Understanding SKU and Variety of Products from Wholesalers by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder & CEO of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #18

“SKU” is a highly used wholesale term you hear frequently when dealing with genuine wholesale suppliers. SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit.

A SKU is a number. It is the unique number assigned to a product type by the wholesaler. It could a product number or a model number. When you hear that your wholesale supplier carries 8,000 SKUs, it means they inventory 8,000 unique products. The wholesaler may have millions of units in stock but they are grouped into 8,000 unique products.

The wholesaler will typically assign three SKUs to identify a product that has three different colors. There will be one SKU for each color so that the wholesaler’s staff can cross-check that they have picked the correct product to match your purchase order. This is not like your Social Security Number a number with only one number per product. The SKU is a number that is unique to each item type that can be picked and packed for shipment.

It's just that simple.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

My.ShipRush Streamlines Shipping Tasks Within My eBay - Part of Selling Manager Applications

New to the eBay Selling Manager Applications, or commonly referred to as eBay's App Store, is My.ShipRush. My.ShipRush was created by the folks at Z-Firm and is a new version of ShipRush, embedded in My eBay or Selling Manager.

eBay Sellers need a reliable, easy-to-use and efficient system for handling sales once the buyer has completed checkout. It can be quite exhausting spending a large amount of time manually typing in shipping addresses, printing shipping labels one-at-a-time and communicating with each individual buyer on their order and shipment.

My.ShipRush has streamlined the whole post-sale process from shipping to communication. Saving eBay sellers a lot of time and money! Access My.ShipRush from your eBay Account.

My.ShipRush Will:

• Automatically retrieve sales from eBay
• Print shipping labels (with free shipping plugin)
• Post tracking numbers and set the “shipped” flag on eBay
• Email notifications to the buyer with shipment status and tracking #
• When used in eBay Selling Manager Applications, My.ShipRush is automatically configured to interact with your eBay account
• Electronic scale support
• Supports shipping for multiple carriers

For every shipment, address data flows from your core software into ShipRush. There is no cut-and-paste, no import-export, and no hand-keying. It is automatic and instant. Tracking numbers, cost, and tracking URL's flow from ShipRush back into your core application. Again, this is automatic and effortless.

Below are screenshots of My.ShipRush within eBay. Take a look.

Founded in 1992, Z-Firm has been making ShipRush since 1998. The ShipRush mission is to bring big-warehouse shipment automation to small businesses. ShipRush is "FedEx Compatible," "UPS Ready," "UPS OnLine Compatible," and DHL Certified.

Z-Firm now brings us My.ShipRush as part of the Selling Manager Applications.

Understanding How Wholesalers Handle Shipment Returns by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder & CEO of Worldwide Brands


Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #17

When you source or purchase product from a wholesaler or a dropshipper, you need to understand how they deal with returns. RA or RMA are terms wholesale suppliers use when dealing with RETURNS. RA is used for "Return Authorization". RMA is used for "Return Merchandise Authorization".

You cannot just return a shipment to your wholesale supplier. Your customers should be required to follow a disciplined Return Process before attempting to return something you have shipped them. Your wholesale supplier will want you first to contact them to alert them to the need for a return and to provide the reasons for the return. You should require your customers to do the same by getting them to first contact you. The required process should be clearly stated in the Returns Policy in your eBay listings.

*Note, on Sept 22nd eBay will require all listings to have selected a Return Policy. Even if the Return Policy is that a seller does not accept returns, it must be selected*

When your wholesale supplier agrees to accept a return item or shipment, they will assign you an RA Number. Sometimes the method of return may be affected by the cause of the return or the circumstances. Sometimes the supplier may arrange a UPS or FedEx pre-paid pick up. Always clearly mark the RA number outside the return package before shipping it back to your wholesaler. The wholesale supplier will pass you a credit once they receive the goods.

