Ecommerce

My new web store, Dragonfly - dragonflyhq.com - is finally launched so come check it out! Dragonfly is a store that's serious about providing an online market for the highest quality products that are making a difference and changing lives.

This is a project that Jared Angaza and I have been working on for a long time and it finally has come to fruition. I've partnered with Jared to help build an online market for KEZA and will eventually expand to include other kinds of products that come from similar kinds of companies. We're both very excited about the future! Here is a bit from our "about us" page at Dragonfly:    Read more »

I saw a tweet the other day that got me thinking. This person is a very successful ecommerce merchant and there were some issues mentioned that caused me to think that if I were still in sales I’d be pulling out all the stops trying to win that business and I wondered if their current rep knew about the situation. They’d dangled the carrot out there for someone to meet their need, and I would have loved such an obvious opportunity if I were still a sales person.

The wheels started turning as I thought about my old competitors, and customers and wondered if this person’s rep was aware of the fact that they were in a precarious position of potentially losing this customer. Was their rep really listening? Did they know? If I was still in the business, I’d immediately have gone to my resources to find out what was the latest information about them.    Read more »

I'm almost ready to launch my new Microsoft SQL Server for eBay Blackthorne Hosting Services over at Orracle Media.  This has been a long time coming but my plan is to have this product launched by the first week of December.  As someone who searched and searched for reasonable and sufficiently powerful options for using Blackthorne set up with a remote, secure database I know the frustration that's out there.    Read more »

Ecommerce intrigues me.  It's long been a fascination for me since I first started to see first-hand what ingenuitive and resourceful people were doing to seize upon the opportunities the internet provides and build a business. What intrigues me even more are great business ideas. I've seen and been part of some really amazing ecommerce businesses.  I've seen large businesses like Kevin's Catalog based out of Thomasville, Georgia to smaller ones like Table Tops Etc. and numerous businesses in between. The good news is that now I have the opportunity to follow my passions in both of those by launching a new site that brings together the best of both ecommerce and what's becoming known "socialpreneurship".      Read more »

The way the world does business is changing has changed. There can be no doubt that the world wide web has forever changed the landscape of how the world conducts its business. 

The playing field is (somewhat) level, and barriers to entry for the aspiring internet entrepreneur are few. But the question arises for those contemplating the jump in to ecommerce, what platform should I use?

There are numerous different platforms available for use from free to expensive, from easy to set up to needing an expert to get you running. This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of ecommerce platforms at all!  I've picked a couple of the more popular tools that I'm familiar with and that I think might be beneficial for those of you who are trying to set out in to the ecommerce world.

Some are subscription based, some are open source, some are proprietary paid platforms.  If you're looking to launch a store you really can't go wrong with any of these.    Read more »

UPS and FedEx are raising their rates again - do you have a plan?

UPS and FedEx have both set their rates to increase by approximately 5% in January of 2010.  It happens every year.  Depending on how good your rep is you may or may not hear that much about it.  Yet, it happens year after year and if you don't pay much attention, it can have a significant impact on your transportation revenue spend. If your company spends $50,000 per year on shipping and your rate increase is 5% that means that your shipping costs have increased by more than $200 per month! 

$200 per month may not be a lot of money to some folks, but for most people in economic times such as these you have to make every dollar stretch as far as possible - and now more than ever. More than likely what you won't see is your rep showing up with a new pricing agreement ready to address that increase. But when was the last time you renegotiated your shipping contract?

If you've been working with these companies for a while, you are certainly familiar with daily rates vs. retail, delivery area surcharges, residential surcharges, additional handling, large package surcharges, dim-weight charges, and fuel surcharges, guaranteed service refunds, service recovery and insurance issues/claims. International shipping is a whole different issue. All those things go up as well, so make sure that you review your 2010 service guide thoroughly.  All this impacts your bottom line and if you're shipping packages daily in substantial volumes this means there is a LOT of money involved.    Read more »