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Take Advantage of Frontloading

Štrolling down the sidewalk you glance at a storefront window with a big red magic marker slash through an original black magic marker price of $99 for a pair of Nike cross trainers. Glancing below the marker carnage; you see the new price, also scribbled in red…$49. Is this too good to be true? You shrug your shoulders and waltz through doors, the whole time wondering, what’s bleeping the catch? Well, there is no catch. You have been the successful capture of an age old sales gimmick called, “frontloading.” This is the simple act of a retailer placing merchandise in full view of the public at disproportionably low prices, not intending to make a profit on that product, but instead, using it as a tool to lure the shopper inside in hopes that the seller can “up-sell” the customer to another product at full retail price, or simply that something catches the shopper’s eye and the frontloading technique can convert to a retail sale all on it’s own.

So why does this matter? Well, the frontloaded products are normally small margin or break even products for the seller. Meaning that the price you pay, is the close to (or set at) the wholesale price. Some frontloaded products may even show a small loss. And what this means to the savvy shopper is that there are incredible deals to be snatched up.

Even better, it's no secret great deals can be found on ebay. And the reason is simple: Ebay sellers have no overhead, rent, lease, nothing. An ebay store can be purchased for about $15. And different than the online (non-ebay) retailer, the ebay traffic is built in. The non-ebay virtual retailer has to spend money on programs like Google Adwords to drive traffic to their venue, (along with other costly marketing campaigns). And this exspense is fixed into the price you pay.

Now let’s take this a step further, and get on with the frontloading.

If ebay has great deals, because sellers have minimal expenses, do these seller’s also engage in frontloading? The answer is yes. And if their overhead is lower, meaning their break even point is lower, than that translates into an an even lower frontloaded price. Deals that border on the ridiculous. So how do you find these frontloading deals? Well with a small amount of work, you can track down the sellers who gain an edge over their competitors with the occasional frontloaded product. Here is the breakdown:

• Step 1: Go and start your search.
• Step 2: On the top, right of the page, next to the green search box there is a link that says, “advanced search.” Click it.
• Step 3: On the advance search page, inside the left navigation bar there is a section marked, “Stores,” click on the “Find Stores” link.
• Step 4: On the Find Stores page, under the search box there are two radio (circle) buttons, click the button that says, “Stores with matching items.”
• Step 5: Type in a product into the search box and click search.
• This search should bring you to a page showing every store on ebay that has the product that you searched for. On the left of the page should be a number letting you know how many stores on ebay are currently carrying the product, under that number should be a list of the stores by name, with their store description being displayed, and to the right, a number displaying the amount of products that you searched for that that store is currently carrying. Note: The reason that we do a store search is that we are tracking down some amazing frontloaded products. Store owners are more likely to frontload a product because the intent is to get the shopper into the confines of their store, only viewing their products. A seller without a store would benefit much less using the frontloading technique. It would essentially be just letting stuff go really cheap.
• Step 6: Click on the first store at the top of the list.

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† Note: However, because the stores get listed by the number of related products they are carrying, the list usually goes from largest stores to smallest. Now larger stores will frontload, but they do not do it as often as a smaller store might. This is due to the overall market saturation that their products create; meaning they generally have a good traffic stream into their ebay store regardless. So pay more attention to the mid-sized and smaller stores, as they are more likely to utilize a frontload to compete.

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• Step 7: After clicking on the store, from here it is basic ebay search stuff. Click on the sort by: lowest price first link, and scroll the stores cheapest inventory . This is where you will pull up any frontloaded products. Look for auctions with low starting prices, or BIN’s (buy it now), with a sale icon in the corner of the listing.
• Step 8: If nothing looks appealing, go back to the store listing page and click on the next store down on the list, and repeat. Do this until you find some great frontloads, great deals and great stores.
• Step 9: When you do find these great frontloads, or simply great deals, make sure to sign up for the seller’s newsletter. This link is located in the upper right corner of the sellers store page. This will let you know when they put out new products, auctions and sales. If you do not want newsletters coming in to your mail box, then you can click the link to the left of the newsletter link that says, “save this seller.” Then you can manually check back on all your ebay stores when you get the itch to shop.
• Remember, when shopping in ebay stores, all the same rules apply.
• Good luck and Happy Hunting!