A Scientific Method to Ensure Your Products Will Sell
On eBay
by
Mike Monkulshoot
One
of the things I enjoy the most about helping others
build their own successful eBay business is listening
to their business ideas. I’ve learned so much
from all of the people with whom I work, primarily
how creative and enthusiastic everyone can be
about their ideas.
While
a huge percentage of the ideas I hear offline
are wonderful, they aren’t always ideal to sell
on eBay.
So, my job is to teach others how to use a scientific
approach to determine whether their idea is something
that can be marketable and profitable to sell
on eBay.
This
scientific approach is called research!
Research
is defined as “a systematic investigation (i.e.,
the gathering and analysis of information) designed
to develop or contribute to general knowledge.”
The knowledge in this case is your product or
idea.
Why
Do Some Ideas and Products Not Work for an eBay
Business?
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As most of you already know, I focus primarily on teaching
others how to benefitfrom the already huge eBay market
and the customers they recruit to their site for your
sales. To benefit from this traffic, you need to market
a product that is highly popular and searched for by
the masses. Doing so will make your job a lot easier
and your ebay business a lot more profitable.
Before
moving on, I want to clarify that there are always exceptions
to the rule. For example, you can make money dealing
in collectibles even though the items might not be searched
for widely. This is so because you have a targeted group
of people who are coming to eBay to look for this particular
collectible.
For
the most part, we are looking to find a product that
is highly searched for and/or well known by the masses.
I have found the best ebay products for this goal are
popular name-brand products that are, for the most part,
household names.
What
Type of Product Research Is Needed to Determine Product
Popularity?
So,
you have an idea and now it’s time to start your research.
The things you are looking for when doing your research
are as follows:
-
Number of ebay auctions in an ebay category
- Number of ebay auctions resulting in a sale
- Average number of bids per ebay auction
- Average ebay list price
- Average ebay sale price
It
is first important to know you need to conduct your
research not only by active ebay auction listings but
also by completed ebay auction listings. By searching
both active and completed listings, you’re better able
to determine your average final ebay bid value as well
as the average number of items ebay sold versus the
number of ebay items listed.
Be
Sure To Compare Apples With Apples
What
do I mean by this? Well, there are two different types
of ebay sellers (at least to me when doing research):
the Business Sellers and the Garage Sale Sellers.
Business
Sellers are eBay users who use eBay as a means of income.
These buyers purchase products solely for the purpose
of reselling them for a profit. This means they are
listing their items with a profit in mind (which gives
you an idea of what you will need to purchase the same
products for to make a profit).
Garage
Sale Sellers are those eBay users who use eBay as a
hobby. They typically are using eBay to get rid of things
around the house. Perhaps clothes their kids have grown
out of, things they no longer use, and so on. Because
these individuals aren’t necessarily using eBay as a
business, they usually are listing the ebay items for
much cheaper than if the ebay item was new (or overstock)
and they needed to make a profit.
© Mike Monkulshoot- All Rights Reserved
