Have you been hearing about people who make money buying and selling products? That’s not surprising. The internet has allowed countless people to sell online for little money.
And when 76% of adults now shop online, it makes perfect sense to start yourself. If you’re new and don’t know where to start, retail arbitrage is the perfect thing for you.
Are you wondering what retail arbitrage is and if it’s right for you? Keep reading to learn what it means to make money buying and selling products.
What Is Retail Arbitrage?
There’s a common saying in the trading world: buy low and sell high.
That’s also the theme in the retail arbitrage world. You don’t create your own products for customers. Instead, you look for existing products for sale in stores and sell them at a higher price elsewhere.
Retail arbitrage sellers look through yard sales, thrift stores, pawn shops, and retail shops to find underpriced items. They then turn around and sell those items themselves in their own yard sales or online stores like eBay and Amazon retail.
You can do this because of the first-sale doctrine. As long as you purchased the product legally, you can resell it if the original condition hasn’t changed.
How to Start Retail Arbitrage
Now that you understand retail arbitrage, you probably want to know how to start. Keep reading to learn how.
Find Local Sources
The initial step of starting with retail arbitrage is to find sources to buy. There are a few ways you can go about this.
The first is to search for local yard sales and thrift stores. Ideally, you already know some about a particular market and what things should cost.
Take old movies, for instance. Most old movies won’t fetch a reasonable price, but there are a few that sell for a lot of money and will make a lot of profit.
Retail is your next option. You can use barcode scanners to check the price of in-store items online. If you find something selling for too little in the store, buy as much as possible and sell it online.
Find a Platform to Sell
You need to sell your products once you purchase them. Luckily, there are many places online that help you do this.
One popular place is eBay. eBay is a marketplace that allows you to sell items at a fixed price or auction. Many people use eBay to find collectibles and other things.
Another great option is Amazon retail arbitrage. You can sign up for a seller’s account and get approval to sell in different product categories. Many products sell higher on Amazon, so buying and selling on Amazon is a great choice.
Learn How to List
It’s not easy to make money with online arbitrage if you don’t understand how to list your products. Even if you can sign up for an account and list basic information, that doesn’t guarantee a sale.
Take Amazon, for instance. You must understand how to distinguish between a regular order and one that Amazon fulfills. Amazon-fulfilled orders often get special treatment, so it helps you to learn how that works if you want to make more money.
Each platform also has unique ways of setting up products, so be sure you understand the ins and outs of those platforms.
Deal With Customers
The final step to retail arbitrage is dealing with customers. Even if you sell perfect products, that doesn’t mean you won’t have any issues. From people who buy the wrong things to people scamming you, you’ll have plenty of work ahead of you.
Unfortunately, you need excellent customer service skills to handle this task. Research the best way to address customer issues and do your best to satisfy your customers.
It also pays to take the feedback you get and change your processes based on what you hear. This will help you provide a better customer experience and reduce the complaints you get in the future.
Why Start Selling With Arbitrage?
Now that you know how to start retail arbitrage, the question is, will it be worth it? Read the benefits of arbitrage below.
Affordable to Start
You don’t need a ton of money to start with retail arbitrage. You can buy a single cheap item at the store and start with that.
Your goal is to use your initial profit to grow. You can continue buying small items over time to increase your total profit. Once you have enough, you can start scaling your operations to make more money.
No Specialization
One of the common trends of great businesses is specialization. They maximize their knowledge in specific industries and use that information to portray themselves as experts. People then turn to those companies for products and services.
None of that is necessary with retail arbitrage. As long as you can find great deals, you can build an arbitrage business. While specialization can help you with some products, it isn’t necessary to get started.
Tons of Opportunities
A lack of specialization isn’t the only benefit of not niching down. It also means you can sell almost anything you want online.
There are countless opportunities, local and online, for people doing arbitrage. You can set up shop however you wish and run your business the way that works for you.
Test a Retail Arbitrage Strategy Today
It’s no surprise that you’re interested in learning about other ways to make money in your free time. The problem is finding a skill or strategy that you can do and is worth your time.
Luckily, retail arbitrage is something everyone can do and doesn’t take much time once you build a system. Look for a retail arbitrage strategy to do Amazon arbitrage or other strategies.
Are you curious about other things you can do to earn some extra cash? Read more financial advice by checking out the blog.
