It’s never been an exciting time for entrepreneurs to start an online business. After all, the growth of e-commerce in the last few years has been nothing short of phenomenal.
But despite the excitement, there’s no denying that building a brand can be scary and anxiety–provoking. It’s a huge investment.
The good news is, there are different ways you can overcome these feelings. It involves breathing exercises, self-affirmations, and commitment to bringing your product ideas to life.
And in this blog, we’ll discuss the kinds of products you can sell and the ideal platforms to market them.
Types of products you can sell
Irrespective of the type of industry you are in, there are mainly two types of products you can sell; commoditised and niche products.
Commoditised products
As the name suggests, these are high-demand and popular goods/services that can either be physical or digital products. These are essentials that make up the majority of online sales. Among these are some common items you find at Walmart or Amazon, such as the following:
- clothes
- makeup
- food
- toys
- smart phones
- medicine
In short, these are products generally everybody needs.
Niche products
When it comes to niche products these are specific items aimed to serve one focus group. And with this, niche brands are better able to develop accurate and targeted marketing messages. Below are several niche products you can start selling online:
- phone accessories
- pimple patches
- dog treats
- work-out clothes and equipment
- eco-friendly items
- work from home products
So those are mainly the two types of products you can sell. But it’s important to remember that offering only commoditised items will make it challenging to become successful. Because, unlike huge online retail players and marketplaces, startups cannot buy these items in bulk—making them unprofitable products.
Instead, a better approach would be to sell a combination of commoditised and niche products.
Read: 5 Best Courses to Kickstart the New Year Right for Your Online Business
How to Start an Online Business
With the fierce market competition these days, it’s not enough to just have a website anymore. If you want your brand to succeed, partner with platforms customers trust. The question now is, where should you start?
When it comes to selling online, there are limitless options you can explore. From joining an online marketplace, using an e-commerce platform, or simply adding a shopping cart to your website, there are several choices you can consider.
Some of these options are discussed below:
- Website
Selling products through your website allows you to put everything in one place. In addition, when you sell products online, you’ll enjoy complete control over the design and layout of your website and other important elements.
- Amazon
Although you are selling online products through this third-party platform, a big player brand like Amazon improves customer trust which can otherwise be difficult to achieve instantly on your own.
- eBay
Known to be one of the most massive online marketplaces, eBay allows you to easily sell products anywhere in the world. It’s open platform nature helps sell almost anything, giving you a chance to expand even if you are a local, inexperienced startup.
- Etsy
Etsy is another excellent platform for startups selling niche products that appeal to customers interested in quirky, vintage, or hand-made items. It’s great for the creative-minded community since the platform also allows you to personalise your listings.
- Social Media
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are especially effective for entrepreneurs and startups that want to concentrate on online selling in their local communities.
Tips in choosing the best-selling products to sell online
Before you start brainstorming the user experience and design of an online store, you need to choose the products you want to sell online. The key to successful online sales heavily relies on making the correct choice of what to sell.
To make it easier for you, here are some tips to help you choose the perfect products:
- Solve customer pain points
For a product to be remarkable, it has to solve a customer’s pain point. This can be financial, support, or the process pain point in one’s customer journey. And you can find out their specific pain points by reading online reviews, interviewing them, or sending out surveys, It’s also in these mediums you can get suggestions on how to better serve them. Once you dom find a way to integrate them into your product.
- Serve niche segments
In the case of e-commerce businesses, niche segments are the sure-shot way to success simply because they resonate more with a highly engaged audience. Serving a niche segment is an excellent business proposition because you systematically create a product that solves a particular issue for a very passionate audience segment. It will help you build online traffic, brand awareness, and ultimately, new prospects.
- Leverage your professional experience
If you have a skill or industry experience that makes you more knowledgeable on a particular topic than the average person, leverage it. Turn your expertise into your own online business to enter the market confidently, since it makes it difficult for others to duplicate or copy your idea.
- Research online products with higher profit margins
Products with little overhead offer a low-risk way to get started online. It’s much easier to attain higher profit margins with them than products that are more expensive to produce. And when it comes to pricing your products, make sure to account for your cost of goods sold (COGS) and the total resources that you have put in to sell the product.
Assess carefully
As we mentioned before, choosing the right products to sell online can be the most overwhelming part of the process. And as an aspiring online entrepreneur, you might have to go through multiple phases before eventually arriving at a decision.
But through hard work, perseverance, and thorough assessment, you’ll eventually land at a product idea that is doable and manageable.
