When you go online to buy something, what is the first thing you want to know about the item? What it looks like. Pictures can let us know within seconds if what is for sale is something we are interested in or not interested in. However, the type of picture and the quality of it can also play a big part in the selling process. For example, if you’re selling a nice vase that has a beautiful sparkle and color to it, but the picture you put online of it shows it to be a different color and doesn’t accent the best parts, people aren’t going to be interested in it, even though they would have been if they saw it in person. The point of having pictures is to accurately show people online what your product would look like if they were able to see it in person, and here are seven tips to help get the best picture of your wholesale products.

Taking The Best Pictures For Your EBay Wholesale Business

1. Don’t Use Stock Photographs

If you have something generic, it might be tempting to use stock photography. Usually, when someone goes on an eBay auction they can tell when something is clearly a stock photograph compared to something the seller shot. It’s important to have pictures of your actual items – stock photos almost always are different than the products you have, even if it’s only a minor difference.

2. Use Natural Lighting When Possible

As a photographer, I learned a couple tricks of the trade when it comes to photography. One of the first things that was engraved in my mind is direct flash is a bad thing. Not only does it give you a dark shadow on the outside, it also doesn’t let products have their true colors shine through because the flash causes highlights and bright points that flush out any color. Try to take pictures in natural lighting, like by a window for example, to get the best quality of color and avoid shadows.

3. Choose Good Backgrounds

If your product is a light color, it might be a good idea to shoot it against a dark background like a chair draped in a dark colored sheet, or visa versa if the product is light colored. The contrast will make the product stand out instead of blending.

4. Fill Up The Frame

Make sure you get the picture close enough to the product so that it fills up the frame. You should have a little wiggle room on the outside, just to avoid chopping off part of the product. There’s nothing worse than having a frame where customers can see your couch, kitchen table, the top of your oven, and then the little product in the middle. It looks less professional.

5. Make Sure The Pictures Are Big Enough

Have you ever received an e-mail from a friend with pictures that they took of your last outing together, or something funny they took a picture of and when you opened it up it was so small you didn’t even know what was in the picture? The same thing goes with pictures for your products – they need to be big enough to see every aspect of the product, but not so big that they have to wait fifteen minutes for it to load. I would suggest keeping your pictures between 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768. These sizes are big enough that people can see your products, but they won’t take forever to load.

6. Edit A Little

If your pictures need a little bit of help with the brightness, contrast, or sharpening, it’s a good idea to run them through some sort of photo-editing program. Keep in mind that you don’t want to go overboard so that the products’ pictures don’t look like how the product really looks. One of the most popular editing programs is Photoshop, but there are other alternatives like free Piscasa and my personal favorite, Photoscape. If you’re not someone who is very experienced with cameras and editing programs, many times they have auto brightness, auto contrast, auto sharpen buttons that you can click and the programs will do the fixing themselves.

7. Have Multiple Views

If your product has different designs, colors, or styles depending on the side its on, like anything clothing, hand bags, blankets, etc., it’s important to add those pictures to the listing too. For example, for my purse business, we always take a picture of the front, back, side, any embellishments / hardware that are signature to the kind of brand – like the Fossil keys that say Fossil, as well as inside the purse showing the serial number and the kind of pockets it has, and inside any sort of compartment. Customers won’t be able to handle the objects themselves, so think to yourself, if I was going to look at this in the store, what would I look at? and then take a picture of those different parts.

Education, Uncategorized, eBay, selling products online

As an eBay powerseller, I thought it was interesting when I logged in to my account the other day the information that eBay wanted to share with me. Usually, eBay has messages for sellers regarding things they’re promoting, what they plan on doing, and the like. The message this time however, was about updating their system for the holiday rush. As online retailers know, around September to January is the busiest time of the year due to the holiday season. One might think that September would be too early to even think about holidays like Christmas – I myself won’t listen to Christmas music until the second week of December -but it’s never too early to get your website in top condition for the holiday rush.

