Finding Products to sell on eBay
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: July 30th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
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 rofessional
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!
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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