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Browsing Posts published by Andrew Milburn

eBay and Product Sourcing

April 27, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

eBay And Product Sourcing

As an eBay Consultant eBay and product sourcing are never far apart. I think it is always at the top of people’s lists when they are looking at starting an eBay business. As we have looked at in other articles there are many ways that you can go about when sourcing products for your eBay business – magazines, trade shows, TV, radio, friends, items in shops, but when you first start out you may not know about a Trade Show in your niche or about the secret trade magazine. So how do new people find these products to sell.

Well some people do the research and after time they find out where the trade shows are and where the secret suppliers hang out and then they go and visit them at the warehouses and make a choice of the products that they will be going t sell. But sadly some get caught out and instead of visiting a genuine wholesaler or importer they find either a middle man or a cash and carry that supplies both retailers and the public.

Now while there is nothing wrong in middle men and cash and carry places that supply both the trade and public, you will find an issue with the prices they supply you at and sometimes there is not enough margin there to make a business, this is where you need to do a bit more digging and find out where these people buy from.

To begin with some people buy wholesale source guides from eBay, again while some of these are great sources of information, you need to just be careful of the fact that are they a real wholesaler that just supplies the trade or do they supply the trade and public at the same time, all you need do is send them an email or give them a call and ask them.

When you talk with these people or visit them, explain that you are just starting out in business and need to test the market and can you buy a small amount of stock and as long as the prices are good and the items sell well you will be back for and will be buyer in bigger quantities. Most suppliers like the honest approach from you and will help you all they can, for they know if they help you, and the products sell you will be back time after time and will be buying bigger and bigger amounts from them.

Over the years I have used wholesalers, Importers, Manufacturing agents, guides bought off eBay, but for around three years I have been using a service called World Wide Brands. World Wide Brands does not supply the items, they are a membership site, which costs several hundred dollars to join, but it is well worth the money as you get so much for it. One of the main advantages is you get a database of thousands of suppliers. And the major advantage is the fact that all these suppliers have been checked out that they are a genuine supplier to the trade.

Also with World Wide Brands you get other fantastic resources that you can use to grow your business to the next level. But as I explained it is not cheap and is best to join once you are certain that eBay and product source on a regular basis is the way you want to go. In the early days you can use on of the other methods, but just be careful and always ask if they are a genuine wholesaler and only supply the trade industry, that way you will not go far wrong.

Start Small Even On EBay

April 26, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

Start Small Even On EBay

When talking with sellers both new and old one of the things I tell them is start small even on eBay. It is amazing how people think they need to start off with thousands of pounds worth of stock before they can start to open a shop on e-commerce platforms such as eBay and Amazon. And the thing is that is just not true. You can open a shop with just one item and keep on adding items when you have more cash for stock.

When teaching clients about selling on eBay I encourage them to invest most of their profits (after all fees and postage) to buy new stock and once they have good stock levels then start to take out an income for themselves. I think we have all heard the saying “A large acorn tree started with a small acorn” or something like that. The same goes for your online business, start small and day by day you will see your business grow from something small to as large as you want.

The as large as you want is very important, if you only dream and think small dreams you will only have a small business, but if you think big and speak out big dreams then you will have a large and profitable business. But one tip I would say to any seller on sites such as eBay is you need to be adding new (or collectable) items to your eBay store on a regular basis. It has been proven time after time on eBay that if you add items on a regular basis then you will see more traffic come into your store and we all know more traffic means more sales and more sales mean more profits.

To understand this better I like to tell students and clients to think about their favourite shop they go to on a regular basis in their local town, then I ask them the question why. Most times they reply well we know they are always adding new items in that we might want to buy. You can see the light switch go on…………..suddenly they see that if they add new items on a regular basis and their buyers know this they will keep coming back and buying more stuff.

Now I am not asking you to add hundreds of items a day to your site, you can do if you have the resources, but remember the title of this article “Start small even on eBay”, yes even if it 5 items a week and your customers will get to know this and will keep coming back and then they will tell their friends, hey you should visit this great eBay store, every week when I check it out there are new and exciting items being added.

