One for the pros in ecommerce.

First something about myself, I have been a marketer since 3 years by now and successful in selling affiliate products as well as in lead gen. My primary source of traffic is advertising and in it I know what I am doing, have done certification from Adwords as well. In past I have managed couple ecommerce adwords account as a consultant. Now moving forward I am trying to enter in the next step of online marketing and needed some of your's opinions.

We (me - a marketer and my wife - a developer) is planning to step into E commerce in a very specific niche and grow slowly form there. The idea is to build a long term business slow and steady.

The target country is india and I have done pretty much research in the niche market we have chosen. Let's get to the point where I feel I would need some expert opinions.

We have planned to import products (from china) and then sell at a margin. Talks with Indian suppliers was not fruitful . Their MOQ was way much higher and price for lesser orders is higher leaving us no to very less margins, whereas china suppliers are willing to co-operate in start and even at cost + shipping the margin will be considerable for us.with around 2 weeks of research and weeding out scammers from alibaba I was able to speak to 2 suppliers who are real manufactures and willing to help us grow if we continue business with them in long term.

We have also planned not to compete much on pricing but instead provide value and customer support at a better price.


Since you guys know eCommerce far better then us , I would like to ask your thoughts. Being specific(If i am not asking for much time) My questions will be -

1. What you think, do we need 1 more eCommerce business? There are a lot more already. We have already made our minds and efforts but still like to hear from you.

2. The products are small ticket items (10-25$ range mostly), in india people prefer COD (cash on delivery) more from new stores. cod will cost us around 1.5 $ per shipment and Shipping will cost in same range. We planned to ask for 1$ as shipping from customer and rest from our pocket. What you would suggest ? Charge everything from customer or split it up ?

Note that 1$ sound very low for you but the currency value is like this

1$=62 INR

And an item cost for me will be 80 cent, if added shipping from china (in a lot) will be 1.5$ per item while in retail it sells at 15-20$ In retail shops.


3. Shall we give COD option or drop it ? from my research it seem like a big percentage of COD orders are returned and the reasons vary from "wife rejected" to "found cheaper somewhere else ". Being a family based startup instead of investors such orders will get us in loss.

4. In logistics we have talked with big guys as well smaller local guys. The difference in the price is almost double. While the big guys are asking for 2$ per shipment (local or national) the local guys are willing to ship at 1$ per shipment however online reviews about the local companies are mostly negative. While I understand people hardly go to post positive reviews the difference in price might reflect the quality of service as well. What do you suggest ? Big guys or grow with local partners?

5. provided we are putting every effort possible into this , what you suggest of a 2 people team? Do we need more getting started or it's a good idea to start and then grow overtime?

We have budget of around 1400$ to spend on paid traffic to test our business model and if it works well (I believe it will) we will grow in more niches.

Ps: for them who feel a $ 10 item is not worth selling , or suggesting me target US market please understand we have made our mind with a good reason and willing to stick to it. And not looking to enter in the USA competitive market until I have some experience from my local market understanding how things works and what to expect in terms or ROI.