eBay Resellers: Avoiding The Nightmare Before Christmas 2010 (Part 1)

Author xlxmarketing 2.8.2010. | 09:00

Calling all eBay resellers! Don’t get caught in the nightmare before Christmas with Chinavasion’s (admittedly early) guide to achieving maximum yuletide profits and having yourself a very merry Christmas.

 

Christmas is the single most important time of the year for any retailer, regardless of where or what they sell, as billions of people worldwide struggle to grab bargains for their friends and loved ones. Ever-popular are tech gadgets, which is where Chinavasion come in!

 

Ask yourself, do you want a slice of this market though?

 

So you do want to cash in at Christmas? Good. You might think that August is a little early to start to talking about Christmas, but think again. All of the malls get their decorations up at the start of October now and you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ve already been researching like crazy in order to catch the latest trends and be ready to cash in before the big day! Why should your online store’s size hold you back from following suit?

There are several seasonal snags to be aware of, so read on to maximise your Yuletide profits rather than shedding customers like a Christmas tree sheds its needles:

Seasonal Snags For Tech Gadget Sellers
 

  • Research What’s Going To Be Hot In Advance

Before Christmas arrives you already want to be offering the year’s top selling tech gadgets, but you don’t have Santa’s army of elves to make them, right? Worry not, who needs elves when you have the Chinese! There are some pretty easy ways to detect this year’s techy-trends which simply require a little time surfing the net! So fire up that PC and let me explain.

Firstly, you’ll want to check some of the biggest gadget blogs from around mid-year, to start getting an idea of what’s buzzing. Try ‘gadgetblips,’ engadget,’ ‘redferret,’ ‘gizmodo,’ and ‘wired’ for starters. They regularly rate and review the latest, greatest tech-gadgets.

It’s worth mentioning ‘Google Trends’ as well, as this nifty piece of software allows you to check what people have been searching for over a period of time. If you check the example below you can see that most people were searching for digital photo frames over the holiday period last year. This coincided with them being a big seller for Christmas 09, so get with the trends with a little help from web behemoth Google!

Only you know exactly who you’re selling to (your market), but bear in mind what they buy from you i.e. if you sell a lot of camcorders, then you’ll want to focus on finding hot, new camcorders to fill Santa’s sack!

Secondly, you can try good old Chinavasion’s blogs to catch up on the latest goodies coming out of China. We regularly post tech news and gadget blogs, and any tech gadget retailer worth their salt knows that good profits are to be found on Chinese tech!

Thirdly, keep your eyes and ears open for the latest tech buzz. All it takes is a trip into town and you’ll be bombarded with media pushing the latest tech gadgets – Sony, Canon, Apple etc all excel in creating a buzz for their forthcoming products, but these are high-value products that are difficult to sell at a profit for small retailers. Rather, think about which good-value products you can sell which are similar to the big players’ offerings.

Chinavasion have a full range of tech-gadgets available at wallet-friendly prices that are guaranteed not to leave you feeling the grinch over Christmas! Let’s look at a comparison:

‘iPhone’ / ‘N900’ / ‘Desire’ / ‘Bold’ / other branded smartphones
Average cost: US$700
Usual specs: large touchscreen, wifi, mp4, android/windows/OS, camera, GPS, choice of apps to download,
LOCKED TO ONE SERVICE PROVIDER
VS
Chinavasion Smartphones
Average cost: US$200
Usual specs: large touchscreen, wifi, mp4, android/windows/OS, camera, GPS, choice of apps to download,
UNLOCKED, READY FOR ANY NETWORK
 

Now, you don’t have to be a whiz with numbers to see where the money can be made here! Basically, prices on the newest handsets from large manufacturers are fixed, so if you sell them you’re forced to sell them at the same price as everyone else or make a loss. So go East! Chinavasion’s prices give you a lot of playing room for margin and you can say “baubles” to the big boys and make yourself a tidy profit rather than pay for Steve Jobs’ kids to go through college!

 

  • Think About Your Stock Levels

Losing orders due to lack of stock is a sickening feeling, so don’t wait until the night before Christmas to safeguard your supply!

Most online tech gadget retailers don’t hold much or any stock, especially dropshippers. Usually we’d say that’s exactly right, as here at Chinavasion one of the great things we do is that we hold the stock and deliver for you, but (and it’s a big one), Christmas is the only time when we rip up the rule book and advise you to bring in stock of your ‘hot sellers’ or at least to order some in advance.

So how should you proceed? Let me explain.

 

  • July / August: As we said, this is the time to start checking out this year’s trends to get a handle on what you’ll be selling. Take a look at last year’s hot gadgets, comb the net and media for this year’s and try and guess what type of volume you will need to buy for the upcoming Christmas based on what your customers usually buy.Make a budget for your Christmas stock. This will help you buy enough of each item you decide to go for. (It’s recommended to try to stretch out sourcing over three-four months rather than trying to buy everything at one time.)
  • September – October: Start gradually bringing in stock while it’s still plentiful and there are no delivery delays. As with all tech gadgets, you should now have time to test the new units to make sure they are not faulty and order replacements if necessary.
  • November – December: It’s time to get on your game face! Call your customers to action by email, phone, text, blog and any other way! Remind them to buy Christmas presents a little earlier to avoid disappointment, which will cover them and you.

Don’t miss part 2 for some more tips about how to prep your customers to beat the postal rush, how to offer good customer service and an early Christmas present – our top 5 Christmas 2010 tech-gadget picks. You heard them here first!

Author xlxmarketing 2.8.2010. | 09:00
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