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How To Compete With Amazon.com by: Tony Keeler If you are selling online,here is the down side of our business....you will never be able to compete with Amazon. (Or Kmart, or Target, or any other big outlet) Here is why, They buy directly from the manufacturer in such huge quantities that they are getting the product for a price that you and I (as small business owners) will never realize. That is an unfortunate fact of business. The other problem is that they often use products like this as what they call a 'loss leader.' They are willing to take a huge loss on the product in the hopes that the customer will buy other things. If you are like me, you cannot afford to do that. So what do we do? The answer is very simple....if you can't compete with Amazon, don't! You are not the size of Amazon, so don't compete with them. (I know sounds too simple, but stay with me) So, if I can't be the cheapest price, or compete with Amazon, how can I make any money? ( I know, I asked the same thing when I started) The answer is, if you have a great product, you sell it for a reasonable price, and you have a great sales letter....people will buy from you. (I don't have a degree in marketing, so I can't explain why) But they will. Here's the thing, if every small business in the world tried to compete with Wal-Mart, or Amazon, there would be no small business around. But, there are and they continue to thrive. What you want to do is to not compete with Amazon, but others on Ebay, or wherever you are advertising your site, that are selling the same product. Try and see what they are selling it for and stay in that range. And most of all, don't worry about being the lowest priced! I know that sounds funny but, you would be amazed that if you write a GREAT sales letter...then pricing has very little to do with it. (And that has been proven time and time again) In the members area of Drop Ship Connection there are great resources and software that can help you write a great sales letter. One mistake, between you and me, that I see people making every day on eBay or on a website is that they are not even bothering to write a sales letter. They list the product specs and throw up a picture and expect it to sell. The mistake they are making is that eBay is not a store that has products on a shelf for everyone to pick out. With the competition on eBay, and the internet as a whole, it should not be looked at like a store for people to pick and choose, but rather a mail order system on steroids. Think of all of the junk mail that you receive in your mailbox; Most of it (if they are trying to sell you something anyway) is going to be in the form of a sales letter. (The main page of The Drop Ship Connection is an example of a sales letter.) You really have to make people want to buy your product from you with a great sales letter, then price is not an problem. So why is there not much difference between what Amazon sells it for and the wholesale distributors you list; Are you sure they are real wholesalers? My answer to this question is always...yes all of the wholesalers are verified as true wholesalers or manufacturers. However, you will never get the same price Amazon gets...that's just an unfortunate fact. You are not buying hundreds of thousands of units shipped on pallets with a HUGE discount because of the size of your order. You are ordering from a wholesaler who maybe got two pallets in, then has to pay people to break them up into single units and repackage them for distribution to your customer (obviously they have a higher overhead, so they are going to pass that on to you). And, if they are the manufacturer, again they have to pay people to ship them out individually in packages vs. a huge pallet. (More work, more money) About The Author Tony Keeler is the founder of MAR Services who publish several successful websites: Drop Ship Connection - The Web's #1 directory of wholesale distributors who drop ship. $2 Software - All of the marketing and advertising software you've seen out there for $50.00 or more for only $2! DingleHopper - Funny Name, Cool Products! Free eBay Resources - Start your auctioning career right, for FREE. tony.keeler@dropshipconnection.com This article was posted on June '05
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