The online market is as vast as the ocean, and as deep as it too! Finding what to sell on the market is not the easiest of tasks, especially if you’re hoping for this to be your full-time gig! There are so many brands, institutes and service providers to compete with that it could be altogether disheartening.
But if you gear up, focus and put your mind on the task, there’s no keeping you from achieving your goals to sell online. The question remains which products should you go with?
What type of products should I market to sell online?
First of all, you have to clearly understand that there are two types of products that you can sell online and those are:
- commoditised products such as makeup, clothing, toys, bedding, food, sports equipment, toys, books, electronics and any other mass-produced products.
- niche products like any of the above examples that were created for a customised order, with a bespoke mission or outcome; for example a customised candle or a bespoke piece of jewellery.
The combination of both commoditised and niche can appear from one vendor or portal, and this is generally done to maximise profit and increase reach across all target markets and demographics.
Choosing to offer only one or the other, could result in a decreased profit line, especially when it comes to the general commoditised marketed products, the mass public is so accustomed to seeing. Don’t forget that online merchant moguls such as Amazon, eBay and Ali Express will be your competitors in this field.
Opting for the niche market only, though, could lead to a tailored market that could, in turn, allow for elite pricing and standards. It all depends on the type of product you will be selling online.
But at the end of the day, your success on an online retail platform greatly depends on the way that you market your products. Here are 4 ways to bring out your inner entrepreneur and sell online successfully:
Does your product solve a problem?
The short answer is that it should! Apart from the hoarders and compulsive spenders out there, people generally buy a product only when they need it. And in this day and age, ‘needing’ something greatly relies on the fact that it solves a problem that really affects your daily life.
If you’re still at concept stage, ask yourself what is missing from the market by means of a problem solving exercise. What annoys you most about your toaster? What irritates you about your shampoo? Why do you hate your guitar tuner so much?
Answering these questions and finding the solution could lead you to a highly profitable market where living without your products would seem to be a crazy, backward thing. Make your products irresistible with their problem solving capacities.
What’s trending in the market at the moment?
In conjunction with solving a problem, and filing a gap in the market, your best bet at achieving online success is following the trends and forecasting its sustainability in the future. Your passion for a product will take you a long way.
There will be endless hours of research, full on sleepless nights thinking about how you can penetrate the market and truly leave your mark – but once you figure it all out it will all be worth the struggle.
That ‘gap in the market’ that everyone is talking about has a lot to do with the messaging, contact and communication you throw out there in the world wide web. Dig deep and find the answer, it’s there somewhere.
Branding, it’s all about marketing the hell out of a product
Anyone who thinks otherwise will never quite reach their full potential, so go that extra mile to beautiful your product to an extreme amount where buyers choose your product over a competitor’s simply because it looks prettier.
If you take this approach and fortify your product with solid market research, insight into the projections of future needs and wants and infuse all your passions into this very product, the ability to sell online will be so much easier.
How does your target market expect these products to communicate with them? How can you get them hooked on your product?
Guilty pleasures can be your key to success
It might sound silly, but finding someone’s guilty pleasures and exploiting them to a silly degree could result in a great profit margin that keeps on giving. Combine that guilty pleasure with an ideology of ‘I need this because…’ and your online products should sell like hotcakes.
Let’s be honest, nobody really needs that lavender scented pillow mist to help them fall asleep at night, but they buy it anyway because you’ve made them believe that they need it. The placebo effect that it brings might appeal to the insomnia sufferers and non-stop thinkers, but that interest was first caused because of the marketing, branding and thorough research that you inserted into the product. Find that guilty pleasure that makes people’s lives easier, more complete and somewhat better.
These above points can easily be said for both commoditised markets and niche markets, adapting to the requirements needed in each market and adjusting price according to the target market to make it seem that much more attractive.
So get your thinking caps on, bring out the rough sheets of paper and all your coloured pens, research the market and find a way to sell online by means of products that are needed and wanted. Be better than your competitors on at least two fronts, be it branding, price, availability, delivery options or even quality of product – and make sure you solve a problem for the market.
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