[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Motley crue]

I'm also curious about how someone might handle filling orders from international buyers as far as shipping, and customs laws, or would it be wise to sell exclusively to U.S. customers?
Another question about shipping, I only have a home address. Do you use your home address as your return address for things bought off your website?

 

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[BlahBlahBlah]

Hi @ecom_man ,

I am ordering a new product that I need in 10 different variation. For each variation I need a unique barcode assigned. I already have purchased the barcode, however my supplier said that if they need to print 10 different barcode on the product I would need to pay 10 different printing charges and therefore it is not advisable (each printing is 70$). I was thinking to just get the product manufactured and leave empty space for the barcode so that I can just stick it myself once i receive the products. Do you see any problem with that? have you done it before or are all your product containing barcodes printed by the manufactorer?

 

[Speedgor]

Hi guys can anyone please give some advice on the offer I have just been offered to become an exclusive dealer of a product in my country. I have been selling on eBay for about a year now with all the information I have absorbed form this AWESOME thread but nothing to quit my day job yet!

I ordered some samples of a new product last week and the seller has sent the below email about 3 times now trying to get me on board which could potentially earn me a nice chunk of change if I succeed in going Business 2 Business and snagging a major retailer to order stock off me for all their stores in the country!

From Chinese Manufacturer:
(1). Our way is to find ''exclusive agent'' in each country, so you are the ''ONLY 1'' to sell this product in such huge market, no competitor and no worry to compete over price !
(2). We are building the official website for this product which you can use for marketing, we will list your company contact information on the website, so the people from your country will contact you directly.
(3). we have promotional products which we can print your logo or contact information on it. You can give-away or either you can sell as a set so make people think it's very cost-effective.
(4). We will give you the price for different q'ty , Say each year you sell certain q'ty , We will return you with different percentage.
(5). We will give an idea for yearly total q'ty , How much we can return to you ! The more you sell , The more we will refund to you!

Has anyone had any experience with such a deal from China and what pitfalls should I watch out for? Should I act big and Bluff my way into this or be honest and let them know that I am only a small time player at the moment? Kinda scary jumping in considering Im only small time on eBay still but I feel like I have to risk it to get the biscuit! Or maybe I should just grow steadily like I am at the moment?? :/

 

[Yussef]

I have used terapeak before but the problem is there is no work involved for anyone to access that information. Most of the "hot" items are way too competitive to make any reliable profit. I have found searching for an item that is currently not selling in the US or maybe with only one other seller of the item works far better than terapeak.

An item I found today that I thought about using but don't have the time is on Alibaba. It is a mosquito repellant patch. There is not one US seller of the item on eBay. It is all natural patch and supposedly lasts up to 72 hrs. Some even come in packaging for resale. They are pennies a patch and you could easily resell them on eBay, your own website, or start a business selling it to all the local gas stations in your area.

See how easy and fun it is to find items?

I like your creative thinking.

 

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[Ecom man]

Hi @ecom_man ,

I am ordering a new product that I need in 10 different variation. For each variation I need a unique barcode assigned. I already have purchased the barcode, however my supplier said that if they need to print 10 different barcode on the product I would need to pay 10 different printing charges and therefore it is not advisable (each printing is 70$). I was thinking to just get the product manufactured and leave empty space for the barcode so that I can just stick it myself once i receive the products. Do you see any problem with that? have you done it before or are all your product containing barcodes printed by the manufactorer?

Sorry for the way late response. I have been absolutely swamped. If there are additional costs for the barcode printing etc I would just print them off on sticky labels and stick them over the existing barcodes or blank area.

 

[Ecom man]

I'm curious about when you first launched your own site, did you file any paperwork or did you just sign up on shopify and start selling your products? I'm thinking about launching an ecommerce site of my own fairly soon, but one of the things stopping me is that I don't know what I have to do legally.

You can set up a legal entity (LLC, S corp, etc) if you want to but it isn't required to set up a site. IMO people spend way too much time worrying about things that you don't need. Get in and get your site up and running. If it is a success you can set up the Legal entity and swap all the info over to that.

 

[Ecom man]

Recently joined the forum after reading TMF and digging into some of the Gold threads. This thread and Biophase's thread on Ecom and Amazon have given me a greater understanding of selling online than pretty much anything else I've found so far online. This is coming after spending almost $500 on a course on how to sell on Shopify. So thanks to you Ecom man and Biophase for all of the awesome advice you given and MJ DeMarco for creating a forum for people that are serious about getting out the 9-5 rat race and creating their own business. Thank you!

