Wondering how to sell items online? Then you came to right place.
In this article we’ll talk about how to sell items online for passive income!
When you’re looking for ways to make money online, the most common solution is to sell stuff on eBay or Amazon. That’s fine for some fast cash, but not for a long term business.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to sell items online, how to find good deals on products, and where to sell those products for maximum revenue.
In other words, we’ll be talking about how to set up a simple eCommerce business that has the potential to grow into an excellent source of income for you.
Remember, selling items online is not complicated, the difficult part is finding the right products to sell.
And that brings us to our first discussion point on how to sell items online.
How to Sell Items Online:
The story is always the same, a young aspiring internet entrepreneur with dreams of riches starts selling random items on eBay in hopes of creating a successful business.
He raids his attic, storage units, and his parent’s home, in search of products he can sell for a profit.
Collecting a bunch of products at his place, he begins listing them all on eBay and hopes for a sale.
The listings get some attention but very few are sold.
One over-seas customer wants to buy a product but needs it shipped to his doorstep across the world and the shipping fees eat up all the profit from that product.
Busy with shipping items and communicating with customers, our internet entrepreneur realizes he hasn’t earned any profit but his stock is already sold, in fact, he finds himself with less money than he started with.
Discouraged and exhausted, he removes his listings from eBay and decides to pursue another business venture.
Hundreds of people go through the same scenario and give up right before they figure it out.
But they’re were really close to reaching their goals.
They just lacked the motivation and passion to figure out what went wrong!
Here’s what he could have done from the beginning to improve his chances of success.
1. Do Product Research First!
Instead of running around looking for products to sell, our internet entrepreneur should have focused on product research to find which products are hot.
For free, you can start out simply by looking on Amazon.com, Aliexpress.com, Walmart.com, etc. I like Aliexpress’s section for Hot Products to get a some ideas but all their products are knock offs, so buyer beware.
Then once you’ve got a few product ideas, take you research a step further.
There are quite a few tools for product research that you can use to drastically improve your chances of success.
One tool you can use that collects buyer and seller information from Amazon and eBay is called Terapeak.
It’s an invaluable product research tool that has helped hundreds of people find hot items to sell online, check it out.
Do the research and find the products first.
Otherwise you risk trying to enter an over-saturated marketplace!
With the right research you will learn how to sell items online in a much more efficient manner.
2. Find Suppliers Before You List Products!
If you need fast cash, selling the first items that catch your eye is a good way to start.
But if you want to create e-commerce business, then you’ll have to find suppliers for your products, and reliable suppliers at that.
There’s nothing more frustrating than finding out your supplier can’t deliver as promised. I spent 3 weeks in a Ecuadorian village putting together ads for hand made leather goods.
Take a look below, some pretty swanky bags and jackets 😉
However, once I got a few online sales from Etsy and eBay, I found out my suppliers just weren’t ready for international trade and had to cancel the orders.
Point is.. Vet your suppliers!
Finding the right supplier is a challenge, but it can be done.
And there are plenty of websites that let you communicate with factories where you can buy wholesale products.
One in particular is ALIBABA.com and most of the factories are based in China.
The goal is to find a supplier that you can work with for the long-term! Alibaba also has an escrow service to intermediate the transaction.
You should also check out the suppliers website, Google their business name, and communicate with them a few emails before initiating a transaction.
There are even 3rd party services that will go check out their factories and write up a report, etc.
Remember, always order samples first, some factories will let you order free samples. Most require some form of payment, at least for the delivery.
Every thought of selling CBD Oil online? If so, check out our guide to selling CBD Oil Online. You can see how the whole process works from start to finish.
3. Calculate Shipping Fees
This is something that most people don’t think about when they get involved with eCommerce.
But the truth is that the shipping fees can eat up most of your budget and cut into your online profits.
So you need to make sure you know exactly how much you need to spend on shipping before you order from your supplier.
Many times the supplier can help you figure this out or there are even companies that you can hire to manage the shipment, calculate taxes, clearing customs, etc..
The most significant factor that increases shipping fees is product weight.
Size is an issue and must be factored into the equation. Start out with light weight products and see what the factory charges for direct delivery to you or your Drop-Shipper.
Amazon Fulfillment works great as a drop-shipper, but there are many companies that will do this as well.
