Finding the best product lines is an art, and will likely evolve as your business grows. Some of the best places to find product lines are in trade magazines and at buyers market shows. Both provide access to a wealth of vendors and exhibitors and don’t require you to travel very far at all. Simply flip through pages or click and print booth lists. Also, size up your competition. Buy your competition’s products. Study them. Understand their key benefits and key downfalls. Evaluate the good, bad, and indifferent, and develop competitive product strategies accordingly.

Once you have your list of potential lines in-hand, how do you know which ones you should buy? If you source and buy the wrong products, you’ll likely end up with a bunch of dead stock that sits around in storage. If you paid for this with a credit card upfront, even worse, because you are paying interest on all that immobile inventory.

There are a lot of things to consider. These questions will help you narrow down the best product lines for your store, and should help you avoid those lines that will become worthless.

1.    Will this line compliment your existing offering? Will it be relevant to your target market? It can be difficult to decide which products to buy if you’re not looking at them sitting physically next to each other on a shelf. Imagine your ecommerce business like a brick and mortar store. If you were to put all of your products into one physical location, would they all fit together?

2.    How does this product or brand appear in search results? Look at the competition for paid search (Google or Yahoo). If there aren’t many ads or relevant pages, and you know this brand has a strong or growing following, then this is probably a good line for you to buy.

3.    Will the manufacturer allow you to use their brand name in your advertising? Surprisingly, the answer is not always yes.

4.    Are there seasonal buys? For example, to continue supplying this product for your customers, do certain amounts have to be purchased at certain times of the year? If the amount of product isn’t something you can hold or afford several times a year, then perhaps it isn’t the line for you.

5.    Do you have to stick to a strict MSRP to sell these products? If your site competes with others on price, then this probably isn’t the product for you. Conversely, the internet is one of the hardest places to compete on price. If your site has many strict MSRP brands, then you should emphasis other tangible assets like shopping ease of use or customer service.

6.    How quickly will you be able to get this product in to your hands? Delivery typically ranges anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months, so you’ll need to plan accordingly.

7.    Will the manufacturer provide product flats, or will you have to take these photos yourself? ‘Flats’ are pictures of the single item on a white or grey background made just for the internet. The answer to this question could seriously affect how quickly you are able to get these products on your site, and therefore, how quickly you can sell them.

Finally, make a plan or calendar for product line buys and try to stick to it. Prioritize each line from most important buy to least important buy. Schedule the most important product buys first and the rest throughout the remainder of the year.

Above all, take your time and be patient with your product lines. The worst you can do is act too hastily and buy a stock room full of products you can’t sell.

This is the first part in a series on how you can put your business on the web & attract customers interested in your products & services. It’s an overview of the steps to take & I’ll cover a topic each day.

It’s like building a house & that’s the analogy that I’ll use. I’ll also include the many resources & products that Network Solutions offers to make it straightforward & customized to your needs.

1. Find a location for your house & an address – purchase a domain name

The best part about having a business online is that it’s relatively inexpensive to get started. It’s much more inexpensive to have a business online than in a physical location! I’ll take the guesswork out of choosing a domain name. Once you’ve decided on a domain name, Network Solutions makes purchasing it easy.

2. The foundation – hosting package

Every house needs solid footings to support the infrastructure. Network Solutions offers a number of options so that you’re able to start your online website off to a good start.

3. Building it – planning architecture & choosing the design

As with a house there are many ways to build a website. Network Solutions has options for every level. If you’d like to do it yourself you can no matter whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned programmer. And if you’re just too busy then Network Solutions has talented people that will do it for you!

4. Furnishing it –

content is very important

An empty house is of no interest to those that live there or are visitors. So it’s important to create information that’s of value & is relevant to your visitors. And if you keep adding more then it will give people a reason to keep returning to see what’s new.

5. Helping customers locate your house – SEO, keywords, & metatags

Once you get your house built it’s not of much value if people can’t find it. There are some straightforward things that can be done to help those searching find your site. Search engine optimization (generally abbreviated as SEO) sounds complicated but Network Solutions offers services to assist you with it. Keywords & metatags are also helpful to providing a more direct path to your site.

6. Doing business - ecommerce, paypal

It’s as easy as using a spare room for an office. Network Solutions has a number of options for setting up your site to allow people to purchase your products. They also have an in-depth article on selling online.

7. Inviting people to your house – marketing & networking

Once your website it set up & ready for business the last step is to get the word out. There are two parts to this. Network Solutions offers some great options for helping with marketing. And I’ll also give some tips on finding & networking with potential customers.

As you can see it’s relatively easy to get started. Start thinking about how you want people to find you online because that’s our first step!

Part 2 Choosing a Hosting Package

Part 3 Website Builder

Part 4 Content

Part 5 SEO, Keywords & Metatags

When you decide to sell your products online you will need to have a way for people to make payments. It’s also called a shopping cart. In addition you will need an SSL certificate. It provides secure transactions. Your customers need to feel comfortable using their credit cards.

An ecommerce solution offers you many benefits. Your customers can purchase 24/7. They can also purchase from any location where they have internet access (which increases your market share). And there is very little overhead.

Network Solutions has a number of options for setting up your site to allow people to purchase your products. They also have an in-depth article on selling online.

Tips and Tricks for optimizing an e-commerce Web site

The Steady Rise Of Ecommerce

Ecommerce Credibility Building

And there other articles at MySolutionSpot.com as well as ask your questions in the forums there.