iMark Interactive

This is going to be the year of mobile ecommerce and if you have an internet ecommerce business, then you need to jump on board.  Each year the number of smartphone users increases and we become more reliant on our blackberries and iphones.  There are many times when people are not in front of their computers in order to make purchases online and you want to be in front of them at all times.  With a mobile commerce store, you can do this and still capture sales from every potential customer.

With mobile commerce being so new, there are not too many providers to assist retailers with creating a reasonably priced mobile store, at least until now.  A company called App Publishing Group has created Mobile Store Maker, which enables retailers or anyone that wants a mobile store to create a storefront with ease.  They provide this for a simple fee of $20 per month, but provides you with 30 days to test out the product.  This is a great deal for anyone that wants to get into mobile ecommerce.

You can have your retail mobile store setup within a few minutes after downloading their start up kit.  This provides you with tips and tricks in order to maximize your mobile store.  All you have to do is import your products and then change the design features to make it look original.  It is wise that you try to keep the colors consistent with your website.  They have a good amount of features that are not included with many other service providers, so you are getting a great deal for only $2o per month.  Their feature set is as follows:

• Simple To Use
• Create Actual Internet Store in Minutes!
• Sell Products or Services From Any Smartphone
• No Technical Knowledge Required
• Easy to Customize Store With Your Company Info
• Load Products Manually or Use a Spreadsheet
• Load Product Images Manually or Use a Spreadsheet
• Automatically Creates Thumbnails
• Use Authorize.net, Google Checkout or PayPal
• Increase Sales
• WYSIWYG Page Editing
• No Long Term Contract Required
• No Software to Download

If you are in the market for an ecommerce mobile store, then check out Mobile Store Maker and test out the features to see if they fit your needs.  If you are on the fence, then I would suggest that you try it out for 30 days to see if it can increase your sales.  Even if you do not get the desired results within the 30 days, maybe you should allocate some funds to keep it running for about 6 months.  This should give you time to properly market the mobile store and test out different product mixes.  If you have tried this software, what do you think about it?  What are the pros and cons and does it work for your store?  We would like to know your opinion on mobile commerce.

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We have a list of 10 checklist items that every Small Business needs to think about.  While we did create a more detailed version of each, we are going to put them all in this post for easy access and readability.  This is for anyone looking to start a business in the new year or for anyone that has just started a business and wants more information on how to keep it going.  Below is our Small Business Checklist.  Click each item for the full article.

Small Business Checklist Item #1 – Business Name

Choose a business name that suits what you want to do and plan to do in the future.  Many entrepreneurs try to pick a name that they like, but sometimes it does not encompass what your company is going to do.  A word of advice that many people do not think about is that you should not have a company name that has your name in it.  The main reason for this is because if you ever have a chance to sell the business, there is less likelyhood that someone will purchase your business because of the name.  Business Investors and purchasers want a name that can keep people interested and is memorable.  Using your name is an easy way to create a company name, but not the most effective in the long run.

Small Business Checklist Item #2 – Research

We need to expand a little further on the Business name from yesterday. Please make sure that after you pick a business name, make sure you have the right to use it in your state. You can usually check this out with your Secretary of State website. Once you verify that you can get it, go to the register of deeds and fill out a DBA form to secure the name and then do it with the Secretary of State (depending on your business form, which we will discuss a little later)

Small Business Checklist Item #3 – Business Structure

Ok, so you have done your research and realize that your business idea is a viable one.  Now you need to look into how you want to structure your business.  There are 4 basic structures to choose from with variations within each structure.  The main thing that you need to think about are covered with the following points.

Small Business Checklist Item #4 – Business Plan

This is a step that many small businesses forget to do.  While a business plan is not really required to run your business, it is a very helpful tool.  If you do not know what a business plan is, it is simply a written format of how you want to run the business and what the business stands for, as well as the mission of the company.  These can take time to create, but they will help you in the future to keep your company on track with your original goals.

Small Business Checklist Item #5 – Proper Forms and IDs

We know that it can be exciting to start up a new company and get selling or have your ideas become reality.  The one thing that we ask is that you make sure that you have all the proper forms and certificates in order to sell properly.  Each state require a certain set of forms in order to be a legal business, most require business license and sales tax ID’s.

Small Business Checklist Item #6 – Take Inventory or Dropship

We are asked about this more times than we can count.  Please note that this tip is really only dealing with companies that sell online, not really traditional retailers with brick and mortar stores.  This is an important discussion because it lays the foundation to how success you can be either online.  We will go through some quick pros and cons of each, so you can make a little more informed decision.

Small Business Checklist Item #7 – Insurance

To insure or Not to Insure?  This is a good question, but the answer is simple……Get insurance!  There are many of you out there that have not taken the time to look into good business insurance for whatever company you run.  This is a very important part of business to protect your investment.  We will not go into detail about all the insurance types out there for businesses, but we will show you some points to think about.

