Category: Shopify dropshipping

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Elksourcing：Valuable Tips about Improving Amazon Ranking

Apr 19, 2021 by 露露

If you are an online retailer, you know the importance of product ranking. Amazon is a top online marketplace. The better that you rank, the more traffic and conversions you will get. How to improve your Amazon ranking? Pls read valuable tips as below.

1) Optimize keywords

On Amazon, keywords tell the search engine what your product is and what it is about.

If you want to rank higher on Amazon, you have to use the right keyword to gain relevancy to the search keywords. To use the right keywords, you need to understand what search term customers will use to search for certain products. It’s not an easy task to do it well. You need to do some research; you can use keywords tools to create keyword lists. There are various keyword tools, including the keyword tool, Jungle Scout, etc. Enter a certain keyword, and you will get a list of related keywords. Once you have your keywords, you have to optimize the backend keywords on Amazon. Place as many keywords as possible in the backend keyword field before adding keywords to your content. Make sure all your keywords get indexed but don’t exceed 249 bytes (including space). To maximize the power of keywords, you have to optimize their placement but keep customer experience and readability in mind when using keywords in the product content.

2) Improve product listing

You can improve the product listing for relevancy; optimize product title, product images, and description. 

a.    The Amazon algorithm uses keywords and indexes the product’s title, so it’s good practice to insert relevant keywords in the product title. Amazon limits the bullet points on each listing to 1000 bytes. Use relevant keywords but make them

b.    Use keywords in your product description but tell an engaging story, be compelling and use a call-to-action voice.

c.     Optimize product images. To help the customer, Amazon has a zoom function on product images. To ensure your images can use this function, use high-quality images with 1000 pixels or more. Great images attract customers and help you gain traffic and conversions.

3) Set a competitive price

How much you charge for impacts on your Amazon conversion rate and the possibility of winning the Amazon Buy Box. Amazon is a customer-focused platform and always seeks the supplier who offers the best quality at the best price. Price is the major factor in determining which item will show in the Amazon Buy Box. Typically, a product with a good rating and reasonable price will help you gain a higher ranking on Amazon.

Set a competitive price, and you are likely to gain a higher conversion rate, which leads to a higher Amazon product ranking. Make sure to monitor competitors both on and off the platform and set your price accordingly and competitively.

4) Increase sales

Products with the highest sales always stay on the top of the search result page. It’s easily concluded that the more you sell, the higher you will rank, and the more likely you are to win the Amazon Buy Box. There are several things you can do to increase sales.

a.    You can lower your product prices. If your product price is slightly lower than your competitors for a product of the same quality and function, you will gain a higher conversion rate. Keep a close eye on your ROI, and make sure you’re still profitable.

b.    Select unique products. If you are the only seller in the marketplace with a certain product, you will have little competition. This will make it easy for you to win the Amazon Buy Box. Figure out the ways to stand out on the marketplace.

5) Offer Prime

Amazon has over 63 million Prime members. The number is likely to exceed non-Prime Amazon users. There is a growing tendency on Amazon to use the subscription service and enjoy the privilege of being a Prime member.

To take advantage of this, sellers have to become Prime sellers.  If shoppers filter out the non-Prime items, your products will not show up.

Make sure you understand the specific rules on Amazon, follow them, and you will be rewarded with more visibility on Amazon.

6) Get more customer reviews

Customer reviews impact your business sales and rankings and are an important factor for the Amazon algorithm. Shoppers trust what previous customers say about the product and the seller. 

You must gain positive customer feedback and reviews about the product to help you gain a higher ranking, more traffic, and sales.

There are no shortcuts for getting more reviews, and there are strict rules imposed by Amazon to guard against falsifying. Use approved methods of getting feedback like sending follow up emails to purchasers.

7) Initiate advertising campaigns

Advertising will help you gain instant exposure and traffic. You can leverage the marketing options on Amazon and advertise to increase traffic and ranking. You can also advertise on other channels like Google AdWords and Facebook ads.

Multi-channel advertising will mean higher exposure and a higher ranking on the search result page.

