In this series, I'm am sharing three tips that will prevent you from spending hours wandering aimlessly around big box retailers trying to find products to resell. So far I've discussed the importance or research and knowing your target numbers.
If you haven't read my previous posts you can find them HERE and HERE. As a refresher, retail arbitrage is how many sellers start product sourcing. It's the first step up from sourcing one-off items (single items that you aren't likely to find again) at thrift stores and garage sales. RA allows a seller to find multiples of a product and in many instances continue to buy and sell that item over and over again making it a replenishable product. RA isn't as easy as walking into a store, selecting a random item, putting it in your cart, buying it and listing it for sale on Amazon or another marketplace. RA takes work.
TIP #3: Pick ONE Section and Scan EVERYTHING
It doesn't matter how big or small or how much it costs. Scan it. You are educating yourself about a product line, category, and/or niche. This provides you with two things
1) You will know when an item is new the next time you walk down that aisle. It will pop out at you even if it doesn't have the word NEW plastered on it like so many products do these days. You also won't need to scan that aisle again for a while. This time spent up-front will save you tons of time down the road.
2) You will find products that people are willing to pay top dollar for that you would never have scanned otherwise. By scanning everything you're not just what you THINK people want. It took me a while to realize that I wasn't buying for what I want but for what Amazon buyers want. Just because I wouldn't buy it doesn't mean I can't sell it.
You don't need a scanfob to make this happen. It will make it faster, but it's not essential. You can find out more info about the ins and outs of using a scanfob here. All you need to do is pick up an item, scan the barcode and repeat. You can even add profitable items to your cart while you're at it.
If you are low on funds or want to do more research before pulling the trigger, then take a picture with your phone of the item on the shelf with the store price tag. Next time you sit down to do product research pull up these photos and analyze the product further. I have a designated folder on my desktop for these images.
Scanning an entire aisle can be an overwhelming task. 20 to 40 feet (or more!) of shelf real estate is a lot product to cover. If you are the kind of person who will shut down and not even try when a task seems too big, break it down into smaller sections. Pick 10 feet and scan every product in that section.
Scanning a smaller section also works really well if you only have a few minutes to source. I frequently have 30 minutes of time during the week where I could either sit and troll Facebook on my phone or spend 30 minutes searching for products to resell. Today I hit a 10-foot section in the Target toy department.
Later today I'll be jumping on Periscope to answer your questions about picking a section of a store to scan for products to resell. If you haven't downloaded Periscope [ iOS | Android ] to your smartphone or other mobile device (iPad, tablet, etc), make sure you do it before 2:30pm EDT so you're ready to ask your questions. You can follow me @amy_feierman.
If you can't catch the scope live, you'll be able to view it for 24 hours after broadcast using the app or at periscope.tv/amy_feierman
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