Product & Niche Selection Archives - A Better Lemonade Stand

85 Easy to Sell Print-on-Demand Product Ideas in 2022

A Better Lemonade Stand — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 16:00:18 +0000

For most new entrepreneurs, one of the easiest and fastest ways to start their first online business is to source print-on-demand products. “Print-on-demand” is a term that refers to the exact process of sourcing an ecommerce product to sell. Print-on-demand products are typically blank products that are created with the sole intention of having a custom design printed on them. In this article, we’ve rounded up 85 print-on-demand product ideas that exist on the market right now, so entrepreneurs can stock their stores with them.

How Does Print-on-Demand Work?

A print on demand company supplies the products, and they’re usually completely blank products that have no identifying markings on them that merchants or customers can print their own designs on. For merchants, this means they can create their own unique products on what would otherwise be a blank product, and for customers, it means they can create custom one-off items they might not be able to find in a store.

How to Start a Print-on-Demand Business

To start a print-on-demand business, you don’t need very much experience and you don’t need a lot of resources. You can use an ecommerce platform like Shopify to host your website which helps you get your website set up quickly and easily, and then you need to find a print-on-demand product supplier to source products. We’ll list print-on-demand product suppliers throughout this article for each specific product, but some of the main print-on-demand product suppliers include:

One of the main advantages of using Shopify to set up your print-on-demand store is that these print on demand services are all found in the Shopify App Store. You’ll be able to add a print provider to your website in a click of a button, allowing you to automatically import your newly design custom products on your own online store. Some of the top recommended print-on-demand suppliers in the Shopify App Store include:

Note: For more great dropshipping apps on the Shopify App Store that don’t necessarily fit into the print-on-demand category, check out our list of the best Shopify dropshipping apps.

Print-on-Demand Apparel Products

T-SHIRTS

This is one of the most well-known print-on-demand products to sell, and is likely one of the first types of print-on-demand products that was ever sold! In fact, we started our very own ecommerce store in 24 hours by selling print-on-demand t-shirts, and we documented the entire process in our How to Start a T-Shirt Business in 24 Hours with $24 and How You Can Too article. You too can sell t-shirts using the print on demand services below.

LEGGINGS

Activewear apparel has become a trending product in recent years, and the demand for it continues to grow. One of the top popular products in the activewear market are leggings, and with print-on-demand suppliers, you can stock your own custom all over print leggings in your online store.

TANK TOPS

Similar to t-shirts, tank tops are another good print-on-demand product idea. If you’re already selling t-shirts in your ecommerce store, consider stocking tank tops as well with the same designs! This will give your customers more choice and since you don’t have to purchase any additional inventory upfront from your print provider, it will be at no extra cost to you.

BASEBALL (RAGLAN) TEES

Baseball tees, otherwise known as raglan tees, are another popular variation of the more traditional t-shirt design. With their distinctive sleeve design that’s typically three-quarter length and a contrasting color to the main body of the top, it gives a casual and sporty look to the garment which could be desirable for some brands using a print on demand service.

LONG-SLEEVED SHIRTS

Keep it simple and add long-sleeved shirts to your ecommerce store! Long-sleeved shirts are a classic and a staple in many people’s wardrobe, and a product that can easily be revamped with a fun, clever and custom design and sold on your own website.

POLO SHIRTS

If you’re interested in selling digital printing t-shirts online but feel that the niche might be oversaturated, polo shirts might be a better option for you. They’re slightly more niche than just plain t-shirts and polo shirts with custom designs are more difficult to locate in traditional retail stores.

HOODIES & SWEATSHIRTS

For the ultimate casual comfort, consider stocking hoodies or sweaters on your online store! They’re also a great addition to your store if you’re selling similar products like t-shirts and tank tops as they give your customers more options to choose from.

SKIRTS

This is one of the less saturated options when it comes to products that are available on the market, and it’s definitely one worth exploring if you want to offer something different or if you want to round out your store’s apparel offering and sell for a good retail price.