8) Use Amazon FBA

Amazon gives privileges to FBA sellers and products with FBA shipments. If you are not an Amazon FBA seller, consider joining the program to increase your sales and product ranking.

Products sold by Amazon FBA sellers will rank higher than products listed by non-FBA sellers.  FBA sellers enjoy the Amazon Prime service and have the chance to win the Amazon Buy Box.

9) Offer fast speed for order processing and shipping

Response time is important for both sellers and customers. To ensure your customers are happy, offer high-speed order processing and shipping and delight them by getting their purchase to them quickly.

Make sure your order processing and fulfillment guidelines are streamlined. Give special training to your employees so that they understand how to fulfill orders quickly and accurately.

10) Improve customer satisfaction

Your customer satisfaction rate is made up of several factors and plays a part in your Amazon product ranking.

11) Keep a good inventory

If your products are running out of stock, they will get a lower ranking. The impact depends on how long you are out of stock and the measures you take to cope with the situation.  The longer you are out of stock, the further your ranking will drop.

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Elksourcing：General Procedure of Creating Product Packaging

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

A good product packaging will easily attract customer attention, deliver your brand identity, business image, and product value. It will increase your sales and expand the business. However, bad product packaging will undermine your business marketing efforts and discourage customer’s buying decision. That’s why most business startups would likely to spend time designing their product packaging. 

How to create an excellent packaging to grow your business? The following is a general procedure.

1. Think of your brand

The packaging is a great way to let your brand speak. You can create a positive association with your brand by developing customized boxes and packages. It would offer a special experience for the customers to unbox and find their purchased item. You have to think of your brand, business value, your target customers, etc.

All your brand identity elements can be used on your packaging design including your logo, font, size, color, and images. Choose the right colors that easily attract customer’s attention at first glimpse. Normally different colors enjoy different meaning. For instance, white means simplicity and cleanliness, green represents eco-friendliness, wellness, and sustainability. 

2. Understand your customers

When you plan to design your product packaging, you have to understand your target customers, know what they expect from your business. After all, they are the ones who are ready to invest in your business.

Definitely, your product packaging will affect your customers’ experience when receiving your product. If you want to include more elements of your branding, try to make them in line with the customers’ expectations.

3. Know your product size

As a matter of fact, the product size matters the packaging size. It would be totally a failure if the size of your design does not fit your product, be it larger or smaller than the product itself. Try to make it economic with the dimensions, and savvy with your products.

4. Consider packaging material

When it comes to packaging, you have to know what to use to package the products. For any shoppers, they don’t want their beloved items to be housed in a box made of wrong materials. 

The packaging material is used to protect the product from damage during transportation.

5. Don’t ignore the budget

When it comes to the packaging cost, the key items should include cost of materials and production. You can search the Internet or refer to your competitor to get the best packaging material. 

6. Design product packaging

Then it comes to the packaging design part. You have to determine the packaging layers and the type of packaging based on the product attributes. If you are not good at the graphic design, a professional designer will be the best choice for you.

But you must have your own idea before you ask a professional designer to design your packaging. Share it with the designer about your brand identity, and the competitors’ packaging designs. Then, the designer will give you’re their idea about the packaging color, look, and feeling.

7. Have your designs printed

Finally, you have to have your designs printed. As we know there are different parts of the packaging material. And you have to have them printed out separately according to your packaging requirements.  For instance, you have labels, barcodes, and other informative descriptions. You may need to print these key ingredients with different printers.

8. Optimize your product packaging

To optimize your product packaging, you need to get some feedback from your customers or the time trend. For instance, green packaging material has been popular among customers. With the trend, you can use a recycled cardboard, or biodegradable materials given the rising global climate consciousness.

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Elksourcing：Useful Tips for Sourcing from China

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

Sourcing products from China provides you with a new marketing edge. After going through the product analysis, finding the right suppliers may require sufficient time and effort. Particularly, when it comes to finding suppliers in China, keep the huge cultural, business and language gap between you and the Chinese suppliers in mind.

