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"The work completed
was excellent! I.T. Web Experts was very
responsive to our needs and got the job
done! It was also easy to go over tweaks
and changes as we went along. Thanks sooooo
much. We really love what you have done
for us! Our users are impressed with our
site as well, we are receiving feedback
almost daily saying what a great site we
have!" |
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Debra
Aldred
Treasurer, United Fan Con Inc. |
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How do I get my online rental business started? |
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What things do you need to start your online rental business? There are just a few things really. Here you will find a basic listing as well as links to get you started:
Online movie rental movie wholesale movie suppliers: To make a profit with your online movie rental E-commerce web site, you will first need a good movie supplier that supplies movies at prices cheaper than you can sell them for. Things to look for first may be a going out of business movie rental store. You could offer to buy their entire inventory for a lower price. Other things to look for may be large lots on Ebay where someone is selling their entire movie collection. But this probably will not work if you are also selling new movies. There are different types of wholesalers. Some offer to drop ship which means you send your orders to them and they ship the orders directly to your customer. Others have you buy a certain quantity of product per month, they ship it to you, and you ship to your customers. If you ship to your customers, you can probably fulfill your orders faster than they can and will have more control over your customer service.
It may seem odd, but one of the worst areas to look for wholesale suppliers is by going searching for them with search engines. This is because the great majority of the so called wholesale suppliers you can find there are fake web sites that well just sell you stuff at the same price you can find it at in stores, and they want a $60 membership fee to boot. Do not pay a fee to view the inventory of a wholesaler, or it is probably a scam. A real wholesale supplier will need things like your Tax ID, Resell license, and will probably force you to purchase a minimum amount per month. Here are 2 great articles to get you started on wholesale suppliers. We recommend reading Entrepreneur.com for other business ideas as well: http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/howtoguides/article174010.html
http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/dropshippingcolumnists/article192412.html
Online rental E-commerce system with website hosting and SSL security:
For your online rental E-commerce software you will want to make sure that your system provides you the following features:
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Customers can order the priority of their items in their rental queue
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Recurring billing so that the customer is charged every month for their membership
- Search engine optimization friendly shopping cart
- Secure checkout using SSL encryption
- Easy administration backend to manage orders, customers, shipping, printing of labels
- Easy to modify graphic template to customize the look and feel of the store
- Customers can update their billing information from their my account section
- Click to rate movie reviews like Netflix
This involves selecting a reliable fast E-commerce shopping system that is easy to navigate, protects the confidential information of your customers, and has a rental queue so that your customers can put the movies they want in the priority order that they want. Your website hosting company is also an important factor. We appreciate the ratings that are found at webhostingjury.com, where you can find the top rated web hosts based on user reviews. We have experience with Lunarpages.com and have found their prices reasonable and support good. Is telephone support important to you for your website hosting? Make sure your webhosting provider provides this if it is, because many only provide support tickets via emails. Other important factors to weigh in your decision is if your rental cart software is optimized for the search engines with title tags, keyword tags, image tags, and keyword URLS. Everybody knows that search engines are very important to the success of any online business.
Is Your Online Movie Rental Software Open Source? Why Does This Matter?
Another consideration is whether your online movie rental software is open source. Open source software does not mean it's free software, rather it means that you can modify the source code of your website so that you can customize the features, design, and programming. This will offer you much greater flexibility in the future if you want to add new features to your rental store.
Barcode scanner system and movie mailers: The barcode scanning system should allow you to send and return rental items more quickly. The I.T. Web Experts rental system has a built in barcode generator compatible with the majority of barcode scanners, so you don’t really need barcode scanner software. A typical barcode scanner cost around $50 - $120, anything more and you are probably buying too fancy of a barcode scanner.
To mail your movies, we recommend purchasing a batch of mailers with your logo on it. They can be found and ordered easily on Google by typing in rental DVD mailers
Target market:This is one of the keys to success in your business. If you can find a good target market, you will not have to compete against the big boys like Blockbuster and Netflix. The most successful online rental businesses that are run by small businesses target markets for example: your local city (market your website locally, with the advantage being people will receive their movies very quickly since they are local), ethnic movies for different languages like Indian or Spanish, or a certain category of movies like Sci-Fi or TV shows.
Do I Need A EIN (Employer Identification Number) Code & Retail License? Where do I get One? Yes, to start any type of business you generally need an EIN/retail license if you want to buy wholesale (without paying tax), or if you will be renting & SELLING products. Your wholesaler will be asking you for this number. To get a retail license type into Google "State name retail lincense" and go to the government page that corresponds. For example: "California Retail License" and this is the first page that comes up (make sure it has a .gov ending on the domain or you may be at a website trying to sell you on attorney services). California Retail License Form
If all you will be doing is renting, then all you need is an EIN. Getting an EIN is easy and free. Just go to the IRS website here and click the apply online link: Get EIN Number
Where Do I Get The Movie Database of Synopsis, Cast, Directors, etc.?
There are not that many sources of movie databases available to use legally on your website. The main source would be the IMDB, which offers different licensing options. The IMDB licenses start at $15,000 per year. You might also try using a software movie manager that downloads from different sources, and modifying the movie data so that you don't violate copyright laws. You could easily hire a cheap data entry person to do this for you if you don't want to do it yourself.
Good Groups/Forums To Read:
The following forums/groups specialize in video rental businesses:
http://www.businessknowhow.com/forum/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=15
Ready to get started? Checkout our turnkey rental e-commerce software and you'll be ready to go quickly.
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