Beginners guide to online selling

[Pet Nanny]

I have been considering opening an online shop for some time now, but getting my website and blog sorted out has taken preference, however, I now know exactly what I want to do and I hope that it will work!

I cannot buy products in, so what I would like to do is to be a shop window for pet products, however, I would rather people buy directly from my shop and I place the order from the actually wholesaler (hope that makes sense) for them to .send out. I have seen some products on Aliexpress that I know would sell well, but I am concerned that even if our buyer pays for postage, it would still take 7 - 14 days and as a customer I would certainly not want to wait this long!

So my questions are this, what plugin should I use for my shop. I would rather not use shopify and have looked at the wordpress plugin and since this is a trial for me, a no cost option would enable to test the market first.

Secondly, is there a wholesaler in the UK that would be able happy to work in this way?

 

[Mr D]

You are describing dropshipping.

There are suppliers in the UK who will work that way, no idea if any do that sell pet products.

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi @Pet Nanny

There are some wholesalers / retailers who offer a drop-shipping service here in the UK. The margins won't be as good as buying stock directly but you don't have the risk of carrying stock.

The ones I've found with a quick search are:

https://www.thepaws.co.uk/Dropshipping+Pet+Products

https://www.petsupplyuk.com/custom_page,page,53,topic_id,content_pages

https://www.notinthedoghouse.co.uk/dropship-dog-products

http://edenpetz.co.uk/dropshipping


Another option is to become an Amazon affiliate. That way, you can push products that have the best reviews, send them to Amazon (probably the best converting site on the web) and also get commissions on anything your customer buys for the next 24 hrs.

I hope that helps.

Matt

 

[Nico Albrecht]

You should start to do your home work. You have an idea but not done the numbers abd market analysis. Your business idea is not viable and big brands and online retailers will be always cheaper than you.

A god example is the link from thepawshop.co.uk They offer 30% profit margin. You gonna spend more on advertising 20% - 30% easily, it is such a crowded market. + overhead etc... If buying stock is already a problem and you cannot afford that do yourself the favour and don't open a business and get into debt.

 

[Mr D]

Ok as a dropshipper you don't buy until you get an order.

Your price to buy the stuff will tend to be higher than wholesale and you'll tend to pay postage plus on top - say £3.99 for something that is costing £2.40 to post.

Say 2 people, one buying in and selling item, one dropshipping.

The one buying in wholesale has different risks and different costs.
Say buying a thingy at £4 wholesale and selling for £10 plus £3 postage. So buyer pays £13.

The dropshipper decides to sell same item from same supplier. The thingy costs them £7 plus £3.99 postage. Selling at the same price they pay out £10.99 and get effectively £2 profit. To pay most of the same bills the other seller is paying.
Or prices item higher to cover costs better - and in theory now less sales.

Build a website, that's the cheap part.
Getting website noticed takes time, energy, money. Can spend considerable amount of money in first few years not breaking even on the website spend.

The risks are different for dropship and wholesale goods retailer.
The rewards can be quite different too.

And with sufficient money the dropship process can be pretty automated. You can occasionally come across sellers with a million products and a dozen or two dozen orders a day. Dropshipping, may not even be human involvement besides checking up on things and linking new sites.

 

[Alan]

Another option is to become an Amazon affiliate. That way, you can push products that have the best reviews, send them to Amazon (probably the best converting site on the web) and also get commissions on anything your customer buys for the next 24 hrs.

FYI I experimented with this, picked a niche, set up a site that met Amazon affiliate criteria, pumped traffic at it with Adwords, I only just made back in commission what i paid out in AdWords.

Certainly not easy money, given that I can build my own sites and optimise my own AdWords myself, I think I earned effectively about 5 pence per hour

 

[Nochexman]

You should start to do your home work. You have an idea but not done the numbers abd market analysis. Your business idea is not viable and big brands and online retailers will be always cheaper than you.

A god example is the link from thepawshop.co.uk They offer 30% profit margin. You gonna spend more on advertising 20% - 30% easily, it is such a crowded market. + overhead etc... If buying stock is already a problem and you cannot afford that do yourself the favour and don't open a business and get into debt.

If Pet Nanny has a large and virbrant customer base that is already visiting her website for information and good ideas then she does not need to spend new money on advertising. What she might be trying to do is to better monetise her existing user base.

 

[antropy]

You should start to do your home work. You have an idea but not done the numbers abd market analysis. Your business idea is not viable and big brands and online retailers will be always cheaper than you.

A god example is the link from thepawshop.co.uk They offer 30% profit margin. You gonna spend more on advertising 20% - 30% easily, it is such a crowded market. + overhead etc... If buying stock is already a problem and you cannot afford that do yourself the favour and don't open a business and get into debt.

I completely agree. The market analysis and number crunching is the most important part. This has to be done thoroughly before you can fully start as otherwise you are trying to run before you can walk! Alex

 

[fisicx]

Nina,

I doubt you will make this work. We have cats (5 when I last counted) and chickens and my wife buys in bulk from online providers. Most people with animals I know do the same. Unless you can match the prices on ebay, zooplus and others I doubt you will sell anything or make a profit.

You would be far better off just allowing advertising on the site. If you have a decent number of visitors (hundreds per day) the income it quite useful.

If you only get a trickle of visitors everyday then it's not worth the effort of setting up a shop or doing advertising.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

If Pet Nanny has a large and vibrant customer base that is already visiting her website for information and good ideas then she does not need to spend new money on advertising. What she might be trying to do is to better monetize her existing user base.

