Secrets to SELLING PROFESSIONALLY at Flea Markets TRADE SHOWS Craft

Flea Markets, Trade Shows and Craft Shows are probably the most underrated businesses. When we opened our "test market store" for Worlds Sexiest Wholesale we chose to sell at a Flea Market / Trade Center. Everyone I spoke to laughed and rolled their eyes at the venture. - But end the end, I got the last laugh.

The idea of a flea market being for "junk" is so 1980's. Its 2010 and flea markets have become hot places to get authentic designer merchandise and save a bundle. Flea Markets can be a very lucrative business; far beyond garage sales and/or selling on eBay. I wanted to compose a series about how to PROFESSIONALLY sell at Trade Centers / Flea Markets, etc.

If you are looking to resell our items through channels outside of the internet / eBay, Flea Markets, Trade Shows and Craft Shows can be an excellent way to generate income at a very low cost.

A spot at a Flea Market will range in price from $10 to $200 a week, depending on location of your spot and size. We recommend spending time at the flea market prior to paying for space. Examine traffic patterns and see where people tend to “gather”. You will want to pick a spot that gets a lot of foot trafic,is visable and also is not next to a direct competitor.



SECRET #1 - Making the Most of Your Space
When geting ready to set up your space, consider the full amount of spance! Your space is NOT limited to a table top! BUILD UP! BUILD OUT! Making the full use of your space is going to allow you to pack the full amount of products into it.
Instead of a flat table top, use shelving or create layered tiers so that all of your items are visable. Instead of just relying on a 7 foot table, get pegboard or any kind of wood that you can find to build a tall “wall”. Then hang shelves or pegs for clothing/purses.




Secret #2 - Hang it!
If you are strictly selling clothing, consider a clothing rack as opposed to folding and setting them on a table. A clothing rack can be purchased for around $10 and allows you to display your full selection. If your for-sale clothing is folded and placed on a table, browsers will not want to “ruin” your folded piles so they will pass you by! By investing in a $10 clothes rack you will be able to hang everything up; making browsing easy and increasing sales!



Secret #3 - Protect It!
If you are selling items like purses, you can also use clothing racks. When we do trade shows we have multiple clothing racks that we ziptie the handles of our purses to. This allows the purses to BE SECURE FROM THEFT and also displayed. Potential customers can easily browse all of our selection without actually holding the item.
If you are selling perfumes; NEVER put your stock on a table! Your products will get stolen faster than you can say “Theft”. Instead, use one perfume in each scent as a “tester”. Keep the others on display behind plexi glass or hidden from view.



Another BIG secret to flea market/trade show success is BRANDING. If you are selling Victorias Secret, you need to let customers know from a mile way that you have these products. This is where Victorias Secret PINK tote bags come in handy. Hanging a few large totes that read “VICTORIAS SECRET” across them in giant print can catch the attention of a passerby in an instant.

NOTE: Be careful not to infringe on COPYRIGHTS. If you hang a printed sign with the Victorias Secret logo, you are walking a thin legal line being that you are representing yourself AS Victorias Secret – WHICH YOU ARE NOT. However, if you have totes that display the branding, you are not insinuating that you ARE the company, you are simply displaying totes.

Keep you eye out for our Guide to Professional Flea Market Success coming August 2010! Over 50 unique tips and tricks to making a fortune off flea market selling!

eBay Versus iOffer, Amazon & Other Auction Sites: Which is Best

If you are looking to sell items online, it is best to use the site(s) which will allow you to make the greatest amount of profit.

eBay is by far the most popular site because it has been known for its auctions. eBay is typically the first site to come to mind when online auctions are mentioned. This is likely due to eBays multi million dollar branding and marketing. eBay has truly dominated the auction industry.

But selling on eBay comes with a price. You are going to pay a large percentage of each sale in exchange for being able to offer your products to “the world”. eBay fees can eat up 25% ofevery sale; making it difficult for sellers with a small profit margine to be truly successful.

Amazon, iOffer and other sites also offer users the opportunity to list items for sale; most with lesser fees than eBay, but also lesser traffic.

WHO IS eBAY BEST FOR
eBay is, unfortunatly, the ultimate place for the “one week auction”. If you want to sell items rapid fire, eBay is pretty much the only choice. Of course you can use a site like CraigsList that allows you to post “For Sale Ads” at no cost, but then you have burden of waiting on customers to show up, hoping they pay with legitimate cash (or a check that doesnt counce) and also having to deal with customers that want to negotiate even the lowest of prices. By using a3rd party like eBay, you are allow eBay to collect your funding and ensure its legitimacy for you.