Preparing For The Holiday Rush

1. Give Customers Incentives

Previously, we have gone over the benefits of incentives for customers and what it means for your business. With the holiday rush, there’s going to be people shopping online for things that might not necessarily be frequent online shoppers. During the holiday season when everyone is holding some sort of a promotion, try not to miss that opportunity. If a customer comes to your site and finds a sweater they want to buy, and then find a similar sweater on another site for about the same price, which will they choose? Your site that didn’t do any promotion like free shipping, or the site that is offering free shipping. Depending on some other factors of course, people will go for the free shipping.

One of the new things eBay is implementing is free listing starting on September 20th for items like iPod / MP3 players, global positioning device systems (GPS), and DVDs, HD DVDs & Blu-ray. As long as you are selling in those particular categories (popular items during the holidays) eBay will waive your listing fees, which, if you’re selling a lot of items, could really amount to something.

Note: I’m not completely positive if these kind of promotions are solely for Power Sellers or if they are available to all eBay sellers. But for your own website purposes, these examples still apply.

2. Keep Your Listings Up-To-Date

Another feature that eBay is implementing is the ability to edit more items in bulk. They’re adding things like find and replace options, and even the ability to change shipping costs for several items at a time. Not only is this ability going to help you keep on top of the price game against competitors, but it will make editing a lot more effective and simple. In reference to your website, it’s important to always have the most current information listed – if that includes the price of the item, the shipping prices – sometimes you might want to hold a promotional for a flat rate for your items – and most importantly the availability of your items. No one wants to buy something for Christmas, just to have it showing up on their doorstep when you’re putting away your stockings two weeks later.

3. Keep A Good Amount In Your Inventory

If you have a great customer base or your advertising skills get people coming to your site and buying your products like hot cakes, make sure to not get behind on the game. The third interesting thing that eBay is starting – this one actually in August – is the Unpaid Item Assistant. As an eBay Power Seller, nothing is more frustrating than having someone win an auction and not pay for their item. It’s a pain to have to report, relist, and do the whole process over again with your item that the second place person wanted and was willing to pay for it. With the new Unpaid Item Assistant if sellers don’t pay within 16 days – still a long period to pay – then the item is automatically relisted. You can change the amount of time people have to pay, my specific policy is only 24 hours, but we do usually keep it under 3 days if possible, and you can add exceptions if the buyer contacts you.

With your own inventory, if you have an item that’s selling out, make sure to get maybe a little more from your wholesaler or keep your dropshipper close during the holiday months. It would be awful to not get the revenue that your company can build because you didn’t plan enough extra items. But also remember that while buying something wholesale, you really don’t know how much people are going to love it so don’t buy a lot of one thing, just to find out your customers want something else.

Education, dropshipping, eBay, online business, selling products online

In previous blog entries, we have gone over the importance of having a niche when starting out your dropshipping or wholesale business. With a niche you’re able to specialize instead of having a lot of random items that you might have some general knowledge and interest in, but no real in-depth knowledge. One of the most common questions I receive is “how to I find my niche market? How do I know what is going to sell and what people are interested in right now?” Today, I’m going to try to address these questions as much as possible to give you the keys you need to continue to update and grow your business.

Finding What Products Are Hot

1. EBay Pulse

I know that not everyone is going to be selling on eBay, but this is a good place to start out. They have picked out the most popular items sold on eBay and listed them on the front of their eBay pulse, as well as each top trending item by category. For example, if you’re just curious what most people are interested in today, you will see that the most popular searches are:

1. ipod touch

2. cricut cartridge

3. iphone

4. ipod

5. coach

6. laptop

7. xbox 360

8. wii

9. coach handbags

10. lot

Now, you can see that some of the searches are very similar which is why it’s important that if you do list things on eBay to make your headlines effective, but that’s another topic, which you can click on to view. Imagine that since you saw this list and know that people are interested in Coach purses that’s what you want to dropship or sell wholesale. However, remember that not everything is available dropship or wholesale – usually top name things like Apple and Coach fall into that category. If you were interested in selling baby products, you could click the drop down category to baby and find that the popular searches for today are:

1. baby clothes

2. formula coupon

3. baby

4. clothes

5. shoes

6. stroller

7. baby boy clothes

8. baby girl clothes

9. diaper bag

10. custom wall letters

These kind of items are really easy to find dropshipper or wholesale providers for. Even the last search, custom wall letters might not have been something you originally planned on including in your inventory, but since they’re so popular it might be a good idea to look into it. If you have a couple niches you’re looking into, check out the categories and go from there.

