The holiday season can be the most profitable selling season of the year for eBay sellers if you’ve sourced the products that holiday shoppers are looking for.
In out 2008 Holiday Trends video, we’ve brought you some of the top product trends for the holiday selling season 2008.
Now let’s talk about what questions YOU have for YOUR product line this holiday season.
Product selection?
Product sourcing?
Need ideas for building your product line?
Ask us what you need to know to make this your most profitable selling season ever!
•Apply to every industry •Apply to every product category •Are about people not products •Are a reflection of what’s happening in the hearts, minds and lives of consumers •Drive buyer purchasing decisions each year
•Back to school sales are the first indicators of hot holiday products •Start observing trends around you after this presentation •Read DAILY -Consumer magazines -The newspaper -Trade publications -Communications from your suppliers
EVERYONE will be talking about what’s hot for the holiday season for the next few months!
If you’re placing an order for holiday products with a wholesale supplier, be sure and confirm the product delivery date and find out where that inventory is coming from!
Inventory coming from overseas can easily get stuck in Customs the later we get into the holiday season.
Inventory that is being warehoused in the US (for US based sellers) will likely make your suppliers projected delivery date.
Don’t get caught short with holiday inventory that comes in after the holidays!
•Eco-Friendly Toys •Rubberwood Toys •Bamboo Toys •Organic Cotton •Recycled Toys: Toys built with recycled materials: •Environmental Packaging: Look for toy packaging that is minimalist. Less plastic, less waste. •Real life toys
Leisure products will be a strong holiday seller this year.
Right now on the newsstands are several different consumer magazines profiling the top 200 - 300 NEW products in the leisure products catagory.
If you're interested in selling leisure products or you already sell leisure products and you want to know which of your inventory will be hot this holiday season,pick up one of these publications now!
The answer to what products will be hot in YOUR industry is only a phone call away.
Your suppliers will know what products are projected to be hot this holiday season. Call them and ask them what they project to be their best sellers and why.
People often underestimate the amount of help they can get from their existing suppliers on “what to sell”.
Your suppliers reps are an untapped goldmine of information!
Earlier in today’s workshop, we talked about repurposing your existing inventory.
This means looking at your current inventory with a fresh holiday eye.
Consider this -
When you go to your local hardware store during the holidays, do they promote every single home repair product in the store OR do they promote their top selling power tools of the year as the PERFECT holiday gift?
Their top sellers of course!
They’ve simply looked at their existing inventory and said “Which of our inventory will also work well for holiday gifts?”
And then they set about to MARKET that inventory as a holiday gift.
They plant the seed in the customer’s mind that “this” would be a great gift idea this holiday season.
The #1 thing that buyers are looking for when they shop online during the holidays is that feeling of confidence they get when they KNOW their purchase will be delivered on time.
You need to promote your dedication to delivery EVERYWHERE you can.
You can’t emphasize this point enough!
The determining factor that will make a potential customer click Bid or Buy It Now on your listings over someone else’s is whether or not they think that they will get their holiday purchase on time.
Don’t make your buyers question this or leave it to chance!
Sell your dedication to delivery, 100% satisfaction guarantee and be available to answer your customer’s questions!
This practice, combined with good product selection and a proactive marketing campaign will be the combination for a winning holiday selling season this year!
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Hello, thank you for putting this workshop together and posting the material for the early birds. My question to you today is.... I have been having trouble locating a wholesaler that carries the trend products that I am interested in selling this holiday season, Do you have any suggestions on ways to locate wholesalers that carry certain types of products? Personally, I have never used a wholesaler before, so I am new to using wholesalers as a source of acquiring products. I do own a Registered Business and have also obtained my EIN (Federal Tax Identification Number) which should qualify me to do business with wholesalers.( Unless there are other requirements that I am unaware of.)
Is there a specific product brand name for the products you are looking for?
If so, you'll want to get the name of the manufacturer and call them and ask them who their distributor is. This is the portion of the supply chain who will be able to sell directly to you.
However, if you are at the point of saying (for example) "I want to sell gift pens." The next step is to determine what brand of pens you want to sell and then follow the step above.
