Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22 in Community Help Boards in Community

This topic is locked - uploads are not allowed.

Last Post Jul 22, 2008 1:40 PM by: deirdre@ebay.com

Replies: 88

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jun 29, 2008 11:10 PM

Report

Topic: Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays

Host: whatdoisell
Date: Tuesday 07/22
Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time
Location: Workshop Board

Description: The holiday selling season is just around the corner and buyers are heading online to shop earlier than you think! But will you have the products they want? Creating the right product line mix is essential to your successful holiday sales. Without a correctly balanced product assortment, you'll be unable to offer your buyers the products that excite them, attract buyers to your listings, or increase your final sales tickets through cross-selling or up-selling. Please join Lisa Suttora Founder/CEO of Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com and featured speaker at eBay Live! 2008 Product Sourcing Panel as she discusses how to put together a winning product line for the holiday season and make this your best holiday selling season ever!

Cheers,

Deirdre
eBay Community Development

.lw-paginator-jump { display: none; visibility: hidden; } Pages: 6 - [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next ]

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:30 AM

Report

Introduction

The holiday selling season is just around the corner and buyers are heading online to shop earlier than you think! But will you have the products they want?

Creating the right product line mix is essential to your successful holiday sales.

Without a correctly balanced product assortment, you'll be unable to offer your buyers the products that excite them, attract buyers to your listings, or increase your final sales tickets through cross-selling or up-selling.

In today’s workshop we’ll discuss how you can choose a holiday product line that will excite your buyers, attract them to your listings, and inspire them to buy more merchandise from you with more frequency!

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:31 AM

Report

Hello and Welcome!

My name is Lisa Suttora and I’m the Founder and CEO of WhatDoISell.com™.

I look forward to spending the next hour with you discussing how to put together a winning product line for the holiday 2008 selling season!

The workshop content is directly below. After you’ve read through today’s workshop, I’ll be here to answer your questions about putting together your holiday product line..

If you’d like me to look at your store and give input on your product line, I can do that as well!

Lisa Suttora
Founder
Link

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:31 AM

Report

Prepare Now for Holiday Sales

Even though the weather is sizzling hot outside, online shoppers have turned to thoughts of back to school and fall shopping.

And that means the holidays aren’t far behind!

Many retailers begin their holiday planning for the coming year in January.

They attend trade shows and read the trade publications to put their fingers on the pulse of what shoppers will be buying the following year.

And even though this workshop is taking place in July, you still have plenty of time to prepare your inventory for the holiday selling season.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:32 AM

Report

When is the Real Holiday Season?

Most of the time when you hear people talk about the holiday season, you’ll find people referring to buyers coming to eBay in November.

And while the Monday after Thanksgiving, also known as Cyber Monday (the biggest online shopping day of the year) brought a record number of visitors to eBay which earned it the #1 ranking of all online shopping sites visited, there is more to holiday selling than that.

While it is true that this is a peak sales time, if you only consider November-December as the holiday season, you’re limiting your scope, missing out on several other holiday selling opportunities and in the end, limiting your sales potential!

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:33 AM

Report

Holiday Season Selling Calendar

Most people think of the holiday season as spanning November and December, however leading up to and following the official gift giving season are several other holiday selling seasons that you should be preparing for.

The list below will give you an expanded view of what the holiday selling season really means.

Let’s look at the seasonal selling opportunities that begin mid-summer:

Beginning Mid-July and running through the end of January we have:

• Back to school shopping
• Fall shopping
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Gift giving season (Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza etc.)
• Post-gift giving trade in/trade up purchases (Late December - January)
• Gift certificate redemption season (Late December - January)
• New Years
• Fitness (January)
• Organization (January)
• “Start Fresh” related products (January)

Now you can clearly see that the holiday selling season is NOT that short period from November to December, but rather a solid 6 month selling season that represents a variety of different “holidays”.

This puts a whole different perspective on the opportunities available to you as an eBay retailer.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:34 AM

Report

Select Your Season

If you are new to holiday seasonal selling, don’t try to tackle all the selling seasons at once! Pick one or two seasons to focus on first and really dig in and do those well.

Next year, you can expand your holiday season inventory to include more selling opportunities.

Use your Inventory Planning Notebook™ to compile the information outlined in the next steps.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:34 AM

Report

Your Holiday Product Line

There’s no doubt about it, an in-demand holiday product line drives sales! But how do you put together an assortment of products that your buyers want?

How to you choose the products to stock that will inspire your buyers to purchase more from you each time they shop and return frequently to do additional shopping?

The answer lies in your holiday product line.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:35 AM

Report

What is a Product Line?

Before we jump into the specifics of building a holiday product line, let’s talk about the purpose of a product line and how it impacts and increases your sales.

A product line is an assortment of products designed to appeal to the same customer base.

For example, if you sell in the organizational products niche, your product line will be purchased with one type of customer in mind – people who have an interest in organizational products, getting organized, streamlining their home or office, beautifying their home or office or buying for someone who has those interests as well.

You wouldn’t carry crab pots in a product line designed to appeal a target market interested in home or office organization. Nor would you carry basketballs.

Your product line will encompass multiple products, brands, styles, and price points, but they will all be targeted at the same customer market.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:35 AM

Report

Your Holiday Product Line Blueprint: 8 Essential Products

There are eight different types of products to include in your holiday product line mix. Each fulfills a very specific and important sales function in your business.

Your product line should be made up of the following types of products listed below.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:36 AM

Report

1. Product Line Staples. Returning Favorites With a New Twist.

These are the (‘meat and potatoes’ products) that you sell on a regular basis.