So Ecom man, I've spent the past 4-5 days reading every post in this thread up to page 65. Was going to wait until I had caught up to the current posts before asking any questions but I'm ready to take more action and use my free time in between to catch up on this thread and dive into others. So I apologize if any of these questions have been asked in the past 14 or so pages.

Basically I'm coming into this at the opposite end compared to you Ecom man. I've been learning how to sell on Shopify (my own store/website) first and simply use eBay more for supplemental income. From what I've learned and been told the profit margins are much greater, you have way more control and you don't have to worry about eBay one day shutting you down or negative feedback. Reading some of your later posts I see this has been the case for you as well. (Much respect and congrats for your success on both platforms by the way).

At this point I've found a product I want to sell with many variations. I've already ordered many samples from different sellers on Aliexpress and found 2 sellers I want to purchase from. I have my Shopify store setup and ready to go. One major thing has been holding me back and it's this:

Basically I have two options for my store (my store is in a very specific niche)

1. list all of the products I found to sell (about 10 in the same niche with many variants) and dropship from Aliexpress. My main issue with this is that with dropship I'm at the mercy of the Chinese sellers (no quality check, questionable ship times, customer receiving the wrong item etc.) and the shipping time is about 2-3 weeks with ePacket. Personally I feel like telling someone they had to wait 2-3 weeks to receive their order would be a deal breaker for most people as it would be for myself considering I order almost everything from Amazon Prime and expect fast delivery.
2. order the items myself in bulk and ship to the customer myself. The issue with this is that I don't have a lot of startup capital so I would essentially be limited to 1-2 products on my website until I earned enough to invest in more products. Personally I think a website/store with 1-2 products would look kind of scammy and would turn people off. Plus with a lot of variations for each product it would cost more to stock until I could figure out which ones sold the most and stock accordingly.

So my first and major question for you would be: now that you have had experience/success with both Shopify and eBay which would you recommend for those just starting out and/or those testing a product?

How would you approach the issues that I've stated above?

Would you

• start out by testing the products on eBay and taking the "winners" and building your site around those?
• start by building a store and test with dropshipping until you discover your winners?
• or start with 1 or 2 products on your store that you ship yourself and build out from there?

You had stated before that you don't really focus on a niche rather on products that will sell. Has this approach changed since you have started your store?

Thanks in advance!

For someone starting out, I would recommend finding out your best sellers on eBay or order low enough amounts of each to put them all on your site. The issue with eBay is some items will sell on your site that won't sell on eBay. If I was in your shoes I would order 5-10 of each variant. That would put your total inventory investment at 50-100 products. Depending on what the cost is for the items that should be doable inventory costs for just about everyone.

I would never dropship from China no matter the allure. Too many things can go wrong and Americans expect items quickly. You will not get many repeat buyers if it takes them a month to get their purchase. You will also have issues with chargebacks and spending a lot of time telling customers that their item won't be there for a few more weeks.
In regards to niche vs broad I am still of the opinion that broad allows you to make more money. Some people will disagree but I get a lot of cross over sales from one category to the next.

 

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[Ecom man]

I recently launched my website and started advertising on Adwords, I am currently just testing it out running 3 campaigns of 5€/each per day. First week is gone and I spent around 80€ so far, at the moment I got no sales via the website though (80 clicks in total) and I am pretty sure that my Adwords campaigns need to be optimized as for far I only really played around with it to gain familiarity while I keep studying it. I think in the long run it is pretty obvious that I need to improve my website SEO also in order to be able to save on advertisement money if possible - I wanted to ask whether you pay a lot of attention/time to SEO or just go for PPC advertising? Is there any advice you could give in this regards? Thank you.

I've used PPC since the start of my site. I spent about 125k on Adwords alone last year. I average 12-15% of total sales in advertising costs.

6-8 months ago I hired an SEO firm to do some work for my site. I spend a decent amount of money monthly for them to do all of the work for my SEO. I have 4-5 products currently on the front page of Google and 50 or so in the top five pages. Because of the work that has been done when I add a brand new product it will start ranking on page 3-4 within the first couple of weeks.
SEO is really for more long term sales/exposure. PPC is about getting immediate sales rolling.

 

[P3HSB]

Hey @Ecom man, I remember you said you were finding products with $20 margins. Can margins like that be founds on sites like aliexpress and DHgate? Because I know those sites are wholesale so you can't really make much just from those sites. I've been searching through aliexpress but I am only finding products that are giving me $2-4 bucks profit per unit.

