eBay:
What Should I Sell?
There is an
art to picking profitable products. It's not just what you want to sell
but rather what will sell. Unless you pick a product in demand in the
marketplace, you will fail. A fundamental principle of the capitalist
system is "supply and demand". It represents a delicate balancing
act between "what people want" and how much of "it"
is available.
Every Christmas,
we see one toy that everyone wants. One year is "talking Elmo"
and the next year it's something else. But, it never fails to occur.
Because everyone wants "it", so "it" is in high
demand. If the supply of the product isn't sufficient to meet the customer
demand, prices soar, as do profits for the people selling them.
You could hope
you pick one of those products and make a lot of money in one season,
or you can be smart and have a profitable business all year round. How?
Understand trends in our society and how they help you predict the products
which are or will be in demand, now and in the future.
Current Trends
In American Society
By reading and
watching current news, we should be able to spot trends. These trends
will have an impact upon people and therefore, the products they need
or want. For instance, some current trends in the United States are
as follows:
Americans
are fatter than prior generations (particularly children)
Baby Boomers
(a very large potential market) are getting older. Many are in the 50s
or 60s.
More and more
people purchase online from the security and comfort of their own home
Americans
are more security conscious since 9/11
Travel by
car or recreational vehicle is up over previous years
Diabetes is
making major inroads into the general population
These are just
some of the trends impacting our culture now. We need to take those
identified trends and make some assumptions about them. With these assumptions
come product decisions, profitable product decisions.
Using a Trend
to Pick Profitable Products
Let's choose
the Baby Boomer trends upon which to focus. We know that the Baby Boomer
Generation represents a large, and very wealth, segment of the current
American society. If we choose to focus upon this group of consumers,
we know we have a large potential audience. More importantly, we know
we have an audience who can pay.
Determining
the products we will offer starts with making some assumptions about
our targeted market. What does that mean for the Baby Boomers? We need
to take what we know about that market segment and then make some assumption
based upon that knowledge. Let's try.
What We Know:
What We Can Assume:
We know they
are getting older. We can assume they don't like that. We know they
are fatter than prior We can assume they don't like that generations.
and want to do something about it.
Let's just look
at those two trends and how they help us choose products. If this generation
is fatter than the last generation, we can assume larger size clothes
are needed right now. Is that true? At eBay, plus size women's clothing
sold for a total of $90,903.37 in the last 30 days! There's a profitable
product selection for the present.
If we assume
they are fatter and don't like it, they must want to do something about
it. What might they do? Exercise or diet. What does this mean for possible
products? Exercise equipment or diet pills. Is this true? At eBay, exercise
equipment sold for a total of $1,125,144.50 in the last 30 days and
weight loss pills sold a total of $130,795.34 in the last 30 days! Two
more profitable, "in-demand", products at eBay, right now.
Choosing the
right product for a profitable business does not have to be difficult.
Just follow the four easy steps; analyze, assume, test, and choose.
You simply have to read and watch the world. Look at leading news articles
and magazine stories. What appears to be uppermost in the minds of potential
consumers? What assumptions can you make about the trend? What product(s)
does that translate to? Sell that product and you will earn money. Continue
to follow those four steps and you will be profitable for a long time.
Michele Schermerhorn
has over 30 years experience in the business world and over 12 years
running her own successful online businesses. She is President of Online
Business Institute Inc. (http://www.obinstitute.com).
Online Business Institute Inc. exists to "Create Successful Online
Business Owners One Person At A Time". They run regularly scheduled
free online seminars.
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