Building a constant person-to-person relationship can be termed as the key to victory as far as business relationships are concerned in Chinese culture. Outlined below are some tips to nail the method of sourcing various products from China.

1) Find the Right Supplier

Finding the right supplier is the key to start hunting for the right products. When you begin looking for a supplier, the web is preferably the best platform to look for. There are some great Chinese marketplaces in the world that can come in handy to you. Moreover, when it comes to suppliers, there is a huge number of them in Chinese marketplaces. But, finding quality suppliers is a big deal in China. Furthermore, additional options like global sources can also be used to find reliable suppliers as each individual need to pre-quality to join the platform.

The best thing to do – visit the nearest industry-related trade shows and get in touch with Chinese suppliers in person. This is one of the best ways to get the chance to build a strong relationship with them.

Figure out whether you are dealing with manufacturing or a trading company. This can help you negotiate the best deal for you. Consider asking them directly about their credentials or take a look at their catalog. The manufacturer and the supplier can be the same person if the goods belong to the same niche. For instance, a supplier supplying rubber products sells everything related to rubber. Alternatively, if multiple products of different niches are being sold by one supplier then the chance of that supplier being a trading company is obvious.

2) Bargain and Banter

Culturally, procurement professionals from progressed countries are inexperienced with bargaining through business consultations and sourcing products from China. Certainly, you might open up and click with specific conditions in a lawful agreement. Nevertheless, haggling over costs is not something that is universally followed in those nations.

In Western countries, a seller ordinarily sets up a charge and a customer come forward to buy it at that amount if they are satisfied with it. Contrarily, the consumer simply moves on to a different seller to get the best price.

Therefore, do not simply pick and buy. If you think of solely cherry-picking among various merchants to get the best price that you are happy with, then you are not getting the advantages of bartering a lower cost in exchange for big, long-term orders.

Likewise, this is likely to be displayed in your additional expensive costs while coming back home when you compare it with your competitors; therefore, defeating your attempts to source affordable products from China to enjoy a greater profit margin.

3) Negotiate with Your Supplier

While negotiating or bargaining with the merchant, keep in mind that there are various things to negotiate other than only the cost of the merchandise like payment terms, quality, delivery time, etc.

If you happen to be a powerful negotiator and are likely to push the value below the rate level of the supplier, you can expect to get less quality, cheaper packaging, delay in delivery or some additional problem. Therefore, establishing a long-term relationship is only possible by negotiating the most favorable rate for either of the parties.

Negotiation implies an open-ended method with Chinese merchants and it even comes under the part of their tradition. At the start, you may give a higher rate although, for the next order, you are likely to get discounts by lightly increasing order volume.

Getting a fair amount concerning your initial order can signify as a great start when it comes to negotiation. To obtain the most favorable price and build a long-term connection you need to deal in person. Meet the management or the business owner in a factory or trade show in China. With this approach, way you can effortlessly solve any difficulty easily and additionally create a business relationship by sourcing products from China.

4) Quality Control

Keeping control of the product quality is important while looking forward to product sourcing from China. Make sure you protect yourself from a number of issues by making a contract in the first place. Do not forget to mention all the aspects like material, design, packaging, dimensions, shipment terms and quality in the contract. Assessing the quality of the product throughout the production process can help you maintain the cost. This is because the price can significantly increase if the manufactured products are shipped with faults.

While choosing the suppliers or merchants, you can quickly identify the best producers who are generally producing various countries. This can provide you with an idea of the quality of the products. Make sure to always request samples before you make a deal with the suppliers. Make a contract, as already mentioned, and ask for the pre-production sample to assess the entire production quality.

The method of sourcing goods can be time-consuming if you do not carry it out properly. Furthermore, you might sometimes end up with high-priced and low-quality products that can take all your profit. Therefore, choosing a sourcing agent for sourcing products in China can additionally help you manage the maximum of these problems and provide you with peace of mind.

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Elksourcing：How to Evaluate Your China Suppliers?

