The holiday season is already in full swing, but as an e-tailer it’s never too late to take advantage of hot items and best sellers. While preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday is important, and leveraging images is a great way to attract the attention of potential buyers, making sure to include these 5 items is a sure-fire way to increase your end-of-year sales:

1. Frozen

The name may be cold, but the merchandise is definitely hot. Ranging from toys and games to clothing and accessories, just about anything related to this fifth-highest grossing film of all time is sure to sell.

If you don’t have the proper license to sell Frozen merchandise, you can still ride the wave and benefit from the film’s amazing popularity. In fact, not everyone can afford official Frozen gear, and products with a similar winter theme sold at a lower price point are sure to gain the attention of global buyers.

2. Tablet Accessories

We all heard about the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus breaking global sales records, but Apple wasn’t the only one to benefit from their latest tech innovation. Also setting a new record this year was the sale of phone accessories, totaling
almost $250 million in just two weeks following the new iPhone launch!

With the introduction of the market’s latest “phablet”, the iPhone 6 Plus, and other top selling tablets, such as the Kindle Fire, Google Nexus, and Samsung Galaxy Tab, accessory sales for tablets this holiday season is on pace to shatter previous records. In fact, a recent study by Gartner estimated that tablet sales will surpass PC sales in 2015, resulting in two things: 1, proving the great Steve Jobs was right, and 2, putting more money in the pockets of e-tailers selling tablet accessories!

3. Art and Creativity Items

While electronics still come at the top of most holiday wish lists, there are many other categories of top selling items that you can focus on to sell big. In 2013 everyone was shocked when the #1 Home item was a deluxe art set. The growing popularity of sites like Etsy, which promote creativity and artistic expression, added to the increased use of crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which fuel innovation, are causing parents around the world to invest in creative and artistic tools for their children. Look for this trend to continue throughout 2014, and leverage that trend by adding relevant items to your sales inventory.

4. Toys

Major retailers such as Toys R Us, Mattel, and Wal-Mart are seeing a decline in revenue from toys. In fact, in 2013 sales dropped 1%. That being said, overall toy sales in 2013 were still $22.1 billion, so there’s definitely still a large demand for toys, especially during the holiday season.

One of the main reasons retailers note this drop in sales is competitive pricing from online competition such as Amazon. As an e-tailer you can certainly take advantage of this and snag up some of that $22.1 billion.

This year Wal-Mart ran many case studies, including testing over 80 toys on children ages 18 months to 2 years, and came up with these 5 toy trends for the 2014 holiday season. Popular toys on the list included scooters and ride-on toys, Sew Cool’s “Spin Master” sewing machine, and classic brands that are making a comeback such as Barbie and Hot Wheels.

5. Wild Card: Wi-Fi Toys and Children’s Items

My wild card pick for top sellers this holiday season is “smart” toys and children’s items. While in years past technology may not have been a top interest for younger children, it’s not uncommon today to see a child using a smart
phone or tablet. In fact, not only are they using technology, but some studies show that kids are able to use smartphones before even learning to write their names and tie their shoes.

This increased use of technology by younger children, and huge popularity of toys and dolls, suggests that items succeeding in combining the two may lead to huge sales this holiday season. Interactive pets, robots, and drones/mini-drones are just some examples of popular items that fill this category (such as the Teksta robotic puppy that sold out completely during the 2013 holiday season).

As a leading global payout solutions company, we always look to accelerate the growth of our account holders by improving the way they manage their business. At Payoneer we work hard to make it possible for you to work on different online platforms and help you receive your payments from multiple online marketplaces in a safe, easy & secure way.

We are excited to share with you a testimonial from our account holder in Tunisia, Ahmed Feki, who works as a freelancer on oDesk and also as a seller on Amazon – using Payoneer to receive his payments. Enjoy!

Can you explain your line of business?  What are the services you provide on oDesk and Amazon?

I’m an oDesk freelancer from 2009, specialized in developing websites & Web APP & ERP. After oDesk became my primary job and I started making good profits I decided to start working on Amazon as a Magic mug seller in 2013.

How did you hear about Payoneer and why did you choose it as your payment solution?

Well, here in Tunisia it’s almost impossible to get an international credit card. After countless meetings with many bank managers I found out that this option is given only for businessmen, while I’m just a man looking for a credit card to make my internet business idea become alive. My success story started when I heard about Payoneer from a close friend who is also using Payoneer to manage his online business. This was really my lucky day! Payoneer helped me find oDesk, the best opportunity I have ever found, where I can easily make money by selling my programming skills 🙂

How does Payoneer help you manage your business and receive your payments from different sources at the same time?

