Introduction

Hello, my name is Lisa Suttora and I am the Founder and CEO of What Do I Sell.com™. We are an eBay Certified Service Provider that specializes in teaching eBay sellers how to find the products buyers want, locate legitimate suppliers, and sell successfully in the eBay Marketplace.

The holiday selling season is in full swing and there are holiday hot lists popping up all around us.

Retailers and the news media alike are eager to share the information on this year's hottest holiday merchandise.

While many people think this information applies only to holiday sales, every holiday hot list is actually an indicator of up and coming trends for the next season.

Today we will discusses how to use holiday hot lists as a starting point to expand your product line in 2007.

Who is this workshop for?

The information in this workshop is for all levels of eBay sellers. Whether you are brand new to selling on eBay or an eBay PowerSeller, you can use the strategies in this workshop to take this season’s hot holiday products and use them as a springboard to expand your product lines moving forward into 2007.

Every Category Has Emerging Trends

While it may seem like toys, gifts, electronics, and clothing are often the main focus of the holiday season, if you look closely, you’ll see that new products, trends and directions emerge in practically every consumer category at this time of year.

No matter what category you are currently selling in or what product line you sell, in order to start your business or to ensure it’s continued growth, you have to bring new products into your eBay store on an ongoing basis.

The holiday season is prime time for you to pay special attention to what products are being introduced, marketed and sold this holiday season.

Why Look There? Can’t I Just Browse My Supplier Catalogs?

While supplier catalogs and trade magazines are absolutely an important place to find out what the new products are and what products are projected to be hot this holiday season, they cannot provide you with the whole story.

And this in fact, applies throughout the year.

There is one VERY important principal that you MUST live by in order to source products that eBay buyers want to purchase.

“You must read, listen, and watch what the consumers are reading, listening to and watching in order to find out what brands, products, trends and niches people will be spending their money on.”
-Lisa Suttora

Simply put – what your buyers read in the newspaper, watch on TV or find on the Internet influences what products they will buy. If you want to see firsthand what is influencing customer purchases, you must go where the consumers are going.

thanks!

How Paying Attention to Hot Lists Can Impact Your Business

So let’s take this one step further. If looking at Hot Lists tells you what people are buying and what people are being encouraged to buy, you now have a window into the mind and emotions of your buyers.

When you are interested in what your buyers are interested in, right then and there, you have a leg up on the competition.

For Example

Now you may be saying, “Lisa, can’t I just sell what’s on the list and be done with it?”

Well… In a word, no!

Because if you only focus on the products that are on the list, you will only be able to make a “one-time” sale.

For example, Amazing Allysen is the hottest doll this holiday season. Practically every little girl wants to find one under the tree on Christmas morning.

So let’s say you decide that you want to sell the #1 doll on the Hot List. You get some inventory. You sell it. You make a profit.

Now what?

What do you sell next?

If you are only looking at the Hot List as a static piece of information. You’re back to square one. Asking the question “What do I sell next?”

But, if you use the Hot List to figure out what the trends are in dolls, you will see that Amazing Allysen is NOT just a hot product, she is part of a growing trend of animatronic dolls.

But let’s take this one step further.

Because we have one sizzling hot animatronic doll these season, we can now predict that in 2007, that there will be more animatronic dolls coming out. Because Amazing Allysen was such a big hit this holiday season, we will see a ton of companies coming out with their own version of Amazing Allysen.

In fact, we’re already seeing the emergence of amimatronic collectible celebrity dolls such as the Dean Martin, Lucille Ball, James Brown dolls some of which are already sold out. We’re also seeing animatronic Santa Clauses and animatronic pets.

So now what we have done is taken one hot product off a hot list and used it as a springboard to identify a future hot niche!

As a result, you would be well-positioned to start actively product sourcing for animatronic dolls in 2007. Because you can already predict that next year, these types of dolls will be hot.