 

[Ecom man]

Hey @Ecom man, I remember you said you were finding products with $20 margins. Can margins like that be founds on sites like aliexpress and DHgate? Because I know those sites are wholesale so you can't really make much just from those sites. I've been searching through aliexpress but I am only finding products that are giving me $2-4 bucks profit per unit.

Yes they can be found. I found an entire niche that has margins in the $20-30 range per item. I have ordered the products and am going to set up a new website to sell in that niche. I will give you a hint, it is not electronics.

 

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[P3HSB]

I ordered 5 units of a product on aliexpress and its been over a month already and I only received 1 unit. I ordered it via china post. The tracking number I received does not work. I still have 30 days left on the buyer protection. I am not sure what to do. Is it possible that the supplier shipped it 1 by 1 instead of all of them together? The item is kind of big (the size of a backpack). Has this ever happened to you?

I tried contacting the supplier with the "chat now!" button, the aliexpress web based trade manager, but I never get a response. Do you use that or is the email way more preferred?

edit: also when finding a suppler on aliexpress, is there a certain criteria you look for that let you know they are good? For example feedback amount? order amount? How long the store has been opened? etc.

 

[MrOrigon]

Hey @Ecom man, just wanted to say thank you for all the awesome answers you've given everyone, and the huge value you've added to the community.

I apologize if you've already answered this, I read the first 10-20 pages and don't think I read a relevant answer - and I'm not prepared to read through 80 pages of forum to comb through for it!

That being said, anyone else with relevant experience - feel free to answer me instead, especially if this has already come up.

My question is this: I have a product that I've begun getting into contact with suppliers on Alibaba in regards to. In trying to get samples, I'm getting (seemingly) ridiculous quotes of $30-$50 USD for ONE SAMPLE (the products cost $1-2 each to make). Is this simply the price of beginning to do business, or are these outrageous?

I'm really excited to get started in eCommerce, but I find this road block a bit discouraging. I'm not afraid to spend money to get my idea off the ground, but I'm worried (due to inexperience) that these high prices might be indicative of fraud, or leave me ending up stung.

I'd really appreciate your (or indeed anyone's) reply, as I want to get started on making this product a reality!

Thanks!

 

[Ecom man]

Hey @Ecom man, just wanted to say thank you for all the awesome answers you've given everyone, and the huge value you've added to the community.

I apologize if you've already answered this, I read the first 10-20 pages and don't think I read a relevant answer - and I'm not prepared to read through 80 pages of forum to comb through for it!

That being said, anyone else with relevant experience - feel free to answer me instead, especially if this has already come up.

My question is this: I have a product that I've begun getting into contact with suppliers on Alibaba in regards to. In trying to get samples, I'm getting (seemingly) ridiculous quotes of $30-$50 USD for ONE SAMPLE (the products cost $1-2 each to make). Is this simply the price of beginning to do business, or are these outrageous?

I'm really excited to get started in eCommerce, but I find this road block a bit discouraging. I'm not afraid to spend money to get my idea off the ground, but I'm worried (due to inexperience) that these high prices might be indicative of fraud, or leave me ending up stung.

I'd really appreciate your (or indeed anyone's) reply, as I want to get started on making this product a reality!

Thanks!

They are way overcharging you. For a new item I will normally tell them I am looking to buy x per month but I need to start with 10 to verify that the quality is there etc. That will allow you to test out sales and see how well they sell. I never order just 1 of an item as there is no way to know how well they will sell. You might sell the first one within hours but the second one doesn't sell until a month later. You won't know that if you only buy one.

If a seller won't send me 10-20 items as a sample at a decent price then I won't do business with them. There are plenty of other people to buy from. You can also check out dhgate or aliexpress. You can buy products on those sites without even talking to manufactures/wholesalers and know what the prices are upfront.

 

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[Ecom man]

I ordered 5 units of a product on aliexpress and its been over a month already and I only received 1 unit. I ordered it via china post. The tracking number I received does not work. I still have 30 days left on the buyer protection. I am not sure what to do. Is it possible that the supplier shipped it 1 by 1 instead of all of them together? The item is kind of big (the size of a backpack). Has this ever happened to you?

I tried contacting the supplier with the "chat now!" button, the aliexpress web based trade manager, but I never get a response. Do you use that or is the email way more preferred?

edit: also when finding a suppler on aliexpress, is there a certain criteria you look for that let you know they are good? For example feedback amount? order amount? How long the store has been opened? etc.

