What happens when you spot a product being sold in one store for $5 and the average price in another online store is $11? Do you just close your browser window cursing at the second store for overpricing their products?

If the second store is a big online platform such as Amazon or eBay that accepts lots of different sellers even when they are selling the same product, you shall have missed a very big opportunity to make money. See, if you buy the same product from Store 1 and list it on Amazon or eBay, you stand a chance to make money from the significant difference in price offerings.

It’s like buying a product from a manufacturer at a very low price and retailing at a marked up price. The only difference is that you will be buying the product from one retail store and selling it on another retail store. This is called retail arbitrage and it is one of the easiest ways you can start making money today.

eBay is a great store to score great deals on several products. Amazon, on the other hand, is a perfect platform to sell stuff. If you can find fairly priced offers on eBay and sell them at a mark up on Amazon, you will be in business in a few days.

It is important, though, that you understand how sales on Amazon and eBay or any other platform you choose as a tool for your retail arbitrage business works. Differences in price may be due to the inherent differences in store policies. You may find out that sellers with outrageously marked up goods in one store are selling at such high prices because they are covering for other costs not incurred in the first store. Such costs could include the cost of buying ads to drive customers to the product page, withholding taxes that affect their cash flow levels, transaction fees, and various other costs that may not be immediately apparent to the casual observer.

Choosing the Right Products

With retail arbitrage, product research is the most important part of the business. With the right products, the rest of the tasks in the business process are quite easy to execute. Product research should reveal whether or not you can move a significant volume of the product in question, whether or not the intended markup can be maintained when you factor in all costs in the second store, and if you will be breaking any copy right or patent laws.

Where to Buy Products for Cheap

The following are some of the places where you can buy products for relatively cheaper prices than they are sold in most online stores:

• Gamestop
• Garage sales
• Craigslist
• Thrift Stores
• Auctions
• Wholesale stores
• CSV clearance sales
• Discount bookstores
• Classified Ads
• Big retail stores such as Walmart
• During Black Friday deals.

As you scour for products to sell, go for products you understand so that you are fully aware if it is a great deal or not. If you aren’t into tech, for instance, you won’t be able to identify the specifications whose availability would greatly affect the price of a product.