Also using trade publications for the particular product category you are interested in is a great way to get information about the other products/suppliers in that category that you may not know about.
Most importantly, test market your products first in small quantities before purchasing a large batch of inventory.
It will allow you to determine real time market demand before investing a sizable amount in inventory.
You have a lot of great questions. It sounds like you're heading in the right direction. You do need a Business Name and an EIN. You will also need a sales tax id (aka reseller certificate) for your state. True Wholesalers will require this as part of the account setup process.
For your question: Do you have any suggestions on ways to locate wholesalers that carry certain types of products?
There are many ways that you can go about this. There are tradeshows you can attend, trade magazines you find suppliers in, and you can also take a look at the product itself. On the product there will be a manufacturer listed. You can then contact this manufacturer and find out who their factory authorized wholesalers are. Once you've done that you'll need to contact them individually and confirm if they will work with eBay sellers. This is just one part of the process that Worldwide Brands research specialists do every day.
There is place to sigin at the top left corner . You can use your regular eBay login. This will open up the board for you to post questions.
Hope that helps! Also feel free to ask us questions now and come back and watch the video too. This will be available on the workshop boards for a long time.
Hi, I appreciate the time ur taking to do this. I've been selling my old books and other items on e-Bay and opened a store to get the feel of what I need to do in order to sell. At this point, I feel that I'm ready to go into selling in large quantities. My dilema is that I haven't found a line to sell. Any suggestions on this?
Hi eastofmaui01, A few years prior to eBay's announcement on Free Shipping - the National Retail Federation did a survey of consumers that said that the #1 promotion that customers prefer when purchasing online is "free shipping".
This is something that we've been advocating to our customers at WhatDoISell for several years - BUT you need to know how to use free shipping to make it work for you - especially now that everyone is using it!
You must make your free shipping offer time limited and an EVENT. For example "Free Shipping on all Halloween Orders through October 20th".
Or "Free Shipping on All Halloween Costume purchases over $50".
Free shipping should be used to excite, motivate and inspire people to buy from you.
Additionally - you need to TEST MARKET free shipping for your customers.
Run two parallel listings - one with free shipping and the other with split product cost/paid shipping.
See which item sells best/first/for the most money.
That will tell you EXACTLY what your customers want.
And remember, boost your product price to cover your free shipping AND try discounted shipping as well.
And always add value in your customer's mind, rather than focusing on discounting.
Hello- Thank you for the information. I would like your feedback on a issue that I am running into. I have been told by several product manufacturers that they do not allow sales of their products on Ebay. They say that Ebay diminishes their product value. I have a brick and mortar store and am just frustrated that my suppliers do not allow sales on Ebay, while there are thousands of listings for these products. I would appreciate any advice you might have. Thanks
Hi chachkiz , Tell me a bit more about your plans - are you looking for a line of books to sell or looking to switch to an entirely different product line?
Books seem to be the easiest way for me to sell, but finding a nitch to make money seems to be the difficult part. On the other hand, i'm not opposed to go into any other product line.
Hello. Thank you for all of the information that you provide. I am just starting out, so I do not have a product line that I am already selling. Do you have a suggestion for what would be a reasonable number of products for a beginner?
This is a common concern among wholesalers. There can be many reasons for why a wholesaler will respond to this.
#1) The manufacturers will have guidelines for where their products can be sold. The factory authorized wholesalers have to meet these requirements. For example, a high end handbag may only be sold in high income districts.
#2) Wholesalers might be concerned about MAP (minimum advertised price). Because eBay is know as an auction platform, the risk for suppliers is that you will sell the product below MAP. The may not realize that you can control the minimum amount on a product. I suggest talking to your wholesaler, and letting them know that you will guarantee that you will not sell below MAP. The reason for MAP is to keep the playing field even amongst all retailers so that they don't "underbid" each other in a pricing war.
#3) The supplier may not be familiar with the online retail world and how it works. An idea would be to suggest trying it on 1 product SKU. If it works for the supplier, then he can open it up more SKUs to be allowed. This gives you a chance to build that trust factor.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you need any more clarification
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