Where to find products to sell?

December 3, 2008 by admin
Filed under: eBay 

Products are everywhere. You can literally sell just about everything you see around you.

You can start selling your personal items that you no longer want.

You can make you own products to sell.

You can buy products from

  • garage sale
  • auction
  • warehouse sale
  • retail sale

You can buy bulk at wholesale price.

Some of these require research and a lot of time in traveling and handling of the products.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time having to go garage sale or auctions etc,
the best way is to source your products direct from a supplier (either a manufacturer or distributor).
This method is one of the best ways to source your products and so I will cover it in more detail.

Option 1: Buy direct from a supplier

If you are able to find a supplier (manufacturer) who is willing to sell direct to you at a reasonable discount,
then you may be able to make a profit as a distributor. Don’t forget to take into account the shipping and handling (your time) cost.

Finding a manufacturer that is willing to sell direct to you may be difficult unless you already have a related business.
Many manufacturers don’t like dealing with small accounts.

Also, many of these suppliers may require you to buy bulk quantities. This means you will need space to store the items and capital to pay for the items in advance.

OPTION 2: Drop shipping

You may have heard of the term drop shipping. This is simply buying from a supplier and having them ship the item direct to your customer.

Drop shipping has become popular in recent years and many people are even selling directories listing suppliers that are willing to drop ship.

But be warned, as information from most directories are out dated or incorrect. I myself have found some directories where the contact details & websites were disconnected.

I’ll share with you a little later a couple of reliable directories. Meanwhile here are some benefits and drawbacks in using Drop Shipping method.

Benefits:

  • No inventory cost – you don’t have to buy any products in advance (until you make a sale)
  • No warehouse/storage space required – save on space and rent
  • No product handling – you don’t have to spend time packaging and shipping the item, it is done for you
  • Cashflow – you sell the item before buying it, ie you collect the money before distributing the money to your supplier and yourself (the profit)
  • Guarantee profit – as long as you sell the item for more than what your supplier charges, you will always be guaranteed to make a profit since you never need to pay for the item until after you have sold it.

Drawback:

  • You rely on the supplier to be professional and provide excellent customer service, this includes quick delivery, prompt response to enquiries etc.
  • Your supplier may not provide the service level as good as you would have done it yourself.
  • If there is a problem with the delivery or the product the customer will want immediate resolution from you, however you may need to follow up with the supplier who may not be so quick to respond.

Remember to focus, achieve and succeed!

Kham Lee Tran

Tags: , , ,

Comments

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!