As you might know, PayPal in Tunisia has very limited service with no option to withdraw money. Payoneer makes it possible by helping me get my money from oDesk and Amazon in my country. I found the Amazon selling opportunity before Payoneer launched the US Payment Service, the puzzle was not yet completed, because I could buy products and resell them but I couldn’t withdraw my money from Amazon since I don’t have US bank account. After a while, it looked like Payoneer thought about me when they launched the US Payment service, it was my lucky day!  So I start to transfer my oDesk earnings to US selling business channel in Amazon US, that’s how I became a seller on Amazon. My next lucky day came while I was thinking to extend my US Amazon business to Amazon Europe, I faced the same problem to withdraw my money to EUR Bank account, but as always Payoneer’s magic worked again and they launched the EUR Payment Service, which allowed me to extend my sales to Amazon.uk, Amazon.it, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de and Amazon.es…Enormous opportunities are awaiting! Payoneer deserves all the credit for making me a lucky professional.

Are you satisfied with our service? Would you recommend Payoneer to people?

I’m really satisfied with Payoneer’s service, I really recommend it to anyone who wants to run a business online, especially for people who live in a country with limited opportunities and can’t get an international credit card. If you don’t have an online business opportunity yet, you can start working with Payoneer’s partners same as I did and start your journey to success.

Would you also like to share your experience or interesting story with the Payoneer community? We’d love to hear about it – let us know by sending an e-mail to community@payoneer.com, or post your comment below!

The holiday season may be a few months away, but for professionals in the world of e-tailing it starts now. Preparing inventory, identifying the top selling items, leveraging social media, and preparing for Cyber Monday are just a few things that need to be planned out now in order to take advantage of the holiday rush.

Whether you’re an experienced e-tailer or just getting started, you’ll want to make sure to leverage every resource in order to optimize your earnings this year. To help you do that, we’re excited to announce the Essential Holiday Guide – 12 Top Tips for Online Sellers 2014!

Throughout the months of October and November we’ll be providing you with essential e-tailing tips that will guarantee to improve your business and help you take advantage of the many opportunities for e-tailers in 2014.

In the 2013 holiday season, an incredible $25.6 Billion of merchandise was sold on Amazon alone, and that’s not to mention the many other ecommerce giants around the world. With the addition of several newcomers to the ecommerce arena, 2014 is set to break global records in online sales.

Read more and view the first tip of 2014: “6 Ways to Make Your Product Images Sell More”

In a previous post I discussed the concept of e-tailing, which is the profession of selling goods and services through the internet. I’d like to continue that conversation and get into the details of how to succeed and make money online as an e-tailer.

1. Identify the Marketplaces You Want to Sell On

There are many online seller marketplaces, all offering unique benefits that can help to increase your earnings. In the recent 2014 Sellers Choice Awards sellers rated their experience across various online marketplaces, with the top 16 making the final results, and top 5 including e-tail giants such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.

Amazon offers many tools for sellers, ranging from fulfillment tools, to marketing and advertisement.

Etsy offers tools for sellers as well, and while they may not be as comprehensive as other marketplace offerings such as Amazon, they put sellers in touch with a unique and extremely active community of global consumers.

Having been around for quite some time, eBay also offers many tools for sellers.

2. Invest in Software and Technology

E-tailing is extremely popular, and growing in popularity each day. With billions of items being sold worldwide there is now a comprehensive offering of online software for e-tailers.

Once such software is CrazyVendor, which provides features such as organization of orders across several marketplaces, logistics and shipping management, automated order processing, and more. As quoted by CrazyVendor Co-Founder Viktor Levitin, who has previously been awarded by eBay for outstanding sales, “CrazyVendor cut down our daily workflow from five hours to 45 minutes, enabling us to increase sales by 120% within three months.”

3. Leverage Social Media to Promote Your Products

There are many individuals, professionals, and businesses selling products online. To be a successful e-tailer, you need to separate yourself from the rest – you need to stand out.

One way to do this is by creating a personalized and social connection with your consumers. Creation of brand of product pages on major social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest is an easy way to do this.

When promoting your products on social media, make sure to be creative and connect with your consumers. Simple promotion will not be effective – respond to questions, offer promotions and sales, ask for feedback and invite consumers to create a conversation around your products.

4. Showcase Your Products

“A picture is worth a thousand words” – or in the case of e-tailing, a thousand sales. While writing an effective product description is important, consumers today are bombarded with extreme amounts of information. You only have a few seconds to grab the attention of a would-be consumer – make them count! Take professional photos of your products, display them in creative and informative ways that will make your consumer have to stop and read more.

Both Amazon and eBay have stated on several occasions that images play an important role in improving sales. This blog post by the Amazing Selling Machine, a popular course for Amazon Sellers, has additional tips on product images for Amazon sellers.

