How To Sell Tech Gadgets Online: 10 Tips For Beginners (Part 1)

Author xlxmarketing 21.6.2010. | 17:06

Everyone would like to be their own boss, but most of us don’t have the budget, premises or time to do it! Or do we?

In this blog from Chinavasion.com, we’ll explore how you can kiss goodbye to the suit and tie, or at least have a lucrative sideline when you start selling China’s coolest tech gadgets online with the help of Chinavasion!

People young and old, rich and poor love tech gadgets, right? But how do you start tapping into this universal market?
Actually online selling using internet platforms such as ‘eBay’ or one of the many eBay alternatives is really simple.

Anyone can make the step from being a Chinavasion customer to a Chinavasion reseller!

But to do it well and make a steady profit you will probably want to follow these hints:

 

Check out Part Two of this blog How To Sell Tech Gadgets Online: 10 Tips For Beginners (Part 2) to see the final five tips for beginners.

 

 

1) Decide Where to Sell

 

Getting started on sites like ebay may sound daunting, but believe me; even the most technophobic of technophobes can have an account up and running in 5 to 10 minutes tops.

They all have very clear procedures and all you need on hand are your personal details (I think you know these!) and bank details.

Just click sign up and follow the clear steps (each site is different, so start by taking a look at them to get a feel for what they look like, how they work and what you need to do to sign up).

The procedures will also guide you through setting up each item for sale, such as its pictures and description, which we’ll come on to later…

One thing to remember is to be thorough. Before you list the smallest item online you need to dot your is and cross your ts by making sure you have provided all the contact information customers need, filled out shop policies including those covering returns, shipping, and communications.

Here are some examples of policies from the blog The Secret Of Preventing Negative Feedback On EBay

 

Payment Policy
Only PayPal is accepted
Payment is required within 3 days of winning bid
Items will be shipped within 3 days

 

 

 

Shipping Policy

 

USA shipping only!!
PayPal confirmed addresses only
Items will be shipped by UPS Ground or USPS Priority Mail
We will ship within 3 days of a cleared PayPal payment
UPS or USPS tracking number provided

 

 

Returns Policy
We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee
Returns are accepted – and refunds will be given
Contact prior to sending back for return information

 

 

 

Terms & Conditions

 

USA shipping only!!
Please pay for the item within 3 days
If payment not received by the third day the item will be relisted
We ship to all 50 states

No international sales

 

customer-service policy
The internet is a big big place and eBay isn’t the only place to sell on. If you’re scared of the prospect of selling on eBay there is a number of eBay alternatives to list on. We’ve looked for two years, found more than 130 already and that’s only the tip of the iceberg!

 

2)Know Your Customer

 

These days many people shop almost exclusively on the internet, especially for tech gadgets.

Think about yourself when you are shopping. What do you value?

99% of people value ease and convenience.

The days where people distrust internet shopping are surely behind us, but customers do expect the process to be as easy and convenient as shopping on the high-street.

Therefore, when you’re setting up your e-store you need to consider this:

  • The customer can’t touch your goods, so provide a great description.
  • The customer can’t see the goods in the flesh, so provide really good pictures.
  • The customer may have technical questions in the case of tech gadgets but cannot ask you, so make sure that you have a thorough list of specifications.
  • The customer can’t take the goods home in their hand that day, so make sure that you have a shipping strategy ready to get them to them.

eBay seller
Be there to guide your buyer through each step of the way (image taken from Three Simple Rules To More EBay Sales)Sound like a lot of stuff to get ready? Don’t worry, Chinavasion.com will help you! (More on these points as we go along).

 

3)Research Your Products Before You List Them

 

Lets take becoming a dropship supplier of Chinavasion as an example.

Chinavasion.com offer more than 1000 cool, tech gadgets, but of course you’re not going to resell all of them!
To decide which to sell, study online gadget blogs such as:

  • gizmodo.com/
  • engadget.com/
  • ubergizmo.com/
  • redferret.net
  • hardwearsphere.com
  • mobilewhack.com
  • 7gadgets.com
  • gadgeteer.com

There are many more, simply search for gadget blogs online. There’ll be hours of juicy gadget-related gossip for you and you’ll start getting a feeling for what’s hot.

To avoid wasting hours at this you can subscribe to their RSS feeds and use a RSS aggregator like Google Reader to keep all the feeds neatly in one place.

To learn more about this check out Getting Chinavasion Stock Updates by Email or RSS or What is RSS?

It’s also important that you keep up with your supplier/dropship source to see what new products they’ve got coming our and what other developments are happening in their business.

Chinavasion’s got a new China gadgets feed, a discount electronics page and a stock update feed.

It’s also got RSS feeds for most of the main product categories, just look for the little orange button in your browser:


RSS button location

4) Try before you sell

 

As a dropshipper or reseller it’s also essential that you buy a sample of the items you believe are suitable and play around with them so that you know which items to list and which items to ignore.

You can read a lot about gadgets, but they are made to be used and so by ‘testing’ you can really get a good read on how your customers will feel.

Is it easy to use? Does it perform as promised? Is it cool?

You need to be able to tell your customers about this in your description, and what better way than if you yourself have used their gadget at firsthand?

Don’t worry, Chinavasion.com has an MOQ (minimum order quantity) of just 1 on the vast majority of items, so it’s easy to choose and use your samples.

More on these points later…

 

5)Take Pictures Of Your Tech Gadgets

 

People won’t buy what they haven’t even seen, especially in the case of tech gadgets that they might be showing off to their friends or buying as gifts, so be sure to advertise each gadget with its own professional-style picture.

If customers can see in detail what they’re attracted to, then you’re making it easy and convenient for them.

Clutter and mess in the background are not ok.

Use a decent camera and get some well-lit shots of the item on a plain, perhaps white, background.

For more information on how to make professional photos that will almost guarantee sales check out Francisco Pupo‘s blogs Product Photography 101: Basic Camera Settings Explained and Product Photography 101: Building A Budget LightBox.

The best news is that Chinavasion.com allows our resellers to use our professional product pictures for free! So you don’t need to take any pictures at all! Easy!

Stay tuned because next week I’ll be going over the second half of this list where we look at product descriptions, cross selling and going to your supplier.

Check out our blog at Chinavasion for more suggestions on how to succeed as a tech gadgets seller.

Author xlxmarketing 21.6.2010. | 17:06
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8 Comments

  1. Maggiedelano June 21, 19:13

    This is a very good post for me. I think you should add more video and pictures because it helps visitors 🙂

  2. Simon June 28, 10:41

    Awesome guide. Thanx so much for this Adrian I can’t wait to start selling online now!

  3. DavidYardly June 28, 10:44

    These points r great and can apply to my online sk8bord deck shop 2. thnx

  4. Iwan June 30, 02:55

    Thanks for sharing.. I really fall love on selling product.. Hope I can sell more product..

  5. internet shopping October 10, 05:38

    As we observed nowadays, some of the people will go shopping through internet. Due to the reason that even if they are at home they can feel to choose things that are in department store. Internet shopping will reduce our efforts, save money, and we can have the right one we want to buy. You can pay anything as online payment. So I will recommend internet shopping to all.

  6. Artem Gryb May 7, 23:48

    Hi! My name is Artem Gryb I have a great experience buying goods from China. I live in Ukraine and I’ve noticed that there is a lack of products of your category and I want to make you an offer to open business in Ukraine. Ukraine is developing country and people don’t have possibility to spend a lot of money for expensive goods so if you open a couple of stores here in Ukraine it would be a nice possibility to make good money. I can help you to arrange that. Also we need a service center for your goods.
    If you are interested in this offer you are welcome to contact me.

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