Whether you are fairly new to wholesale buying and just buy a few products every now and then to resell for profit or you have an established reselling business – you will no doubt resell products online. The internet is big business – whilst some people still do visit market stalls and car boot sales looking for bargain items, many consumers search for and buy products online. So whether you have a few items to resell or an entire inventory, you need to know what sites to resell them on and how to resell them for a profit.
There are a variety of ways to resell products online. Firstly, you could build your own e-Commerce website and use SEO and paid advertising to help your website be visible online. Although this can be effective, especially if you have a large amount of varied stock, many wholesale buyers will use sites like eBay, Amazon and Gumtree to resell products. It’s quick, easy and fairly cheap. So if you’re thinking of reselling online follow these steps to help you maximise your opportunities.
Find Your Products
Before you can resell any items you need to buy them first! If you’re new to wholesale buying you may be wondering how it works – here’s a simple run down: wholesale buyers will purchase products from a wholesale supplier at a lower cost than their RRP. The wholesale buyer will usually buy in bulk to secure the deal or may even purchase a wholesale pallet of goods – a mixed pallet of out of season or end of line products that are being sold at rock bottom prices. The wholesale buyer will then use sites like eBay to resell this stock at a higher price than they bought it at – making a profit whilst doing it. Some products can be found well below their RRP offering a great chance to make a healthy profit margin whilst others may only make a few pounds per re-sale.
So to become a wholesale buyer you need stock. Stock is found from wholesalers – some specialise in a certain field like sports equipment whilst others are more general wholesalers. If you’re looking to resell you should do your research on what kind of products you would like to resale. Perhaps there’s a toy that many people are looking for, perhaps there is a movie about to be released and so movie merchandise sales are popular or perhaps it’s a seasonal purchase like BBQs in the summer and coats in the winter. Whatever the product you are looking to resell you need to find it at trade price first. Using a wholesale directory is a quick way to find trusted wholesalers – if you try using the internet it could take you hours of searching and research. Once you have found your wholesalers you are in a position to start finding out stock prices and making some purchases – most wholesalers will want you to make bulk purchases but there are some that will accept one off purchases. Research until you find the right wholesaler for you.
Decide Where to Sell Them
In order to work out your total profit you need to decide where to resell your items and how much it will cost you to use the site. eBay charge different rates for individuals selling items and businesses selling items so fees will depend on whether you are reselling an item as a one-off or you intend to do it regularly as a business. But if you are selling items as an individual it’s free to list on eBay and the site takes 10% of your final selling fee. If a person buys your item via PayPal then it will also be subject to PayPal fees. Amazon charge 86p per item plus a percentage of the sale and this varies on the item category – ranging from 11% to 40%. Do your research on where you want to resell your items online and work out the figures before you list it to discover how to make the most profit on resale.
List Them
Now you are ready to list your items. Reselling items online isn’t just a case of putting up a quick product description and photo and hoping someone will buy it. It takes a lot of time to list a product correctly but you should spend time creating product adverts to maximise your chances of a sale. Firstly come up with a catchy title that explains the product and prompts a click through to the product description. The product description should be as detailed as possible. If you’ve bought something that is second hand or a clearance item you should label this within the description box. Use the product description box to detail in full the item, sizes, colours and any details you think someone purchasing it would need to know. You should also include plenty of photos in your advert. Many consumers can filter their search results on sites and many will click ‘only view adverts with a photo’ so if you’re not including any you are potentially missing out on a large proportion of customers. Most websites will list categories and accept keywords within listings too. It’s crucial you fill these out correctly as it will make it easier for a consumer to find your item in a product search. If you have postage and packaging prices list these too.
Now you are ready to wait for sales to start coming in! You can do a number of things to increase your chances of selling products online – refresh your adverts, tweak headers and keywords and choose new categories to list your products in. Hopefully regularly visiting your ads and keeping your inventory fresh will help you to make sales and profits!