24/7 global access

Carrying around a laptop and using it whenever and where ever has not been that desirable for many people and they feel burdened at the idea of taking care of the luggage and concentrating on work at the same time. Mobiles have solved this issue. A mobile version of your website will be in access of your target customer no matter what time of the day it is and what his location is.

Customer’s Convenience

Regular Smartphone users find it very hard to visit and browse the websites which do not have a mobile version and hence skip visiting them. If you website is one such websites, no matter how much value you offer to your mobile client, he will not be comfortable in availing your services through his phone, which has become his prime tool for online shopping.

Reliable payment mode

Unlike e-commerce, transactions made through mobile phone promise more protection. It is because the scammers have not yet found their way in to break the security barriers of the Smartphone and we hope that they never do. Reliable and easy means to make online payments has made M-commerce a great tool for young and old customers alike.

Saves time and power

Smartphones are very handy and the technology has made them even easier to use. This process of making Smartphone more desirable for the people is on and many new features have made these phones indispensible for the users. Using Smartphone is easier than using desktop or laptop and it also saves energy.

For retail websites, the task of managing a website is rather crucial. Therefore, it is very important that an ecommerce website, aka online store, is developed and run by following the established rules. This post discusses the points that make an online store less likely to generate the desired results for the owner.

Poor customer service

The online stores have to be very specific and professional about ensuring quality customer service as online customers take the response time, quality of response and how well the reply has addressed their question quite seriously. Sound customer service means returning customer and good word of mouth that later brings more customers.

Vague Return Policy

If your return policy is designed to confuse the buyer and favour you in the end, the customer will find it sooner than later and there are fat chances that you will lose him forever. For the genuine trader and wholesale suppliers, satisfying the existing customers has to be more important than winning new ones as trade is an ongoing process and reputation is what builds this process.

Bad SEO

SEO helps you reach your targeted audience. It is that sort of marketing which guarantees greater traffic to your website. The number of deals you close in from this increased traffic depends on the quality of services you provide. Many online stores and UK wholesale suppliers neglect this aspect of marketing and fail to figure out the reasons why their competitors end up generating more sales and customers’ loyalties.

“Login to see details”

This is the biggest blunder that a trade website does. Although this is done to maintain exclusivity of their wholesale products and designs but it has a serious drawback of keeping new clients off the domain. Such websites mostly have certain prerequisites for the members too and verification on different steps of closing a deal makes it a very undesirable task.

Do you have a 24 hours active helpline?

Anonymity can be well maintained over emails; you cannot tell if a reply to your query is an auto-generated one or someone is sitting there to take care of your related issues. Various web-hosting companies invest much on targeting new clients but prefer operating without phone support. Having a phone support team is a continuous expense and can be quite hectic at times. Therefore, many companies intentionally avoid having a helpline setup. It is highly recommended to not pick a company that does not offer 245/7 helpline services.

Do you outsource your work or have an in-house team?

Various companies hire freelancers online and outsource their projects to them. This not only cost them very little but saves additional expenses of installing and running an office and bearing the related expenditures. Any web hosting company that does not afford the luxury of serving its client as per their needs, is not the company for you to deal with.

Is webhosting your main service?

Several companies provide web-hosting services but not all of them primarily focus on this domain. These companies are busy trying to master so many ends that they end up ruining it all. Any company that deals in various services, even if they are related, is likely to not satisfy you with its web hosting services.

Do your services support different servers, features, and languages?

It happens various times that a web-host does not have the expertise and infrastructural support for various server types and languages. If you wish to run a project as you have planned then you should be ready to pay a little extra and choose a web-host that has the right answer for all of your project related needs.

Would you keep your customers updated about the server maintenance?

A web host is obligated to keep its customers updated about everything that affects online presence of their website. Be it server maintenance or installation of new features and services, the web hosting companies are ethically bound to inform their customer in advance. While scrutinizing the companies for choosing the right web-host, ask this question in a way they do not get startled and feed you with the answer that apparently proves their worth.

Do you provide a functional and easy to use control panel?

When it comes to efficient and convenient web hosting, a hosting control panel does most of the job for you. It is therefore highly important to have access to an easy and functional control panel. The repercussions of choosing a company that does not provide an adequate control panel could lead to slow and painful tech support for even basic operations.

