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There are different ways and platforms to make money online, one of them that has gained popularity recently is drop shipping through Amazon. Many people are making thousands of dollars doing this business.

Drop shipping has its advantages over the conventional online store where you have to stock the goods in your store and ship when you receive an order.

Here are 5 easy steps to get started if you have considered venturing into a drop shipping business.

1. Open account on Amazon as a Seller.

The foremost action to take when starting drop shipping business is to open an account on Amazon as a seller. There are two types of accounts that you can open: Professional and individual account. If you are starting out and not sure of selling more than 40 products in a month, it is recommended that you go for the Individual account. However, it is important you know the benefits and disadvantages of any account you are opting for.

Here are pros and cons to guide you in making decision on which account to sign up for:

For Individual Account:

You are not allowed to use 3rd party services like Repricers and Inventory Lab. You are not qualified to list your product in the Buy Box. You cannot apply to list your product in restricted categories of Amazon stores. There is $0.99 fee per item sold.
For Professional Account:

You can make use of a spreadsheet to upload various items at once utilizing the seller central. You will have access to more reports in the seller board. You are qualified to list your product in the Buy Box. You can apply to list your products in restricted categories. You will pay $40 monthly fee plus the $0.99 fee per item sold. You can build new product pages for your products.
It is important to note that you can choose to upgrade your account at any time.

2. Find the best low-cost drop ship suppliers.

Most drop shippers make good profit using the best platform- Salehoo, to find perfect drop shippers for products that they intend to sell.

To get started, sign up to paid Salehoo account in order to utilize their best tools and features. Search for drop shippers close to you that can ship faster with lesser shipping costs.

Why it is advisable to use this platform is because, most suppliers do not have budget for social media marketing, rather they carry the marketing expenses over to lowering product costs. So, they’d prefer subscribing to Salehoo than doing Google marketing.

Beside it will require more effort on the suppliers’ part to achieve success with PPC marketing so they prefer a dedicated platform for it.

3. Search for low-cost but high-selling products.

When you find a supplier that suits your specifications, look through his catalogue to locate those items that are not expensive but are also selling very well. Ensure that the price difference between what is offered for that item on Amazon and what the supplier is selling is significant enough to make you some profit.

Even if you decide to source for sellers outside the Salehoo platform, the most important thing is that there is profit enough to cover for cost in time and money.

4. Write a well-detailed and search engine optimized titles and descriptions on Amazon.

Now that you are ready with your products, proceed to list them on your Amazon store. Ensure you write SEO product descriptions to enable your products rank high on Amazon search result.

5. Go ahead and start marketing your products using different digital marketing system.

You can outsource the marketing to freelancers on platform like Fiverr.

Trust me, drop shipping is not as hard as it seems. You just need to take a step!

Over more than half of the world’s population now love to shop online by sitting at their cozy bed or armchair. The boom of eCommerce has clearly brought some huge remarkable changes in the retail segment and in consumers’ buying behaviours. For you as well as all other retail enterprises, it is no longer a choice to have an online storefront. Rather, it’s imperative to stay in the game. However, for those who already own a vibrant store, it isn’t an easy at all. There are many alike retailers getting into the scene every day. So, what is important for the existing players in the market is to keep them updated with the latest trends being unleashed by eCommerce evolution every year.

If you have a reigning position in the online retail market, then do not miss out the following trends that eCommerce sector is pushing out presently.

Increased mobile use

“The future of eCommerce will be ruled by mobiles” studies have revealed. With a hefty proportion of consumers now tapping into their phone’s screens to place orders instead of logging into the site via their desktops. Further, with Google’s announcement on the ranking algorithm that it would count on the mobile responsiveness of a site, there was even a greater push in the mobile purchases via an app that is site’s exact replication.

Voice Purchases in on rise

While the smartphones are recently being integrated with voice assistants, eCommerce has a great scope to leverage that to offer more personalised shopping experiences. The voice assistants help users to execute different tasks on the phone by speaking it. So, an eCommerce app can deploy it too so buyers can search products just by voicing their wants.

More enhanced fulfillment and payment options

Apart from flexible shipping options, like free-shipping within a specific distance or above a certain order amount, eCommerce owners are offering more lucrative fulfilment to beat out the competition. They are coming up the premium shipping options like same-day delivery, speedy delivery., order-pickup from in-stores and so forth. On the payment side, new options unravelled like Purchase now-Pay Later, e-Wallet, Mobile pay, etc. Thus, on an obvious note, you need to consider them too for securing your position in the market.

Chatbots along with Messenger feature

Chatbots that helps in personalised interaction via the messenger will be on rise in eCommerce segment. Retailers are using them to send out personalised marketing content, recommend product purchases, and notify on deals or coupon offers. Furthermore, with Chatbots, retailers can pay heed to customers service requests or queries any time and get them solved instantly. With increasing relevance of personalisation in eCommerce, Chatbots trend is sure to grow more prominent.

