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[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

Mike.B

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How many US competitors would you say is too many when selling on Ebay? Most of the products I've been considering have at least 5, if not more competitors. How do go about analyzing this?
 
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Ecom man

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How many US competitors would you say is too many when selling on Ebay? Most of the products I've been considering have at least 5, if not more competitors. How do go about analyzing this?

The thing about competitors is all it takes is one stupid one to kill your profit margin. Obviously the less compitition the better margins will be. 5 competitors isn't bad as long as the margins are in the 100%+ range. If 5 of them haven't dropped prices where there is no money to be made you should be ok.

The two ways to analyze it would be watch the items for a couple weeks. See if prices stay the same or if they fluctuate a lot. You do not want to get in a product that has price wars all the time. Second would be order a test sample and see how it goes. Some sellers will drop prices like crazy and just be making a few bucks an item. Most of them will try to keep margins in an acceptable range.
 

Ecom man

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I don't allow a certain number of competitors to immediately make me skip a product. If more than a couple people are selling with almost no profit that is when I walk away.

I found a product last week that I could purchase for $120 each. They were selling on eBay in the $250 range. I started getting quotes from sellers on Alibaba. By the time all the quotes came in the cheapest seller had gone from $250 to $170. And there were multiple sellers near that price. I dropped the product. After eBay fees and shipping I would have been making about $20 each. Not a big enough profit for me to buy.
 

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Ecom man

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PeeVee

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The thing about competitors is all it takes is one stupid one to kill your profit margin. Obviously the less compitition the better margins will be. 5 competitors isn't bad as long as the margins are in the 100%+ range. If 5 of them haven't dropped prices where there is no money to be made you should be ok.

The two ways to analyze it would be watch the items for a couple weeks. See if prices stay the same or if they fluctuate a lot. You do not want to get in a product that has price wars all the time. Second would be order a test sample and see how it goes. Some sellers will drop prices like crazy and just be making a few bucks an item. Most of them will try to keep margins in an acceptable range.

This is why I am a proponent of branding. It sets you apart and helps you maintain price integrity. People would rather buy Victorias Secret than the same quality for cheaper/no brand name. A brand builds trust, loyalty, etc. it's kind of crazy when you think about it but it's human behavior.
 

smartman

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startupbros are hosing some webinar thing on importing. I haven't had a chance to check it out because it is live and I have more pressing issues (hockey playoffs)
 
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Matt B

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When I say electronics I am referring to phones, tablets, computers, TVs etc. There are virtually no margins if the items are legit and there are TONS of scammers in those items that will either take your money and run or send you piece of junk non-working crap.
I'd like to add that, if you're only just starting out, you probably don't have any clue about licences either.
Even established companies sometimes have a hard time figuring out which licences are relevant for which product group.
Retroactive claims by licence owners could even kill your business outright.
 

Ecom man

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This is why I am a proponent of branding. It sets you apart and helps you maintain price integrity. People would rather buy Victorias Secret than the same quality for cheaper/no brand name. A brand builds trust, loyalty, etc. it's kind of crazy when you think about it but it's human behavior.
Very true but eBay is not a good place to build a brand. If your brand is already built then you could obviously command a higher price, however if you are just building a brand your brand on eBay has no brand power just like any generic would. You are just a generic with your own brand on it. A lot of people will "save" a seller they get good service from and then go back to that seller first. So if that seller has just started his own brand or is selling generics it generally wouldn't matter to buyers.

If I was majorly concerned about branding, I wouldn't sell on eBay or Amazon. If building a brand I would use those sites sparingly to drive people to my brands website and then sell them from there.
 

piesandak47

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Do you mind if I ask how much profit you're doing each month?

Also, is it possible to automate this type of business to the point where you don't have to constantly drive to the post office to ship stuff?
 
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Ecom man

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Do you mind if I ask how much profit you're doing each month?

Also, is it possible to automate this type of business to the point where you don't have to constantly drive to the post office to ship stuff?

Right now I'm doing around 7 grand profit a month. Last November and December I profited over 15k a month.

It is very possible to automate it. You can use a fulfillment center and send your items to them and they do all the shipping, uploading tracking, etc. when an item is sold. You can even use Amazon's fulfillment for eBay sales or for your own website.
 

MyDuckets

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It is a mosquito repellant patch. There is not one US seller of the item on eBay.

How did you determine that? When i did a quick search on ebay it looked like there were at least 2-3 US sellers. Wondering if I'm missing something....
 

Ecom man

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How did you determine that? When i did a quick search on ebay it looked like there were at least 2-3 US sellers. Wondering if I'm missing something....

When I looked originally there weren't any. Obviously there are sellers now that have popped up.
 
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PeeVee

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Very true but eBay is not a good place to build a brand. If your brand is already built then you could obviously command a higher price, however if you are just building a brand your brand on eBay has no brand power just like any generic would. You are just a generic with your own brand on it. A lot of people will "save" a seller they get good service from and then go back to that seller first. So if that seller has just started his own brand or is selling generics it generally wouldn't matter to buyers.

If I was majorly concerned about branding, I wouldn't sell on eBay or Amazon. If building a brand I would use those sites sparingly to drive people to my brands website and then sell them from there.

Agree 100%
 

piesandak47

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are ebay and amazon the 2 biggest ways to your items? Have you used anything else, such as shopify/facebook ads?

When using amazon/ebay, how is it determined where your listed when someone searches for the item? Do you need to do something equivalent to SEO on amazon?

Thanks for doing this, you rock man.
 

DrkSide

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@Ecom man Do you use FBA for Amazon and eBay or do you ship out every product. I know that FBA can get you a competitive edge on Amazon vs sellers that are shipping their own.
 
