Forum Moderators: buckworks
SN
But I'd say all things that have the same features when bought online or offline are simpler to sell online.
I didn't say they don't sell at all, I just lsited properties that make a product online-friendly.
SN
I have one site up which is doing really well in it's niche market but the problem with it is that the niche is quite small, so growth is limited. You need to get the balance between niche and demand, which isn't the easiest thing to do IMHO.
Key is finding smaller niches with repeat demand. Stay away from products sold by inexperienced drop-shippers. They always try to elbow into the market by lowering prices.
Truth is that virtually every product, commodity and service is sold on the web. Most areas are terribly over-stored, with many sites shutting down.
However it's interesting that it's both a niche item and easily shipped. It's also hard to find a specific title locally, so once you connect a large number of used bookstores' inventories on a single website the value proposition is pretty compelling.
There's probably similar markets for tons of other products. Just yesterday a friend who works in antique house restoration told me of a need for a website where he could find re-cycled fixtures and various other antiques.
So to be just a bit more specific than wackal, "niche items that are rare and hard to find locally."
The toy industry works like this. In Hong Kong, all suppliers are glued to eBay in order to assess which products are in fashion and which are not, even though they will not sell on eBay themselves. Sometimes, they will help their resellers with photos and information to sell on eBay or their web sites. Sometimes it is possible to make over 500% profit on eBay just by buying a particular off the street.
However, there are often problems involved.
1. Many of these products are unofficial products launched after a major cartoon e.g. Nemo or Brother Bear and therefore they break the copyright of Disney and AOL Time Warner.
2. Many electronic products are produced in China for their internal market only. Therefore they are not CE or FCC certified. It is also possible they have copied their designs elsewhere.
One of the very hit products in Hong Kong at the moment are the wristwatch type walkie talkies. However, they are not FCC certified.
Derek
Plus shopping for used books on the web is far more efficient than browsing conventional used bookstores. You're not only competing with the brick/mortar stores, you're putting them out of business (and then buying their inventory!).
Same thing with used auto parts mentioned in another current thread here.
Consider the following
#1 Have a min margin of 20%
#2 Ship products that don't break in transit
#3 Sell products that don't need tech support or installation advice
#4 Sell products on quality, value or some other unique selling point rather than price (anyone can beat you on price)
#5 Get some kind of competitive advantage that will provide a barrier to entry for your competitors
#6 Concentrate on offering good customer service
#7 Make sure your customers are aware of your terms and conditions, ie who pays to return products if faulty, unsuitable etc.
#8 Stick to your instincts on credit cards and fraud
#9 Have a reliable courier service
#10 Don't make promises if there is the slightest change you cant keep them.
Ideal products might be:
software, books, music and video products, magazines, perfumes, watches, wallets, posters, premium non perishable foods, batteries
Whatever it is remember one rule!
KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid
That is the golden rule!
All sorts of things sell on the web, and some things that you would think are incredibly simple to sell....just don't.
It never ceases to amaze me that $100 ebooks can fly out of the door, while giving something much more valuable away, for almost free, fails disastrously.
Apart from always keeping it simple I think the best solution is to be prepared to try lots of different things, some will work, some will fail. Overtime you can build on those that work and ditch the others.
What doesnt sell online? Elephants, you cant get the boxes big enough.
That's the big appeal in software / ebooks / content - no stock to hold, no breakages during transit, no shipping deadlines. The only problem with that kind of ecommerce is that it can take longer to get up and going, building a site large enough to generate good advertising $$$ can take while.
There are pros and cons, whatever way you look at it. You couldn't experiment enough.
Combined with a not to helpful sales staff, wot you only want $750 of gear...
What sells on the Web?
It's been two days and 18 messages and nobody has said: Sex
Amazing! :-)
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I deleted several posts following #19
Tut, tut, this suggests that all of you went a bit off-track since my message # 19 above. To bring the thread back on course:
Services sell well. A wide range of services targeted at both home and business do well on the web ...from film processing to software development services to various outsourcing offers. It's up to you to find a specific service that you can make a success of. I think services are the way forward for the smaller webmaster...or webmistress (no, please don't go THERE again!)
For instance, clothing in uncommon sizes (my shoes!); gourmet food; organic food; handmade anything; even relatively ordinary personal care items. My niece is in the military and for her the web is a lifeline to familiar items when her outfit stationed in a remote area. Extra $$ for shipping is no big deal when the alternative is no access to the item at all.
I used to think small and light was the best thing to sell. But if you can sell it easily, so can someone else. Sometimes the barrier is the weight of an item. If you can sell it and have the facilities to ship it, there are very good margins in selling heavy or oversized items.
Set up a fairly large site selling a wide range of related products, lets say it was selling computer wares. Promote that site, get good listings, do a little advertising and sooner or later you should start to get sales. Now, watch what sells and what the most popular search terms are. Find out what is the most in demand product, then spin it off into a separate site.
The biggest benefit of this strategy is that you can increase the chances of getting sales, whether it is from your large site or your targeted site. When you get multiple targeted sites running you can then start to shuffle traffic, and sales, around them.
It does work, but it takes lots of time. Just my $0.02!
Somehow I believe scalable services (search etc) allows maximum economies of scale.
ebooks
What ebooks sell other than ebooks about making money selling ebooks and other get rich quick schemes?
- you can get your SE keywords without spending ages on SOE
- if you stike gold on google SEO you wont get swamped with orders from the mass market that you just cant fulfil.
specially applies if you have to use the third party to supply your goods who you will rely on for your reputation. we sell services and knowledge so its easily scalable. online sales rely on trust and reputation so its important not to compromise that early on.