Omnipresence

It’s 2018 where mobile presence has overshadowed everything else in the world. Hundreds of range of mobile devices with different OS platforms are being used by people to search for things online. So, it won’t be any more fruitful for the eCommerce businesses to just target only particular devices. They have to target all, from smartphones to iPhones, tablets to laptops and desktops.

Video integrations along with AR

Popular eCommerce giants have already pushed forth this trend. They are using up videos to showcase products or demonstrate their uses. Besides, some are also toying with the concept of Augmented Reality where users can try a product virtually on screens.

Storytelling that captivates viewers more

Well, in eCommerce marketing, storytelling nowadays goes well to lure visitors to buy because that directly links their lifestyle to the brand. It pinches the emotions of the buyers. Different stats, consumption tips or habits will help in making a difference in the perception of individuals.

That was all for now! The retailers who consider themselves to be a stronger player in the market, need to quickly grasp one or few of these trends as fast as possible before time runs out.

This startling figure comes from a recent review of the financial advice offered from the big four banks by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC).

Even more startling: 10% of advice was found to leave investors in an even worse financial position.

Through a “vertically integrated business model”, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, Westpac, ANZ and AMP offer ‘in house’ financial advice, and collectively, control more than half of Australia’s financial planners.

It’s no surprise ASIC’s review found advisers at these banks favoured financial products that connected to their parent company, with 68% of client’s funds invested in ‘in house’ products as oppose to external products that may have been on the firms list.

Why the banks integrated financial advice model is flawed

It’s hard to believe the banks can keep a straight face and say they can abide by the duty for advisers to act absolutely in the best interests of a client.

Under the integrated financial advice model, there are layers of different fees including adviser fees, platform fees and investment management fees adding up to 2.5-3.5%

The typical breakdown of fees is usually as follows: an adviser charge of 0.8% to 1.1%, a platform fee of between 0.4% and 0.8%, and a managed fund fee of between 0.7% and 2.1%. These fees are not only opaque, but are sufficiently high to limit the ability of the client to quickly earn real rates of return.

Layers of fees placed into the business model used by the banks means there is not necessarily an incentive for the financial advice arm to make a profit, because the profits can be made in the upstream parts of the supply chain through the banks promoting their own products.

This business model, however, is flawed, and cannot survive in a world where people are demanding greater accountability for their investments, increased transparency in relation to fees and increased control over their investments.

It is noteworthy that the truly independent financial advisory firms in Australia that offer separately managed accounts have done everything in their power to avoid using managed funds and keep fee’s competitive.

The banks have refused to admit their integrated approach to advice is fatally flawed. When the Australian Financial Review approached the Financial Services Council (FSC), a peak body that represents the ‘for-profit’ wealth managers, for a defence if the layered fee arrangements, a spokesman said no generalisations could be made.

There are fundamental flaws in the advice model, and it will be interesting to see what the upcoming royal commission into banking will do to change some of the contentious issues surround integrated financial advice.

Many financial commentators are calling for a separation of financial advice attached to banks, with obvious bias and failure to meet the best interests of clients becoming more apparent.

Chris Brycki, CEO of Stockspot, says “investors should receive fair and unbiased financial advice from experts who will act in the best interests of their client. What Australians currently get is product pushing from salespeople who are paid by the banks.”

Brycki is calling for structural reform to fix the problems caused by the dominant market power of the banks to ensure that consumers are protected, advisers are better educated and incentives are aligned.

Throughout, history, we have experienced, a variety of economic conditions, and circumstances, including, recession, inflation, and somewhere, in – between! For a few years, we experienced, very – low inflation, largely, caused by a variety of conditions, world – wide, and largely, disrupted – by, the ramifications, and impacts, created and caused, by this horrific pandemic! Currently, we seem to be experiencing, a serious amount of inflation, created, by many factors, including, but, not, limited – to: post – pandemic ramifications; Supply and Demand issues, caused, to a large – degree, by, supply – chain, issues; maintaining, unrealistically – low, prolonged period of near – record – low, interest rates, etc. With, that in mind, this article will attempt to, briefly, examine, consider, review, and discuss, 6 potential dangers, from prolonged periods of inflation, and why, it is important to know, and understand, options and alternatives, to attempt to choose, the best – path – forward!

1. Cost of Living: Some factors, determining, the Cost of Living, include: wages (and wage growth); prices, etc, and how wages, are, or, aren’t able, to keep – up, with the increase in costs, etc! Most realize, we have, in the past – few months, experienced, a huge, jump, in pricing, most – apparent, in the food stores, restaurants, and, nearly, everything, related – to, day – to – day, existence, etc!

