When selling products on eBay or from a personal website, your best bet is usually to build a solid product line sourced from a dropshipper or wholesaler.  Selling a steady product line allows you to open an eBay store and build a name for yourself as the best supplier of Barbie dollhouse furniture or laptop bags.  However, there are times when you might want to supplement your dropship or wholesale products with items from another source.

When is a good time to supplement dropship products?

1.When you’re just getting started on eBay, you might want to sell a variety of items to boost your customer satisfaction rating.

2. Around the holidays you might want to sell theme items like Easter baskets or Christmas stockings.

3. Before committing to a dropshipper or wholesaler, you may want to test the saleability of a new item by selling a few samples on eBay.

Where can you find products to supplement your dropship and wholesale items?

1.Costco and Sam’s Club

It may seem ridiculous that you can purchase items from Cosco and Sam’s Club and re-sell them on eBay for a profit – after all, aren’t eBay shoppers looking for a great deal?  Won’t they know they can get the item cheaper at Cosco?  Not necessarily – remember, a lot of people don’t have Cosco or Sam’s Club memberships, or simply haven’t seen the item you’re selling.  I’ve seen gift baskets, calling cards, tools, and barbeques from Cosco and Sam’s Club sold for profit on eBay.  It’s not always a staggering profit margin – the calling cards might be marked up $5 or $6, the tool sets $10 – $20, but it only takes a few supplementary sales per day to boost your profit margin significantly.

2.Outlet Malls

The great thing about outlet malls is you can purchase brand-name clothes for heavily discounted prices.  Brand-name clothing sells very well on eBay, especially when you can advertise it as “tags still on”.  Jones New York, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Bahama, and Victoria’s Secret outlet stores are all a great place to find clearance clothing you can sell for profit on eBay.

3.Thrift Stores and Flea Markets

There are a ton of products at thrift stores and flea markets which can be re-sold on eBay for profit.  Matching dish sets, tea pots, gently used brand-name clothing, anything leather, and vintage toys are all great finds.  Cashmere, old lace, and antique buttons are also good.  The more “like new” your purchases are, the better your chances of making a buck.  Try to visit thrift stores on the day they put out their new merchandise, and arrive early to flea markets and bazaars – the best deals will be snatched up early.

4.Garage sales

Like thrift stores and flea markets, the key is to arrive early, cash in hand.  Don’t be afraid to bargain, especially later in the day.  Most people are trying to get rid of unwanted items – they’re not too particular about the price.  Try offering, say, $10 for an entire box of children’s clothing, or $5 for a box full of old paperbacks or cosmetics.  Look for products still in the original package and anything brand-name.  Cowboy boots, brand-name perfume (even if the bottle is only 3/4 full), and gift items are all good garage sale discoveries.

What are the most important things to remember when selling supplementary products on eBay?

1.Research Before You Buy

I really can’t stress this enough – don’t just wander around your neighborhood, buying every piece of junk people have for sale.  Make a list of products you think you can sell for profit on eBay: “Victoria’s Secret robe from outlet mall, china tea set from thrift store, leather cowboy boots from garage sale, etc.”  Then, research those items on eBay.  Perform an advanced search to determine what price similar products are selling for.  Write down the prices so you know that tea sets sell for around $20, so you’re not going to make a profit unless you can buy yours for $10.  Make a note of which products aren’t selling well, which markets are too saturated.  Doing your research ahead of time will help avoid you stocking your house full of flea market items you have no hope of re-selling.

2. Stick with your strengths.

If you’re a fashionista, look for costume jewelry, vintage granny sweaters, lace dresses, and Burberry scarves at your local thrift store.  If your style is more Rush Limbaugh than Michelle Obama, you should probably avoid purchasing trendy apparel items and stick with something you do know, like cookware or tool sets.

For more tips on selling garage sale and thrift store items on eBay, check out this blog post: Selling Antique, Used, And Specialty Products On EBay.

Product Ideas, eBay, selling products online

You may have noticed that every time you list an item on eBay, you are offered the option to use a Hit Counter.  What is the Hit Counter and why is it important?

What is the Hit Counter?

