[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Ecom man]

Hi @Ecom_man ,

so far I have only been selling on eBay but I am about to start selling on my eCommerce site and on Amazon. I see that eBay automatically assigns an invoice number to any sales in sequential order in "Selling Manager" - when you were selling on both eBay and your website, how did you manage the invoice numbers? I would like not to have to edit them manually each time, and assign different invoice numbers for item sold on my website and Amazon, however then they wouldn't be sequential. Any suggestion?

Thank you!

I never did anything with the invoice numbers on the separate sales. Why would you need to?

 

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[BlahBlahBlah]

I never did anything with the invoice numbers on the separate sales. Why would you need to?

So if on ebay you had invoice [HASHTAG]#501[/HASHTAG], [HASHTAG]#502[/HASHTAG], [HASHTAG]#503[/HASHTAG] and then you sell an item on your shop, should that show [HASHTAG]#504[/HASHTAG]? Or you have different invoice numbering sequence on the different platforms?

Thank you again very much for your help!

 

[Ecom man]

I had different sequences on my site than what was on eBay. When I started my site I didn't accept PayPal so all the payments in PayPal were eBay and all the payments through my cc processor was my website.

 

[PTP]

Hey @Ecom man I had a question on dealing with suppliers.

When I decide on a certain supplier how do I go about telling the other sellers that I am not going to be doing business with them? Some of the other suppliers that I am negotiating with are selling items that I want to sell once I being to make some more money. I do not want to reject them on a bad note which would destroy any chance of a buying from them in the future. Is there a way I should go about this?

Thank you

 

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[Ecom man]

Hey @Ecom man I had a question on dealing with suppliers.

When I decide on a certain supplier how do I go about telling the other sellers that I am not going to be doing business with them? Some of the other suppliers that I am negotiating with are selling items that I want to sell once I being to make some more money. I do not want to reject them on a bad note which would destroy any chance of a buying from them in the future. Is there a way I should go about this?

Thank you

I'm not sure how much you have been in contact with them prior to now. Once or twice or hundreds of times? Have you made any orders? Were they small or large?

If you've never purchased anything from them at all or nothing beyond samples it is pretty easy. Just say the product wasn't exactly what we were looking for but we look forward to purchasing other items from you in the future.

 

[PTP]

I'm not sure how much you have been in contact with them prior to now. Once or twice or hundreds of times? Have you made any orders? Were they small or large?

If you've never purchased anything from them at all or nothing beyond samples it is pretty easy. Just say the product wasn't exactly what we were looking for but we look forward to purchasing other items from you in the future.

Thank you for your response. I've never ordered anything from any of them before.

 

[PTP]

@Ecom man I just made my first sample order. Thank you again for creating this thread! It has been a huge help!

 

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[BlahBlahBlah]

Hi, i have a bit of an urgent question - i have been selling a product on ebay in the past month and it did really well, currently at #3 ..my listing is expiring in 20 hours, how can i renew it without having to write it as new, as i dont want to lose the ranking position? it shows that i has a lot of sales and would like to keep that if possible..... thank you!

 

[Ecom man]

Hi, i have a bit of an urgent question - i have been selling a product on ebay in the past month and it did really well, currently at #3 ..my listing is expiring in 20 hours, how can i renew it without having to write it as new, as i dont want to lose the ranking position? it shows that i has a lot of sales and would like to keep that if possible..... thank you!

If you put your listing as "good until cancelled" once the time runs out it will just start another 30 days of the listing automatically. It will keep your sales and ranking. If you did a 30 day listing originally you will lose all the sales rank etc.

 

[BlahBlahBlah]

If you put your listing as "good until cancelled" once the time runs out it will just start another 30 days of the listing automatically. It will keep your sales and ranking. If you did a 30 day listing originally you will lose all the sales rank etc.

Thanks! bad news for me, this was the only item i was selling on eBay and just today i reached #1 out of 1,372 listing for the most common key-word, and in 5 hours will be all gone as I only set it to 30 days. I found out now that only if you have a shop you can have items flagged as "Good 'till cancelled". This is pretty sick because I was now at the top of the best match and could finally increase the price - anyway I have opened a shop now and will relist again, hope to get back to top 5 at least in the next couple of weeks!
I am not planning on selling much on eBay as my focus is on my own website I am launching next weekend and on Amazon, but this was a nice little extra entry I had

 

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[BlahBlahBlah]

