The coronavirus pandemic has caused numerous businesses to be forced to close down either temporarily or permanently. Because of this, a lot of people also got laid off from their jobs. This resulted in some resorting to online businesses. Needless to say, having an online business has been quite in demand now more than ever.
There are those who use different social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to sell their goods. Then, there are also those who use online marketplace platforms like Amazon and eBay to sell either their self-made goods, or goods that were purchased from retailers.
The latter is what we will be talking about within this article.
What Is Selling Through Arbitrage?
According to Investopedia, “Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset's listed price. It exploits short-lived variations in the price of identical or similar financial instruments in different markets or in different forms.”. In short, Arbitrage is the act of purchasing a service or goods for resale instead of personal consumption.
Given this definition, selling through arbitrage means that you have to look for a product that has an acceptable price, purchase it, then sell it at a profitable rate. It may sound simple as A-B-C, but there are those little intricacies that you have to keep an eye on if you really want to be successful with this type of business.
The good thing is that our Academy members are always up-to date with all the latest updates and strategies within the Amazon selling world. We make sure that no one gets left behind, and that we ensure our members make the most out of their businesses.
Why Reselling?
You might be thinking to yourself, why reselling is the more viable ecommerce model versus others. You might also think, “why can’t I just create my own product instead, then sell it online?”. Look, the reality is you can sell whatever you want online. There will always be a market for whichever product, but our goal here is to make the most out of the goods you will be selling.
Because of that, reselling or selling through arbitrage is the more viable option. Here are the top reasons why:
The reselling model is the easiest to build knowledge with, Once you’ve wrapped around your head on what the processes are, then, everything will just be a cycle.
It doesn’t require you to shell out a huge capital. Just have enough funds to purchase your first few products, then you are good to go.
You have the opportunity to sell multiple types of products at the same time. Your products can vary from perfumes, to apparel, to grocery items and the list goes on.
The reselling model also has minimal risk. You always have something to get back to if ever you are stuck in a rut: other sellers’ experiences in certain situations.
Lastly, with the reselling model, because you are only shelling out minimal capital, you are guaranteed to get a faster return on investment.
Amazon vs. eBay
There are different platforms where you can sell your goods. You can use social media such as Facebook Marketplace, and even Instagram. You can also sell through ecommerce platforms like Amazon and eBay. These different platforms have their own pros and cons.
However, we will be focusing on the two most popular ecommerce platforms: Amazon and eBay, particularly Amazon. These two are the biggest and most well-known online marketplaces as of late, but Amazon is the better platform. Why? Let me tell you why.
Compared to eBay, customers are guaranteed to get an authentic and original item if they purchase it from Amazon. Amazon’s mission is to be the most customer-centric company, and part of it is by providing authentic and original products to their customers. The most telling difference between Amazon and eBay is that Amazon has a program called Fulfillment By Amazon, or FBA for short.
With this program, sellers can just send their products to an Amazon Fulfillment Centre, then, Amazon will be the one to fulfill customers’ orders. A seller can just consistently send their goods to Amazon. You don’t have to worry about the hassle of packing and shipping the item to your customer. Amazon will do it for you. Of course, it doesn’t come for free. There’s a little fee you have to pay for once you enroll with the FBA program. Sadly, eBay is still developing this program as of this writing.
The Basic Framework For Reselling
Sellers have different strategies on how they manage their arbitrage businesses. Within our Academy, we teach our members a thorough framework on arbitrage selling. We give them hints and tips on how to better optimise their processes, which in turn would make their goods more profitable.
Because of it, we are sharing here with you the basic framework we also follow.
Sourcing: Source and analyse your products.
List and Prep Them: Once you have purchased your products, it’s now time to list them on Amazon, and prep them.
Send Them to Amazon: As soon as your products are properly prepped, it’s now time to send them to an Amazon Fulfillment Centre.
Watch and Wait For Them to Sell: Finally, all you have to do is wait for your goods to be sold.
Summary
At the end of the day, should you choose to have an ecommerce business, it is completely up to you on what types of items you will be selling. You should sell items that you are comfortable selling. The very good thing about the Arbitrage model though is that there are existing sellers who have already experienced what you will experience in the future. You can just search through Google and use the right keywords to find out how to go about certain situations.
There are also different online communities where like-minded people share experiences and strategies. Again, just search for relative keywords online, then join these communities. It wouldn’t hurt to be part of an Amazon arbitrage community especially when you’re just starting out.
The Arbitrage Experts Academy, or the Academy for short, is one of these communities. Here we share a lot of valuable contents (strategies, training videos, live training, webinars, live Q&As, etc.) with our academy members. Contents that we personally tried and tested, and have given us guaranteed success. If you are interested to learn more, do not hesitate to book a free consultation call with us through this link.
Lastly, whether you go with reselling, or sell your own product, there will always be a market for you. You just have to learn how to market your products well to get the most out of it.
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Need More Help? Here Are Some Additional Resources
Get Coaching: Want our help growing your eCom business? Apply for our Arbitrage Experts Academy Programme Here.
Free Training: How to start, systemise and scale your online business. Register Here.
Book a FREE Strategy Call: Get 1-2-1 support from the OSC Team to devise a tailor made plan you can follow to achieve scale. Click Here.
Get Expert Virtual Assistants: Want us to build your team of transformational VAs and free your time? Learn more here.
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