2. RSS Feeds and Mailing Lists

Do you have a particular website that has news RSS (really simple syndication) feeds? If there’s a news website you like, or a store that you’re trying to get ideas from, then subscribe to their RSS feeds and/or their newsletters. People send out the hottest trends and ideas via those avenues, so if you have access to them, it could spark some more ideas for you.

3. Check out the world

If you’re at the doctor’s office, grocery store, or really anywhere that has people / media, check out what they’re writing about, wearing, saying, or holding. Try to notice what kind of people are holding or using the kind of products you’re trying to sell online, and what you can do to match that audience.

Product Ideas, dropshipping, eBay, product research, selling products online, wholesale

With growing technology, people are able to view items, buy items, or simply research products through various mediums. For example, not only does e-commerce entail people simply on the computer browsing for things, but also the people on their cellphones, PDAs, etc. With the changing dynamic and growing expectations for companies who operate with the Internet, business owners have to know how to keep their business at the top of the game. Here are some tips to keep those customers and utilize the people on different operating systems aside from computers, and how to give your company an edge.

Adapting To The Commerce Everywhere Consumer

Find A Niche

We’ve reiterated this message in plenty of blogs, but it really is that important that I think it’s necessary to repeat it. To give you some ideas on what you can use for your niche market, check out our blog post, How To Brainstorm Products You Can Dropship For Profit. Niche markets will give you the edge because you will know the ins and outs of your product.

Improve Usability / Add Features

I offered some advice on what you should add for your retail site, but those tips can be broadened for any website. If we’re simply talking categories, things like sizing charts, features lists, color swatches (possibly even an idea of getting a picture of the fabric used so people can see the real color, or trying to simply find a color online that matches what the fabric looks like) are a good idea. Other aspects, like multi-media (video and images), and cross-sell and up-sell options, as well as customer reviews, ratings on products, are all good things to add to your site to make your customer’s experience the most effective. The more dynamic your website is, allowing customers to customize their searches to find the exact products you’re looking for, is a sure-fire way to have people not feel frazzled coming to your site or simply get tired of having to dig through your products to find what they want.

Making Things 100% Right 100% Of The Time

It only takes one bad experience for a customer to either drop your brand, question using your website, or simply just disappear. It’s important to have your products information correct 100% of the time. As a buyer on amazon.com, I always check to see why people leave sellers negative comments. One of the most common ones I notice is that they posted something as being available, when in reality, it was sold out. No customer wants to get excited about getting a product at a great price just to find out it’s not really there after they paid for it.

Check Out Product Content Managers

PCM is something that basically makes it certain that you do not have erroneous information with your products. Not only will it get the most accurate information about your product, but it will grab all the customer reviews about the product to add as well. PCM covers things like creation, aggregation, categorization, staging, publication and syndication to the assignment of attributes such as category, price and promotion eligibility, as well as integrates things like reviews, videos, etc. about products as well. These are the kind of things that are becoming a key feature in making your products accessible from various channels.

Uncategorized, dropshipping, eBay, home based business, make money online, online business, selling products online

As some of you readers might know, my specialty is selling products on eBay. I’ve been an eBay seller for the better part of four years now, and recently reached PowerSeller status. For the last week or so, I’ve been going over mostly things related to developing your dropship / wholesale website, as well as things that could benefit them like blogs and testimonials. Today, we’re going to switch gears and go back to a couple interesting tips that new (or simply not as experienced) eBay sellers might want to consider before creating your next eBay auction.