The Hit Counter allows you to track how many people are viewing your listing, whether they bid on your item or not.

Why should I use the Hit Counter?

The Hit Counter is extremely important for tracking interest in your listings.  By monitoring how many people are viewing your listing vs. how many are bidding, you can infer some key points.

What can I learn from the Hit Counter?

1. If your item is getting a lot of hits but no bids, there is probably something wrong with your price or your description.

Obviously plenty of people are interested in your item, but they don’t want to buy it.  This means you have inflated the price too high, or your description isn’t selling people.  Try running two auctions for the same type of product, one with a lower price and one with a better description / more pictures / instructional video.  See which one actually gets bids.

2. If your item isn’t getting any hits or bids, you have probably picked a bum product or your title is terrible.

Try re-listing your product with a better title including plenty of relevant keywords.  If this doesn’t work, it’s probably time to scrap the idea of selling Marvin the Martian memorabilia or whatever it is that nobody is interested in.

eBay

We’ve talked before about how PPC (Pay-Per-Click advertising) can bring traffic to your dropshipping website.  But did you know that you can also use PPC to drive traffic to your eBay store?

The benefits of bringing outside traffic to your eBay store are more than a simple increase in sales:

1. When you bring someone directly to your store from outside of eBay, eBay credits 75% of your store fee.

2. If you are a member of eBay’s affiliate proram and your customer is a first-time buyer, you can actually earn commission on top of your eBay credit.

How can you get affordable PPC for your eBay store?

As anyone who has used PPC knows, it can be very expensive to purchase more common keywords like “shoes” or “boots”.  However, more specific long-tail keywords can be very affordable – say “embroidered cowboy boots” or “hand-made Chinese boots”.  This will bring in traffic with a better conversion rate anyway – if I’m searching for Chinese boots, I’m not going to buy anything from your cowboy boot eBay store, and I’ll just cost you money in PPC.  Thus, specific long-tail keywords can result in more profitable traffic as well as being less expensive to purchase than general, popular keywords.

eBay, internet marketing

To reserve or not to reserve, that is the question.  Should you set reserve prices on your eBay auctions?  If so, how high should you set them?  How will a reserve price affect your auction and fees?  You thought there would be a simple yes or no answer here, but as usual there’s more to consider.

4 things you should know about setting a reserve price on your eBay auctions:

1. Lots of eBay buyers won’t even look at an auction with a reserve price

By setting a reserve, you are cutting out a hefty chunk of your potential customers.

2. Setting a reserve will raise your eBay fees

EBay wants you to start everything at 99 cents, because that makes auctions exciting for people.  To save money on fees and to increase interest in your auction, don’t set reserve prices for items that you know will sell for a decent price.  If you’ve already sold four laptop bags for $29-$35, you can be fairly certain that your fifth laptop bag will sell for the same price (assuming you are posting it in relatively the same way).  Trust that products which have been good sellers in the past will continue to sell, and start the bidding low.

3. Setting a mid-range reserve price could hurt you

If you do set a reserve price, make sure it actually represents the minimum amount you want to take.  Don’t try to compromise by setting a reserve price somewhere in the middle where you’ll lose money on the product.  Because an item with a reserve price is likely to get less traffic, it may well sell for just over the reserve.

4. Making your reserve price visible can help

When setting a reserve price, at least make it visible.  There is no benefit to hiding the reserve price; people can figure it out by placing incrementally higher bids.  By being upfront about the lowest price you’ll take for your product, you may lure back some of the bidders who don’t like dealing with reserve auctions.

Obviously it’s important not to lose money selling products on eBay, so there may be times when a reserve price is appropriate, but try to avoid it when possible, and at the very least make sure people can see what the reserve is.  When your auction does not have a reserve price, including “No Reserve” or “NR” in your title can help attract bidders.

eBay

Let’s assume you’re operating a fairly successful eBay business – you’re making sales, you’re building your customer satisfaction rating, but your profit margin is a little low.  How can you make your eBay business more profitable?