Contact aliexpress support/ returns and tell them the item hasn't arrived and the tracking is no good. They should deal with getting you your money back. Worse case scenario you contact your credit card company and tell them you ordered something online and never got it. You will get your money back one way or the other.

I prefer to use a seller with a decent amount of positive feedback but I have bought from people with no feedback before. You are well protected since you can pay with your credit card.

 

[MrOrigon]

They are way overcharging you. For a new item I will normally tell them I am looking to buy x per month but I need to start with 10 to verify that the quality is there etc. That will allow you to test out sales and see how well they sell. I never order just 1 of an item as there is no way to know how well they will sell. You might sell the first one within hours but the second one doesn't sell until a month later. You won't know that if you only buy one.

If a seller won't send me 10-20 items as a sample at a decent price then I won't do business with them. There are plenty of other people to buy from. You can also check out dhgate or aliexpress. You can buy products on those sites without even talking to manufactures/wholesalers and know what the prices are upfront.

Thank you so much for your reply, Ecom man. Interestingly enough, as soon as I contacted suppliers and TOLD them what I was willing to pay, I heard quite a different tune. Now I'm getting quotes for TEN samples for the price of $50-$100 USD, INCLUDING shipping, whereas before I was thinking of paying $50 for one!

Also, it totally makes WAY more sense to order 10 at a time. That way you can actually sell them to get a feel for the market demand, which is also great advice.

To bother you a bit further, do you have any quick tips on avoiding fraud when shopping on Alibaba? Do you have experience with Alibaba? I've combed through the thread a bit but couldn't find anything specifically pertaining to samples and Alibaba. I'm ready to pay for my samples, negotiations are done and my address has been shared but I don't want to send out any money until I know for sure its safe. EVERYONE seems to be giving me their paypal accounts, is this standard practice?

Thanks again for your thread Ecom man, you're the best - you're helping a fellow (aspiring) fastlaner get his business started, and I only hope one day I can pay it forward!

 

[Ecom man]

Thank you so much for your reply, Ecom man. Interestingly enough, as soon as I contacted suppliers and TOLD them what I was willing to pay, I heard quite a different tune. Now I'm getting quotes for TEN samples for the price of $50-$100 USD, INCLUDING shipping, whereas before I was thinking of paying $50 for one!

Also, it totally makes WAY more sense to order 10 at a time. That way you can actually sell them to get a feel for the market demand, which is also great advice.

To bother you a bit further, do you have any quick tips on avoiding fraud when shopping on Alibaba? Do you have experience with Alibaba? I've combed through the thread a bit but couldn't find anything specifically pertaining to samples and Alibaba. I'm ready to pay for my samples, negotiations are done and my address has been shared but I don't want to send out any money until I know for sure its safe. EVERYONE seems to be giving me their paypal accounts, is this standard practice?

Thanks again for your thread Ecom man, you're the best - you're helping a fellow (aspiring) fastlaner get his business started, and I only hope one day I can pay it forward!

If you pay with PayPal you have some protection (just don't send it as friends and family gift). The best way to be protected via PayPal is to have them send you a paypal invoice and then use your credit card to pay them. You then have paypals protection and your credit card's as well.

Alibaba can be a crap shoot as far as sellers go. Any money you wire or send western union to a new supplier is money you will possibly lose.

I found my suppliers through dhgate and aliexpress. After I made the sample orders and found good selling products I contacted the sellers and told them I wanted to increase my order size to x and what could they do on price per item with those numbers. I have one supplier that I have been working with for going on 6-7 years. If I find a new product that sells well and has good margins I will always email him and see what he can do. He gets me better prices 9 times out of 10.

 

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[P3HSB]

After I made the sample orders and found good selling products I contacted the sellers and told them I wanted to increase my order size to x and what could they do on price per item with those numbers.

At this point, is the transaction for the increase order size to x within the aliexpress platform? Do you still get protection on the larger order size?

 

[Ecom man]

At this point, is the transaction for the increase order size to x within the aliexpress platform? Do you still get protection on the larger order size?

Yes I still do it on the platform and yes I still charge it on my credit card. After doing business with a supplier for a few orders I have no problems going to western union or wire transfer for that supplier.

 

[MrOrigon]

If you pay with PayPal you have some protection (just don't send it as friends and family gift). The best way to be protected via PayPal is to have them send you a paypal invoice and then use your credit card to pay them. You then have paypals protection and your credit card's as well.

