How to land that order

We understand how difficult it can be to have the competitive edge when it comes to hardware and software sales, especially during an economic downturn which seems to be on everyone's mind. We've been there and done that.

How we can help
Just by having your customers source through us you've made the right decision. The combined buying power of all our reseller allows pricing to be very competitive, even with your commission. Besides carrying over 450,000 products at competitive prices, we can also help you compete against the likes of CDW and others.
How? Well, if you feel you need an extra edge with a "large deal", just give us a call or send us an email. We'd be happy to negotiate better pricing or discounts from manufacturers and we'll pass those savings right on to you. It's up to you to pass the discounts on to your customer or to increase your margin.

What is a "Large Deal" ?
We consider a large deal anything over $3,000 or if the your customer wants to order 3 or more of the same item. This is a guideline and we leave it up to you to interpret this. You can always call us Toll Free at 800 270 0700 if you feel you need a little extra "wiggle room".

Making old work with new

As more and more manufacturers eliminate legacy ports from their motherboards, customers sometimes end up having to make a choice between sticking to an old PC that has the ability to connect to their older peripherals, or having to buy new peripherals because they decided to upgrade to a new PC.

Although there is nothing wrong with having your customer buy additional peripherals like printers or scanners, some of them might have proprietary equipment like bar-code scanners, cash registers or other products that cost a lot more to upgrade.

With the three devices below they can connect thier old equipment, including keyboards and mice to thier new PC. One advice: check with the peripheral manufacturer to make sure they support this.

From	Product	NDPC sku
PS2 to USB	Trendnet USB to PS2 adapter	2132748
Serial (9 pin) to USB	Sabrent 6 foot USB 2.0 to serial adapter cable	3251473
Parallel to USB	Cable to Go 6 Ft USB to Parallel adapter	6844511

Protect your business and your time

Each week we receive requests from resellers for quotes for high-ticket items destined for Nigeria, Ivory Coast or Ghana in Africa or Indonesia in Asia. Here at NextDay Network we receive emails from those countries on a daily basis. Price is usually not an issue. Most of the time the products will be paid for by credit card, sometimes even by check. Because we are able to block most of the IP-addresses from those countries, these “shoppers” are increasingly targeting resellers.

In the history of our company we have never had a legitimate order from those countries. There have even been attempts to pay for transactions with fraudulent cashier’s checks. Furthermore, the individuals trying to place these orders are finding new ways to try and get you and us to ship the products.

What can you do to protect your business?
Well, the easiest solution would be to just not respond to requests from those countries. However, it is not that easy, you have to know what to look for first. Here are the most common things to look for in a potentially fraudulent transaction:

1. The shopper uses a free email address, like hotmail or yahoo. If you are not sure if it is a free email account just try looking for the web site of the domain that is used. For example, if someone sends you an email from the following email address customer@domainname.com, just open a web browser and type in the following http://www.domainname.com/. If this is a free email account the web site usually has some sort of login screen and a way to set up a free account. If a real domain name is used, it is quite easy to find out where the domain name comes from: just go to http://www.geektools.com/whois.php and type in the domain name. You can quickly find out where the company is located that issued the email address.
   


2. If you know how to extract the IP-address from the email or order you have received, you can use a very nice tool to find out the geographical location of the shopper. Just type in the IP-address and in most cases it will tell you exactly where the shopper is from. Give it a try here. http://www.networldmap.com/TryIt.htm .
   


3. Shopper is unconcerned with shipping costs. Most legitimate shoppers are very sensitive to shipping costs. A "please expedite and add the extra onto my card" with no maximum or qualifying comment or question may be a tip-off: Use Caution.
   


4. Very large dollar amount order or large quantity. Thieves need to score quickly and move on since fraudulent delivery addresses have a short lifespan, at least in the USA. They will try to hit a perfect spot where the order is big enough to profit them, but small enough NOT to make merchants suspicious. Sometimes they will aim for $500+ orders, other times try to stay in the $199 range.
   