Thanks! bad news for me, this was the only item i was selling on eBay and just today i reached #1 out of 1,372 listing for the most common key-word, and in 5 hours will be all gone as I only set it to 30 days. I found out now that only if you have a shop you can have items flagged as "Good 'till cancelled". This is pretty sick because I was now at the top of the best match and could finally increase the price - anyway I have opened a shop now and will relist again, hope to get back to top 5 at least in the next couple of weeks!
I am not planning on selling much on eBay as my focus is on my own website I am launching next weekend and on Amazon, but this was a nice little extra entry I had

I don't understand, I created a new listing (so 0 items sold) and I am still ranked #3 under "Best Match"...not complaining obviously, just not understanding the logic

 

[Ecom man]

I don't understand, I created a new listing (so 0 items sold) and I am still ranked #3 under "Best Match"...not complaining obviously, just not understanding the logic

It used to be (I haven't sold on eBay for almost a year so might have changed) if you used the "relist" button you kept most of your best match metrics. Glad to hear you are still ranked pretty high.

 

[SeanF]

Hello all. What a great thread this is. Read it gradually 4 pages per day. So many notes!!

• My eBay rating = 268 (100%) with 4 years of on/off sales, made £2,340 profit. My Q is: do you need a fixed location to succeed in importing ?
• The reason I ask is that for the next 18 months I will be : UK 1 month, France 6 months, Australia 9 months, travel 3 months (I have a 1 year working holiday visa for Australia). With a lack of fixed location, must I get a fulfilment centre to ship my orders? I've been made aware by both @Ecom man & @Walter Hay of the risks with dropshipping but I can't see any other way to get into importing without a FC in my situation?
• I could have items shipped to France to test, but that means my listing will need to be on ebay.fr ...I speak French very well to do listings, questions etc but eBay is not popular in France. If I listed on ebay.com, I'm losing out on USA market with longer shipping times. This affects my ability to test samples as if they don't sell in France - and ebay.com is not feasible - I can't even get started.
• Does anyone have good experience of travelling & managing to maintain a feasible importing business?
• Thanks in advance! Any French people reading this would also be helpful!

 

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[Ecom man]

Hello all. What a great thread this is. Read it gradually 4 pages per day. So many notes!!

• My eBay rating = 268 (100%) with 4 years of on/off sales, made £2,340 profit. My Q is: do you need a fixed location to succeed in importing ?
• The reason I ask is that for the next 18 months I will be : UK 1 month, France 6 months, Australia 9 months, travel 3 months (I have a 1 year working holiday visa for Australia). With a lack of fixed location, must I get a fulfilment centre to ship my orders? I've been made aware by both @Ecom man & @Walter Hay of the risks with dropshipping but I can't see any other way to get into importing without a FC in my situation?
• I could have items shipped to France to test, but that means my listing will need to be on ebay.fr ...I speak French very well to do listings, questions etc but eBay is not popular in France. If I listed on ebay.com, I'm losing out on USA market with longer shipping times. This affects my ability to test samples as if they don't sell in France - and ebay.com is not feasible - I can't even get started.
• Does anyone have good experience of travelling & managing to maintain a feasible importing business?
• Thanks in advance! Any French people reading this would also be helpful!

Drop shipping and using a fulfillment center for your products are two totally different things. Using a fulfillment center is a great way to make your business location independent and to free up valuable time. Drop shipping other people's products can many times cause problems because of stocking issues but more often the margins just aren't enough to make a viable profit.

 

[Walter Hay]

Hello all. What a great thread this is. Read it gradually 4 pages per day. So many notes!!

• My eBay rating = 268 (100%) with 4 years of on/off sales, made £2,340 profit. My Q is: do you need a fixed location to succeed in importing ?
• The reason I ask is that for the next 18 months I will be : UK 1 month, France 6 months, Australia 9 months, travel 3 months (I have a 1 year working holiday visa for Australia). With a lack of fixed location, must I get a fulfilment centre to ship my orders? I've been made aware by both @Ecom man & @Walter Hay of the risks with dropshipping but I can't see any other way to get into importing without a FC in my situation?
• I could have items shipped to France to test, but that means my listing will need to be on ebay.fr ...I speak French very well to do listings, questions etc but eBay is not popular in France. If I listed on ebay.com, I'm losing out on USA market with longer shipping times. This affects my ability to test samples as if they don't sell in France - and ebay.com is not feasible - I can't even get started.
• Does anyone have good experience of travelling & managing to maintain a feasible importing business?
• Thanks in advance! Any French people reading this would also be helpful!

Hi Sean,
I have answered your PM relating to this, and for the benefit of others in a similar situation, my suggestion is to sell via Amazon FBA. There are lots of people doing that from outside the USA and the UK. If you want to sell on eBay, the alternative is to use a fulfillment center in the country where you will be selling. It need not be FBA, there are plenty of privately owned fulfillment centers, but FBA will handle your orders even if you sell only on eBay.

