Don't Throw That Trash Away! Sell it on eBay!

We have been having a blast over on my Facebook group discussing all the wild and crazy things you can actually sell on eBay - things that are considered trash or worthless items lying around your home or backyard. Here are a few of the items mentioned:

Empty toilet paper rolls
Empty paper towel rolls
Bottle caps
Pine cones
Acorns
Sea shells
Leaves
Gourds
Tumbleweeds

Shawn started the thread by posting this completed listing of empty paper towel rolls that sold for $16.95:

Talk about pulling money out of thin air! These items are often used for craft projects. Take a look on Pinterest and notice what people are  making with these types of items. Many craft and DIY enthusiasts go to eBay to buy their supplies.

There are opportunities all around you to make money, you just might not know it. Speaking of opportunities right in front of you, the next "How to Sell Groceries on Amazon" class will be held on Saturday August 17 at 12 noon Eastern time. Groceries are a great product to sell online because they are repeatable and customers often buy multiples. For example, an Amazon customer bought 5 of an item yesterday:

This item costs $8 at a grocery store 6 miles from my house, it sells for $25, and I can get as much of it as I want whenever I want. How amazing is that? The holiday selling season will be upon us soon - think about adding seasonal food products to your online offerings. Register for the grocery class here.

Also, my new online ecommerce school will be opening soon! I am assembling an amazing team of teachers to share their vast knowledge and specialties in the world of ecommerce. Sign up to receive email updates about teaches and classes here. There will be something for everyone regardless of experience level.

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How Kraft Foods Made a Mortgage Payment for me in 2012

Some Amazon sellers are skeptical that groceries are a lucrative product to sell on Amazon, and rightly so. I discovered the grocery category to be quite profitable because of the consumable nature of food items. Buyers will purchase multiples of the same item, return to restock, and I am able to build my grocery business around what my local stores offer. I much prefer a product that I can restock for an indefinite time rather than having to discover new items each time I want to sell something. I can figure out a product once, replenish it hundreds of times, and create a steady stream of income. Furthermore, there is always something new and improved, a different flavor, scent, or product offering every time I go grocery shopping. Not only can I replenish what I already know is working, but it is very easy to find new products that will work based on what I have learned about selling other items.

The first mental stumbling block is the question, "Why would anyone even buy groceries on Amazon? Why not just go to the store and get them?" I certainly can't speak for every grocery buyer, but I have paid attention to feedback comments and shipping addresses and drawn a few conclusions. I notice that many grocery items go to large cities like Manhattan, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. I believe the city dwellers enjoy the convenience (both time and physical effort) of having groceries shipped to their door. I also see larger multipacks (6-8 of an item bundled together) going to more remote locations in states like Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Alaska. I am wondering if these products that I can easily find are not so easy to find in other states. I have checked Google Maps to see where these products are being shipped, and many times it is a resort, game ranch, national forest, campground, or bed and breakfast. I am wondering if small businesses in these industries are using Amazon as their food supplier and taking advantage of the Prime shipping. Finally, about 35% of my grocery items go to APO/FPO addresses. Obviously, our military service personnel and their families enjoy their Prime accounts and like to order goodies from the USA. (Hint: Think microwaveable foods, items that won't spoil in the heat, and are portable in backpacks.) Bottom line: Don't assume everyone, everywhere has access to what you see every day in the grocery store.

I wanted to share my experience in 2012 selling a few grocery items and let you be the judge. Here are a few screen shots of some keyword searches I ran on my completed sales from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.

I sold a variety of food products made by Kraft. The average profit per item is $5.35 (average cost per item is $2.86). This screen shot shows 184 orders, but actually 228 Kraft products sold because some of those orders included more than one unit. My total profit on grocery store items made by Kraft in 2012 was $1,219.80. My mortgage payment is $1,002 - so Kraft products paid my mortgage once plus $219 left to pay my car insurance one month.

I had 87 orders for grocery items with "vanilla" in the title. Many of these orders also contained multiple units.

I had 151 orders for grocery items with "cinnamon" in the title. Many of these orders also contained multiple units. Based on this information, I can deduce that cinnamon is a popular flavor and I am always on the lookout for more cinnamon flavored items that will work.

I had 174 orders for grocery items with "cake" in the title. Many of these orders also contained multiple units. And none of the cake items were Hostess products. I did not sell any Hostess products on either eBay or Amazon. (Hint: These items are not prepared cakes!)

I had 117 orders for grocery items with "cereal" in the title. Many of these orders also contained multiple units. I sell cereal in both single units and multipacks of 3-4 boxes. Cereal comes in about a million variations and is a very popular food product, so this category always presents opportunities.

I had 109 orders for grocery items with "salt" in the title. Many of these orders also contained multiple units. You can get more basic than salt, right?

On some of the Amazon selling groups, you will see sellers complaining or criticizing the sale of groceries. First, they can't believe buyers actually buy groceries online. I have just disproved that theory. One downside to selling food products is that buyers cannot return them if they are not happy with the purchase. Amazon does not accept food returns - so the refund is given to the customer and sellers do not get the food product back. I can live with that. I have no problem selling a $3 box of cereal for $12.50 for a profit of $6 - 100 times - and have to refund 2 or 3 buyers a month. The $600 profit is totally worth the loss of a few boxes of cereal. Works for me.