You need to start off small and learn to manage the systems you have in place and once you feel comfortable with what you are doing then ramp it up a bit. For example let’s say you have a target of 20 new items a week in your eBay store, once you have met this goal and are doing it week in and week out, set yourself a new goal of 25 items a week, then 30 items and keep on building it until you have found a level you can cope with. And remember the more you list the more you sell, so you will have to allow time to process all the orders. So remember the rule, start small even on eBay and over time you can build a large international business.

eBay eBay, Start small even on eBay

eBay And One Off Events

April 24, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

eBay And One Off Events

Here in the UK and around the rest of the world there are many one off events about to happen, and I was asked by a client today can we use eBay and one off events to make money. But before we get into the main meat of this article I just want to highlight some of the one off events that we have happening her in the UK and Europe.

Queens Jubilee – June – Nationwide

Olympics – Summer – London and Nationwide

Euro Football – Poland

Now back the question I had this morning, I explained yes of course you can make money from eBay and one off events, and I could here the excitement in their voice, and they started to list out loud things like flags, Jubilee items, 2012 Olympic items, I let them carry on for a bit then I just said, so you have all these ready in your home and your listings all going……………..there was along pause and no was the answer and in a quieter toner they said have we missed the boat on these events.

I explained it all depends, yes quite possible they have, but you can always play catch up especially if they have unique items that only they have and they could still make money. But I also explained that they need to remember these are one off events, events that will never happen again and to take the example of the Queens Jubilee once it has passed June 3rd 2012 those items will no longer be hot items and there will be thousands of items on sale on eBay for very little money.

But as with everything if you are prepared eBay and one off events can make you money, but you need to plan ahead. You need to spend some time and look at future events happening in your country and around the world. Then you need to source products, and make sure you have them in place and ready to be listed several months before the event.

Going back a few years there was an event here in the UK and a shop was getting ready for this one off event, but here we had bad weather and the boxes of items did not arrive till after the event, the shop had to close down as they had spent all their money on stock for this one off event, please if you want to use eBay and one events you need to plan and have everything in place weeks before the events.

Now we do have one off events such as a film launch and then all being well items for the launch will sell for years and years. Let’s take the Harry Potter films or James Bond Films, items used and sold on launch day are still being sold today as people are hungry for these products and new people are always coming into this arena.

So in closing, yes we can use eBay and one off events to make money with, but you need to plan well and be well prepared, but you also must be aware that you can lose a lot money if you have not down your research and got your items in stock before hand. So use eBay and one off events with care and start slowly and see if it is a market you want to join and profit from.

eBay eBay, eBay And One Off Events, eBay Consultant

eBay Listing Tips

April 23, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

eBay Listing Tips

As you get more into selling on eBay you need to have systems in place and the systems you have should be easy to follow and save you time. Over the years I have used many different systems and gave tweaked and fine tuned them over the years that I have been selling on eBay. Yes I am going to be very honest here with you, from time to time these systems have gone out the window, often due to me either listing from a different computer or listing one off items where systems do not really work.

Below I will share the system I use, and have found has saved me time and allowed me to list more items in less time :

Pictures – Take all my pictures in one sitting. This allows you to take a bunch of pictures all at one time. Over the years I have found it useful to make a note of the picture number and what it is so when we come to list it makes it easier for us. Also in this stage I find it helpful to edit any pictures that need doing.
I would suggest before you start anything is to group your items in similar groups or categories (again this will help you speed up the process when you come to list)
Titles and Descriptions - Open up a text document and write out your descriptions and titles. Also weigh your items and make a note of the weight and postage costs against each item

The idea of doing these three stages in advance is that when you are ready to start to list items, all you need to do is copy and paste. I would suggest you make up a simple template for each of the groups of items you sell or will be selling so that when you get to the listing stage you will just need to go to eBay and log in then go to active listings and find one of your similar listings and click on list similar item.

Then when the window pops up you just need to change title, picture and part of the description everything else should stay the same. Yes it sounds simple and yes it is. Ok it will take you some time to set up your own systems, but once you have these in place you will be listing like mad.

