SaleHoo Blog

Digital Scale - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 19 May 2013 15:18:51 +0000

A digital scale provides accurate readings when measuring the weight of objects like ingredients in the kitchen or a parcel for delivery. A digital scale is relatively compact and durable compared to other types of scales. With these advantages over other types of scales, it's no wonder digital scales are popular on eBay... but are they popular enough for you to sell them for a profit? Let's take a look!

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

The digital scale had a sell-through rate of 50.02% so yes we have found this week’s niche! Remember that the sell-through rate helps show a product’s potential so go for products with a sell-through rate of at least 50%.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of digital scales is $17.47. As always, keep in mind that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of a certain product which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of digital scales in a single listing. The median end price can also be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products. The presence of others brands and models on eBay can skew our data.

Let's check the Average Price and Average Buy It Now price using our lab’s snapshot feature. According to our lab the average price of a digital scale is $29 while the average Buy It Now price is $35.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

Digital scales have one of the largest markets I have encountered since starting the Monday Market of the Week blog series, with 25,862 listings you might think this market’s another highly saturated one but before you do, take a close look at the total number of bids for the month of April – 99,156! Need I say more?

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

If you’re still doubtful about the potential of this week’s niche, I think the total revenue for April might help convince you that this is a niche worth investing in. Start listing digital scales and get the chance to earn as much as $36,449.96! So what are you waiting?

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the digital scale online?

Traffic Travis our very own free SEO software helps us see if digital scales are also in demand outside ebay. Its Research Tool allows us to run a quick keyword research to check if the search counts are at a viable level.

Are you looking for a reliable SEO software? Download your free copy of Traffic Travis by going www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

Not bad at all, with 9,900 searches globally and 6,600 searches in the US you can easily see that people are in search for digital scales.

Using simple SEO techniques you can easily direct this potential traffic to your online stores and ebay listings!

Trusted digital scale wholesale suppliers

Digital scale supplier #1

A Chinese general trading company, they offer a huge variety of goods and general merchandise. They trade with various online sellers, pushcart vendors, flea marketers, mom and pop operations, internet mail order businesses, super warehouses, and chain stores. They accept PayPal, bank wire transfers, and letters of credit. They ship to various international destinations.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Digital scale supplier #2

A family owned and operated business has been providing consumers with one of the largest digital scale product selections at prices that will fit your budget. In addition, they also offer related products, services, and accessories. These include calibration weights, load cells, surge protection, batteries, accessories, and much more to provide you with a complete solution for your weighing requirements. They accept credit cards - Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, as well as PayPal, eChecks and business checks.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Digital scale supplier #3

Your cheapest wholesale electronics source that offers a great range of products from consumer electronics, computer parts, flashlights and lasers, video game accessories, DVDs and CDs, surveillance equipment to sports equipment, housewares, and apparel and jewelry. They accept major credit cards and PayPal as forms of payment. They can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of digital scale wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

Inside you will get access to over 8000 suppliers, comprehensive training to help you find the best products to sell online and access to our members only forum full of tips and secrets from other members (including eBay Powersellers) to help you make money online. Join SaleHoo today

See you next Monday!

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Disclaimer: The information published here is strictly for informational purposes. All above product items are only suggestions for possible products which will sell favorably, and should be used as a guide only. At the time of writing, all above products were researched using methods recommend by SaleHoo and found to be potentially profitable for sellers. All sellers are encouraged to conduct their own market and product research.

Resistance Bands - Monday Market of the Week

Mon, 13 May 2013 02:13:34 +0000

Being versatile, lightweight and not requiring too much space to exercise with, resistance bands are fast gaining popularity among exercise enthusiasts, making it an ideal niche to explore.

What does the SaleHoo Research Lab say about resistance bands? Let’s check!

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

For the month of April they had a sell-through rate of 51.72% definitely qualifying resistance bands as this week’s niche.

A more specific niche to consider is Theraband which also shows great numbers!

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of resistance bands is $23.77. But you have to remember that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of a certain product which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of resistance bands in a single listing. The median end price can also be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products. Other factors to consider are the various brands and thickness available on eBay all of which can definitely skew our data.

Some of you might find the median end price to be a bit on the low end, but you can actually check the actual Average Price and actual Average Buy It Now price using our lab’s snapshot feature. You can see below that the average price of resistance bands is $34 while the average Buy It Now price is $45 - both of which are higher than the median end price.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

Check out the market on eBay for resistance bands – 7,213 bids as of April with only 1,945 listings! Are you becoming convinced? I sure am!

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

Although sales took a drastic drop last April 28^th, from the graph you can easily see that the sales for most of the month of April were between $2,000 and $4,500 with a peak of $4,520.90, certainly not bad!

Going beyond eBay: How popular are resistance bands online?

Using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis let’s check if sellers have a promising market beyond ebay. Download your free software today by going www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

People are on the search for resistance bands even outside eBay! Look at the search counts provided by our very own Traffic Travis - 27,100 searches globally and 14,800 searches in the US alone. Just imagine directing all that traffic of potential customers to your online stores and eBay listings!

Trusted resistance bands wholesale suppliers

Resistance bands supplier #1

The largest direct importer and manufacturer of quality yoga accessories in North America, they supply the finest spas, studios, retailers, and individuals with their yoga props at factory direct pricing. Their product range includes various yoga equipment, Pilates equipment, therabands, yoga mat cleaners, yoga DVDs and CDs, and yoga gift items. They accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, and PayPal as forms of payment. They ship to various international destinations.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Resistance bands supplier #2

They offer premium quality sports equipment at factory prices. They accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and PayPal, as well as checks and money orders. They offer blind drop shipping on all orders. There are no minimums, so you can order as little or as much as you need. They ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Resistance bands supplier #3

Your one-stop super resource for fitness, they offer a huge range of fitness equipment, supplements and accessories. Payment options include credit cards - Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as personal checks with approved Credit Application and COD (not available for drop ship orders). International orders are accepted.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of resistance bands wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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4 Tips for Selecting the Ideal Mobile Payment Service Provider

Sun, 12 May 2013 21:10:19 +0000

The following is a guest blog post from Debbie Allen. Debbie Allen is an online marketer and professional writer who writes about a wide range of topics, including everything from health and wellness issues to online reputation management and marketing strategies.

You need a mobile payment service if you want to step things up and take your business to a new level. If you are a progressive and modern business owner, you know that in order to remain competitive, you have to keep up with new ways of marketing. This means taking measures to make your products available at a variety of places – the ultimate goal is to make shopping as convenient as possible for the customers.

If you are a regular business owner, you may have a brick-and-mortar store. In the past, this was all that was needed. But times have changed. Now most businesses also have an online storefront. That opens the business up to many new opportunities for sales.

However, there are other options available. You can also set up exhibits at trade shows or even choose to sell some of your products at flea markets. Large and small businesses alike have found the key to making maximum sales is taking business to the customers.

With that said, finding ways to make your business portable is important. This includes everything from a manageable business setup to a convenient way to accept and complete transactions. Almost every business already accepts credit cards online, and now there is a move for businesses to accept mobile payments.

Mobile payments are a convenient and easy way to add additional business profits.

Although the need is obvious, there are some questions you may have about how to select a quality mobile payment service provider. Below are some tips that will help guide you in the process.

Choosing a Mobile Payment Service Provider

Tip #1 – Know Your Needs

Before you begin shopping for a service provider, you should make a list of your current payment processing needs, as well as any future plans that might have an impact on the way you do transactions.

Keep in mind that giving customers multiple payment options is a smart move. This will ultimately mean more profits for you.

Tip #2 – Shop Around

This is a relatively new field, and with that, new products are continuously being added to the market. Take the time to find out about the options and plans available. This information will allow you to make an educated selection when choosing a plan.

Tip #3 – Compare, Compare, Compare

As mentioned above, it is important to learn about the various options available. Beyond that, it is also important to compare packages and prices. Although some of the newcomers to the industry offer quality products, it is often wise to choose a brand-name product that has been around a while. This helps ensure built-in quality and service.

Other things to carefully consider are fees. Even though mobile payment systems are generally very affordable, some have hidden fees that can add up over time. Be sure to investigate monthly fees as well as per-swipe or per-transaction fees.

