Sell successfully online

Do you want to start a business that is almost guaranteed to make you money? Thought you might.

Selling books on Amazon is simplicity itself.Look through you book shelves are there any books that you could live without?  Sure there are, next the big question.  What sort of condition are they in?  Ideally, you want to be listing books that are in ‘As new’ or better (i.e. new) condition.

Once you have selected a couple of books sashy over to Amazon.  enter the title or the ISBN (the 10 or 13 digit number usually inside the book with the rest of the publisher’s information).  When Amazon brings up the listing you will see that there is a ’sell yours here’ option, take it.

Be honest about the condition, note any marks so that the buyer knows exactly what he or she is buying. Look at the price of the other listings and price yours accordingly.  To begin with chose the ship to whichever country to you live in option.  (If you live in the UK also chose the Europe option as well – ‘cos the shipping is cheap to europe from the UK).  If you do not have a sellers’ account then you will be prompted to register next, but don’t worry it is very easy.

That’s it! Now just wait for thew order to come. What will happen is that you will have an email that says  “Sold, Dispatch Now”.  That will tell you which of your books have sold and that you need to post.

rather than just sitting back, go down to your local charity (thrift) shop and buy  some books to sell.  Remember, you need to buy good quality, good condition books.  I tend to go for non-fiction books, some people sell fiction, it is up to you.  My rule of thumb is that if I could find the book interesting so will someone else.

You can make £40 -50 per week profit quite easily.  Making a replacement income will be more difficult and involve regular charity shop visits, attending car boot sales and auctions but that can come in time. By visiting one regular car boot sale each week I clear £100 per week net profit (that is, after all expenses).

Above all, buying books to sell on Amazon is FUN.

Tim Wood is a dreadful chap.  We should all avoid him at all costs, for the sake of your sanity and bank balance.

Tim, of course, is not a real person, it is an acronym for the 7 wastes as identified in the Lean Manufacturing philosophy.  Although LM is directed at manufacturing, obviously, we can all learn from it, even selling.  These are the wastes.

T is for Transport.

When selling it is obvious that you need to reduce your transportation costs.  Use the cheapest reliable delivery method you can.

I is for Inventory.

If you sell 10 widgets a week and your wholesaler supplies with a 2 week lead time then why ever hold more than 30 widgets?  Holding lots of inventory is bad for your cash flow.  Businesses fail through not understanding cash flow, understand yours and hold the correct inventory levels.

M is for Motion.

Hold everything you need to complete the sale close together.  If you are working from home then you need your stock, postage labels, wrapping paper, envelopes close together to avoid wasting time and motion.  Make completing sales a chore and it will not be long before you stop selling.

W is for Waiting.

In selling terms this is close to Inventory waste.  Understand your suppliers’ lead timescales so that you are not waiting for inventory to complete sales (a sure way to get bad feedback – and bad feedback kills on eBay).

O is for Over Production.

There is an option when using Paypal to create postage labels to print 2 sheets (the label and certificate) or just the label.  Unless you need a certificate of posting don’t bother.  Do not add anything to your product that does not add value, in the eyes of the customer.  You may like the special packaging, but does it add anything for the customer?

O is also for Over Processing.

What records do you need?  I rely on PayPal and eBay records for order details.  I do not need another ledger full of old orders.  I do need a stock list that is updated asI make sales.  That is because I need an easy way of seeing what my stock levels are, and when I have to reorder stock.

D is for Defects.

Obvious but bears saying again.  Defects are deadly, especially if you offer free replacements as I do (and I would recommend you to).  The offer of a free replacement should a product be faulty is good for business, unless you do not keep an eye on the quality of your stock.

A couple of weeks ago I received a nice email from Tony. He called into question my grammar in the free ebook that appears on this page. In particular he questioned the sentence ‘Powersellers think like shops’.  He was entirely right, of course, what I meant was that powersellers think like shop owners.

You may be surprised that I was happy to receive his email, however, my view is that firstly he actually read the ebook and secondly I can now correct the mistake.  He also attached an ebook concerning grammar and there is a link to it here. grammarbible

I was a bit put out to be honest because I wrote a post a little while ago complaining about someone else’s sales page.  It also has to be said that I am a bit of a pedant and enjoyed Lynne Truss’ book ‘Eats Shoots and Leaves’ (you decide where the comma should go).

If like me you are interested in words, their derivation and usage then I would recommend that you visit World Wide Words an excellent site full of interesting and arcane words.

(memo to self, I must run this through the spell checker before posting it…..)

Sell successfully online

What is the point of being a PowerSeller?  Of itself being a PowerSeller does not mean much.  You can sell 100 small widgets a month making no profit and be a PowerSeller, what does it prove?

The point is that buyers trust PowerSellers.  Being a PowerSeller, coupled with a fantastic feedback record  improves your reputation and encourages people to buy from you.

That is the only point to striving to be a powerseller.

Sell successfully online

For the background to this follow this link.

I saw the man who offered me his stock and showed him what I had discovered.  To say that he was surprised would be an understatement.  He did say, however, that he knew the manufacturer of some of the items the company in question sold and knew for certain that they were not counterfeit.

So, the position is that while some of the goods from this wholesaler are legitimate they were prosecuted for selling non-licensed, counterfeit items.  Do I buy the goods that I know to be legit?  The answer is no for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, if they have a record for this sort of activity in the past how much can I trust them in the future?  Also, even if the goods I buy from them are legit if they are caught selling other counterfeit goods my account with eBay could be suspended until I am cleared.

It is just not worth the risk.

Sell successfully online

I have joined the growing band of eBay sellers who have given up on posting items to Italy.

For the fifth time in as many weeks items posted to Italy have gone missing in the post, including some free replacements! It is a shame to have to stop dealing with anyone in Italy but I can not see any way round this. Judging from the eBay community pages it is clear that I am not the only one who has reached this conclusion…..

It is obviously too soon to write off eBay but the signs are there.  While I have been saying that I feel that they have lost focus and that they need to concentrate on their core business Scot WingoBhas been much more pessimistic about their future.  He has written a few detailed articles about the relative strength of ebay and Amazon.  You can read them here and they make sobering reading.