Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

 

Hello StartUpNation Community,

My customer`s have been asking me to mail them a catalog. The catalog cost 5.95 wholesale plus shipping. That can run into allot of money, and I am dealing with a droppshipper.Now the catalog carries over 3,500 products. I sent an e-mail to my droppshipper if I could add the catalog to my web site. I also wanted to know if a customer places an order how can they tell that they are my customer`s and how will I get paid. My droppshipper replied with inorder to get paid for those orders I would have to place all 3,500 products to my website. My question is how do you answer your customer`s without losing them that you don`t have a catalog? I don`t want to lose those leads they cost quite a bit of money when you are dealing with pay per click advertising. On the other hand it would take an awful long time to place 3,500 products to my web site. Especially when my line is Medieval, Mystical, Incense and Unique Gifts

Yours Truly,                                                                                                         Second Hand Rose

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Yours Truly, Rose M. Palinkas, secondhandroseboutique.com

Rose, I can imagine the frustration you are experiencing. It must be very frustrating knowing that you offer great product ... but ....

What if you were able to have that 3500 item catalog ... then select only the products you want in the store .... then be able to print a selection of those items for your catalog or ALL the items that you`ve put in the store? And still have the products drop-shipped, as you do now.

And have that catalog in a .pdf format ... to print or send as an attachment in an email or newsletter ... or be able to create a catalog onto a cd rom.

Would that solve your problem?

TJG and all,
That`s exactly how I started! I was completely dropship. I found
a few products I felt I could market well, and bought a few. I now
stock over 60 items but I carry more than 150. I am just starting
work on a brochure of my stocked items.

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

Hello TJG,

Thank you for your reply. I purchased the package from the droppshipper. The package has three of there catalogs, cd rom of all the images, wholesale list price, retail list price. My web site already has over 250 pages and the is only the catagory that I was interested in. I am on very friendly terms with my droppshipper, accept my web hosting company is a different story. My droppshipper how I found them was a miracle! They don`t deal with the Public. Only merchants. They are new with having web sites carry there products and every month they are updating with new items. How do I tell my customers about droppshipping? That I am not the manufacter. That I do accept all major credit cards. Not to pat myself on the back(which is okay):-) I found myself a gold mine right in my state(Florida). Every day I am updating my web site adding products since Oct. 2005,(major setback with Hurricane). Plus my web site 5% I donate to charity for disabled people. Yet not one customer has purchase anything! What I am doing wrong I don`t know. I even took a business course online to learn about e-commere online stores. That is why I don`t want to lose the precious few leads I have, without adding everything my droppshipping company carries. There has to be another way. I even put a monthly free prize give-away. I don`t want to lose my web site!         & nbsp;  

 

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Yours Truly, Rose M. Palinkas, secondhandroseboutique.com

Rose, I sent you a private message.

After visiting your website, it was rather easy to determine who the drop-shipper is. They are a quality organization, with good quality products ... and yes, they specialize in drop-shipping. And you are right, the web is a relatively new distribution channel for them.

 I can empathise with you re: no sales. It can be very frustrating and depressing knowing that you have a "great idea", a "great concept", "great products", :great pricing" and a web site ... and no one is buying.

Since this post was directed to Rose, but others may be interested ... allow me to share a portion of the private message I sent.

I asked Rose to check out several web sites ...

http://thegreetingstore.net

http://thegreetingstore.com

http://gotruckstop.com

And then get back to me ... Hopefully, Rose you will. I believe there are folks that can help you with your dilemna.

Thomas (TJ) Graff
Dir. of Sales and Marketing
GoTruckStop.com
The BEST Trucking and Gift Store Ever!!
http://www.gotruckstop.com
tgraff@gotruckstop.com
480/544/4671

Being a small retail owner, I can understand the frustration you`re feeling.  If you`re dealing with the company I think you are, they have very nice catalogs that list the "retail price" of each product, so there`s no revealing of wholesale prices to your retail customers.  I run my shop by myself, and I generally look through catalogs at home in the evenings.  I do not object to paying for a catalog for this convenience.  I do not take the time to review catalogs sent by CD; I spend too much time at the computer as it is.  However, if I`m torn between two companies, I will most likely choose the one that offers a rebate off the price of my first order to cover the cost (or at least most of it) of the catalog.  If you`re really affraid of losing those customers, send them the catalog!  Do a test for a few choice customers-to-be and spend the money to do it.  If you have those iffy-customer types, charge them for the catalog.  Good luck.

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Donna - Dance to the Song of Life!
Owner - The Basquet Case Market & Gifts
www.thebasquetcase.com

If anyone wants a lot of business cards at cheap prices, I mean cheap, try
vistaprint.com. Just be careful - you cant change your order once you hit the
button and there is no email contact at all. Phone customer service is nil and
they are rude but the cards look good and the price is right too.
They also match up stationary and postcards, etc. (I think it is good for        &nb sp;      upstart companies like myself with little money).
jo


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Jo
NJ

I see eveyone has addressed the catalog issue. But the real problem is you have no sales.

Have you worked on your keywords for your site? have you setup a way to add your site to search engines and update them?

Have you looked at setting up your own printable catolog online so clients have to download and print, saving you the cost?

I can offer help on these areas if you want to drop me a line.

 

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"Knowlodge is like a drop of water in an endless sea"

Being in the printing line, I get alot of calls asking since they are dropshippers etc. and clients ask for catalogs, so how much it cost to print a catalog, my answer to them is always make some flyer from the hot items and place them by catagory. when your client askes first send them mini snick peek, after that you could tell him/her that the big catalog cost money.

Hope this mini info could be a help.