Tip # 4 – Ask Questions

During your research/investigative process, you are sure to come up with at least a few questions. Write those down and save them. When you have narrowed your selection down to two or three companies, you should contact a representative and ask those questions. This will do two things. First, you will get answers; second, you will get an idea about the company’s customer service.

Customer service is always important, and when it comes to processing payments, it is essential. You need to know the company will be there for you if you have questions or problems.

Your Business, Your Way

On-the-go payment options make customers happy, and your business enjoys more profits; it’s a win-win situation!

Choosing a mobile payment service provider should not be taken lightly. It is something that can have a major impact on the future success of your business.

In essence, your goal should be to find a service provider that offers a plan that is affordable and that meets the needs of your business. But ultimately, you have to combine that with a focus on making transactions safe and convenient for customers. In the end, this will result in increased profits for your business.

Solar Battery Charger - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 05 May 2013 14:58:03 +0000

The solar battery charger is the accessory to have for people on the go or for those who are simply conscious about saving power.

The convenience it offer travellers is the ability to charge the batteries of their electronic devices even in the middle of the wilderness. This has certainly helped boost the demand for solar battery chargers and this is precisely why they’re a product to consider selling!

Let’s see what the SaleHoo Research Lab has to say about the solar battery charger.

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

For the month of March the sell-through rate of the solar battery charger was 50.44%. It is good to keep in mind that the sell-through rate is a fantastic indicator of the selling potential of an item so the higher it is the better!

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

A solar battery charger has a median end price of $20.84. The median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because it is for all listings of a certain product which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of solar battery charger in a single listing. The median end price can also be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products. Other factors to consider are the various brands and models available on ebay all of which can definitely skew our data.

As you can see below the average price of a solar battery charger is $89 while the average Buy It Now price is $80, both higher than our median end price.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

Looking for more data to convince you to invest on solar battery chargers? Look at the number of bids placed in contrast to the number of listings last March - 12,166 bids on only 3,053 listings! There you go, a viable market!

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

Not only does the solar battery charger have a viable market, it also has a very stable one in terms of sales. Looking at the graph you can see that majority of the sales for the month of March are within the $4,000 - $6,000 range which is fantastic.

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the solar battery charger online?

To help us check if we do have a market for solar battery chargers outside eBay, we use the keyword research tool of our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis. Run your own keyword research by downloading your free software today. To download please go to www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

Based on our quick keyword research it is safe to say that even outside eBay you can easily sell the solar battery charger with 12,100 searches globally and 6,600 searches in the US. Imagine the potential sales you can get if you are able to direct this amount of traffic to your online stores and eBay listings.

Trusted solar battery charger wholesale suppliers

Solar battery charger supplier #1

They provide the most complete selection of Photon products and accessories. They accept major credit cards and can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Solar battery charger supplier #2

They are a multi-award winning specialist solar business that sells a vast array of solar and 12-volt equipment for your home, farm, boat, caravan or recreational vehicle. They accept credit cards - Visa and MasterCard, PayPal, and bank deposits as forms of payment.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Solar battery charger supplier #3

A wholesale distributor of original (OEM) and premium wireless cell phone accessories, they accept credit cards - Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, as well as PayPal. While they do not have a specific drop shipping program available, customers are able to change the shipping address and choose for them not to include an invoice. Their online ordering system is only for US and Canada, international customers may contact them directly and arrangements can be made.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Solar battery charger supplier #4

A leading wholesaler and exporter of a huge range of consumer electronic products, they accept credit cards - Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as PayPal, Western Union, and wire transfers as forms of payment. They can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of solar battery charger wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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The True Cost of Drop Shipping

Fri, 03 May 2013 22:22:08 +0000

Today I want you to take away two things:

1. It's hard to make a lot of money with drop shipping and;

2. While drop shipping is a great way to get started, for most sellers, it should only be used as a short term stepping stone to eventually selling items bought at wholesale rates.

The Lure of the Drop Ship Model

At a glance, drop shipping offers the perfect solution to making money online: It reduces risk, eliminates the need for start-up capital and reduces your work load. Sounds perfect, right? Well, as with all good things in life, drop shipping has it's drawbacks. The most painful drawback is that products that you drop ship are more expensive than if you bought the same items at wholesale.

Are Drop Ship Surcharges a Scam?

Because suppliers need to process orders and ship items on your behalf, they need to add a drop shipping surcharge to cover the time and cost involved. Does this make them scammers? No! As you know yourself, it takes time to process orders and ship items away and just like you, suppliers can't work for free, so the drop shipping surcharge is necessary.

Surcharges can make it hard to make sales, especially on eBay where price is everything to a lot of buyers. For this reason, I believe that drop shipping is a great way to get started but for the most part, it should be seen as a way to earn some cash to buy wholesale lots of items that you can sell for a better profit.

The Real Cost of Drop Shipping

I want to demonstrate the difference between drop ship prices and wholesale prices. I want you to see how much more you can profit when you invest in wholesale buying, rather than just drop shipping. To do so, I got in touch with a few SaleHoo suppliers and asked them the difference in pricing. I've listed a few examples below of products and their wholesale prices and their drop ship prices. Check it out:

Wholesale Electronics

From Enroute Global Exchange

Remote controlled helicopter

Drop ship price: $39.41

Wholesale price: $29.97

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$9.44

Label maker

Drop ship price: $48.91

Wholesale price: $39.97

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$8.94

Radar laser detector

Drop ship price: $45.91

Wholesale price: $32.97

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$12.94

Wholesale Fashion

From eFashion Wholesale

Ladies Ralph Lauren polo shirt

Drop ship price: $45.00

Wholesale price: $36.00

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$9

Kenneth Cole New York handbag

Drop ship price: $69.00

Wholesale price: $45.50

Additional income from wholesale buying: +23.50

Calvin Klein travel toiletry bag

Drop ship price: $27

Wholesale price: $12.35

Additional income from wholesale buying: + $14.65

Wholesale Computer Games

From Computer Gallery

Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

Drop ship price: $10.25

Wholesale price: $8.25

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$2

Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition

Drop ship price: 10.25

Wholesale price: $8.50

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$1.75

Civilization V: Game of the Year Edition

Drop ship price: $18.25

Wholesale price: $15.75

Additional income from wholesale buying: +$2.50

As you can see, drop shipping can really eat into your profit margins. That's why I don't recommend the drop shipping method as a long-term approach to eCommerce. If you really want to make big profits, I cannot stress the importance of buying wholesale lots!

When Drop Shipping Does Work

Of course, there are scenarios when drop shipping does work. For one, if you sell on your own website such as SaleHoo Stores your prices don't need to be as competitive as when you sell on marketplaces like eBay. This is because you block out your competitors when you sell on your own website because shoppers are so much less likely to shop around and compare prices. Second, when you sell a good range of wholesale products and you want to offer your buyers a little more variety. Drop shipping allows you to offer a wider range of products, without having to take on the risk of buying wholesale lots of items you want to test out first.

Do you source products by drop shipping or buying wholesale? Why?

Professional Turntable - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 02:33:36 +0000

With the recent come back of vinyl records plus the ever growing trend of hip hop music, professional turntables are highly sought after. The most basic use of a professional turntable is for playing vinyl records, more popularly they are used by DJ’s as a musical instrument for manipulating records to produce sound variations.

So now let’s see just how popular the professional turntable is…

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

With a sell-through rate of 56.32%, the professional turntable may just be a niche worth investing on. Always keep in mind that it is best to consider products with a sell-through rate not lower than 50%.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The professional turntable has a median end price of $239.81. This is considerably high since we do have suppliers that sell certain brands of professional turntables at $86 only.

Remember that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of a certain product which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of professional turntables in a single listing. Also this can be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products as well as the presence of various brands and models on eBay.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

As of March there were only 261 listings on eBay with at least 1,180 bids, which is roughly 4 times that of the number of listings! If you are looking for a product with a viable market this is definitely something to consider.

Plus there are not too many sellers listing this so competition is not that high just yet. Don’t wait too long before listing your own professional turntable.

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

The highest total daily recorded revenue for the month of March for professional turntables is $10,626.96 noticeable shown as a spike in our graph above. Although the trend for daily revenues is somewhere around a thousand to approximately $3,000 you can easily see that not a day goes by without any sale.

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the professional turntable online?