Walter

 

[SeanF]

Ok I thought they were the same thing just different terms!!

In that case, my next Q I imagine is if I do FBA, I still need to see the samples myself before selling or will the fulfilment centre do the checking for me and give me the "OK"?
Thanks for your message Walter I'll proceed as I intended to

Also what kind of % should I take off profits if using FBA?


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[Ecom man]

Ok I thought they were the same thing just different terms!!

In that case, my next Q I imagine is if I do FBA, I still need to see the samples myself before selling or will the fulfilment centre do the checking for me and give me the "OK"?
Thanks for your message Walter I'll proceed as I intended to

Also what kind of % should I take off profits if using FBA?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would not trust sample checking to FBA or any outside company for that matter. Sometimes when you get the items you can just tell that they are made poorly. I had a product that I ordered to sample. The material they were made of appeared soft and plush from the pictures. When I received the item... Not even close. The material was thin and not soft at all. Decisions like that have to be done by you or someone who you trust to make the right call.

Profit margins is really a personal decision that can vary wildly. Some people won't take profits less than 50-100%. Others are fine with making 20-30%. It's really up to you what you want to make. My profit last year was right about 40%. My goal in 2016 is to do 3-5x sales of what I did in 2015. If I can pull it off at around 40% margins, it will be a spectacular year.

 

[PTP]

@Ecom man in your experience how long after Chinese New Year is it before you are able to buy more product from suppliers? I know all factories are different but what seems to be the average time?


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[Ecom man]

@Ecom man in your experience how long after Chinese New Year is it before you are able to buy more product from suppliers? I know all factories are different but what seems to be the average time?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is normally immediate. I got emails from my suppliers last night and they said they were back at work. I will be sending over orders for about 40K tonight.

 

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[PTP]

It is normally immediate. I got emails from my suppliers last night and they said they were back at work. I will be sending over orders for about 40K tonight.

Ok thank you. I'll just keep searching for more products until they reply back...

 

[Motley crue]

I'm curious about when you first launched your own site, did you file any paperwork or did you just sign up on shopify and start selling your products? I'm thinking about launching an ecommerce site of my own fairly soon, but one of the things stopping me is that I don't know what I have to do legally.

 

[NiteRider]

Recently joined the forum after reading TMF and digging into some of the Gold threads. This thread and Biophase's thread on Ecom and Amazon have given me a greater understanding of selling online than pretty much anything else I've found so far online. This is coming after spending almost $500 on a course on how to sell on Shopify. So thanks to you Ecom man and Biophase for all of the awesome advice you given and MJ DeMarco for creating a forum for people that are serious about getting out the 9-5 rat race and creating their own business. Thank you!

So Ecom man, I've spent the past 4-5 days reading every post in this thread up to page 65. Was going to wait until I had caught up to the current posts before asking any questions but I'm ready to take more action and use my free time in between to catch up on this thread and dive into others. So I apologize if any of these questions have been asked in the past 14 or so pages.

Basically I'm coming into this at the opposite end compared to you Ecom man. I've been learning how to sell on Shopify (my own store/website) first and simply use eBay more for supplemental income. From what I've learned and been told the profit margins are much greater, you have way more control and you don't have to worry about eBay one day shutting you down or negative feedback. Reading some of your later posts I see this has been the case for you as well. (Much respect and congrats for your success on both platforms by the way).

At this point I've found a product I want to sell with many variations. I've already ordered many samples from different sellers on Aliexpress and found 2 sellers I want to purchase from. I have my Shopify store setup and ready to go. One major thing has been holding me back and it's this:

Basically I have two options for my store (my store is in a very specific niche)

1. list all of the products I found to sell (about 10 in the same niche with many variants) and dropship from Aliexpress. My main issue with this is that with dropship I'm at the mercy of the Chinese sellers (no quality check, questionable ship times, customer receiving the wrong item etc.) and the shipping time is about 2-3 weeks with ePacket. Personally I feel like telling someone they had to wait 2-3 weeks to receive their order would be a deal breaker for most people as it would be for myself considering I order almost everything from Amazon Prime and expect fast delivery.
2. order the items myself in bulk and ship to the customer myself. The issue with this is that I don't have a lot of startup capital so I would essentially be limited to 1-2 products on my website until I earned enough to invest in more products. Personally I think a website/store with 1-2 products would look kind of scammy and would turn people off. Plus with a lot of variations for each product it would cost more to stock until I could figure out which ones sold the most and stock accordingly.

So my first and major question for you would be: now that you have had experience/success with both Shopify and eBay which would you recommend for those just starting out and/or those testing a product?

