Weekend reading: February 12th

Happy weekend everyone! We hope you’ve had a successful week of selling, whether you’re a seller or a supplier. We’re excited to see more sellers joining the platform this week, and for more of you increasing your profits – with the potential to create so much more in the future! In this weekend reading, there is a lot of discussion about the impact of Brexit, some exciting Shopify Pay developments you’ll want to know about, as well as a pretty scary amount of goods that customers are currently waiting to return.

The latest from us

We were featured on Do DropShipping in their round-up of the 15 best businesses with DropShipping suppliers. Read more here.

We’ve been hard at work creating videos for our YouTube channel, and we’re uploading even more great content to support your selling most days. Subscribe to our channel here. While you’re there, check out this video that one of our Avasam sellers made – we think she’s clearly cut out for making video as well as selling!

Quick reminder about our guest post on the OnBuy blog. There’s optimism about the high street retail sector recovering post-lockdowns, but buying inventory is difficult when there hasn’t been footfall to raise cash. Businesses can still diversify, using the DropShipping model with reliable UK suppliers to satisfy customer demand.

We talked about how to sell adult toys in this post. Although it is a bit late to capitalise on Valentine’s Day sales now, the adult toy category sells well year-round, so done well, you can continue to make sales – without needing to invest in inventory, of course!

The move towards sustainability isn’t just a trend – and packaging is a simple way for retailers to start reducing their impact on the planet. Find out more about sourcing sustainable packaging, either for use in your own business or to sell to customers in this post.

The weekend reads

In between the latest COVID-19 updates in the news, we’re sure you can’t have missed the impact that Brexit has had on imports and exports. If you need to catch up on how Brexit has impacted the retail sector as a whole, you can do so here, with more here. If you’re looking for UK-based suppliers that can fulfil your orders (either permanently, or until the Brexit implications are really ironed out) sign up for your free Avasam account here.

Do you have a Shopify website and use Shop Pay? Do you have Facebook and Instagram accounts for your business? (of course you do, who doesn’t these days?) Shop Pay is now available as a payment option in Facebook Pay – meaning that it is even easier to make sales directly to your followers on Facebook and Instagram.

Is your business part of the eBay renaissance through 2020? eBay GMV grew by 17% to more than $100 billion last year, clearly powered by the numbers of retailers that are selling through the marketplace.

We told you about what you need to know about selling branded items on marketplaces last year, but this is a great read if you’re looking to find out more about trademarks. Essential reading if you are starting to think about launching your own products.

It is estimated that customers in the UK currently have £2.4 billion worth of goods that they intend to return at home waiting for lockdowns to lift. Returns are an essential thing for retailers to get right – companies offering an easy return or exchange experience are more likely to see customers return for future purchases. This was just one reason why we completely revamped the returns process in our latest update to Avasam – so you can provide better service, and achieve more with less stress.

Dates for your diary

Have you ever drawn the comparison between online marketplaces and high street department stores? We have, and so has Cas Paton, founder of OnBuy. He’s going to be in conversation with Dilyana from Retail Without Borders, and Pete from We Are Pentagon on Tuesday 16th February. We think this could be an interesting discussion, particularly for businesses that are DropShipping. Find out more here. (If you’re not yet selling on the OnBuy marketplace, find out why you should be here!)

Following on from our earlier points about post-Brexit difficulties, there are more post-Brexit changes happening on July 1st when the EU is making further reforms to VAT for sellers. If you’re selling internationally both now and in the future, we definitely recommend booking a place on one of these webinars:

• ReplyCo, OnBuy and Avalara on Thursday, 18th February at 3pm (that’s this Thursday coming!)
• Tamebay’s webinar with VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara on 30th March at 11am

Further ahead, you’ll want to mark the 3rd of May in your calendar to register for eBay Open Online. The event isn’t until August, but if you’re in eCommerce, and selling on eBay, you won’t want to miss out. Read more here.