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WHO IS iOFFER BEST FOR
Sites like iOffer can be great for users that have tons of the same product to list (relists) and arent in a giant rush to sell the items. iOffer, Amazon and other non-eBay sellers DO get sales, but the downside is that they are not as immediate as eBay.

OTHER SELLING METHODS
You can also opt to sell items via trade shows, craft shows, flea markets and with your own website. If you are going to operateon a larger scale (like a permenant spot in a flea market), consider getting a merchant account so you can accept credit cards. But if you areonly looking to sell once a month or irregularally, I would recommend spending the money on one.

FREE Tips TRICKS to SELLING on eBay for Maximum Profit

Many of our customers resell our products on sites like eBay and inquire as to how they can experience the best results. We decided to publish some articles with helpful tips and tricks to selling on eBay, iOffer, Craigslist and other channels.

To begin, when selling on eBay you want your items to sell for as close to retail (if not above retail). The first thing you want to do is know your opponent.
FACT: The majority of eBay sellers will purchase an item and sell it the second it arrives at their home. An overabundance of the same item = low sale price.

So instead of launching your items in the middle of an ocean of the same item; be smart and hold onto your product until the competition has depelted their stock.
Remember, most eBay sellers are “small time” – meaning they are not giant businesses with lots of stock of the same item. It generally isn’t a very long amount of time that you will have to wait; maybe two or three months. Waiting two or three months to make triple the amount of profit is a very wise decision.

Next, when the time is prime for your listing; you want to make sure that your listing stands out. AVOID using photographs of the item that you find on other websites! You DO NOT want your “company” to be confused with other companies. Although it is easier to “steal” someone elses photography, you can end up in a legal mess as well as having confused customers. Lets say, for example, the company whose photos you are using is offering a free gift with every purchase or is in the middle of a free shipping promotion; if you are using that companies images, a buyer can easily expect you to give the same “special offer” – which you may not want to do.

Take unique, professional photos of your items. Make your items really stand out amongst other listings. A photograph goes a long way. Spending the time to make it look nice will reflect in your total earnings.

After your photos are taken, it is time to write a great listing. Be very specific as to the size of your item, the color (if applicable) and how the item is used. Remember, just because you are holding the item doesnt mean the potential buyer has ever seen it. If you are listing a shirt; be sure to explain the feel of the material. If you are listing a perfume or body lotion; describe the scent to the best of your ability.

The third step to successful listings is your pricepoint. As ageneral rule of thumb, on eBay, you will want to mark your cost up 25% to make sure that your fees are all covered. Remember that you are going to pay a closing fee plus a Pay Pal fee. These two fees alone add up to around 15% of each sale. A 25% markup will make sure that you do not take a loss on your item.

Item Price Versus Shipping
You can always tack a few extra dollars onto “Shipping” to help lower your eBay listing fees.

We have experimented with “Free Shipping” and have found absolutely NO evidence that it “increases sales”. In fact, we have found the complete opposite to be true; a lower pricepoint with higher shipping sold for more than the other way around. – But feel free to try it for yourself. If you need to sell an item for $10 to break even; try one listing with a $4.99 starting bid and $5.01 shipping, then, make the next listing for $10.00 with free shipping. Or, you can even try a penny starting bid with $9.99 shipping.

Lastly, you will need to decide when you want to list your item and how many days you want it to be bid on.

We have found that Sunday to Sunday and Thursday to Thursday auctions work well. However, one of our top buyers who is a eBay powerhouse makes her sales run Monday through Monday. Again, it is best to experiment; what works for one person may not work for the next.

The Importance of Store Displays and Branding

Careful brand management, supported by a cleverly crafted advertising campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay remarkably high prices for products which are inherently extremely cheap to make. This concept, known as creating value, essentially consists of manipulating the projected image of the product so that the consumer sees the product as being worth the amount that the advertiser wants him/her to see, rather than a more logical valuation that comprises an aggregate of the cost of raw materials, plus the cost of manufacture, plus the cost of distribution. Modern value-creation branding-and-advertising campaigns are highly successful at inducing consumers to pay, for example, 50 dollars for a T-shirt that cost a mere 50 cents to make, or 5 dollars for a box of breakfast cereal that contains a few cents' worth of wheat.

Branding can be achieved in numerous ways. If you are looking to buy branding merchandise and save money, I suggest looking on eBay. WorldsSexiestWholesale.com also carries branding merchandise for various companies; Ed Hardy, Victorias Secret, BCBG, Betsey Johnson.