1. Avert long term contact:

Make sure that you avoid locking yourself in long term contacts for web hosting. You’ll not be able to anticipate market fluctuation in advance, thereby incur mounting debt. You might enroll in a debt relief program in order to get out of debt.

Therefore, it is advisable to pay as you go, as it will help you avoid getting into the trap of debt. Make sure that you do not sign up for a 2 or 3 years contract for web hosting as you might not be able predict whether your business will perform well. If you sign a contract then you will be locked into an agreement for a specific hardware configuration till the contractual period gets over.

5 Get out of debt options that you have are explained with the help of the following infographics.

2. Online ads are the established business organization:

Google ads and other advertisement are a great platform for making money. But you need to be aware there are many small online business owners who have racked up overwhelming debt on their credit cards through online advertisement.

You are required to provide your credit card information when you signup for Google Adsense or Microsoft Adcenter in order to create campaign.

When the visitor search for phrase on Google then ads of your website will be displayed, but the number of time it will be shown might vary. If you unknowingly select an option that will display the ad frequently within a short interval then you might spend more money faster than expected. As a result, you might incur insurmountable amount of debt if your use your plastic recklessly.

3. Spend less on design:

When you are starting an online business make sure that you avoid overspending on design. Your website design will be required to be updated from time to time, so it will be useless to overspend on designing. You should not be obsessed with creating a perfect design for your website when you are amateur in this field.

These are the 3 points that you are required to be aware of while stating an online business in order to avoid getting into debt.

24/7 global access

Carrying around a laptop and using it whenever and where ever has not been that desirable for many people, they feel burdened at the idea of taking care of their luggage and concentrating on their laptop’s screen at the same time. Mobiles have solved this issue. A mobile version of your online wholesale directory or website will be in access of your target customer no matter what time of the day it is and what his location is.

Customer’s Convenience

Regular Smartphone users find it very hard to visit and browse the websites which do not have a mobile version and hence skip visiting them. If your website is one such websites, no matter how much value you offer to your client, he will not be comfortable in availing your services through his phone, which is his prime tool for online shopping.

Reliable payment mode

Unlike e-commerce, transactions made through mobile phone promise more protection. It is because the scammers have not yet found their way in to break the security barriers of the Smartphone and we hope that they never do. Reliable and easy means to make online payments for wholesale products has made M-commerce a great tool for young and old customers alike.

Saves time and power

Smartphones are very handy and the technology has made them even easier to use. This process of making Smartphone more desirable for the people is on and many new features have made these phones indispensable for the users. Using Smartphone is easier than using desktop or laptop and it also saves energy.

In India, infrastructure is the first huge hurdle. Power supply is inadequate to meet the demands of industries in achieving high capacity utilizations. Due to frequent power cuts, manufacturing units and service industries without their own captive power plants are able to achieve only 60% to 80% of their full capacity. These power problems affect not only production but also constant communication between the suppliers and the sellers.

The second significant hindrance is the communication with the government officials and politicians, most of whom are corrupt. Unless bribes are negotiated and paid, nothing moves easily. If foreigners want to trade with suppliers from India, they should be ready to understand the subtle communications conveyed by those in power. The recent failure of a communication satellite of India and the 2G mobile phones scam has made communication between India and overseas even tougher. 3G technology and broadband Internet are yet to establish themselves at adequate levels in India. Unless, these communication channels and power supply improve and political interference and unnecessary regulations are reduced, trading with Indian suppliers would remain a major issue.

On the other hand, the success story of China wholesale trade growth in the past few decades has a strong resemblance to the tremendous growth that Japan achieved between 1960s and 1990s. Hence, many economists express doubt whether China would be able to sustain this growth or not like Japan. Further, majority of Indians have English as a compulsory subject in schools and colleges, even if they study in their local languages. In contrast, vast majority of Chinese are yet to learn English, with Chinese being the major medium of instruction. Hence, communication with most Chinese suppliers and labourers becomes difficult for foreign buyers. This would take time to change.

The first step is to decide whether you want to be a general clothing wholesaler or you would like to specialize in a particular niche. If you choose to be a general clothing wholesaler, you would sell clothes of all genders, ages and types. On the other hand, a niche wholesaler specializes in a particular area of clothing products. How you set up your clothing wholesale business will be determined by your decision at this stage.

