Take Advantage of Frontloading
Štrolling down the sidewalk you glance at a storefront window and notice a magic marker slashing through a
price of
$199 for a pair of
Gucci sunglasses. Glancing below
the marker carnage you see the new price, scribbled in red…
$99.
Is this too good to be true you say to yourself as
you shrug your
shoulders and waltz through doors, the whole time wondering,
what’s the bleeping 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 she (the seller) can “up-sell” you (the shopper) into another
product at full retail price. Or you might simply get snagged by
something else that catches the your eye, and the
frontloading technique may 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 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 ™
[1] to drive traffic to their venue, (along with other
costly marketing campaigns). And these expenses
are baked into the final price that 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 sellers’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 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.
† 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.
- 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!

[tut ref]
[1]
Google Adwords™