eBay Performance! Selling Success With Market Research & Product Sourcing” is a clear, readable, almost fool-proof guide to discovering what sells on eBay, obtaining viable product and selling it in an effective way.
The authors are experts in their fields: Robin Cowie is president of WorldWidebrands, for years an eBay licensed provider of wholesale merchandise contacts for eBay sellers and Jen Cano is vice president for HammerTap market research specializing in online businesses and their patterns.
Look dubiously on fads and hot items and do more research. Cano reminds us that every product has a life cycle: it’s introduced, it grows, it matures and it begins to decline. Often, by the time it makes a hot list or is recognized as a fad, the market is saturated with sellers. The trick, Cowie tells us, is finding and identifying emerging markets. On eBay that means finding items with bid rates growing faster than listing rates. The authors offer several suggestions for sleuthing out coming trends:
- Most major search engines offer keyword tracking tools that will show the number of people searching for a given item. Software that provides product sourcing and in-depth market research tools (such as that offered by the author’s companies.) that can indicate how well a product will sell online.
- Print media such as newspapers who publish numbers and demographics for shifting trends, and consumer magazines that are designed around niche products, hobbies and markets are a good reference resource for building niche product lines.
- Talk to salespeople at malls and brick and mortar stores to find out what is selling.
- Movies and TV drive product trends. If you know a blockbuster film is going to be released you can begin stocking relevant products such as Spiderman, Curious George and so on, before the items become pricey on the wholesale level, and before the selling stampede is in full force.
- There are trend spotting Web sites such as Trendwatching.com, ifluxinsights.com and Trendhunter.com that can provide useful clues.
Photo by MSDesigns.
Karen on December 3rd, 2007 at 9:07 pm
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