Wholesale drop shippers typically require a similar process and your customer or eBay buyer must know to contact you first and request a replacement. You then contact your wholesale supplier to request the RA approved number. At the same time arrange a replacement order. Some drop shippers send a replacement product after issuing the RA number and even before the return reaches them. These are good wholesale suppliers to use since they help provide a better Buyer experience and help minimize your negative feedback on eBay.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Stand Out from the Crowd on eBay with Great Design

Stand out from the crowd on eBay by creating a recognizable brand. eBay buyers, especially previous purchasers, should be able to remember who you are, what you offer, quality of products and customer support. You can attract buyer attention and provide assurances with a professionally designed listing on eBay.

The new item page on eBay still allows sellers the opportunity to get creative and stand out! Preview your custom designed listing templates and see how your template "fits".

Great design not only creates a professional presence when selling online, but also establishes a recognizable brand. Buyers will be more likely to remember "who you are" with unique and memorable design.

Benefits:

• Create effective design
• Build a recognizable name/brand on eBay to suit your target buyer
• Compete effectively with your competition
• Establish professionalism and quality of your business and items

Consider enlisting effective design and marketing services of an eBay Certified Provider to help grow your current eBay business. eBay Certified Providers work with all levels of eBay sellers from beginners to advanced PowerSellers to online retailers.

Certified Providers:
Custom Design

As Was

Pre-designed eBay Listing Templates

Seller Sourcebook

Vendio

Auctiva

inkFrog

eBay Workshop Sept 1st - "Save Time Answering Buyer Questions with Fast and Easy Advanced FAQs and Automated Email Responses”

Workshop: New Selling Manager Applications – Save Time Answering Buyer Questions with Fast and Easy Advanced FAQs and Automated Email Responses

Host: Hosted Support
Date: September 1st
Time: 11AM - Noon PST
Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: Don’t lose a sale due to slow responses to buyer questions. ezSupport for eBay, by Hosted Support, lets sellers create a knowledge base to be used either as a FAQ (buyers can search for and find their own answers) or if they email sellers directly, ezSupport for eBay will automatically respond to the buyer email based on information the seller has already supplied.

Now you can add ezSupport for eBay quickly and easily to your eBay account with the release of new selling applications for Selling Manager Applications.

Hosted Support is an eBay Certified Solution Provider and one of a handful third party providers included in the new Selling Manager Applications feature.After the material is presented we'll open the board for discussion and questions.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

Learn How to Build Credit and Purchasing History with Wholesalers by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder & CEO of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #16

“Net 30” is a term used in association with payments. It specifies the credit terms your wholesaler allows you. When Net 30 appears on your order and invoice, you have been extended 30 days of credit from the date of the invoice before you have to pay for the goods listed on the invoice. There’s an advantage to having terms of payment. The payment terms allow you time to sell the invoiced products, and receive the cash from your customers, before you must PAY the wholesale supplier for the goods.

New eBay Sellers cannot expect to get Net 30 terms from the wholesale supplier from the start. Wholesale suppliers credit departments determine credit terms based on your business credit HISTORY. Your personal credit history might help you secure an account but it’s your buying performance that secures you terms. Online retailers must typically start by paying cash up front for all purchases or by using a credit card. Once you have developed a good purchase and payment history, your wholesale supplier will consider your request for credit terms. The volume you buy will determine if you can get Net 30 or better.

You begin building your business credit history from the point you first order and pay for goods from the wholesale supplier.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Video Interview with Mercent, Winner of the eBay Star Developer Award "Early Adopter"

Mercent, an eBay Certified Provider, was awarded the eBay Star Developer Award for "Early Adopter" at eBay's 2009 Developers Conference in San Jose, CA June 17th.

The eBay Star Developer Awards are awarded each year to the eBay developers recognized for building applications on the eBay API platform and for their achievements in enabling sellers to improve customer service and help sellers keep pace with eBay's dynamic marketplace. Mercent was recognized by eBay for the early adoption of eBay’s Large Merchant Services for Mercent Retail™ on-demand retail marketing platform.

