Who is this workshop for?

If you sell on eBay, this workshop is for you! Whether you are an experienced eBay seller or just starting out, the 7 Traits of a Highly Successful Product Line™ applies to your business.

Trends First, Products Second

If you have ever said to yourself

"What product should I sell on eBay?"

You’re putting the cart before the horse!

Before you ever ask the question of

"What product should I sell?"

You must first, look at the trends.

THEN identify products related to those trends.

Additional Trend Resources

To learn more about how to Translate Trends into Products, visit both this free archived eBay Workshop hosted by What Do I Sell.com at:

Link

Learn step-by-step how to Translate Today's Trends into a Profitable Product Line at Link

Trait #2. Successful Product Lines Must Encompass Multiple Levels/Purposes of Products and Foster Repeat Business

A product line must be made up of a line of products – meaning more than one product that you can offer your customers.

So many times I hear people saying that they want “a product to sell”. If your long term intent is selling one product to one customer, one at a time, you are not truly building a business, rather you may have the makings of a great hobby.

Now this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t START with one product. Everyone starts with their first product. But you have to start there with the intention of expanding your inventory to multiple products that will appeal to the same buyers.

Additionally, in order to build a business, your products must be relational meaning there must be an integrated purpose between the items you sell.

Multi-Purpose Products

When selecting a product to add to your product line, it is important to assess a product not only on it’s own merit, but also as one component of your larger business plan.

Not every product will be a product line staple. Some items may serve the function as products you up-sell, cross-sell, use for advertising purposes or use to add value. Or, you may choose to add a product to the mix simply to round out your product line.

Each time you place an inventory order, you should know exactly what role an item plays in your cast of “inventory characters”.

You must focus on the bigger picture.

Trait #3. Successful Product Lines Must Serve a Niche Market

The fastest way to success as an eBay entrepreneur is to focus on selling in a niche.

The concept of selling in a niche market isn’t new. Niche selling has been around for as many years as there have been retail stores.

A niche is a profitable segment of a larger market. When you sell in a niche, you’re focusing on supplying products and services exclusively to that market. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, a niche seller strives to be a unique retailer to a narrow segment of the market.

At What Do I Sell.com, you’ll learn how to find the niche that’s right for you!

For the related (archived) eBay workshop, Niche Profits hosted by What Do I Sell.com, visit:

Link

Trait #4. Successful Product Lines Must be Big Enough to Service a Niche Market Well

One aspect of niche selling that can become confusing, is determining the difference between a niche market and a small market.

A niche market has a global customer base who are interested in buying a particular kind of products.

For example, furniture for the home offices.

A small market has a very small group of interested buyers and is supplied with one or two specific products.

For example, a piece of farm equipment that is used by farmers in only three states.

While catering to a small market can certainly be profitable, to build a large scale business you must have a niche market that are interested in many different related products.

Let’s take the example of the home office niche market.

Home office consumers come from all walks of life. Some may be entrepreneurs, some may be telecommuters. The work out of all different shapes, styles, and sizes of home offices.

But, they all need the same kind of tools to do their jobs. Furniture, office equipment, supplies, lighting, even decorative accessories.

If you sell in the home office supply niche, you have an unending supply of products available to offer your customers.

There are new styles of products coming out all the time. New technologies.

New need arise for the home office that didn’t even exist a few years ago.

New trends come into this niche market – For example, the trend towards office products geared towards women specific designs.

This is an example of a niche that has many products lines. The huge assortment of product lines can serve this market on an ongoing basis very well.

Compare this to the small market product line of one or two products that only appeal to a very limited amount of buyers.

Selling a product like this alone, will not enable you to build a scalable business.