I personally found that many items I sold on Amazon cost me less to ship using the Fulfillment by Amazon program compared to the post office or Fed Ex.
Click here to get a complete guide to the cost of building an online eCommerce store.
Point is, it’s important to find very light products so you can save on shipping fees.
eBay and Amazon connect you to a global marketplace with buyers from around the world so it’s important to prepare to ship items across the planet if needs be.
4. Create an Attractive Listing!
Once you have a product, it’s time to make the listing and it needs to look good.
Take professional pictures of the item and include all the necessary details.
Chances are there are other sellers who are selling the exact same product so don’t be afraid to check our their listings and see how they do it.
Some people even hire professional copywriters to write the content for their listings!
Need a guide to create attractive eBay Listings, check out this post as I walk you through how to do it correctly.
5. Optimize Your Listing for Search Engine Results
A lot of people don’t know this, but it’s possible to optimize your listings for search engine results so they rank higher than your competitors.
It’s much like trying to rank an article for a specific keyword, a focus keyword needs to be included in the advertisement.
This can be as simple as a product keyword phrase that’s researched on a regular basis.
For keyword research ideas, consider using my favorite keyword research tool, here’s a detailed review.
Keyword research is still important, and if you manage to target a good keyword phrase, your listing will receive extra bonus traffic from Google.
Don’t forget about marketing too, feel free to share your product links on social media!
How to Sell Items Online: Final Thoughts
In this article we barely scratched the surface of e-commerce business but now you know where to start. If you need a cool eCommerce platform, check out our review on Shopify.com.
For further training on how to sell on eBay or Amazon, you can learn from an actual Power Seller that created a detailed eBook and training course.
Once again, if you enjoyed the article please share it on social media and leave a comment below!
Hopefully now you have a clearer picture about how to sell items online and you can get started on the right path.
Remember, it’s about creating a consistent business, not fast cash.
Don’t want the risk of buying products, then do what I did and learn how to use affiliate marketing to create consistent online cash
Great post as always Todd! You give some great tips on how to sell items online.
I think the most important point is choosing the right product and you point people to a tool I’ve never heard of Terapeak, which looks very useful.
After that I would always be concerned whether the supplier was genuine, dealing with someone thousands of miles away, in another country always worries me. But maybe it’s because I have never given it a try.
When I see potential problems choosing a product and supplier I’m glad I’ve stuck with affiliate marketing. There is certainly less risk!
Thanks again,
Peter
Hey Peter,
Very good points. I think you can make the connections with platforms like Alibaba, but you do need to vet your suppliers and see who’s reliable and honest. I think that most of the Chinese suppliers are interested in establishing real business relationships.
That being said, one does need to due their due diligence and really check out that supplier before wiring money. You can however use Alibaba’s escrow service to give yourself extra protection.
All in all, I prefer selling items online through affiliate marketing too. Less risk, work, and hassle.
Cheers,
Todd
Hello Todd
Great post! Thanks for this detailed helpful information. I have done affiliate marketing with Clickbank but I have been really interested in selling with Amazon but have received conflicting information from sources or just part of the puzzle . Again thanks for this extremely straight forward information on how to sell online.
Hi Darrell,
Thanks for the feedback on our post. I think you’ll find that although Amazon’s commissions are on the low site, their conversion rates are much higher and so they may a good affiliate to sell items online.
Amazon has a bit better trust factor since they’re so widely used. Best of luck in affiliate marketing, it’s an amazing way to make money online.
Best,
Todd
I’ve had some odd experiences with Aliexpress, too. It made me check descriptions really carefully. 🙂
Trying to sell my own products online, I realized the importance of optimizing for search engines.
Very good points on shipping fees and attractive listings!
I m thinking about switching to Shopify myself. I am selling my stuff through a WordPress site now and it drives me crazy, although I use an e-commerce theme and plugins.
It’s funny you say that Daniela, for years I’ve said the eCommerce people should use Shopify’s platform for their site and then learn keyword research and to drive targeted traffic to the site.
With this strategy, you create free traffic versus paying for it with Google Adwords or Facebook ads. If you can do this, you can create a lot of online success.
Best,
Todd
This is great post you have. I am a beginner here and I was preparing myself to try my luck with amazon and here i came across your site. I will definitely keep these points on my mind.
Thanks a lot.
