If you would have told my wife and I ten years ago that we’d be running a company that sells the most bathrobes on the internet, we probably would not have believed you.   Ten years ago we were buying and selling on eBay, but both of us had full time jobs and never would have dreamed of leaving the security of those jobs to try to make our living online.  Its a huge step and one that most people hesitate to take for one main reason: finding your niche online these days is incredibly difficult when so many others have most likely been there and done that.

Our situation changed dramatically when we found the research site called Terapeak.com.  Terapeak is a research company that buys sales data from eBay and then charges their users a monthly fee to have access to that data.  With Terapeak we were able to scour through hundreds of categories to find the best selling products on eBay that had the least amount of competition.  Once we found our niche, we simply found out how we could provide that product at a better cost than our competitors.  Admittedly this is not an easy task, but if you’re determined to be successful online.  Using Terapeak to carve a slice out of the eBay market is a great place to start.  From there, you can simply branch into Amazon, Overstock and other small-business friendly e-commerce sites.

In addition to selling bathrobes, men’s pajamas and other sleepwear, we continue to leverage the power of the marketplace to add new products each year.  With Amazon’s best seller list, its easy to see what sells and for what price.  It may not be as exact as the data you can get through Terapeak, but you can be sure that the best sellers list on Amazon is a great way to find successful products to sell.

Overstock is a liquidator and is a great marketplace to rid yourself of all of your slow selling products.  Entry into their marketplace is fairly easy and their loyal customer base does buy a lot so its definitely worth your while to sell on this marketplace.

As with most new ventures, getting started is usually the hardest part.  But starting small on eBay and leveraging the power of Terapeak, pushing your products onto Amazon and Overstock next is a great way to push your way into the existing marketplace online.  E-commerce isn’t rocket science, its just a matter of doing good research and wanting to success more than your competitors.  Good luck.

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