Alright everyone, here it goes! First off I would like to say thank you to Vigilante and Biophase for their wealth of knowledge and experience that they have outlined in their blogs. It inspired me to say the least to make the move and start doing something to move myself closer to freedom from the corporate world. I would also like to personally thank everyone else that has contributed their info and knowledge to those threads as well. The one thing that stuck with me through everything is you just have to go for it rather than second guessing yourself and making excuses.

So here is where I am at as of this morning: I spent the last week looking at different products and then researching them like crazy to get an idea of what they are selling for here in the US, how much of a demand there is, what the competition looks like, and how I can do things better than the competition. Out of the 10 possible products I narrowed it down to two that actually look like they are worth running with.

I purchased the domain name last night, and received my first sample this morning. Here is what I did a little different though. I found one of the products through a manufacturer in China and got some quotes. I asked for a sample, and the price was going to be about $200.00 total after purchasing only two samples because they wont give me a great price for just the samples (I was on the phone with three different suppliers last night trying to negotiate prices down).
After doing some research I found that there are only about three other sites selling this same product; of the 3, two of the sites look like garbage and are hard to navigate. They also don't really highlight the value of the product and sell other products as well, so they don't really specialize in this product and niche, I will be. The other site is fairly well laid out, and they also sell on eBay. They also sell the same exact product from the distributor that I am looking at and sampling. Based off of the prices that they are going to give me in bulk, it looks like this US seller is marking the price up pretty seriously. Based off what is shows they have sold on eBay, they are moving about 50-60 of these products each month on eBay alone at a $94.00 mark up. I think one of my biggest opportunities is marketing better than them, but also cutting the price down by about $10.00 less than they are to compete with them.

Here are the financials that I came up with so far based off of rough calculations:



Judging by the research that I have found and what my potential competitors are selling, I should be able to move about 20 to 30 units per month on eBay alone.

When I purchase a bulk order of 200 or more, my price per unit drops down to $48.00 each, substantially increasing my profits. I plan to sell on eBay for 2 to 3 months while building my site and learning SEO to get my online store going. This should help eliminate some of the eBay/ Amazon costs per sale.

What I found was ordering my sample product from my competitor was cheaper and faster than ordering it from China since it isn't in bulk. I received it yesterday and I am very impressed with the quality. I am actually thinking about seeing if the manufacturer can put a branding on the product for me so I can start building a company name on the market.


So my next steps this week are to order my first shipment of product. I plan on researching a couple more things this evening, and if all looks well I will order the product Monday. While I am waiting for it to arrive (2-3 weeks), I will start building my site in the mean time.

So there you have it. I am sure I am missing a few things so I would love to hear some feedback from those that think I am missing some important details. I am highly motivated to make this succeed, and I am already looking into the logistics of my other possible niche product. I am planning to take my profits each month and continue to scale up the business and start purchasing other styles of the product I am selling so that I have about 10 different options for my customers. Thank you again everyone for your advice and info!

Thanks for sharing this! It's invaluable to noobs like me who are trying to absorb as much info as possible.

I hope to hear more about your progress!

Good luck!

I am a noob myself, just decided that I am just wasting time looking for reasons not to rather than doing and learning from there. And thank you!

I've done something similar on ebay with hobby supplies; the profit was tiny, but I learned a ton. I knew those lessons could be applied to something bigger, but the idea of importing didn't seem within my reach. Then, bang!: your post basically reminded me that I can start small when it comes to ecommerce or importing. And it reminded me of the huge number of wholesalers in my area that I can explore.

calculate your fees before hand. They are easily findable
Ebay: Standard selling fees
Amazone: Amazon.com Help: Fees and Pricing
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

Ikke said:

calculate your fees before hand. They are easily findable
Ebay: Standard selling fees
Amazone: Amazon.com Help: Fees and Pricing
Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

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Thanks for these. I already had them calculated, I just left them out on here as an idea for predictive profits I would be looking at by selling on my own site since eBay is only a small side part of the market that I am looking to sell in. Awesome tools though, thank you!