Using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis we can check based on the search counts just how sought after our product is. Take Traffic Travis for a spin - Download your free software today by going www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

While doing my keyword research I was a bit disappointed seeing that the search counts for “professional turntable” turned out to be relatively low. But when I tried running “turntable” which is essentially the same product I was relieved to see the how high the search counts were – 49,500 searches globally and 27,100 searches in the US alone.

Just remember to use the right keywords in your listing titles coupled with recommended SEO techniques and you can be sure to actually direct traffic to your online stores and eBay listings.

Trusted professional turntable wholesale suppliers

Professional turntable supplier #1

A DJ equipment superstore that sells everything from DJ packages, DJ gear to DJ software and more. They accept credit cards - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Diners Club, as well as PayPal payments, personal and business checks, money orders, and Western Union. Purchase orders are accepted on an approved basis for their larger business, institutional and government customers. Orders can be placed by phone, provided that a confirmation fax or mailed copy of the purchase order has been received. They only ship within the US at this time.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Professional turntable supplier #2

Providing electronic parts and accessories to the audio/video industry since 1986, they offer their customers - from sound technicians to audio enthusiasts - the finest audio and video parts for quality home and professional installations, all at highly discounted prices. Major credit cards such as MasterCard, Visa, Discover and American Express are available to customers within the United States and Canada. They also accept PayPal and wire transfers. Sales tax applies to all orders shipped to Ohio addresses unless a signed tax exempt certificate is provided. International orders are accepted. Drop shipping may be available upon request.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Professional turntable supplier #3

A wholesale distributor to resellers and DJ stores around the world, they sell to resellers big and small - brick and mortar store owners, and various eCommerce and auction sites sellers. They carry DJ gear, pro audio and stage lighting equipments at cheap, wholesale prices. They offer drop shipping services including blind drop shipping at no extra cost. Methods of payment accepted are major credit cards - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, as well as Google Checkout, PayPal, postal money orders, checks, bank/wire transfers, cash, and finance options available through one of their partner finance companies. Most items come with a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. They do not collect sales tax on orders shipping outside New Jersey. They can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of professional turntable wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

Inside you will get access to over 8000 suppliers, comprehensive training to help you find the best products to sell online and access to our members only forum full of tips and secrets from other members (including eBay PowerSellers) to help you make money online. Join SaleHoo today

See you next Monday!

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eBay Selling Tip: How to watermark your product photos

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:07:40 +0000

We all know the importance of taking good photos for our eBay listings. It's true what they say, a picture paints a thousand words! Wouldn't it be nice if a picture made you a thousand dollars?

Well, I can't make any promises, but here is a quick eBay selling tip that will make your product photos look ultra professional: Watermarking them!

Watermarking your product photos adds your business name or eBay username to images. Here's an example:

As you can see, the seller has added their logo to the bottom-right of the photo. In doing so, the seller makes full use of the two main benefits of watermarking your product photos:

The Benefits of Watermarking

1. It prevents other sellers from taking your photos and using them as their own.

2. It strengthens your brand and shows that you are an established, trustworthy business.

eBay's Watermarking Policies

Surprise, surprise, eBay has some tight rules around watermarking product photos!

Here's eBay's quick do's and dont's guide:

How to Watermark Your Product Photos

Watermarking is made easy with some of the free and simple-to-use tools available. I often use Watermark.ws. It's free, fast and you don't have to download or install any software or even create an account. Here's what their website looks like: (You might remember my cute little banana baby suit from my recent blog post).

Other options (that look good, but I haven't personally used) are TSR Watermark and PicMarkr.com. You can also watermark your images automatically when you upload images to eBay. You'll find it in the "Bring your item to life with pictures" section of the listing form. Click on the "Add or remove options" link. While this is a fast option, just keep in mind that the eBay tool is a little less flexible than other options.

All these tools are easy to use so I'll spare you the boring step-by-step tutorial. You just upload your photo you want to watermark, enter the name of your business, store or eBay user name, drag it to where you want it to go and save it out. If you get stuck, watch the tutorial here.

If you sell high end products or you take your branding and graphic design very seriously, you can get a professional graphic designer to create a custom watermark for you and place it on each of your product photos. Otherwise, I think the free options are just fine.

Optimal Watermark Placement

There's a bit of a catch 22 in watermarking product photos: If you watermark it enough to prevent other sellers from stealing it, you can prevent your buyers from being able to view the product properly. But, if you don't watermark thoroughly enough, you can leave your product photo open to getting used by other sellers.

Here's an example:

If I wanted to, I could easily take this photo and use it as my own, even though it's watermarked.

I'd just cut the watermark off... Simple!

How do you prevent this from happening to you? Place your watermark where it counts! Place part of the watermark over your product, but only just. The selller of the dress in my example I showed you earlier does this well: See how the watermark is overlaid onto the dress, so no one can steal the photo, but the watermark doesn't obstruct from important parts of the dress?

If the watermark was on the neckline, it would obstruct details that are important to the buyer, but in this case, it doesn't. So make sure you place your watermarks in an optimal place.

I hope you find this quick eBay selling tip useful. If you need help with this or any other part of your business, leave me a comment below.

Waterproof Digital Camera - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:17:43 +0000

Like many others, I like to snap pictures as a souvenir of a certain event or vacation. With the height of summer coming soon, most people are hitting the beaches, water parks and other summer attractions! What better way to capture the moment while enjoying the cool waters at the beach than with your very own waterproof digital camera.

This must be why there is a relatively high demand for waterproof digital cameras on eBay! Let’s try running waterproof digital camera on the SaleHoo Research Lab and see if we have found a potential seller.

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

The sell-through rate of the waterproof digital camera for the month of March was 55.67% so we have definitely found a viable niche which warrants further investigation.

Another potentially viable related niche you might want to consider selling is the Olympus Waterproof Digital Camera.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of a waterproof camera is $73.94. But you have to remember that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of a certain product which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of waterproof digital cameras in a single listing. The median end price can also be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products. Other factors to consider are the various brands and models available on eBay all of which can skew data.

If you find the median end price a bit discouraging, you can always check the lab’s snapshot feature which shows the actual price on eBay. As you can see below the average price of a waterproof digital camera is $128 while the average Buy It Now price is $196.00.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

Wow! Just look at the market of waterproof digital cameras on eBay – 15,002 bids as of March on only 3,163 listings! So what are you waiting for? Now is as good a time to starting listing your own waterproof digital cameras.

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

Below you can see that the average daily sales range from a low of $6656.47 and $12312.50. Not bad numbers!

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the altimeter online?

What do these numbers mean?

We have certainly found a sought after product this week, based on the quick keyword research we performed, we now know that there are 8,100 searches globally and 5,400 searches in the US locally in the US. Using Traffic Travis learn how you can direct potential customers to your online stores and eBay listings.

Trusted waterproof digital camera wholesale suppliers

Waterproof digital camera supplier #1

A leading wholesaler and exporter of a huge range of consumer electronic products. They accept credit cards - Visa, MasterCard and American Express, as well as PayPal, Western Union, and wire transfers as forms of payment. They can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Waterproof digital camera #2

A wholesaler of China made electronic products. They do not have a minimum order requirement but the more you buy the lower the price per item cost. Payment mode is through PayPal, Western Union or Bank Transfer. All products carry a 1 year guaranty. All of their products do not have a brand or logo markings on them.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Waterproof digital camera #3

A one-stop cheap electronics store, they accept credit cards, PayPal, and bank transfers as forms of payment. They can ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of waterproof digital camera wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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Your eCommerce business will never succeed if you don’t do these 3 things

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:27:59 +0000

Working from home selling products online sounds idyllic to some: There is no boss breathing down your neck, there are no face-to-face clients to please and you can choose your working hours.

There are plenty more benefits to owning your own eCommerce store or making a living by selling on eBay, but unless you take your work seriously, you won't be able to enjoy them.

If you are just getting your business off the ground, or if you are an old hand, make sure you implement the three points below in order to help your business succeed.

1. Believe in your products

I have around $5,000 worth of stock stored away at my house. It’s been there for almost two years and I’ve never sold any of it. Granted, I haven’t tried and I’m sure I could sell it if I actually listed the products online. But I haven’t, because I don’t believe in the products.

It’s the quality of the products that bothers me. I want to fill my store with beautiful, quality products. The $5k worth that’s collecting dust in my garage just doesn’t meet the brief.