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Ecom man

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are ebay and amazon the 2 biggest ways to your items? Have you used anything else, such as shopify/facebook ads?

When using amazon/ebay, how is it determined where your listed when someone searches for the item? Do you need to do something equivalent to SEO on amazon?

Thanks for doing this, you rock man.

I am only selling on eBay and Amazon at this time. I am going to set up my own website and send coupons out in each order sometime soon I just haven't done it yet.
eBay has best match and that is mainly determined by feedback, shipping speed, top rated seller status and even by how many you have already sold.
A lot of people will search by prices starting with the lowest first so that's why I try to find items with only a couple of competitors. If there are only 3 people selling the same item all 3 will be in eyesight of the buyer. I always use great pics and a subtitle about my free Priority Shipping to pull them towards my listing.
 

Ecom man

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@Ecom man Do you use FBA for Amazon and eBay or do you ship out every product. I know that FBA can get you a competitive edge on Amazon vs sellers that are shipping their own.

I currently just ship out everything myself. A few reasons,
1. I can ship it out faster than any company can. (I normally have items at the post office within hrs of the purchase.
2. I can list things for sale as soon as I get them in from China. (This was especially helpful during holiday season when I would sell out of items within literally hours of listing them.)
3. I get to keep the extra profit. Doing FBA would be easier but it does cost more money than doing the shipping yourself.
4. I am not big enough where it has become too bad of a nuisance. (Besides Christmas time) I normally make $50 to $100 per item profit so at $100 each I am only shipping out 2-3 packages a day on average.
 

DrkSide

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Thanks @Ecom man

The first page of results for my product were all Prime offers. Since I have my own brand I am doing FBA to compete with others.

However, I am going to be looking at other products that might not have to be prime to be competitive.
 
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Mike.B

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If you find a product that has 1, maybe 2, competitor(s), how would you set your price? I was thinking about charging the same price and highlight my "free 2 day priority" shipping.
 

Dennis Steenoven

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This thread keeps getting more awesome by the minute!

May I ask how many products you roughly carry?
And could you shed some light on the process of developing a pool of "winners"?
 

Ecom man

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If you find a product that has 1, maybe 2, competitor(s), how would you set your price? I was thinking about charging the same price and highlight my "free 2 day priority" shipping.

If both competitors are US sellers I would either charge the same and highlight your super fast shipping or price it a penny lower and again highlight your shipping. If they are Chinese competitors you can charge a much higher price and still sell your items by simply putting "US SELLER!!! 2-3 day Priority Mail shipping" as your subtitle. People have been burned over and over by Chinese sellers on eBay and by super long shipping times from China Post.

Just make sure if you advertise fast shipping that you ship it fast. A really quick way to lose customers is promise fast shipping and not follow through.
 
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Ecom man

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This thread keeps getting more awesome by the minute!

May I ask how many products you roughly carry?
And could you shed some light on the process of developing a pool of "winners"?

I right now have 8 different products listed. I normally keep closer to 12-15 but am out of stock on a few items. Developing a pool of winners is really just all about time. The more time i spend searching for/researching products, the more possible winners I am going to find.

I am on alibaba or dhgate just about every day. That doesn't mean I sit down in front of my computer and stare at the screen for 12 hours a day. I will do it during the NBA playoff (during commercials of course) and pretty much any other random time. I probably spend less than an hour a day right now looking for products. I already have 15 or so products that I'm selling so I don't have to spend tons of time looking for more.

If I was starting I would spend every possible minute finding my first product. Once you find one and get a sample ordered, start looking for another one before your sample is delivered. I have found 3 possible items this week that the profit margin is there on so I am in the process of getting samples for each one. Constantly search, constantly think about what people need.
 

Ecom man

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KLaw

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I like your idea on the mesquite patch. An\y others you dont feel like pursuing?
 

Ecom man

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I like your idea on the mesquite patch. An\y others you dont feel like pursuing?
I've got 3 or 4 items i am researching/getting quotes on right now. If I choose not to pursue any of them I will post it on here.

There are virtually unlimited amounts of products and each product has an angle/need that can be used to profit from it. Learning the process of searching and finding a product and then checking prices and making the decision on your own is worth far more than me just doling out product ideas.

I can give out a list of every product i currently sell today and have 10 more products/ samples on the way in a weeks time. You need to get to that point as well. Who cares if someone invades your space and steals your product. Go out find ten more products and get 10 times the profit. Once you have the process of finding products, communicating with sellers, ordering samples, and then selling those samples down you won't need to ask for ideas. You will find ideas in every store, website, and home you visit.
 

JustinBoshans

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Hey Econ Man,

I got a quote on the patches. 200 for $10 for the sample but the shipping is 80 bucks. I want to get at least another 200 in that order just to make sure my margins are better.

How would you go about getting the items to stores. I feel like it would be as simple as going to the store and just talking to them and sell them on the product, or finding out their name and contact info and getting them on the phone.
 
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Ecom man

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Hey Econ Man,

I got a quote on the patches. 200 for $10 for the sample but the shipping is 80 bucks. I want to get at least another 200 in that order just to make sure my margins are better.

How would you go about getting the items to stores. I feel like it would be as simple as going to the store and just talking to them and sell them on the product, or finding out their name and contact info and getting them on the phone.
Yeah I completely agree with getting more since the shipping is killing you. It really can be as simple as going in and talking to the manager or the owner. Just make sure you don't go during their busiest times (morning before 9am, lunchtime, after work)
 

JustinBoshans

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Actually I looked for the patches on alibaba where the shipping was so high. On dhgate the same product is there for cheaper per piece and free shipping.
 

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