Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi,

I am new to this forums and I have read some interesting articles in StartupNation.com. I am planning on starting a wholesale company using Blog (this is to save the cost of hiring designer and technical stuff which I am not very familar with). I need some advice on

1) How the paypal works because from what I know, if i deliver the product to my customers and my customers insisted that they did not received and do a reverse charges on me through paypal, what can I do to protect myself? I have made several enquires and yet there is no reply at all from paypal.

2) I have some product on hand that I could sell, however I am afraid of pricing issue because the only way I know of promoting is to give free things and to decrease prices to ensure that I have a more compeititive edge. May i know is there any other feasible way because I am afraid that if i set this particular price which is similar to other, no people will buy from me.

3) Next, even though I have some product but I got it from a distributor which obviously charge me higher and the amount I earned is not even enough to eat an upsize Macdonald meal for a single product. Is there another way I could find factory made product? I have try many website and I am afraid of the quality and the scaming of such company since the previous time, I got it from a China company. The quality is really bad and I couldn`t even sell it or use it.

4) Would it be better for me to register a company under my country (Singapore) business law. This is because, I am worried that if I register, I do not make it in terms of no people buy from me and expenses is incurring everyday, the tendancy of the money being spent on registering is useless. It takes about 100 Singapore dollar to register a business here with proper paper and document.

Email me ahrou86@gmail.com because I been reading for the past 2 years and trying out, many times failed.


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The Merchandise Shop http://i-mshop.com

I can answer the first one for you.  If you simply pay .50 cents for delivery confirmation of each shipment sent through the US post office you will be given a #.  That # will protect you from charge backs with Paypal.

Although it`s not a great process, we found that we could at least get started through eBay. I say not a great process only because with the sort of "flea market" mentality, you don`t get an accurate pricing.

It isn`t at all technically difficult to put up a product on eBay. They walk you through all the steps, it only requires that you create a userID. Pictures definitely help, but your descriptions can be long or short.

If you want to sell to a Western market, I`d suggest writing your descriptions in your native languge, then enlist someone who can translate to English. People tend to distrust spending money on the Web if there are glaring language errors. It`s just that without someone personally, physically right there, most people have only a "sense" of trust when they read an online ad.

PayPal is easy to use, costs a little bit, but with the confirmation number MiteyMite mentioned, you should be fine. They`re integrated with eBay, making it very easy to handle transaction processing to get started.

If you can`t sell your merchandise for a profit on eBay, you can try selling it direct through a Web site. But that means the expense of building the site, having a shopping cart, and handling transactions on your own.

With zero research to back it up, our current thinking is that whatever price you get on eBay is probably somewhere around 40-60% of what you could get if you sold on a dedicated Web site. Just a "feeling," actually, but it so-far seems to be working for us.

I see, i will post on eBay too. Somehow, not much people shop at eBay in my country. Do you have any ideas how to get great products at very attractive prices.

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The Merchandise Shop http://i-mshop.com

People who become successful on eBay and other retailing venues, all have that special "secret" of finding products people want to buy, at very attractive prices. If I knew how to do that, I`d be a retail tycoon myself. :-) That`s the magic key, and there doesn`t seem to be any special secret to doing it.

Well, there is definitely some way since we have our own contact. I do have several dealer and manufacturer on hand, but i need to register the business and get a credit card and all the necessary license and document.

All these would be quite tough for me because i do not have enough financial support and the amount i requested is rather low to get a loan and i am afraid i would lose all the money on hand.

Is there anyway i can minimise the lost, because i know if i can hang on to the business and make it at least break even for 1 year, i can definitely succeed in this.


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The Merchandise Shop http://i-mshop.com