Can a Free Website HURT Your Business?

As we know, a website is a key factor to any business; even if you don’t actually “sell” things online. By having a website you are able to tell the world about your products or services. You also allow customers in your area to find out about your business without having to place a phone call or visit. Even if you don’t do online retail, having a website will double or triple your sales *if* you have the right kind of site.

There’s always the option of buying a website. You can have someone create a website for you for $250+. The more “fancy” you make your site the more it will cost. OR, you can do what so many small businesses are doing these days and get a totally free website. Free websites, in my opinion, are the way to go, especially if you are doing minimal to no online retail. With a free website you will be able to give your customers limitless information about you, your company, your products/services, location, hours of operation and more. It’s a great way to showcase new products as you bring them in or post specials you are offering.
The problem with paid (and free) websites is that most people don’t know what the best kind of site to have is. In reality, you don’t need an expensive site to have the “best” site – just make sure you avoid the biggest mistakes –

1. One-Page Websites. A lot of businesses that are new to the online world will opt for a one-page website because it seems sufficient. In reality it’s basically worthless. A one-page website is often called a “squeeze page”. It’s generally used by businesses that want to manipulate buyers and make them “impulse buy”. One-page websites contain very little information – just enough to get a customer to want more immediate info. While this scenario may work temporarily for scammers, it’s not a good idea for a long term business. One-page websites are not very informative. Even if you attempt to load it full of every piece of info you can, it becomes confusing and hard to navigate. It is proven fact that a hard to navigate / confusing website is a total loss for business.
In addition, a One-Page website has virtually no way of ever getting found in search engines unless you run a spammy marketing campaign.

2. 3 – 5 Page Websites. All a 3 – 5 page website says to a customer is “I’m cheap”. Although designers will offer these sites; they are NOT a good bang for the buck. A 3-page site is often just as confusing to the potential customer as a One-Page site because due to the small amount of pages and the large amount of information the business owners wants to place on them, each page turns into a pile of confusing content. For example, I have seen 3-page website that have the first page laid out as “introduction”. On this page they place their company name, overview, hours of operation, location, etc. Page #2 is “Products, Ordering Information, Terms, Email Lists, Coupons” – can you say overwhelming? Then there’s page #3 “Events, Sales, Informational blurbs & More” – Good Lord. What ends up happening with sites like this is that the customer locates a product they want to order, then sees the terms, then finds coupons, then ends up reading about future sales…then goes to a site that makes sense. Total loss of business.

A 5-Page site still leave the reader with the same frustration. Your policies need to be laid out separately from products you are showcasing. Your sales need to be their own “feature” – not jumbled in with email registration lists and terms.

3. Over-Complexity. As mentioned, the *best* site doesn’t have to be the most expensive site. You DON’T need custom flashing animations (and I don’t recommend them either) or music or scrolling-strobe light-banners with color-changing-characters. Its overkill.

WHAT CUSTOMERS WANT
Here’s the top 10 list of what your customers want. Keep it simple and keep them coming back for more:

1. Who are you? Especially in small business, customers like to know who they are dealing with. Let them know about your experience, etc.

2. Where are you? If you have a physical store, give them the address, phone number, email, etc. Let them know when you are open. If you have a store or office, post a photo of it. Let your customers know you are a legitimate business that is ready to serve them. You can also include maps and driving directions if needed.

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3. What you have to offer. Clearly lay out what you sell. If you sell products, post photos of those products. If you sell services, post photos related to your services. Also, consider posting prices of your items. If you don’t have a set-in-stone price, post “starting at $__.__” or “from $__.__ to $__.__”. If you have tons of products, consider allowing customers to download PDF fliles or scan and post your catalog similar to an online restaurant menu. Which moves us onto #4…

4. Clear Division of Products – Think of websites like Macys.com or Pacific Sunwear – they divide their products into categories: Mens, Womens, Accessories, etc. If you are selling multiple “genres” of products, instead of making a customer browse through page after page of random products; separate them for quick and easy location.

5. Photos & descriptions– nothing sells products like photos and descriptions. With good photos and short, to-the-point descriptions that upsell the product, you are able to sell more and often sell more FOR MORE. Never post thumbnail size photos (unless you are using a service that allows them to enlarge when clicked.)

6. Policies. Let your customers know (in detail) what your policies are on payments, returns, etc. The more thorough you are, the more likely you are to turn online visitors into sales.