Awesome Suprima, if you need a guide to help you sell items online, check out our review of Skip McGrath and his guide to selling on Amazon and eBay. If you want to build an eCommerce site, check out our review of Shopify.
I think both those guides will help out. Lastly, you need to get traffic to your site and I’ve got a free eBook that you can read to learn how to do this.
Best,
Todd
When it comes to selling items online, people almost automatically think of eBay. But I think it might be more beneficial in the long-run for individuals to sell items through their own website(s). I know a couple people who started their online journeys selling items on eBay but ended up going down other paths because the fees were too high. Do you know if the fees are indeed high? And is it worth it for people to build their own websites in order to sell products through those instead?
Hi Matthew,
I would agree for the long term to learn how to target keywords to direct free traffic to your online products (physical or affiliate) versus sponging off the high traffic of Amazon and eBay.
However, when you consider the short term approach, these platforms work extremely well to sell items online. Their fees, ahh.. read this post, it breaks it down, but eBay’s fees are fine if you can price your item right.
You should strive to sell for at least 3x’s the price of the product. So if you can buy and ship each unit for $10/unit, you want to sell for at least $25 to $35/unit.
And if you have a really great staple type of product that you can consistently sell, then you can totally stick to these platforms to run your business.
Eventually you would want to expand this business and learn to drive traffic to your site organically or using pay per click campaigns.
Thanks,
Todd
Thank you for this informative post on how to sell products online.
This certainly sounds like a good idea since drop shipping has created a lot of buzz in the business world.
The ability to make customers get their products without taking the pain to package it is awesome, in my opinion!
Also, could you explain what listing is?
Thanks,
Suhail.
Hi Suhail,
The listing is just referring to creating your product listing in places like Amazon or eBay. So you’ll want to have some product photos, a great description of the product and then all the product details and specifications.
You can also use keywords to get your listings to rank better in Google. And if you have a good listing and great customer service, you’ll get better rankings in Amazon and eBay. You can do that by creating a little letter for each product that a customer purchases.
So after my products were delivered, I’d wait a day or two then send them a nice letter asking for feedback and if the product met the customers expectations.
To research keywords and keyword competition, I use Jaaxy. You can read this article to get a better idea of what you’re looking for in great keywords.
Thanks,
Todd
Todd, what a comprehensive article on how to sell items online! These are the 5 important tips that every beginner needs to know about. The good thing about having you own e-commerce is… you will be able to build your brand, long-term relationships with the customers that trust your products and most of the time, the business will grow each year.
I did e-commerce before, did the product research, looked for trustworthy suppliers but ended up choosing affiliate marketing instead.
It is just to expensive to ship worldwide from my country, another factor is I am scared to stock up products.
Therefore, the points you discussed : weight is a big part to determine the shipping cost. No matter what, e-commerce is the trend now, probably I should read through your article again and find the light. Drop-shipping may be a better choice for me.
Hi Jenna,
I think you’ve seen the light. I too feel that affiliate marketing is the better route for myself. I loved the instant gratification of online sales, but the risk is real and if your products aren’t hot, your out a good chunk of change.
As a matter of fact, I just hauled over 200 iPhone 5 cases to the dump a few weeks ago. The product life cycle on that product was on the down slope and so it was a loss of $2,000 dollars. I made up that money in my sales and much more, but you get the picture.
Compare that with affiliate marketing, all I have to worry about is getting the right product in front of the right audience. No inventory, risk, nothing. Just my time, thoughts, and motivation to help people within my niche.
For those who want the same, get your education on and start building a better tomorrow!
Best,
Todd
Excellent information here, many people miss the boat when it comes to selling online and this really helps give them an advantage upfront. Also, the page about spotting scams is great. Many people get caught up in the get rich fast schemes and it is hard to spot what is real.
Awesome Emily, thanks for your feedback. That’s the intention, to give those eCommerce folks a leg up on how the process works and if it’s really for them.
I think everyone needs to know what they’re getting into before putting together a financial or time commitment. So hopefully this post does the trick.
And thanks for the feedback on our How to spot a Scam post, I think it’s good for people to be aware of all the bs programs out there. You’ve got to put the initial time and effort into an online business and it must provide value to a niche audience, if it doesn’t do this, it’s most likely a scam trying to take you money.
Best,
Todd