We live our life surrounded by branded products. From items of clothing to the latest electronic gadgets; even the least fashion conscientious of us tends to have some sort of branded goods to our name. In the competitive online world brand name goods aren’t as expensive as they once were, but there is still a big difference between them and those goods that don’t feature a known label.
If you were to head to the Amazon bestseller list for almost any category within the vast catalogue you’d be likely to see brand names dominating the top spots. On almost every page we see the most popular brands advertised clearly, such as this advert for an array of different watch manufacturers.
Brand named goods sell the most successfully on any ecommerce website, and they also sell for a significant amount. On the one hand that makes it sound like branded items would be the best idea for any new seller, but on the other hand the success of these products makes the competition for selling them fierce. As soon as you enter the marketplace where brand names feature you’ll be competing with enormous businesses with huge marketing budgets.
There are certainly pros and cons to sourcing these products then, so let’s consider some of the questions you might be asking yourself if this is an area that you’re wondering about selling within.
Price vs. Profit
It’s certainly true that branded goods will sell for more money than their non-branded equivalents, even if the items in question are virtually identical. Having said that, it’s also true that purchasing the stock in the first place is likely to cost significantly more than purchasing unbranded items. This means that you’ll need to perform some real research as to how much profit you’re actually likely to make. Selling a Coach handbag for £100 might sound like a great price but if your stock cost you £95 then you might do better selling something unbranded for £50 that cost you £40. It’d be less upfront cost for you and actually more profit per item.
If you can source brand name goods for a decent price then there’s definitely the opportunity to make more money, but you’ll need to be really clear on your profit margins to ensure that you don’t overspend on your stock.
Availability vs. Demand
Part of the lure of brand name goods is that they aren’t in such common supply as other products. There’s an exclusivity to owning something that’s expensive and more unique than an item run off an assembly line in its hundreds of thousands of units. Chances are you won’t be able to source as many branded items in one go as unbranded items, meaning your bulk discount buying ability could be reduced and therefore your profit margin.
If you are lucky enough to secure a big bulk order of brand name goods then you should ensure you don’t list them all at once on your ecommerce website of choice. Better to list a couple at a time than a bulk load to maintain the illusion of the availability of said product being low.
Competitions vs. Reward
With brand names being such big business there are likely to be many sellers competing for the top spots. These are unlikely to be small sellers just selling the odd item, but instead power sellers who have access to these goods at a reduced rate. You might find it hard to match the prices that they can offer in order to still retain a profit. The competition could be lower for unbranded merchandise, or for lesser known brands and that could lead to a greater reward for you, the seller.
Where to Find Cheap Branded Goods
It’s really difficult to say whether branded goods are worth the time and effort to sell. Some online sellers do incredibly well out of it, while others try assuming that they’ll always be able to sell a brand and really struggle to make ends meet.
If you are looking to source some branded items to sell on for a profit then one of the best places to start is with a website such as Goofbid. Professional sellers are unlikely to misspell the name of a brand name good, but that doesn’t stop individuals from making the same mistake. There is a special section on the Goofbid website for searching for items that have a misspelling in the title, and this can be an effective way to find a few branded products for a cheap price so that you can investigate with selling them through eBay, Amazon, your own website or any other ecommerce site.
Let’s think of a brand that could commonly be misspelt, something like Adidas for example.
Entering this term into Goofbid returns quite a large number of results, but fortunately we can narrow things down by category to return only those items that fall within Women’s Clothing. All of a sudden we’re treated to an assortment of Mosoon, Monson and Moonson items of clothing.
Have a play with an assortment of different brand names to see if you can find any bargains. You might be able to find some great deals to kick start your brand name selling career.
Creating Your Own Brand
Of course, if you decide that selling an existing branded item isn’t your cup of tea you could always consider branding your own merchandise. Many distributors in countries such as China offer services to add your own branding to their unbranded items before dispatching them to you. You’ll need to think about how best to go about creating your own brand, but doing so could allow you to sell stock for more than you’d get without a brand at all, while working on building customer loyalty and recognition amongst your different products.
This can be a great ‘best of both worlds’ strategy, allowing you to sell your own brand, without needing to fork out a significant amount of money purchasing expensive products at the outset.