For example I shared some of these eBay listing tips with a young mum in our village, she did a few tweaks for her lifestyle and now she can do her pictures and descriptions while her little one is a sleep, and then she can list when she is at the ball pool. He is having fun, and she is copying and pasting her listings and making some extra cash. Every is happy and having fun.

Hope this simple eBay listing tip has helped you and if you need any further help, please ask, or if you have a system that you are willing to share leave your hints and ideas in the comments section below.

eBay eBay Consultant, eBay Listing Tips

EBay Research – People

April 22, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

EBay Research – People

In our ongoing journey looking at eBay research I want to take a look at the role people play how we do our research and how at the end of the day it is people who buy our items and spend money in our eBay shops. Yes we can read reports, look at stats and research and check adverts, but we are in the people business and it is people who spend the money not reports or software. eBay Research - People, eBay Consultant, Andrew Milburn, eBay

There are many different ways we can use people when we are doing our eBay research (but we must be careful of those dream stealer’s people who try and put you off having success in your life for many reasons). But for the most people are always willing to help you with your research and to be honest they do this without you asking you just need to have your research eyes and ears open.

When you are using people to do your eBay research you need to watch what people are buying, how they are buying – for example if all your friends, family and work colleagues are talking about one type of gadget and how good it is and how it saves them time and money, take a look and see if you can source this same gadget or one similar to it. If possible try and source unbranded items as these normally give you a far better profit margin.

Children are another wonderful eBay research tool, they know the cool gadgets, games and music styles. Sit down with your own children or children of friends and family and ask them questions such as what type of music is in, what is the best game at the moment, what are the hot films out at the moment or what is the top clothing brand. Kids know this off by heart and will always be willing to help and share.

Pop stars, film stars are some other people to watch and study, they are often at the front when it comes to fashion and latest gadgets, and you will find if a famous person is captured using a certain gadget then very soon so will hundreds of thousands of other people as they do not want to be left out.

But I do want to give a warning here, as soon as these fashions and gadgets come in they can go out as fast. For example a sports star or film star can fall out of favour overnight and if they were using a hot gadget, that same gadget may lose it’s appeal very fast. I just want to give you this warning not to frighten you, but to just make you aware and tell you what could happen.

In closing this article on eBay research and people, just use your eyes and ears and be aware as to what is around you and what people are using and doing, and then see if you can source the same type of product or something similar. As with all research you need to double check your findings and you should never let just one form of eBay research be the pointer for order your stock to resell, double check your findings look on eBay and see if it sells, if it does then invest some money and buy some stock.

eBay eBay Research - people

eBay Research – Magazines

April 21, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

eBay Research – Magazines

As we have talked about before eBay research is something you should be doing all the time to make sure the items you are selling and are thinking of selling. By doing eBay research you can cut out many of the risks around products not selling. The eBay research I want to talk about today involves magazines.

EBay Research - Magazines, eBay, eBay Consultant, Andrew Milburn

The first part of the research will not cost you any money, only time. I want you to pay a visit to a large newsagents here in the UK I would suggest you visit somewhere like WH Smith. You will need to go to the magazine section and I to start with I want you to wonder around and see the different magazines they have in each section. And choice a few niches you would like to sell into.

Now take a look and see if there are any magazines for the niches you have chosen. I like to see at least two magazines for the niche I am thinking about – in fact the more the better. And also the higher the magazine is priced this is better still as it shows people have a passion for the subject and are willing to pay money. This shows us if they are willing to pay money for the magazines then they will be happy to buy products.

Next I want you to look at issue numbers of the magazines – this simple act will show us how many months the magazine has been published for – of course the longer the better.

Next flip through the magazines and see how many adverts there are in the magazines. Adverts show us that people will buy products.

This is stage one over and done with. If you like you can now walk away and do some more research at home seeing what products there are out there and where you can source them from. But you can take the magazine research a bit further. You will need to buy a few copies and then order some back copies. By ordering the back copies you can see how often people run adverts. This will show us that if a company is willing to run adverts for several months or years then you have a market place of people who buy products on a regular basis.