7. Sales (if applicable). If you are running a promotion or have items on sale, they should be separated from items that are full price. Sales are a great way to get rid of odds and ends and also a great way to keep shoppers coming back. Many shoppers, like myself, frequent websites and only look at the sales section. Without a “sales section” you could be losing visitors!

8. Informative Information. This is really my favorite part of my websites! No matter what field you’re in, you’re probably an expert in that field. Why not assist customers AND prove to them just how much you know? By offering free information on niche topics your potential customers will see that you are the right person to invest in. For example, if you have a food/restaurant website; offer customers a few free recipes. If you sell massage services or do acrylic nails for a living, write about “beauty tips & tricks”. Or, if you’re in real estate, give your customers some great reading material about different kinds of mortgages. This is the kind of stuff that separates a “good website” from a “great website”. Your “informative information” can be as little as 2 or 3 articles or as much as 50 articles; its all up to you.

9. Email lists. MAKE SURE, if you have a website that you post new products/ sales, etc on a constant basis that you offer customers a way to register for “email subscriptions”. How this works is simple; you sign up for a company like Feedburner (my fav) then post the link to “Subscribe via Email”. When a customer signs up, each time you post something new, they get an email with the information. This is a great way to keep customers updated on what your business is doing.

10. Updated information. Even if you don’t use Feedburner, be sure to keep up on your business website. Make sure links you provide are accurate and working. If your prices or products change, make sure you edit them as needed. There’s nothing worse than providing customers with inaccurate data!

How to Use Pay Pal to Accept Credit Cards from Customers Online

Do you have stuff you want to sell online but don’t want to use eBay, iOffer or other websites that charge fees, dictate how long you can list an item for, etc? Well look no further, I am going to tell you how you can sell your items with no cost to you and be able to accept credit cards, debit cards, echecks, etc.

If you already have any kind of website; you should consider offering items for sale in your niche. Most likely, you already use affiliate programs like MaxBounty and shareasale.com, but why not take it a step further and offer sales of goods that you have in your home?

Selling items online right from your blog can be an incredible way to make money. For example, lets say you have a blog about MMA / UFC and you want to be able to sell items like T-Shirts, Stickers, even DVD’s. You *could* use an affiliate program, like shareasale.com that will allow you to post links and banners to different websites that offer MMA goods. Each time a user purchases an item, you’ll get a commission. The downside is that you are directing traffic from your site to a different site to make a purchase and getting a small commission in return. So lets say that instead of sending traffic to a different site you are able to sell items directly on your site and keep 100% of the profit…

I can go to the mall right now and purchase Chuck Liddell octagon shaped wall mirrors for only $2.99 a piece off final clearance. These mirrors have a retail of $29.99 each, so I know I can resell them for $12.99 and make a quick $10 profit. So I go to the mall and buy 10 mirrors.

I will now want to list these mirrors for sale on my website.

The most important part of listing them for sale is a good photograph of the item. You want your buyers to be able to clearly see what the item is. Entice them into buying.
After your photo is taken, use Photobucket, to upload your image. In Photobucket you can select from a variety of sizes for the image. I like to use “Large” or “Full Screen”. I don’t recommend using “tiny” or “small” because nobody is going to buy something that they can’t see.

Next, make a nice little write up about your item. Include the dimensions, colors and any special features. Use descriptive words to really “sell” the product: “This incredible octagon shaped wall mirror is truly a collectors item for any UFC fan. This gorgeous mirror measures 23” and has a sturdy wall hook on the back…”
Now it is time to create a way to accept payments –
Log into PayPal. You will need to make sure that you have a “Premiere” account. If you need to know the difference between accounts and such, check out my article on Pay Pal Accounts & More.

Now, select the tab that says “Merchant Services” then select “Buy it Now Button”.



You will now be taken to a page that you will need to enter information. Follow these instructions:

“Accept Payments For” – Leave as “Products”

“Do you want your customers to buy multiple products before they check out?” – Leave as “No”

“Item Name” – If you’re posting your items for sale on a blog, I suggest using the title of your post as the item name. Make sure you are very specific, especially if you have multiple similar items; “Chuck Liddell Octagon Mirror 23”, “Chuck Liddell Octagon Mirror 12”, etc.

“Item I.D.” – It is VERY important that you make an identification number for this item. Just start with 1 and each time you create a new listing enter a higher number. (Toris Tip: It helps to keep an Excel Spreadsheet or Word Doc to see what number you are on)

“Price” – This is the base price of the item – do not include shipping or tax

“Customize” – If you want to get all fancy with your button you can. Or just leave this blank and keep going and it’ll look like a normal “Buy it Now” button.