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

When you source from China, it is vital to work with suitable China suppliers, but it is uneasy to choose from the long list you find online. How do you evaluate them? Make sure you evaluate the current suppliers’ quality level and status periodically driving them to improve quality continuously. However, make sure you balance quality and costs. 

A good procurement process should also ensure a good supply of the materials and inventory management. This is how to do it:

(1) Review the supplier’s internal supply chain status and operation level. This includes logistic issues from the raw material channel to finished product shipment.

(2) Supervise suppliers to ensure they set up a rigorous scientific internal supply chain operation process and strictly implement it.

(3) Establish safety stocks through supplier management inventory and other inventory agreements to avoid material shortages. Inventory quantity should be controlled properly.

The above are ideal for managing current suppliers. When developing, selecting and evaluating new suppliers, more official evaluation is needed.

1. Overall situation of supplier

What is the size and overall strength of the business? Does the management have long-term development goals and specific strategies? How is the overall personnel quality? What about the workers, technicians and management? What about the level of quality management? What is the financial position of the enterprise and commercial reputation in the industry?

Nowadays, personnel quality and attitude of an enterprise are increasingly becoming key factors in supplier evaluation. Without high-quality and sincere service attitude of the relevant personnel (production, quality assurance, research & development, and customer service, etc.), it is difficult for companies to offer high-quality products and services to customers.

2. Production cost evaluation 

A. The cost of raw materials: Buy raw materials directly from the factory to save the purchasing cost.

B. Internal production costs: In the case of quality and accuracy, try to apply low cost production equipment, low cost accessories and components.

C. The management structure is more streamlined.

D. Good logistic conditions and geographical location (help reduce transportation costs).

E. Low margin requirements.

3. Quality level

The quality assurance personnel of your company shall take the lead in evaluation according to ISO and QS standards. Also, you can check the quality of their online production, and samples in their showroom. Basically, by these methods, you will be able to judge quality level of the supplier, is it low, medium, or high? Does the quality level match your needs?

4. Supply chain stability

Is there a stable raw material procurement channel? Is there a sound internal production organization and planning system? Is there good communication and cooperation between the production department, purchasing department and customer service department on production and shipment? Is there a specific production and shipment response plan for an emergency or special case? 

Besides, you should also note the basic principle in selecting supplier: Do not choose a supplier that has a bigger scale than your company except you have no options.

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Elksourcing：Important Factors for Choosing a China Supplier

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

When you choose a China supplier for your online business, it is important to remember the following important factors.

1). Affordable price: Price is the most obvious and important factor to take into consideration when looking for new drop shipping suppliers. Since there are various suppliers offer different prices for the same product, it’s important to shop around and see who offers the best deal with the best quality product.

2). High quality: There’s often a conformity between cost and quality: The more expensive the product, the better the quality. But quality is not only when the product meets its function, but also in suitable product package with good protection and required labels. You’d better talk to the supplier to ensure all details about the product before signing any contract.

3). Reliability: If your supplier sends a product in 3 weeks instead of 2 weeks as you announced to your customer, they will blame you, not your supplier. Therefore, don’t hesitate to ask anyone who has experience in drop shipping and used to work with specific dropship suppliers for the best choice. Besides, don’t forget to research information about their earlier performance.

4). Shared culture: A good supplier relationship is built on shared culture goals and attitudes. A direct conversation with your supplier is not only let you know how they likely to work with other business, but also give you a chance to consider whether or not the relationship will work.

5). Sufficient product options: It’s better to choose a China supplier who can provide you with a diversity of products which fall into a category you’re familiar with. They commonly offer a cheaper price with significant customer service than the smaller suppliers. With this advantage, you can charge a higher price than other retailers while still ensure the customer’s satisfaction with your products.

6). Excellent customer support: There will be pop-up problems appear that you need to have a strong customer support team to answer any questions from customers or help solve the problems. Don’t forget to court about extra features like special deal alerts or inventory update.

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Elksourcing：Procedure of Selling Chinese Products on Amazon

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

There are hundreds of product categories, what would you choose for your business of selling on Amazon? You have to identify them through market research and surveys. Subsequently, when you identify those categories, it becomes easier for importing the products and sell on Amazon, if you follow bellow procedures.