As we said at the start of this article eBay research using magazines is fun, 95% free and can while away a few hours on a wet and cold day. Like all research you must use it with other forms of eBay research and together it will help you when you are looking for new products to sell or a new line to go into.

eBay EBay Research - Magazines

EBay Research – TV

April 20, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

EBay Research – TV

In the second part of this series on eBay research I want to take a look at the world of TV and how it can have a space in your eBay research. The TV can be a massive time drain on your life and the life of your business, but it can also be a massive help for you when you are doing your eBay research.

EBay Research - TV, eBay Consultant

When you are looking to do research for a new niche or product line the TV can both give you new ideas and at the same time it can help to confirm if you are about to make the right choice. You do this by watching programs like news, documentary programs, the shopping channel. If you sell on eBay you need to watch the shopping channels on a very regular basis as here you will see hot products that are selling right in front of your eyes, and not just one or two items these programs sell thousands of items an hour. Can you sell the same or similar items. Make notes and then go and see what is out there in the market place.

But also the TV can give you ideas when you are not even thinking about it. You are either just sitting there chilling or the TV is on in the background while you are doing something else and all of a sudden a presenter will say something and light bulbs suddenly start to go off. You see what has happen we have our product sourcing radar on all the time, but most of the time it is on in the back ground, just sitting there waiting, watching and listening and when something comes across our path it alerts us to the fact.

To highlight the above I want to share a story of someone I know in the Direct Marketing Industry. He lives in Australia (but this process works worldwide). One morning he just had the weather on, and the local weather girl was talking about what the day was to bring, and she finished off her report by saying something like “it looks to be a wonderful few sunny days here, and this will attract many people to the scrap booking convention one of the worlds fastest growing hobby niches.

Suddenly alarm bells rang in his head. No not the pretty weather girl, no not the sunny weather……………but scrap booking the worlds fastest growing hobby. You see he had his radar on just sitting there in the background, and at the right time to kicked into action. He wrote a e-book and it sold thousands of copies and from that simple e-book he did other manuals and courses.

The same can go for your eBay business, you need to have that radar running in the background and when the time is right it will alert you of something that could be a real seller. So in closing the TV is used right can be a wonderful tool in doing your eBay research.

eBay eBay Consultant, eBay Research, EBay Research - TV, TV

EBay Research – Library

April 19, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

EBay Research – Library

In the first of a series of articles on eBay Research I thought it might be a good idea to visit our local library (and sometimes it maybe useful to visit one of the main libraries in your local city or even London). But what has a library got to offer that I cannot find online ? This is a good question and I hope through the article to explain why using your local library can be a great resource of information and also it can lead to some unexpected benefits.

eBay Research, Library, eBay Consultant

Your local library is full of tools that can aid your eBay Research when you are looking for new product lines, and also if you need to research a certain item. You will often here me and other eBay Consultants tell you to look at magazines and newspapers for ideas for products and for product trends, yes you can do this by going to a local newsagents, but you will need to by some to get the information. But your local library has these for you to read at no extra cost and also they have all the local, national and international newspapers and business publications. You can sit in a warm place and browse all these publications and make notes – all at no cost to yourself. And while you are in there just ask what they do with their magazines and papers, you maybe able to pick them up when they come out of date, but still useful to you for research.

Another area where the library is useful for eBay research is with all the reference books they have, most of the libraries carry all the antique and collectable reference books that you can either use in the library or they will allow you to borrow them and take them home. Again this saves you from having to buy expensive books when you may only use them a few times before them come out of date.

Most local libraries now have free wi-fi and also have computers that you can use free of charge. In the larger libraries you may need to book a time slot as the computer area can be quite popular. The libraries also have all the subscriptions to the main reference hubs on the internet and again this can save you a small fortune. If you have never used the computers there give them a go.