5. Work Hard

There is no such thing as a “get rich quick” profession. While e-tailing is certainly an amazing opportunity for professionals and entrepreneurs worldwide to make money online, it requires hard work and dedication. If your goal is to get rich quick, you won’t find it with e-tailing.

Analyze the results of your sales, listen to your consumers, track market trends and adapt to changes, and most importantly – be prepared to change your thinking.

Have additional tips for e-tailing that I missed, or have questions on any of the tips above? Leave a comment and let me know!

We are happy to share the latest testimonial on Payoneer’s Refer a Friend Program by one of our top referrers from Japan, Mr.Takashi Aoki. Enjoy!

Hello, my name is Takashi Aoki. I have started to selling products online as side business when I was still working for a company. After a while, I decided to work on exporting online as my main business. And now I have customers all over the world. I encountered a difficult problem how to have an account in US to start Amazon export.  I searched by internet the solution and I found the Payoneer service. I signed up immediately.

Describe your general experience with our Refer a Friend Program and how you feel about it.

I start to refer this program by my social media. I’m happy to have one role introducing lots of people about Payoneer and their service to who interested in online exporting. 

Based on your experience, what advice would you give to our account holders that are just starting to refer friends?

Please don’t pushing to sign up the card. I believe that the people who understands the service and if it’s fit to their needs, they will sign up!

Are you satisfied with this service?

Yes, I’m very satisfied.

Do you have any efficient information about Payoneer as one of our account holders?

For anyone who wants to try having business on US Amazon, the Payoneer is just like a messiah. Because it required to fly to US in order to open an US account and to have an US company, it was not easy to get started.  

From now on targeting clients outside of Japan, I can recommend that Payoneer’s payment solution will help us to expand the business all over the world. And the Refer a Friend Program is a wonderful program, too. There are not so many people who use this program yet.  I wish much more cardholders start to join the program.

What is the tip for online exporting business in Japan? 

Try to display many kinds of Japanese products that buyers to be familiar with those products. Japanese service has ranked as very high level, so that we can promote it as one of our strategies and approaching by satisfying customers. By doing so, we should have frequent buyers. 

To conclude our interview…

We are now in the era that exporting products from Japan to all over the world even as individuals. It’s not such difficult to get started. We can start own business for the big “world” market. So Payoneer is a solution for those people! I feel very much that Payoneer has been making efforts to satisfy their cardholders by improving their service. And their system is great, too. Once the funds is loaded to the account you can withdraw money by ATM or use Payoneer Mastercard for shopping payments.

To visit Mr. Aoki’s blog, click here.

Would you like to be interviewed for the Payoneer blog as well? Send an e-mail to community@payoneer.com with further details!

Due to the increasingly high usage of our US Payment Service Indonesia, we’re happy to provide this post explaining how to get paid from Amazon, in your local language. Please feel free to post in the comments if you have any feedback or questions!

Banyak pemegang kartu Payoneer juga menjual barang-barang di pasar Amazon.  Meski Amazon menawarkan solusi transfer bank ke beberapa negara zona Eropa, masih banyak lokasi di mana pembayaran yang cepat dan efisien belum tersedia.

Layanan Pembayaran AS Payoneer memungkinkan Anda untuk menjual di Amazon dan menerima hasil penjualan Anda secara langsung di Kartu Debit Mastercard® Prabayar Payoneer, tersedia di lebih dari 200 negara!

Prosesnya sangat mudah.  Jika Anda telah menjadi pemegang kartu Payoneer, cukup hubungi kami dan ajukan permohonan untuk mendapatkan Layanan Pembayaran AS.  Jika Anda belum mempunyai Payoneer, Anda dapat mengajukan permohonan dengan mengklik di sini.

Setelah permohonan Anda disetujui untuk mendapatkan Layanan Pembayaran AS, kami akan mengirimkan nomor akun/routing AS Anda, yang dapat digunakan untuk menerima pembayaran deposit AS langsung dari perusahaan-perusahaan AS yang terpilih.

Kemudian Anda dapat membuka beranda Amazon Seller Central, dan masuk ke akun penjual Amazon Anda:

Setelah Anda masuk, buka menu “Settings” dan pilih “Account Info”:

Pada “Metode Setoran”, klik “Tambahkan”:

Masukkan Informasi Layanan Pembayaran AS Anda di bidang yang disediakan, dan klik kirim.  Itu saja! Pembayaran dari Amazon akan dikirimkan ke Layanan Pembayaran AS Anda, dan disetorkan secara langsung ke kartu Payoneer Anda setelah dana sampai.  Kemudian kartu Anda dapat digunakan untuk melakukan pembelian secara online, di toko-toko, dan di ATM seluruh dunia yang menerima Mastercard®.

Have you liked us on Facebook yet? Are you following us on Twitter and Google+? Join us on the Payoneer Community Forums and on LinkedIn!