Creating The Best Experience For You And Your Customer

The Actual Auction

1. Be completely honest with your listing

When you’re buying something that you can’t physically hold before you buy it, you want to know exactly what you’re purchasing. Pictures can only do so much, so customers have to rely on you and your writing skills to give them the best visual picture before they decide to place a bid on your item. Make sure you are completely honest with your item descriptions. Don’t omit any ding, mark, or blemish / imperfection that might be on your item. Of course, you don’t need to scour your item to see every little detail, but if something is noticeable to you, make sure to include it. Customers who feel like they were lied to will return your item, and could possibly leave negative feedback if things get messy.

2. Don’t sell things for a dollar

Simply put, you’re going to spend too much time on listing your item, packing it (if you’re selling wholesale, or communicating with your dropshipper), and having the listing run to make it worth a dollar. After listing fees to get it on the site, plus the amount eBay will take when it’s sold, you’re left with mere change. It’s not worth your time, energy, or your reputation of only selling cheap $1 items to sell things for only a dollar.

Post Auction

1. Buyer doesn’t pay?

Make sure you have some sort of buyer agreement listed on your auction. You can have something like, if payment is not received 48 hours after the auction end, buyer will forfeit the item. You can pick any time frame you would like, and it’s ultimately up to you how you enforce that policy. If someone doesn’t pay after your three day mark, send them a message. If they don’t reply within a day, then you can make a dispute with eBay and basically cancel the sale. There’s some cases where you might have to do a little more digging. If you have a high priced item that was sold, and your customer has great feedback from other sellers about paying promptly, it might be a good idea not to be so eager to try the auction again. Obviously, don’t wait forever for the buyer to pay you, but a reasonable amount of time for someone with good feedback to get themselves in order, perhaps 5 days, in case something rare happened to them and they weren’t able to keep their stellar record of paying on time.

2. Pack items carefully

This is important whether you’re selling a fragile glass vase or something that you might deem indestructible. If you’re selling via drop ship, then it’s up to your supplier to package your products for you. However, if you’re in charge of your own shipping and packing (selling wholesale) you’re going to want to make sure your product is protected. Things in the mail get thrown around very easily, and the last thing you want is a customer e-mailing you to let you know the pretty vase they bought from you showed up as shards of glass. Invest in some packing supplies like bubble wrap – newspaper isn’t going to work.

Customer Service, Uncategorized, eBay

The last couple entries, I have written about dropshop and wholesale businesses, and how to improve customer’s experiences within those sites to create more profit. We’re going to switch gears a little bit and focus on eBay and how to improve your wholesale business with a couple simple tips that could make all the difference.

The Minor Details: Improving Your Wholesale Business On EBay

Work to get top-rated

Like any good company, it takes hard work, dedication, and time to become one of the best. This same concept is true when it comes to your eBay account. There are a couple of things that you can focus on that will help customers buy your auctions, as well as encourage repeat customers.

1. People trust the stars

As I mentioned in past posts, testimonials and ratings are a key factor when it comes to getting customers to trust you and your products. With eBay, customers are able to leave feedback concerning their experience with sellers and their products. As a seller, you are also able to leave feedback about a buyer. It is always a good idea to leave feedback whenever possible, and to have good communication with customers. If a customer is unhappy with a product and sends you a message about it, make sure to reply to it. It may seem like simple basic ideas, but a single negative (red) or neutral (gray) feedback on your ratings can cause a blemish on your reputation. I know personally when I look at someone’s feedback ratings and see that they have a negative feedback, I always want to find that one to see what the seller did to make the customer unhappy. Even if you don’t agree with what the customer is saying, you want to try to resolve the problem before they leave their feedback on your page. We’re aiming for a sterling feedback page with nothing but green marks of happy customers so that it encourages more people to buy from you, and for customers to repeat purchases.

