How to tell what's selling?

Tips on ways to research?

[dickbaker]

I finally found a distributor who drop-ships items. These items are accessories related to the widgets I have content pages for on my site (I don't sell the actual widgets, though).

Given the time it takes to create pages for these accessories, I'd rather go with the ones that are in demand.

Does anyone have a technique for figuring out what's hot and what's not?

Thanks for any replies.

[ByronM]

The easiest one is ol' amazon movers & shakers & top sellers.

[edited by: ByronM at 9:13 pm (utc) on Dec. 8, 2007]

[lschmidt]

First, make sure this distributor is a REAL distributor. Real distributors or wholesalers will require a tax id and sellers permit - they NEED this information to be able to sell to you without charging a tax. I'm asking this because it appears as if are not currently set up for ecommerce. Or do you already have everything set up?

Second, some would call it unwise to venture into a market you don't have any first hand knowledge in. Research is always good, but surely you must already have some of this knowledge?

Third, you could hire cheap labor to perform data entry for you - solving your problem.

Fourth, if this distributor is indeed a REAL distributor they will give you guidance on what items are hot. They too are in the business to make money. They want you to have as many sales as possible.

[dickbaker]

Thanks for the replies.

The distributor is a real distributor. I've already given them the Federal EIN for my corporation, as well as my state reseller permit number. They do not sell to anyone who doesn't have a resellers permit.

I already know the product lines well, so that's not a problem. The problem is that my site appeals to a broad array of subsets within a particular hobby/sports niche. I'm trying to figure out which items would have the widest appeal. The Amazon suggestion was a good one for helping with that.

As for data entry, I'm still a believer in static HTML pages for individual models. It takes a lot more time, but it's given my site great traffic (nearly 300,000 visitors a month and well over a million page views).

I'll just have to wait and see if my decisions are right or not.

[lschmidt]

Does your market have any related forums out on the internet? If so, just read around those and you can get a good idea. Many of those people are the type who buy online regularly so that's also a bonus.

About your static URL concern...what cart do you use? Many shopping carts have an option to use SEO friendly URLs (.html). Or you can usually find add-ons or plugins that provide this feature. You will need mod_rewrite installed with apache though.

[dickbaker]

lschmidt, I do hang out on a number of niche-related forums, so I take into account what posters on those forums are talking about.

I'm just getting into this, and without a budget, so I'm using Google Checkout for now. I can't justify spending money on a shopping cart if this effort isn't going to pay off.

As far as static HTML pages go, I've been creating them for this site and other sites for years. I do SEO work for other companies, and it's a lot easier for me to write an HTML page than it is to deal with the various shopping cart systems out there.

Besides, I've had very good luck with getting sites ranked. Why mess with success?

[ytswy]

A lot of ecommerce platforms have a "best sellers" feature. Now obviously individual stores may fiddle with this (ie putting products they want to sell on them) but platforms like oscommerce by default will be honest about it (oscommerce will also helpfully break it down by categories).

By cross-referencing different sites selling the products you're interested in you should be able to get a fair idea of the high volume lines.

[adder]

ytswy, you are right about this fiddling. Speaking about osCommerce, I once had a shop where I managed to code the best selling section to show items I want it to show. I do not personally know a seller who is honest about his best-sellers, whatever platform he uses.

As to Amazon, recntly I started to doubt it's ratings as well. I have a merchant account with Amazon and as an insider, I can tell that Amazon is an old mess. They cannot seem to get anything right, especially when it comes to selling books. For example I have a product which has never been sold through Amazon (and never will, becaus it is rub**sh) yet it holds #8,000 rank in books section. How? Why? Don't ask me!

I sometimes get valuable information browsing through Froogle; eBay is a good place for research too, because you can ALWAYS see which items get bids and which don't.

[sniffer]

As far as static HTML pages go, I've been creating them for this site and other sites for years. I do SEO work for other companies, and it's a lot easier for me to write an HTML page than it is to deal with the various shopping cart systems out there.

Besides, I've had very good luck with getting sites ranked. Why mess with success?

I hear ya!

Having said that, I'm not sure why you wouldn't use a cart on the back end and just put all products up there and see what sells for yourself. What sort of numbers are we talking here?

[dickbaker]

Sniffer, right now I just started adding a few products. I think I have 34 at present. And no sales yet, but the items I have on the site have a narrow appeal within my niche. It will take a few days to get pages for the more generalized items created.

I'm using Google Checkout for now. I realize that's not as professional as a dedicated shopping cart, but I don't want to sink money into something unless I think it will pay off.

[sniffer]

Makes sense. Even though you have many visitors you may need to wait a while to discover what they will respond to. Make sure at the very least you have a return policy, privacy page, real phone number all visible. Good luck

[ByronM]

I'm using Google Checkout for now. I realize that's not as professional as a dedicated shopping cart, but I don't want to sink money into something unless I think it will pay off.

Sounds like you need to step back and do a business plan. Nothing wrong with testing the waters but even a basic business plan will help guide you into measuring any success or failure of your idea and get you thinking about the overall business side rather than just seeking revenue by what sells.