DRESSES

Dresses are a versatile product which can be made into unique items with interesting custom designs. Try adding them to your product offering along with skirts to expand your options so customers can have more choice. Selling both can help customers save on shipping costs when they order multiple items from your online store.

SWIMWEAR

A popular product to sell with an all over print is swimwear. To create a comprehensive online store centered around swimwear and other related products, add custom beach towels and hats to round out your product offering.

ACTIVEWEAR

If you’re starting a fitness apparel online store, you can sell various activewear items. From sports bras to leggings to tank tops and more. You’ll find print on demand services have various activewear items that you can design custom products for your own store.

BODYSUITS

Bodysuits are a popular product primarily in the women’s apparel niche, as they’re something that can be worn in both casual or formal contexts and they can be as subdued or loud as the wearer prefers. There’s lots of versatility in this apparel item, so if you’re looking for a simple core product you can jazz up with custom designs, this could be a good option for you.

Printful Bodysuits

KIDS’ CLOTHING

Creating custom products isn’t just for adults, kids’ clothing is an existing business audience you can start selling products for. When it comes to kids’ clothing, the designs can often be more colorful, loud, bright and bold, so there’s lots of room to be creative when designing print-on-demand kids’ clothing.

BABY CLOTHING

Not only is there a huge market for kids’ clothing, but there is for baby clothing items as well. In this category of print-on-demand products, consider the entire spectrum of baby clothes and accessories: Bibs, beanies, onesies, tops, blankets and more. Many print on demand sites offer baby clothing allowing you to design white label products for babies. Parents can save on shipping costs when they buy multiple items from your company.

Print-on-Demand Accessories

HATS

Although it’s a hugely saturated market, there’s still demand for hats and they never seem to go out of style. Whether it’s baseball hats, trucker hats, dad hats or something in between, hats are a popular accessory that can easily be spruced up with creative printed designs. You can also sell toques, beanies, bucket hats, and visors, giving you the flexibility to sell multiple hat styles from various print on demand sites.

PHONE CASES

Phone cases are a top-selling item, and also a product that’s been trending in recent years. Since people tend to upgrade their smartphone every year or two, it often means that these same customers upgrade their phone cases as well, meaning demand isn’t slowing down any time soon. Learn how to start your own phone case business. As phone models change, the styles available by print on demand services also adapt so you can always sell the most popular cases.

TOTE BAGS

A highly customizable product, these bags are a blank canvas in the accessories world. With essentially a blank slate to work with, create any design you’d like: Use images, patterns, designs, words, typography, etc. They’re also a product that’s gaining momentum in a growing market as consumers become more conscious of their environmental impact and switch from plastic shopping bags to reusable ones.

DRAWSTRING BAGS

Drawstring bags are another great reusable bag option for order fulfillment. If you’re considering stocking other bags in your ecommerce store, consider also stocking drawstring bags so your customers have more product choices to choose from.

BACKPACKS

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel, but you can redecorate it! Backpacks have stood the test of time and there’s very stable market demand for them, so if you’re looking for a really solid product idea you know will sell but you still want to inject your brand’s personality into in some way, then sell custom products like backpacks.

SOCKS

Another product that has stood the test of time (no pun intended) are socks. You should start selling custom products like socks as they are a main piece of nearly every person’s day-to-day wardrobe. They’re also a product that fosters so much potential when it comes to creativity and design, plus they’re an easy product for customers to switch up in their wardrobe. You’ll find many print on demand companies who give you the option to do an all over print so you can sell socks people love.

TRAVEL BAGS & WEEKEND BAGS

Travel is a big part of many consumers’ lives, so you should sell products like travel bags. This is a great product idea to sell online in the travel niche using a print on demand company.

COSMETICS BAGS

Print on demand companies sell a lot of fun products like this cosmetic bag. They’re also practical products used by consumers for both travel and storage so they have many different potential uses for which the designs can cater towards. You can set your own prices by selling high quality products like this with a unique design. The fulfillment process from the various print on demand companies makes running an ecommerce business in the beauty space so much easier.

