“Start really small, have a specific niche, don’t be talked into buying big quantities of stock straight away.” Anthony from The Perfect Price

Anthony from The Perfect Price sells within the Health/Beauty/Wellbeing sector, specialising in products that are not always readily available on the High Street. Anthony runs The Perfect Price by himself, with the help of his wife with the admin. He has been selling online since 2004 and has ventured into FBA selling.

Hi everyone, Anthony from The Perfect Price shares his incredible journey on SellingOnlineToday! Download Link

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Some thoughts from the interview

“Back in the day I was actually driving a London black cab, which was great but I just wanted a bit more job satisfaction and not so much driving.”

“I started back in 2004 selling used DVDs on eBay. They all sold out which gave me encouragement to carry on. Then I progressed to buying up unwanted collections of plays station games, consoles and accessories. The down side of that was that there were a few returns of used products.”

“I wasn’t really sure what niche to go into.”

“I came across a pharmacist in Nottingham who was selling up his bricks and mortar store. I bought quite a lot of his stock, toothbrush heads and dental products. That sold so I decided to go into to health and personal care specialising in dental care niche. That was in 2009 and I haven’t looked back since that day.”

“It was not really something I had thought about but it sold very, very well, they were items that I knew were in demand and I could get quite easily and it went from there.”

“I had always wanted to do this sort of thing. It was something I dreamt about doing, working for myself and working from home.”

“It’s amazing just how much information there is and you think that you are never going to take it all in but you do.”

“Around about 2004 I started selling my used DVDs on eBay. They sold very quickly. Then I looked around the house for other bits and pieces to sell. So when they had all gone I decided to buy up some unwanted collections, people sell their complete collection of PlayStation games, consoles, accessories etc. I broke those up to sell the games to sell separately from the consoles and accessories on eBay. That was really successful the only downside was the fact you get quite a lot of returns with used products.”

“I bought probably about £1000 worth of stock, sold those again on eBay and that was when I decided to concentrate on the dental care niche.”

“2009 I went full time, I handed my cab licence back and that was that really.”

“I found Amazon and sold on Amazon in about 2011 and 2012 and that was when things really took off with Amazon.”

“Initially Amazon was just 10% of my business with eBay 90%. Today that totally gone the other way. It is now 90% on Amazon.”

“There was Amazon France and Amazon Germany and we sell on all 3 with the UK as a pro seller. The possibility is in the coming months is Spain, is a new amazon platform they have set up and possibly Italy.”

“We don’t sell on (Amazon) USA because we found that the competition is very, very fierce particularly for what we do so we feel that it wouldn’t be something we go further with.”

“We do get some without the barcodes so we have our own barcodes which we use on both amazon and to a lesser extent on eBay.”

“We have designed our own products called Price Perfect Teeth Whitening Strips which is on our website. They have really taken off in quite a big way.”

“We use FBA to shift those products to our customers in Europe.”

“we were finding that when we were selling other brands that the competition was really stiff.”

“On amazon they list in price order so you really have to be cheap or fairly cheap to get the buy box. The buy box is quite important on Amazon. So in order to get to the top, we found if we make our own brand, we are selling our own products and this is the way to go in my opinion.”

“There is massive help out there. We sourced a graphic designer on elance, which is a site where you can find really good people doing all sorts of graphic work, photographic work and we use them also for translation.”

“I am very pleased with the finished product. I think it looks quite good.”

“At the moment we only sell online through our own website and amazon but I was just chatting the morning to see if we could possibly get them into the high street bricks and mortar shops.”

“I am one of these people that like to be hands on… If I can do it I will if it’s something I can’t do or I haven’t got the time for I find somebody that can help with that.”

“I use FBA and that is really like having an extra full time member of staff. We shift our product to their fulfilment houses and they ship it out to the customer.”

“The race to bottom is something that we try to avoid. Sometime you can, sometimes customers will come to us because we have got very good feedback. We concentrate really hard on customer service.”

“You don’t have to be the cheapest of the lot as long as you are up there.”

“It is like a whole new world, social media, I have found it a little bit difficult. I don’t think it has worked for me just yet.”

“The problem with eBay and amazon, particularly Amazon, is that they don’t like you to contact customers that you have sold to. EBay we sometimes put a little slip in, business card in the packaging.”

“We have to be very careful (with Amazon) because they do watch to make sure you’re not trying to hijack what they term as their customers.”

Best advice: “I would probably give 3 bits of advice that I have used but I probably wished I had known way back when. The first one would be don’t try and sell the latest must have gadgets like apple iPhones because you just won’t be able to compete and you well end up losing money, there are big boys out there selling those sorts of things. The second one would be start very small, have a specific niche and don’t be talked into buy big quantities of stock straight away. The thing would be research. I think is really, really important. You need to check out on eBay the completed listings to see what has sold, what sort of prices you can get and not forgetting costs. This is something when I started out, not forgetting about, but perhaps not making as much note of as possible is the postage, the listing fees, selling fees, PayPal, taxes etc. That is important.”

What do they offer?

The Perfect Price have been selling online for a number of years, starting on eBay in 2004. They have consistently achieved ‘top seller’ status for the past 5 years. Their combined feedback score is over 19,000 and around 99.5% positive. The Perfect Price subsequently opened our pro-seller store on Amazon UK in 2008 followed by stores on Amazon France and Germany in 2013. The Perfect Price sell in the Health/Beauty/Wellbeing sector, specialising in products that are not always readily available on the High Street. It is important to them that even people who are not very mobile are also able to obtain these items and not have to pay a premium to do so.

How to contact The Perfect Price!

Twitter      Website      Facebook    Or email: info@theperfectprice.co.uk

Resources 

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