When choosing products to sell online, one could either opt to sell those that are in demand (like apparel, mobile phones etc.) or create a demand for your products (as in the case of a niche product segment). Accordingly, while some sellers may have steady or increasing sales as per marketplaces sales trends, some others could witness ups and downs.
Factors to consider when deciding on a product to sell online
- Find out which products are being manufactured within your state. Apart from cost-effectiveness, these could be more popular and available in more variants.
- Decide on the price range depending on the product range in different marketplaces. The price should neither be too high nor too low.
- Do not sell low quality products.
- Choose non-fragile and easy to ship products because those products are going to be shipped to different locations and you can avoid headaches about the products breaking during shipment.
- Smaller the product smaller the storage space. If you have space limitations, it is better to opt for smaller products that require less storage space.
- Consider shelf life of the product. One with a shorter shelf life would need to be sold immediately to avoid wastage.
- Avoid seasonal goods (like knit wear) for continuous sales. Or understand this and build a catalog for each season and rotate.
Factors to consider when buying/sourcing your products
Choosing the right products to sell online involves finding the products that you can buy, sell and ship easily (and profitably). If creating your own products is not what you desire, you can consider working directly with a manufacturer or a dropshipper.
Buying products from a dropshipper
Dropshipping allows you to list products, take orders and pass those orders to your dropshipper. The dropshipper packages the item sold and ships it to the customer who ordered it. In most cases, the customer thinks the product came directly from your store and don’t get to know that a dropshipper is involved.
Dropshipping is one of the best choices for ecommerce merchants due to these benefits:
- Low risk – you pay for a product only after you sell it
- Zero inventory costs – you don’t have to pay for storage or have products all over the place
- No packaging and shipping problems – you outsource your shipping departments to your vendor, who can also process your returns
- Wider product selection – Since you have unlimited shelf space on your online store (because the products you sell are with your dropshipper)
Buying products from a manufacturer/wholesaler
If you prefer to have more control than with a dropshipper, then you can purchase your products from a manufacturer or a wholesaler. The key is to build a relationship with him/her so that you can source your products at good prices to resell on your online selling channels.
Here’s what you need to keep in mind:
- Find a manufacturer/wholesaler that provides the product that you want to sell.
- Get in touch with the top manufacturer/wholesaler to gather information and to learn more about how the process works, including the following:
- pricing (and if a bulk pricing option exists)
- payment preference (invoice or credit card)
- shipping capabilities (if they ship products to you or if they’ll ship to your customers)
- contracts (length of terms, cancellation, etc.).
- Once you hold all the necessary information, compare to decide which manufacturer/wholesaler offers you the best option.
- Beyond cost, you might also consider customer support and ease of communication with your manufacturer/wholesaler
