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How to find Profitable Products for eBay Dropshipping in 2023 [Monthly Webinar]
How to find Profitable Products for eBay Dropshipping in 2023 [Monthly Webinar]

Everything you need to know about finding profitable items!

Aida Mlinarevic avatar
Written by Aida Mlinarevic
Updated over 4 months ago

ZIK has recently launched a series of webinars to help you build a successful business and achieve independence: Turn your eBay into Steady Income. The main goals are to help you achieve break-even as fast as possible, turn your business profitable, take full ownership of your life and become fully independent through eCommerce.

In this second webinar, we cover the topic of how to find profitable products for eBay dropshipping. You will learn product research philosophy, how to find fast-selling (traffic) products, how to find profitable products (manually and automated), and how to scale with similar products (manually and automated)

Product Research Philosophy

In dropshipping business, product research philosophy is extremely important, as it can make or break the success of the business. Here are the philosophies that can guide you in the product research process:

  1. We sell keywords, not items. This means that instead of focusing solely on specific products, the focus should be on identifying keywords that potential buyers are using to find products. We are competing on search terms based on keywords, not items.

  2. We match our buyer's needs. We need to understand what our buyer needs, and what problem our product solves. This approach can help ensure that the business is offering products that customers actually need and are more likely to purchase.

  3. We navigate between quality and speed. Don’t get stuck on listing one or five products in one and a half hours. This is one of the biggest problems sellers need to manage and navigate between quality and speed, otherwise, you’ll find yourself not listing any products.

  4. We believe in the impossible. Believe that everything is possible, the key is not to limit yourself!

Overall, these philosophies can help guide the product research process in dropshipping businesses, and they can also change the way dropshippers think about their business and approach their work and eventually become successful in doing product research.

How to Find Fast-Selling (Traffic) products

Traffic products are fast-selling products and the goal of listing this product is to help you list and generate fast sales if you are getting started in the dropshipping business.

Traffic Products Criteria

  • $15 or below

  • 15 sales a month

  • High volume niche +1000% sell-through rate

Keeping these criteria in mind in your product research and listing traffic products in your store will generate fast sales. If you are starting with dropshipping, you should list these products first, however, if you are already breaking even you shouldn’t list too many of these products, and aim for more profitable products than traffic products.

Traffic products may not even get a profit, but what it does is it helps boost the momentum and gain visibility of your listing because of how eBay's algorithm works, the more listings you have the more visibility you get.

Finding high-traffic products

Using Amazon as the supplier

Here is a step-by-step guide to finding traffic products manually

  1. Open amazon.com

  2. Choose a Category (i.e., pet supplies).

  3. Tick the Amazon Prime checkbox

  4. Set the price max to $10, click the Go Button

  5. Look for items with the Best Seller banner in the item picture.

  6. Copy the title and paste it into the Product Research tool in ZIK Analytics, then click the search button

  7. We can do two things, search for competitors which sell the same product, then take a look into their statistics: Sale earnings in the last 30 days, sold items, active listings, and sell-through rate. Now take a look at their listings, from there, you can find other items that you can list in your store.

  8. For this example, we take the knife sharpener keyword and search in the Product Research tool. This is a perfect example that matches the criteria for a high-traffic product, then save it in a folder.

Here is the step-by-step guide with the ZIK automation feature

  1. Go to the ZIK Advance tools in the left side bar menu, then choose the Autopilot tool, then click New Scan.

  2. Create a name for your scan, then choose Amazon as the supplier, set the review count to 10, average rating to 3 stars, check the box Only Prime, set the competitor max to 25, set minimum sales to 15, and price set to the maximum of $15 (eBay price), ROI to 0.1 and number of the product search result to 100 or more.

  3. In the results, you can always validate the niche if it meets the criteria we have set.

Using AliExpress as the supplier

Here is a step-by-step guide to finding high-traffic products manually

  1. Go to Quick Settings, choose China in the Shipping location and AliExpress as the source website;

  2. Type in the product you want to search in the Product Research tool and click the search button.

  3. From the result, click on the Scan Seller icon to analyze the seller, from there you may look into the item of the competitor and choose the high-traffic products. Once you have selected a product, save it to your folder.

Here is the step-by-step guide with the ZIK automation feature

  1. Go to the ZIK Advance tools in the left side bar menu, then choose Autopilot tool, then click New Scan

  2. Create a name for your scan, then choose AliExpress as the supplier, set minimum sales to 15, the price set to the maximum of $15 (eBay price), and the number of product search results to 100 or more.

Once you have become profitable in your dropshipping business, it is always good to have high-traffic products to boost your sales rate. Another great thing about selling cheap products is that they are low risk and easy to refund.

