Selling your stuff online is a great way to make extra money, but also to get rid of unwanted items you barely use anymore. Now you can declutter your life a bit, while bringing in some cash that you can use however needed!
And although it’s not difficult to sell your stuff online, you might be unsure of what to sell, where to sell it, and tips to be successful. If you want to maximize your returns and save money in the process, then it’s important you have a plan when you sell your stuff online.
1. Select your items
Pick the items that you think are worth selling. Go through your house, the basement and any cupboards and drawers looking for extra items. If they are in good condition and seem valuable, why not try?
This could include old exercise equipment, furniture, electronics that still work, jewelry and general luxury items. But you shouldn’t rush to sell everything right away. You have another important step, which is researching if there is any market for what you want to sell.
2. Do the research
Now that you’ve got your items, it’s time to check if there’s a market. You’ll basically want to see if there are people who are already buying similar items to you. Head over to websites such as Amazon, Ebay and Etsy and search for your item in the search bar.
Keep an eye on them and see how they perform over time. If they sell quickly, that’s a sign that they are in high demand. Ideally, you might want to keep a spreadsheet of this info before listing your own items. This lets you stay organized and prepared.
3. Create an account
You’ll then need to create an account with the selling platform(s) that you’ve picked and register your products. You’ll want to take the best photos possible with various angles, and then write an engaging description with keywords related to your items.
While you don’t need to be the most creative copywriter, you do want to create your product pages in such a way that they will click on your listing – that’s the first step. Then you want to keep them on the product through engaging and interesting content.
4. Get the pricing right
If you’re not sure how much to charge, simply look at what your competitors are selling. Exercise gear may be in the hundreds, while lamps and smaller objects may be under $100.
It’s likely you’ll tend to overprice your items because of your personal bias, so make sure you do your research to get the pricing right. Additionally, look at the average prices for items and the various conditions. You can also do research outside of any websites where you sell your stuff.
5. Promote your items if need
Pending what marketplace you publish your stuff on, you may want to do some additional promotion to ensure people are seeing your listings. There are tons of people selling stuff online and have competing items.
A way to get a leg up is to promote on your own social networks, maybe via email to contacts, or pending the time — you could pay for some additional advertising on some of the marketplaces.