Meanwhile, this post will be dedicated to explain what preparations I made in the process and explain why I believe my item will sell to make possibly my first profit from selling on Amazon. The techniques that I use can easily be replicated and are means to help an individual determine if an item may be worth selling or not to make a noteworthy profit. Also, it is to give those new to online business, more insight as to which items are worth the hassle selling.
My Observations
Some similarities I have found is that it still takes proper research to really determine whether or not an item is worth selling or not. The main difference I saw between being a Internet marketer from being a person who runs an ecommerce business was that there were a lot more calculations to be made because of the numerous fees that would be in the equation. Some examples would be the shipping and handling fee, the amazon referral fee, and the closing fee. Although on print the fees don’t sound like much, when summed up, the fees alone can cut a huge portion of a seller’s profit. I found this to be true when testing the Amazon calculator from Ryan Olbe, with a few products I found on the web that were considered hot bargains. In contrast, starting an ecommerce business sounded a bit more riskier for me because from my Internet marketing perspective, there was really nothing to lose but all to gain. There would be no such things as fees other than having to sign a Tax Agreement form with the affiliate companies I worked with. In the ecommerce business, it may also require some capital investment to get started. Despite all the risks, like I said, I am here just to test the waters so I am not discouraged.. yet.
My preparations
For me, finding my first prospect to sell on Amazon required a lot of research. For items I felt had a good chance of being my first item to sell on Amazon, I would try to figure out the general price range for that particular item on the web by cross examining them through the Ebay and Amazon marketplace. This basically gave me a general idea of what the item was worth and how much I could potentially sell it for. Bottom line, this gave me an idea of what the market was like for that particular product.
Now you may be saying, Albert, that doesn’t sound like it took much to find out if an item is worth selling or not. That is true, however, what makes this time consuming is not finding out how much a product is worth, it is searching for the perfect product to sell. Truth be told, most of the items you will encounter will make you either nothing, or cause you to lose profits. This process is what makes searching for the perfect product so time consuming.
Deciding what to sell
There were several things that I took into consideration before I chose what I wanted to sell, and those things were the fees, the item’s popularity, and of course, the profit margin. If you didn’t know, Amazon charges a different fee depending on what type of product you are selling. For example, if you are selling an electronic, Amazon will deduct 8% + the closing fee. However, if you were to sell books, 15% + the closing fee will be deducted from your sale. Also, don’t forget about the weight of the product you are selling because it will definitely influence the cost of shipping. Fortunately, with Ryan Olbe’s Amazon Calculator, it will save you the headache of calculating how much you will make. Why I bring this up? The main reason why is because it will definitely be a factor that will influence what a new seller will be selling. Everyone is looking for that golden market that is able to make them profits. Whether it be in the form of selling merchandise in quantity to make a bold profit, or in low numbers to make a profit, any market that is high in demand would be considered a gem.
Summary of what I did
For those who are curious, I will tell you exactly what I did. The first thing I did to find my first prospect was look on Fat Wallet’s Best Deals section. What I was doing was looking for items that were considered a steal to measure how much the item would be worth on both Amazon and Ebay. If an item was $7-10 cheaper than on Amazon and on Ebay, I considered the item to be a potential seller. However, it really depends on the product you are looking at. From here on, if an item was a potential seller, I jotted them down on a notebook and continued my search for more potential sellers until I achieved around 10 potential sellers. After having jotted down 10 potential sellers, I then began researching which items were more likely to sell by looking at how many customer reviews a product had. After finally organizing which items were potentially more likely to sell, the first item on my list then became my first prospect to be sold online.
Obviously, you are not confined to only looking for bargains on Fatwallet. There are many other resources where you can find items on sale that could be potential sellers. Although there could be many more things that can be added to improve the accuracy of determining which item is more likely to sell, this guide was meant for educational purposes and for demonstrating how I underwent the process in a nutshell.
Source: http://www.mooladays.com/2010/11/02/my-first-time-selling-on-amazon/
No comments:
Post a Comment