How to Find Profitable Products (Manually & Automated)

Finding high-traffic products is great for getting started, but without profitable products, you can’t earn profit. In doing dropshipping, reaching break-even is the first phase, and you don’t stop there, you need to turn profitable in your business, and this is the second phase. Keep in mind the following criteria and be flexible in looking for profitable products to include in your listing.

Profitable Products Criteria:

  • 2 sales in 7 days

  • At least 10% profit for local suppliers or 30% for Chinese suppliers

  • At least $3 profit average per order.

Finding profitable products

Using Amazon as the supplier

Here is a step-by-step guide to finding profitable products manually

  1. Open amazon.com

  2. Choose a Category (i.e., pet supplies).

  3. Tick the Amazon Prime checkbox

  4. Look for a random product with the Best Seller banner in the item picture.

  5. Copy the title and paste it into the Product Research tool in ZIK Analytics, then click the search button.

  6. Click the Scan Seller icon. Using this process can help us with other dropshippers using the same supplier, Amazon.

  7. In the Competitor Research result, look for a product that will match the criteria for a high-traffic product, then save it in a folder.

Here is the step-by-step guide with the ZIK automation feature

Bulk Scanner

  1. In the Competitor Research result, click on the Bulk Scanner icon.

  2. Go to the ZIK Advance tools in the left side bar menu and choose Bulk Scanner. Click on the seller, where you can scan and select which product you want from his list, and add it to your folder.

Autopilot

  1. Go to the ZIK Advance tool in the left side bar menu, then choose Autopilot, and click New Scan.

  2. Create a name for your scan, then choose Amazon as the supplier, set the review count to 10, average rating to 3 stars, check the box Only Prime, set the competitor max to 15, set minimum sales to 2, the price set to minimum to $20 (eBay price), ROI to 0.1 and the number of the product search results to 500.

  3. In the results, select the product you want or check all. You can exclude VeRO brands and restricted keywords before exporting them to .CSV file.

Finding profitable products using AliExpress as a supplier:

Here is the step-by-step guide with the ZIK automation feature.

Autopilot

  1. Go to the ZIK Advance tools in the left side bar menu, then choose Autopilot tool, then click New Scan

  2. Create a name for your scan, then choose AliExpress as the supplier, set the minimum sales to 2, the price set to the minimum of $10, 7 days sales range, and the number of product search results to 500. It doesn’t have profit margins for AliExpress, so this part will be done manually.

How to Scale with Similar Products (Manually & Automated)

The idea of scaling with similar products is to find high-performing products on eBay and then go to a supplier to find something similar, not of the same brand, color, or features but with a lower price and offer in the market with higher profit margins.

Similar Product Criteria:

  1. Different colors, features, or brands

  2. A lower price to increase profit

  3. Use similar titles

Here is the step-by-step guide using AliExpress as a supplier:

  1. From your list of competitors, look for their high-selling products, and click on the scan title to validate the niche and the demand for a product. In this example, we are validating the men's watch niche, and checking whether this particular niche has demand.

  2. In the result of the Product Research tool, look for what is performing, and what is missing in the result, e.g.: colors, size, etc.

  3. Click on Scan on AliExpress and it will open the AliExpress Product Research page, which shows the item statistics on Aliexpress and which item performs best.

  4. Go to AliExpress, and search for the same keyword. Look for something that is really different. Let’s take this particular item, for example, it costs, $3.17 add the shipping of $1.05 it gives you a total cost of $4.22

  5. Calculate the eBay fee, cost, and shipping against your price, which is similar to what the current market is offering in the same niche. This is how you scale similar products. Again for this item, we are selling it at the same price or a little less as our competitor. For this example, we are going to sell the item at $12.75 less the eBay fee and the cost, which gives you a $6.70 50% profit margin.

Here is the step-by-step guide with the ZIK automation feature

Autopilot tool using Amazon as a supplier

  1. Go to the ZIK Advance tools in the left side bar menu, then choose Autopilot tool, then click New Scan

  2. Create a name for your scan, then choose Amazon as the supplier, set the review count to 10, average rating to 3 stars, check the box Only Prime and include similar items, set the competitor max to 45, set minimum sales to 15 in 30 days, set the price to minimum to $20 (eBay price), ROI to 0.1 and set the number of the product search result to 100.

Using this method for finding similar products is a way to scale, and make your business profitable. The idea is to have diverse products in your store which include at least 5% traffic products, 60% regular profitable products from your competitors, and 35% similar products. Remember to be flexible and see what works for your store.

Remember not to look for branded products. Look for non-branded products that are selling well. Be more concerned with the niche, not the competition of products.

Hope you enjoyed this article, feel free to contact us in the chat if there is anything you need help with 👍

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