Product Review: "Epson Stylus Office BX305 FW Plus, all in one.

                                                 Epson Stylus Office BX305FW Plus 
                                       ALL IN ONE WIRELESS PRINTER/SCANNER/COPIER

Product Review:

The all in one Epson Stylus Office BX305FW Plus, wireless Printer, Scan & Copy machine is an all around useful product to own, for a number of reasons. I own one myself and its great for use as a personal home printer for your average use plus is capable of use for an office or a small to medium sized business. I use mine for both as a home personal printer, just changing a few settings lets you print out text and images a lesser quality than if you were to use it in business, making it a reasonable price to print documents and manuals for home and personal use which in turn makes the ink last that much longer than another brand of printer. The reason for this is each ink cartridge are individually purchased so when one cartridge is empty, there's no need to dispose of the rest. All you need to do is purchase the colour that is empty, unlike some printers where you can no longer use the other colours as they are combined into one cartridge, making it a lot more expensive and disposing of a lot of wasted ink.

Secondly by changing a couple of settings it is transformed into a more professional device for use in your business or for great photos, presentations or for making a perfect copy of an important document that's needed in your business. It's not as fast as some office printers but the quality is great, the settings are easy to manage, the ink is very inexpensive to buy plus you have the capability to use it wireless capabilities weather at your office or even in a room at home where anyone with network access can print directly from it in any room without the need to change settings or connect to it via printer cable.

It is also capable of printing out 99 copies continually in a very short period of time and only using a small amount of ink at the same time. The scanner gives a perfect image of your scanned document and with a few changes in the scanned document can be changed, edited or remodelled to a perfect image or doc that your happy with without compromising on quality or colour. Perfect for photographers, businesses or just a home personal printer.

This product that I have purchased myself is my third model of this printer. After buying the two previous Epson models, which were quite good compared to some other brands, I knew that soon as the newest model of this Epson came tho the market I had to have it based on my experience from the two lesser quality models of the same product. Also out of the 3 models of this product that I've purchased, Ive not had no problems with them all working correctly as they should. Occasionally I had a paper jam or a bad print out but that was easy to overcome. I purchased the upgraded models for better quality printouts and my previous models was sold on eBay with no problems at all.

All in all I would give this product a 5 star rating for all round excellence, cheap ink, quality printed documents, Clear image prints, ease of use for the novice and professional alike. I have not yet had a good look at the upgraded model of this printer, but you can bet your life on it that will be my next purchase when I am ready to renew my printer.

I wrote this honest review of this product in my own words as it is my main printer for both home and office use, and not for profit am I affiliated to Epson. I wrote this for my readers.

J.R.Chinn
JRC Retail - Independent Wholesale Distributor
jrcetail@gmail.com
(44) 7375991641

JRC-eTail Independent Wholesale Distributor

Laptops: How to buy the best laptop

Buying the best ultra portable laptop

Ultraportables have been pushed to their limits since May 2011 when Intel launched its 'ultrabook' campaign - a new title requiring models to reach a minimum set of criteria around both specification (from the Intel processor to measuring under 21mm thick) and performance (for example, a less than seven second start up time).

Ultraportable laptops are for those who want a laptop that's portable without compromising on performance. They are worlds apart from the now slightly dated netbook, which offers only very basic performance despite being similarly bite-sized.

Something to watch out for - particularly with ultrabooks - is that most are sealed units and you'll struggle to upgrade elements such as built-in batteries or Ram. Pricing tends to be high - models we have on test commonly start at around £800 but you can easily pay more than £1,000. The premium pricing, and lack of ability to upgrade with most models, is even more reason to make sure you get the right laptop for your needs.

What makes a good ultraportable laptop?

•Solid state storage Most ultrabooks have solid state drive (SSD) storage (the most common size is 128GB), or a hybrid of SSD and more traditional hard disk storage. The latter often takes the form of a 16GB solid state cache to boost loading speeds, while keeping the larger storage capacity you get with a normal hard drive. In this case you won't actually be able to save to the SSD. SSDs have no moving parts, so are faster (improving boot speeds), reduce noise and heat and improve battery life, but capacity is limited and they're more expensive than standard hard drives.

