ETD: 761 What is best alternative to bring new product to
market?; Alternate payment options; Future Now, Inc.
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Sat Feb 14 21:51:44 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0761 February 17, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] What is best alternative to bring new product to market?
[3] Alternate payment options
[4] Future Now, Inc.
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
I am in London on business this week. Hopefully, E-Tailer's Digest will
get out on time.
Today we have answers to the query on bringing new products to
market. Some good stuff from John Shulte and Jules Kaplan. What do you
think?
On Thursday we will have a special report by Jim Straw - something that
affects us all.
We have a profile on Future Now, Inc. and list member Bryan
Eisenberg. Let's hear about your business, which will remain for
posterity at our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] What is best alternative to bring new product to market?
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I'll take for granted that you will already have all your basic facts in
order. Wholesale pricing with quantity discounts. What commission rate you
will pay if someone gets you an order. And any other extra service you will
offer, like drop shipping. etc... Make sure you have adequate profit
margins for a retailer. I look at hundreds of products each year and one of
the most common mistakes I see is the inventor/manufacturer thinking a
reseller will work on a 20% margin. It's keystone minimum folks! Unless
you're providing a special service like drop-shipping, then maybe 40% margin.
Here is the marketing process that has been most successful for me over the
years.
1. A basic web page is very important, with good description and pictures.
Make sure at least one of the pictures shows the product in use. It helps
if you have your web page on a web site that has high search engine
rankings and visitors that are marketing people. I can't help but recommend
the NMOA product marketing department for this. http://www.nmoa.org/Products
2. Create a sell sheet that you can print on demand from your color
printer. I would not have them printed in bulk right away because things
change a lot the first year of marketing and I hate it when you get stuck
with a pile of sell sheets that have outdated info on them.
3. A press release sent to every conceivable interested party. E.g. Trade
Magazines, Related Consumer Magazines, major product distributors. Again, a
good picture of the product in use should be part of it. Make sure you have
your contact info on the back of each picture. Including your web site
address. In fact,
4. When first presenting the product to resellers, I always start with mail
order catalogs and infomercial people first because I have found them to be
the most receptive to looking at and trying new products that have no track
record or have limited sales.
5. I also now recommend testing one or more pay per click wholesale search
engines. I personally use the one our association partners with that can
found in our product marketing department.
6. Repeat 3 & 4.
If I were to add anything to this, I would contact the Manufactures Agents
National Association
http://www.manaonline.org/
Hope this helps.
--
Best regards,
John Schulte
President and Chairman
National Mail Order Association (NMOA)
http://www.nmoa.org
Email: schulte at nmoa.org
Tel: 612-788-1673
http://www.nmoa.org/schulte
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[3] Alternate payment options
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Our moderator mention accepting credit cards, but you forgot one other
method of accepting payments, especially in the United States and that is
by Electronic Check or better know as ACH or EFT.
Here are some facts you may be interested:
Electronic Payments Market
According to a study commissioned by the Federal Reserve, there were
approximately 42.5 billion paper check transactions in the U.S. in 2001,
representing $39.3 trillion in value. The vast majority of these checks
are for relatively small amounts, and about half are for amounts of $100 or
less:
Distribution of Checks by Dollar Value
Dollar Value <> Percentage of total
$0.01 - $50 <> 33.3%
$50.01 - $100 <> 14.7%
$100.01 - $500 <> 28.6%
$500.01 - $1,000 <> 10.1%
$1,000.01 - $2,500 <> 6.3%
$2,500.01 - $5,000 <> 3.5%
$5,000.01 and over <> 3.4%
This represents a staggering amount of billing, processing, and collection
effort and expense, mostly for collecting on relatively small amounts. As
a result, both payees and payers are seeking easier solutions, and the use
of electronic payments is growing at a stunning pace. Some important
market observations include:
o The number of e-commerce check transactions in the U.S. grew from 74.6
million in 2001 to 233.1 million in 2002, a 212% annual rate of growth.
o Overall e-check transactions (including accounts receivable, telephone,
point of purchase, and e-commerce) grew from 172 million in 2001 to 491.7
million in 2002, a 186% annual rate of growth. There is significant room
for continued growth, considering the 42.5 billion paper checks still being
used.
o According to the Federal Reserve, 62% of all checks are written by
businesses, 19% by consumers, and the remainder by governments or by
unknown sources.
o Over 250 million paper checks are returned each year due to insufficient
funds. Bank fees for returned checks are relatively high; our solution
cuts these costs by 75% or more.
You can see it is a very large market and any retailer, wholesaler or
manufacturer should consider this method of accepting payment, besides our
company does not charge a percentage of the transaction, but a flat
fee. This is a win win situation for the company.
Yours truly
Jules Kaplan
Ez Payment Solutions LLC (EZP)
EZP is a secure Electronic Invoicing Presentmentment and Payment (EIPP)
service that allows users to create, send, receive and process electronic
invoices and make secure online payments by ACH-EFT or Credit Card.
E-Commerce Solution that you have to SEE to BELIEVE www.onlinechek.com /
www.ezpaymentservices.com
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[4] Future Now, Inc.
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Future Now, Inc. helps websites optimize their conversion rates in order to
get more sales, leads, registrations, etc. By optimizing your website for
conversion you get a better return of investment while enhancing the
experience for your visitors.
Since 1998 we have focused exclusively on improving conversion rates and
persuading visitors to take action. We integrate principles of consumer
psychology, marketing, design, usability, copywriting, search engine
marketing, and web analytics to round out our approach. We also have
published close to half a million words on the topic to help marketers do
it on their own.
Back in 1998 everyone was concerned about bringing in more traffic, we
wondered why people weren't concerned about sales and the bottomline. So we
started Future Now, Inc. We have been optimizing website for conversion
since 1998.
All of our business comes from people who read either our articles,
newsletter, books or reports, the may hear one of us speak or are referred
by a colleague. We never sell or have any kind of outbounds sales effort.
We offer numerous free and low cost resources to get people started. Paid
services start from $3500 for a conversion assessment all the way to
six-figure year long monthly contracts. As any consultant will tell you it
depends on how big your problem is.
Visit our website at http://www.futurenowinc.com or call 877-643-7244.
Bryan Eisenberg
Principal
Future Now, Inc.
2401 East 23rd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11235
Tel: 877-643-7244
Fax: 718-332-5580
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Links to follow
==================================================================
GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.gapent.com/
Sarbanes-Oxley 2002 http://www.sarbanes-oxley2002.com
E-Tailer's Digest http://www.etailersdigest.com
ETD Archives: http://topica.com/lists/etailer/read
Prior to 29 Dec
1999 http://etailersdigest.com/archives/index.htm
Marketing Your Web http://www.gapent.com/myweb/
Automated Press Releases http://www.automatedpr.com
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