Selling a product on the Internet can make a good business opportunity. It can be easy, cheap and very profitable, but, to be a real success, your product must pass some basic criteria…
5 top tips to choosing a good product to sell on the Internet:
1. It should be something that looks good. If your product doesn’t look good it will be hard to sell. And no matter how good screen quality is nowadays there are always limitations in photo or video quality on the Internet. (This is something that’s going to matter more and more in future, as more Internet buyers shop using mobile phones.)
So ask yourself: does your product look good in pictures? How can I show it in the best light?
2. It shouldn’t be too unusual! If it is, your potential customers might not understand what they’ll get, and you might not get many or even any sales. Also, the more widely bought your product is the more Internet search traffic there is to lock into.
This is why well known day-to-day products – things like clothing, electricals, electronics, travel, financial services – are some of the best online sellers.
Tip. If it’s branded, so much the better – the product has already been pre-sold by the manufacturer. Plus, you get to tap in to lots of search volume for the brand.
3. Something that you can sell nationally… or even internationally. So OK you don’t have to. There are lots of Internet businesses that just sell local products to local buyers.
But it would be a pity if your product weren’t of interest to consumers around the country, or even around the world. You could easily make 50% or more of your sales from overseas customers.
Have a think about it: Will overseas customers want to buy your product? How could you make a few changes to pull in some all-important international orders?
4. It MUST be price competitive. Remember consumers can shop around for the best deal online VERY easily, even if your product isn’t listed on comparison sites. Your pricing must measure up with your competition.
This doesn’t necessarily mean your price has to be cheapest. But your offer has to look good value compared to other offers on the Internet. So do some searching for similar products, see how your pricing measures up, and think what you can do to make your offer look better value.
5. Ideally, it should be something that is consumed or needs to be replaced regularly. Not something consumers order once, or only buy infrequently.
This way, once you’ve found a customer they will hopefully order from you again and again.
This, in fact, is probably one of the best product selection tips of all! The Internet is absolutely perfect for sourcing and pulling in new customers for lower value, lower margin products… then selling them higher value, higher profit margin products in future.