Selling products online: How to guide for ecommerce businesses
This guide helps ecommerce businesses sell products online. Keep reading to explore tips for identifying top-selling products, including researching the target audience, industry trends, and competition.
The ecommerce industry constantly evolves, providing countless opportunities to sell. With the rise of the internet and social media over the past decade, there is potential to reach millions of buyers globally. You can run a viable business by selling products online to almost anyone, anywhere in the world.
Connecting to customers online is one of the easy parts of an ecommerce business. There are several platforms and digital markets that bring merchants and buyers together.
However, when you decide to start an online business selling online, there are other steps to consider. This includes selecting the top-selling products online, setting up an online store, establishing payment options, and more.
In this guide to selling products online, we share the ecommerce strategies you need to find the right products, handle sourcing, and more.
The importance of finding the right products to sell online
Successful ecommerce businesses start with the right product. What you sell can make or break your online business. Here’s why:
Attract and retain customers
The most important tenet of product selection is knowing your customer. You need to understand the audience you want to reach with your products.
When you offer a product range that meets the needs and wants of your ideal customer, it becomes easy not only to attract shoppers but to retain them. Quality and customer-conscious products will encourage repeat purchases.
Happy customers are also more likely to recommend your online store and products to others.
Stand out from the competition
Unique or high-demand products help set you apart from your competition and cement your market position. You can make more sales if you offer amazing products that customers can’t find anywhere else. If you can identify a set of products that work well together, consider stocking both for the same reasons.
Increase profitability
Product selection and profit go hand-in-hand. Quality products open up room for repeat sales and loyal customers that buy regularly. They also mold your business into the best place to purchase those products from.
Remember to consider demand, too. Products with low demand may make it difficult to gain profits. However, high-demand products may already have very high competition, making it difficult to attract buyers to a new seller.
You want to choose a product with demand in a niche space where you can carve out your place in the market.
Make your business scalable
Choosing what to sell online also comes down to practicality. You need to select products that won’t present a challenge when you need to source or manufacture and distribute them. Consider what resources you have and start small. This will make it easier to meet orders and scale your business as product demand increases.
How to identify top-selling products online to stock your store
So, how can you identify products that meet all the above characteristics of the ‘right product’? The only real answer is that you must knuckle down and research.
These are the factors to look at when researching products to sell online:
- Target audience: their needs, wants, preferences, etc. Analyze customer demographics, including age, gender, geographic location, and more. This will help you create a customer profile of your ideal shopper. Selling products online is all about understanding what experience the customer needs from you.
- Industry and ecommerce trends: popular products, customer trends, product forecasting. Look into what products are currently doing well in the industry and which are predicted to boom.
- Competition: evaluate your competitors’ customer reviews, pricing, delivery policies, packaging, and product marketing. Knowing who you are up against and how they approach selling products online will help you design the best customer experience. Don’t copy, but learn from what others do and what kinds of products they offer.
Sourcing best-selling products online for your ecommerce business
In-house manufacturing, wholesale sourcing, and dropshipping are the most common ways to source products.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing your goods in-house requires significant resource investment, including time, labor, skills, machinery, and more. Everything from the design to sourcing materials and packaging becomes your responsibility.
However, a major plus is that it offers control over the quality, look, and other aspects of your final output.
Wholesale sourcing
With wholesale sourcing, you bulk buy discounted goods from a manufacturer or supplier and resell them. Unlike self-manufacturing, you can lose power over the product design and quality, but this is often a cheaper and simpler option.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping is the least strenuous sales approach of the three. If you plan to sell on Amazon, dropshipping is a popular sales model.
When dropshipping, you collaborate with a supplier that deals with product manufacturing, storage, fulfillment, and shipping. All you do is focus on sales and marketing your brand and goods.
Of course, the high split in investment and resources means you may see lower profit margins with this option. However, it is a popular option for beginner Ecommerce merchants. To learn more, read our posts offering dropshipping secrets and tips for selling on Amazon.
Choosing the right platform for selling products online
Using the right ecommerce platform is just as crucial as offering good products. It impacts the audience you reach, costs, and more. To help you decide where to sell products online, evaluate the following features of the platforms you are interested in:
Fees
Different ecommerce platforms charge different fees for their services. Some charge a monthly or annual fee, while others charge a percentage of each sale.
Consider how these fees will impact your profitability and choose a platform that offers a pricing structure that works for your business.
Third-party integration
Your sales platform will not work in isolation. It can form one part of a larger tech stack, such as your business’ accounting software, marketing tools, etc. Choose a sales channel that integrates with other tools so you can streamline your business processes and enhance productivity.
Ease of use
When considering how to sell products online successfully, the platform you choose should be easy to use for your clients and internal team members. Usability and simple navigation will make your merchant journey easier, especially if you are new to ecommerce. Opt for user-friendly platforms with adequate support channels.
Ecommerce payments and shipping by using Payoneer
Payment and money exchange are key aspects of selling products online. Your customers need safe and convenient ways to pay you. And you need reliable methods to pay suppliers, workers, and other actors. Payoneer is a comprehensive global payment services provider that can support you in the following ways:
Global payment processing
With Payoneer, you can receive and make payments to customers and others around the world. These payments can be made using credit and debit cards, bank transfers, and ACH payments. This is convenient for both your business needs and your customers.
Payoneer also offers fantastic support if you want to reach international buyers. You can accept payments in several currencies, send money to over 190 countries and territories, and has support in 22+ languages.
Payment withdrawal
You can withdraw business earnings to your local bank account or spend directly from a Payoneer card with global acceptance rates powered by Mastercard®. You can also withdraw funds from supported local ATMs using that card. This helps keep your business liquid as you don’t have to wait for extended periods to access funds.
Shipping
Payoneer Shipping enables Ecommerce businesses to offer competitive and affordable shipping rates to their customers. You can integrate it with your chosen Ecommerce or shipping tool to oversee shipping from one place.
Integration with ecommerce platforms
Integrate with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, etc., to process payments directly on your website with Payoneer Checkout.
Grow your ecommerce store with Payoneer
Starting an Ecommerce business is a brave leap; At Payoneer, we understand that you need all the support you can get. That’s why our products are tailored to help businesses with selling products online. Try one of our solutions today for convenience in payments, financial services, and shipping.
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