Category — Dropshipping

Dropship Tips: A Beginner’s Guide to SEO for Ecommerce

For those new to dropshipping, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and, in short, allows search engines to find a specific website. Keywords are essential for SEO, and it is recommended that good keywords that point directly to a product or type of product being sold be used in the title, URL, and 5-7% of the content of a retail site.

News: New Google Algorithm Pushes Out Bad Merchants

Google is modifying the way retailers appear on searches. In the past, retailers appeared based on relevance; however, Google is now taking into account customer reviews, with those businesses receiving negative reviews falling to the bottom of the list. Google claims that they will monitor reviews to be sure that authentic comments are being made. This should be a reminder to all e-retailers to place an emphasis on good customer service.

Online holiday sales are up 12%

Online sales are up 12% from this time last year. This is most largely attributed to free shipping offers. There was a 20.8% increase on free shipping orders the last week of November from the same week in 2009. Retailers continue to have success offering free shipping as the average order with free shipping is 30% higher than an order that does not include free shipping.

Fraud protection is the top concern for online shoppers, says a new study

In a survey asking consumers to consider fraud protection, product search availability, and a website’s ease of use, 30% stated that fraud protection is the most important attribute. The three sites consumers were to focus on included eBay, Overstock.com, and Zappos.com. 78% of those surveyed considered eBay to have the best fraud protection as well as the most attractive site layout and least amount of glitches.

SEO Tips for Google Instant That Will Help Your Dropship Business

Google Instant shows search results as the searcher is typing. Online retailers need to adapt SEO in order to be seen with this new search enhancement, and the following four suggestions are offered to assist with this adaptation. Make sure the website is up-to-date and will catch a viewer’s attention, include well-written meta-descriptions, write descriptive alt tags, and compose enticing header tags.

Dropshipping is a rather contentious topic amongst the legions of online sellers. There are those who love it and swear it’s the panacea for anyone interested in starting their own ecommerce business and then there are others who don’t believe in it as a distribution channel. Our opinion on the matter is slightly more moderate: dropshipping is a great way for small and medium sized companies to source products to sell online for a profit, however you can’t just slap a bunch of products on a website and expect the dough to start rolling in. Like any successful business, an online store requires a sound business plan, a well thought out marketing strategy, excellent customer service and some good old-fashioned hard work (and this holds true regardless of whether or not you support dropshipping).

So is using a dropshipper the right choice for you? Well, to ensure that everyone is on the same page, let’s define dropshipping first. In a nutshell, dropshipping is a supply chain management technique where when a customer purchases a product from an online store, the retailer passes the order information to a wholesale supplier and then the supplier processes and ships the order to the end-customer – hence the term dropship supplier.

For many new businesses, partnering with a reputable dropship supplier offers a way to sell a wide variety of products without the cost of carrying that inventory. Also because the supplier isn’t paid until after a product sells (and you’ve been paid), it’s a low risk way to test new products or to just start an online store.

Working with dropshippers offers other advantages to the online store owner. Since you don’t have to place an order with a supplier, wait for the inventory to arrive at your store and then start selling it, you can get the jump on hot products and new trends much quicker than a retailer who does not employ a dropshipper. In fact all you have to do is stick the product on your website, promote it, and wait for the orders to start coming in.

Most importantly, using a dropship supplier allows you to focus on your core competencies. More likely than not you got into online retailing because you enjoy the marketing, the selling, and the customer relations side of owning a webstore. That’s also what you’re good at. Using a dropshipper means you get to focus the majority of your efforts on this piece of the business and let the dropshipper focus on order fulfillment. Ultimately this leaves you more time to make more sales and more money.

These are just a few reasons why you’d want to consider using a dropship supplier. The best advice we can offer is for you to do your research and locate a reputable dropshipper that supplies the products you want to sell. They’ll be able to answer your questions and you can decide whether or not this is a business strategy you wish to pursue.

For more dropship and eCommerce tips visit the Shopster blog

Shopster offers a suite of Dropship and eCommerce solutions for small to medium sized businesses. Thousands of online merchants from around the world rely on 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. Shopster is an official eBay Solutions Partner.

Guest Blogger: Suzanne Lucas – Communication Manager of Shopster eCommerce Inc.