Excellent battery life There's not much point in an ultraportable with poor battery life. We'd expect a good laptop to last at least six hours when browsing the internet over a wi-fi connection, but some of the latest models claim to last up to eight or nine hours. This is something we put to the test in our labs to find the real-life story behind the claim.

•Matte screen You'll be looking at a display between 13 and 14-inches for an ultraportable, but something you might want to consider if you find reflections annoying, is a matte screen. Our lab tests have shown there's no discernable difference in quality between a similar matte and shiny screen, so it's just down to personal preference

•Premium materials Premium design helps ultraportables and ultrabooks stand out from the rest of the crowd. It's not all about looks though. Materials like magnesium, aluminum and carbon fibre not only give a quality appearance, they're more robust and lighter.

•Light and thin design Ultrabooks must be less than 21mm for a 14-inch laptop and less than 18mm for a 13-inch version. However, you can still find ultraportable models that don't hit these specifications that are still very easy to slip in a bag. In terms of weight, Apple's 11-inch MacBook Air is one of the lightest you'll find, at a shade over 1kg, but anything around 1.3kg to 1.5kg should be light enough to carry round for the day.

Premium materials Premium design helps ultraportables and ultrabooks stand out from the rest of the crowd. It's not all about looks though. Materials like magnesium, aluminum and carbon fibre not only give a quality appearance, they're more robust and lighter.

Features you don't need

•Excess ports Again, due to size, ports on these laptops tend to be minimal. You'll generally find at least one of everything you need on the better models, including a HDMI output and USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt (a fast connection found mainly on Apple MacBooks) ports. Many ultrabooks don't have ethernet ports and can access the internet over a wi-fi connection only.

•Graphics Ultraportables and ultrabooks won't normally have separate graphics cards from the likes of Nvidia. Most models will use the processors built-in graphics, for example Intel's HD graphics family. This is not a problem as the small display isn't likely to mean you'll be carrying out too many multimedia tasks.

•Optical drive A feature you probably don't need, but if you do you're unlikely to get one it. Most ultrabooks don't have room for a CD drive due to the squeeze on space.

Be sure to check out mt storefront on Addoway >>>

The Definitive Guide to Dropshipping with AliExpress...Part 1

...

• by Corey Ferreira
 
• Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an excellent way to start an ecommerce business without needing to worry about inventory or shipping. It’s as simple as listing a product for sale on your website, and sending an email to your supplier to ship the item on your behalf whenever you get an order.

While starting a dropshipping business is a great way to start an ecommerce business, digging deep through the internet to find a reliable supplier can be tough. However, with Oberlo and Aliexpress, there is a convenient marketplace you can use to dropship.

Check out my Wholesale store on Addoway.

AliExpress makes it easy to find products to sell on your store, without having to worry about inventory or shipping. You can pay for products at wholesale prices and have them drop-shipped directly to your customers.

Why AliExpress for Dropshipping

AliExpress is a gigantic marketplace with a wide selection of products you can sell in your store. Because most of the AliExpress sellers are overseas manufacturers, their prices are very competitive.

While AliExpress may position itself as an online retailer, most sellers on AliExpress understand that a large number of their customers are resellers and are much more interested in dropshipping.

Dropshipping with AliExpress is also very easy.

There’s no upfront cost or fee, so you can test out products without any financial commitment. You can start dropshipping today, for free, by using AliExpress or Oberlo.

Many sellers on AliExpress have great product photos that you can use on your website, as well as detailed product descriptions to help you describe the product in your store.

Lastly, dropshipping using AliExpress is as simple as ordering the product on AliExpress after getting an order, and inputting the customer’s address.

I’m going to go over in more detail how this all comes together, what to look for in a product and seller, and how to position yourself for success, but it’s really not any more complicated than what I described above. Dropshipping using AliExpress is a great way to get started selling online once you have everything setup.

Why Would Someone Buy from Your Store If They Can Buy the Same Products on AliExpress?

With an AliExpress dropshipping business, your competitive advantage won’t be your price or unique proprietary products. Your competitive advantage will be reaching your customers before competitors do.

It’s retail arbitrage.

Good marketing and reaching customers first can be a competitive advantage. You can also add more value to your customers by building a brand, creating content and providing awesome customer service.

