If you’ve got this far, you’ve got the basics of business. There are a few things left, though, that you might not have thought of
trying. Quite a few of these tips go against the advice many give for buying and selling – some are a little risky and some are just odd. They’re all worth a try, though, and I’m sure you’ll find at least some you want to keep using.1. Keep more records. It might sound time consuming, but you’ll actually find it easier in the long run – less time spent trying to figure out which item that cheque you got this morning is for.
2. Post without payment. Don’t even wait for payment to clear! That might sound risky, but it’ll mean that the buyers get their items more quickly – for small items, you might find it worth the occasional loss to give such quick service.
3. Post every day. Once you start shifting a high volume of items, go and post them every day – again, they’ll get there more quickly, making your customers very happy. The best way to do this is if you have items small enough to drop in a postbox.
4. Encourage an auction mentality. Don’t have a Buy it Now price, and make it very clear when it’s the last or only stock you’ll be getting in. Always refer to winning bidders as ‘winners’.
5. Mention every defect your item has. Now why would you do that, you might ask? The answer is that it builds credibility: the small hit you take from the slight flaws is nothing compared to the big boost in trust you get for admitting it. People bid more when they trust the seller.
6. Say how you got the item. Don’t be afraid to go off on a tangent and give all sorts of fun details of how you got hold of what you’re selling – it gives your auction character and, again, builds trust.
7. Accept odd payment methods. Sooner or later you’re going to get a buyer who wants to pay by sending cash in an envelope, or something equally unusual. Why not let them? Be flexible.
8. Don’t be afraid to sell low. Let the occasional item go for a really low price to a good buyer. You might only just break even on the item, but the person who got that bargain will be back again and again.
9. Give free shipping for a certain number of orders, or orders over a certain amount. People might buy something else they don’t want as much, just to get the free shipping. (Amazon use this strategy to great effect).
10. Ship worldwide. Take the time to investigate the prices, and be nice to international customers – imagine how much you’re expanding your market. That’s not to mention the effect of people bidding highly for items that are rare in their country.
Another way to make it easier is to be a better seller is to use some of the many third party eBay tools that are available. The next email will take a look at a selection of tools you might find useful.
All You Should Know About Wholesale Products And The Middleman Chain
There has been an explosion in the number of wholesale companies over the past 5 years. A great majority of this growth can be attributed to the growth of the Internet.
The Internet offers the small-time operator a place to market their products without having to spend a fortune in a physical store front. The number of people that can now sell products is no longer restricted to the store owners, so we now have a huge population of Internet entrepreneurs looking for products to sell.
This big demand created a very big supply of so-called companies claiming to be wholesale companies specializing in selling wholesale products to Internet entrepreneurs.
Are all of these new wholesale companies really selling wholesale products? The short answer is absolutely not! Not even close… but let’s go over the longer answer so you can get an idea of what types of operations the majority of these so-called wholesale companies operate.
If I was forced to make my best guess of the percentage of true wholesale companies behind all the Internet and Opportunity magazine advertisements, I’d say that maybe, just maybe, 0.5% of those companies is an actual lagitimate wholesale company. Obviously that means I think that 99.5% are not true wholesale compaines.
If a majority of the wholesale companies being advertised are not true wholesale companies, then what are they and where are they getting their products? They are likely just middleman operating within a chain of middleman.
A Middleman-chain occurs when a business purchases its resale products from one wholesale company, who in turn purchases the products from another wholesale company, which may also purchase the products from yet another wholesale company, and so on. Note: I am using the term ‘wholesale’ very loosely here.
For example, let us say you have a resale business and you are buying products from a wholesaler, who we will call Wholesaler-A, at 20% discount. It is likely that Wholesaler-A is actually purchasing the same products from another wholesaler; let us call them Wholesaler-B.
Wholesaler-B may get the products for a 40% discount and then sell them to Wholesaler-A at the 30% discount level, thus making 10% profit. There may even be another level, Wholesaler-C, which gets the products for a 50% discount and then sells them to Wholesale-B at 40% discount, making another 10% profit.
As you can see from the diagram in the above link, there can be multiple layers of wholesalers creating a chain of middlemen that you simply cannot afford.
As a result of middleman-chaining, each layer adds on its profit and you are left unable to compete because you are not buying the products at a low enough price to stay in business. If you do, by chance, get orders, each company in the chain is a point of failure in your transaction.
For example, let us assume you have a source for a product which is in high demand and you are paying what you believe to be a true wholesale price, say 20% discount. You then launch an advertising campaign that pulls in a large number of orders only to find that one of your back-end suppliers somewhere up the chain cannot handle the volume.
Your customers obviously want their money back (including shipping & handling) and you find that you have lost a lot of money in advertising and created a bunch of angry customers that will likely never buy from you again!
One question you may be asking is why doesn’t every wholesaler just buy from the manufacture and get the deepest discount? The answer is simple – not all wholesalers (or companies claiming to be wholesalers) can afford to purchase the minimum bulk-order requirements that a manufacture requires. Secondly, many manufactures only do business with companies that are established.
So now you are left to do business with a level-1 wholesaler (Wholesaler-C in above diagram), which can be very profitable if the products have demand. However, a level-1 wholesaler may also require a bulk purchase that is outside the budget of many small home business operators, and/or they simply may not want to do business with a small home business.
Eventually you may find that a higher-level wholesaler (level-2, level-3, or higher) is all that is available to the home business operator, and you simply can not make any significant money at this level. Unfortunately, just about every wholesaler you see advertising in the opportunity magazines or Internet is a level-2 or higher wholesaler.
Now, armed with the above knowledge of middleman-chaining, make sure you take a closer look at all those wholesale product advertisements before taking out your wallet
Learn Why Online Business's Are The Way Of The Future
In today’s world, time is everything. We all think to ourselves, “I really need to get rid of” But who has time to list an item in a newspaper, have a yard sale, or even place the item in view of the public with a for sale sign on it?
Well, there is an answer. The internet has a way to sell your items that are colleting dust and taking up space. It is an online auction. The sites lets you sell, or buy items without having you leave the comfort of your pc.
Newspapers were the way to go for so many years that for some it still seems like a good option, but think of it as a time sucking wallet shrinking investment. Every time you list an item in a local newspaper you have to pay for you listing, not to mention go to the newspapers business office to do it. This can be a big waste of time with a limited amount of people who will read your ad. If your item does not sell, you have to pay to re-list, it could be weeks and weeks before you get someone to buy your item.
Well what about yard sales? Most people work for a living and need their “off days” for family and friends. A yard sale is an investment in time, and in many towns you have to get a permit to have a yard sale, money spent. Then you also have to advertise your yard sale, more time and money, and you will never get anything close to what you paid for your items in a yard sale.
Last but not least is the placing the item in public view with a for sale sign on it. In some communities this is illegal. But let’s say that your community allows it, you as the seller only get a really limited amount of consumer viewing because only the people who drive by your home will see the item and let’s face it, who wants to have dinner interrupted with a knock on your door or a phone call asking about the item.
All these ways are tired, old ways of selling items, what if you could have access to 100s or 1000s of people and items with a click of your mouse? With goFlish Auctions you can buy and sell just about anything and everything.
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