Some early Christmas Holiday season sales numbers are in and they are, if not quite in keeping with most rosy of projections, were still very encouraging to online retailers ands wholesale suppliers. Internet market research firm ComScore Networks has released a study of the online sales for the period of November 1st through December 12th and excludes all travel related spending. The grand total, during this period online spending reached $17.6 billion.

Among online advertisers using pay per click type ads, such as Google’s Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing you hear a lot of talk about click fraud and surely click fraud is the largest problem facing PPC advertisers. However, little attention is paid, in the media and in wholesale trade publication covering the unfair practice of trademark infringement by advertisers.

In recent years the notion that the Monday following the Thanksgiving holiday is the biggest online shopping day of the year has taken hold of online retailers in a big way. The importance of Cyber Monday has become a mantra for many wholesale suppliers and online retailers. Like many erroneous theories, it seems logical and self-evident on the surface but proves somewhat hollow on closer examination.

Online Electronics Wholesale is growing at a rate of 20% annually, and China Trade is exploding even faster.

China is a planet of factories, smog and cheap factory workers, and trade companies with websites. While many articles on the net have talked about the “limited” growth models of sourcing sites that link buyers with trade companies and not process or broker the final transaction, they don’t provide another secure online payment wholesale website that fills the void that sites like Alibaba and GlobalSources.com do not.

In the wholesale supply trade, now so thoroughly focus on the web, it is easy to lose track of an important market for many wholesale businesses, the flea market. It is difficult to be sure how many people attend flea markets around the globe every year but world-wide it is in the millions everyday.

The flea market trade magazine Swap Meet claims that most of are weekend affairs, but more and more are operating every day of the week. The biggest flea market of them all is said to be the one held once a month on the grounds of the Pasadena Rose Bowl, near Los Angeles. Over 40,000 browsers visit the stalls of over 2000 retailers selling everything from sunglasses to tools, from handbags to Betty Boop collectibles.

One of the things I love most about life is how easy it is to get terrific music compact discs for practically nothing. If you are a music fan willing to stray a little further a field than just the top 40, into either classical orchestral music or jazz from the old days for instance, you can buy tons of CDs for less than $10 and in some cases less than $5 each retail.

You know the ones I’m talking about; compilations of Billie Holiday’s or Ella Fitzgerald’s greatest hits, re-issues of recording by the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, or the Greatest Hits of the 17th Century. Not to mention collections of Gospel, Reggae, Classic R&B, and many others. Bargain CDs can be a smorgasbord for the music aficionado.

The holiday gifts and novelty season is upon us. Halloween is here and the Christmas season is just around the corner. This the season when retailer’s fancy turns to thoughts of decorations and those perfect items for under the tree. Merchants are running full speed to their wholesale suppliers with orders dripping with holiday enthusiasm.

However, their joy is often short lived once they get there. Good gift items and holiday decorations are harder to find than many other wholesale niches, apparel and house wares for example. Retailers with holiday orders are often forced to look beyond their regular suppliers to fill these invaluable holiday orders. If they don’t already have a good one waiting in the wings panic and despair become the order of the day.

The wholesale toy industry has already begun getting ready 2006 holiday season in a big way. Retail buyers can expect to be getting offers for thousands of potential gift items from their suppliers. New products are released and old ones given a big shot of hype. Each one is promised to be the key to a happy and financially sound holiday. Make no mistake, toys are big business; about $20 billion a year and the holiday season accounts for a big slice of that total.

However, a toy store can’t carry everything and it is often difficult to know which offers to accept and which to return to the shelf for another year. It is impossible to be sure how a particular toy will sell, especially brand new ones, but toys that have done well all year are safe bets to do even better come Christmas time.

Many online and small business retailers are intrigued by the notion of selling low cost customer return and close out merchandise. The idea of getting brand name merchandise at tremendously reduced cost appeals to the merchant for an obvious reason, profit. Selling well-known names at drastically reduced prices is an extremely sound and a time honored business model.

A good web site is more than just a place for customers to place orders. It will promote your business and develops an enduring relationship with your customers. Remember, your web site is the only contact with your business that most customers will ever have so it must make an excellent first impression and encourage visitors to return. Ease of navigation and a look that doesn’t hurt the eyes are good rules to start with when planning a website.

Did you ever hear someone’s name that sounded so ludicrous, you wondered what his parents were thinking? Unless we go through the major headache of legally changing our names, most of us are stuck with the one given to us at birth. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way with our business ventures.
Today, choosing the correct name for your online business is the first step in making wise business decisions that will impact you for the life of that business. It’s worth taking a few minutes to review the basics of choosing a name that is impressive, influential and easy to remember.

For better or worse, much of the wholesale purchasing done these days has become a fairly impersonal affair. With ecommerce shopping carts, online payment, and outside shipping companies it is increasingly common for retail merchants to perform entire transactions without having any real contact their wholesale suppliers.

In many ways this is all for the best. Automated online buying has made it possible for merchants to get the merchandise they need anywhere in the world and at anytime day or night. We are no longer constrained by language barriers and time zones but there is a down side.

We may as well face it, house wares is not the most exciting of retail segments. It lacks the glamour of jewelry, the trendiness of fashion, and the edginess of technology and electronics. You rarely see pop music idols or sports superstars endorsing Tupperware and no one cares if Angelina Jolie gets a new set of scrubbing pads.

House wares lack cool but what they do have is a gigantic market of waiting consumers. Everyone eats everyday, and after eating the all have to wash up. In order to eat they must cook and that means they must have plates, pots and pans, spatulas, hot pads, …you get the idea. Just spend a few minutes poking around your own kitchen and you’ll get the idea of just how many millions of gadgets and goops that must sell each year from that often over looked aisle marked house wares. Merchants could do worse than offer products that have sales driven by necessity.

Convenience stores and small tobacconists are often looking for new products to augment their smoking related product lines. Increasingly these businesses are adding flavored cigar wraps as a means to attract new sells and appeal to a hip new market.