Check out some great Wholesale prices here at my store >>>

Continue Reading >>  Go To The Definitive Guide to Dropshipping with AliExpress...Part 2

The Definitive Guide to Dropshipping with AliExpress...Part 2

Part 2...

Setting Up Your Store

Now that we understand how AliExpress can work as a dropshipper, and how you will position your store, let’s first get your store set up before placing your first order.

Selecting Your Niche and Products

The first part of setting up your store is deciding on your niche. If you don’t know where to start, start with the product categories AliExpress has and begin deciding what interests you the most or what you’d feel the most comfortable selling.

Once you have a niche in mind, it’s time to start choosing a few products you want to resell on your store. In this example, I chose running shoes as my store niche.

As you’ll find with AliExpress, there’s a huge selection of products to choose from. It can be overwhelming. It can also be lead to headaches if you don’t select a quality product from a reliable supplier.

While it isn’t perfect, I’ve developed  a list of criteria for choosing a product. There’s no science to it, but so far it’s helped me select reliable sellers. Here are a few things I look for when selecting a product on AliExpress to dropship:

No brands, fakes, knockoffs: I avoid any brands to avoid reselling fakes and knockoffs. Look for unbranded products. If there’s a logo on the product, I avoid it, even if it may be legitimate. I don’t want to take the risk since I’m not a licensed reseller and also because I don’t actually know if the product is real. This might significantly limit your choices, so choose a niche where brand doesn’t matter, such as with electronic accessories or clothing.

ePacket delivery with free shipping: When possible, I try to only resell products that offer ePacket shipping that’s free. Because a majority of products on AliExpress come from China or Hong Kong, ePacket delivery is not only the most economical, but one of the quickest for small goods to get to the United States.

Over 300 orders: A product with a lot of orders tells me a few things. First, it tells me there’s demand for the product. Second, it tells me the supplier must be reliable as my guess is that a few of those orders are repeats. Sometimes when looking for a new product, I’ll sort products by the most orders.

Over 4.5 stars rating: I also like to ensure the products I plan to resell have a high product rating (over 4.5 stars) and the seller has high positive feedback as well. Just to get a second opinion on sellers on products, I use a Chrome extension called AliExpress Seller Check.

This provides me with a detailed overview rating left with a third-party app. I’ve found this to be much more reliable than simply using AliExpress’ rating system.

Low price with a high margin potential: Depending on the product I want to resell, I like to stick with purchasing products within a $1-$20 price range. This makes it less risky when I lose money on a sale, and these products generally can be priced at $20-$50 or more. For example, I can find running shoes on AliExpress for around $20 and sell them for $50. This provides me with a 60% profit margin.

Lots of great, unbranded, product photos: Do your due diligence to ensure the photos are actually from your manufacturer and not stolen from another retailer online. Doing a quick Google image search will help you see if the product photos are of a real brand and retailer or from the manufacturer themselves.

Communicative, helpful seller: Don’t be afraid to ask a seller questions before placing an order with them. A good reliable seller will answer all of your questions quickly. If a seller doesn’t respond to messages, that’s a big red flag.

Adding Products to Your Store

Once you setup your Shopify store, it’s time to add a product. This step is important to cover in detail because it’s not as simple as copying the images and description of the AliExpress listing and placing that on your website.

Instead, if you want to position your store for success, there are a few things you should consider.

Write your own product descriptions. The product descriptions for many of the products on AliExpress were not written by copywriters or with the intention of fully explaining the benefits of the products. Having your own unique content will serve your business better in the long run (Google ignores duplicate content) and will help you convert better on product pages.

Let customers know about delivery times. It’s a good idea to include on the product page (or elsewhere on your store) that your customers may need to wait at least 20 days (depending on the supplier) for their order to arrive. Since most suppliers on AliExpress are located in China, shipping times can be longer than average.

Use an order tracking app. With longer shipping times than most people are used to, you’ll often receive emails from customers asking where their purchase is. Use an order tracking app from the Shopify App store to keep your customers up-to-date with the status of their purchase.

Image: Tracktor

Offer free shipping. This can become one of your competitive advantages so I highly recommend offering free shipping to your customers by taking advantage of the free/low cost shipping offered by many AliExpress sellers.

Price products appropriately. Consider pricing your products at about twice the cost. Shooting for a 50% margin will make running the business worthwhile, as well as cover for marketing expenses.