Why are you pricing yourself at a point so far below your competitors? You mentioned that a successful would-be competitor of yours is selling at $94.00 markup, and has a healthy unit volume each month. Why don't you try to compete on the quality (value) of your product / brand rather than price point?

It is easy to lower your prices, but very difficult to raise them after you have established yourself as a "value-play retailer / brand". Pricing yourself at the same price or even a bit higher than your competitors should not be left out of the realm of scenarios; especially since you are planning on having stronger targeted marketing than they are and possibly building a brand. Let them be the generic peddler while you sell "quality brand name" products.

You are looking at a gross margin of 54% currently...tack on your shipping fees, retailer fees and taxes and you will have a substantially lower operating and net margin percentage. Of course, when your order count goes up the numbers will look better.

Whatever you decide: good luck, keep us posted.

G_Alexander said:

Why are you pricing yourself at a point so far below your competitors? You mentioned that a successful would-be competitor of yours is selling at $94.00 markup, and has a healthy unit volume each month. Why don't you try to compete on the quality (value) of your product / brand rather than price point?

It is easy to lower your prices, but very difficult to raise them after you have established yourself as a "value-play retailer / brand". Pricing yourself at the same price or even a bit higher than your competitors should not be left out of the realm of scenarios; especially since you are planning on having stronger targeted marketing than they are and possibly building a brand. Let them be the generic peddler while you sell "quality brand name" products.

You are looking at a gross margin of 54% currently...tack on your shipping fees, retailer fees and taxes and you will have a substantially lower operating and net margin percentage. Of course, when your order count goes up the numbers will look better.

Whatever you decide: good luck, keep us posted.

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I actually thought about all of this today as I have been researching their company. They are moving about 90 of these items alone on eBay each month. I mentioned that they are marking up the price by $94 because I am basing it off the largest shipment at the lowest price per unit offered by the supplier I spoke with. With that being said, they are paying much less than I would be with my first smaller order. My original plan was to price just $5 less than them and advertise better. But after thinking about it today, I think I want to start having my company logo put on the product and build a quality brand. So your advice is spot on and solid. Thank you!

Alright guys, this is the part where I need some of your importing/shipping experience. I just spoke with the manufacture and all is set to go for my first big order. Where I am hung up on is how the shipping by sea part works because I have never dealt with this kind of shipping method before. My products are somewhat large so they will need to be sent via sea because of the size of the overall shipment in bulk. I live in Arizona, and my supplier asked me to locate the nearest sea port to have them shipped to. I haven't looked this up yet this morning, but I am assuming it is going to be California for me. Where I am really unclear is what is the best method and how do I get the product from the sea port to my house here in AZ? Do I search on u-ship for a driver to pick it up at the dock and bring it to my place?

I'm not an expert in this area, but I think you might need the services of a freight forwarder. It's possible to do the paperwork on your own, but it might be best to hire someone to help this first time.

I think the freight forwarder can take care of all the paperwork and find a common carrier who can pick up your shipment for you and take it to wherever you need it to be.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Good luck and congrats!!

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm excited to hear about your progress, best of luck!

G_Alexander took the words out of my mouth.

Don't compete on price as your differentiator. Give a 100% (or even 110%) money-back guarantee. Give free expedited shipping. Give free after-sales support. Anything but a lower price. Entire industries have been destroyed because of price wars.

If you jump in at $10 less you might gain some quick traction but your competitor might see what's going on and decide to charge $10 less than you to maintain position. This can leap-frog down to unprofitability.

Hell - you may even get away with making your product a dollar or two more than him. This should keep you off his radar entirely for a good long while. It MAY even entice him to charge a few dollars more. Now you are both in the business of making money, rather than in the business of accepting "Just $1 less" to compete.

Hong King Kong said:

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm excited to hear about your progress, best of luck!

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No problem! I am really motivated to make this succeed and actually enjoy finding ways around some of these challenges. If anything, I am at least learning as I go along.

mayana said:

I'm not an expert in this area, but I think you might need the services of a freight forwarder. It's possible to do the paperwork on your own, but it might be best to hire someone to help this first time.

