By Chris Malta
If you spend any length of time selling products
on the Internet, you’re going to find out that
it’s very hard to sell "very low priced" products.
What? Why is that? You’d think that people would
LOVE to pay Very Low Prices for products!
Well, that’s true, when they’re getting value for
their money. But there is one thing that will make
your customer back up so fast, they’ll have to make
a "beeping" noise, like a big truck in reverse:
Shipping charges.
Ah, yes. Shipping Charges. The bane of the Internet
Retailer. Ground shipping, air, motor freight.
Residential delivery surcharge. Shipping insurance
charge. Signature release charge. They get you
coming and going. (Literally!).
We sell brand name products on the Internet using
the Drop Shipping method. We have genuine wholesale
distributors who will fill our single-item orders
by wending the products we sell DIRECTLY to our
customers from the warehouse, with our business
name on the package. Very low cost and effective.
BUT... they still have to charge us shipping, which
means we still have to charge our CUSTOMERS shipping.
Normally, that’s just fine. Internet customers
understand shipping charges, and with most products,
it’s not even an issue.
However, what happens when you have a site that sells
an "accessory" type product that goes along with your
general product line, but only costs about $5 retail?
A customer comes along and wants to buy that
inexpensive accessory, but during the process of
completing the order, they realize they are going to
have to pay about $7 in shipping.
Ouch! $12 for a $5 accessory? Don’t think so.
So what do you do? Are you going to deprive your
customers of the "accessories" that go along with your
general product line, and possible lose that
customer’s attention for good?
Not your first choice, is it?
There’s a way around this problem for many types of
products.
Suppose your site sells those cool Velcro-type dart
boards that parents love to give their kids, because
Velcro tips won’t put holes in the walls, or in the
other kids either, for that matter. The dart boards
come with a supply of plastic darts.
However, we’re talking about KIDS here. Plastic darts
break. They disappear. They go running off down the
road taped to the tail of the neighbor’s cat. Someday,
little Johnny is going to want to play darts with a
Dart Set that has no darts. There will be crying
involved; I have three kids and a grandson, and I know
that sound.
Some parents will think ahead and buy some extra darts
from you when they order the Set in the first place.
Most will not.
Ok, someone comes back to your site and wants to order
another set of three plastic Velcro darts. You sell
them for $5. The shipping cost is $7.
$12 for three plastic Velcro-tipped darts? Guess what!
Johnny’s Mom or Dad is going to decide to spend some
time convincing Johnny that the Dart Set was never any
fun anyway. It won’t be easy, and Mom or Dad will
probably blame YOU for that, whether they should or not.
:o)
So what can you do about that?
It’s very simple.
You can "group" those little accessory packages of darts,
and sell them as "sets".
For example, group FOUR of those $5 packages of darts
together as a single product on your site, and call it a
"Complete 4-player Dart Set" (each player uses three darts
while playing, so 4 sets covers 4 players.) That way, you
have something you can charge $20 for (or a little less,
since you’re moving them in bulk), and the $7 shipping
charge suddenly doesn’t seem like so much to little
Johnny’s Mom or Dad.
Think about how happy THEY’LL be with the idea too... EXTRA
sets of darts for the NEXT time Johnny’s darts skip off
into the Twilight Zone of Lost Toys!
Stretching it a bit? Sure I am! It’s a story, for the sake
of illustration, but there’s a solid truth at the core:
When you sell products that require accessories from time
to time, you should also be able to supply the accessories
in a manner that will be comfortable for the customer.
Think about this too: the products don’t HAVE to be
accessories. This works for ANY individual products that
just happen to be very low priced to begin with. Be
creative!
Grouping products into "Sets" can’t be done with every
product, but you should be able to think of a way to do
it for most!