Add products to your store with Oberlo. Instead of manually adding products from AliExpress to your website, you can use Oberlo to quickly add products to your store.

How to Use AliExpress to Dropship

Now that you have your store filled with products ready to sell and dropship, what do you do once you get your first order?

Dropshipping with AliExpress works similarly to any regular dropshipper. When you receive an order, purchase the item on AliExpress and enter your customer’s name and shipping address. The AliExpress seller handles the rest.

It might be a good idea to have a spreadsheet handy with a list of all the products on your site, the amount you’re selling them for, the amount they cost on AliExpress and a link to the AliExpress listing. This way, whenever you get an order, it will be easier for you to find the supplier on AliExpress as well as keep track of price changes.

Alternatively, you can use Oberlo which can handle all this for you, including making it easier for you to purchase orders on AliExpress and watch for price changes.

When ordering on AliExpress, it’s a good idea to let the seller know you’re dropshipping. This way, the supplier won’t include any invoices or promotions in the package being sent to your customer.

On checkout, you can leave a message for the seller. I recommend leaving a message such as: “We’re dropshipping. No promotions & invoices, please!”

As I mentioned earlier, try and select ePacket shipping if the supplier is in China and if it’s available as a shipping option. Many suppliers will offer this shipping option for free.

Depending on your seller’s processing time, you’ll receive an email shortly letting you know that your order has been shipped.

Click the link in the email to view the order, which will allow you to see the tracking number for the order.

Head over to your Shopify admin and fulfill that order. Be sure to enter the tracking number, too.

That’s it! Now it’s just a matter of waiting for your customers to receive their order. When the order arrives, AliExpress will send you an email asking for confirmation that the order was received. Give some time for the customer to get back to you in case there are any problems with their order. This way, you can bring up the issue with the supplier through AliExpress for them to correct it.

What About Refunds and Returns?

Many AliExpress suppliers don’t offer returns. This means you’ll have to handle returns and refunds in one of a few ways. When there’s an issue with an order a customer placed on your store, it’s usually because the order never arrives or your customer is not happy with their purchase.

For the first case, an order never arriving should be brought up with the AliExpress supplier. In this situation, contact the supplier to resolve the issue or use AliExpress’ Buyer Protection.

If your customer is simply not happy with the product, I suggest providing a refund. If the product is damaged, ask your customer to take photos and send those photos to the AliExpress seller and go from there.

Growing Your Dropshipping Business

Once you’ve made your first few sales, it’s time to start looking at how you can grow your dropshipping business and make more money.

Eventually you’ll begin to figure out who the reliable and quality suppliers are, and who are not. You should consider building relationships with the reliable ones. This will allow you to get better prices and priority order processing.

I’ve found most of the suppliers on AliExpress use Skype. If you see yourself frequently ordering from the same seller, it’s a good idea to ask them for their Skype username to develop a business relationship. Once you’ve demonstrated you can bring in recurring sales, some sellers will allow you to place your logo on products, include custom invoices or branded inserts into shipping packages.

Start Dropshipping

The best part about AliExpress dropshipping is that it allows you to quickly test and validate store ideas and products. Unsure if you’re capable of selling a certain product? Add it to your store and test it! Doesn’t work out? It’s as simple as removing the item from your store and testing something else. Start for free with Oberlo.

Because you’re not carrying or managing any inventory, and there’s no upfront cost, there’s little risk to setting this all up.

Check out some great Wholesale Prices here at my Addoway Store >>

>>

Before You Take a Trip to China Looking For a Manufacturer...

• by Felix Thea
 

...there are a few things you need to know.

China is a hot spot for sourcing cost-effective manufacturers, and so many entrepreneurs seek out a factory there to bring their products to life. But as they often find, there's a lot to navigate.

Take Andrew Moore, the owner of Felony Case, who started off hand-making his unique iPhone cases before travelling to China to find a manufacturer.

In this episode of Shopify Masters, he'll share how to plan your trip to China to find manufacturers and make the best use of your time—including what time of year to go and how to work with a "fixer" in China.

I definitely recommend having someone that you hire who is more on your side working for you as opposed to you going to the factory not knowing Chinese.

Check out my wholesale storefront here on addoway..