I think the freight forwarder can take care of all the paperwork and find a common carrier who can pick up your shipment for you and take it to wherever you need it to be.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Good luck and congrats!!

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I will have to look into this, it sounds like it could be a great option as long as the prices are reasonable and don't cut into the profits too much. Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it!

JAJT said:

G_Alexander took the words out of my mouth.

Don't compete on price as your differentiator. Give a 100% (or even 110%) money-back guarantee. Give free expedited shipping. Give free after-sales support. Anything but a lower price. Entire industries have been destroyed because of price wars.

If you jump in at $10 less you might gain some quick traction but your competitor might see what's going on and decide to charge $10 less than you to maintain position. This can leap-frog down to unprofitability.

Hell - you may even get away with making your product a dollar or two more than him. This should keep you off his radar entirely for a good long while. It MAY even entice him to charge a few dollars more. Now you are both in the business of making money, rather than in the business of accepting "Just $1 less" to compete.

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I have been thinking about this very thing all weekend and I completely agree with you guys. The biggest thing that I noticed about my competitor is that they are just taking the product right from the supplier and selling it as is. They don't really seem to have a customer support in place and really seem to rely on the product itself to make the money because they are the only ones really selling it from what I can see. I want to brand this product with my name on it, and I actually found a couple other products that seem to sell really high that I can get for really cheap that would sell in the same store I set up. Basically I am going to be a one stop shop for this particular niche which they are not. I really appreciate your advice guys! It is helping me tremendously!

Update: after doing some research, I have determined that my best bet is going to be dealing with a shipping broker to handle all of the paperwork needed to get through customs and arrange shipping from California to Arizona once it hits the shore. Part of me thinks it would be easier just to scrap this product and find one that is smaller and can be sent through courier so I don't have to deal with the multiple shipping arrangements and customs stuff, but then again the profit to be made once I do get a process in place and find a good broker to do business with is still going to be good.

On the plus side, this hassle could be a good thing because that means the point of entry for this particular niche isn't that easy to get into as others. So far I have called about 8 brokers/ shipping forwarders today with no luck yet. This is the final hang up that I need to overcome to get my product over here. So for now, the search for a reliable broker continues.

bclark85 said:

Update: after doing some research, I have determined that my best bet is going to be dealing with a shipping broker to handle all of the paperwork needed to get through customs and arrange shipping from California to Arizona once it hits the shore. Part of me thinks it would be easier just to scrap this product and find one that is smaller and can be sent through courier so I don't have to deal with the multiple shipping arrangements and customs stuff, but then again the profit to be made once I do get a process in place and find a good broker to do business with is still going to be good.

On the plus side, this hassle could be a good thing because that means the point of entry for this particular niche isn't that easy to get into as others. So far I have called about 8 brokers/ shipping forwarders today with no luck yet. This is the final hang up that I need to overcome to get my product over here. So for now, the search for a reliable broker continues.

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Thanks for posting these updates. I am in the process of getting into the import/ecommerce game and I am definitely keeping up with your progress.You are a few steps ahead of me...im stuck refiling paperwork for my business after recently moving, but ive got a few options picked out for products ready to start shopping for a supplier as soon as I can get all the legal stuff sorted. Im very interested to hear how you handle the shipping issues. Keep it up!

bclark85 said:

Update: after doing some research, I have determined that my best bet is going to be dealing with a shipping broker to handle all of the paperwork needed to get through customs and arrange shipping from California to Arizona once it hits the shore. Part of me thinks it would be easier just to scrap this product and find one that is smaller and can be sent through courier so I don't have to deal with the multiple shipping arrangements and customs stuff, but then again the profit to be made once I do get a process in place and find a good broker to do business with is still going to be good.

On the plus side, this hassle could be a good thing because that means the point of entry for this particular niche isn't that easy to get into as others. So far I have called about 8 brokers/ shipping forwarders today with no luck yet. This is the final hang up that I need to overcome to get my product over here. So for now, the search for a reliable broker continues.

