Tips on Researching Products to Sell Online

Interested in participating in an online auction site like eBay or sell brand new items on a site like Amazon? There are simple ways to find things to sell, but there are also more challenging ways to find items too. Let's explore both.

Before you begin your quest to search for things to sell, you may want to have some idea how you will be obtaining items to sell. Will you purchase them from individuals or from wholesale businesses? This is important because if you buy from individuals then you don't necessarily need a business license, but when dealing with legitimate wholesalers, you will need a business license so that you can get the best prices on merchandise.

Easy Items

It will take patience and dedication to find items to sell online since many websites cover many different niches. You will want to start by asking yourself, "What do I like?" Put yourself in the consumer's shoes first. When you start selling items that you like, it doesn't feel so much like work. However, when you try to sell items you don't have any interest in, but just want to make a few dollars, you will notice that you will begin to burnout fast from selling online.

To get your feet wet in the online selling business, begin selling items around your home and those from people that you know. When you do this, you will get much needed practice. You will get better with using the online software, writing your descriptions of products, interacting online with customers, and learning more about shipping and handling those packages.

Difficult Items

Now when all personal items are sold online, most sellers end up registering with companies that have a large database of items to sell. However, they pay membership fees to access these databases, use images, and have items drop-shipped. This is when it can be a bit challenging to choose items to sell, because unlike picking items at home, you have to perform research on what sells and what doesn't. Is a company worth buying a membership to access a database or would it be better to perform my own research etc.?

Researching Merchandise

First, take a look at what you sold in the past that you enjoyed selling. Begin listing what other related items you think might sell online. This is a starting point to help you conduct research on your chosen niche. A niche is nothing more than a category that describes the specific type of product you are selling. So if it's a camera you are interested in selling then you need to find all the models related to that camera. Then you would start selling accessories related to that camera and so on.

Next, check competitive sites. Look at their best-selling items posted on the website related to your niche. Note the prices, what is considered a four star item, and read some of the reviews. When you see a lot of positive reviews, you know it is definitely a good product to sell and your refund rate will be most likely zero. Also, learn how to describe the product so that you too can get positive results on your site. Notice specials and offers related to the product.

Pricing

Depending on how cheap you can get the item you plan to sell will determine how much a profit you can truly obtain. Buying a product that only gives you pennies on the dollar won't help you much if you can't sell hundreds of the item fast. Pricing the item higher than your competitors won't yield the results you desire unless you plan on adding something more to sweeten the deal. So avoid choosing items that are over hyped, over priced and have bad reviews no matter how nice they look.

Wholesalers and Drop-shippers

Once you have an item in mind, you will find that there are many sites that will advertise suppliers who can either drop-ship your item or mail it directly to you. Drop-shipping is typically chosen by online sellers when they have no room in their homes to store products. However, those who do have storage space, may go with a wholesaler so that they have better control with packaging and shipping the item. Whichever you choose, be sure you conduct research on the latest scams by searching for the name of the company online. Also, if you want real wholesale prices with a real wholesale distributor, consider making your business a real business meaning you should register it in your state.

Check Google

You will want to search keywords related to the product. Ask yourself, "Which keywords are performing well?" An easy way to do this is to place words in the search engine and when you look at the drop down box, see what other related words come up. Copy down the words you see as well as others you intend to use in your description. Another way, for those people who are looking to do more thorough research is to use a keyword suggestion tool. When using one, don't go with the most popular words with almost a million searches a day. Chances are your site will be lost amongst the crowd. If you plan on paying for keywords, you don't want to pick the most popular ones either, since your competition will be very high. In addition, your site won't rank well for highly competitive keywords if it hasn't been around for awhile and it won't be visited much if you have no clear understanding on Search Engine Optimization (SEO.) So consider learning more about SEO and how to use keyword suggestion tools.

Visit Sites

You will want to check out other niche websites to find out what keywords they are using to get buyers. Also, check the site you will be selling your wares to find out if the item is being sold frequently. On eBay, when you are logged in, you can actually check to see what has been sold already simply by selecting the filter setting just before you search. On Amazon, you can see the popularity of an item based on the stars it receives and the amount of reviews people have written about it.

Read Related Articles

Consider what other people have written about the item. You may find that rather than selling it on an online auction, it may be better to sell it elsewhere. Also, check out forums to find out if there are specific needs that consumers would hope that sellers would address concerning the product.

Join Mailing Lists and Forums

It helps to join a mailing list when you are in search of products and forums where people chat about their ups and downs when selling products via the Internet. Sometimes experienced sellers will share ideas, direct visitors to suppliers, and offer their expertise on selling. You can find some of these sellers on places where digital products are sold and also sites that sell books by former power sellers on eBay.

Purchase Products to Help You Find Niches

When you find that you idea product in your niche is not working out, you may want to consider purchasing a software program that will give you ideas on what might sell.

Now that you have some tips on performing product research, re-read this article and others like it then start implementing some of the tasks. The more you research the better you will get at it and before you know it you will have a nice website with all your latest finds. To your success!

Nicholl McGuire - About the Author:

Nicholl McGuire works from home part-time as a writer. She also has experienced researching and selling products online. Read about some of her experiences here.

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