SCARVES

Print on demand companies are starting to diversify their product collections to include items like scarves. Currently, two print on demand services sell this popular winter item, which makes a good addition for a clothing, accessories, or scarves ecommerce business. Your existing website can include these direct to garment printing products.

MAKEUP

There is currently a print-on-demand company that allows you to sell private label makeup. You could add your logo to makeup so that your brand receives recognition as the creator. For those looking to sell lipsticks, skincare products, brow kits, bronzer, mascara, and more will be able to sell makeup in 2022.

Blanka Makeup

BANDANAS

This a product that can round out any accessories store as bandanas have been rising back onto the fashion scene as of late. If you’re including bandanas in your ecommerce store, consider the types of designs you’ll get printed onto them to make them appealing to your target market. The print quality on fabrics is typically high quality, making the final product a great addition for your product line.

Gooten Bandanas

SHOES

Print-on-demand companies also sell a range of footware that you can add custom designs too all over. Whether you create a shoe store or a fashion store that includes shoes is your choice, but either option could work successfully.

NECKTIES

Print-on-demand services are starting to sell POD neckties to potential customers like you. If you’re interested in customizable products like neckties, get ready to have lots of fun designing the prints that will be printed onto them.

Gooten Neckties

BELT

Print-on-demand companies allow you to sell belts with a unique all over design on them. You could create belts in solid colors that aren’t typically found in stores, or you could add a unique design to them to stand out from the competition.

Printify Belt

COMPACT MIRRORS

Most merchants probably don’t think about compact mirrors when they think about POD products to sell online, so if you’re looking for a less conventional product idea, this could be a good option. Consider also adding this as a product to your store if you’re selling cosmetics bags like we mentioned above.

Gooten Compact Mirrors

LUGGAGE AND ACCESSORIES

Another accessory that fulfills the needs of the travel niche, suitcases and luggage tags can be a useful addition to travel-inspired stores. Pair this type of product with travel bag products for a well-rounded ecommerce store using a print-on-demand service like Printify or Gooten.

JEWELRY AND ACCESSORIES

The best print-on-demand product is one that caters to a big market. Jewelry is a popular niche you can sell in. The print quality is high with this product and the order fulfillment process is quick. Since the product is small you’ll also benefit from cost effective shipping.

YOGA MATS

As an accessory for athletic consumers whether they’re working out at home, in the gym or in studios, yoga mats are a versatile product that have lots of room for creative designs to suit whatever their main target market is.

PUZZLES

A less-conventional POD product, but one that you as a merchant can have a lot of fun with, puzzles are a tried-and-tested product there’s steady demand for. If you chose to pursue this product idea, think about the type of niche you’ll target with the designs to separate yourself from competitors.

PIN-BACK BUTTONS

Pin-back buttons are a rising trend in recent years, especially within the music scene and for consumers interested in participating in social or environmental campaigns.

Gooten Pin-Back Buttons

Print-on-Demand Homewares

DINNERWARE

Plates and bowls can be manufactured by print on demand companies like TeeLaunch. You could design elegant patterns, holiday designs, and more for people looking to find dinnerware sets.

CANDLE

You can also find candles with printing options. They can come in a range of scents making the product quality high. You can add your own branding using POD companies like Printify. These customized products can be sold on ecommerce platforms like Shopify.

APRONS

Another practical item that can be used by so many different types of consumers, this type of product can be a great addition to homeware stores or stores selling kitchen-related items. This is another product where the design printed on it is what makes it unique, so take thoughtful consideration into the niche market you want to appeal to if you choose to supply print-on-demand aprons.

COFFEE MUGS

An essential product in most household, coffee cups are one of those items that never falls out of style. With steady demand for this product you can be sure that it’s something your target market will likely have a use for, and it’s something you can make unique to your store with custom designs, patterns or slogans printed on it.

THROW PILLOWS

A popular home-decor item, throw pillows are typically interchanged and updated throughout the seasons so they can be a lucrative product to sell. They’re very versatile in terms of what designs and slogans can be printed on them, so it’s possible to create an entire brand around them.

