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Zappos Competition? :)

by Joe Ox
6 replies
Since I work in retail during my unwanted "day job", I have the opportunity to count the money at the end of the day and to see with my very eyes how many ten thousand dollars the owner has made that day from that single shop.

So I am thinking of opening an eCommerce website in retail.
But I dont have warehouse or products!

How profitable are eComerce websites without warehouse?
Let's say I want to use a dropshipping company and sell other people's products, let's say Nike products. How is that doable?

How do you get in touch with Nike?
Is it profitable?
How do you compete with companies like Zappos or amazon that have free delivery in 1 day and my costumers will probably need to pay for the delivery and wait a couple of days as well?
How do you get a good ecommerce website design?

Anyone out there that successfully runs e Commerce website willing to share their experience to a newbie ?
#competition #zappos
  • Profile picture of the author Joe Ox
    anyone?
    I need your help guys!
    Come on...
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  • Profile picture of the author winsoar
    Nike will not supply anyone without a proper retail store.
    Signature

    Visit my official blog: James Winsoar and learn how to generate 30+ new FREE leads a day on auto-pilot!

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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    Joe

    Most Brand name manufacturers will only supply legit online retailers who
    also have a brick and mortar store.

    There are other hurdles such as building trust with potential customers,
    people won't buy from some unknown website, that's why besides their
    policies sellers still use eBay etc.

    Then you have to be able to drive massive amounts of traffic to your site,
    it will be difficult to rank organically for name brands so you may have to
    use paid traffic.

    And of course your prices will have to be competitive including shipping.
    Like you said most of the big boys offer free shipping and you may have to also.

    You won't compete through dropshipping, the margins are just not good enough,
    you will have to source products direct from manufacturers which is not easy.

    Anyway, Good Luck...
    Signature
    Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

    ― George Carlin
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  • Profile picture of the author onSubie
    Hi

    You need to find wholesalers and drop shippers.

    Be careful ordering from manufacturers in China for brand names as most are counterfeit.

    You can look at places like TradeKey or Alibaba for wholesalers and manufacturers. You can also try WorldWideBrands but they charge a member fee.

    You don't need to have a warehouse. You can use a 'pick and pack' company. These companies are distributers. You have your supplier ship your inventory to the 'pick and pack' company. The PnP inventories, warehouses, and ships your orders. You take orders from your customers and then send the order to the PnP who packs it and ships it. PnP charge various rates and most piece rates go down by volume.

    Here are a couple I found with Google:

    Product Packing, Safe and Clean Product Packing Services - Pick and Pack Services

    Nexus - Pick & Pack Services

    Amazon offers this service through Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA). You can ship your inventory lots to Amazon. Amazon will warehouse, inventory and ship your products. They will also list your items for sale on Amazon.

    Fulfillment by Amazon shipping service dropship, FBA drop shipping

    When you are starting, you can start small and use your garage/spare room for a 'warehouse' and do the shipping and handling yourself.

    Mahlon
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  • Profile picture of the author Joe Ox
    It sounds trickier than expected.
    Anyone that is doing it successfully and willing to share their story?

    Are margins really little as the (very helpful) salegurus says?
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    • Profile picture of the author bkat52
      Originally Posted by Joe Ox View Post

      It sounds trickier than expected.
      Anyone that is doing it successfully and willing to share their story?

      Are margins really little as the (very helpful) salegurus says?
      Joe - margins depends on the product and who you get it from. Getting them direct from the manufacturer provides a higher margin (obviously). You just have to know how to get in touch with them. But the main key is product selection. You need to be selling products that people can't readily purchase at a walmart for example. They need to be somewhat specialty items. This means people are driven to the internet to search for these items. That is how you beat Amazon to the sale. The consumer finds you first.

      Tricker than expected, probably. Difficult, not at all.

      Not trying to promote too much, but I did just finish writing a guide about drop shipping. Might be worthwhile for you to check out. Its free of course.
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