every month that don’t fall into the commodity category. If you experiment with what the market will bear on those products, it will help offset the gross margin you may be losing right now on commodities.
When I say test, I mean just that…test. If you’re selling a non-price sensitive product now for $22.49, try $22.89. If after a week or so you don’t receive any pricing resistance at $22.89, you might try $23.26, then $23.52, etc.
Nine out of ten companies use arbitrary markups or gross margin calculations when they price the products they sell. These same companies are leaving gross margin dollars on the table because they aren’t paying attention to the ultimate pricing criterion: what the market will bear or what a customer is willing to pay.
The better job your company does at differentiating its offering from its competitors’ offerings, the higher price the market will bear. The higher your customers perceive your personal value and your company’s value to be, the higher price the market will bear.
Always remember that there are a lot more factors that affect sell price than merely the cost of the product. If you think about it carefully, cost really should have absolutely nothing to do with the calculation of sell price. What you sell something for should be determined by what customers will pay for it.
Try these techniques for a few months and watch your gross margin improve.
Bill Lee is author of Gross Margin: 26 Factors Affecting Your Bottom Line ($21.95) and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves in the Foot ($21.95) Plus $6 S&H for the first book and $1 S&H for each additional book. To order, See Shopping Cart at http://www.BillLeeOnLine.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Lee
Tags: billleeonline.com, cost, ezinearticles.com, Generating More Sales, gross profit margin, Growing Your Business, pricing products, Sales
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7 Product Sourcing Tips for E-Merchants
Monday, July 9th, 2007
For e-commerce start-ups the realities of product sourcing often come as a shock to the system. With so many online "wholesalers" to choose from these days, it’s common to assume that the process will be easy. If your store is to be profitable, however, your sourcing methods will require just a little more effort and creativity than you think.
1. Search clever.
Avoid using general terms when sourcing products online. Googling "wholesale widgets" may bring up a huge number of results, but you’re unlikely to find a worthwhile supplier among them. Most will be non specialist companies that act as middlemen between you and the real wholesalers. This means profit margins on their goods will be virtually non-existent.
Instead, try qualifying your searches with terms such as "distributor", "manufacturer", "designer" or "trade" and rather than searching for generic terms such as "widgets," try taking a more specific approach. Use individual product names and model type wherever possible.
Image searches will also give you more focused results. Many products are sold online using stock photos created by the original manufacturer and this can be an excellent way of tracking them down.
These tactics will improve your chances of success; but don’t despair if you don’t find what you’re looking for. Google is a great research tool but it’s only one of many in your arsenal. Resist the temptation to spend hours and hours surfing the net looking for "secret" deals and sources that do not exist. Traditional retailers have never relied on the internet to find suppliers and neither should you.
2. Consult traditional business directories.
It’s amazing how often resources such as the white/yellow pages are overlooked these days. It must be because we automatically assume the internet to be a superior source of information. Well this isn’t always the case. There are a lot of wholesalers out there that don’t have an online presence, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have telephone numbers.
3.Subscribe to trade publications
Trade magazines related to your niche will be packed with ads from relevant manufacturers and distributors. It’s how offline businesses have done things for years and you should too.
4.Trade fairs.
Attending trade fairs takes more effort than surfing in your pajamas but the pay-off can be enormous. They provide unparalleled scope for sourcing and networking. Plus, establishing personal contact with suppliers makes it a lot easier to negotiate prices further down the line.
5.Ask an expert.
Find someone who already stocks what you want to sell and ask them where they got it. This isn’t as absurd as it may sound! Obviously emailing a rival online store is never going to work because nobody wants to knowingly help out their competition; but a more personal approach conducted in the offline world can yield excellent results. Find a "widget" store and get talking to the owner, preferably once you have made a purchase. People love talking about their businesses and if you are suitably charming they will often recommend a supplier or trade magazine.
You’ll be surprised at how helpful people can be when you don’t represent a threat. This tactic has worked well for me in the past - the worst thing that can happen is they refuse.
6.Contact the manufacturer.
If you can’t find a supplier but you know which company makes the product, give them a call and ask who their distributors are. Again, there is a tendency for new e-merchants to see this kind of information as somehow privileged or secret and they often approach such conversations with trepidation. Remember that these companies want your business. Just because you don’t have a traditional bricks and mortar establishment doesn’t mean your money is no good.
7.Check product packaging.
This is a fool proof method. If you don’t know the manufacturer of a particular product and all else fails, buy it yourself. All goods, virtually without exception, will include some reference to the manufacturer on the packaging. In some cases the name of a supplier will be there as well.
Once you know the manufacturer, the information you require is just a phone call away!
Matt Davies runs an online gift store selling Regalos originales
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Tags: E-Commerce and E-Business, e-merchants, ezinearticles.com, Mal Davies, Product Sourcing, source, tips
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Thinking About Sourcing Products From Overseas
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Such a tremendous growth in manufacturing and production in China has been heavily influenced by the rapid development of major industrial centres and cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. Many traders believe that to make a quick dollar all you have to do is go to China and find the manufacturers of a well-known designer brands, asking them to produce an extra run for you. While this may be a good approach, you have to be very careful of which suppliers you are dealing with. There is also a so-called ‘dark side of the moon’. You may find it extremely difficult to find a genuine manufacturer of some of the highly respected designer brands, such as Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, Prada, etc… There are more than thousands of ‘underground’ manufacturers throughout China and South East Asia that make illegal, counterfeited and fake versions of these products. While these products may be of a very good quality, in fact they are far away from the stringiest standards and procedures the original brands have in place.
If you happen to have bought a small or large lot of these goods - it is more than likely they will be stopped at customs border with full investigation being launched against you and the manufacturer. The fashion designer brands are now treating the matters of non-genuine articles very seriously. Because counterfeited products costs a lot of money, jobs and resources to the original manufacturer. You may even end up standing in court or pay a hefty fine. Surely, you don’ want to get yourself into legal trouble…
Research your market. If you do not do a proper research you are likely to loose the money and time you have invested getting the products imported into your own country. You need to do a thorough research both online and offline to identify which products have higher saleability and which ones are not. Sometimes you don’t have to invest a fortune! What counts is finding highly convertible products that are now in demand.
So, where do you find good, wholesale Chinese suppliers? Usually reliable Chinese suppliers advertise in online directories and monthly catalogues. One of the largest, global online directories that I have come across has genuine, proven Chinese suppliers that can offer excellent products at reduced prices. These products have been proven to be selling well on online auctions as well as through stores.
The database of the Global Directory is updated every single day. Spend some time and see how the following directory can make your sales go further.
John Kovanski.
Maximizing on Internet Home-Based Small Business Solutions:
http://www.profit-k.com
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Tags: advice, china, Doing Business Internationally, ezinearticles.com, john kovanski, manufacturers, overseas product sourcing, Product Sourcing, profit-k.com, small business, source, suppliers, tips
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