Newsletter Archive

We want to know what you want to know! Email education@doba.com with your suggestions of what you want to see in future issues of the Doba eNewsletter. Also, check out our new blog at DropShippingBlog.com for drop ship news, information, commentary, and community.

	Featured Article: Where to Sell: Amazon.com Jake Sabey, Doba Education Specialist, provides an overview of the online retail marketplace Amazon.com.
	Member Q&A: Doba Tutorial: Setting Up Your Facebook Store Jason Cook, Doba's Marketing Technology Specialist, introduces the multimedia tutorial that explains how to set up your Facebook store. Do you have a question you want answered? Email education@doba.com.
	Supplier Information: New Suppliers and Products from the Doba Product Catalog Expand your niche with new products and suppliers added to the Doba Product Catalog.

Featured Article: Where to Sell: Amazon.com

By Jake Sabey, Education Specialist - Doba

As an online retailer, it's nice to have as many markets as possible to list your products in. Doing so will give you the opportunity to extend your brand and target different types of customers. With that strategy in mind, we're going to publish a series of new blog entries aimed at helping online retailers who focus on drop-shipped products understand the different places they can sell Doba products online. To kick things off, today I will concentrate on Amazon.com:

Launched in 1995 as one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet, Amazon.com started as an online bookstore. Over the years, Amazon diversified its product selection and even started an online auction to rival eBay.

For a time, Amazon.com Auctions was the only legitimate competition eBay had in the U.S. They had only limited success, and chose to focus on their core strength — the fixed-price platform on which they were built.

Today, retailers are able to list on Amazon.com's retail marketplace, which enjoys much higher visitation than Amazon.com Auctions ever did. Because of this, we'll focus this particular dossier on Amazon's retail marketplace.

Pros

Two types of sellers account to choose from: the Individual Plan (sell a little) or Pro Merchant Plan (sell a lot).
Sellers typically report higher average selling prices than on auction sites.
Amazon.com handles payment and refund requestsâ€¦ the result: no deadbeat buyers.
Sellers are offered an "even playing field" through standardized product pages. Buyers use Amazon's standard checkout process, increasing consumer trust based on Amazon's reputation. Tutorials and webinars to help you get started as an Amazon seller.

Cons

Amazon's policies seem strict when compared to some other marketplaces. Standardized listings make it more difficult for individual sellers to stand out.
Shipped items must be packaged according to Amazon.com's specifications.
Amazon competes as a seller alongside third-party sellers like online retailers who use Doba.

Doba Friendliness

Currently, no method is available to push Doba products directly to Amazon.com. While Amazon.com has no restrictions on listing drop-ship items, orders must be shipped within two (2) business days.

Before listing an item, you must obtain the ASIN (Amazon.com's unique identifier for a product) for items that have previously been listed on the Amazon.com marketplace. New items require a UPC code or ISBN (for books).

Fees

Items can be listed for free (through the Individual Plan), but a 6 to 15 percent commission, a variable closing fee, and a $0.99 per-transaction fee is applied when a sale occurs. A subscription based Pro Merchant account, in which the $0.99 transaction fee is waved on all orders, is available for all sellers at a cost of $39.99 per month. For more about Amazon.com selling fees, visit the Sell on Amazon.com Page.

Features

Free unlimited listings—pay only if you sell
Payments are through direct deposit
Discounts for volume sellers with a Pro Merchant subscription
Put listings on "vacation" (temporarily suspend) at any time for any period of time
Amazon CPC (cost per click) Product Ads — get more traffic to your website

About the Author:

Author
Jake is an eBay Certified Consultant whose educational strategies and methodologies help many of our online retailers meet and exceed their business-related goals. Jake specializes in educating retail merchants, writing articles for publication, and managing newsletters and reports to continually meet our customer's needs. Prior to joining Doba, Jake worked as a team leader, supervisor, and trainer for Toys R Us Inc., Sinclair Oil, SBC, and AT&T. When not working Jake can be found becoming one with nature while tearing up our local canyon roads on his Harley-Davidson, or spending time with his beautiful wife and two 4-year old girls.

Partner Highlight

Terapeak
Terapeak is an eBay Certified Services Provider that offers a comprehensive and easy to use web-based market research tool. Using data that Terapeak gathers from closed eBay listings, upstart hobbyists and eBay Power Sellers alike can develop a successful eBay sales strategy and determine the best time of the day and week to sell, and what price and auction format to use. Terapeak's powerful research tool takes into account two years worth of trending data, and reveals up and coming hot items, the best keywords to use in your listings, and more. Terapeak provides Doba members with free access to their award-winning tool. Your data research awaits.. Start using Terapeak today!

Member Q&A: Doba Tutorial: Setting Up Your Facebook Store

By Jason Cook, Support Supervisor - Doba

The Doba My Deals application allows you to sell products from the Doba product catalog using your Facebook account. Since the launch of the My Deals application on Facebook, we have received some questions concerning how to set up the store and where to edit the push settings as well. In this tutorial, you will learn how to edit the push settings inside the Push to Marketpalce Tool. You will also learn how to set up your Facebook store.

Not using the My Deals application, get started here: http://www.doba.com/members/marketplace/settings

To view the tutorial of how to set up your Facebook store, click here: http://www.doba.com/win/members/tutorials/facebook.html

About the Author:

Jason Cook - Marketing Technology Specialist, Doba
Every company our size needs an ombudsman â€” that one person who works tirelessly to ensure customersâ€™ concerns are heard and addressed — and here at Doba, Jason is that person. A recent college graduate (Bachelors of Science degree in Information Systems from the University of Utah), when heâ€™s not working, Jason can be found watching as much football as his wife will let him, or up in the mountains snowboarding at his favorite resort, Snowbird.

Partner Highlight

3XP Web Solutions
3XP Web Solutions gives you everything you need to start an online business in one complete and easy system, including a web store and a merchant account so you can accept credit cards. Best of all it is seamlessly integrated with the Doba product catalog! Also included are traffic analysis tools, search engine submission, domain name registration, multi-tiered affiliate program, and more. Click here to view 3XP's special offer for Doba members!

Supplier Information: New Suppliers and Products from the Doba Product Catalog

Starting an online business is relatively easy. Making it a success takes hard work and the right mix of products. To help you achieve your business-related goals, we recently added new wholesale suppliers and manufacturer to the Doba Catalog:

Supplier Forest - Offers a robust collection of rings, earrings, pendants, necklaces, silver jewelry, birthstone jewelry, and watches.