The first and most important building block to your holiday product line mix is to stock your store with returning customer favorites – those proven winners that you’ve sold well all year ‘round BUT with a new twist.

This means you’ll want to incorporate new styles, new colors, versions etc. of the products you are know are popular with customer. But bring them the most updated, fresh versions of those products available.

During the holidays, customers are looking for the comfort of proven winners but with a new twist.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:37 AM

Report

2. Products Brand New to the Marketplace

During the holidays you must satisfy your buyer’s hunger for the new and different. Now more than ever, people are looking for “what’s new, what’s fresh, what’s cool”. They are looking for compelling design and innovation.

All year long, manufacturers are busy creating new/exciting products to unveil for the holiday season. (And this applies to practically every category of products.)

Take a look through your supplier catalogs and look for the new products that are being introduced into the marketplace. Better yet, call your supplier and ask them what new products they are offering for this coming holiday season. Ask them for their recommendations.

Keep in mind, consumers are looking for the latest and greatest gift. Giving “new to market products” makes the gift giver look good in the eyes of their recipient.

Do your trending research to find out what’s hot, what’s new, what’s up and coming in your product category.

Then make sure you have a representation of those products for sale this holiday season.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:38 AM

Report

3. Cross-sell products. Companion products to your product line staples.

The holidays are THE time of year when everyone wants to add a little “something” extra into that special gift package. And it’s up to you to make sure you stock your eBay store with those additional add-on or cross-sell products for your customers to choose from.

For example, if you sell baby clothes, a cute snuggly stuffed animal might be the perfect item for cross-selling.

Selling electric razors for the man on their list?

Carry an assortment of great selling after-shave or anti-fog mirrors for the bathroom and make that additional purchase almost a no-brainer for your customer.

The key here is that you are doing the PRE-SHOPPING for your customer. You are thinking through what products are a complimentary fit for your product line.

You’re getting into the mind of the buyer and going through the shopping process in their head.

“If they buy product A, what other products might they also be interested in?” Then you make these products available to them.

This way, when Joe/Jane holiday buyer come to your eBay store and buy ‘product A’, products B, C, and D are right there waiting for them and you’ve made the cross-sell!

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:38 AM

Report

4. Up-Sell Products. High-end, deluxe products.

The holidays are THE #1 time that a buyer is likely to upgrade to a better quality/more expensive product, almost without thinking about it.

If you’re not carrying deluxe/high end versions of your products, you’re leaving money on the table.

Higher ticket price products always sell better during the holidays. If it’s a gift – people will justify buying a more expensive products. And when holiday buyers are in “shopping mode” they are more likely to splurge on themselves as well.

Look at your returning favorites, or the new products or seasonal/holiday products category and see which of those products also have a high-end version of that product.

By carrying high-end up-sell products, you’ll be in a position to increase your final sales ticket and the total value of each sale.

Member Workshop: Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays - July 22

Jul 22, 2008 10:39 AM

Report

5. Advertising products. Designed to get people to click on your listings and into your eBay Store.

Shopping online is a keyword driven business and this is true even more so during the holidays. Buyers come to eBay with popular products in mind, searching for them with specific keywords.

Therefore it is important that you stock some of this seasons more popular products, solely for the purpose of attracting customers to your business.

Think of the kinds of advertisements you normally see in your local weekend newspaper. Stores always advertise at least one or two “hot” products either at full price or on sale.

These products are what are called “loss leaders” – products being sold not for the purpose of profit, but rather for the purpose of getting buyers INTO the store.
Once customers get to the store, they see all the other products that are featured and begin their shopping in earnest.

The same holds true for your eBay product line.
Featuring products for advertising purposes attracts new buyers to your listings and brings increased exposure for your business.

Page: of 6

.lw-paginator-jump { display: none; visibility: hidden; } Pages: 6 - [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next ]

Information Central

Welcome to the Workshop Board!

Educational Areas of Interest

New to eBay? These courses will give you a quick overview of how eBay works, how to register and how to buy with confidence. Get started with these free tutorials

How to Buy These courses will cover the basics of searching, buying and paying for your items.

How to Sell - These courses cover how to create a sellers account, sell an item, accept online payments and keep track of all your selling activity on your own My eBay page.

Increase your Sales - These lessons will help you take your eBay sales to the next level - covering marketing, optimization and eBay Stores.

Worldwide Brands eBay Workshop collection by Colette Marshall (free eBook)

Be sure to check out Lisa Suttora's (whatdoisell.com) Product Trends 2008 Report

For more details about the upcoming events, as well as an archive of past workshops, please click here!

The Chatter - eBay's official Community blog for interesting posts by and about our members and staff.

Visit our

eBay Education page! eBay is excited to bring you an expanded menu of educational tools and opportunities--from online tutorials, to recorded seminars, to eBay University classes offered around the country. Check it out!

Please see The eBay Marketing Announcements Board for details about any of the topics listed below, and The eBay System Announcements Board for system updates and information!

New to eBay Boards? Try a visit to our Community Discussion Boards Help and Welcome Center .

Want to visit another board? You can view our Community Overview Page or select from these lists:

Community Help Boards:

Category-Specific Boards:

Feedback Forum | Discussion Boards | Groups | Answer Center | Chat Rooms | Community Values

About eBay | Announcements | Security Center | Resolution Center | eBay Toolbar | Policies | Government Relations | Site Map | Help

Copyright © 1995-2009 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of the eBay User Agreement and Privacy Policy.

eBay official time

hosted by LiveWorld