"Third party partners like Mercent are instrumental to eBay’s growing success. We depend upon developers for early product feedback on new API platform products that help to drive innovation and create tools that drive consumer usage across eBay properties. We’re extremely pleased to recognize Mercent as a top award winner for its strong contributions." - Kumar Kandaswamy, eBay Platform Senior Manager.

Congratulations to Mercent for this distinguished honor and for their ability to easily assist large retailers with managing and expanding their business onto the eBay platform!

Mercent integrates large retailers with eBay using the new Large Merchant Services (LMS) API, providing the ability to handle the scalability requirements of large sellers, including catalogs and transaction volumes and back end integration with current systems including POS.

How Shipping from the Wholesaler to the eBay Seller Works - by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, CEO & Founder of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #15

FOB is a shipping term. It designates: "Freight On Board" or "Free On Board". The wholesale supplier will pay the costs of handling and shipping up to the point the goods are FOB or Free on Board.” Whichever city is designated as the FOB city is the point where the wholesaler’s handling and shipping costs end.

For example - If the shipping documents state “FOB San Diego, CA,” then the wholesale supplier pays all costs to get the shipment to a terminal in San Diego, CA. From that point onwards the eBay Seller must either pick up the shipment, or forward it at the eBay Seller’s cost to the desired customer destination. All logistics and expenses after the shipment arrives at the terminal in San Diego, CA, must be paid by the eBay Seller.

Usually wholesale suppliers will get the shipment onto the shipper’s vehicle at the wholesaler’s own warehouse. The FOB will be declared as the wholesale supplier’s city and location. The eBay Seller will pay the costs of shipping to get the goods from FOB at the wholesaler's warehouse to delivery at the customer’s desired destination. To determine the correct Cost of Goods Sold, COGS, for the items and shipment, the eBay Seller will have to add their share of the shipping costs to the costs of the product to determine the correct profit per product.

Watch the short video below for more clarification on FOB.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Fox Business News - eBay and Terapeak Discuss Launch of Selling Manager Applications

eBay just launched Selling Manager Applications, now being referred to as eBay's App Store. Similar to Apple's App Store or how Facebook users add applications to their profile, eBay sellers can now add individual applications to their Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro that their eBay business needs. Sellers can complete their selling puzzle with these apps and do more.

"...[Selling Manager Applications] is a new App Store on eBay where sellers can go to find applications by third party developers that will help them improve their eBay businesses and increase their selling efficiency and profitability." - Kristina Klausen, Sr. Director of the eBay Seller Platform Efficiency Team.

Selling Manager Apps are easily accessible as the App Store lives inside Selling Manager. Any eBay seller can subscribe to Selling Manager (for free!) and peruse or subscribe to the various apps their business needs. All apps have a minimum of a 7 day free trial period.

Terapeak, an eBay Certified Provider, is one of the first apps to be included in the new eBay App Store. Terapeak offers real-time market research and data analytics on eBay.

Fred Speckeen, CEO of Terapeak, - "Terapeak has been around for 5 years working closely with eBay and tens of thousands of eBay sellers...to deliver pricing research so that folks who are starting small medium sized businesses selling online can actually see ahead of time what kind of prices they are going to get before they buy their inventory. They can also track market movements, new trends in consumer interest. This in turn makes them much more profitable."

Subscribing to the Terapeak application as part of the new Selling Manager Applications, will give those sellers eBay research and their product performance right in My eBay.

Watch as Kristina Klausen and Fred Speckeen discuss the launch of eBay's new Selling Manager Applications for sellers and the benefits.

New Selling Manager Applications for eBay Sellers from Certified Providers

If you currently use Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro to manage your inventory on eBay, you may find adding an additional application from our eBay Certified Providers is just what you need for robust inventory management, sales tracking, communication management and more.

