These last couple of years have been crazy. The global pandemic was one of the greatest stressors for manufacturing and retail in the last decade. For a while, everything stopped, and the economy struggled because of it. Many of us were having to make quick decisions without the time to stop and think. And a lot of those decisions, though we didn’t have a whole lot of control, ended up having consequences that we didn’t anticipate.
It happens. No one has been in this line of work and hasn’t made mistakes, emotional decisions, or made a bad call out of stress. It doesn’t always mean that we’re lacking discipline—sometimes life just gets in the way.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t get better at it. I don’t know about you, but if I must go through something hard, I’d better come out of it better than before I went in.
The Biggest Tip for Resellers in 2022
Reselling. It’s the best/worst.
One of the benefits of reselling is that you are fully in control of your entire business. You can choose everything from what you sell, where you sell it, and more! It is customizable down to how many hours you want to work and how much you want to make from it. But there’s a downside to that benefit. The downside is you are fully in control of your entire business. Combine that with a lack of experience, and you’re destined to make a few mistakes along the way.
Although it is inevitable, be sure to remember that each time you make that mistake, you’re learning a new aspect of your business and thus, you’re becoming a stronger, more experienced reseller.
There is a strategy for reducing the number of mistakes you make, however. The key is developing wisdom to know when to jump and when to slow down and let problems work themselves out. You do not have to force the change to happen in your business. It won’t happen that way. The key is how you lead that change.
Scenario One:
Let me paint this picture for you:
You are a reseller, selling primarily on e-bay. You notice that somehow, your sales have dropped and you’re not making as much money as you were in previous weeks. This causes a panic because your business is now spending more than it is taking in! *GASP* (I’ve been there. Have you?)
Let’s say you’re an undisciplined business owner here, so the stress overwhelms you. A customer starts asking questions about a product they’re having problems with. You KNOW you’ve tested this item, and so now you assume that they’re lying. You refuse to give a refund. The audacity of that customer makes you wonder if you should even take returns. So you don’t. “It’s not worth the headache”, you reason. The fact that you are no longer taking returns makes customers less likely to purchase the item. And you’re still getting customers asking for returns, even though your listing explicitly says no returns. So, you treat those customers with bitterness. You don’t even care. They should learn to read, honestly.
Ultimately, your seller reviews start tanking and now your listings aren’t getting as many views because the platform you’re using sees that your seller reviews are no longer good. Then you start making 10% off sales and promoting some listings because some person on a reselling Facebook group told you to. It helps a little, but not a lot. I mean, the product you’ve gotten from this previous liquidator isn’t as good as it usually is, so it’s partially their fault. It’s partially the customer’s fault. You’re doing the work, but the stuff isn’t selling. You don’t know what’s going on, but the stress is ultimately not worth it.The amount of time and effort you will have to have to clean up that mess is not worth it.
Your boat is sinking and you’re desperately trying to use a bucket to remove the water but it’s simply not working.
Stop. Let’s Rewind and Try This Again.
Scenario Two:
You notice that your sales have dropped and you’re not making as much money as previous weeks. There is a moment of panic but you take a deep breath and start looking at your analytics. You notice that… you’re getting the same number of views as you have the week before, but for some reason, people aren’t purchasing your items. So, you start looking at your listings from the weeks prior. You do remember that you’ve been listing a lot less, and maybe that accounted for some of the sales, but not all of them.
You also notice that your photos in the past week or so have had a yellowish tint to it, and it does make the products look a little dingy… so maybe if you decide to tweak the lighting to make your listings better? You’re not sure… but maybe if you just tweak the pictures in you next listings and correct 5 or 6 of your old listings a day so you’re not spending too much time with it, it might help. Great!
Now, you’re watching the trends throughout the week. It’s improved, but not as much as you’d like. You know that a lot of people are going to get betting paid on Friday, so maybe you do a weekend-only 10% off sale and see if that encourages more sales. And it does! By Sunday night, you’ve learned that your photos needed improvement and that you sold more items at 10% off making more profit than you did when they were all full price! You contemplate doing a sale once a month and see if it makes a difference in your overall sales.
This mess was much easier to clean up. Your boat was sinking, and you found the hole and plugged it, and you’re no longer taking on water.
Which scenario would you rather have?
The biggest tip for resellers this year is this: Take a deep breath. Slow down. Wait for the changes you’ve made to take effect and gather that data.
The last couple of years have reminded me that there are so many things that happen that are simply outside of our control. But not everything, even if it feels like it. This year let’s learn to let go of forcing success and learn to lead and guide our businesses in the direction it should go—down the path to success and thriving.
Did you like this content? Check out this blog next!
Are you interested in joining a community of like-minded people? We aren’t all resellers, but growth minded people who would like to encourage each other. Join our community page and feel encouraged!
