Why Your Online Business Isn't Making Money Right Now!

**nickhumph** · 12-21-2008 05:33 PM

Taken from my blog @ nickhumph.com

Consumer’s are being careful with their money due to the recession and are looking for great deals. The online market is growing as a result. People don’t like to go to retailers and feel the flurry of pressure to buy and use their precious cash. Instead in the comfort of their own home, they go online and buy from the comfort of their own home.

It suggests why it is so very important to ship to other countries other than yours, where the exchange rate may be at a slump for buying but very attractive for buying. The aussie dollar which was flying high at 96:100 (US Dollar) five months ago, fell to a whopping 58 cents a month or two ago and is now tumbling at around the 69 cent mark.

Now at first, this downtrend seemed like the worst thing in the world that could happen to my business. It was only recently until I began receiving more volume of payments from other currencies which dramatically increased profits. All because I ship worldwide to foerign countries

It's a win-win situation with the seller and the foreign buyer. The buyer get's a bargain. The seller receives a sale.

So what can you do?

1. Accept Other Currencies:
If your profits are failing because of the recession then don’t worry. Begin to accept as many other currencies you can. If your payment provider doesn't allow this, then change it to one that does such as MoneyBookers or Paymate.

2. Ship to other countries:
Make sure you provide priority and express shipping to your buyers and set up an agreement with your shipper if possible.

3. Short-Term Localized or Globalized Marketing Campaign:
Market your products to countries that are strong to your currency. Tip: Strive for short-term campaigns, as the currency may uptrend again and diminish your campaign.

4. FrontPage Badge:
Place a big (colourful) badge, animation, header, link etc on your home page. One that says "We ship worldwide” or something similar to let your buyer’s know. With a badge the potential buyer from wherever land will immediately recognise that you do ship to Angola. As buyers can’t be bothered to check out each site they found on Google, finding the "shipping" link and trying to find if you ship to their country or not which is a scenario that happens way too often even with the most successful internet business.

5. Online Tracking:
If you sell expensive (over $500 US) or fragile items, make sure that you provide Online Tracking to your buyer. It will give the buyer confidence to purchase and peace of mind during shipping to know where the package has been, where it is now and when it will arrive.

6. Customs!
Watch out for customs! International customs can delay packages for at least a week, even six weeks! Equally important, the buyer may be charged money as a result! Put a message in your disclaimer or on your shipping page and let them know that they are fully responsible and liable for costs arising from customs.

7. Insurance:
99.5% of packages arrive to the buyer safely. It's that .5% is floating somewhere in space and the buyer never receives. Yes it's an expense to your business, but it's better than telling the buyer "Uhh Hi this is Mark from ABC company, yeah we kinda.. lost your $400 package and we dunno where it is and yeah.. you won't get a refund because it was un-insured". The angry customer will most likely never shop from you again and tell their friends not to buy from you.

**byzantium** · 12-22-2008 08:29 PM

This tends to only work with Western style mailing systems, those in Canada, Europe, Australasia, and some parts of Asia. The third world tends to not have the same idea of postal integrity as the West does. Shipping packages to parts of Africa, for example, tends to result in the packages being stolen and you getting a blizzard of Nigerian style scam letters in return. Other countries, especially in Latin America, have postal systems which deliberately "lose" everything mailed from the USA. There was one country, maybe Niger, which in the 90s had postal employees making odd requests, usually to take nude pictures of oneself, of senders of mail from the West.

On the Korean peninsula, where the Cold War never ended, the two sides love to steal each other's mail and send the sender propaganda mailings stating the interceptor's point of view. Americans in Korea usually avoid this by using the military postal system, but the civilian system is plagued with North Korean theft. The South steals the North's mail in return. Other systems open all foreign mail, no exceptions, and go through it. If they don't like it, into the trash it goes. China especially tends to be rather capricious with foreign mail.

This is why I avoid being an "authority" on stuff from foreign countries unless I can get verifiable information. I was in the shortwave radio hobby for 20 years, where lists of mail system oddities were passed around due to the side hobby of getting "QSL" signal verifications from all over the world, something I never cared about personally. It's easy to say "ship all over the world" and then getting fake credit cards from Ghana and Communist literature from North Korea in the mail instead of happy customers.

**nickhumph** · 12-23-2008 12:36 PM

Originally Posted by byzantium

This tends to only work with Western style mailing systems, those in Canada, Europe, Australasia, and some parts of Asia. The third world tends to not have the same idea of postal integrity as the West does. Shipping packages to parts of Africa, for example, tends to result in the packages being stolen and you getting a blizzard of Nigerian style scam letters in return. Other countries, especially in Latin America, have postal systems which deliberately "lose" everything mailed from the USA. There was one country, maybe Niger, which in the 90s had postal employees making odd requests, usually to take nude pictures of oneself, of senders of mail from the West.

On the Korean peninsula, where the Cold War never ended, the two sides love to steal each other's mail and send the sender propaganda mailings stating the interceptor's point of view. Americans in Korea usually avoid this by using the military postal system, but the civilian system is plagued with North Korean theft. The South steals the North's mail in return. Other systems open all foreign mail, no exceptions, and go through it. If they don't like it, into the trash it goes. China especially tends to be rather capricious with foreign mail.

This is why I avoid being an "authority" on stuff from foreign countries unless I can get verifiable information. I was in the shortwave radio hobby for 20 years, where lists of mail system oddities were passed around due to the side hobby of getting "QSL" signal verifications from all over the world, something I never cared about personally. It's easy to say "ship all over the world" and then getting fake credit cards from Ghana and Communist literature from North Korea in the mail instead of happy customers.

Hey there.

What your saying is true and is part of the reason why insurance plays a big factor.

Payment providers usually have some sort of security system enabled and checks for fraud either for free or at extra cost.

I should add avoid and do not ship to countries that are reputable for packages being problems such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Italy (Known for their long long delays in customs) and I could go on but insurance is vital for these reasons.

Cheers

**Elite Designer** · 12-23-2008 01:25 PM

If someone's online business isn't doing well right now it is only because of that person, not the economy. I am selling more than DOUBLE this December than I did last December. My customers are buying my products like crazy because I am great at my business! There is NO bad economy! That is just a myth perpetrated by the news media. Do not watch any news & don't read any news. All they do is preach doom & gloom which discourages you and makes you accomplish less! You will be much more successful if you totally ignore the news and just work as hard as you can every day! Think positive and think about your hopes and dreams all the time. Don't worry about anything!

**Fanatik** · 12-24-2008 01:58 PM

That's not realistic at all. The economy is in the sh!ts, whether you think so or not. And if you don't think so - you're freakin nuts. It does depend on the nature of your business, whether or not you're feeling the crunch. But I can vouch for businesses being hit by the economy, and it just sucks for those business owners.

Originally Posted by Elite Designer

If someone's online business isn't doing well right now it is only because of that person, not the economy. I am selling more than DOUBLE this December than I did last December. My customers are buying my products like crazy because I am great at my business! There is NO bad economy! That is just a myth perpetrated by the news media. Do not watch any news & don't read any news. All they do is preach doom & gloom which discourages you and makes you accomplish less! You will be much more successful if you totally ignore the news and just work as hard as you can every day! Think positive and think about your hopes and dreams all the time. Don't worry about anything!

**SmarterGroup** · 12-25-2008 07:09 PM

Hi Nick,

Some interesting comments.

I thought I should let you know that your signature link doesn't work.... it comes up with http://"http//www.nickhumph.com as opposed to http//www.nickhumph.com :0)