Research Electronics Drop Ship Companies

RESEARCH SPECIFICATIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUMMARY ======= This project involves researching drop ship companies that sell electronics. Information on "at least" ten (10) companies should be gathered and put in a summary format in either an excel spreadsheet or a word document. Sign up for each of the sites to get information that is only available after you sign up. Create a new email account to do so on Yahoo for this purpose. WHAT DOES ELECTRONICS COVER? ============================ Electronics can cover a lot of different items. At minimum it should include: - TV's - DVD's - computers - digital cameras - video cameras - ipods - dvd players DELIVERABLES/TIMELINE ===================== Deliverables include at minimum include the following: 1 week - find at least 10 companies that do drop ship and sell electronics. The companies can specialize only in electronics, or they can do more than just electronics. - any additional information 2 weeks - gather all data requested - have sample comparison of costs for 5 items - rank the companies based on cost of product, shipping, min monthly charges, etc. - any additional information *** You may request the timeline to be changes if you feel 2 weeks is either too much time or too little time. Please put this in your comments. NOTE ==== This is not just searching the internet and finding electronics drop ship companies. It needs to take one or more steps further. It involves really getting in contact with the companies and doing an in depth comparison. QUESTIONS ========= If you have any questions, please reply to the post and I will answer them. The more questions now the better. ## Deliverables 1) Complete and fully-functional working program(s) in executable form as well as complete source code of all work done. 2) Deliverables must be in ready-to-run condition, as follows (depending on the nature of the deliverables): a) For web sites or other server-side deliverables intended to only ever exist in one place in the Buyer's environment--Deliverables must be installed by the Seller in ready-to-run condition in the Buyer's environment. b) For all others including desktop software or software the buyer intends to distribute: A software installation package that will install the software in ready-to-run condition on the platform(s) specified in this bid request. 3) All deliverables will be considered "work made for hire" under U.S. Copyright law. Buyer will receive exclusive and complete copyrights to all work purchased. (No GPL, GNU, 3rd party components, etc. unless all copyright ramifications are explained AND AGREED TO by the buyer on the site per the coder's Seller Legal Agreement). 3) Deliverables include at minimum include the following: 3a) 1 week - find at least 10 companies that do drop ship and sell electronics. The companies can specialize only in electronics, or they can do more than just electronics. - any additional information 3b) 2 weeks - gather all data requested - have sample comparison of costs for 5 items - rank the companies based on cost of product, shipping, min monthly charges, etc. - any additional information INFORMATION TO BE GATHERED ========================== The following is the minimum information that should be gathered from each company. Additional information, notes, and/or comments will be appreciated. 1) Name of drop ship / wholesale company 2) Address, City, State, Zip 3) Person and phone number to contact 4) Email address & website 5) Cost to become a buyer, monthly cost if any; min purchases if any 6) Shipping costs / shipping cost table 7) Shipping companies (UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS), methods (ground, overnight, 2nd day, etc), times (if order placed by 2pm, shipped out the same day) 8) Number of products offered 9) Selection of electronics 10) Do they provide images of the product? If so, how many? What size(s) in pixels are the images? 11) Are they a blind drop shipper? A blind drop shipper will ship product to your customers, under your name only. They will not have any of their information (i.e. company name, address, advertising...etc.) on the products they send to your customers. 12) What are the payment terms? (pay in advance, net 15, net 30, etc.) 13) Feed format of getting the data - CSV, XML, TSV, etc. How often is the feed given? 14) How are the orders placed? Once a day or it can be sent at any time. 15) Compare the costs of 10 different items. EXAMPLES: a) Apple Ipod Nano 4GB Black b) Xbox 360 Core Console Video Game System c) Casio Exilim EX-S600 - 6.0 MegaPixels "Credit Card Size" Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom & 2.2 inch LCD Screen d) SanDisk 2GB Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card e) Sony DCR-DVD7 - DVD Handycam Camcorder with 2.5 inch Touchscreen LCD & 10x Optical Zoom 16) Your opinion of how legitimate they are on a scale of 1 to 10 and your reasons why. 17) The history of the drop ship company. (Years in business, growth, number of customers, etc.) 18) Check if they are with the Better Business Bureau? 19) Get three references (name, phone, email) of current people who are using this drop ship company. Contact these three references by email or phone and ask them some basic questions like: a) Name of your company? b) How long have you been in business? c) How long have you been using drop ship company XYZ? d) How are you selling the products (catalog, store, internet, combination) ? e) What do you think of their shipping policy? Shipping costs? f) What do you think of their payment terms? g) How is their wholesale pricing? h) How is their customer service? i) What issues have you had with them? j) What is the most difficult part with working with drop ship company XYZ? k) Do you have any suggestions for us? 20) Anything else you feel is relevant. ## Platform Microsoft Word Document or Microsoft Excel.