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My product is fairly small and they ship via DHL. So far both the sample and 1st large(r) shipment took 2 days to get here. It all fit in a box you can carry with your arms, a little heavy but not bad. $200 for shipping.

oddball said:

My product is fairly small and they ship via DHL. So far both the sample and 1st large(r) shipment took 2 days to get here. It all fit in a box you can carry with your arms, a little heavy but not bad. $200 for shipping.

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That is awesome, and sounds way easier than shipping my product. If you don't mind me asking, how much of a profit will you be making on each item? Mine is fairly large and a hassle to ship logistics wise, however I should yield a 1k profit by selling 30 of mine....and the profit margin is even greater when I order more next round.

bclark85 said:

That is awesome, and sounds way easier than shipping my product. If you don't mind me asking, how much of a profit will you be making on each item? Mine is fairly large and a hassle to ship logistics wise, however I should yield a 1k profit by selling 30 of mine....and the profit margin is even greater when I order more next round.

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With the current item $30.xx per item. Comes out to about 37% profit if I recall correctly. Looking to add more items though, some will have great margins, some smaller but overall we can build a very large store with a wide variety of products and many add-ons.

oddball said:

With the current item $30.xx per item. Comes out to about 37% profit if I recall correctly. Looking to add more items though, some will have great margins, some smaller but overall we can build a very large store with a wide variety of products and many add-ons.

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Nice work! I plan on doing something similar, but I plan on opening about 6 online stores that specialize in the same general niche. Each site will be based around a specific product within that niche, but offer other items that I sell related to that niche. So in other words, I will be selling about 6 different products within this niche, but they will all have their own dedicated store. Each store will offer all of the other items associated with my other products as well though. So in a way, they will all link together without being limited to just one store. I got the idea from Biophase's thread and think it is pure genius because you are able to build 5-6 sites around your niche and create less room for your competition on google if you network your site correctly.

bclark85 said:

I got the idea from Biophase's thread and think it is pure genius because you are able to build 5-6 sites around your niche and create less room for your competition on google if you network your site correctly.

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Ya. I'm thinking of trying this as well.

Well I have my product all lined up and ready to be shipped by sea, I am just trying to find a customs broker/forwarder to handle everything on the US side. I will be honest, I thought it would be fairly simple to find a decent customs broker that deals with smaller businesses, but it seems I was wrong. I have spoken to about 8 different broker/forwarding agencies and so far only two of them show potential. I am just waiting on then to get back to me with quotes on what their services and total fees will be to get the product from the manufactures door to mine (I am trying to get a smooth system and broker in place for future orders so that it is a smooth process moving forward). I will continue to prospect tomorrow, and hopefully someone decent comes out of it. I am confident that I will find someone that is reliable and deals with small business individuals like myself.

Congratulations on starting your business and making it for real. I'm also in the process of starting my own but it is more in the DIY side so I don't really know how the shipping goes from manufacturer/supplier to me. I planned on importing the goods from China too but I don't want to be bothered by the shipping costs, the delays and most importantly the taxes so I changed my mind about it and just decided that I'll do the product on my own but I still need some practice though . Hope you'll find a broker soon that can fix your shipping problems so you can start earning. I'll be visiting your thread again for the progress. Good luck!

fsna.hartley said:

Congratulations on starting your business and making it for real. I'm also in the process of starting my own but it is more in the DIY side so I don't really know how the shipping goes from manufacturer/supplier to me. I planned on importing the goods from China too but I don't want to be bothered by the shipping costs, the delays and most importantly the taxes so I changed my mind about it and just decided that I'll do the product on my own but I still need some practice though . Hope you'll find a broker soon that can fix your shipping problems so you can start earning. I'll be visiting your thread again for the progress. Good luck!