1. Open an eBay Store

EBay fees can take a huge bite out of your profits.  The fees for an eBay Store are much lower than the fees for individual auction listings.  An eBay store also allows you to offer package deals and promotions which are more difficult to do through single listings, such as “Buy Three Items, Get Free Shipping”, or “Buy Two Items, Get 20% Off Your Order”.  These kinds of promotions can increase your sales volume and lower your shipping costs since you’re sending multiple items to one customer.

2. Get Free Packing Materials

The cost of packing and shipping materials can really add up – try to get these items for free.  One easy way to do this is to find a local retail store that frequently disposes of boxes and packing materials.  They’ll probably be glad to let you haul away their empty boxes and bubble wrap.  Good candidates include gift shops, liquor stores, furniture stores, and even mega-retailers like Wal-mart (that’s where I got all my boxes for free the last time I moved).  Just make sure the materials are in good shape – nobody wants to get their eBay purchase in a ratty old Del Monte banana box – it makes you look totally unprofessional.  If you ship priority mail, you can get your materials free from the post office.

3. Use Second Chance Offers To Sell Additional Items

The eBay Second Chance Offer is really intended for times when the buyer backs out or fails to pay – then you can offer your item to the next highest bidder.  However, you can use the Second Chance Offer any time you want to sell more than one of the same item.  If you close a sale and the second-highest bidder offers a price you’re willing to take as well, then sell him the same item.  You’re doubling your sales from a single listing.

4. Take Advantage Of The Re-List Option

If your item doesn’t sell, eBay allows  you to re-list one time without incurring additional fees.  But before you hit the re-list button, make sure you edit your post.  Obviously there was a reason it didn’t sell the first time around – try re-vamping your description, adding photos, lowering the price, offering free shipping, posting at a different time of day, removing the reserve price or at least making it visible, etc.

eBay

Before you sell any product on eBay, no matter what it is, you need to do some research.  Let’s say you’re planning to sell a gourmet coffee gift basket.  How do you know how much that product is likely sell for, or whether it will sell at all?  Should you set a reserve price?  Is a fixed-price format or an auction-style listing preferrable?

One of the ways you can find answers to these questions is to preform an Advanced Search on eBay.  The “Advanced Search” button is on the homepage, right next to the regular Search button.  By hitting “Advanced Search”, you can search for products using keywords, checking particular categories, or even looking in a certain price range.

How To Research Your Potential EBay Product:

Step 1: Use keywords to view completed listings similar to yours

With our gourmet coffee gift basket, I’ll simply use the keywords “coffee gift basket” and possibly “gourmet” to search (I don’t want to input too many parameters or I won’t get a good overview of all the coffee gift baskets that have been sold).  Make sure you click the box to view “Completed Listings”.

Step 2: Examine your results

When I type in “gourmet coffee gift basket”, eBay changes my search to “gourmet coffee basket”, and I only find four completed listings from the last seven days.  Of these four listings, only one sold, and for a measly 99 cents.  This tells me that maybe coffee gift baskets aren’t the great idea I thought they were, and if I do try to sell one I should put a reserve price so it doesn’t sell for 99 cents.

Step 3: Refine your search

I’m going to try again, just to make absolutely sure coffee gift baskets aren’t a gold mine (after all, Valentine’s is coming up, so it seemed like a good idea for romantic javaphiles).  This time I use only the keywords “coffee” and “basket”.  I get 202 results, some of which are unrelated results like coffee makers and coffee-colored baskets.  I don’t read all the listings because I can easily see that coffee gift baskets are indeed a bad idea (at least right now): in the last seven days only one Starbucks coffee giftbasket sold for $19.99 versus eight baskets ranging from $8-$43.99 which did not sell.  Even that one sale was a brand-name product sold by an eBay Top Seller.

Step 4: Take the hint

When brainstorming, coffee gift baskets seemed like a good idea.  People love coffee, it’s a good gift item, it’s close to a holiday where gifts are given… what could go wrong?  Luckily I checked the completed listings before I wasted $2 trying to post my basket, or worse, went out to Sam’s Club and stocked up on twenty baskets to sell super-retail on eBay.

