Jeff Wilson - Doba Customer Service Manager

This time around on Meet the Team we’re going to dig deep and attempt to get the low-down on Jeff Wilson, our favorite customer service manager. As you’ll read here, Jeff’s a bit elusive when it comes to straight answers, preferring the whimsical. But with skillfully crafted questions, we should be able to eke out some helpful nuggets from this Doba exec.

Meet Jeff:

Doba: What did you do prior to coming to work for Doba? 

Jeff Wilson: Before arriving at Doba, I was a customer service manager and business project manager for several companies. But I worked in construction the year before I joined the team at Doba. This was a great experience, because I had the opportunity to operate all that big equipment that nearly every little boy dreams about. We’re talking about trackhoes, loaders and compactors. It was a great experience, but it still doesn’t compare to the Doba experience.

Doba: What attracted you to Doba? 

Jeff: The colors I love black and green! And Doba’s logo just happens to be black and green, so right off the bat, I knew they must be a great company to work for. I had to apply! Okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it went down, but I did read that Doba was a great company to work for and thus far, I have to agree. During the interview process, I mentioned I loved to golf. That pretty much sealed the deal around here, and my Doba experience had begun.

Doba: When you’re not working, what do you like to do in your spare time? 

Jeff: My spare time is usually spent with my wife and three kids. We enjoy doing things outside in the warm weather, such as sports, trips to Lake Powell and my family’s favorite, Disneyland. I schedule time to play in a local softball and basketball league, and if I’m able to find additional free time during the daytime, I use that time for my favorite pastime — which is golf.

Doba: Which reality TV should you be on and why would you win or lose? 

Jeff: I would love to be on Wipeout. I think I would win because the show doesn’t seem to really cast people that scream ”athletic ability.” I’ve mentioned to others that if there were an amusement park like Wipeout, then I’d be there in a heartbeat, just because it looks like so much fun. If you add that — plus how much I like winning money — then the other contestants wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in….well, you know where.

Doba: What’s your all-time favorite Doba Deal? 

Jeff: That’s like trying to pick the cutest kitten in the litter. They’re all great!

Doba: What’s one thing not many people know about you? 

Jeff: The July after I graduated high school, we received a phone call (while on vacation) informing my family that our house burned down. Needless to say that family vacation ended early. Stupid neighbors and their fireworks!  

Doba: If you could take a one-year paid sabbatical from work to set up your own web store, what would you call it what would you sell?

Jeff: I would sell golf equipment. (I know, big surprise.) Many of our most successful customers are selling things they enjoy doing, or at least have a lot of knowledge about. My logical choice would be golf equipment. I don’t know what I would call it, but I bet I could figure out something clever as soon as my one-year paid sabbatical got underway!  I’d also like to mention that my mind works better in tropical areas. (Hint…hint, Doba.)

Take a peek at how these two long-time Doba suppliers conduct business:

Supplier Ruby (active in the Doba catalog since July 12, 2003) is a leading distributor of quality apparel and accessories, offering everything from ball caps to cammies, garment bags to guide hats and hoodies to hand towels. Ruby carries merchandise from such famous brands as Van Heusen, Rabbit Skins, Outer Banks, Jerzees, Fruit of the Loom, Dickies and Adidas Golf.

Best of all, Ruby has an active SKU count of 45,128 and a fulfillment rate of 100 percent. It takes Ruby a very respectable one to three business days to process an order and three business days to ship. And there’s absolutely no drop-ship fee for items from this supplier. For details, login to your Doba account and visit supplier Ruby.

Supplier Britney (active in the Doba catalog since June 27, 2007) specializes in the distribution of diamond, gemstone and pearl jewelry. Britney’s SKU count of 43,097 includes black diamond and blue diamond jewelry, diamond stud earrings, and a huge selection of pendants, lockets, bracelets and gold band rings. You’ll need a pair of sunglasses just to look at their offerings.

