Online Business: What Shall I Sell???

smithson5

Hello everyone

I'd like to set up an online business; first open an Ebay business account, then an Ebay shop then get my own website.

The problem is I just don't know what to sell!! I planned on selling fancy dress costumes, but I bought a load of 'the most popular outfits' according to the wholesaler (and they've been in the business 30+ years) put them all on Ebay at fantastic prices and havn't sold a single one! (nothing wrong with my ads etc either).

So I don't know whether I should forget the fancy dress stuff now (there did seem a lot of other sellers on Ebay) and set up selling something else.

I used to work with a lady who had a successful online business selling printer cartridges, and someone else making around 1k a week selling kinky boots lol! Kate Middleton's mum started her multi million pound party accessory online business up from her garden shed, and the man with the huge distribution warehouse around the corner from me started up selling screws on Ebay. So I know it can be done, I just don't know what to sell! I don't expect to be the next Carole Middleton or have a multi million pound empire, just something for an extra income as I'm really struggling at the moment.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Many thanks, Richard

somethingcorporate

Research the market and find a niche, something you can sell cheaper/better than the competition.

anna2000

Made in error, sorry!

smithson5

Thank you but I haven't a clue how to 'research the market' - how would I go about doing this?

matt_beveridge

Do you have any hobbies or anything you have a real passion in?

I'm waiting to start my online business, but my OH and I are renting and can't run business from the property, so everything is on hold for the moment.

If you have a real passion in something it can really help you turn it into a business. In my opinion people are willing to pay that little bit more for something if they know the seller can communicate with them on a personal level and know what they are talking about.

Matt

Hoody

In a similar situation, would like to go back to being self employed. But every time i find something i would like to start selling i can never find a supplier that will provide a product at a price where there is some margin left to make a decent profit that would enable me to make a living out of it? Looked at some of the Chinese sites but without going out there it's difficult to know who are the scammers amongst those advertising and what the quality of the product is like?

Kayalana99

smithson5 wrote: »

Hello everyone

I'd like to set up an online business; first open an Ebay business account, then an Ebay shop then get my own website.

The problem is I just don't know what to sell!! I planned on selling fancy dress costumes, but I bought a load of 'the most popular outfits' according to the wholesaler (and they've been in the business 30+ years) put them all on Ebay at fantastic prices and havn't sold a single one! (nothing wrong with my ads etc either).

So I don't know whether I should forget the fancy dress stuff now (there did seem a lot of other sellers on Ebay) and set up selling something else.

I used to work with a lady who had a successful online business selling printer cartridges, and someone else making around 1k a week selling kinky boots lol! Kate Middleton's mum started her multi million pound party accessory online business up from her garden shed, and the man with the huge distribution warehouse around the corner from me started up selling screws on Ebay. So I know it can be done, I just don't know what to sell! I don't expect to be the next Carole Middleton or have a multi million pound empire, just something for an extra income as I'm really struggling at the moment.

Any ideas/suggestions?

Many thanks, Richard

Congras for getting your foot out the door so to speak :-)

Unfortunalty...I highly doubt anyone on this fourm is going to help you think of an idea..if they had an idea they would probally do it themselfs.

Fancy dress...I looked into this back in the day and my profit margains (based on what sites I was looking at the time) were only about £3-£5 an outfit. When you take into account the postage prices have just risen, and the returns :mad:...fancy dress are the worst for returns I once brought a size 14 outfit that wouldn't fit my size 6/8 sister... and you have to be very picky about the outfits you buy orignally if you want to keep returns down. One return would of killed all profit + half of another so I figured it wasn't worth it in that department but if you can find a large enough profit margin it could be worth it.

On another light you have this stock now..so it makes sense to sell it! If you want to PM me a few links I'll have abit of a snoop and give you feedback if you'd like.

Kayalana99

matt_beveridge wrote: »

Do you have any hobbies or anything you have a real passion in?

I'm waiting to start my online business, but my OH and I are renting and can't run business from the property, so everything is on hold for the moment.

If you have a real passion in something it can really help you turn it into a business. In my opinion people are willing to pay that little bit more for something if they know the seller can communicate with them on a personal level and know what they are talking about.

Matt

I don't want to be mean but thats a stupid excuse...how is he going to find out? If you don't do it now are you ever going to? I ran my ebay business from my last rented house and it said in the contract I wasn't allowed to.

Oh..and when we purchased our house this year guess what? I'm not allowed to run a business in it. I think this is quite typical clause as well when you buy a house to live in.

Its something you do from a room in your office...not like your washing cars on the street or something and annoying the neighbours.

soolin

The hardest bit of an online business is getting and choosing stock, the rest is easy.

Unfortunately no one's going to give you an idea if it is any use to them, the last thing someone wants is competition. I therefore echo the advice given above, start out with something you know and try and grow the idea.

I started out with sic if and collectible items as that is my hobby , the market died but by then I'd had people ask about other things, and then that grew into other things and by watching my competitors I can keep an eye on what is actually selling out there . I change my stock frequently, as soon as I get too much competition or the prices drop too far I move into a new area.

toastking

soolin wrote: »

The hardest bit of an online business is getting and choosing stock, the rest is easy.

Unfortunately no one's going to give you an idea if it is any use to them, the last thing someone wants is competition. I therefore echo the advice given above, start out with something you know and try and grow the idea.

I started out with sic if and collectible items as that is my hobby , the market died but by then I'd had people ask about other things, and then that grew into other things and by watching my competitors I can keep an eye on what is actually selling out there . I change my stock frequently, as soon as I get too much competition or the prices drop too far I move into a new area.

Whilst I would agree with the point that nobody is going to give away an idea that'll make money - Surely the hardest bit is selling said stock. Look long enough and ask enough people and eventually you'll get stock of what you want. Not difficult but very time consuming.

I would say the biggest problem is identifying something that people want, at a price you can sell it for.

Patchwork_Girl

matt_beveridge wrote: »

Do you have any hobbies or anything you have a real passion in?

I'm waiting to start my online business, but my OH and I are renting and can't run business from the property, so everything is on hold for the moment.

There's a way around this - I never put my address out there as a business either due to renting/contracts. When I wanted to start doing something that would need my address to be 'out there' I rented a virtual address locally to add to my websites. I know this will not look as good to someone who is a combination of internet savvy and suspicious, but it's the best I can do under the circumstances. It's a real office which I attend in person so no different from a lot of businesses really! I wouldn't want to use my home address anyway - like many other business I'd prefer to use a seperate 'work' address wherever possible.

I had worked for myself from home/online for years before this (not the same as running a business from my home) with no problems.

To the OP: you are probably not going to find the information you need here. There are forums that deal in wholesale buying/ecommerce, etc. but even there it can take a bit of digging and you will need to out in the research for yourself. For the costumes - might it be worth a car boot/market stall near Halloween/Xmas if you are stuck with the stock?