You have pondered the notion of starting an online business, maybe on eBay, but you are not sure what to sell. How do you learn which products will people buy?
The fastest way to lose money on eBay (or any other site) and get discouraged is to put up auctions without first researching whether items like yours are selling. You may imagine that everyone just has to want your products. But the truth is your pieces are probably competing against hundreds and thousands of other listings.
This article outline steps you can take to minimize your risks before you put up your first auction. Here are things you will learn:
• what is selling on eBay in any genre - is there a demand?
• how much people are willing to pay for these items
The eBay marketplace comprises a dynamic and fluid current of millions of users who create the market. Which items move through the eBay system shifts daily so it is vital that you understand these changes and how to take advantage of these shifts. The solution to navigating and profiting from the eBay market flux is research.... research.... research!
You can only sell items if there is a demand for those items. If no one wants what you are selling on eBay, you won't make any sales there. You will only get as much money for your items as people are willing to pay for them.
Research Step 1
Go to pulse.eBay.com. Popular searches show you the most sought after items. You can also go into different categories and learn what is popular by genre, like in jewelry or art or motors (cars).
After you pick an item you want to sell, go to eBay's home page and enter in the word or phrase that describes your item in the search box. For an example, I typed in "handmade jewelry" and was shown over 150 live auctions.
Research Step 2
Next, you find yourself on the results page of auctions for "handmade jewelry". Scroll down the links on the left hand side of the page and click on the link for "Completed items". eBay shows me a snapshot of handmade jewelry listings ended in a recent period.
Research Step 3
We need to know how much people are willing to pay for "handmade jewelry" to learn if it is profitable to even consider listing these pieces on eBay.
eBay allows you to sort the completed auction listings by price. Just click on the link that says "highest price." Now your list of completed auctions will be ordered by highest priced items first, descending to the lowest prices. If the list shows lowest prices first, just click on "highest price" again and the sort order will reverse.
You will notice not all completed auctions got bids. For the purposes of our research, you are only interested in the prices of completed auctions, especially the highest priced listings. You want to know what people are willing to pay for items like those you want to sell.
Research Step 4
Based on the average prices your research reveals, decide if you can profitably make (or buy) and sell handmade jewelry items on eBay. Don't try to fool yourself with wishful thinking. Do the math and determine exactly how much time/labor and cost of materials goes into your item. If it takes you 8 hours to make a piece of jewelry and the highest price similar items sell on eBay for is only $26, you are not going to make a profit.
That is all it takes to give you up to date marketing research for selling items on eBay. If you decide to go ahead with an eBay business, you will also want to examine listings that completed successfully to learn how to improve your listings.
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