PILLOWCASES

Similar to throw pillows, pillowcases are an additional option to stock in homeward-related ecommerce stores. With pillowcases, customers can switch up designs and patterns more easily on their throw pillows which can make them more versatile throughout the year.

MAGNETS

You can also sell magnets. Custom products like magnet invitations for weddings or ones with business logos can help you sell more magnets. You could also sell magnets with popular designs on them.

WALL ART

If you’re an artist or creator interested in selling your own work, this is a great type of product to pursue. Bring your creations to life and sell them to your customers so they can display them in their homes

POSTERS

Similar to print-on-demand wall art, posters are virtually the same thing except they’re printed on poster paper rather than more high-quality printing paper. This means that posters are generally a less expensive option, which could be more ideal for your store depending on your target audience and the types of designs you sell.

BEACH TOWELS

This is another less common print-on-demand product idea that there’s lots of consumer demand for. It’s also a product you as a merchant could have lots of fun designing as there’s plenty of room for creative approaches depending on the niche market you serve.

CANVAS PRINTS

For a more professional and polished look, consider selling canvas prints of your artwork or designs. Canvas prints are more robust and hearty than wall art or poster prints, as they resemble more of a real painting effect. If you want to provide a more luxury print-on-demand product, consider stocking canvas prints in your ecommerce store.

BLANKETS

With so many different avenues to pursue when it comes to print-on-demand blankets, the possibilities are endless and this type of product could cater to so many different niches. Create baby blankets, blankets for movie-buffs, print your own artwork on blankets, etc. The only limit is your imagination.

LAUNDRY BAGS

Reusable bags are trending right now, and it doesn’t just stop with shopping bags. Reusable laundry bags are another environmentally friendly option and a desirable addition to sell alongside clothing or accessory products.

PLACEMATS

Dine in style with custom-printed placemats! This is another type of product you have free reign when it comes to the types of images, designs, patterns or slogans you print on it and one that makes a welcome addition to homeware-focused stores.

Gooten Placemats

TABLECLOTHS

Create beautiful and unique tablecloths for your ecommerce store, no matter what your niche audience is. With essentially a blank canvas to work with, there’s lots of room to create a great product whether you print your own designs, artwork or slogans onto it.

Gooten Tablecloths

TABLE RUNNERS

Dress up any table quickly and simply with a unique table runner! These types of products are meant to be the focal point of a table so they can be completely unique and custom. You have plenty of space to add images and designs to so let your imagination run wild.

Gooten Print-on-Demand Table Runners

CUTTING BOARDS

This is the type of product you can have a lot of fun bringing to life as a print-on-demand product as cutting boards are typically sold in very generic and simple colors. If you want to offer something different, consider creating cutting boards your customers have never seen before by getting images, photos, patterns, or slogans printed onto them.

KOOZIES

Bring your own brand of drink koozies to your store with these print-on-demand options! These are a well-loved item you can stock as a quick add-to-cart product or upsell to suggest to customers at checkout. If you sell beverage products on your ecommerce store too, these could be a relevant bonus product to encourage customers to purchase as well.

Gooten Koozies

BOTTLE OPENERS

Another quick add-to-cart product are bottle openers, especially if you’re selling kitchen items or beverage-related products. These are also easy products that you can add to your site and although they’re small, so there’s not much room to print on them, if you make use of the space efficiently you can come up with some clever designs.

Gooten Bottle Openers

LUNCH BOXES

A print-on-demand service can allow you to design lunch boxes for people who work in an office. The lunch box will help keep their food warm or cool and separated from other things in their bags. Currently, the only print-on-demand company to offer lunch boxes is Printify.

CLOTH NAPKINS

Add cloth napkins as a final addition to your print-on-demand product offering to round out your ecommerce store. Consider printing the designs, artwork or slogans you print on your other products onto this product as well so you can create matching sets or give your customers more choice.

Gooten Cloth Napkins

ICE BUCKET

Print-on-demand companies have started selling ice buckets. You could add summer designs, your brand’s logo, or reach out to licensed brands for permission, such as sports teams, Disney, or other big brands, to add their designs on your ice bucket.