“Shipping” – Enter the amount of shipping. Be sure to account for costs associated with shipping as well as shipping. If you use flat rate boxes you need to account for the cost of the shipping label, packaging materials, insurance if applicable, etc.

“Tax” – If you want to apply tax you can. If not, leave it blank. If you decide to use tax, you will need to enter the PERCENTAGE of tax to be used. For example, if you want tax to be $0.06 on each dollar, enter “.06”.

"Merchant ID for purchase transactions": I recommend using the second option “plain text email”. I have had issues before with the encrypted option; customers complaining that they can’t make payments because they are being blocked. All this feature does is display your email address. Some people prefer “encrypted” because they want to hide their email from their customers. My advice is to allow your customers to see your email. I mean, they’re going to see your email either way when they make the payment, so hiding it in advance is kind of silly.

At this point you can either “Create Button” OR you can use some advanced features.

I suggest using “Step 2” – Tracking Inventory.

If you don’t “Track Inventory” you can end up in a giant mess. Let’s say I have a customer who buys all 10 of my octagon mirrors and a minute later another customer comes along and buys 10 more; I am now 10 mirrors short. If I am not able to get more mirrors I am going to be forced to write the customer, apologize and refund money. I may get bad press from the customer and I WILL lose money. Each time a payment is made, Pay Pal takes about 3% for processing the transaction. So if I have to refund a customer $4 on their $130 purchase, that is a total waste.

So, click on “Step 2”

Select the box “Track Inventory” then “by Item” will light up. In this section the “Item ID” number that you entered earlier will pop up again. All you need to do is enter the quantity you have available. If you only have 1, just put 1.

“Alert Quantity” – make your alert quantity 1 or 0. I use 0 because I know that when I have none left it is time to remove the “Buy it Now” button.

“Cost” – This is optional, I don’t use this feature.

“Can customers buy an item when it is sold out?” – MAKE SURE YOU SELECT the 2nd bubble for “NO” then enter your home page address or whatever url you want them to be taken to if the item is sold out. You can create a page in your website specifically for sold out items if you want.

Now you can officially create your button. All you have to do is press “create button” and it’ll give you the html code that you can use to put your button anywhere you want.

If you want to use “Step 3”, you can. It’s not a big deal. It’s more for if you are selling in large bulk and want to allow your customers to select how many of the same item they want and so on.

BENEFITS OF USING PAY PAL
When a customer makes a purchase using your Buy It Now button they will be required to pay in full immediately; which is nice. When payment is made you get an email saying your item sold and where to ship it to. You can use Pay Pal to print the postage. You can even go online to USPS.com and schedule to have the package(s) picked up from your front door. You don’t even need to be home to have them picked up. Just schedule the day and put them on the front porch in the morning. The postal carrier will leave you a note saying how many packages have been picked up. Pretty friggin simple. No trips to the post office, no worries about checks bouncing, no confusion for customers. In addition, Pay Pal is a great source to use because customers don’t *need* to have a Pay Pal account to use it. Customers love Pay Pal because they have proof that they purchased them item; so it provides a sense of security. They also get emailed a tracking number when you print the postage.

(If you don't want to use Pay Pal, you can always use a company like SnapMonkey that offers websites with built-in shopping carts, etc)

Where to Get the Lowest Price on Laser Jet Ink, Printer Supplies & More

Print Country is my #1 source for all of my business printing needs.
PrintCountry offers printer cartridges, laser toner cartridges and many other office supplies such as Epson Ink, HP Ink, Brother and Lexmark compatible ink cartridges. They also offer remanufactured ink cartridges to be used in Dell Inkjet Printers, Canon generic Ink and many other inkjet cartridge brands at very low discount prices with free shipping options available. I have found that remanufactured ink saves me a lot of money and works just as good as new ink.

Print Country has a wide selection of OEM, Remanufactured Cartridges, Refill Ink and compatible ink cartridges. You can shop for almost and brand like Epson, Canon, HP, Brother, Lexmark, and Samsung and more all at a discount rate. Their discount ink cartridges are certainly not discount in quality. PrintCountry products, including toner and inkjet cartridges, meet the highest of standards. You can't find ink cartridges at a better price than at PrintCountry.

I suggest taking the time to compare prices because you won't be able to beat the prices Print Country offers. In addition they also have coupons and promo codes that let you save even more money off their amazingly low prices.