In order to  become a clothing wholesaler you should  first have before hand experience of clothing business and most of all you should have enough experience to distinguish the quality of clothes. The next step is to look up in yellow pages and other online directories to locate clothing wholesalers and manufacturers in your area. You can contact or visit them and obtain sample items to determine whether the merchandise meets your quality standards or not. Studying the business of other wholesalers will also help you to fix proper prices for your clothing items. You should also get detailed information about their return policy, restocking fees, shipping, ordering deadlines and quality guarantees.

The next important step is to introduce yourself to your customers by the use of different marketing techniques. You should establish business relationships with the clothing retailers, commencing with the locally owned retail stores, as they are convenient to work with. Make sure you possess samples of your clothing merchandise and price list for immediate sales. It is advised that you should start with a small inventory, and gradually add merchandise as you grow with time. This saves you from being stuck with outdated wholesale products and enables you to manage your business conveniently. All these steps can collectively enable you to make a good start as a clothing wholesale supplier.

The first and foremost reason of failure of ecommerce website is the unprofessional design or layout of website. Unprofessional design makes it difficult for users to easily through the website. The simple solution is to make the website user friendly. User-friendly interface attract users and retain them as they like the experience they had on your website. Amateur wholesalers and distributors thinks that having a complex design attracts users; however, the case is vice versa.

Shopping process is also one of the reasons of failure of ecommerce website. If the shopping process is too long then users would not like it and never again deal from your site. Keep the shopping process shorter and minimize it to one or two pages. Follow the thumb rule that shorter the shopping process, the better user experience. Bad or no marketing campaigns also result in failures because when people doesn’t know about your website then how is it possible that they will deal with your ecommerce wholesale website.

Without customer’s feedback, the wholesalers will be unable to amend the flaws in their website. Therefore, provision of feedback in every section is also very important. Customers also feel safe with websites, which offers feedback option. Only getting feedback does not end the game, the wholesaler would also need to act on valuable feedback and reply to customers positively. Lack of security is also one of the reasons of online business failure. The current online world is full of scammers, in order to get rid of them the owner would need to apply strict security measures that will keep the business and customers’ information safe.

At the end, they could not comprehend this difference and I had to cancel my order. Well, the reason to cite this incident over here, is just to let you people know that this order cancelation did not make me any significant difference. The thing is if the company could reconfirm my address or deliver the order just for the sake of address confirmation which could cost them hardly few dollars. If they did so, probably they could win several more orders from my side, my family, my relatives & friends over the next few years. But they preferred to cancel the order instead of delivering product to a confirmed address.

I have also encountered a good online wholesale trade company to which I ordered some digital timers for my business but when I received, I found few of them faulty. They could not update time automatically but in the busy schedule I forgot to send them email. Later after two and a half month, I sent them an email regarding my issue and they told me that I have passed the refund time. But still just to make their customers happy, they were ready to send me few digital timers again without obtaining their previous timers. This is a wonderful example of superior customer service that appealed me so much. No doubt, whenever I need to buy wholesale products, they are the first name I will shop.

All that matters for a business is to give a wonderful experience in the first go and treat them more cautiously than your existing customers so that they can be converted into returning customers. Customer service department plays a major role in converting your one-time customers into returning customers.

The calculations:

Let’s start this with an example, if manufacturers sell a handbag at a fixed price of $17 and add an additional amount of $3 as shipping charges then the total amount becomes $20. Whereas, if they sell a handbag at $20, it means they are covering the shipping charges within the asking price and offering free shipping service. Although the selling price is not arguably increased but it certainly adds up huge profit margin in their business when they will sell dozens of items everyday.

It shows if customers get entice by free shipping, they do not notice the small difference in the asking price. While if you make your reputation as a reliable supplier, majority of people will prefer to come to you.

Free Shipping Argument:

Many people may not agree to the point mentioned above and they argue that suppliers with “real” free shipping offers will earn more profit. If you are running an online store, then you must be focusing on SEO as well to bring your page closer to appearing on page 1 rank. These all efforts are to match best with any users query against your projected keyword. Once you are closer to the user, large numbers of buyers will certainly pick you.

It means free shipping offer can increase your profit margins in e-commerce business as well as the number of customers whom you want to entice.