Sorry, but I’m going to have to mention the ‘c’ word…
… But, it’s only seven weeks until Santa squeezes down your chimney and you know things are starting to hot up when eBay issue a Press Release predicting their busiest sales day: Sunday 4th December – dubbed Super Sunday 2011 – when eBay are expecting over 5.8 million keen shoppers to log on to eBay.co.uk, which is about half a million more people than last year!
What Super Sunday 2011 means for sellers…
In a press statement issued this week, Angus McCarey, the Retail Director for eBay UK, said:
“This will be another record-breaking “Super Sunday” for eBay UK with sales volumes around six times as high as on an average Sunday in September. This is explained by the general shift in retail spending to online, and the popularity of shopping on smart phones, which is accelerating that trend.
Many people will have less to spend overall this Christmas, so they will do all they can to ensure they are getting a bargain. We’ll see people buying more for less with smaller gifts like mobile phone accessories and discounted high street fashion selling well on eBay this Christmas.”
So, it looks like the ‘electronics accessories’ market could well be one niche to get into quickly. This is actually a great ‘year round’ niche which I covered a few months ago in The Source Report and is a fantastic way to sell high volumes of goods which each make a few pounds profit each time. It’s not only mobile phone accessories that are a good bet though – you should also consider iPod and iPad accessories, Kindle accessories, MP3 Player accessories and so on. I’m talking about headphones, silicon and hard cases, skins and mini speakers.
These are all products that you can source for a few pounds and sell for a few pounds more, guaranteeing a profit. Yes, it’s going to be a smaller profit than if you are selling branded goods or products that demand a higher price, but as I’ve said, the key here is ‘volume sales’.
By selling at a competitive price you will sell more because most buyers won’t dither about spending up to a fiver – it doesn’t really take much consideration does it – spending a fiver? But spending ten or twenty pounds takes a little more thought!
So, let’s say you’ve got five products on the go, all within the ‘accessories’ market. For example Kindle Cases, iPod Socks, Unbranded Headphones, A Mobile Phone Skin and Sets of Mini Speakers. Again, purely for the purposes of this example lets say you make a minimum £2.00 profit on each item you sell.
You’ll only need to sell 3 of each of your five products every day to make a profit of £30 a day. That’s £210 per week or £900 every 30 days! Can you see how it all adds up? And with the right keywords, selling just three a day of popular items like these is a very achievable task. In fact you should aim to sell between five and ten of each product every day. Achieving sales of ten a day of each would bring you £100 a day, £700 per week and £3000 per 30 days. Not bad is it – just remember that with accessories it’s all about smaller profits per item and volume sales.
Looking at Angus’ other prediction of discounted high street fashion being popular – these items are in fact quite easily sourced and again I covered this in a recent issue of The Source Report. Buyers love a bargain – they want what they’ve seen in Monsoon or Top Shop or River Island or Timberland – but they don’t want to pay top dollar. That’s where you come in!
As you’ll know, as a rule I steer clear of branded goods, however I know lots of you really want to get into the branded clothing market and it can be very lucrative, especially at this time of year. There are plenty of UK suppliers who stock ex high street clothing and accessories for men, women and children. You can purchase hugely discounted items and make great profits BUT there is strong competition in this area!
Here’s a live example:
Look at item number 270779734192 – a pretty dress for the party season by the popular and well-known brand ASOS.
It’s available on eBay for £13.99 + £3.99 postage costs – a total of £17.98, but you can purchase the same dress here at a wholesale price in packs of 14 (assorted sizes) for just £7.80 including VAT. Taking into account your eBay, PayPal fees and postage costs you’ll make a profit of approximately £5.05 on every dress you sell.
Not to be outdone, Amazon has also published their own top picks Christmas Toys list, which consists of branded goods but if you can get your hands on some of these products then you should do well! You’ve got Lego, Disney and Fisher Price all making an appearance – try http://www.thetoywholesaler.co.uk if you fancy getting into this market for ‘Super Sunday’ and beyond!
Now, I also want to remind you about ‘Cyber Monday’ and ‘Black Friday’
Black Friday is known to be one of the best days during the run up to the festive season to find great bargains and shopping deals in bricks and mortar stores, with special deals and discounts available and is a very busy day for sales. This year, ‘Black Friday’ falls on Friday 25th November and is immediately followed by ‘Cyber Monday’ on Monday 28th November!
So, what is ‘Cyber Monday’? Well, traditionally this is the day when online sales go crazy. In 2010, this happened on Monday 29th November when online sales rocketed and it’s very likely that the same will happen this year.
So, just to jump on the old band-wagon, I thought that today would be as good a time as any to give you an advance warning and remind you to get your online store ready for the Christmas rush – after all it’s just three weeks until Black Friday and Cyber Monday and only four weeks until we hit that ‘Super Sunday’ that eBay are predicting! Phew – you’d better get your skates on!
But does the rush really start in November?
Well, in my experience as an eBay seller, I would say that yes, a noticeable eBay gift buying rush begins approximately four or five weeks before Christmas (which roughly coincides with those dates I’ve been through above so there must be some truth in all these predictions!) and lasts literally until the last day for guaranteed delivery before the big day itself.
So, anyway, my point here is that it might still be seven weeks until Christmas and another two or three until your sales really pick up, but that’s not when your work begins. No, you need to start preparing right now if you haven’t done so already. After all, you will need to have your products sourced and purchased and your listings prepared for this point. Waiting until the rush begins might cause you to be too late to capitalise on the first couple of weeks of enhanced sales, and you definitely don’t want to miss out. Read my tips for capitalising on Christmas here.