It is a classic conundrum that tends to hit most of the smallest ecommerce sites shortly after founding – what should they actually sell? This is a question that can actually be tough to answer for a lot of small businesses, even if they are not starting out but merely looking for some new products to sell in order to expand their inventory.
Problems with this type of question have certainly become more common. And there is a simple enough reason for this.
In the old days, when all retail outlets were physical brick and mortar outlets, deciding what to sell was usually settled long in advance. Nobody is going to set up a physical place of business in a specific area with a certain local market and the many costs associated with it without first knowing what they’re going to sell to this market. With ecommerce, it isn’t so much like this.
To get started in ecommerce, all anybody needs to do is create an ecommerce site or an account on a larger ecommerce selling platform such as Amazon, eBay, or Shopify. Targeting the right customer base comes later.
Accordingly, it has become possible to start an ecommerce venture and decide what you’re going to sell later – or atleast to update your inventory as you go along.
Wholesale or Retail?
Another question that arises at this point is whether to sell ordinary retail products, wholesale products, or a combination of both. There are advantages to each type of business model.
The advantage of selling higher value productsin smaller quantities is that you can make sales which boost your brand identification. These products are not bought as often or in such large number, but they are high-value and a company can develop a reputation for expertise in these products.
Selling wholesale products can be a great way to encourage repeat sales of products which are inexpensive, easy to buy on impulse and which are nevertheless high-quality and useful.
Olympic Eyewear, a distributor of bulk designer sunglasses say that wholesale designer sunglasses are a great example of this type of product, as they can be presented by the assorted dozen to customers, allowing them a lot of choice and also the product they need in a pinch.
For smaller ecommerce sites hoping to establish a healthy cash flow, these types of products come much advised.
Further Tips for Selecting Products
That, at any rate, is a good place to start when choosing inventory to sell, but there are other considerations and tips for selecting products as well. Here follows some of them:
Brainstorm First
It all begins with thinking what type of products you use on a daily basis and which of these might be good to offer to your customers. The trick to successful brainstorming is always to write down everything that comes to mind, and to consider whether each product idea is viable.
Look at Competitors
This not only gives you a clear ideaof what sells and what is possible, but also what could be popular amongyour target customer base. This could help you find your niche.
Consider Your Marketing
Or, rather, how you are actually going to sell your products once you have sourced them. This is a question of marketing and needs to take into account two different things.Firstly, what your resources for marketing actually are and, secondly, who your potential customers are.
Selecting the right products for an ecommerce venture is an essential first step towards success. You need to think about what will sell, how you can source it, and how you can go about actually selling it.
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