Tip 1
Your product sourcing needs will be determined by your business. That may be obvious, but many people miss that point. The product you sell follows from your business plan, and your product, to some degree, will determine the logistics of supply. For example, if you selling mass market auto parts, then you will probably be relying on a conventional wholesale supplier who may or may not provide drop shipping for you. In that sense, your sourcing problem is handled, and if the supplier drop ships, your means of delivery is handled as well. However, if you are selling items produced by local artisans, then the logistics of supply and deliver will be a bit different. There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to product sourcing.
Tip 2
Before selling anything on eBay it is important to study the additional eBay costs so that you’ll know how much you need to make to make a profit. Some of the extra costs include: (1) listing fees, (2) final value fees, (3) image hosting fees (can be optional),(4) fees for extras such as bold type, extra space for your listing, larger picture size (optional), (5) “Buy it Now” fees (optional), (6) fixed price fees (optional), (7) PayPal or other payment processor fees.
Tip 3
The fact of the matter is that on eBay you can sell virtually any product. And although you could probably find someone who would buy your fingernails, that’s not really the issue. You don’t want to sell just any product; you want to sell what you can consistently earn a profit. Many people starting out on eBay want to sell cool items such as DVDs or the latest electronic gadget, but this is not generally the best way to break into eBay if you are starting from scratch.
Tip 4
If you are just starting out, the first thing you must know is that legitimate wholesale DVDs–even though they are wholesale–are expensive. That means, for example, that you really can’t buy brand new releases–non counterfeit releases–of box office hits for $2, $3, or even $5. I know that this contradicts the low cost that you see on eBay and with Amazon merchants. $2 and $5 and far less may be accurate for lower demand older movies, or liquidated stock you buy in bulk quantities.
Tip 5
Popular consumer items that may be too expensive when purchased through wholesale distributors may work very well in a retail environment, such as on your independently hosted ecommerce site. When you purchase a laptop or an iPhone at wholesale price for resale, you are retailing that item. If you try to retail an item on eBay, where most popular consumer goods are selling at or below wholesale prices, it will be very difficult to make a profit. For a suggestion on how to get around this, skip to the resource box.
Tip 6
One key factor that will contribute to the success of your ecommerce, home business site is traffic. Product sourcing alone is not enough. Although there are numerous ways to develop a flow of traffic, if you cannot get potential customers interested in your products to your site, you will not make money. In other words you need targeted traffic. Possibly the most economical traffic development tool at your disposal is the search engines–Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, to name the big three. I’m not suggesting that the search engines be your only strategy for bringing people to your site, but with proper consideration, the search engines can be harnessed to work very well in your favor.
Want to know more about where to get products to sell on eBay? Start learning more about eBay product sourcing!
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