"Set" your Products to Sell
by Chris Malta
Published on this site: January 5th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
If you spend any length of time selling products on the Internet,
you're going to find out that it's very hard to sell "very
low priced" products.
What? Why is that? You'd think that people would love to
pay Very Low Prices for products!
Well, that's true, when they're getting value for their money.
But there is one thing that will make your customer back up
so fast, they'll have to make a "beeping" noise,
like a big truck in reverse:
Shipping charges.
Ah, yes. Shipping Charges. The bane of the Internet Retailer.
Ground shipping, air, motor freight. Residential delivery
surcharge. Shipping insurance charge. Signature release charge.
They get you coming and going. (Literally!).
We sell brand name products on the Internet using the Drop
Shipping method. We have genuine Wholesale Suppliers who will
fill our single-item orders by wending the products we sell
directly to our customers from the warehouse, with our business
name on the package. Very low cost and effective.
But ...they still have to charge us shipping, which means
we still have to charge our customers shipping.
Normally, that's just fine. Internet customers understand
shipping charges, and with most products, it's not even an
issue.
However, what happens when you have a site that sells an
"accessory" type product that goes along with your
general product line, but only costs about $5 retail? A customer
comes along and wants to buy that inexpensive accessory, but
during the process of completing the order, they realize they
are going to have to pay about $7 in shipping.
Ouch! $12 for a $5 accessory? Don't think so.
So what do you do? Are you going to deprive your customers
of the "accessories" that go along with your general
product line, and possible lose that customer's attention
for good?
Not your first choice, is it?
There's a way around this problem for many types of products.
Suppose your site sells those cool Velcro-type dart boards
that parents love to give their kids, because Velcro tips
won't put holes in the walls, or in the other kids either,
for that matter. The dart boards come with a supply of plastic
darts.
However, we're talking about kids here. Plastic darts break.
They disappear. They go running off down the road taped to
the tail of the neighbor's cat. Someday, little Johnny is
going to want to play darts with a Dart Set that has no darts.
There will be crying involved; I have three kids and a grandson,
and I know that sound.
Some parents will think ahead and buy some extra darts from
you when they order the Set in the first place. Most will
not.
Ok, someone comes back to your site and wants to order another
set of three plastic Velcro darts. You sell them for $5. The
shipping cost is $7.
$12 for three plastic Velcro-tipped darts? Guess what...
Johnny's Mom or Dad is going to decide to spend some time
convincing Johnny that the Dart Set was never any fun anyway.
It won't be easy, and Mom or Dad will probably blame you for
that, whether they should or not.
So what can you do about that?
It's very simple.
You can "group" those little accessory packages
of darts, and sell them as "sets".
For example, group four of those $5 packages of darts together
as a single product on your site, and call it a "Complete
4-player Dart Set" (each player uses three darts while
playing, so 4 sets covers 4 players.) That way, you have something
you can charge $20 for (or a little less, since you're moving
them in bulk), and the $7 shipping charge suddenly doesn't
seem like so much to little Johnny's Mom or Dad.
Think about how happy they'll be with the idea too... extra
sets of darts for the next time Johnny's darts skip off into
the Twilight Zone of Lost Toys!
Stretching it a bit? Sure I am! It's a story, for the sake
of illustration, but there's a solid truth at the core:
When you sell products that require accessories from time
to time, you should also be able to supply the accessories
in a manner that will be comfortable for the customer.
Think about this too: the products don't have to be
accessories. This works for any individual products that just
happen to be very low priced to begin with. Be creative!
Grouping products into "Sets" can't be done with
every product, but you should be able to think of a way to
do it for most!
Chris Malta Worldwide Brands, Inc. We provide sourcing
for legitimate Wholesale Suppliers on the Internet. For more info, please
visit the Wholesale Trading Club at: http://www.WholesaleTradingClub.com/
|