Britney promises a 100 percent fulfillment rate, with processing taking an average of three to seven workdays and an average shipping time of only one business day. Like shipper Ruby, Britney doesn’t impose a drop-ship fee.

For additional information, login to your Doba account and visit supplier Britney.

If you’ve acquired tips from today’s supplier spotlight, be sure to stop by again in a couple of weeks when I’ll present you with the insider’s guide to two more Doba-affiliated drop-ship suppliers.

Here at Doba, we get what it’s like to be responsible for mastering everything yourself. Sometimes, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to fit everything in, and certainly not if you’re responsible to figuring it all out yourself.

That’s why we created Quickstart, a new way to learn how to use Doba and master online retailing at the same time. Doba Quickstart puts the pedal to the metal, boosting the learning curve for new Doba members through one-on-one comprehensive orientation and training. And best of all, it takes place right on your home or office computer.

A dedicated customer service rep here at Doba delivers Quickstart privately and securely based on joint availability. All sessions are carried out experientially, using the latest screen-sharing technology that enables us to visually navigate the Doba website on your computer screen, answering all your questions as we bring you up to speed.

By the end of a private Doba Quickstart session, you’ll have learned how to:

• Navigate the member section of the Doba website
• Search the Doba catalog and build “My Inventory” lists
  • List and sell a product using our “Push to Marketplace” tool
  • Build custom product data exports and learn how to import products into third-party ecommerce platforms
  • Process returns using an RMA
  • Set up a Pre-Pay account to save 3 percent on product orders – Doba will deposit an initial $20 in the members’ Pre-Pay account
  • Order a product under $20 and ship it to your home address so you can see how the product will appear to your customers

If you’re a current Doba member and want to take advantage of Quickstart training, call us toll-free at 1-866-417-3024. Not a member? Sign up now and know that we’re here to help you with Doba Quickstart once you’re ready!

Not sure if Doba Quickstart is right for you? Below are a couple of customer comments following the beta testing of the program. Here, two current Doba members share what it was like to have someone from our office walk them through exactly how to use Doba to start and grow their online business:

Doba Quickstart is necessary for those not familiar with drop shipping, online selling or computers. Doba’s staff did an amazing job. They walked me through the process of using Doba step-by-step. I especially enjoyed the walk through of Doba’s tools and what each field means when using the Push to Marketplace tool. I can’t imagine how long it would take for me to get up to speed without this program. — Pam Pohl

I can’t believe how much they did for me for such a small cost! Using a new service can be overwhelming for anyone. If you are a Doba member, and you want to make sure you are doing things the right way, then Quickstart is a MUST.  — Patrice Varela-Daylo

The problem is, all these goodies are a bit pricey. In fact, there are those who argue that Apple products are overpriced relative to other offerings in the electronics category.

Whether or not you agree with this argument, the truth is that Apple has never been the least expensive option on the market in any segment in which they choose to compete. I think that’s because Apple makes the best quality equipment and pairs it with the best user interface, but I’ve already made my bias known. In fact, several times now. The point is, Apple’s elite attributes can actually be a very good thing for you to capitalize on as an online retailer.

Between prohibitive reseller requirements and tightly controlled distribution channels, very few outsiders are able to get their hands on Apple products for resale, much less turn a profit due to the intense competition. Even giant companies like Sprint ended up losing a lot of money selling iPhones.

So how do you — the online retailer — capitalize on the expensive tastes of Apple consumers? Simple: Sell accessories designed to go with these Apple products. The larger profit margins and lower barriers to entry make these products a natural choice for drop shipping, and the supply via Doba is plentiful.

This taps into one of the most basic retail strategies out there, which is this: Whenever you spot a popular  trend, focus on selling the merchandise that capitalizes on that trend. Some bright merchant once said, “You don’t get rich panning for gold; you get rich selling pans to people panning for gold.” Same holds true for high-end consumer electronics.

Don’t waste your time acquiring access to the big-ticket item. Instead, focus on the accessories, peripherals and cross-sells that compliment that big-ticket item. In the case of Apple, concentrate on the cases, adapters, cables, styluses, etc.

