Finding Products to sell on eBay by Nowshade Kabir
Do you know how many people in US are earning their livelihood with the help of
eBay? According to a new survey conducted on July 2005 by ACNielsen, a leading
research firm, an astounding 724 thousand Americans respond that they rely on
eBay for their main or supplemental income. Apart from these professional
sellers, another 1.5 million people confirmed that they generate additional
income by selling goods on eBay. Last year alone, around 150 million registered
users have sold over US$ 34 billion worth of goods on eBay. Isn't it amazing?
Why entrepreneurs are flocking into eBay? Some of the reasons are quite
apparent.
. Starting a business on eBay is easy and quick
. You don't require large investment
. Anybody can start an eBay business, no special skill is required
. You can sell virtually anything on eBay
. With your eBay business you can have flexible work time
. You have a ready-made market of over 150 million people and counting
. eBay get 1.5 billion page views each month. You get access to this massive
traffic almost paying nothing.
So, there is no wonder that anybody with slightest penchant to have their own
business will jump into this great opportunity. But, there are two major
problems that many of the would-be eBay sellers encounter. The first is what to
sell and the next is where to find it.
What to sell?
According to Forrester Research, a major research company, this year,
categories with products purchased by women will have the most growth in online
retailing. Some categories are already getting more than ten percent of their
overall sales through the Internet, which include: computer hardware and
software, tickets, travel, books, consumer electronics, cosmetics and
fragrances, toys and video games, and flowers, cards and gifts. While choosing
items to sell on eBay, you should also explore the features available on eBay
and other places on the Internet that show items people search and items people
actually buy. eBay has a complete section called "Seller Central" dedicated to
delivering utmost information to help you succeed in selling products through
eBay. Two links from this section should interest you. One is What's Hot (http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html)
and the other one is Category Tips (http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellbycategory.html).
When you go to the subsection 'What's Hot', check out the following three
areas:
Hot Items by Category
This is a comprehensive report of categories, and products within a category by
the ratio of bid to listings growth rate in PDF format. The report gets updated
monthly and shows which products have increased demand in comparison to last
month. Super hot products, for example, have over 35 percentage point
difference between bid growth rate and listing growth rate. According to the
latest report, by the way, Sunglasses for men, in particular Prada sunglasses
are super hot.
eBay Pulse
This is another area where you can see the top ten searched categories, ten
most widely watched auctions, list of stores with most active listings, and
other cool stuffs on daily basis.
eBay Summer Catalog This is a new subsection. It's a real catalog with pictures
and average price of products. In each category of products there is a list of
top ten summer trends. You, definitely, should check this out if you are
planning to start selling now.
In Demand On the page "Category Tips" under each category you will see a link
under the name "In Demand". This area will show you a list of ten most sold
items of this category as well as most searched items for each subcategory.
You might also like to see what people buy on non-eBay part of the Internet.
The Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index (CDI) (http://www.shopping.com/CDI/cdi.cmp)
makes a weekly list of most sought after items. This list could give you the
needed glimpse to the future market trend!
Where to find items to sell on eBay
Your own home
If you are just planning to start selling on eBay, your first option is to go
through your attic, closets and garage. Find those long stashed items that you
will probably never need. These may include: books that you will perhaps never
read, CDs that you out grew, gifts that you received but did not like much, the
list can go on! Take them out, brush them off and post them on eBay for sell.
Flea markets and garage sales
Every body knows that garage sales and flea markets can be real treasure
troves! Well, now you can look at them from a business point of view. Your
sales experience with own home items, hopefully, will help you understand what
will sell well and what won't. Don't go for any costly items as yet.
Local liquidators and auctions
Classified sections of local Newspapers' week-end editions are good place to
look for estate auctions. While buying items from local auctions determine what
are you going to buy and for what price beforehand and stick to them no matter
what! At an auction there is always a risk of getting carried away!
Go visit some local business liquidators. These are excellent places to find
items for bargain price.
Drop shippers (http://ezine.rusbiz.com/article/39)
When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or importer, after receiving an
order from their retailers, individually pack and deliver the product to the
customer of the retailer with retailers address as shipper, this selling
technique is called drop-shipping. This is an excellent way to find products to
sell on eBay. Drop ship source directory (http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/?8188)
is the place to go if you are looking for drop-shippers.
eBay
eBay itself can be a great sourcing place for you. Check out wholesale items
and eBay business marketplace from your chosen fields. In order to find
wholesale listing, while searching a product select "Items listed as lots". You
can buy goods in wholesale and then sell them piece by piece and make decent
money. Of course, you have to develop good knowledge of the products before
doing this.
If your business has grown and you are considering importing products to sell
on eBay, read my article "Importing Products to sell on eBay" (http://ezine.rusbiz.com/article/52).
The bottom line is there was never a better time to start a business. If you
feel this is really your cup of tea, just go for it!
About the Author
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com -
a Global B2B Exchange with solutions to create e-catalog, Web store, business
process management and other features to run a business online. You can read
various articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com
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