[12:43:09 p.m.] Dean Iggo: "...success won't come easy."?

[12:45:40 p.m.] Dean Iggo: "Sadly, this isn’t often the case."

I’ll sell these eventually but I won’t be doing my usual 100% mark-up that I add to most products I sell. And I probably won’t enjoy selling them as much I as I enjoy selling products that I love. Instead, I might feel nervous about my customers being disappointed in the products.

Learn from my mistakes

So how do you avoid this? Well number one, you should always order samples of products before you buy them. Granted, I did this, but I was over enthusiastic and even though my gut told me the products weren’t exactly what I wanted, I was blindsided and rushed into ordering.

Learn from my mistakes and order samples, and give yourself a good week or longer to think about them. Post pictures on Facebook and ask your friends for their opinions on the products (or even better ask your existing customers if you have a Facebook page for your business).

If you’re not in love with the products, or you wouldn’t feel proud selling them to your family or friends, think twice.

2. Treat your at-home work space like a real office

When you work from home, it’s too easy to start sleeping in, working in your pyjamas and attempting to ‘work’ while you watch TV.

Get real: Working from home isn’t retirement and it’s likely that when you work for yourself, you’ll work the hardest you have ever worked before... but you will reap all the benefits!

When you work from home, the potential distractions are endless, especially if you have children at home also. The trick is to set up boundaries and let your family and yourself know that between x hours, you are at work. During those hours, you can’t be disrupted unless it’s an emergency or you are taking a scheduled break.

If you can, set up an area where you can work solely such as a spare room or a dedicated office space. Keep this room for work and only for work. When you are taking breaks or not on work time, try to avoid this area so that when you are there, you are in work mode!

3. Get motivated and treat it like a real job

This kind of ties in with what I’ve already talked about above. Too many people think about working from home as being a relaxed lifestyle with sleep-ins, a passive income and a light work load. Sadly, this often ins't the case. Here are the best tips I’ve read to get motivated and treat your work at home like a real job.

Get dressed every morning. Wear a shirt and tie if that makes you feel like you are at work. At the very least, put shoes on. There’s something psychological about wearing shoes and I know a few great people who run great businesses from home who swear by this.
Set your work hours and schedule your breaks. Just like in most regular paid employment, you should have set work hours and you should have allowed rest breaks. Stick to these as much as possible while working from home. The hours don't have to be the same every week: I schedule my week on a Sunday and figure out what hours I can work when. If something changes and I need to deviate from my plan, I make sure that I make up the hours later so that I don't slack off.
Make sure you get a decent lunch break and get away from your computer.
Schedule time spent away from the house and with other people. This is especially important if you live alone. It could get mighty lonely spending the working week with just your computer. Reward your hard work with a mid week lunch date with a friend or pack up your laptop and head to a cafe or library to get some work done in the company of others.
Limit your browsing time. When you are in paid employment, it’s a lot easier to avoid websites like Facebook, Pinterest and other idle browsing. At home when you work for yourself with no boss breathing down your neck, it’s not so easy. Instead of trying to kill yourself with self-discipline, use free website blocking software such as Self Control (for Mac) or Stay Focused (a Google Chrome extension). These let you choose which sites you want to block and for what hours. For example, you can set it so that during 9am-5pm, Facebook and Twitter are blocked, but outside these hours, you can access them as usual. You can also set them up so that you can have 15 minutes per day, or however long you allow yourself, for browsing and the rest of the time, you won’t be able to access them.

What struggles are you currently facing in your business? Leave me a comment below... I might just know a solution and I'd love to help!

Altimeter - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:21:21 +0000

With an increase in the number of people involved in outdoor sports like hiking and mountain climbing, there is a proportional increase in the demand for altimeters. An altimeter is often used with topographical maps to determine one’s location as well as forecast short-term weather changes.

Have we found a viable niche? Let’s check the SaleHoo Research Lab to learn more about the market potential of altimeters.

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

The altimeter’s sell-through rate for the month of March is 51.68% meaning we have hit our target sell-through rate of not lower than 50%.

While searching for this week’s niche I also stumbled upon two closely related niches which are just as viable as the altimeter – Altimeter watch and Casio altimeter watch. You might want to check those out as well.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The altimeter’s median end price is $88.97. Remember that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous. This is because the median end price is for all listings of altimeters which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of altimeters in a single listing.

The median end price can also be affected by listings that are using similar keywords for closely related products. Another factor to consider is that there are various brands so this can definitely skew our data.

You might find the Lab’s snapshot feature a big help in providing the actual price on eBay. As shown below the average price of an altimeter is $195 while the average Buy It Now price is $220.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

As of March there were 1,279 listings of altimeters with a total of 3,308 bids, almost three folds that of the number of products listed on eBay. Do we have a market for altimeters? I believe we do!

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

The highest recorded total revenue for altimeters for the month of March is $5,557.77 while the lowest recorded revenue is $2,010.61. As you can see on the graph above most daily sales were above the $3,000 range clearly showing that sellers are hitting their targets!

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the altimeter online?

Le’s check if we have a market beyond eBay by using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis. If you’re looking for really good SEO software then give Traffic Travis a try! Download your free software today by visiting www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

Our keyword research result shows that there is indeed a viable market beyond eBay, with 14,800 searches globally and 5,400 searches in the US. If you do your SEO homework correctly then you have more than enough potential traffic to direct to your online stores and listings on eBay!

Trusted Altimeter wholesale suppliers

Altimeter supplier #1

Offering premium quality products at competitive wholesale pricing, they also offer blind dropshipping. They accept credit cards – American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Discover, as well as PayPal, checks, money orders, cash orders, and wire transfers as forms of payment. International orders are accepted.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Altimeter supplier #2

A US based company that offers new and overstocks safety, health, and other science related products. They stock over 3,000 different products and provide an extended product drop ship service with access to 180,000 additional products. They accept credit cards - MasterCard, Visa and American Express. They can ship to most countries worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Altimeter supplier #3

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of altimeter wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

Inside you will get access to over 8000 suppliers, comprehensive training to help you find the best products to sell online and access to our members only forum full of tips and secrets from other members (including eBay PowerSellers!) to help you make money online. Join SaleHoo today

See you next Monday!

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Quick Guide to Selling Antiques on eBay

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:48:51 +0000

Antiques are one of the most hot selling items on eBay. They’re loved by buyers around the world. They’re equally loved by sellers who make a good living selling them. In fact, it’s not uncommon for eBay sellers to source items for a couple of dollars and resell them for $50-$100 or more.

If you want to try your hand at selling antiques on eBay (or another marketplace), check out my quick guide below.

Why do collectibles sell well on eBay?

Imagine what it would be like trying to buy antique items a decade ago: You’d have a few local stores nearby that you could take a look at, but if those stores didn’t have your antiques of choice, you would have to travel around in order to find what you are looking for. If you were a really keen collector, you might attend an annual collectors convention and swap, buy and sell with other collectors.

Imagine collector’s delight when suddenly, every kind of collectible from every time period and every category was available in one place. Better yet, that one place was online so collector’s could buy from the comfort of their own home - eBay.com!

Collector’s also love that when they buy on eBay, they can purchase products at a real market value that is based on demand. Prior to eBay and other online markets, prices for collectibles were easily inflated by antique dealers looking to make a quick buck.

In short, collectibles are popular on eBay because it makes life easier for collectors!

What collectibles sell best?

Unless you’re an antique hobbyist, you might not have a strong idea of what to sell so I've listed some ideas below, based on eBay data that indicates that these items sell well. If you aren’t quite sure what these items are, surf around these categories on eBay to get a good idea.

Asian Antiques

Among the top sellers are: Chinese vases and statues, Japanese prints, vases and swords, Southeast Asian amulets, and statues.

Silver

Among the top sellers are: Sterling silver flatware, Russian coins, silver plate flatware and silver plate tea pots and sets.

Decorative Arts

Ceramic and porcelain figurines, ceramic and porcelain plates and chargers, glass vases.

What doesn’t sell so well:

While there will always be exceptions, the following antique sub-categories don’t sell as well on eBay: (If you aren't sure what these are, run a search on eBay and steer clear on them when you are sourcing items to sell).