Below we feature a few items that capitalize on the demand sparked by the release of the third-generation iPad, assisted of course, by the subsequent price break on second-generation iPads.

These are just two examples of the types of Apple-related products you’ll find in our catalog that successfully sell on eBay. I highlight these items only to spark your own creativity around product sourcing, and I suggest that you conduct your own product research to find items at Doba that have sold well on eBay.

Note: The items highlighted above are the two among hundreds of thousands of products Doba members are successfully sourcing and selling each and every day. Keep in mind, however, that if you were thinking about selling these items yourself, they might be in short supply, out of stock, or even discontinued by the time you read this blog entry. Also, the wholesale costs shown above are based on our PrePay program (learn more about Doba PrePay here). Finally, eBay only promises to maintain ended auctions for 90 days after the closing date. If an auction number above doesn’t display when clicked, that could mean that particular auction has passed the 90-day threshold.

If you use nsCommerceSpace’s hosted ecommerce solution to manage your online store, you now have one-click access to export product data from the Doba catalog and import it into nsCommerceSpace.

To create and download a custom data export from Doba that’s compatible with nsCommerceSpace, follow these easy instructions:

1. Log in to your Doba account at www.Doba.com. (Note: If you do not have a Doba account, consider signing up for a Free 7-Day Doba Trial.)
2. Search the Doba Catalog for the products you wish to sell in your nsCommerceSpace-powered online marketplace/store.
3. Select the products you wish to sell by clicking the section checkbox for each.
4. Click the purple Data Export button at the top of the search results. A pop-up window appears.
5. Next, choose “Network Solutions” from the Format drop-down menu as shown in the image below.
6. Finally, click Save and Download to create and download to your desktop a new inventory list with the items you selected, as well as create a saved export tied to the new list, which can be found in the Data Export section of the site. Or, click Download Only to download the nsCommerceSpace export file without saving a copy in your Doba account.

It’s a place that most people would definitely love to visit at least once in their lifetimes. But all is not mangoes and jackfruit in this land of beautiful sunsets. For those of us here at Doba who investigate and protect against the seamy side of online retailing, we’re getting some disturbing reports from this azure archipelago. We’ve observed an alarming increase in fraudulent attempts coming from Jamaican IP address, and apparently we aren’t the only ones noticing.

It seems any kind of scam you can run has its origins in Jamaica these days. So much so that the Jamaican government has formed a governmental task force to take on these fraudsters. The government’s top priority is to stop a lottery scam that’s infiltrating the United States. Julian Robinson, a senior official in Jamaica’s Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining said more than 30,000 calls to the U.S. have originated from Jamaica — all attempts to defraud our unsuspecting countrymen and women.

This influx of fraud has prompted some police departments here to warn vulnerable — and usually elderly — residents to avoid answering calls from Jamaica’s area code, which is 876. In fact, that’s an area code that it wouldn’t hurt to remember.

But we’re all a lot smarter than those vulnerable folks who would be taken in by scam, right? Good. Then you certainly don’t need me to tell you to watch out for IP addresses originating from Jamaica. However, I’m going to do so anyway. While you should be on your toes about any international orders you receive, you need to especially be wary of those originating in Jamaica.

If you have a website that records logins from each user placing an order, you can use one of many free tools to see from where that IP address originates. The one I use here is whois.domaintools.com. All you need to do is copy and paste the IP into their search field, and in seconds you have plenty of info on that IP. Because I review almost all orders that go through Doba’s platform, I have specific things I’m always on the lookout for. Most recently, the big one is the country of origin. Doba doesn’t ship internationally, and the risk of fraud is just one reason why. My advice would be to stay away from most international orders — but most important — avoid all orders being sent to customers logging in from Jamaica.

It may be a beautiful place to visit, but when it comes to securing your online business, saving money is just as beautiful.