Alibaba can be a crap shoot as far as sellers go. Any money you wire or send western union to a new supplier is money you will possibly lose.

I found my suppliers through dhgate and aliexpress. After I made the sample orders and found good selling products I contacted the sellers and told them I wanted to increase my order size to x and what could they do on price per item with those numbers. I have one supplier that I have been working with for going on 6-7 years. If I find a new product that sells well and has good margins I will always email him and see what he can do. He gets me better prices 9 times out of 10.

Thanks ecom man, your advice is definitely noted! I just paid for my first sample order now, so with any luck, I'll have my samples within 5-7 days. I did a bit of homework in regards to finding a reputable Alibaba seller and how to make a secure payment (to recover it in case of fraud).

I'll be back with updates to let you know how I went!

 

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[Bourbons]

Hey Ecom Man,

I've really enjoyed reading a good number of pages of this thread, and eCommerce is something I've always had an interest in. I'm looking for something to provide an income whilst working on a slightly slow-burning project with a lot of potential.

Can you tell me if this summary is accurate for someone just starting out?


Finding a product to sell:

Look around businesses and homes for potential niche products and compile lists.

Search through eBay, find above niche products with just a few competitors based in the USA (or UK in my case)


Finding suppliers of that product:

Best to use Aliexpress and dhgate as opposed to alibaba (just based on your recent comment 'Alibaba can be a crapshoot as far as sellers go')

Enquire with suppliers and get sample items shipped - at least 10.


Selling your new product:

Sell on eBay

Price the same as domestic competition (or undercut by $/£0.01)

Use good imagery

Advertise quick priority shipping

Fulfill quick priority shipping


One more thing, and I appreciate it might be difficult (and/or already answered in another page), but could you give an example (does not need to be a real product!) of how 'niche' of a niche I should look out for?

For example thoughts on...

Square Dog Water Bowl (dog water bowl is needed.. no square ones for sale on UK eBay except from China)

Large Potato Masher (kitchen utensil, perhaps needed in some professional kitchens, few sellers)

Main problem with above examples is there's not much (proven) market for them just looking at eBay. Perhaps similar niches in a higher item value would be worth doing?

Thanks!

 

[Ecom man]

Hey Ecom Man,

I've really enjoyed reading a good number of pages of this thread, and eCommerce is something I've always had an interest in. I'm looking for something to provide an income whilst working on a slightly slow-burning project with a lot of potential.

Can you tell me if this summary is accurate for someone just starting out?


Finding a product to sell:

Look around businesses and homes for potential niche products and compile lists.

Search through eBay, find above niche products with just a few competitors based in the USA (or UK in my case)


Finding suppliers of that product:

Best to use Aliexpress and dhgate as opposed to alibaba (just based on your recent comment 'Alibaba can be a crapshoot as far as sellers go')

Enquire with suppliers and get sample items shipped - at least 10.


Selling your new product:

Sell on eBay

Price the same as domestic competition (or undercut by $/£0.01)

Use good imagery

Advertise quick priority shipping

Fulfill quick priority shipping


One more thing, and I appreciate it might be difficult (and/or already answered in another page), but could you give an example (does not need to be a real product!) of how 'niche' of a niche I should look out for?

For example thoughts on...

Square Dog Water Bowl (dog water bowl is needed.. no square ones for sale on UK eBay except from China)

Large Potato Masher (kitchen utensil, perhaps needed in some professional kitchens, few sellers)

Main problem with above examples is there's not much (proven) market for them just looking at eBay. Perhaps similar niches in a higher item value would be worth doing?

Thanks!

Big niche or small one as long as I can make a profit it doesn't matter to me. Long term the bigger your niche the more money but also more competition. I prefer to find items selling a couple a day, then go and find another item, then another. I don't care how big or small the niche is I am looking for good items with good margins.

I would prefer selling 100 different products at 1 sale a day then to sell 100 of one item. The problem is that if there is a ton of demand for your product then other people start selling it as well. You get in a price war and nobody makes much money. If there is only one sale a day you aren't going to have much competition. The only exception to this is if you sell on your own site. I sell a decent amount of popular items on my website. I currently charge 30-40% higher prices on my website than what someone can buy it for on eBay yet I still have plenty of people buying from me. Ease of use, accessibility, customer service, etc all play a much bigger role when selling on your own site vs eBay.

