[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/biz/ - Business & Finance

View post   
File: 50 KB, 454x321, 353643.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12506795 No.12506795 [Reply] [Original]

Hey /biz/. In the concept stage of trying to start a small online wholesale business with my father. We're going to be buying items from a liquidation center and selling them online. He has lists of thousands of SKUs and names/photos, and he is convinced there is a database that will show us market trends (most especially sales rates since we don't have a ton of space for inventory stock right now), so we can find out which areas to invest our time in and move stock quickly. I found a site called "Shelftrend" which seems to be along the right lines, but does anyone know of anything that might be better before I slap down the monthly fee? Payment for the information is not the concern, I just want to pay for the best information.

Small business running out of a garage right now, just looking to pick up 5-10 pallets of stock to test the waters before we up the operation and rent some space out for storage. He knows the "people" side of things, but I need to be in full control of the IT end (admittedly most of the work) to get us off the ground and would like to do this correctly right from the start. Any info about it really would be helpful, thanks.

>> No.12506800

Also, my other concern with Shelftrend is that it only displays information for eBay sales. We may start on eBay but most likely will be moving to Amazon once we see a little profit. It may be fine for starting out, but maybe a broader database would help in the long run if anyone knows of a good one.

>> No.12506803

Hint: load up on Fidget Spinners, they are going to make comeback in 2-3 years.

>> No.12506810

it's all proxy/estimates that you can come up with on your own.

>> No.12506845

>>12506810
That may be true, but I am brand new to sales in general. I understand the concepts obviously but I will need a guide for the time being. He's been in sales for 30+ years himself but not in this way. Basically I'll need the training wheels for now until I get a firmer grasp on it. I'm much better with computers and the internet in general than he is so I can learn things more quickly but an already established database would be a good start to get our feet in the door.

I know it's not stock trading or crypto or anything exciting, but business is business and he's looking to have this started in 6 weeks or so and I want to get a head start on everything we'll need.

>>12506803
Yes you are very funny and everyone likes you more now that you have made this zany post. Le upboats all around.

>> No.12506848
File: 274 KB, 800x800, flat,800x800,075,f.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12506848

>>12506795
i'm unironically shilling /biz/ vlogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHhbaSYH2ek

>> No.12506890

>>12506848
Hey that's actually a pretty helpful video, thank you. Even basic stuff like this is a huge help to me at this point in planning because it gives me more ideas. FBA was what we were looking into for an eventuality, I've been looking into costs for that. For now we'll be shipping from home for the first few pallets but if it goes well we will definitely be doing it that way.

These lists will have barcodes on them as well so if I get that app on my phone I can scan them individually and at the very least get an idea of what types of items to sell.

>> No.12506974

>>12506845
it should really be more like this:
>take your available products from your supplier and filter anything out everything that would be impractical. Like price range and estimated shipping costs
>buy multiples of everything remaining
>track your own sales on each item in terms of something like turnover rate
>rank items by performance and purchase in descending order with periodically allocated funds

>> No.12506986

>>12506890
no problemo. i dont know how much you are going to sell but there's ERP software with ebay, amazon and ecommerce shop integration. it handles your inventory, does accounting, prints invoices and so on. you can take a look at sellozo.com/blog/tech-stack-amazon-sellers

>> No.12507053

>>12506986
That sellozo link along will give me hours worth of info to pore over. Great stuff and it encompasses sales across the whole process. I saved all these links and I'm going to have to do some digging but this is exactly the kind of info I wanted and needed. He trusts me to handle all this stuff even though he's putting up almost all the cash for the product to start so it would mean a lot to me to have my ducks in a row when we start.

>>12506974
Yes but this would imply we had sales to track already, you know? A database like the one I listed would of course only be used for a few months until we had enough of our own information to go off of. Just really basic stepping stone stuff, but the links listed here will be very helpful with that.