Now at the start of this article I spoke about a surprise benefit of using your local library. Libraries are full of books, manuals, DVD’s, CD’s and other items. As you enter most libraries you will either see a notice telling you about a library sale, or you will see a table full of books etc for sale. This is where you as an eBay seller can make some money. Most of the items will be priced very cheap just to get rid of them and make room for new items. Take a look at what is on offer, do some research, and if the research shows the item is priced higher on eBay for an item in the same condition. (And this is very important you must mark the item you are selling as ex-library and tell the people this in title and description and also tell people if the items have library markings on them)

Hope this first article of eBay research has given you some ideas and helps you grow your eBay business.

eBay eBay Research

Research

April 18, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

Research

As an eBay Consultant each day is very varied and brings good points and also some bad points when having to deal with some situations a client goes through. But one aspect that I enjoy and I know other eBay Consultants enjoy is the area of research. In the olden days research used to mean going to a library and making loads of phone calls – (and this still works and is very valid and can bring you fruitful results) but in 2012 research can be done in so many more different ways. With the internet being one of the most useful tools any eBay seller can have.

But in today’s article on research I want to look at a broad overview and then with further articles look at each one in more depth. This will save you having to read everything at once, but it will also let you read something and then put into practise what you have just read. You need to do your research and then make a plan, and then put that plan into action and only then will you start to see the results from all your research.

So where can you go and do your research ?

Library
Newspapers
Magazines
High Street
Internet
Software
Membership Sites
People
TV
Shopping Channels
eBay
Amazon

The above is just a small example of where you can go and do some research for products that you are looking to sell. I would suggest that you spent sometime each day or week and all you do in that time period is research for new products and niches that you can sell into. As an eBay seller you need to get into the mindset that you are always looking to expand your product lines and looking to sell into other product niches. You need to be thinking like a buyer from one of the multi-national shops. The whole time they are looking for new products to sell. They do this by spending hour after hour and week after week looking at new products and then doing the research as to how the product will sell.

While you do this research you will find some winners and some losers, when you get a loser, you just need to learn to move on and find that next winner. But also something else will start to happen, as you become more successful and known, you will start to get phone calls and emails from companies asking if you would like to sell their product, while this saves you the time having to go out there, you will still need to do the research. Research is not one of those old fashioned boring subjects, it is fun and exciting and with all the modern ways of doing research out there it will be a fun part of your business and over the coming weeks we will be looking at some of the more exciting ways of doing research both online and offline.

Happy Research

eBay Andrew Milburn, eBay, eBay Consultant, Research

eBay Works In Good Times And Bad Times

April 17, 2012 Andrew Milburn No comments

Having been self-emlpoyed all my life since the age of 16 I have been involved in several business Market Stall, Selling Pet Food, Telecoms, Mail Order, and Internet Marketing. Looking back over the 30 years it struck me that my mail order and internet businesses stood the test of time. Yes the pet food business did to a certain way as people had to buy food for their pets, but during the lean times people went for cheaper brands and the accessory products just dried up.

But my mail order and internet marketing businesses never seem to be touched by the recessions we are hearing about around the world in recent years. This got me thinking as to why, this would be the case. As I did the research, talked with people around the world and read articles, it suddenly struck me.

Yes here in the UK we may be going through a recession but in Australia they may be fine. So while one market may be suffering, due to the fact that we run a worldwide business we can counter act our business. One sales are poor here they are kept up in another part of the world. And as eBay traders we should always look to take advantage of this.

Also due to the fact that we very often work from home we do not have the high overheads of some of the shops this allows us to keep our running costs down and this means we can offer much lower prices than people who have premises and staff to pay. Remember in a recession everyone loves a bargain and one of the first places they come to look for items is eBay.

As eBay traders and sellers we have a worldwide business, and have the ability and priveldge to be able to sell world wide on one of the largest ecommerce platforms in the world, and we can also start with very little money. There is no business like it, eBay trives in good times and bad times.

In good times people have money to spend and will buy luxery goods, and then in bad times they are looking for that bargain. As eBay sellers we can meet all those needs, no matter where we live in the world. As long as we have a computer, internet access and access to a delivery system we are in business – and we don’t even need to be near a delivery system, more on that another time.

eBay eBay, eBay Consultant

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Browsing Posts published by Andrew Milburn