Customer base doesn't mean much as customers are not loyal! I buy my dog food ( specific brand ) online from the cheapest place. Mostly Amazon on free next day delivery. I would give anybody my dog food business if they are cheaper for the same brand and product. The animal market is very crowded and hard to compete with. Only way to cut through it is with a niche product but if it gets noticed the big players will buy it in bulk and under cut you easily.

 

[wayzgoose]

Oh so many negative replies !
I do wonder sometimes whether those that supply the services on here have actually tried the selling side? Yes she may not make a fortune but there is no reason why, with a Google shopping feed added and a minimal daily budget that she could not make a few thousand a year in profit. Perhaps that's all she wants.
If newbies listened to everyone on here, nobody would ever start a new ecommerce store!
Nina, have you still got the links I sent to you last time you were enquiring about this?

 

[Mr D]

Oh so many negative replies !
I do wonder sometimes whether those that supply the services on here have actually tried the selling side? Yes she may not make a fortune but there is no reason why, with a Google shopping feed added and a minimal daily budget that she could not make a few thousand a year in profit. Perhaps that's all she wants.
If newbies listened to everyone on here, nobody would ever start a new ecommerce store!
Nina, have you still got the links I sent to you last time you were enquiring about this?

Yes have done dropshipping alongside stuff purchased from suppliers. For years.

 

[wayzgoose]

Yes have done dropshipping alongside stuff purchased from suppliers. For years.

Yes, I know. I said "I do wonder sometimes whether those that supply the services on here"

 

[Pet Nanny]

I already have an established website and sell a few items on FB and ebay. I experimented by actually buying some pet themed jewellery to see how they went, and have certainly made a profit. I think ebay is pointless unless you are selling big branded items, but amazon is different, since you can definitely make a better profit there. The problem I found which is infuriating is that amazon require an invoice meeting their strict guidelines which I was unaware of. I knew the same items I had purchased from AliExpress were on amazon, so I requested an invoice from the seller, sent it over and was refused, stating that it did not meet their requirements. So I had to sell them on ebay for a small profit.
I have installed a plugin to my wordpress website and I am currently in the process of doing the design and putting a few items in the shop, just to see how it goes. I am really ticked about the invoice though and the 60 weeks delivery time from China. Their only other method of posting in DHL which I am told will cost a fortune!!!

 

[Mr D]

I already have an established website and sell a few items on FB and ebay. I experimented by actually buying some pet themed jewellery to see how they went, and have certainly made a profit. I think ebay is pointless unless you are selling big branded items, but amazon is different, since you can definitely make a better profit there. The problem I found which is infuriating is that amazon require an invoice meeting their strict guidelines which I was unaware of. I knew the same items I had purchased from AliExpress were on amazon, so I requested an invoice from the seller, sent it over and was refused, stating that it did not meet their requirements. So I had to sell them on ebay for a small profit.
I have installed a plugin to my wordpress website and I am currently in the process of doing the design and putting a few items in the shop, just to see how it goes. I am really ticked about the invoice though and the 60 weeks delivery time from China. Their only other method of posting in DHL which I am told will cost a fortune!!!

Some of us make a profit on ebay and amazon. Depends on products, demand, problems etc.
Amazon is a touch more expensive to sell on as a merchant seller for us, so ebay is merchant and amazon FBA.

Yes amazon require supplier invoice from a supplier they can verify, generally not keen on aliexpress. Its a bit like a retail receipt in their eyes perhaps.
60 week delivery time - new design needing new tooling?

 

[alan1302]

60 week delivery time - new design needing new tooling?

Think they were just being facetious

 

[lavster]

Hello, I sell pet supplies, I started off selling products from China, picked a few collars i liked ordered them, sold them all and re-stocked adding 1 line at a time. I recommend getting on alibaba and start with (if you can) a small budget like £2-300 and go from there. I'd personally advise getting on eBay for cheap visibility. After 3 years of selling I was then able to get accounts with some of the bigger UK manufacturers / wholesalers. I did try dropshipping first of all but found it very hard to make any profit at all and very competitive too. Most of the UK Wholesalers, Ancol, Rosewood, Interpet will not drop ship anything for you, There is one wholesaler Armstrong Richardson you can look at who will but the postage charges are so high you'll find its impossible to compete with other sellers and make a profit.

 

[ukbf0001]

1. Get a wordpress site - done
2. Download and install ecwid (it's free for 10 products)
3. Create a Facebook page - and connect ecwid to it. Ecwid is the #1 ecommerce tool for FB. You can then sell directly from within FB to facebook users - using targeted adverts - in your case pet loving people, dog lovers , 'cat' people etc.

See how that goes, get involved in facebook groups, discussions etc - if you think this is where your audience 'hang out' - everyone I know is on facebook or twitter or instagram (ecwid works fine with these as well)

Then see how it goes - doing it this way will have hardly cost you anything at all. If it doesnt work - you can use the same method for any other business venture / idea.

If you have more resource then next time before you start I'd suggest do some keyword research to find out who is typing what into Google , how many searches per month and how much competition there is for those keywords. Then write content based around those keyword phrases.
There is a website auditor tool that can be used to gauge how your site is doing compared to others.

Send me a message if you want some help. There is another bit of software Ive been using / testing but this would be for later on in the site 'journey' as a way to build things up, but you dont need this yet. Good luck

 

[Pet Nanny]

I would just like to thank Peter of Bluenun for his help and guidance and more importantly, his patience. Thank to him I now have an online shop