Printify Ice Bucket With Tongs

OVEN MITT

Print-on-demand companies like Printify also allow you to sell kitchenware like oven mitts. You could add unique colors, holiday designs, or cool patterns to sell unique oven mitts people will love.

Teelaunch Oven Mitt

ACRYLIC TRAYS

These products are convenient for using as a catchall tray in entrances for keys or on tables for trinkets, and they’re also used as a decorative item, especially if they’re printed with an eye-catching design or an interesting slogan. Add them to your store to provide customers with a unique homeware item they might otherwise think to purchase.

Gooten Acrylic Trays

TEA TOWELS

These are perhaps one of the most widely-used homeware items in every kitchen and they’re certainly something you have lots of space to print your own designs or images onto. Print your own artwork, sketches or creations onto tea towels for a unique upgrade on conventional tea towels, or bring the tea towel of your dreams to life with whatever pattern or design you’d like to see printed onto a tea towel.

SHOWER CURTAINS

There’s certainly a lot of room for unique shower curtains on the market, so if you’re stocking any other homeware items from this list onto your store, consider offering your same designs onto shower curtains as well. There’s steady demand for this type of product, so you don’t have to worry about a lack of market demand.

BATH MATS

Another homeware staple, bath mats are an essential item in every bathroom. If you’re rounding out your bathroom-focused ecommerce store, a bath mat is a perfect product to add to your inventory. When creating designs for this type of product, remember that bath mats are generally made out a fuzzy, carpet-like material which means that small details won’t show up well. Go for more bold designs or slogans and contrasting colors so it’s clear what the bath mat is depicting.

BATH TOWELS

An essential product in every household, bath towels are a product that have stood the test of time. This product can be made to appeal to so many different types of niches so there’s no limits with what can be printed on the bath towel of your brand’s dream.

OTTOMANS

This is one of the biggest print-on-demand products you’ll find on this list, which, if you’re well versed in shipping ecommerce products you’ll know that shipping large products like ottomans can be quite costly. With this information in mind, be aware that if you choose to sell ottomans on your ecommerce store, you’ll have to price your products carefully so that they cover the cost of shipping as well as the other costs required to print and pack the product. This is just something to be aware of, and your print-on-demand supplier will likely be able to help you price the product so that you can cover all manufacturing costs plus make a profit on the item.

Gooten Ottomans

RUGS

One of the slightly more unusual print-on-demand products, rugs aren’t your run-of-the-mill customizable items. Take this opportunity to add a great product to your inventory that your customers wouldn’t normally expect to see.

Gooten Rugs

TAPESTRIES

Not only can artwork be printed on posters or canvases, consider printing it on tapestries, too. They make stunning wall hangings and they’re often easier and less expensive to ship than artwork printed on canvases, which means your profit margins will be more generous.

COASTERS

A classic product and one that has served its purpose throughout the ages, coasters are the kind of item that can be printed with anything on them. No matter what niche you’re serving or who your target audience is, you can print relevant artwork, designs or slogans on them. Create an entire store around coasters or add them to your product offering, they’re the type of product that can stand alone or with others.

Gooten Coasters

STOCKINGS

A staple item throughout the holiday season for some consumers, holiday stockings can be decorative or functional parts of holiday celebrations. Depending on your niche, this might be a product you want to offer, however, bear in mind that the sales for this type of product fluctuate throughout the year and will likely have low sales rates outside of the holiday season.

HOLIDAY TREE SKIRTS

This is another product where the sales fluctuate throughout the seasons, so take that into consideration if this is a product you’re interested in selling. Tree skirts are most popular around the main holiday period, as they’re used to decorate the floor area around the base of a holiday tree, and there’s very little similar use for them throughout the year. To boost the sales for this type of product year after year, consider making limited edition versions of this product that your customers may be interested in collecting year after year.

DUVET COVERS

A common household item, duvet covers are the perfect canvas to print designs, artwork, and slogans onto. Since there’s so much room for versatility, they make a great product to sell to nearly any niche and audience. With this product, however, it’s important to remember that you’ll likely have to stock different sizes of the product, as duvets typically come in more than one size. This means that you’ll have to list multiple Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) for every design you list on your store, which is just an important piece of website housekeeping to be aware of.