Add-On status can hurt you if you are selling groceries, but there are workarounds. I have learned to make my bundles larger, and therefore more expensive, so they don't go into Add-On status. I have also learned to sit tight and wait if another seller's low price drags an item into Add-On status. They will get frustrated, drop their price lower and eventually sell out, and they usually don't return. Sometimes I am the only seller left on the listing and sales then resume at my original price point. (Learn more about Add-On status here.)

I want to encourage you to give grocery items a try on Amazon. Don't believe everything you read on networking groups - let's face it, a lot of people just go there to complain. You can get sucked in to all that negative drama, or you can follow others who make it work. I am proof that this works and you can make a good living doing it. In fact, I can't go to the grocery store anymore to pick up personal items for my family without either restocking or discovering new items to sell. It is almost too easy.

If you are interested in personal coaching to learn how to add grocery items to your Amazon inventory, contact me at eBaycoach @ yahoo.com for more information. I can teach you how to do this in just a few lessons over the phone. Once you discover how to make money selling groceries online, you won't mind running out for milk or bread anymore!

Sign up for my Amazon Grocery Class here and learn how to use the resources available in your area (grocery stores!) to make thousands of dollars on Amazon every month.

Happy selling!

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Amazon FBA Workshop - Atlanta October 30, 2012

The next Amazon FBA Sourcing Workshop in Atlanta is scheduled for October 30, 2012. We will visit a huge grocery store and either a Walmart or Target where I will show you how to source items for Amazon FBA. Seller Engine has been gracious enough to provide a free download of Profit Bandit for iPhone or Android to attendees. Group size is limited to 5 people, so hurry and make your reservation. This class will fill up fast!

This is a great time of year to learn with so many seasonal products and unique buying opportunities available. One day workshop will focus on showing attendees how to source retail items for Amazon FBA using various techniques including smart phone apps, understanding retail marketing and positioning, identifying consumer trends, and more. The purpose of this workshop is to teach participants how to select profitable items to sell using Amazon’s FBA system and concentrates on items that are repeatable. Instructor will explain:

1. Basic scouting tips and shortcuts.

2. Types of items that sell well on Amazon FBA and why.

3. Items that appeal to international buyers and why.

4. Items to avoid that may be problematic in the FBA system.

5. Overlooked niche items.

6. How to examine shelf positioning, advertising, and hidden clues that indicate a product may be a good seller on Amazon.

7. How to move away from the herd of Amazon FBA competitors using creative strategies.

8. How to use both free and paid smart phone apps in combination with each other for more thorough and faster sourcing.

9. How to handle questions from other shoppers and employees if purchasing a large amount of inventory.

10. How to secure larger amounts of profitable items using your smart phone.

11. How to identify discontinued items vs items temporarily taken off the market and understand your selling window.

12. How to get deeper discounts on repeatable items.

13. How to scout with poor cell phone service.

Find all the details here, and submit the form to see if you qualify for the workshop.

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Strategy for Using Grocery Stores as a Source for Inventory

Grocery stores can be a gold mine for sourcing both eBay and Amazon inventory. And its not just about hitting the clearance section - there are other creative ways to find inventory that work for selling online. Grocery stores are a great way to find products that you can sell consistently with very little (or no) competition. It just takes some searching to find products that work.

When you use your regular grocery store to source products, you don't feel the pressure to over-buy like you might at Big Lots or a closeout store. These products will be available to you any time you need to restock. A grocery store can be like your own personal warehouse with thousands of items to choose from any time you want.

Did you realize that some stores flag items on the regular shelves with special closeout tags before moving them to the clearance area? If you are only checking the designated clearance aisle or kiosk, you won't find these deals - you are leaving many opportunities behind. Closeout products are offered at a reduced price because they may not be moving well at that particular store, the manufacturer may be doing a packaging change, the store may be resetting the shelves for a new season, or a number of other reasons. These markdowns happen every single week.

If you know what to look for, and use a scouting tool or have internet access on your phone, you can find these items (and check the online selling prices) as you do your regular grocery shopping. The photo above shows a closeout item on the regular cosmetics aisle at a local grocery store in my area - look at the price cut and look at how many items are available to purchase. Score!

You may not think selling groceries is very glamorous or profitable, but consider these points:

Not everyone has access to what you have in your stores or geographic area. This is the #1 assumption that causes sellers to walk right by profitable opportunities.

Groceries are consumables and buyers will purchase multiples - consumables are where you get those wonderful quantity buyers!

Grocery items are easy to find and abundant - grocery stores stock thousands of different items and are constantly adding new products.

More and more consumers are buying online - they like the convenience of having merchandise delivered to their door, they save time and gas by avoiding having to drive around, and Prime customers on Amazon get free shipping, so they utilize their membership whenever possible.

Baby Boomers are loving the convenience of online shopping, especially in the winter months - trips to the grocery store can be physically demanding.

Online shopping can be less expensive and is definitely less hassle than regular shopping.

Knowing what the shelf tags mean and how the store positions the items is crucial to finding these opportunities.

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