Benefits:

• Market Research & Reporting
• Customer Service
• Shipping & Payments
• Listing
• Inventory Management
• Marketing & Merchandising
• Product Sourcing
• Accounting
• and more...

All sellers can take advantage of these new tools – all you need is a subscription to Selling Manager (Free) or Selling Manager Pro. From within Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro, any new applications you subscribe to will appear under the Applications tab.

Every application is available with a free trial (usually between one week and 30 days) – so you can try it out before you subscribe. Most Selling Manager Applications charge a subscription fee. Just log into Selling Manager and check out the application catalog tab. Or, subscribe to Selling Manager today.

Certified Providers:

Hosted Support
MyStoreRewards
Terapeak
ShipRush
Worldwide Brands

MyStoreCredit Brings Buyer Rewards and Loyalty Marketing Direct to My eBay and Selling Manager

Listen on eBay Radio as MyStoreCredit shares how they became an approved third party application in the new eBay Selling Manager Applications feature, and how their applications , MyStoreRewards and MyStoreMaps, will increase profits for eBay sellers.

Sellers that subscribe to the MyStoreRewards or MyStoreMaps applications as part of the new Selling Manager Applications, will have a buyer rewards (coupon and loyalty) program and/or a visual map off their eBay buyers around the world right in My eBay. MyStoreRewards gives individual sellers the opportunity to extend

Benefits of using MyStoreRewards and/or MyStoreMaps within My eBay (Selling Manager) are:

• Comfort - peace of mind knowing the company and application are vetted by eBay
• Ease of use - sellers already know My eBay
• Email marketing opportunities to reactivate past buyers or reward frequent/loyal buyers
• Increase buyer confidence in a seller's ability to ship around the U.S. or the globe

MyStoreCredit is an eBay Certified Solution Provider delivering a buyer loyalty and rewards program for eBay sellers and PayPal merchants known as, MyStoreRewards. In addition, MyStoreCredit also provides a solution to help sellers reach international buyers with the fun and visual application of MyStoreMaps.

Communicating with Wholesale Suppliers to Ensure Product Supply by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder & CEO of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #14

This next wholesale term is one that’s important for you to watch daily – QOH: "Quantity On Hand". The QOH is the inventory quantity currently on hand for a given product. It’s all the wholesaler has in stock currently to fulfill orders. If there is a run of orders and the wholesale supplier cannot fulfill your orders, you might end up with unhappy customers and bad feedback.

The QOH might be difficult to find at first. Some wholesale suppliers maintain the QOH in restricted sections of their web site. Wholesalers prefer that only their authorized resellers see the QOH for any product. Some wholesalers help eBay Sellers monitor availability via email updates. You should daily track the QOH for each item you are selling - especially on your most popular lines.

This is extremely important on those products you drop ship. Sometimes it is necessary to temporarily remove your eBay listing, or eBay Store posting, for a product when your wholesaler’s QOH for that item gets too close to zero. Back Orders are not a satisfactory way of fulfilling your customers' orders. As you see the wholesaler’s QOH on a critical item stabilize, you can restore your eBay listings.

During the Holiday Season you must pay special daily attention to the QOH on hot selling items. This way you can maintain happy customers and positive feedback.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Infopia Helps eBay Sellers and Online Retailers Efficiently Manage Return Merchandise

Infopia announced new functionality in their comprehensive solution for ecommerce retailers and eBay sellers, Return Merchandise Authorization.

Infopia, an eBay Certified Solution Provider, centralizes and automates an eBay seller’s business through a single all-in-one solution. Now, sellers can automate more of their business by reducing the amount of time and money they spend handling returns or RMAs.