5. Ship-to address is not the same as the billing address. There are many legitimate reasons for a shopper wanting to do this, but it is a "cheat" of the AVS (Address Verification System) system if the thief has the billing address of the real cardholder. This is also one of the reasons why we always ask the customer to have the shipping address added as an alternate address.
   


6. Tell them you have their product in stock, and ask if they want an accessory to go with that, for only $200 more. Phrase this appropriately to avoid annoying legitimate shoppers. A crook, if monitoring their bogus email box at all, will say "sure!" without even a question. This should raise red flags.
   


7. Call the phone number given in the order. It may be entirely bogus, and sometimes it is even the actual number of the person whose card was stolen. If you don't get a phone number with the order, write and ask for one.
   


8. We have heard of some cases where the shopper emails you the credit card information. Unless you know the customer very well, don’t expect this to be a legitimate order. Normal shoppers would never send their Credit Card information via email.
   


9. Sophisticated thieves now also use very legitimate looking cashier’s checks. Please make sure to clear those checks with your bank and hold on to your products for at least two weeks after you have deposited the check. We have heard of several cases where the reseller had shipped products after depositing the check only to find out two weeks later that the originating bank had refused the check because it was fraudulent.
   


10. Always use common sense when you are dealing with pure Internet orders and if a deal looks too good to be true, be very careful.

Protecting your Reseller Account

When I opened my mailbox this morning I found the following question from a reseller: Why do my customers have to sign up before they can see anything on the storefront?

Every once in awhile this question seems to return along with another question I get asked: What do you do to make sure my customer places an order through my reseller account?

In general, the most important thing for us is to make sure that you feel you can rely on our services. Without you as a reseller we would not be able to sell any product so it is in our own best interest to make sure that you and your customers keep coming back.

To answer both questions, and maybe more, let me describe the paths your customer might take to get to the storefront. It all has to do with cookies and linking.

1. If your customer has never visited NextDayPC.com before and types in http://www.nextdaypc.com/ he will see a secure sign in page, where he will be asked to set up an account and to include a discount code. To try this just delete your NextDayPC.com cookie, close all browser windows, and visit http://www.nextdaypc.com. If you think that this is just what your customer might do, make sure you give them your discount code.
   


2. The most common path for your customer is probably from clicking a link on your website or in an e-mail. To get detailed instructions on how to do this, click here. As soon as that customer goes to the storefront, a cookie with your discount code is placed on the customer's machine and from then on and determines the look and feel of the site and the product pricing. This takes us to the next possible path.
   


3. Once your customer has a cookie and returns to the storefront, even if they just type in http://www.nextdaypc.com, the discount code information will be read and the pricing and layout will change on the fly. Your customer will never see this secure sign in page.

If your customer decides to delete the cookie, he returns to the first option described above, leaving him with the option to sign in or to create a new account. If he signs in because he had created an account previously , the storefront will recognize the customer, associates him with the appropriate reseller and will put another cookie on your customer's machine.

I hope this clears up the some of these questions. Feel free to comment on this post or ask me a question by clicking here.

Give your customers $100K credit, on us

We take Purchase Order Financing to the next level. NextDay Network has an end-user financing program that allows you to offer credit terms of up to $100,000 to your customers. Together with our Financial Partner IFSC we take care of shipping, billing and collecting on your behalf. Our program offers 45 days of interest-free financing for Fortune 1000 companies, educational institutions and government agencies. Credit approval is based on the financial strength of the end user. The program is specifically designed for businesses with more than $250,000 in sales and they must be in business for more than 2 years. Individuals cannot apply for this program.

Here's how it works:

1. You send your customer to this page and make sure you add your discount code to the URL as explained here.


2. Once this form has been filled out, your customer will receive an email with two forms attached. Both forms need to be signed and faxed back to the fax number on the form.


3. After it has been faxed back, the credit verification process starts. For Government and Educational institutions the process is usually finished within 24 hours. For private companies it can take a little longer, depending on the response time of the credit references.


4. If the customer is approved we will send an email with instructions on the ordering process.


5. From then on, your customer can start placing orders using only a Purchase order number, and a full shopping cart of course.

If your company purchases products on a regular basis and you think it fits the criteria described above, don't hesitate to fill out the application yourself.