2. Friendly gestures

Let’s face it, people like nice people. When you’re at a store for example, and there is a nice person that comes up and talks to you then you’re more likely to respond to them in a positive way than say someone who is really grumpy and only approaching you because they have to. When it comes to eBay people want to feel appreciated for the purchase that they made from you, and you should try to make them feel like they made the best choice in the world for going through you – they’re not just another number. One way to offer a friendly gesture is to send a thank-you e-mail or a note when they checkout that let’s them know you appreciate their service and hope that they had a pleasant experience with you. Through an e-mail, you could not only thank them but ask for any improvement tips when it comes to your auctions, or even encourage a positive feedback response when they receive their product.

3. Nice surprises and quality assurance

The easiest way to control your quality assurance and include surprises is if you’re a wholesale business. If you’re wholesaling, you’re able to physically have your products on hand and ship them out yourself. Because you have this kind of control, you’re able to do all kinds of fun surprises or extra steps to make sure your customers are happy when they open their package from you. For example, one thing my mom likes to do with her eBay business (selling purses) is to wrap them in brighly colored tissue paper. The vast majority of the people buying her products are women, and they seem to like the bright colors of the paper when first opening up their package. Additional surprises you can put in your packages could include handwritten notes or even coupons or reminders of any promotions – this is a great idea if you have your own website in addition to your online auctions. Whatever it might be, try to make your customers feel appreciated, keep them happy, and in the process you build your reputation and customer base.

Uncategorized, eBay, selling products online, wholesale

As an eBay seller and buyer for the better part of four years, I have seen almost every kind of eBay listing you could imagine – from a divorced husband wearing his ex-wife’s wedding dress in attempt to sell it, to an established business with hundreds of customer feedbacks daily. Although my business isn’t exactly going to be going corporate anytime soon, there are some key factors in making any eBay listing appealing for every business – creating an enticing headline to draw customers into wanting to even click on your auction.

EBay Auction Headlines

1. Emphasize the most important element of your listing

The first thing that people do when they’re trying to find an item is type in the search bar exactly what they’re looking for. The key idea when posting an eBay listing is to not emphasize every word in your auction listing, but rather focus on the most important points. For example, if you’re selling a Kathy Van Zeeland mock crocodile purple purse, you want  to emphasize what you think is the most important about this product. Is the brand name the most important or is color or the material the most important? Usually, when people are looking for brand name items, the brand is going to be the most important aspect, but in the case of rare and retired items, the material or color could be the most important.

2. Don’t make your headline look like spam

You may think that adding loads of exclamation points, asterisks, and capitals makes your listing stand out, but it really just makes it look like spam.  You want to build an image of professionalism and trustworthiness – customers don’t want to feel like someone is screaming at them.

3. Use synonyms

Going back to your Kathy Van Zeeland purse, you would want to use both the keywords “bag” and “purse” in your listing, and any other synonyms you can think of.  You do this just in case someone decides to type in “bag” instead of purse, so that your product will still show up in their search results. You can add as many synonymous words that you think people could be typing in, put remember to be as thorough with your listing headline first before adding additional words that are just repetition – you only get so many characters.

Example eBay Listing:

The Ugly Way: ***Kathy Van Zeeland!!!!! Purple crocodile purse!!!***
The Okay Way: Kathy Van Zeeland Purple Crocodile Purse
The Best Way: KATHY VAN ZEELAND purple moc-croc purse bag

eBay

In my previous post, I talked about the benefits of using auction management software when selling on eBay or other auction sites.  In this post, I will give a brief review of some of the more popular auction management programs.

Which is the best auction management program?

As I mentioned yesterday, it really depends what your specific needs are.  Are you having trouble staying organized?  Are your fees mounting up?  Do you need a program to help you up-sell and garner repeat business?