Books and manuscripts
Ethnographic
Home and Hearth
Linens and Textiles
Maps, Atlases and Globes
Maritime
Musical Instruments
Reproduction Antiques
Science and Medicine

Where can you source collectible items to resell on eBay?

Obviously sourcing antiques to resell is a little different to sourcing DVDs or iPhone cases. Sourcing collectibles to resell on eBay is a little more time-consuming, but also really fun.

Yard sales, flea markets, school fairs, and your local antique stores are treasure troves of items that you can buy for pennies on the dollar and resell for a profit!

If you have a good eye for what sells, the sky is the limit for what you can earn.

Before you set out to source antiques for re-selling, surf around eBay and check out what items are getting all the bids. What item’s auctions are about to end without a single bid? Take a look at eBay completed listings to see what items sell well and which do not.

You should be able to spot trends on colors, time periods and other item attributes and pin-point what buyers are looking for.

Even better, if you can take a smart phone with you when you are out hunting for antiques, you can compare items with similar items currently listed on eBay, you will lower your risk of buying dud items.

Tips for selling antique items

As with all items on eBay, presentation and photography is crucial. When you sell antiques, you don’t have the privilege of using manufacturers photos in your product listings, you need to do the photography yourself.

Help to attract buyers and add value to your products by styling them well. Put the products into context where you can. For example, if you are selling a pair of candlesticks, style them by putting them on a mantelpiece or dining table with complementary items surrounding them. If you are selling a vase, style the vase with flowers (fresh or faux, either is fine) and sell the buyer how the item could be used.

Remember to take photos of the item on its own also, so that buyers can see it clearly. You should also clarify in your product listing that accessories shown in your photos are not included. For more tips on selling antiques or any other items online, check out our video training course Online Selling Tactics.

Any antique sellers out there? How are your sales looking this month?

Universal Remote Control - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:24:48 +0000

The universal remote control allows you to operate various brands and/or types of electronic devices. With the convenience it offers, it is no wonder why the universal remote control is becoming increasing popular on eBay!

Let’s scrutinize further the profitability of the universal remote control with the help of our very own SaleHoo Research Lab

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

As of March, the sell-through rate of the universal remote control is 52.09% which means that more than half of all the listed universal remote controls on eBay actually sold. This is a good start!

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

Universal remotes have a median end price of $27.65. Remember that the median end price on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of universal remote controls which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of universal remote controls in a single listing. Also there are various brands with various capabilities so this can definitely skew our data.

You can also refer to our Lab’s Snapshot feature which provides us the actual price on eBay. As shown below the average price for a universal remote control is $34 while the average is $134.00. Obviously selling these using the Buy It Now format works best for sellers!

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

With more than 3 times the number of bids to the total number of listings, we may have found a viable niche! As of March there were 6,633 listings of universal remote controls with a total of 20,537 bids! So if you are looking for a product with a viable market, the universal remote control is the product you are looking for.

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

Can you imagine earning your share of $19,944.50 in 1 day? Might sound near impossible but as you can see in our graph that $19,994.50 is actually the highest total revenue on eBay for universal remote controls.

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the universal remote control online?

Using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis, let’s do a quick keyword analysis to help us check just how popular the universal remote control is. Give Traffic Travis a try! Download your free software by visiting www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

Based on the simple keyword research you can easily see that the universal remote control is popular even outside eBay, with 9,900 searches globally and 3,600 searches in the US. Also notice that the keyword “universal remote” which is actually part of our featured product, universal remote control has higher search count both globally and locally. So you can clearly see how your keywords can affect the amount of traffic you can divert to your online store and eBay listings!

Trusted universal remote control wholesale suppliers

Universal remote control supplier #1

One of the UK’s leading distributors of branded consumer electronics. The supply a vast range of items which expands over 2500 product lines that include calculators, blank media, batteries, watches, personal care products, domestic appliances, audio and video products and accessories, and a range of iPod/iPhone accessories. They accept payment by cheques, BACS, and most major debit and credit cards. They can deliver most countries worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Universal remote control supplier #2

The nation's leading distributor of consumer electronics, custom installation, mobile audio/video and appliance connection supplies delivering superior service to its customers for more than 26 years. They accept major credit cards - Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, as well as PayPal, cashier’s checks or money orders as forms of payment.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Universal remote control supplier #3

A certified dealer for a huge range of consumer electronics products and accessories. They accept major credit cards, PayPal, money orders and cashier's cheques as forms of payment. International orders are welcome.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of universal remote control wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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10 Ways To Cash In on eBay In the Next 4 Months

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:07:07 +0000

Throughout the year, there are abundant opportunities for make money on eBay by cashing in on regular holidays and annual events. Regardless of what you sell year-round, anyone can adopt new product ranges for these events and see a spike in profits.

Here's a quick list of 10 events and holidays coming up in the next four months that you can cash in on.

April and Beyond: Beach and bikini season!

Summer is on it's way for the northern hemisphere and beach 'n bikini season is almost upon us. You will need to get in quick if you want to make the most out of this season. Items selling well around this time of year are bikinis and swimwear, cover ups, beach volleyball sets, beach tents for shade, tan accelerators and sunscreens.

April - September: Wedding season

Mid summer is the height of the wedding season. While most brides and grooms will have their big purchases like gowns and suits already taken care of, accessories and decor items sell well around this time of year, as do wedding gifts that guests pick up for the happy couple.

May 5th: Cinco de Mayo

The day of Mexican pride and heritage is widely celebrated in the US and in Mexico. Mexican costumes, sombreros, and ponchos will pick up in sales, so if you can source these cheaply, it's worth checking them out.

May 12th: Mother's Day

All kinds of giftware and fashion sell well leading up to Mother's Day. Think home decor items, fashion accessories, beauty items and kitchen gadgets. Quality, beautiful items tend to be more popular around this holiday as buyers strive to spoil their moms.

May 27th: Memorial Day

All things red, white and blue including flags and BBQ supplies sell well around this solemn occasion.

May 20th: Victoria Day, Canada

In Canada, this day marks the unofficial end of winter. Picnic and BBQ items increase in sales.

June: High School Graduation (Plus kindergarten and college graduation)

Graduate gifts and high quality frames for those diplomas sell well around this time.

June 16th: Father's Day

Men's gifts including everything from golf clubs to socks and cologne are what sell well around this time of year. Offer free gift wrapping to lure in more buyers.

July 4th: Independence Day

As a born and bred New Zealander, I've only experienced July 4th once... but I loved it! The fireworks, the BBQ and the fun make it such a great day. Leftover stock from Memorial Day can double up here: Red, white and blue flags and decor fly off the shelves. Scene setters and wall sheets (with NYC skylines, etc) are gaining popularity as is USA themed paper serving ware.

July-August: Back to School

Most schools reopen around August so July is the time to sell all those back to school items including backpacks, scientific calculators, laptop cases, and stationary. Now is also the time when a lot of students stock up on basic clothing items they can mix and match everyday for no-fuss dressing in the morning.

Hot tip: July and August is when you should start planning your Christmas strategy too - it's the most lucrative time of year for retailers so make sure you cash in!

The Bottom Line

If you want to cash in on any of the events I listed above, now is the time to start planning! Get in touch with suppliers and start comparing prices. If you're not already a SaleHoo member with access to over trusted 8,000 suppliers, join now!

When Wholesale Prices are Too High

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:10:23 +0000

It's not uncommon for SaleHoo members to find products on eBay that appear to be cheaper than what our approved suppliers sell the items at.

Have you been conned? Are you missing something?

No, you're not being conned, but yes, you could be missing some crucial points that will help you understand how wholesale prices and wholesale buying works and how you can get the best prices possible. Here's a quick guide to why sometimes, you can't find wholesale prices lower than eBay prices and what to do about it.

Why are eBay prices sometimes lower than wholesale prices?

1. eBay has become a wholesale marketplace for many, many products.

A quick search on eBay for "bulk wholesale" reveals that you can purchase pretty much anything in bulk for decent wholesale prices.

A lot of sellers purchase bulk lots on eBay and split them up to resell them on eBay, their own website, or another marketplace.

But even when selling single items, you will often find them at extremely low prices that make you wonder why a seller would bother... or how much their wholesaler is selling them for!

