Finding a good wholesaler is a huge step to being successful at making an income selling on ebay. Dropshipping is also a good option if you don't have much start up capital to purchase stock to sell.
Finding a good wholesaler who's prices are competitive on the Ebay market can be very difficult. Ebay is extremely competitive and therefore the prices are reasonably low, which doesn't give you much room to mark up your prices to make a good profit.
Those Ebay sellers that have happened to have come across a very good wholesaler, will usually keep it to themselves to minimize their competition.
The first step when selling on Ebay is deciding exactly what it is that you would like to sell. For some, this decision is very easy, particularly if they have a hobby that they could devote their time to and turn it into a business. This is also the ideal job for most, having something you love and making an income from it. Also if you have a retail store outside of Ebay, you could try selling your products on Ebay and slowly make the conversion to selling online instead of a store, or you could do both.
It's not always that easy though, some people may have no idea where to start in choosing what to sell on Ebay. It's also not just a matter of what to sell, but what is going to be profitable to sell.
Electronic products such as digital cameras, dvd cameras and cell phones are very popular selling items on Ebay. Some research online will quite easily find you wholesalers for these products as there are quite a lot of wholesalers for these types of products. These items are also some of the most competitive items on Ebay, however, so the profits you will make on these are very minimal as you will need to sell them at a very low price to be competitive.
These products are good in the sense that with the increasing knowledge of technology, these products are continually being changed and improved upon, so the turnover is quite high. Many people will upgrade to newer better items when there current product becomes outdated. So there is always demand for this sort of product. If you can find yourself a very good wholesaler that can give you a supply price that will keep you competitive and if they can keep you ahead of your competition with new released products, then you can do very well with these items.
There are many wholesaler membership websites and forums on the internet that you can join that will supply you with literally hundreds of wholesalers to choose from. Salehoo is quite a good membership site and joining a site like this can give you a better chance of finding good, reliable and honest wholesalers.
A brief explanation of dropshipping is when you sell an item but you don't actually purchase the item first. So you are basically selling the item for the supplier. You don't need to purchase stock and you don't need to store stock on your own premises. You don't purchase the item from your supplier until you have made a sale.
You decide which item you want to sell and always make sure you do your research, check the pricing and make sure it is an item you can make profit with. Also double check with your supplier to make sure they have enough of the items in stock, the last thing you want is to sell an item and then be told that your supplier cannot supply it.
Once you have chosen a product to sell, you put your listing on ebay. You sell the item to the highest bidder. Once you receive payment for the item from your customer, you then place an order with your supplier. You send the supplier their share of the selling price (the supplier cost) and you keep the rest for your ebay fees and profit.
You will give the supplier your customers details, which is their name and address, and the supplier will send the item directly to your customer. So you never actually see the product, it will go straight from the suppliers warehouse to your customer.
When you list the product on ebay, always make sure when you are deciding on what price to sell at that you take into account your suppliers price, delivery costs and ebay fees. Then you will need to add your markup to make some profit.
Dropshipping is a very useful way of selling since you don't need any money up front to do so and you also don't have the inconvenience of having to store stock in your home or office. There is a disadvantage to dropshipping though, which is that you don't know your suppliers stock levels so you do need to be continually checking with your supplier on their stock levels. Never rely on your supplier to keep you updated on stock levels, they do sometimes forget. You will also need to keep checking their prices and make sure they keep you updated with any price changes. A good supplier will let you know when prices change or when stocks are low.
Whether you buy stock up front or decide to use the dropshipping method, always make sure you do research on your supplier. Make sure that they are legitimate and honest before sending any money to them. There are fraudulent suppliers out there so always do your homework and find out as much information as you can.
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