1. Design Your Own Products

It’s time you turn the products unique with a logo – a unique one, necessarily. This way, you would avoid chances of getting mixed up with others. The suppliers on the other side will help you in achieving that. First of all, design a logo for the private label products. It wouldn’t cost too much and you can have what you want. If a supplier offers some incredible choices, you should consider and examine if it goes well for you. After selecting the logo, you have it printed on the cartons and packages of the products.

2. Get Help from Forwarders 

Have you known a freight forwarder? You have to know one. The freight forwarders are the go-getters for you. Bringing products from one country to another is a mammoth task. Since these freight forwarders are aware of the international shipping laws, they are the best people for the logistical arrangements. Not to forget the capabilities of Chinese suppliers. Yes, they are the ones who can help you find reliable freight forwarders. It isn’t a problem if you aren’t allowed to export or import from other countries because a third-party consignee agent can get that done for you.

3. Find Chinese Suppliers

You should find reliable manufacturing companies in China. Yes, there are large differences between them, if you investigate precisely. Your target is simple – find reliable products at low prices and sell them. It’s the only thing that lets you earn big money. Otherwise, you know what happens. Alibaba, Global sources, made-in-China will be the best B2B platform to look for suppliers yourself. To save time and save money, getting help from a sourcing agent will be great choice.

4. Percentage standards set for FBA

Order defective rate should be less than 1%.

Pre-fulfillment cancel rate should be less than 2.5%.

The late shipment rate should be less than 4%.

Failing to achieve these targets of Seller’ Performance would strip you from the seller privileges.

5. Check Product Samples 

How can you be sure about the products?

Eventually, the above question would pop in your head. You should never take chances. After negotiating with 2 to 3 suppliers, you can request for samples. Evaluating them on the basis of quality, appearance, and performance would give an accurate report. Generally, people would opt for products with lower prices, but that isn’t a good idea. If you want to leave a deep impression about your products, you have ascertained the facts about the products you are going to sell in the markets. If a sample does not match the specifics you have asked for, request for a better one that does so.

6. Manufacturing and Quality Control

After verifying the product quality by yourself and settling on prices, you can proceed to making the down-payment for manufacturing. At the next stage, prominent quality control actions are needed to be taken. Obviously, you can’t check personally if the import volume is too low as it would amount expensive costs. Rather, you would have a third-party inspection company for the product inspection job. Remember, all of these must happen before the consignment reaches the designated warehouse of Amazon.

7. Shipment to FBA warehouse

As freight forwarders bring the shipment via different modes (airplane or ship), it is vital that the packaging meets Amazon FBA requirements before it is loaded. Significantly, the freight forwarders may offer that service too. It includes inspection of product packages with respect to Amazon rules and regulations.

8. Begin your Amazon-based business

The above procedures seem long and tedious, but believe us when we say they will prove fruitful for you and your business, in terms of making money. Having a great reputation, your label will earn customer loyalty. That’s all because of ensuring top quality products for the customers and maintaining a warm relationship with the suppliers.

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Elksourcing：Is It Possible to Buy High Quality Products at Low Price?

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

Many businessmen believe “you get what you pay for”, thus, they cannot buy high quality products at low price. In most cases, it is true. However, if you work hard and use some tactics, it is possible to pay relatively less and get more, as at end of the day, we live in the market economy. 

1) Compare between multiple suppliers

Compare several suppliers and their products. Within the supposition of getting equal quality, prioritize those merchants with low prices. But judge the quality of the product. Compare the quality and price of several suppliers and buy from the one offering fewer priced with quality goods.

2) Compare price on B2B platforms

There are several famous B2B websites in China, like Alibaba, Made-in-China, Global Sources and etc. These platforms are packed with a large number of product suppliers, whose products are labeled with the approximate price range. You can understand roughly the cost of your niched products.