The high volume business model on eBay

eBay is one of the most competitive marketplaces in the world and profit margins are tight. This is why many retailers rely more so on selling high volumes of products, rather than selling a few products with higher margins.

Furthermore, many eBay sellers sell 'hero' products or highly sought after products at very low prices as part of a loss-leader model: Lure in buyers by selling low priced commodity goods, then make good margins on everything else they sell.

For example, I've noticed a few sellers offering laptops for very low prices, then they sell laptop cases or other accessories for good margins. They attract buyers to their cheap laptops, then make their profits on the cases and accessories.

2. Wholesaler prices ARE lower than eBay prices, but you have to work hard to find them

For the most part, wholesale prices are lower than eBay sale prices, but sometimes it's easy to think otherwise because when you visit wholesale websites, you only see their light wholesale or retail prices.

In order to see bulk wholesale prices and get rock bottom deals that will earn you big profits, you need to login to the wholesalers website and or email them.

Why do wholesalers make you email them or log in to view prices?

One reason why wholesale prices aren't always made public is because wholesalers have to protect the interests of retailers selling their products. Have you ever heard Walmart announce how much they make on the items they sell? Of course not. This information is usually well guarded and it's the wholesaler's responsibility to keep it that way.

Additionally, a lot of wholesalers are, frankly, just a bit behind the times when it comes to their websites and they don't have all their information on their website for you to view: You'll have to call or email to get it. Don't let this put you off though, some of the best wholesalers actually operate this way.

Wholesaler's old and sometimes neglected websites makes it a little bit hard to find what you want and I'll be the first to admit to closing a wholesalers website because I can't find what I want within 20 seconds. (I know you have done the same!)

In doing so, however, we leave behind what can be a potentially profitable find - terrific wholesale prices from a wholesaler you can form a good relationship with.

What to do when you can't find the right wholesale prices

The first thing you should do is look a little harder on your wholesaler's website. As I mentioned above, you generally need to create an account and login to view prices. I know this can be a pain in the butt, but how hard is it really?

If you're serious about your business, prove it to yourself and make the effort.

You should also email the supplier and tell them a little bit about your business and plans for the near future. Ask them how much you will need to purchase in order to earn better bulk discounts i.e. if you spend $10k, what discount can they offer? $10k might sound like a scary number now, but a lot of small eBay businesses eventually are able to purchase at this level.

Knowing what kind if discounts you can get in the future will help you forecast your profits for the future.

Still can't find the right price? Try this:

Ask our talented customer support staff to take a look for you on our Supplier's Wanted section of our forum. They seem to have super searching powers that help them find more suppliers than the rest of us!
Consider selling somewhere other than eBay. You've probably already considered this because there are some fantastic options to sell stock outside of eBay. I've listed a few of them here. You can also sell on your own website which presents a medley of benefits including being able to sell your items for better prices than you could on eBay. SaleHoo Stores is the easy and affordable way to get your very own storefront up and running. It requires no technical knowledge and costs just $0.90 per day for our Basic Store - that's less than the fees you could pay to sell just one item on eBay!

Check out SaleHoo Stores now

Do you have a question about wholesale purchasing? Leave a comment and we'll do our best to help out.

A New SaleHoo Is Coming

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:58:37 +0000

Exciting news! Behind the scenes over the last 40 weeks or so, we have been building and refining a new and improved version of SaleHoo that will make finding the right suppliers faster and easier.

We will be gradually rolling out the new version to small groups of users who will be among the first to test drive the new site. You could be randomly selected to see the new site any anytime. Here's a quick run down of some of the major changes SaleHoo is undergoing.

What we've done to make SaleHoo better for you

SaleHoo is now 400% faster than before which makes it easier for you to find the suppliers and the resources you need to boost your business. We also sharpened up our navigation so that now it's easier to find your way around our website and get everything you need.

We noticed that around 25% of you access SaleHoo via mobile, so we've also optimized SaleHoo for mobile devices including iPhones, iPads and other smart phones and tablets. The website will be a lot easier for you to navigate when you're on the run!

We have dramatically improved our Wholesale Directory so that you can find the right suppliers faster and start making profitable sales sooner. Here's a sneak peak:

Your the boss around here - tell us what you think

As a SaleHoo user, you are the boss around here. Regardless of what our fancy website usability theory books tell us, we want the website to work for you so we would love to hear your thoughts. When you eventually get access, please use the red Feedback tab that's on the right hand side of every page to tell us what you think.

Sharing your thoughts is easy with our simple to use form:

If you don't get access to the new site soon, don't worry, we will roll out the new SaleHoo to everyone soon enough (we haven't confirmed a date just yet). For now, we are keeping it gradual to ensure we have everything covered.

Got questions or feedback? We would love to hear from you, just leave a comment below.

Sugar-Free Candy - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:17:53 +0000

A couple of years ago, I met an eBay PowerSeller and online store owner who made an impressive income selling candy. At the time, I was surprised: Do that many people really buy candy online, when they could just buy it at the supermarket?

I guess so because it turns out all kinds of candy, including sugar free varieties, sell very well on eBay.

Let’s do some quick research for sugar-free candy on our very own SaleHoo Research Lab and look into it.

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

In February sugar-free candy had a sell-through rate of 56.61% which meets our target of 50%. Not satisfied just yet? Let’s further scrutinize this week’s niche.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of sugar-free candy is $14.06. Remember that the median end price of sugar-free candy on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of sugar-free candies which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of sugar-free candies in a single listing. It is also good to take note that some sellers sell by pack while others sell sugar-free candy by the pound.

Looking for data that will convince you some more? You can check out our lab’s snapshot and see the average price and average Buy It Now price. As of February the average price of sugar-free candy is $23 while the average Buy It Now price is $19.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

I know at first glance the market does not seem that big but if you take a closer look the number of bids is almost twice the number of listings. So is our market viable? I believe so!

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

The highest total revenue for the month of February for sugar-free candy was $691. The graph and figures clearly show that sugar-free candy is an emerging trend with a viable market.

Going beyond eBay: How popular is sugar free candy online?

Should you take part in the sugar-free craze? Using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis, we can check if we have potential traffic even outside eBay. Visit www.traffictravis.com and download your own Traffic Travis software today.

What do these numbers mean?

Based on the quick keyword research we did, there are 3,600 searches for sugar free candy and 2,900 searches in the US alone! This product does look like it is gaining popularity among many consumers worldwide. With SEO listing titles and descriptions you should be able to direct traffic to your eBay listings and online stores.

Trusted sugar-free candy wholesale suppliers

Sugar-free candy supplier #1

They offer over 5,000 everyday and seasonal candy items and an additional 5,000 candy-making and baking supply items. Their inventory changes daily and includes a wide variety of all-natural and organic products. They accept all major credit cards and PayPal as forms of payment. International orders are welcome.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Sugar-free candy supplier #2

They carry "Candy you ate as a kid®" and "Toys you played with as a kid™" from over 80 manufacturers. They accept major credit cards and company checks as forms of payment.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Sugar-free candy supplier #3

A family owned and operated business that not only sells candy online, but is a full service wholesale, retail business selling candy, tobacco products and accessories, paper products, party supplies, bar and restaurant supplies, Bingo, Games of Chance, and fundraising candies throughout Pennsylvania. They accept Visa, MasterCard, America Express, and Discover.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Sugar-free candy supplier #4

They are a premier online bulk foods and gourmet gifts distributor. They accept Visa and MasterCard, as well as PayPal, money transfers and bank wire transfers. Quantity discounts are available. They ship worldwide.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our sugar-free candy wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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How to make your products look more expensive and earn more money

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 00:25:08 +0000

One of my favorite places to shop is Bendon Lingerie. When you buy there, everything comes gorgeously wrapped in pastel pink tissue paper, and inside a shiny carry bag. It makes the Bendon brand more appealing and it makes me OK with the fact that I'm spending $89 on a single bra (TMI? Sorry!).

Anyway, when we buy online, sometimes the magic is removed: There's no carry bag and tissue paper and the glow of buying something new is dimmed a little.

I've got a little formula, however, that give buyers back that joy and excitement of buying something new. Better yet, my little formula makes my products look more expensive which means I can up my prices and earn more money on every sale.

It's pretty simple and doesn't cost a lot. I just repackage my items a little. Here's what my little baby banana suit looks like when it arrives from my supplier in China.

