Questions for an Ecomm Guru

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Questions For an ECommerce Guru

Hello,

So, I've been working on a few projects now, but I'm really looking to establish an Ecommerce property or 3...I've read many of the Ecomm threads here. Literally, I spent a few hours today at work reading them lol. (MJ move getting paid to read lol)

I've got a few questions on product sourcing that I believe may help many new Ecommerce entrepreneurs reading this. Hopefully some can chime in and drop some knowledge.

1. Do you recommend starting your own brand or retail site first? I want to build my own brand with 1 physical product. I'll use Amazon but my focus would be on building an actual business/brand as appose to just floating random products on Amazon. If you are going to do online retail first, do you contact the brands that you're interested themselves to purchase from or work with a wholesaler?

2. I know a lot of people source product from Alibaba and toss it up on Amazon without even changing or branding a product - basically trading. I don't understand why anyone would do this if everyone is going to be selling the same stuff? Do you worry about any type of patent infringement? Patent infringement seems to be my biggest fear because many of the products are alike in so many ways. Do you brand the product? Do you change the product your own way and have you had difficulties with the language barrier sending your message to manufacturers on exactly what you want?

To me, I would use Amazon but I'd rather build my own site and drive traffic through SEO, paid ads, and social media. There's just something about trading from alibaba to Amazon that I don't like. Far to many people are doing it but more importantly, they could potentially lose control when China starts sending their goods straight to FBA.

3. Do you launch a product off of an idea or are you just scouring Alibaba for hours finding something to sell? If you had an idea for a product, do you look to Alibaba/manufacturers first and try to change a pre-existing product or draw up mocs, develop a functional prototype, and then bring that to manufacturers? Do you prefer American manufacturers? Am I looking too far into this?

4. Once you get your product to sell, post samples, how long after do you use a fulfillment service or FBA?

5. What are your 3 big focuses on establishing a new relationship with a Chinese manufacture? What do you look for on their Alibaba account? Red Flags to look for to avoid scams.

6. Payment options - What do you recommend? Are there any type you prefer over another and why?

7.Shipping - what do you recommend for samples vs actual product. I know nothing about logistics in terms of FCL/LCL/Rail/Air. Anything I should keep my eye on or know?

8. Is there anything specific to know about hammering out the deal such as payment and production terms, pricing terms, etc?

9. Should you be protected such as under an LLC prior to purchasing product or should you experiment a bit then file.

I'd love to continue on this as I'm sure many people have similar questions.

Appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Stevie

 

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