You should never, never try to sell a product on eBay that has a terrible sale ratio in the completed listings.  If you check the completed listings and the majority of laptop bags or embroidery kits or chess sets similar to your did sell, make sure that the price was commensurate with what you’re hoping to receive.  Don’t forget to ensure that the other factors of the sale are actually comparable: for instance, if you’re not an eBay Top Seller, you may not have as good a chance as selling your product, or if your item is used or refurbished and everybody else’s was brand new, you can’t expect the same price.

eBay

Most people can sell one or two items on eBay, but what do you need to do to take your sales volume to the next level?  The following are five easy tips for boosting your sales:

1. Improve your Profile

If you haven’t already filled out all the information on your About Me page, including a photograph that makes you look like Aunt Jemima rather than the Unibomber, this should be your first step.  Your About Me page can be a very effective promotional tool, and can include much more than a biography.  Take Ken Potter’s About Me page: http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=koinpro. Ken’s page includes a detailed curriculum vitae and offers a list of his educational articles.  It includes a bar of his favorite links, and an offer to sign up for his free newsletter, (which I’m sure he uses to gather email addresses to promote his business via direct marketing).  Ken has used his page to build a solid impression of reliability and knowledgability.

2. Offer a Money-Back Guarantee

You may be afraid to offer a money-back guarantee because you think every second item will be sent back for some arbitrary reason, but in fact most people don’t want to go to the time and hassle to return products, even if there is an issue.  The fact that you offer a guarantee will make people much more likely to buy from you, and you will probably take very few losses, especially if you’re honest and accurate in your listings.  If you prefer, you can offer a modified guarantee, such as “Returns within 30 days”, or “Full refund if item is not as described”.  Honoring your guarantee will help keep your all-important customer rating high.

3. Boost your Customer Satisfaction Rating

Despite your impeccable fulfillment of 10 or 20 sales, you may find that your customers aren’t actually rating you.  One of the best ways to ensure that customers post a positive rating is to give them a positive buyer rating yourself.  It’s also not out of line to send a polite message asking for a review.  If you are having a difficult time getting any ratings or any sales at all, try selling a few small, cheap items at cost purely for the experience and the rating boost.

4. Lessen your Auction Durations

This tip may seem counter-intuitive: after all, won’t your listings garner more views the longer they’re up for?  The answer is no.  Your listing will get the most attention in the Best Match and Time Ending Soonest results if your auction duration is shorter.  The majority of bids come in the last 24 hours, in part because a lot of people are like me: they treat eBay more like a garage sale than a silent auction.  Since I want to make immediate purchases, auctions that are closing in the next few hours and Buy It Now listings are the ones that I’m most likely to pay attention to.

5. Don’t Overcharge For Shipping

EBay buyers aren’t stupid – they know what shipping on a particular item should cost.  Your profit margin should not be padded by a mark-up on shipping costs.  At most, you should add an extra dollar to shipping for the time and materials required to package the item.  Don’t think you can get away with averaging out the item and shipping cost either – eBay will ban you if they catch you boosting your shipping prices to avoid paying fees on your final sale value.  And remember, even if you do fool somebody into paying ludicrous shipping fees, they’ll just torch your customer satisfaction rating later.

Once your eBay sales have increased, there are many more tools and applications you can use to take your sales from profitable to earth-shaking.  However, these tips should help you boost yourself from part-time dabbler to eBay professional.

eBay

Audio is one of the great secrets of eBay, an under-used tool that has been shown to boost overall sales volume and also bid prices on individual items.  Adding audio to your eBay listing personalizes your post – it makes your post more memorable and trustworthy for the buyer.  It also allows you to include more information about the product and point out important selling features.

What will audio do for my listings?

The results of adding audio to your eBay listing are incontrovertible.  To give an example, in his article 77 Tips and Tools for Selling on the New EBay, Skip McGrath relates how he saw an immediate increase in sales when he began using audio in his online auctions.  He was selling fire pit barbeques in the $200 range, averaging about one BBQ sold per week.  After he added audio, he began to sell one a day.  To fully test his theory, his sold a number of Starbucks collectibles in identical auctions, half with and half without audio.  The audio auctions received more bidders and sold for as much as 22% more than the control group.

How can you add audio to your eBay auction?

