Other product sourcing techniques
Businesses for sale
If you would prefer an improvement project rather than a new start-up, there are always great opportunities to purchase already established businesses. I search several ‘business for sale’ listings on a regular basis. I have bought two established but struggling businesses in this way and using the internet marketing techniques detailed later, turned them into profitable income generating companies.
Examples of this type of listing can be found at the following sites:
http://www.businessesforsale.com
http://www.daltonsbusiness.com
Check eBay Listings
Still struggling! Look at eBay auction listings paying particular interest to any auctions that attract high volumes of visits and/or high numbers of bids. Busy auctions obviously suggest that the product is sought after and will therefore sell well if you can find a regular and decent supply of that product.
Local Businesses
Look around you; everything you see, apart from the general flora and forna, is for sale. If it is sold then there must be a market for it! I often look for inspiration from local trades people, businesses in my locality that do a good local trade but lack the knowledge and desire to take their product / service onto the internet. Often relationships can be built with these businesses where, if you can build an internet market for their product, they will hold the stock and in some cases complete the fulfillment of the sale. For example, I discovered a business that manufactured and sold handmade ceramic tiles. I was able to negotiate a deal with the business owner where I received a 33% discount on their product range and when I made an internet sale I provided them with the customer and order information and they would complete the sales process. As it was my site that took the money from the customer the business owner raised a monthly invoice for all completed orders. After expenses my business made 25% on sales and held no stock and provided no fulfillment. We no longer run this operation as we were able to sell the website to the owner of the ceramic tile business after approximately 18 months on-line. We made good profits in the interim and finished up with a generous lump sum when we sold the website on.
For further ideas, a lot can be learned from searching the top-500 sites and looking at the movers and shakers lists on Alexa. You can also use Alexa to analyze competitors and potential markets for traffic-trends to indicate how profitable particular product lines might be.
http://www.internetretailer.com/, which despite the similarity in the domain name is not associated with us, is another excellent source of information. If you are looking for proof that internet sales are on the increase, look no further. They also provide regular articles that provide some invaluable market sector analysis, which is great for helping to choose new and exciting product lines.
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