Forum Moderators: buckworks
Recently, I noticed a few ecommerence sites that seemed to be heavily templated in style. Possibly turnkeys with dropshipped merchandise.
Blandness of web design was a dead giveaway and home made logos that didn't match the webdesign was another.
However, I visited one nice site last week and ordered a few parts from them thinking that this was a real company. When the package arrived I found that the entire order was dropshipped from the manufacturer.
Audio connectors. Great stuff at a good price, IMHO.
As a result I have been thinking of starting my own turnkey business as a side to my existing one.
I think, perhaps, if it can bring in at least an extra $300 in profit per month it will be a good thing.
However, what all is involved? Are there any hidden costs, scams or pitfalls I'd have to look out for?
Are there sites out there that can help me with my research on the subject?
Tonight I saw a few eBay sellers offering turnkey site packages. I am not too sure about those, however. The description language of one seller reeked of "snake oil" style sale pitch.
What is your opinion on turnkey ecommerence stores?
Darren
I have looked into this in great detail but could not come to any conclusion whether it is worth it. Certainly it looks like a lot of extra effort just for $300 extra. There are 3 possibilities
1. The affliated site owner takes payment himself and sets the prices. He then orders directly from you at a discount rate.
2. The afflilated site owner may set prices but you take the payment and give the site owner the difference in price. This way, the site owner would be acting as a sort of affiliate. This model is used by realceo and resellerpanel
3. The affilated site owner is not allowed to set the price and you take the payments. This model is used by vstore
However, there are quite a lot of technical issues involved. I was thinking of using clones of OSCommerces or Cubecarts but there would be real problems when you want to add, , or delist products. Also, it would not prevent the site owner from carrying other products.
What we really need are self-replicating shopping carts so that when you make any changes, it is replicated along all your affliated sites at once. However, each affiliated site owner should still have the option of setting his prices. I wonder if anybody knows of such scripts like the one used by realceo or resellerpanel?
My suspicion is that in the end, most affiliated sites will not make any sales and therefore the effort may not be worth it. If I do set up such a program, I would charge a set-up fee of $50 which is refundable after $200 in sales. This way, I would hope to keep out people who are not serious or those who joined as a way of getting discounts
Derek