Below are some of the more popular auction management systems:

1. Vendio

Like most of the programs listed here, Vendio is a multi-channel selling tool.  You can sell on eBay, Amazon, and other locales all from one place.  A single listing is posted in multiple venues, and all customers, items and orders can be managed from one location.  While Vendio offers a free 60-day trial, their membership STARTS at $10 a month, and generally turns out to be considerably more expensive once all fees are added in.  Message board complaints lament the number of bugs in their system and their poor customer service (Vendio is owned by eBay, so expect service to be on par).

2. Channel Advisor

Channel Advisor is another multi-channel selling tool.  Besides their regular services, they offer a uk-specific interface, which is nice for Brits, and they also provide a comparison shopping engine.  However, they require a contract, which reportedly is difficult to cancel if you’re not satisfied with their services.  They charge a monthly subscription fee, plus a percentage of your sales.  If you are a small to medium-sized seller, you may find the price reasonable, but if your volume is very large, the commission may add up to a lot of money.

3. ESeller Pro

ESeller Pro is one of the auction management programs with the most positive message board support.  It is known for reliability and innovation (aka when eBay rolls out a new program, e-Seller Pro updates to match it).  ESeller Pro focuses on order management, and includes the ability to post transactions in SAGE or Quickbooks without rekeying.  Its main weakness is its customer service.  ESeller Pro charges based on how much you use their system, so I really have no idea how much their service costs, and their Pricing Options page is carefully worded to keep you in the dark.

4. Auctiva

Auctiva is one of the cheaper auction management programs.  The basic level is free, its other plans ranging from $2.95 to $19.95 per month.  Since Auctiva is one of the more basic management systems, some people think it should have remained entirely free, aka the services aren’t actually worth paying for.  Their interface is not frequently updated and they offer little support to customers.  Auctiva also tends to insert logos and other advertising in your eBay listings, which can be distracting and a little trashy.

5. Inkfrog

Inkfrog is one of the more affordable options at a flat $9.95 a month.  Their services include bulk listing, automatic emails and re-listing, image hosting, and counters.  Once considered a step up from Auctiva, their service has suffered since the influx of I-don’t-want-to-pay Auctiva customers in 2009.  Inkfrog is also famous for the hideousness of its templates.

6. Selling Manager Pro

The basic Selling Manager tool is free, while Selling Manager Pro costs $15.99 per month.  This includes customizable email templates, re-listing tools, and label/invoice printing.  Since it’s specifically an eBay app, it has one of the better connections to eBay and PayPal, including automatic notification of PayPal payments.  Like most auction management tools, it has its own idiosyncratic glitches, including some issues with foreign currency conversion, and it may not be quite complex enough for the serious seller.

7. Seller Source Book

Seller Source Book had the most positive comments on message boards and review sites of any auction management tool I examined.  Their templates are unique and attractive, their customer service received accolades, and their interface is clear and easy to use.  Services cost $8.00 / month, $21.00 / quarter, or $70.00 / year.  This includes a listing tool, image hosting, a product showcase, and over 2000 templates which can be used on any site that allows HTML.

eBay, selling products online

If you are a dedicated eBay seller, someone who makes a large portion or the entirety of their income by selling products on eBay, you probably need some kind of auction management software.  But what kind of software is right for you?

How to choose auction management software:

1. Focus on your needs

If you read all the frills and features of each type of software, you will quickly become overloaded and confused.  Most auction management software can do everything but fold your laundry – the question is, what do you really NEED your software to do?  Examine what aspects of running your eBay business you are currently having trouble with – be it order management, email responses, or packing and shipping.  Those are the key features you should look for in your auction software.

2. Choose between the 3 major types of auction management software

Auction management software usually falls into one of three categories:

• Market Analysis Software

Use this type of software if you’re trying to boost your overall sales volumes, or if your competitors are getting higher bids for the same products you’re trying to sell.

• Marketing Software

Use this type of software to improve your repeat business percentages, boost your up-sells, and obtain more word-of-mouth advertising.

• General Auction Management Software

Use this type of software when you’re having trouble keeping track of your auctions, your accounting, and your email correspondence.