Bound with plastic packaging...

... and a cheap-looking swing tag.

Most buyers dislike seeing Chinese symbols on their purchases because it reminds them that the product was made in China. Maybe it's a subconscious reminder that they are buying something that I bought at a wholesale price? Regardless of the reasoning, the swing tag has got to go, as does that tacky plastic packaging.

To replace it, I use my own swing tag that has my logo and company colors. Below you can see the back and front of one I had custom made:

Using my nifty little tagging gun, I add my swing tag. I got my tagging gun off eBay for less than $20. It does the job, but has a mean needle that I've pricked myself with many times!

Make sure you get one like mine that has a cap on it so that you can cover up the needle. I use the needle to punch a hole in the swing tag, then pull the trigger to attach the tag. Voila! Instant branding and instantly more valuable to buyers.

The next thing I add is a flyer that thanks buyers for their purchase and gives them a coupon code to get a 20% discount on their next purchase. here's the back and front of the flyers. They're A5 size (8.3 x 5.8 in). Sorry the photo is a little blurry.

There are two reasons why I use this flyer:

1. Firstly, because it simply looks nice and adds a personal touch. Brand consistency is important to me because I know building a brand earns you more money now and especially in the future. As I sell baby clothing, part of my brand is being warm and personal: Most of my customers are moms who love getting a little thank you note.

2. Repeat customers make a business and by giving them an incentive to purchase again by giving them a discount, it encourages them to do so.

Also, it's proven that 20% is an optimal discount to offer. 20% meets the "Just Noticeable Difference" threshold which means the discount is enough for customers to actually recognise it as a benefit. Generally, anything less than 20% doesn't appeal to customers. Oh, unless of course you are Apple and you can offer a 5% discount and get the world tweeting about it!

I don't like to offer too much more than 20% off my products, but that's a whole other blog post!

Finally, I wrap it all up in some blue tissue paper. Admittedly, I don't do this every time, mostly because some of my products are too big, but I know my buyers love it, so I try to remain consistent.

Wondering what product I was playing with? A cute little baby banana suit. They're a popular seller and they're pretty accessible in the wholesale world if you want to check them out.

Now, I know what you're thinking, the swing tags, the flyers and the tissue paper must have cost me a fortune, right? Well, it wasn't exactly free, but you can easily setup something like this on the cheap.

All swing tags need is your logo and tagline if you have one, then get them printed through a cut price printer like Vista Print. I haven't used Vista Print myself but I know it's very cheap (just watch the shipping costs).

Flyers might need to be designed unless you're handy with Adobe InDesign or other graphic design software. Working with a student from a local design school could be a great option. Just remember, you only need to get these designed once and then you can use it as much as you like. You can print 100 flyers through Vista Print for $24.99 in the US. Check out their deals here.

Warning: If you go away and use Microsoft Word or Paint and create something yourself... something like the image below, you have completely missed my point I'm getting across in this blog post and you're probably better off not including any flyer at all.

And you can purchase tissue paper in bulk like I did and it works out at a few cents a sheet. Of course, not all products are suited to using tissue paper... or swing tags for that matter, but I hope this has give you some inspiration for how to add some value to your products. If you have any questions, leave me a comment below. I always love hearing from you.

Note: If you go looking for my baby boutique, you won't find it (sorry!). The website is being redesigned at the moment and I'm being a bit fussy about what I want. I decided a good time to do this blog post was now, while the site was down so that it didn't seem like I was piggy backing off SaleHoo traffic and trying to make some sales :P

Lint Remover - Monday Market of Week

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:56:19 +0000

Don’t you just hate the sight of lint on your clothes, especially on your dark colored clothing? I guess this is a popular pet-hate around the world because lint rollers are popular sellers on eBay!

Want to know how much you can make selling them? Let’s run ‘lint remover’ in our SaleHoo Research Lab and see if this product is worth your time and investment!

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

With a sell-through rate of 70.28% we have found small yet highly popular product! Lint removers sell-through rate is definitely way beyond our usual target of 50%, wouldn’t you say so?

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of lint remover on eBay is $5.65. It might not seem much but remember the median end price of the lint remover on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of lint removers which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of lint removers in a single listing. Plus there are various kinds and brands of lint removers so these factors can definitely skew our data.

For a closer approximate of the actual selling cost on eBay we can always refer to the SaleHoo Research Lab’s Snapshot feature which shows the average price and average Buy-It-Now price of a lint remover on eBay . Below you can see there is an average selling price of $14 and a average of $11 when sold using Buy It Now.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

There is certainly room for your listing for lint removers. Since February there were only 69 sellers with only 979 listings and 4,540 bids! So what are you waiting for?

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

With a median end price of a little over $5, it’s quite promising to see that the daily lowest total revenue is $446.18. With the highest total revenue of $793.87 you can certainly see the potential to actually sell and earn more!

Going beyond eBay: How popular is the lint remover online?

To help me check for potential markets outside eBay, I use our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis. You can download your own copy by visiting www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

There are currently 2,900 searches made globally and 1,000 searches made in the US for lint remover. Using the right keywords to help optimize your listings, imagine the traffic you can direct to your own online store and eBay listings! Remember the more traffic the higher potential you have to landing a sale!

Trusted lint remover suppliers

Lint remover supplier #1

A family owned business that specializes in quality cleaning products, cool gadgets, decorating must-haves, kitchen tools and more. They accept most major credit cards - Visa, MasterCard and Discover, as well as checks and money orders and PayPal as forms of payment. Residents of New York State and any orders shipping to a New York address are charged an additional 8% sales tax. International orders are welcome.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Lint remover supplier #2

A US base company with a focus on small space living solutions they provide various space savers type of products. They accept major credit cards and offer blind drop shipping.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Lint remover supplier #3

A manufacturer and exporter of various products such as pest, mosquito and insect control products, glue, lint rollers, adhesive felt, eva and cork pad of skid protector for furniture, adhesive tapes, home deodorizer & air fresheners, plastic products, paper products, self adhesive stickers and materials for stickers and labels.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of lint remover wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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Ultrasonic Humidifier - Monday Market of the Week

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 04:57:42 +0000

During winter and summer, humidity is often at its lowest making the air in our homes dry. Moisture in the air is said to be ideal for relieving cough and colds, helping babies sleep better, and increasing the oxygen content in the air.

Many are now using humidifiers in their homes and a vast majority of home owners prefer the ultrasonic humidifier since it is a safer and quieter option. The ultrasonic humidifier uses high-frequency sound vibrations to produce an extra fine water mist that is then expelled to add moisture to the room and does not heat the water in any way.

Let's check just how sought after the ultrasonic humidifier is using our very own SaleHoo Research Lab.

Sell-through Rate: Did you really find a hot niche?

What do you consider an ideal sell-through rate? We find that it is best to pursue products with a sell-through rate of at least 50%. This week’s featured niche the ultrasonic humidifier has a sell-through rate of 51.09% making it a product worth pursuing.

Median End Price: Is there enough room for profit?

The median end price of the ultrasonic humidifier is $35.09. Remember the median end price of an ultrasonic humidifier on eBay can be ambiguous because the median end price is for all listings of ultrasonic humidifiers which can include bulk listings that sell two or more units of ultrasonic humidifiers in a single listing. Plus there are various brands of ultrasonic humidifiers so these factors can definitely skew our data.

To get a better approximation of the actual selling price you can refer to the labs’ snapshot which shows that the ultrasonic humidifier has an average price of $61 and an average Buy It Now price of $65.

Total Listings, Total Bids and Total Sellers: How viable is your market?

As of January there were 3,456 bids made on 1,382 listings, clearly showing that is there is a more than ample demand for ultrasonic humidifiers. Are you ready to list your own ultrasonic humidifiers on eBay?

Data Trends: Are sellers hitting their target?

The highest recorded revenue for ultrasonic humidifiers for the month of January is $4,736.57 while the lowest recorded revenue is $1,968.57. The graph clearly shows the steady flow of sales for ultrasonic humidifiers on eBay.

Going beyond eBay: How popular is an ultrasonic humidifier online?

Using our very own free SEO software, Traffic Travis we can check if we have a potential market outside eBay. You can download your own copy by visiting www.traffictravis.com.

What do these numbers mean?

