Making money on-line selling Thai products

I’m sure so many people based in Thailand overlook the huge amount of opportunities buying and selling Thai products to the western market via on-line.

Both Paypal and Ebay are open to people based in Thailand, so you don’t even need to get involved with setting up an e commerce store (Although I would too capture a bigger slice of the market share J)

You only have to go down the market with both eyes open to find hundreds of products you could possibly sell on-line to buyers in the west. Other options to find products include the Thai Yellow Pages or by visiting trade fairs in Thailand.

Before placing a huge order, make sure you do some market research:

• Market Trend

Some keyword research using Word Tracker is a great way to get a feel of the level of demand. I’d also check out Google Trends to look at the risint/falling/stable demand for products in the countries you plan to sell too.

• Competition

Whether selling on ebay or via search engine listings, studying your competition is a must. Prices, delivery and service provided by your competitors are worth investigating.

• Shipping

There are hundreds of shipping companies in Thailand to choose from. The only way I’d personally use a shipping company here is via a recommendation or by using a big branded company I know off. Thai Forums are a good source for recommendations.

• Drop shipping companies

Depending on what you plan to sell, you may save considerable costs sending your products in bulk to a drop-shipping company in the country you plan to market too.

• USP’s

Unique Selling Points. This task is one of the best sales techniques I ever learned in my business life, taught by my old sales Director in the UK. Basically, if you can’t write down 10 unique selling points for your product, it’s time to move on. Be creative, be innovative, think real hard how your service, product, price can stand out from the competition.

- - - - - - - -

I recently tested the waters with Thai art. I went down to Jatujak market and got friendly with a few of the painters and explained that I might be able to sell their art on the world wide web. I returned home with some pictures I had taken and up-loaded them on ebay. I didn’t even need to risk buying the art, as if I sold any, I would just call the artist up or visit the next weekend to buy what I had sold.

Unfortunately the quality of the pictures I had taken were poor due to the bad lighting. I only have 6 positive feedbacks on my ebay account. Both of these small factors could have played a large part in the final turnout. I did sell one painting (out of 12) for a $100 profit.

Was it worth the time it took me to go down the market, take the images, the time it took to up-load them on ebay, plus the ebay fee’s, and my time returning to the market, buying the painting, and then organizing shipping… no. But maybe it would be a different story if I had sold all 12 painting for $100 profit.

Organizing to take pictures of the art in better conditions, tweaking the prices and sales copy on ebay, I’m sure within a months testing, I could easily sell 12 per week. $1,200 profit per week provides a comfortable lifestyle here in Thailand.

One of my SEO clients sells Photo Frames from Chiang Mai, he orders them in bulk, sends them to a drop shipping company in the UK and sells them via his e-commerce web site.

If you are in Thailand, open your eyes… There’s a lot of opportunities out there!

Are you currently selling products out of Thailand? Would you care to share your experiences?