One of the startling things for Western enterprises entering the Chinese market is the willingness of local companies to engage in price war tactics. The price war has long been frowned upon in developed markets and is seen as a poor way to increase sales volumes at the expense of profits. In fact a senior executive team of a major Western brand that suggested competing in this manner would shortly find itself unemployed as shareholders reacted in disgust. This means that clever competitors in China from the local market have a substantial advantage in deploying the tactic, which works very well. Let's have a look at why.

Tip #1 Many people believe that finding a wholesaler is one of the most difficult aspects of setting up an ecommerce business. Locating wholesalers is not the problem; however, finding reliable wholesale product sourcing can be. For that reason, it is important that you take the time to perform due diligence on your suppliers. It is important that before you invest serious capital into a supplier, you test customer service, product quality, and delivery reliability. Online forums can also be of help in researching supplier bonafides. If possible, we recommend attending trade shows in your product line. This will allow you to see the products, meet company representatives and at least begin to form an impression of reliability.

For anyone selling physical products on eBay or through any other sort of online, retail business shipping and handling is something that must be thought out carefully. After all, if you can't deliver the goods reliably and at the least cost to you, you won't be in business very long. Any merchant selling physical goods can expect to face the need to send out items nationally and possibly internationally, and will need to know in advance how to factor in weight, size, packing material, handling fees, and taxes for state and local areas. If you sell many different items, then you will to know how to figure the cost of shipping numerous items of different weight and size. Fortunately, these are not difficult problems to solve.

When starting out on eBay, the first thing to do is register as a buyer and then register as a seller. Registering as a buyer is fairly straightforward. At this time you should also register a PayPal account, which is free. Once you complete that initial step, register as seller. To do this, click on the My eBay link at the top of the page and then click on the Seller link and follow the steps. During this step, you will be asked for information to verify your identity, and you will be asked how you want to pay your sellers fees. You will be given some choices, but I suggest you choose to keep a credit card on file, and I also recommend you pay the small fee to have eBay "instantly" verify your identity as a seller as this will not only speed the process but lend you seller credibility. Setting up a seller's account is very easy, and you shouldn't be put off by the initial steps.