You can add audio in a number of ways.  One of the easiest is to use a tool like Seller’s Voice to record audio via the phone or your computer’s microphone and upload it to your eBay post.  The benefit of using this kind of tool is that it runs using flash and is compatible with most buyer’s computers.  The downside is, of course, that they charge a monthly fee of around$29, though you can try it out for $1.

Whichever method of adding audio you choose, make sure you obey the eBay rules – they are selective about which kinds of audio they allow in posts.  Also, tools like Seller’s Voice give you the option of having the audio play automatically, or only when a button is pushed by the buyer: personally, I don’t like unexpected noise while I’m online, but you might increase the number of customers who hear your audio by having it play automatically.  You’ll have to decide whether you want to run the risk of annoying people.

eBay

This holiday season, three times as many people bought and sold eBay items via their mobile device compared to last year.  Almost 20% of eBay transactions were accomplished through a cell phone or PDA.  What does this mean to you, an eBay seller?  Basically, if you’re not customizing some of your eBay posts to appeal to these buyers, you’re missing out on sales.  You don’t necessarily want to gear all your posts toward cell phone purchasers, but you might consider splitting your listings 80/20.  You could post 80% of your listings in your regular comprehensive manner, while pitching 20% of them at the mobile device crowd.  If you have any products that particularly appeal to technophiles, those are the ones you should format for cell phone purchasers.

How can you capture the mobile purchasing market on eBay?

1. Check How Your Posts Look On A Cell Phone

Every time you list a new eBay posting, look it up on your cell phone.  Check how clear and concise your post is – if the text is overly long or too complex for cell-phone viewing, consider cutting it down.

2. Watch The Clock

Most mobile devices have a slower internet connection than a home computer.  Your eBay post may load fine on your laptop, but take eons on your iPhone.  Check the load time of your listing and axe any videos or excess images slowing it down.

3. Speak The Lingo

You can assume that people who purchase eBay items via a mobile device are some of the more techno-literate buyers.  Thus, not only your products but also your product descriptions should be geared toward early-adapting detail-oriented techno geeks.  Make sure your product descriptions highlight the most desirable features for this demographic.

Ultimately, pitching your eBay listings at the mobile crowd won’t require massive alterations; it’s merely a matter of making your listings cell-phone friendly.  Undoubtedly this method of purchasing products off eBay will continue to grow more popular, so formatting your listings to appeal to mobile buyers is a good habit to get into.  Small measures like this  help your eBay listings stand out from the crowd.

eBay

I don’t want to seem like I have a vendetta against PayPal, because in fact I think they’re a great payment processing system.  However, they are not the infallible, completely secure option that some people seem to believe.  If you don’t protect yourself while using PayPal, you can easily fall victim to scams and chargebacks that can cost you a lot of money.

Purchasing Through PayPal

One of the best ways to protect yourself when making a purchase with PayPal is to purchase via a credit card.  Your PayPal account can be used to purchase items online with funds drawn from your PayPal reserve, debit cards, your bank account, or credit cards.  PayPal won’t let you use the credit card option if you have funds accrued in your account, so the first thing you’ll have to do is clean that account out.  The benefit of using a credit card for the purchase is it offers a second line of fraud defense.  But wait, you might think, PayPal already has fraud protection!  Yes, they do, but only if they can recover money from the scammer.  How often do you think that happens?  By contrast, a credit card purchase is protected whether or not funds are recovered from the seller.

Selling Through PayPal

As you probably know, PayPal also has a fraud protection program in place for sellers, but you need to be aware of its limitations.  Unconfirmed addresses are not protected against chargebacks.  An “unconfirmed” address is one that is not registered or accepted with PayPal.  Even if you conform to their mandate that shipping be confirmed and you have your FedEx confirmation number and your buyer’s signature, your buyer can still do a chargeback if their address is not on file with PayPal.  You’ll be out the payment and the product with no real recourse.  You should also know that intangible items like e-books, video game accounts, electronic information, and software, are not protected by PayPal’s fraud protection program at all.  Finally, only a certain volume of sales and chargebacks per year are protected.  This varies depending on your eBay and PayPal status, so make sure you are cognizant of where you lie on that spectrum.

eBay, online business