Small Business Checklist Item #8 – Calculate Profit Margins

This is a simple task to accomplish, but we have spoken to many people that have started a business that never really looked into creating prices for their products or services that gave them a positive net margin.  We are sure that many of you have probably done this as your started your business, so this tip is really for those thinking about starting one or just starting one.  Please take the time to properly calculate your profit margins on your products or services.

Small Business Checklist Item #9 – Employees

If your company is at the stage where it needs to hire employees, you better take this stage very seriously.  You are going to be trusting people with the company that you build from the ground up, so you need to make sure that you take the proper steps in hiring the right individuals.

Small Business Checklist Item #10 – Social Media

As the internet ages and online marketing gets harder, companies need to now think about using social media as a marketing medium.  If your company is not using social media as a way to attract new customers, then you really need to think about starting.  Social Media outlets include blogs, twitter, facebook, you tube, and more.  These are great venues to build your brand online.

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If you are starting a business or have run a business online and you take payments from customers, this is a tip that you need to listen to.  There are many bad customers out there that do not wish to pay for the goods that you provide or they are not financially able to do so.  This is where the dreaded chargeback comes in.  For those who do not know about chargebacks, it is the ability of the customer to reverse the charge with their credit card company, which puts you at risk of losing the money from that sale.  The worst part is, if a customer does a chargeback for an item that they already received, then you not only lost the item, but you could lose the money as well.  It is easy for customers to chargeback purchases, but it is hard for retailers to fight the chargeback.

Well, if you are about to start or have already battled the chargeback, there is a relatively new service out there for retailers that will help reduce the risk.  Badcustomer.com is a free service to retailers if they qualify, that has a huge database of over 6 million customers and their risk assessment.  About 300 retailers put information into the database and if you integrate your order process with badcustomer, you can get flags for customers that have a high probability of chargebacks.  This can save you thousands of dollars or more because it is a tedious process that you will usually lose.  We just wanted to let you know about this service because it will not only help you recoup the possible loses, but it will slow these bad customers down from doing it at other retailers.

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We are asked about this more times than we can count.  Please note that this tip is really only dealing with companies that sell online, not really traditional retailers with brick and mortar stores.  This is an important discussion because it lays the foundation to how success you can be either online.  We will go through some quick pros and cons of each, so you can make a little more informed decision.

Inventory: This is the most traditional method of selling items, where you purchase a large quantity of items from a manufacturer or a distributor for the items you plan on selling.  Doing this allows you to manage your profit margins a little more along with a tighter inventory control system.  You know that you dislike when you order something online just to find out that it is out of stock.  With taking on inventory, you can deal with this in a more efficient manner.  The largest issue of taking on inventory is the initial cost of doing so.  If you are planning on selling a lot of different items, then your costs can be in the millions and you have to be sure that you can sell them successfully.  If not, then you are responsible for all the items that you do not sell.  This can pose a large problem for small businesses because most do not have the cash to put into inventory or the right insurance that will keep them safe when being stored.  Another issue is shipping and storing the items.  You would probably need a storage facility in order to keep them safe, but a way to ship them out fast and efficiently, not to mention the costs of such things.  If you plan on only selling a few items, then a lot of times this option is great, but take the time to find the items at a great wholesale price that you can actually make a decent profit on.

DropShipping: This is a relatively new way to deal with selling online, but it is becoming widely used.  There are many manufacturers as well as distributors that will do this for you, but most charge a fee, like $1.50 per shipment or more.  There are some distributors that do not charge a fee, but you have to reach a certain amount of shipments per month or year.  The main thing you need to take into account is if the dropship company is legitimate.  There are many out there that say that they will provide you a wholesale price, but in turn do not.  Most searches that you do online will not help you.  Most distributors do not have their sites listed well in search engines because they do not want people just trying to sell goods.  You have to have the proper licenses in order to get setup with these companies.  If they charge you a setup fee, then it is probably not a good company to work with.  Most reputable distributors will not charge you a setup fee, but if they do it will be minuscule.   Dropshipping can save you the upfront capital needed to inventory items, but you will have some problems with inventory management because there are many other companies using the same distributor.  Please check with them to see if they will provide you with up to date inventory so you can work that into your backend shopping cart with your online store.  This will help reduce the out of stock emails that you have to send to customers after ordering.

If you are just starting up, you can definitely try out dropshipping because it is becoming very popular and much more efficient than it used to be.  If you start out doing well, then you can most likely change over to inventory and deal with your inventory they way that you want to.  Both methods are good for different businesses, but make sure you take the time to research each one and find out which will work with you and will be good for future growth.

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