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If you have a product/service that you can manufacture yourself, that will save you a lot of the trouble. Most people that import and sell online seem to stick to the smaller items when they first start out from what I have seen. I could do that also and just avoid dealing with all these additional steps, but the way I see it 1. I have a product that has fairly low competition with a high demand that I can make roughly a 90% markup on, and 2. I most likely will have to deal with these steps eventually if I were to start bringing in large amounts of product so I might as well just learn it all now.

I spoke with two more broker/forwarding companies yesterday, and 1 of them seems pretty good. So as of right now, I am waiting to hear back from 3 companies that I have selected with quotes so I can narrow them down to who I want to go with moving forward. I am trying to find a company that deals with brokering and forwarding both so I don't have to use muliple companies or contacts. I am all about smooth processes and delegation....that is the management side of my logic. While I am waiting to hear back from them, I have started building my website out, and going to give it my best shot at learning SEO. Although there are a lot of hang ups and barriers to figure out, I am actually enjoying this process because I like to solve problems while learning at the same time.

Ok ecommerce gurus, I need your advice on this one please!

As I am building out my web page, I am worried about not having a lot of product on it at first. I have one product that is going to be my main product, but there are several other accessories that can be included in my store to go along with this product. The problem is I don't have the capital just yet to purchase all of these items in bulk, just 1 main item for now. So this leads me to my next thought: What if I import my main product, and then drop ship other items? I obviously would be taking a smaller percentage of the profits from these products at first by drop shipping them, but I will still be making a profit and get a feel for what sells quicker and in demand. Then I could start importing these items as well if the demand is there by gauging the sales from dropshipping rather than having to import and test the market for each additional product in my niche. Eventually as I build capital, I can reinvest it into purchasing these products that sell the most myself through importing and eventually cut out drop shipping. In theory this seems like it is a good idea or start. I would really like to hear some feedback on this before I reach out to some wholesalers. As always, I appreciate all feedback!

If you can sell it and make a profit, why not try it? What's the difference if your drop shipping or shipping it yourself. Isn't the goal to just sell something for profit? To me all that matters is sales.

I say try it.

Firstly,

SPEED+++++++++++ for some awesome action taking!!

bclark85 said:

I am worried about not having a lot of product on it at first.

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As for your low product count, depending on your attitude towards risk, you could use affiliate links to related products/accessories or drop shippers if you want all payments going through your site. Personally, I'd avoid the drop-shipping route as you have no control on the level of service your customers get from them (bad packaging, etc).

If you haven't done so already, get your head around incoterms 2010. It will save you a lot of trouble at the ports if you understand the lingo:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoterms

Good Luck!

Hey everyone, wanted to provide an update with my progress so far this week.

I finally lined up a shipping forwarder to handle the shipping of my product from the factory front door to mine. I am just waiting to hear back from my customs broker on the final cost of their service so I can go ahead and get my products headed over this way. The total shipping/ broker costs came out to more than I originally estimated, however I am still on track to make a profit of about $910 on just this small order of 30 products. Depending on how quickly I can move them, I plan to order about 100 for my next shipment which will drastically increase my profit margin by getting a discounted price on product and shipping for the larger order.

I also have my site about 1/4 done so far. I reached out to four different wholesalers last night to see if they offer drop shipping so I can start putting some of their products in my store. I figure this will be a great way to fill my store with product, and give me an idea of what sells and how fast. I can then order these fast moving products in bulk and cut out my drop shipper, and just drop ship the slower moving products so I don't have to worry about keeping them in stock and sitting on them. So hopefully I get some responses back today. I plan to reach out to more tonight.

I also found a drop shipping e commerce site that is already established that the owner is trying to sell. They claim is makes about $756 avg income per month, and after paying for the hosting and advertising each month, it nets about $510 per month. Site has been around since about 07 from what I can see. Owner wants to dump it because it is one of his lower producing sites, however I see a lot of opportunity to improve the site and drop shipping system he has in place. He is asking 5k for the site right now, I am trying to talk him way down since I know he has other sites and he doesn't seem to hold much interest in this one.

Hopefully within the next month I can start bringing everything together and start producing some sales on the site I am building now.

How did you find the e-commerce site for sale?