OT: eCommerce options

To start off with, this has nothing to do with my day job. I'm trying to help out some folks I know who runs a martial arts studio. Due to the ever increasing rents around ($4000/mo) here they asked me if I know much about eCommerce since I'm a "computer guy". They want to import some martial art supplies and sell online to help support the school. They also have connection in China that can supply them with high quality martial art stuff (I have seen them and they are very high quality).

I know there are some here who run their own online store so I'm seeking out advice. what are some of the pitfall to watch out for? I also know that this might not even fly since I think the folks I deal with have a very naive notion of what running a e-business is like. However, putting all that aside for the moment...

My first thought is start with eBay and/or Amazon since they don't require one to do a website and I have some experience selling on eBay. Advertising will be an issue they the stuff they have are quite a bit pricier than the typical low cost stuff that Amazon/eBay carries but I think they can do a link from the school's website.

Thoughts?

harryting said:

Thoughts?

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Many..... I will email tomorrow

I consider myself lucky and would love to help you

I was on the road yesterday... its hard to reply on a phone

I would do ebay first, they are the cheapest on fee's if they have a good record and good feedback it helps, you dont need to be the 'cheapest' if you have a good product and you stand behind your products customers will by from you... also most of the time you dont want the customer that is looking for the cheapest product on the market.

If they have a ebay account have them use that and not start a new one... they need feedback, I have about 15k positives and no negative so when people buy from me they know if there is a issue I will work with them to resolve it

They can get a website up and running for not much money but its time consuming I use BC, unless they are going to invest money and time then Amazon and ebay are the way to go... the thing that cost a lot for running your own website is advertising on the search engines and can be more than the ebay and amazon fees

If possible see if they can team up with someone(s).... not sure how but that what makes my sites good (I think) its more like a co-op I have a lot of parts and services that I am selling and offering that are other small businesses like myself, so by bringing them on it has helped a lot and I have more than one product to offer but they are still automation related

Having the best product on the market is the key... sounds like they have that now they just need to get it in front of the people that want or need to by it, so one thing is how do they buy what they need? where do they get their supplies from?

Thanks for that valuable feedback.

I have a lot of skepticism on how committed they are to this since neither of them had a "day job" for a while and are used to position of authority, dealing with shipping schedule and unreasonable buyers will be interesting, to say the least.

Starting with eBay as you suggested is the best route, I agree. it will allow them to test the water and get a dose of reality before going further down the path.

harryting said:

unreasonable buyers

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I have never had one of those

Hope it works out for them, let me know how it works out.