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Shopster extends fulfillment services to eBay sellers
InternetRetailer.com
January 29, 2008
Shopster, which provides e-Commerce and drop-shipping services to about 1,500 online retailers, is now making its inventory of close to 1 million products also available to eBay sellers, says CEO Sarath Samarasekera.
Shopster sources products including clothing, jewelry, auto parts and consumer electronics from about 150 suppliers, and makes the products available through drop shipping arrangements to online retailers. It charges a $99 set-up fee, plus $29.95 per month to use its rShop storefront software for processing orders on a base inventory of 2,000 products. It also offers for additional fees extended inventory and online features such as live-chat customer service. If a retailer wanted an extra 100,000 products to sell, it would cost the merchant about $500 per month, Samarasekera says.
Most of Shopster's clients sell from a base of 1,000 to 3,000 products in niche markets, but some sell from an inventory base as large as 150,000 products, Samarasekera says.
Shopster covers the cost of initially acquiring inventory. For a product with an initial wholesale cost of $100, for example, Shopster will factor in a handling fee and sales tax for a total cost to the retailer of, say, $110, then let the merchant mark up its retail price to earn its desired profit, Samarasekera adds.
For eBay sellers who use Shopster to source inventory and fulfill orders, Shopster is offering listing management software that lets them click on a web page to add products to their available inventory.
Shopster expects to continue adding to its base of available inventory based on market demand from retailers, Samarasekera says. "We'll go out and find products that retailers want," he says.
Based in San Francisco and Calgary, Canada, Shopster was founded in 2004 and is backed by private equity investors that Shopster has not named.
Article source: InternetRetailer.com
