3 Classic E-tailer Mistakes Since the birth of e-commerce, certain faulty thought patterns have plagued online retailers. Says Lisa Suttora, of http://WhatDoISell.com, There are things I see people do that are very, very common, [that] really hinder their ability to grow their business and make the profit they want." Having the right mindset when sourcing and selling your products is critical in avoiding those regrettably typical seller mistakes. Mistake 1: I'm ONLY going to sell Product Xthat's all I need. There are two main problems with focusing on a single product: Firstly, markets cycle and fluctuate. Product X may perform very well in May, but do poorly in October. You want to do business year-round, not just during one particular selling season. Secondly, you miss a lot of selling opportunities. You want repeat customers and repeat business, which means giving your customers choices and providing them with a full and complete product line. You need to surround your main product with a wide selection of ancillary productsproducts that relate to it, that your target market might also be interested in. Mistake 2: My products will sell themselvesbuyers will automatically choose them over my competitors' products. You need to distinguish your web store and set it apart from every other store selling the same thing. This is known as adding value to your websiteone of the best and easiest ways to do this is to provide information that's relevant to your product line and to your target market: If you sell cookware, you might share recipes. If you sell dart boards, you might provide your customers with the rules for the various games you can play. If you sell ski equipment, you might include articles on the country's best slopes. This puts you in a unique selling positioncustomers come back to your site to get the knowledge they desire. And they're a lot more likely to pick up that item they've been wanting, while they're on your site, than to go off to another site and buy it there. Mistake 3: If I don't net X amount on an item, it's not worth carrying. Think about a computer store: they sell the actual computers for minimal profit margins. It's the accessoriesthe cords, cables, printers, etc.that carry the high profit margins. Without the computers, no one would go into the store in the first place. But without those other products, the store couldn't stay in business. If you eliminate every product that doesn't clear a set amount, you're missing the big picture. Suttora reminds, Your business goal is to generate long-term, sustainable profits." Low-volume, high-profit items and high-volume, low-profit items both make their own contributions to your overall product line-up. Every piece of inventory you buy carries a different profit-margin percentage, and all of them combine to create your total revenue stream.
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