The new functionality allows customers to create Return Merchandise Authorizations or RMAs inside the Infopia Transact system. This allows an eBay seller or their customer service representatives to:

• Search for and view the orders to be returned
• Select items from the orders to be returned
• Adjust recommended refunds on the RMA by changing prices, discounts and shipping charges
• Apply restocking fees
• Reject returns, with notes on the original order
• Submit the RMA order to the Infopia Transact system, where it is tied to the original order for tracking
• Add notes to both the original and the RMA order, to ensure no mix ups
• Edit the RMA order
• Create replacement orders

The new RMA functionalities will allow for a more thorough and customer friendly return process for Infopia clients.

eBay sellers interested in using a full service, multi-channel solution for their online and retail business should contact Infopia directly and discuss their needs to decide if Infopia offers the right tool for them.

Founded in 1999, Infopia provides (Software as a Service) eCommerce solutions—helping eBay sellers grow their business efficiently and effectively.

Terapeak Brings eBay Market Research Direct to My eBay and Selling Manager

Soon eBay sellers will be able to access eBay market research right within their My eBay, thanks to Terapeak and the new Selling Manager Applications.

Terapeak is a market research tool helping eBay sellers price their items through research determining market demand. Terapeak Marketplace Research can help sellers find hot new items to sell and improve their existing eBay listings.

Sellers that subscribe to the Terapeak application as part of the new Selling Manager Applications, will have research and product performance right in My eBay.

Benefits of using Terapeak within Selling Manager are:

• Comfort - peace of mind knowing the company and application are vetted by eBay
• Ease of use - sellers already know My eBay
• Billing - free trial period then automatic billing with PayPal

"We can help you find your niche on eBay." - Andrew Sukow; Founder, CTO & Vice President of Terapeak

Terapeak is an eBay Certified Provider and a member of the eBay Market Data Program. Terapeak offers real-time market research and data analytics on eBay. Terapeak provides eBay sellers and buyers with two years worth of trending data.

eBay Workshop August 13th - "Save Time & Money Shipping and Increase Repeat Purchases"

Workshop: Save Time & Money Shipping and Increase Repeat Purchases

Host: ShipWorks
Date: Thursday, August 13th
Time: 11AM PST
Location: eBay Workshop Board

Description: In this workshop, we'll look at how ShipWorks helps you save time shipping with their quick, automated printing of address labels, posting of tracking info in My eBay and shipping tracking notification emails sent to your buyers for multiple carriers. Plus, ShipWorks will show you how they can help you manage, organize and report on customer interactions and their purchase volume with you. You'll be able to understand who YOUR top buyers are and market more effectively to those buyers in order to increase repeat purchases.

Visit http://certifiedprovider.ebay.com/ to learn more about eBay Certified Providers and the services and solutions they offer to help eBay sellers.

Understanding "Minimum Order Quantity" When Purchasing from Wholesalers - by Worldwide Brands

By Chris Malta, Founder & CEO of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tips Series - How to find wholesalers, doing business with a wholesaler, what to expect when purchasing from wholesalers and more.

Tip #13

The third wholesale term for eBay Sellers to understand is: MOQ. MOQ stands for Minimum Order Quantity.

The Confidential Dealer Price List typically lists an MOQ: "Minimum Order Quantity". This sets the smallest quantity of the item you can order at a time when you place orders. The MOQ will vary from item to item. Large, pricier items typically have a smaller MOQ. The less pricey, smaller products typically have higher MOQs.

The MOQ is usually also the smallest quantity at which the wholesale supplier can make a profit on the product so it is typically non negotiable. Wholesale suppliers depend on large volume business. Wholesalers’ profit margins are thin. This is why they must make their money by selling in large volumes to online ecommerce retailers, such as eBay Sellers.

Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider, providing product sourcing access and information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

Do Your Research - Learn How to Compete Effectively and Save Money on eBay

Probably the easiest and most cost-effective part of selling on eBay is research. Sellers gain valuable insight into their products performance on eBay, along with a competitive advantage over their competition simply by running a few searches with an eBay market research tool such as Vendio or Terapeak.

