The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

Chapter 21

Sourcing products to sell

Finding the right product to sell in Australia’s busiest marketplace is one of the most important things you will need to do. To identify the ‘right product’, here are some of the crucial things you need to consider:

• Can I find a supplier who has the right to sell it to me for resale on eBay?

• Can I find more than one supplier in case something goes wrong with my initial supplier relationship?

• Can I rely on enough supply?

• Can I store (warehouse) the product properly or is there an opportunity to have others store it for me?

• Can I purchase it at a price that will give me a clear profit?

• Is it already for sale on eBay? If yes, can I compete with the average selling price and will that give me clear profit? If no, why is no-one else selling it? How easy would it be for another seller to source the same product and sell more profitably than I can?

• Do I know enough about the product to answer all of my buyers’ questions?

• Can I send the product throughout Australia easily? If I need to expand into overseas markets, can I send internationally without exorbitant postage or export/import costs?

• Is it a fragile product or will it withstand delivery easily?

• Would I be breaking any laws or any eBay policies by selling the product?

• Is it the kind of product that buyers might want to return — for example, is it susceptible to performance issues or flaws that will increase my operating costs? That is, can I afford to refund or exchange ...