My Internet Business Basics: Selling To Where Online
Starting a venue for sales on the internet can be a daunting experience if you’re just looking at technical requirements. You need a server, a certificate, a merchant services vendor, tested and trusted securityand on top of that, you need something to sell! Putting all the pieces together can be a lot of work.
There are two my internet business sales options we’re going to review - eBay (which you’ve probably heard of) and Etsy. Both give a venue for you to sell to qualified buyers, and both have their ins and outs, including ways to automate product loading. Understand that we’re not endorsing either of them - just providing a conduit of information for you to make an informed decision from.
eBay is the second most widely known sales site on the Internet, after Amazon.com. It has millions of visitors each and every day, and uses the “auction” mechanism to keep people coming back. From the perspective of someone selling products on the internet, it has an easy setup procedure, and you can start or stop at any time. If you don’t like it, you haven’t sunk a lot of money into it to get it running.
The next step up from Caf Press is Amazon Shops. Amazon Shops lets you print books on their Booksurge service, or just sell used books online. My internet business is not limited solely to books - we’ve sold tee shirts, cookwear and electronics on ours. Amazon Shops charges $40 per month as a listing fee and takes anywhere from 10% to 25% of the sale price of the item. The advantage is that it’s a natural destination for selling things online. Millions of customers go to Amazon every day. The setup is more involved than Caf Press is, but the reduced fees probably make it worthwhile once your business grows.
My internet business reviews Etsy as a similar site to eBay, but it focuses on handmade things. Etsy charges smaller listing fees than eBay does, but has a smaller clientele. That said, Etsy’s clientele is looking for handmade things, and it has a comparable set of options for setting your own custom web shop. Etsy has a few more search options than eBay does, like a color search wheel, even a geolocator. The aim for Etsy is to be the online equivalent of a crafts fair.
So, now that you’ve picked a sales venue, what next? First, save any item descriptions for things you’ll regularly have in stock in a text file or word processing file. It allows you to cut and paste whenever a new item shows up. Next is to figure out what you’re going to sell - the most common choice is to buy items at wholesale (or as remaindered goods) and sell lots on eBay. You’ll need to do some research to find a supplier (and a good price) and to research what your sales niche is.
Deciding what to sell is the next step - you’ll want something that’s distinctive, and that you can get at a reasonable price, and can sell for a reasonable markup. Again, Amazon and eBay are good places to do the research. Any time you think of something you might sell, do a search for it on eBay or Amazon and see how many other people are selling it. Also look at how they’re selling it; the mistakes of your competition are how you propel yourself in this business.
A variation on buy wholesale and sell direct is to find something that’s locally available and sell it for more money on eBay nationwide. This is a surprisingly effective avenue for all kinds of things, from rubber floor mats for automobiles to satellite dishes. Look for something that’s being liquidated locally and work from there.
Posted: May 16th, 2008 under Online Marketing.
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