Interested in selling online? online marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon are once surefire places to earn extra money or to build an online retail business. It’s not quite so simple anymore, here’s a report from the The New York Times. You may get some clues here on how to start this kind of business here in the Philippines which ebay is locally present here now.

Identify product areas that interest you, and seek a niche. Rather than sell, say, digital cameras, you might sell a specialty tripod or other accessories that aren’t already sold abundantly online.

Skip McGrath, an eBay Powerseller,, started with automatic pepper mills. Based in Anacortes, Wash., he decided to sell specialty kitchen gadgets on eBay. “They’re light, easy to ship and I’m one of the few sellers selling them,” he said. “If I had pots and pans, I’d have 200 competitors.”

Find a reliable wholesaler who offers low enough prices to generate high enough profit margins on resale. McGrath, who said he generated roughly $150,000 in annual revenue with his eBay store, buys his pepper mills from a Seattle-based wholesale dealer. Finding the right wholesaler can require an extensive search.

Many sellers, McGrath said, source their products offline, through local wholesalers or flea markets. Comparison shopping can still be done online, using sites like Liquidation.com and eBay, which offer wholesale items in bulk.

Selling on Amazon is more automated and requires less buyer interaction. The site collects money from customers and deposits it in seller accounts. In most categories of goods, eBay requires that sellers accept payment only through electronic systems, including its own PayPal system.

Amazon has no auctions — all items are sold at fixed prices — and automatically sets the shipping fees depending on the item being sold. EBay sellers can choose their own shipping fees and have more control over the look and timing of listings.

McGrath said that eBay was still the better option for selling clothes, toys and household goods. Books, music and other electronic media, he said, tend to do better on Amazon.

Photo by Amazon/eBay.

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With the very saturated bottled water industry here in the Philippines, here is a new twist to starting a new bottled water business. Springwise reports: From France to Fiji, bottled water brands rely on spring-based provenance to lure customers. A newcomer is focusing on a different kind of message: positivity. A Bottle Of, which claims to be Australia’s first Naturally Positive spring water, currently comes in three varieties: wellbeing, love and strength.

Launched last December by Heidi Albertiri, a flower stylist who believes in the power of positivity, A Bottle Of hopes to lift people’s moods, encouraging them to “Sip it – Say it – Absorb it – Feel it – Think about it – Repeat it – Believe it”. Given the size of both the self-help market and the bottled water industry, there’s something to be said for a brand that combines the two.

A Bottle Of is currently sold through a small number of retailers, yoga centers and gyms in New South Wales and Victoria, and the company is actively seeking stockists in Melbourne and Sydney. Furthering its message of positive change, a nickel from each bottle sold goes to Food Water Shelter, a not-for-profit organisation that builds eco-friendly children’s villages in Tanzania. How about licensing the brand to other regions where consumers would welcome an affirmational sip?

image from: abottleof.com.au

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