Here’s a common-sense way to avoid buying stock that you can’t shift
Wouldn’t it be good if there was some kind of system whereby when you want to make a big purchase – like buying a new house for example, you can ‘try before you buy’ so to speak!
I know that’s a bit random, but having recently moved home myself, I was just thinking about this the other day.
Buying a house is likely to be one of the most expensive things you do in your life – because houses cost a lot of money. I read in the media that people make a decision as to whether they want to buy a particular house or not within the first 17 minutes of seeing the property.
And that to me is incredible because that decision involves spending hundreds of thousands of pounds and shouldn’t be a decision that is made lightly.
Yet weirdly, most of us don’t ‘um and ah’ over buying a house. We walk in, we like it, we do the sums, we put in an offer and if everything goes smoothly the house is ours!
A massive decision involving a massive amount of money – decided in less than 20 minutes! And apparently this is compared to the 54 minutes we take to choose a new pair of curtains! Madness.
Just move in for a few days
Anyway, so I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if, when you like a house that is for sale, you could just kind of move in for a few days and see whether you like living there – the location, the neighbours, the house itself?
It would probably be a logistical nightmare in reality but it would also make the decision to buy much more certain and solid, rather than walking in, taking a cursory glance at the wallpaper and then making an offer.
‘Try before you buy’ would ensure that you make the right decision and avoid things not working out, before you part with your cash…
So now think about this. If a decision on buying a house costing hundreds of thousands of pounds can be made in less than 20 minutes, imagine how many minutes it might take for you to decide whether to order a product from a wholesale supplier. Theoretically there is a lot less money involved so pro rata you could be looking at making a decision in about 30 seconds flat!
And just like offering on a new house, you might take a glance at a wholesale product, think it looks perfect and then hit the ‘Buy’ button without a second thought.
So, imagine the scenario: You have found what you think to be the perfect product. It ticks all the boxes; you’ve done some research so you go ahead and order a quantity of 500. Imagine your excitement as you wait for your shipment to arrive. You have planned your listing description and you are all set to go. So when your items arrive you start your listings immediately and….
Your products don’t sell as well as you anticipated and you are stuck with 499 items that you simply can’t shift.
No matter how much research you conduct into how successfully a certain item will sell, you really can’t ever know the true results until you create your listings and set it live.
Just like you’ll never truly know what it’s like to live in the house you’ve purchased, until you move in!
The benefits of research
That’s not to say you shouldn’t bother with any research, because thorough research is extremely important when you are selecting a product.
I always research products thoroughly including those that I detail for you in my regular Hot Product Reports over at The Source Report and these are usually available in small quantities or test batches).
But one of the most important things is to use your common sense, and this is where the importance of ordering a product in small quantities to start with really comes into its own.
In other words ‘try before you buy’.
Buying a product in bulk that you haven’t researched or even tested could leave you out of pocket, not to mention out of storage space. That’s why it is absolutely imperative that you should start by buying a small amount – a test order – of any product that you are considering selling, before signing yourself up to a larger order.
Try before you buy
With the correct and sufficient research it is possible to know, to a certain extent, if a product is likely to sell well. Once you have found a reliable supplier, you then need to test your product. This is so important.
A good wholesale supplier will be more than happy to send you a test sample or allow you to place a small quantity order before you commit to a larger order. If they won’t, then perhaps they are not the right supplier to consider – and there are two things that buying a sample or test batch will allow you to do.
Not only can you get your hands on the product that you will be selling to check its quality and/or functionality, but you will also be able to create listings to actually start to sell this smaller quantity initially to see just how much profit you can definitely make per sale.
If it becomes apparent early on that your products simply aren’t going to sell in the quantities you anticipated, you won’t have lost much. But also when you find yourself with an incredibly successful item you will be in a position to confidently buy in bulk, knowing full well that sales and significant profits will follow.
Paying out less cash upfront helps you budget
Another advantage of buying a smaller quantity or sample of goods before committing yourself to a large bulk buy is that you will need less capital at the outset. If the product that you choose to sell isn’t too expensive then this won’t be a factor anyway, but more expensive items will obviously cost you much more in initial outlay.
But that’s not all! When your initial small quantity of goods sell well then you will find yourself with a profit that you can then put towards buying more stock. The more you sell, the more money will be accessible to put towards more of that product.
Save storage space for your successful products
I don’t know about you but I’m not a great fan of seeing endless boxes of products littering every room of my house. It’s even worse if the boxes that you are constantly tripping over are full of things that seem to be taking an age to sell and I know that if you don’t have an empty garage to use or a spare room to fill, storage space will be at a premium.
So, ordering a huge quantity of a product before being sure that it will sell might end up being an enormous hassle when you do find an item that will work because you’ll have nowhere to store it.
A small amount of goods ordered just to test the water of won’t take up too much room. And remember that you don’t have to limit yourself to trying out one product at a time; instead why not sample a few different products to see exactly where your profits can be maximised.
In a nutshell
My advice to you is this; try before you buy wherever possible. Always buy small quantities first – just a sample amount – 10 or 20 of a product. If you see a supplier with a minimum order quantity of 500 or 1000, don’t take this as read – contact them and negotiate. Any genuine supplier will have no problem with you ordering a sample or reducing the initial quantity. After all this could mean further business for them in the future.
Once you are successfully selling all your stock within the timeframe expected, then you can think about ordering in much larger quantities and can take advantage of lower wholesale prices. Make this general practice in your online selling to stay on a profitable road.