Based on the results of our quick keyword research there are 5,400 searches made globally and 2,900 searches made in the US. I know it’s a lot less than the search results for humidifier but using the right SEO techniques you can still divert a share of traffic from searches for humidifier to your own online store and eBay listings.

Trusted ultrasonic humidifier suppliers

Ultrasonic humidifier supplier #1

A provider of information, goods and services to customers who value the environment, a sustainable economy, healthy lifestyles, alternative health care and personal development. They offer the highest quality, branded products and services available. Their products can be found in yoga studios, health clubs, spas, physical therapy centers, and other health/fitness centers. They accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, PayPal as well as checks and money orders. They charge sales tax for orders shipping to Colorado and Ohio. At this time, they only ship to the United States and its territories and to Canada.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Ultrasonic humidifier supplier #2

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

Ultrasonic humidifier supplier #3

An Australian-owned company, importing and distributing safety, lifestyle, wellness and electronic products to the retail and consumer markets. They accept payment through direct deposits, major credit cards, PayPal, or POs. International orders are welcome.

View their SaleHoo listing (requires SaleHoo account)

To access our list of ultrasonic humidifier wholesale suppliers and take advantage of SaleHoo’s Research Lab mentioned above, sign up as a SaleHoo member now.

See you next Monday!

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Get Cash to Grow your Business - Kabbage Review

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:41:12 +0000

Would a cash injection help grow your business? What if you could order a few thousand dollars worth of new inventory to sell? How much would it help if you could hire a staffer to help? Could $1000 towards advertising transform your business?

Maybe Kabbage can help.

Kabbage provides cash advances to online retailers to help them grow their businesses. Their service is available to sellers on eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Shopify and Etsy. Previously, Kabbage was only available to sellers in the US, but as of last month, Kabbage is now also available in the UK!

How Kabbage works

Signing up to Kabbage takes just a couple of minutes and you can get money transferred into your PayPal account instantly, or within 3-5 days if you are using a regular bank account. The money is then yours to use as you please to grow your business. Most people spend the money on wholesale product sourcing, but you can use your cash advance from Kabbage to hire staff or advertise your business.

To get a Kabbage loan, you need to make at least US$1000 worth of sales each month. The sales don't all have to come from one store, but you will need to prove your sales totals using Kabbage's secure login.

Repaying your Kabbage cash advance - What will it cost you?

Kabbage has a very simple repayment system. You get the cash advance for 6 months, and after that 6 month period, you need to have repaid your advance in full. During the 6 month loan period, you pay one sixth (or 16%) of the loan of each month. On top of the repayments of what you borrowed, you will pay a fee of 2-7% of the advance as a fee. The exact % depends on how much you borrow. The payments are taken directly from your PayPal or bank account so you have to make sure you have the cash available to make the repayments starting in month one.

Here's a graphic from Kabbage.com that explains how repayments work:

With this in mind, I would suggest having the cash available to cover the cost of at least the first month's minimum. Why? Let's say you borrow $10,000 to order some stock from a wholesaler. Given how long it can take to order stock, get stock deliverd and listed online, there could be a couple of weeks in lead time before you start making money off the loan. You'll need around $1600 to repay the first month of your loan, but you might not yet have the cash coming in.

If you have cash ready to cover your first month, it will eliminate pressure to sell stock off quickly.

What are other online sellers saying about Kabbage?

If you want to read some success stories on the Kabbage website, you can do so here. Here are some unbiased words about Kabbage that I found on the web:

"I just signed up a few minutes ago with Kabbage and I'm very impressed with how professional this company is... They have very good reviews and for someone like me that doesn't have good credit and can use a little extra money to buy supplies...this was perfect. They started me out with more than I thought I was going to get... And the more I'm with Kabbage the more advances I can get. This is great!"

- Etsy seller, Dee

"Kabbage may not be the cheapest money out there but they are competitive to the other sources MOST small biz resort to. Let's face it, banks are not interested in our business. I give Kabbage credit for the growth of my business . Being able to access money when I need it makes me able to get better deals. Just remember it's a short term (6 month) process and plan accodrdingly."

- eBay seller, Katskloset

Bad reviews about Kabbage

I actually found a whole lot of fantastic reviews about Kabbage and to be honest, I found it hard to find a bad review about them. I looked around online and tried to find some negative feedback, but I couldn't find anything (other than the comment below which didn't actually come from a Kabbage customer, it came from a friend of a Kabbage customer). If you stumble across anything, leave me a comment!

Make sure you can afford to pay Kabbage back!

As with all loans or cash advances, you need to make sure that you have afford to service it. As one Etsy seller mentioned, Kabbage don't fool around when it comes time to get their money back from you.

"It's true they will give you money, but what ever you do don't become late on the payments or they will raid your pay pal account like a thief in the night. This happened to a friend of mine, when he couldn't pay loan back on time, due to slow sales and it became a nightmare!"

Kabbage aren't in the wrong for recovering their money. They're a business, not a charity, after all! Just make sure of two things when you consider getting a Kabbage cash advance:

1. You fully understand your obligations to service the advance and repay it within the 6 month period.

2. Only use the cash advance to grow your business: Don't waste the money on a product that you haven't done market research on. If you buy dud products that you can't sell, you could run into problems repaying the cash advance.

Do your due diligence

Cash advances aren't right for every business. I highly recommend that you do your due diligence before you take on a cash advance or a loan from anyone. Make sure you crunch the numbers and make sure any loan or advance you get will actually be profitable for your business. Always read the fine print and if you can, get a trusted friend or family member to take a look over it as well.

With all that said, if you are looking to grow your eBay business, I highly reccommend that you give Kabbage a try. It's free to sign up and see how much you can borrow and how much the cash advance will cost you.

SaleHoo Blog

Digital Scale - Monday Market of the Week

Resistance Bands - Monday Market of the Week

4 Tips for Selecting the Ideal Mobile Payment Service Provider

Tip #1 – Know Your Needs

Tip #2 – Shop Around

Tip #3 – Compare, Compare, Compare

Tip # 4 – Ask Questions

Your Business, Your Way

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The True Cost of Drop Shipping

The Lure of the Drop Ship Model

Are Drop Ship Surcharges a Scam?

The Real Cost of Drop Shipping

Wholesale Electronics

Wholesale Fashion

Wholesale Computer Games

When Drop Shipping Does Work

Professional Turntable - Monday Market of the Week

eBay Selling Tip: How to watermark your product photos

The Benefits of Watermarking

eBay's Watermarking Policies

Optimal Watermark Placement

Waterproof Digital Camera - Monday Market of the Week

Your eCommerce business will never succeed if you don’t do these 3 things

1. Believe in your products

Learn from my mistakes

2. Treat your at-home work space like a real office

3. Get motivated and treat it like a real job

Altimeter - Monday Market of the Week

Quick Guide to Selling Antiques on eBay

Why do collectibles sell well on eBay?

What collectibles sell best?

Asian Antiques

Silver

What doesn’t sell so well:

Where can you source collectible items to resell on eBay?

Tips for selling antique items

Universal Remote Control - Monday Market of the Week

10 Ways To Cash In on eBay In the Next 4 Months

April and Beyond: Beach and bikini season!

April - September: Wedding season

May 5th: Cinco de Mayo

May 12th: Mother's Day

May 27th: Memorial Day

May 20th: Victoria Day, Canada

June: High School Graduation (Plus kindergarten and college graduation)

June 16th: Father's Day

July 4th: Independence Day

July-August: Back to School

The Bottom Line

When Wholesale Prices are Too High

Why are eBay prices sometimes lower than wholesale prices?

1. eBay has become a wholesale marketplace for many, many products.

The high volume business model on eBay

What to do when you can't find the right wholesale prices

A New SaleHoo Is Coming

What we've done to make SaleHoo better for you

Your the boss around here - tell us what you think

Sugar-Free Candy - Monday Market of the Week

How to make your products look more expensive and earn more money

Lint Remover - Monday Market of Week

Ultrasonic Humidifier - Monday Market of the Week

Get Cash to Grow your Business - Kabbage Review

How Kabbage works

Repaying your Kabbage cash advance - What will it cost you?

What are other online sellers saying about Kabbage?

Bad reviews about Kabbage

Make sure you can afford to pay Kabbage back!

Do your due diligence

What would you spend the money on if you could get a loan from Kabbage?