Stop wishing. Start doing.
This is Part II of a three part series. Today we are going to explore long tail and short & fast turn products.
Long - A long tail item is a product with a high return on investment (ROI), but may take awhile for a buyer to come along. Examples of long tail items are collectible board games and books.
So you're out and about and scanning your heart out when you come across gold. Your cost is itty bitty, and the sell cost is crazy. There's not even a bunch of sellers, but the ranking is kind of high. Not millions, but within the 10-20% range. You know that if you purchase this item it will probably sit for a time. A few months or more. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that question, but when a long tail sale comes through it's like icing on the cake. I like to keep a nice balance of long tail products in the warehouse.
So you're out and about and scanning your heart out when you come across gold. Your cost is itty bitty, and the sell cost is crazy. There's not even a bunch of sellers, but the ranking is kind of high. Not millions, but within the 10-20% range. You know that if you purchase this item it will probably sit for a time. A few months or more. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that question, but when a long tail sale comes through it's like icing on the cake. I like to keep a nice balance of long tail products in the warehouse.
Short & Fast - A short and fast item is a product with a short shelf life. It will turn within a month, if not a week or even a day or two!
In retail stores the goal is to turn product over within a month. If product is just sitting on the shelf, you are losing money in overhead. Turn. Churn. Burn.
As online third-party Amazon sellers, we have a little breathing room. Our shelf costs are nominal, and we don't pay for overhead (fees) until our item sells. So we can afford to wait a bit. But if we want to keep our cash flow flowing, then we need to focus our energies on finding products that sell, and sell fast!
Look for products with a super low rank. It depends on the category, but anything under 10K is a great find. Next, you want to make sure the product doesn't have pages and pages of sellers. If there are tons of sellers, then you will need to price your item as close to the buy box that you can without losing out on your return.
I picked up Disney's Frozen Valentine's Cards in January. The buy box price was ridiculously high (I would never spend upwards to $20 for Valentine's Cards), but my buy cost was only $3. I decided to go for it. As Valentine's Day approached, I realized that a lot of other sellers found this product, but the rank was 2K, so they were selling fast. I decided to price my cards to fall into line with the top 20 sellers (lowest 20 prices). I watched closely and tweaked my price a little more. My strategy paid off. I sold all of my boxes in one day for $14.95 each. I knew that my cards wouldn't make it to the buy box with the $20 price that I first saw -at least not in time for Valentine's delivery. It was still a nice profit, and a fun experiment to watch. I learned a lot about the buy box and how it worked by paying very close attention for several days.
Short items might have a tighter margin, but I still try to double my money. I shoot for a minimum of a $5 profit, but I have listed items where the profit is only $3-4, and my cost was a dollar or less. I love it when I come across a fast turn product where I can make $10 or more in profit! It takes a lot of patience and a lot of scanning and research to find items with a super low rank, few or no FBA sellers, a tidy profit, and a low cost, but when you do, you will see your payouts build fast. I also look for short & fast items that I can replenish again and again. Don't limit yourself to one category either. There are lots of opportunities if you take the time to dig.
I started my journey building up long tail items. Now I'm focusing my energy on short & fast replenishables. It's nice when a long tail product sales. It's the gravy on top of the meat. Yum!
In retail stores the goal is to turn product over within a month. If product is just sitting on the shelf, you are losing money in overhead. Turn. Churn. Burn.
As online third-party Amazon sellers, we have a little breathing room. Our shelf costs are nominal, and we don't pay for overhead (fees) until our item sells. So we can afford to wait a bit. But if we want to keep our cash flow flowing, then we need to focus our energies on finding products that sell, and sell fast!
Look for products with a super low rank. It depends on the category, but anything under 10K is a great find. Next, you want to make sure the product doesn't have pages and pages of sellers. If there are tons of sellers, then you will need to price your item as close to the buy box that you can without losing out on your return.
I picked up Disney's Frozen Valentine's Cards in January. The buy box price was ridiculously high (I would never spend upwards to $20 for Valentine's Cards), but my buy cost was only $3. I decided to go for it. As Valentine's Day approached, I realized that a lot of other sellers found this product, but the rank was 2K, so they were selling fast. I decided to price my cards to fall into line with the top 20 sellers (lowest 20 prices). I watched closely and tweaked my price a little more. My strategy paid off. I sold all of my boxes in one day for $14.95 each. I knew that my cards wouldn't make it to the buy box with the $20 price that I first saw -at least not in time for Valentine's delivery. It was still a nice profit, and a fun experiment to watch. I learned a lot about the buy box and how it worked by paying very close attention for several days.
Short items might have a tighter margin, but I still try to double my money. I shoot for a minimum of a $5 profit, but I have listed items where the profit is only $3-4, and my cost was a dollar or less. I love it when I come across a fast turn product where I can make $10 or more in profit! It takes a lot of patience and a lot of scanning and research to find items with a super low rank, few or no FBA sellers, a tidy profit, and a low cost, but when you do, you will see your payouts build fast. I also look for short & fast items that I can replenish again and again. Don't limit yourself to one category either. There are lots of opportunities if you take the time to dig.
I started my journey building up long tail items. Now I'm focusing my energy on short & fast replenishables. It's nice when a long tail product sales. It's the gravy on top of the meat. Yum!
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