Remember, auction management software isn’t just for eBay.  Most programs can also be used to manage sales on Bonanzle, eBid.net, UBid, and so forth.  Check back tomorrow for a review of some of the most popular auction management software.

eBay

Alright, here we are again with another installment of eBay success stories!  I am a big fan of success stories because there is always something to learn from people who are making money online.  Successful people practice successful habits.  There is no short cut or quick fix to build a successful business – you’ll have to work just as hard and be just as smart as the people in the following three stories.

EBay Success Stories

Success Story #1: Allen Brigham

Allen Brigham got his start selling on eBay when an 11 year-old boy pointed out how much some of his old video games were worth.  Allen tried selling them on eBay, and sure enough he made a substantial profit.  He spent the next four months clearing out his house, selling everything that would fetch a price, building his experience and customer satisfaction rating.  Allen happened to have a friend who ran a local brick-and-mortar restaraunt supply company.  It occurred to Allen that those products would also sell well on eBay.  His friend became his supplier, and Allen turned to selling restaurant supply products full-time on eBay from his store AB Restaraunt Supply.  He has found selling on eBay an overwhelmingly positive experience, much more satisfying and rewarding than operating a brick-and-mortar store.  He also credits the eBay Stores Board as a vital source of information.

What can we learn from Allen?

Allen started small, selling products he had lying around the house.  This allowed him to gain experience and grow the customer rating that is so important in eBay sales.  When he turned to selling a consistent commercial product, he used a reliable supplier – a trusted friend.  Finally, he used all the eBay educational resources, including the eBay Stores Board, to learn as much about selling as he could.

Success Story #2: Marge Holdorf

Marge Holdorf also got started on eBay by selling items she already had lying around the house – in this case, her husband’s collection of model cars.  Eventually Marge expanded into pet products, opening her store Luvn Dogz.  Marge now sells on eBay full-time, putting in about 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  She says she doesn’t mind putting in the hours because she is working for herself, not an employer.  Also like Allen, Marge had operated non-internet based business before and appreciates how an eBay store allows her to change course with much less expense if something isn’t working.  Marge also credits her success to the use of multiple wholesale suppliers for her pet products, which allows her to purchase her products for the lowest price and sell them for the highest profit margins.

What can we learn from Marge?

Like Allen, Marge started small, selling products that did not require a huge investment because she already had them lying around the house.  After she built her experience and customer rating, she found a number of quality wholesale suppliers.  These wholesale suppliers gave her a good price on her products so she could sell them for a high profit.  It is so important to buy from legitimate suppliers, not middlemen who will mark up the price of their items.  Marge also used more than one supplier – using multiple suppliers gives you better product selection, better prices, and will help you avoid putting all your eggs in one basket in case one of your suppliers goes out of business.  Finally, Marge perfectly illustrates that running a successful online business takes just as much time and energy as operating any other kind of business.  You have to put in the work to get the results.

Success Story #3: Judith Isaacson

Judith Isaacsons’s family has operated a brick-and-mortar store, Maurice Goldman Fine Jewelry, for over 90 years.  She started selling online when her father asked her to help expand the family business.  Judith’s biggest challenge in selling online has been avoiding fraud.  Within two weeks of opening her eBay store Goldman Jewelry, a fake buyer had tried to swindle her out of a $20,000 sapphire ring.  Judith had to learn to avoid fraudulent escrow services, stolen credit cards, money transfer deals, and bank check swindles.  Because con-artists are always honing their techniques, Judith has to stay on top of new scams and be wary in each and every sale.  Judith’s business has been successful because of her vigilant scam-avoidance and the fact that she sells to customers all over the world.

What can we learn from Judith?

Online sales are rampant with fraud, so it’s extremely important that you protect yourself.  Big-ticket items like Judith’s jewelry are particularly attractive to scam artists, so if you choose to sell an expensive product you are going to have to be extra vigilant.  Also, opening your doors to customers from all over the world can really help your business grow, particularly if you are selling someone that has a high demand internationally.

eBay, selling products online