Meet Doba suppliers Churchill and Paris (neither of which charges a dime in drop-ship fees… I’m just sayin’):

Supplier Churchill (active in the Doba catalog for 5+ years — since October 10, 2006) is a leading distributor of imprintable apparel and accessories. Imprints can be easily added to nearly all of this supplier’s 46,200 active SKU count. Churchill carries computer backpacks, T-shirts, hoodies, caps and visors, fleece-lined jackets, towels and thousands of other items from such brands as Adidas, Ashworth, Champion, Gildan, Hanes and Izod.

With a fulfillment rage of 98.18 percent and no drop-ship fee, Churchill has an average processing time of four to seven business days and can ship in two business days. For additional information, login to your Doba account and visit supplier Churchill.

Supplier Paris (active in the Doba catalog since September 1, 2009) is a leading manufacturer of canvas and poster art. Paris features a collection of vintage art that has been restored and digitally reprinted — painstakingly maintained as close to the originals as possible. With an active SKU count of 133,800, images range from a posing President Abraham Lincoln to a variety of WWII propaganda posters. There’s even a black and white photo of a French sailor peeking out the hatch of his wood-decked submarine.

Supplier Paris enjoys a 100 percent fulfillment rate, processes items in one to three business days, and has an average three-day shipping time. For additional information, login to your Doba account and visit supplier Paris.

Check back in a couple of weeks when I’ll once again highlight two Doba-affiliated drop-ship suppliers who can help you grow your online business.

With that in mind, we’re pleased to announce a recent change that will help us improve our focus of simplifying drop shipping for small and independent online retailers and suppliers alike. In November of 2011, we spun off some of our technology and team members to a new company called DropShip.com, which offers private drop-shipping software platforms to larger eCommerce retailers and wholesale suppliers.

Along with the new company comes a change in leadership at Doba.com. Brandon Delgrosso, former executive vice president of Doba, has been promoted to president, assuming the role held by Blaine Neilsen, who is now president of Dropship.com.

These changes enable both companies to focus on solving the specific needs for each customer base. Both companies want to revolutionize drop shipping and eliminate the one-off processes and connections that stifle growth for both online retailers and wholesale suppliers.

For our part, Doba will continue to evolve by providing the best aggregated source of supply through a virtual distributor model, which makes it easy for online retailers to gain instant access to a standardized catalog of hundreds of drop ship suppliers and more than one million products.

The purpose is to show you that while we take our tasks quite seriously here at Doba headquarters, it’s not always about technology, customer service and support, accounting, order processing and drop shipping. Occasionally we do something outside the realm of work, and sometimes we do some truly silly things.

Take for example the sleek new Huffy Green Machine trike shown to the right. It’s the perfect low-profile, high-tech form of transportation for maneuvering the hallways and tight desk configurations that exist within our walls. Our fearless leader, Brandon Delgrosso, has participated in timed racing events around the office aboard this one-speed trike, competing with our own Jeff Wilson. We see this as a reflection of the Doba credo: “Competition is good, and extreme competition is extremely good.” Actually, we just made that up.

Nevertheless, here’s a recap of recent goings-on at Doba:

Kelvin Minefee, one of our sales executives, has taken on the task of training a few of our employees with CrossFit, a core strength and conditioning program. The program’s so tough it’s even used by many police academies and tactical operations teams. Here at Doba, Kelvin’s been known to make his team work out so hard they toss their cookies. Can we hear it again for that fictitious credo about extreme competition?

Jordan Colton, another Doba sales executive, just proclaimed to be the proud owner of more than a million baseball cards. That’s by no means an extreme sport, but as a hobby, we’re still impressed!

David Wheeler, yet another sales executive, is an avid (is that extreme?) environmentalist who consistently picks up every aluminum can that comes across his path and promptly stomps on it. Don’t believe us? Watch this video to see for yourself:

By the way, David and his wife welcomed their fourth child in January.

Derin Harvey, one of our service reps, hopes to adopt a boy in mid-May and recently successfully survived a second bout with cancer. Way to go, Derin!

