Fantastic! You have added value to your business by making or creating something brilliant. But how can you sell a physical product online? There are so many different routes, and just having one avenue for the public to spend money with you is not the best way to make money. Consider as many as you can to reach more people.
As part of your package
When you package one or more of your own products, you don’t have to put as much work into selling it. Your profit margins are better. And if you collaborate with someone else, you both have a community you can market to, so you can reach a lot more people.
Remember to build the price of each item into the package. And of course, the shipping cost will go up too.
On your website
The only restrictions you have on the design of your online shop are the limitations the template you choose, has on you. But, this is often not a problem. You can use SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and plugins to make a gorgeous shop.
The bonus is that all the monies you take from your sales are yours (minus your website and transaction fees). You don’t have to pay the platform their percentage. Having your own website to sell your products is ideal, but it can take time to process and fulfill (ship) your item to your customers. So make sure you have the systems in place for efficient customer service.
You can use platforms like Shopify (see more examples below), but can be quite expensive as you add in more and more extras.
If you don’t have an established brand it is hard work to drive traffic to your product page.
Here are some ideas:
- Paid advertising
- Find online listings to list your products
- Blog and guest blog
- Speaking gigs
- Network
- Use social media
- Public Relations
Platforms
Etsy
Etsy is great for startups and handmade products. They are quite a good bet as they are not too expensive, is an effective search engine, and are user-friendly. You can personalise your listing too.
Amazon
Amazon is trustworthy and has more credit cards saved than any other platform in the world. It is also a search engine, but people go to Amazon to shop, not to browse (as they may do on Etsy).
There are two options:
- Amazon can fulfill your order by shipping it to your customer and handling all the customer care.
- You can list it on Amazon but do all the fulfillment yourself.
Amazon does take fees and can be quite technical to get set up. But this is easily learnt and they have loads of videos to show you as well as a line to call if you get stuck.
Ebay
This is also a huge marketplace, but they can take over 10% of your sale. One drawback is that you have to wait for payment.
Subscription
This is a great way to create passive income. If your product can be repeated monthly (for example), you can set up a monthly subscription payment and shipping model.
There are two reasons to be in business:
- To gain a customer
- To keep a customer
A subscription model saves you having to adveritse as much because you are keeping your customers every month.
When you sell a physical product online you are able to reach so many more people than a physical venue can.
Don’t forget that writing a book is another physical product that can add great value to your business.
