Well, I’ve been attempting to ease back into work mode nice and slowly over the past two weeks, but it’s been rather more full on here than I anticipated after the festive season.
Over the past two years, The Source Report has fast become one of the best ‘one stop resources’ to go to for help and advice on all things product sourcing and online selling – and not to mention it’s the home of those all important product, supplier and profit calculations which I personally research and upload to the site regularly – and it continues to evolve!
Now, on the subject of TSR, I regularly receive emails via the ‘Ask a Question’ button on the site – which is proving very popular. Quite often, as you would expect, questions refer to the sourcing of products. Usually branded products.
For example someone might email me asking if I can help with wholesale supplier details for ‘Braun Electric Tooth Brushes’. The brand here is ‘Braun. Or I may get another request asking me for details of suppliers of ‘Laura Ashley Clothing’ – here the brand is ‘Laura Ashley’ and so on.
But rarely do I receive requests from TSR members asking for the supplier details of unbranded products in a specific niche – for example ‘Cycle Lights’ or ‘Dog Coats’. In which case I would direct people to specific suppliers or websites that stock these products but where the brands are not well known or the products are completely unbranded.
Of course I am happy to help with information concerning both branded and unbranded products but it would be fantastic to see more sellers considering the unbranded route because when this strategy is implemented properly it can really increase your profits.
In fact I am currently putting together an exclusive webinar for members of The Source Report that covers this very topic in detail.
The truth is though that we actually sometimes speak in ‘brands’ without even realizing it. One of the most obvious examples of this is the brand ‘Hoover’, how many of us take the vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard and announce that we are going to do the ‘hoovering’? Most of us I imagine because it just slips naturally off the tongue – unless you are my eldest daughter who wouldn’t even know where to look for the vacuum cleaner!
But how many of us actually own a ‘Hoover’? Some of us might own a ‘Dyson’, or a ‘Henry’ or an ‘Oreck’. But we don’t say ‘I’m just going to do the ‘dysoning’ or the ‘Henrying’ do we? Because a brand name – ‘Hoover’ – is already stuck inside our heads!
Now, due to the nature of selling online – particularly on eBay – rather than deciding to source ‘branded’ items from wholesalers to resell you should consider looking at sourcing ‘unbranded’ items. Now you might say that I’m contradicting myself here because if a brand name is easily remembered (like I’ve just stated with the ‘Hoover’ example) then what’s the point in trying to sell a similar but completely unidentifiable product?
Well, because there are far more advantages to selling un-branded products (which I will explain in a moment) than there are if you go down the ‘branded’ route.
Why Sell Un-Branded Products?
Because, quite honestly, this is the altogether more easy route!
- Source your products anywhere! Un-branded products, i.e. generic items that can be sold with no brand name or if you are feeling really adventurous can be branded with your OWN invented brand, can be sourced almost anywhere in the world at extremely competitive prices. Think China and the USA particularly.
- No easy comparisons. Buyers cannot easily compare like for like with un-branded products. This is to your advantage as it means you remain competitive.
- Trounce the competition. It is easy to totally annihilate the competition in your chosen niche because there is no set or recommended price that your un-branded product must be sold at.
- Unlimited listings. There are no listing restrictions on un-branded products. You can list as many un-branded items as you like in as many different niches as you like.
- No restrictions. There are unlikely to be any VERO (Verified Rights Owner) restrictions – which can be a problem with branded items.
So as you can see, you will have the potential to be much less restricted with regard to your choice of products, your supplier sources and also your profit potential if you choose to sell un-branded products. And fewer restrictions mean it will be far easier to grow your eBay business.