2. Federal Reserve: In recent times, the near – historic – low, extended period, of interest rates, has, in addition, to the intended measures (helping businesses, and the economy, in trying – times), has caused a Real Estate, Sellers Market, and, a huge rise, in home prices, in most parts of this country! In addition, it created a surge, in consumer use of credit, because, borrowing, appeared, cheaper! However, most economists forecast, many of these supports, and maintaining, such low rates, will, gradually, be reduced (or minimized), probably, beginning, next year. What impact will that have, and will we see, the historic reaction, which has been, when rates rise, it helps reduce inflation, etc?

3. National economy/ conditions: Largely, because of a world – wide, supply – chain, set of obstacles/ challenged, many industries, have experienced, challenges, in terms of, getting sufficient amounts of needed materials, etc! Go into, nearly, any store, and you will see, more – sparse, shelves, than we have seen, in recent memory! In addition, building supplies, products, food, toys, cars and car parts, etc, are under – stress, because of this!

4. Worldwide economies/ economic conditions: Nearly, every nation, is experiencing, economic issues and challenges! The United Kingdom, because of worldwide, as well as specific national trends/ causes/ conditions, has been largely, impacted! Since, we live, largely, in a global economy, when there is any disruption, in the supply – chain, it affects, everyone!

5. Stock and Bond Markets: Because of several reasons/ factors, the United States Stock Market, has benefited, significantly, and experienced, significant increases, in the price of stocks. In addition to the obvious ones, because, interest rates, have been, so low, many investors, believed, stocks, were, nearly, the only game – in – town! When, if, interest rates, rise, bond rates, will rise, and existing, bond prices, will adjust, and drop!

6. Immediate, intermediate, longer – term ramifications/ impacts: The immediate impact of inflation, is, usually, rising prices, and, wages, which, usually, rise, at a far – lower rate! In the intermediate – period, we begin to see, weakening economic trends, and in the longer – term, depending on how long, it ensues, there are often, several, undesirable ramifications, and impacts!

Don’t take inflation, and its risks, for – granted! The more you know, and understand, the better prepared, you will be!

Although, we hear, a lot of opinions, about, interest rates, and their trends, and impacts, very few people seem to understand, the significance, and importance/ relevance, of these rates, in several areas of our lives! After, many decades of involvement, in political campaigns, leadership, leadership training/ planning, real estate, financial sales and consulting, etc, I strongly believed, one benefits, by understanding, more about these, and how they affect, many things, in our lives! Whether, related to personal, organizational, and/ or, public finance/ spending, home ownership and related costs, credit – related issues, business matters, stock and bond pricing, etc, interest rates, truly, significantly, matter! With, that in mind, this article will attempt to, briefly, consider, examine, review, and discuss, 5 of these areas, and how the cost – of – money, makes a significant difference.

1. Bond prices and interest rates: The price of a bond, generally, is inversely – related to interest rates! When these rates go down, prices, rise, and when they go up, the inverse occurs! Bonds have, what is known, as, a par – value, which is the price, paid, at the end of the term. Markets usually set these at 100, which represents $1,000 per bond, at maturity. However, during the period, the pricing can rise or fall, which impacts, liquidity – related issues!

2. Mortgage rates: For the last few years, we have been witnessing and experiencing, record – low, mortgage interest rates, which have helped the overall, real estate/ housing market, especially, in terms of, pricing increases! In most areas of this country, we are seeing, home prices, at their highest levels, ever, by a significant, dramatic amount! When this rate, is low, a home buyer is able to buy, more – house – for – his – bucks, because, his monthly payments, are so low! Consider, however, what might be the potential ramifications, and impacts, when these rates, will, inevitably, rise?

3. Consumer credit: Low costs of borrowing, help the automobile industry, in terms of consumer financing, etc! Although, not as much as other vehicles, rates on credit card debt, are lower, and there are often, shorter – term, promotions, offering deals! However, since, most of these are variable, and based, on some index, etc, what happens, when there is an increase, in this?

4. Business borrowing: Another area affected, is business cost of borrowing! Presently, they have had access, to relatively, cheap – money, which helps in reducing the costs of borrowing, overall operations, purchasing inventory, etc. But, what happens, when this, ticks – up?

5. Impacts on stock market prices: For some time, because bonds have paid so little, in terms of dividends, etc, many have considered, the stock market, the only game, in – town! In addition, many corporations, have seemed, better – off, than they probably are, and we have witnessed, a higher, ratio of prices to profits, than in the past! How long will this last? How high can it go?

Many factors impact these issues, especially: actual and/ or, perceived inflation; consumer confidence; politics/ government actions/ the Federal Reserve, etc. The more you know, and understand, hopefully, the better – prepared, you will be!