 

[Tahir]

@Ecom man. What do you use for giving your pictures a white background like I see alot of experienced sellers doing? Do you use photoshop or a similar free software? I'm taking pictures with my ipad and i just want them to look as professional as possible. Thanks.

Try https://fotofuze.com/
It helps in making a bright white background which makes the image look great

 

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[Dicky Dee]

Contact aliexpress support/ returns and tell them the item hasn't arrived and the tracking is no good. They should deal with getting you your money back. Worse case scenario you contact your credit card company and tell them you ordered something online and never got it. You will get your money back one way or the other.

I prefer to use a seller with a decent amount of positive feedback but I have bought from people with no feedback before. You are well protected since you can pay with your credit card.

@Ecom man you ever use trade assurance on alibaba? Thats whay i use for bigger orders

 

[Fernando Cordero]

How didnt i find this thread? Well ecom man any tips for a starting man on this business? I currently live on panama (the paper news) but i will be going to college on august in colorado, so im super excited and i think i can make ecommerce a part time job, but still i tried making it happen from here in panama but didnt work because i asked in the seller forums and they told me its not worth it since i cant see the item and will probably have many problems like for example amazon wont process my bank because its from panama lol.


GL with your already running business

 

[Shari]

Hi there, what does your process of researching new products consist of?

You took the words right out of my mouth. I've heard of watchcount.com and aliexpress.com. Are those the best places or are there other websites to help with research? Thanks!

 

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[downpaymentblues]

After negotation through e-mail, do you always confirm a contract online on AliBaba or do you just send the to the account they stated in the e-mails?

By now I only sent the money directly via PayPal, without going back on AliBaba, adjusting the unit order of my first inquiry etc.
Am I asking to get scammed when doing it "unofficially"? Does AliBaba's trade assurance even help in the case of fraud or is PayPal enough coverage?

 

[Ecom man]

How didnt i find this thread? Well ecom man any tips for a starting man on this business? I currently live on panama (the paper news) but i will be going to college on august in colorado, so im super excited and i think i can make ecommerce a part time job, but still i tried making it happen from here in panama but didnt work because i asked in the seller forums and they told me its not worth it since i cant see the item and will probably have many problems like for example amazon wont process my bank because its from panama lol.


GL with your already running business

I would start finding products and making a few test orders now. You can find products, find the best suppliers, etc. without ever ordering any products. In August you can order a few different products and see if they will sell. I don't know anything about banking in Panama so you will have to see what the best way is to structure that end of the business.

 

[Ecom man]

You took the words right out of my mouth. I've heard of watchcount.com and aliexpress.com. Are those the best places or are there other websites to help with research? Thanks!

Terapeak is extremely useful in helping find products and sales approximations. Just because something has sold in the past doesn't mean it will continue to sell well but it's a place to start. Another great way is to just go on aliexpress, dhgate etc. and just start browsing. If you find something that you think is cool other people will probably think so as well. See if there are sales or other sellers. If there are margins or no one else that sells it order a few and test it out. You will find some duds and some decent sellers. All it takes is a few decent selling products and you have a business.

 

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[Ecom man]

After negotation through e-mail, do you always confirm a contract online on AliBaba or do you just send the to the account they stated in the e-mails?

By now I only sent the money directly via PayPal, without going back on AliBaba, adjusting the unit order of my first inquiry etc.
Am I asking to get scammed when doing it "unofficially"? Does AliBaba's trade assurance even help in the case of fraud or is PayPal enough coverage?

I pay with a credit card through PayPal or just with my credit card in the case of dhgate. If PayPal doesn't back you up you can call your cc and file a chargeback.

The only times I've ever had issues with not getting the products is when I sent the money western union or wire. If the seller is going to let you place the order with PayPal or a credit card they will probably send the items. (Not saying it can't happen just that it never has to me when paying with those methods)

 

[Ecom man]

What a journey business is! I started this thread over 2 years ago and my how things have changed. I went from approximately 250k in sales in 2014 (sorry don't have the exact 2014 numbers in front of me) to a hair under a million in 2015 to being on target for 2-3 million this year!

We've moved from selling out of a spare room, to a garage, to now a small warehouse space. It will be interesting to see what the next couple of years hold. I was talking with a friend this week about the future of the company. We should be doing 10 million in sales per year by 2018. We have expanded to over 150 different products currently and growing all the time. Every new product gets us a little closer to that goal.

What are your goals? What are you doing today to get you there?