Mark Pearce, sales executive, and his wife are expecting her third child and his fifth – bringing the total to seven in the Pearce household.

Angie Taylor, our marketing and sales analyst, recently announced she’s pregnant with her second child (the baby’s due in August).

Bill Rogers, sales executive, is building a playhouse for his daughter, and making it big enough to eventually house a second child — currently being carried to term by his wife.

Sean Nichols, a Doba systems administrator, recently purchased a new home.

Matt Bailey, a service rep, was married in November.

Mike Williams is switching over to our IT Dept from customer service.

Greg Vandagriff went from a sales executive position to email marketing manager. He now goes by the title “Email Ninjaneer.”

Jarem Atkinson, a marketing intern, joins a management internship program at Wal-Mart in May. He says it’s the start to a career path in management with the potential to break into corporate marketing. Jarem’s majoring in marketing at UVU and will complete that program by August.

Tyson Wanlass, our fraud prevention manager, is currently vacationing with his wife in Germany and the Czech Republic. Plans call for a stay at a castle that is now a hotel.

Ashlee Toney, our fulfillment supervisor, recently went on a trip to Idaho.

Joe Brown, a sales executive, says his family enjoyed a vacation to Las Vegas last week.

Ryan Zirker, vice president of operations, is going on a family trip back to his hometown in Iowa.

And finally, getting back to our extreme activities theme, we have this:

Kip Wardell, a Doba sales executive for more than two years, is currently undergoing a military-style firefighting academy offered through the Utah Fire and Rescue Academy. Says Kip: “I’ve wanted to be a firefighter for a long time now and to be able to be trained by the best in the business has been a real blessing. All of the instructors are current firefighters themselves and have an intense and passionate attitude to whip us into shape and teach us to be firefighters.” Kip says he’s pulled a lot of houseline, put a lot of fires out, and helped countless cats out of trees for grannies. And he’s anxious to see where all this training will take him in his firefighting career.

And we’re all extremely proud of him!

These experiences can give some insight into the minds of enthusiasts, regardless of what activity they care so deeply about. An outsider usually doesn’t have a clue as to why someone would spend hard-earned cash on high-end equipment for a given outdoor activity, but enthusiasts are driven by emotions often sparked by previous adventures. That’s why we call them enthusiasts. For instance, in preparation for my recent shooting outing, I dropped a few hundred dollars on some new gear and ammunition. And I have not one ounce of regret or buyer’s remorse.

Fact of the matter is, I purchased a lot of that shooting equipment directly from Doba. It turns out we’ve got a pretty respectable assortment of shooting gear in our catalog — and available at very competitive prices. So if you’ve been toying around with the notion of offering shooting equipment, it might be worth looking up what’s available. Some of this gear turns a tidy profit on eBay.

I did a little homework on the topic, and here’s what I picked up in just a few hours of research:

• Once you account for shipping costs, rifle accessories tend to be more profitable than those for handguns
• Because of the growing number of hobbyists shooting Airsoft replicas of real guns, there is an increasing demand for “external” accessories. These include gun cases, slings, range bags and magazine pouches. This opens up the market, which already includes the owners of real guns as well as replicas.
• Because many Airsoft replicas are of military-grade weaponry, you’ll find a high demand for accessories related to these particular models of weapons.

These are just two examples of the types of products in our catalog that successfully sell on eBay. We highlight these items to spark your own creative product selection and encourage you to conduct your own product research to find the variety of items at Doba that have sold well on eBay.

Note: The items highlighted above are the two among thousands of products Doba members are successfully sourcing and selling each and every day. Keep in mind, however, that these particular items (if you were thinking about selling them yourself, may be in short supply, out of stock, or even discontinued by the time you read this blog entry). Also, the wholesale costs shown above are based on our PrePay program (learn more about Doba PrePay here). Finally, eBay only promises to maintain ended auctions for 90 days after the closing date. If an auction number above does not display when clicked, it may be because that particular auction has passed the 90-day threshold.