How would you approach the issues that I've stated above?

Would you

• start out by testing the products on eBay and taking the "winners" and building your site around those?
• start by building a store and test with dropshipping until you discover your winners?
• or start with 1 or 2 products on your store that you ship yourself and build out from there?

You had stated before that you don't really focus on a niche rather on products that will sell. Has this approach changed since you have started your store?

Thanks in advance!

 

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[Motley crue]

Hey niterider and welcome to the forum. If I may try and help shed some light on your situation (take ecom mans advise before mine, he is much more well versed in ecommerce) you would be better off ordering the products yourself. You can run into a bunch of problems dropshipping from china. Shipping of course is a big one. Your customers can be waiting over a month to receive their items, and that makes for unhappy customers. Obviously unhappy customers means fewer repeat sales. There are also issues with customs. If a piece of mail gets seized, than your customer won't get there product at all, and if waiting a long time for a product makes a customer angry, then just imagine how mad they'll be if they pay x amount of dollars for something and never receive it. There are plenty of other problems i'm sure you can run into but these are the two biggest things that come to mind. Also you might try looking into websites other than shopify. I've heard very good things about prestashop. It's basically the same thing as shopify but there are no charges. I can't point you in the direction of either website over another as I haven't used either of them, I'm just letting you know of another option that's available.

 

[NiteRider]

Hey niterider and welcome to the forum. If I may try and help shed some light on your situation (take ecom mans advise before mine, he is much more well versed in ecommerce) you would be better off ordering the products yourself. You can run into a bunch of problems dropshipping from china. Shipping of course is a big one. Your customers can be waiting over a month to receive their items, and that makes for unhappy customers. Obviously unhappy customers means fewer repeat sales. There are also issues with customs. If a piece of mail gets seized, than your customer won't get there product at all, and if waiting a long time for a product makes a customer angry, then just imagine how mad they'll be if they pay x amount of dollars for something and never receive it. There are plenty of other problems i'm sure you can run into but these are the two biggest things that come to mind. Also you might try looking into websites other than shopify. I've heard very good things about prestashop. It's basically the same thing as shopify but there are no charges. I can't point you in the direction of either website over another as I haven't used either of them, I'm just letting you know of another option that's available.

Thanks for the welcome Motley Crue. Yea I pretty much agree with everything you've stated above. All of that has crossed my mind and has held me up from moving forward with everything.

With dropshipping the lack of control over the shipping process would drive me crazy. I'd constantly be worrying whether or not the package would arrive to the customer exactly as it should.

Basically at this stage I would like to test my product so I was going to order a small sample order and go from there. However having 1-2 products on my store seems way too thin and I feel would turn off most people.

Which is why I started reading this thread as I was considering doing my testing on eBay and moving the winners over to my store.

The insights I've gained from this thread alone has been pretty amazing.

 

[BlahBlahBlah]

I recently launched my website and started advertising on Adwords, I am currently just testing it out running 3 campaigns of 5€/each per day. First week is gone and I spent around 80€ so far, at the moment I got no sales via the website though (80 clicks in total) and I am pretty sure that my Adwords campaigns need to be optimized as for far I only really played around with it to gain familiarity while I keep studying it. I think in the long run it is pretty obvious that I need to improve my website SEO also in order to be able to save on advertisement money if possible - I wanted to ask whether you pay a lot of attention/time to SEO or just go for PPC advertising? Is there any advice you could give in this regards? Thank you.

 

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[NiteRider]

A few more questions popped into my head over the past few days.

When starting out on eBay are you basically using your personal eBay account to start with or creating a brand new account?

I have a year old personal account with a rating of 8 at 100% feedback. However the name has nothing to do with selling or a store, it sounds pretty weird actually. Do you consider your username important at all or would the older account with some history work better?

 

[PTP]

A few more questions popped into my head over the past few days.

When starting out on eBay are you basically using your personal eBay account to start with or creating a brand new account?

I have a year old personal account with a rating of 8 at 100% feedback. However the name has nothing to do with selling or a store, it sounds pretty weird actually. Do you consider your username important at all or would the older account with some history work better?

You are allowed to change the name of your eBay username once a month.

 

[Motley crue]

I had a question about marketing. Has anyone tried or had success generating traffic, and generating sales using services on fiverr?

 

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[NiteRider]

You are allowed to change the name of your eBay username once a month.

Ok cool, I wasn't aware of that. I'll probably just change it to keep the feedback I already have. Thanks.

 

[PTP]

Ok cool, I wasn't aware of that. I'll probably just change it to keep the feedback I already have. Thanks.

happy to help