Trade Articles

An informed buyer is a happy buyer. Suppliers should always keep briefing about the queries of a buyer, either online buyer or a physical one. Take some extra time and let your buyers know about the product, manufacturing duration, mode of payment, the shipping details, and other related information. This section will discuss about how to deal with buyers, how to reply their mails, tips for online business, etc.

Identifying Buyers
Finding affordable buyers is the foremost thing for a supplier. The best buyer candidates are your best partner candidates. The following mentioned tips will help in finding potential buyers:

• Be realistic and determine the best price in the market for your product.
• Clearly explain and promote the warranties and the return policies.
• Clearly state the shipping costs.
• Last but not the least, describe yourself very clearly and in brief.

Once you have identified a group of potential buyers, be accessible to them. Make phone calls or write mails. The serious buyer will be more likely to engage in business and if you are open and responsive to questions in a timely manner, the transaction will work out.

Dealing with Buyers
"The customer is always right." This is a great mantra to utter when a seller is a 'customer deserving total satisfaction.' In the interest of good business, good customer relations and lower blood pressure are the basic of all tips for sellers. Check out the following:

• Seller should respond to all user queries and e-mails quickly and thoroughly.
• To be successful with customers, seller should get to know them and have them get to know him. To achieve this there should be clear and concise communication. It will help in establishing the mood, methods, and ground rules of the transaction going to take place.
• Reply to the impatient buyers with ample communication stating when is the next status update, such as when payment arrives, when item is shipped, etc. Encourage these types of buyers to pay for the shipping method, which will provide online tracking i.e. they can watch the progress of their packages.
• While dealing with paranoid buyer, trust is the key element. Regardless of sellers excellent feedback rating and professional style, these buyers can not be very comfortable with the deal in progress. For these buyers, quickly and completely lay out the steps of deal that is going to take place and offer them some additional services, like insurance, package tracking, escrow, etc. to help them to feel more secure.

Replying to Buyers
In online trade, effective communication is all that it matters. It requires a great deal of care to express your view in the most concise and professional terms. In cross-border trade one another element emerges is that not everyone speaks the same language. Regardless of all the discomfort, the sending and answering e-mails should be in English. For a good communication put into consideration the following few tips:

• Try to send return e-mails within the same time to your customers.
• Never get emotional and hide behind your e-mail. Write when you are composed and relaxed, particularly to clients.
• Use shorter sentences.
• Use shorter words. Replace the longer one wherever it is necessary.
• The paragraph should focus on one idea.
• Maintain token of formalities. Use titles and family names in order to convey an attitude of propriety.
• Always do check for punctuation, spelling, and grammatical errors.
• Always avoid the use of slang, jargon, cliches and any other figures of speech like zero tolerance policy, done deal, etc.
• Be specific while you write and try to illustrate your points with concrete examples.
• Bring the e-mail to a clear conclusion.

Once you have finished writing, give a check. It might be necessary to re-write or re-organise it to make the message more clear.

Knowing Legal Obligations
Shopping online opens up a whole world, beyond physical boundaries, of goods and services. With a simple click of the computer mouse, one can order tulip bulbs directly from Holland, handicraft items from India, exotic spices from Turkey or handwoven wall hangings from Morocco or Mexico. Built more upon trust, as it is a virtual market, the sellers should know some of the legal obligations while promoting their product or service, either on their store site or linked through other websites. Take the following few legal obligations in consideration:

• A seller should always advertise their product or service and the terms of sale honestly and accurately. It should not mislead the consumers.
• All the claims should be substantiated. A claim can be misleading if any relevant information is left out or if it implies to something which is not true.
• The disclaimers and disclosures column should be clear and conspicuous. This mean that the consumers should be able to notice, read, and understand the information.
• Any demonstration must show about how the product will be performing under normal use.
• Advertising directed to children raises special issues. Sellers should take a special care that not a single word or graphic misrepresent the product or its performance while advertising for children.
• In case of online jewelry stores, make accurate and truthful claims about the jewelry being offered.
• In case of auction websites, the auctioneer is prohibited from auctioning illegal goods. Though many of the auction sites keep a regular check about the items offered, the responsibility of ensuring whether the sale is legal or not rests with the seller and the buyer. The auction site should post a list of prohibited items on their site as a guide for the bidders.
• Any e-commerce site, either online store or online auction house, it is very necessary to ship merchandise within the time frame, if specified, or within 30 days. If the shipping commitment is not met by the seller, an opportunity should be given to the buyer to cancel the order for a full refund or agree to new shipping date.
• The seller should state its return policy clearly on the page of shopping cart. It should include about who will be responsible for paying the shipping costs or restocking fees in case the item is returned.

10 Tips For A Perfect Online Business

1. Make a complete review of your competitors online market and check out plans of how you will differentiate yourself from your competitors.
2. Get a secure online solution for your shopping cart.
3. For online businesses, privacy policies are very essential. Be bold to exhibit privacy policies and it should describe how the data of customers personal contact information and financial details is used.
4. Obtain a seal of approval for your privacy policies through a renowned company who adhere and comply with its verification and dispute-resolution processes.
5. Fight computer viruses and try to protect the site as well as the computers with anti-virus software.
6. The payment service should be very secure.
7. Develop a strategic marketing plan that also includes determining and publishing the customer service policies.
8. Try to establish alliances with crucial partners, like with the product suppliers, the search engine optimizers, fulfillment of services, shippers, web technicians, marketing or public relation firms.
9. Create an online catalog or listings.
10. Key your inventory, the catalogs and listings up to date for your customers.