3) Know your products

You should understand your products very well. A certain product comes in a variety of different types and quality, you need to know each of its kind and quality. It is possible to alter your product specifications to achieve a much lower cost at meantime still keep the main function. For example, you can use a thinner stainless steel to make a container but to fold the rim so when customers touch it, they feel the product is strong and good.

4) Choose a right factory

In China, there are hundreds of factories which make the similar products, they are at different locations, with different sizes, thus, they focus on different markets. If you go to a big factory, unless your order is very large, you will not get a good price, as there are lots of overheads for a big factory; however, if you go to a very small factory or a home workshop, you may get good price, but the product quality is not assured. 

In my 20-year work in global sourcing industry, I learned two useful tactics. #1, Always try to find out the most suitable manufacturing town for your products and choose a factory in that tome. For example, go to Yangjiang for cutlery; #2, Always try to use medium sized factory which keep good balance in quality and price.

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Elksourcing：How to Negotiate MOQ Requirement with Chinese Suppliers?

Apr 19, 2021 , by 露露

While you are sourcing from China, you may always hear about Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ), it makes your business difficult when you only own limited funds, or simply want to play it safe by starting small to test the market before making larger purchases. 

Before you begin negotiation, the first step is to understand why the supplier has imposed a MOQ. Is it because there is a lot of work upfront? Or maybe it’s because they prefer to work with larger buyers. Understanding the reasons behind the MOQ will help you better understand their position and allow you to negotiate and propose to best counter offer.

Once you have a better understanding of your suppliers’ position and follow our sourcing advice, you possibly can get a lower minimum order quantity.

1: Limit product customization

Products can be customized to a varying degree. A custom logo on a pre-existing factory design is less complex to achieve, as compared to a device built entirely with custom designed components. Simple forms of product customization enable the supplier to still use standard (i.e. high turnover) components, while highly customized components require the supplier to step out of its ‘normal purchasing routines’ and subcontract an entirely new design.

Such OEM components may not be compatible with the manufacturers’ primary product line, therefore forcing the buyer to meet the entire MOQ alone. This is rarely a problem when basing a product on ‘standardized components’, as these can be divided on a larger number of buyers. Let’s take a wristwatch as an example to demonstrate what this might look like in the world:

• Cover MOQ – Factory standard: 600 pcs / OEM: 900 pcs

• Handle – Factory standard: 600 pcs / OEM: 5,000 pcs

• Base – Factory standard: 600 pcs / OEM: 4,000 pcs

As showed above, to customize components may result in a vast increase of the MOQ requirement. The lesson here is that you should limit the ‘degree’ of product customization, and base on the product on ‘factory standard’ components – to the extent possible.

2: Streamline the usage of materials 

As said, the suppliers MOQ requirement is often a direct reflection of the MOQ of its subcontractors. Chinese supplier purchase materials from various subcontractors, and not just one or two. As a result, a product made of many different materials may force the supplier, and in the extension you, to satisfy the MOQ requirement of many subcontractors. This can in turn results in an escalation of the MOQ requirement, especially if you have highly specific requirements.

What if you use the same material on a larger number of different products, instead of just one? Should this not allow the supplier to satisfy the subcontractors MOQ requirement, while you can still enjoy a wider product assortment? Assuming the manufacturer is somewhat flexible, this is often a solution for small buyers to lower the MOQ requirement.

3: Offer to pay a little higher price

The MOQ requirement is often, but not always, a direct reflection of the subcontractors MOQ requirements. Many Chinese manufacturers maintain a stock of ‘high turnover’ materials and components. Therefore, they can, at least if they are willing, manufacture a smaller quantity of products. But considering their low profit margins, it’s often not worthwhile the time, effort and risk involved. Offering to pay a higher price, for example 10 to 20%, may give the supplier an incentive to accept a small volume order.

Conclusion

The MOQ requirement cannot simply be negotiated away or vanish. While some suppliers may accept a slightly lowered MOQ, requesting it to be removed completely is the same as asking your supplier to lose money for the sake of your business. Many importers try to play the “my orders will be larger in the future” card, but most suppliers hear this on an almost daily basis and only a fraction of their buyers can back up the claim in the end.