Unlike Advanced Search on eBay, research solutions analyze millions of listings and quickly provide data on pricing and listing strategy, identify trends, or even fill in your eBay listing template for you. Research your competitors with the click of a button. Stay ahead of the trends by looking back two full years, or quickly check out what categories are “hot”. Research tools will help quickly guide when to list, best day and time to list, the best keywords and categories to use, and the best price to sell at.

Benefits of Research:

• Determine success and profitability of products beforehand
• Improve your listing strategy
• See the top Keywords buyers are searching for
• Sell more items at a higher price
• Save money on eBay listing upgrades
• Know when to list your items and which format to list in
• Determine where demand exceeds supply
• Use category hot lists to view what’s hot in the eBay marketplace
• Discover who the top sellers are in each category
• Learn the competitions selling strategy
• Research several eBay sites, including United States, UK, Canada, Germany, Australia and France
• Create custom research reports and save data
• eBay Motors Parts & Accessories research (Terapeak & Vendio)
• eBay Motors Vehicles research (Vendio)
• Pre-fill your listings with the right price and strategy (Vendio exclusive)

eBay sellers interested in using market research to save on fees and compete effectively, should check out the following Certified Providers:

Vendio

Terapeak

The Benefits of Dropshipping by Shopster

Article provided by Shopster

Dropshipping is a business strategy best utilized by those who want to sell online, but are unable to invest in purchasing inventory, or the storage space to keep it. In basic terms, to dropship is to sells goods on behalf of a supplier who then fills the order and ships it to the purchasing customer on behalf of the seller.

There are several benefits to dropshipping, but the two main ones are: no upfront inventory to purchase and a low start up cost. Dropshipping is ideal for those who want to start a business, but can not afford high start up costs.

Other benefits of dropshipping include:

• Allows the retailer to focus on making sales, and making more money. As it is the supplier that packs and ships orders, once a sale is made the retailer does not have to do anything except focus on making more sales.
• Dropshipping can reduce shipping and handling costs. As the product is delivered directly to the customer it does not have to be shipped to the retailer. Thus saving the cost of that one delivery. The savings can then be passed onto the customer by the retailer.
• It gives retailers the opportunity to test out new products lines without having to buy the inventory up front.

One criticism of dropshipping is that at times it can be challenging to find competitive pricing on an item, especially if it is popular. The base price on dropshipped products is not as competitive as wholesale or bulk, but for the most part the prices are cheaper than what you would find in a store, and the retailer can still offer competitive pricing.

Finding well priced dropship products is possible with research and a competitive niche or growing market opportunity. Watch out for over saturated markets, like the Nintendo Wii for example. While these items are popular with buyers, there are thousands of sellers trying to offer the product at the lowest price, resulting in small (if any) margins.

Shopster is a full business solution enabling eBay sellers to either start or expand their eBay business by connecting sellers to suppliers. Shopster is focused on drop ship product sourcing and listing tools for any level of seller.

eBay Certified Providers Can Help Sellers with Recent eBay Announced Changes

eBay recently announced new features and policies designed to help sellers be more efficient and reward them for providing great service to eBay buyers. We want to make sure eBay sellers are aware of how Certified Providers can help them incorporate the new eBay changes and thereby increase their sales while saving time handling their eBay business.

Helping Sellers Avoid Low DSRs

• Tools to make giving great service quick and easy
• Simple bulk shipping management for multiple carriers
• Post shipping tracking #s automatically in My eBay
  

Opportunities for Increased Visibility in Enhanced Search

• Optimizing sales for the new Sales Per Impression
• Tools supporting Product Details

Tools for Efficiency and Profitable Selling on eBay

• Easy listing revisions – Edit live listings to comply with new policies
• Selling Manager Applications from Certified Providers

The eBay Certified Provider Program recognizes third party companies excelling at providing the tools or services an eBay seller needs to grow their business and increase efficiency.