[tag]Thanksgiving [/tag]is upon us again. That means this Friday is [tag]Black Friday[/tag] for brick and mortar retailers. Legend has it that Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year in the United States. According to Snopes.com, this is not exactly true. While Black Friday as big, it's not the biggest. Looking back at the years 1993 through 2006, the last week before December 25 has been the largest shopping day in dollars each year. More specifically, the last three days before Christmas have been the biggest shopping day of the year. Online retailers have coined the term "Cyber Monday" to describe the day following the big Thanksgiving weekend. On this day, they say shoppers who couldn't find what they want over the weekend, go online to find items.
Whether [tag]Cyber Monday[/tag] is all they say it is or not, there is no doubt that this time of year is a big selling opportunity on eBay. Are you ready for this important time of year? What are some of the things you can do to make sure your sales take advantage of the additional shopping going on right under your nose?
Obviously in order to sell things on eBay, you have to have things to sell. Shoppers are looking for interesting gifts for their loved ones and friends. They like to find unique items that maybe can't be found in any Target or Wal-Mart. For these types of items you might try looking at home. I've been going through closets and boxes at home lately, and I found all kinds of unique items that may sell very well on [tag]eBay[/tag]. These are things that I intended to sell a few years ago and never got around to it. So to find unique items to sell look in your closet.
Cyber Monday
Monday, November 26, 2007, is this year's Cyber Monday. If you're a seller on eBay, you can list some items today as a seven-day auction or on Wednesday as a five day auction and still take advantage of Cyber Monday. But what if you're not quite ready?
In the weeks ahead
As I mentioned many people have things in their closet they could sell on eBay right now. Another source of merchandise to sell at this time of year may be your local retailer. Independent stores and shops are still trying to get rid of summer inventory. Could you take some of those items off their hands? Or could you sell some of these items for your local retailer for a percentage of the sale price? I remember doing and eBay trade show for some hardware dealers up in Wisconsin a few years ago. These independent store owners had summertime stock that they had to run through a liquidation service in order to make room for winter inventory. They told us, "We would love it if someone would come in and help us sell this inventory. We only make pennies on the dollar with liquidators, and we be happy to share that with a local eBay seller." This could be another great area for you to jumpstart your sales at this time of year.
Although it's a bit late in the year, you may want to look into a company such as Worldwide Brands. As a member, you'll have access to vendors in nearly every different category of merchandise you can imagine. If you work fast, you can still take advantage of this season's selling boom. You'll have access to manufacturers, and drop shippers. In case you're not familiar with worldwide Brands, the company was developed on the idea that it's difficult for small sellers to contact manufacturers and real wholesalers to source products to sell on eBay. [tag]Worldwide Brands[/tag] reached out to these various companies and asked them if they'd be willing to do business with small home businesses which includes most eBay sellers. [tag]Manufacturers [/tag]and [tag]distributors [/tag]who agreed to this can be found in Worldwide Brands extensive directory. As a seller, you can look up contact information which will let you directly contact distributors and manufacturers and request permission to sell their products. But what about drop shipping?
In my opinion at this time of year drop shipping becomes a precarious situation. Due to the high demand put on manufacturers. At this time of year stock levels can be extremely volatile. This can leave a seller in a situation with orders, but no product to fill them. What can be done in these cases? Where practical a seller may want to purchase an item or two in order to fill emergency orders. I don't think too many people though will have a plasma TV sitting in the garage just in case someone runs out of stock.
Another consideration with drop shippers at this time of year is the time it takes for items to be delivered with the extra burden the holidays put on shipping services such as the [tag]US Postal Service[/tag] and [tag]UPS[/tag]. If you're using a [tag]drop shipper[/tag], make sure to allow enough time for the order to go through the drop shipper's order process. While you can find drop shippers in Worldwide Brands directory, for new sellers this could be a little bit intimidating. For newer sellers I recommend [tag]Doba[/tag]. While it may be a little more difficult to squeeze a profit out of the deal, the user interface and stock levels are much easier for new sellers. They also have an extensive education library to help new sellers sell on eBay, as well as their web stores.
Both companies are run by honest people. In either case, it takes hard work on the part of a seller to make a profit. It takes creative thinking to differentiate yourself from the millions of other sellers on eBay. Using a mixture of the ideas have listed above, you should be able to create a unique product line that will keep your customers happy all year long. [tags]ecommerce,online sales,product sourcing[/tags]
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