OUTDOOR FLOOR MATS

Create unique floor mats your customers can lay on their doorsteps to welcome visitors to their homes with custom print-on-demand floor mats. Since this product is slightly on the larger and heavier side, it’s going to be more complicated and costly to ship, so keep that in mind when determining your product pricing.

OUTDOOR PILLOWS

Rather than just focusing on indoor pillows like throw pillows, outdoor pillows are another great product option that aren’t typical print-on-demand products. This type of product will also be slightly more costly to ship because it’s bulky, so think about that when developing your product pricing.

Gooten Outdoor Pillows

ORNAMENTS

Another predominantly seasonal item on this list, ornaments rise and fall in popularity around the holidays. Turn your own designs into ornaments, create custom slogan ornaments or print images onto them, the options are endless when it comes to ornaments. No matter what your niche is, this product type could be a welcome addition to your store’s product offering every season.

Print-on-Demand Stationery & Office Supplies

JOURNALS & NOTEBOOKS

Journals and notebooks have been a trending product in the last few years so if you’re looking for a print-on-demand product that on the rise, this could be a good option for you. When creating a business around journals and notebooks, take into consideration that there are so many brands selling similar products on the market, so ask yourself how your products will stand out from the crowd. Since you’ll be using print-on-demand, this differentiation will likely come from the designs, patterns or slogans you get printed on journal cover itself.

GREETING CARDS

Greeting cards have a huge amount of versatility and they’re a great product to sell if you have your own artwork or writing to sell on them. They make a great addition to any stationary store, so if you’re looking to create a well-rounded ecommerce store for stationery lovers, consider adding greeting cards to your roster.

CALENDARS

Calendars are another relevant item that can be added to stores that sell stationary-related products, however, remember with calendars that they have an expiration date, so to speak, in that they are only relevant for a year and then they’re outdated. Since you’ll be using the print-on-demand business model though, this won’t be a major concern for you because you’ll be purchasing stock one-by-one as your customers order it, so you won’t have to worry about whether you’ll be able to sell out of all of your stock before the new year comes around.

Gooten Calendars

TABLET CASES

Tablet cases are a practical product that can be lucrative to sell as their margins can be quite comfortable. Remember, however, that when tablets get updated to new versions it’s likely that their cases will have to be as well, meaning that you’ll have to constantly be on top of stocking the right cases for the products that are currently being sold on the market. Again, because you’ll be sourcing from dropshipping suppliers that have no MOQs, this shouldn’t be a problem because you won’t be purchasing inventory in advance.

ACRYLIC BLOCKS

These transparent picture frames are a trendy and modern approach to conventional picture frames and they make a simple yet striking addition to any room. These are a unique print-on-demand product to sell and one that can be used to showcase artwork, designs or slogans.

Gooten Acrylic Blocks

STICKERS

Depending on the niche you target, stickers can be a useful and sought-after product. An audience that’s highly interested in stickers, for example, are teachers and another use case for stickers includes brands where they use them as brand merchandise and in the shipping box packing process. Although not all niche markets have a use case for sticker products, the ones that do will likely purchase in bulk and they may even repurchase over and over, so it could be a high-volume ecommerce product to pursue.

MOUSE PADS

This is another instance where not every consumer has a use case for this product, however, there are certainly niche groups that do. For example, avid mouse-users like computer gamers and office workers likely still use mouse pads frequently, so we recommend thinking carefully about your target audience if you choose to pursue this print-on-demand product and possibly consider offering as an add-on product at checkout.

Print-on-Demand Pet Supplies

DOG BEDS

Stocking products for furry friends rather than humans? Why not sell dog beds with your own custom designs printed on them!

PET BANDANAS

While you’re at it, how about selling pet bandanas, too? They’re a versatile product that almost every different breed of dog can wear and you can even zone in on creating breed-specific designs to hone in on a certain niche of dog lovers.

Gooten Pet Bandanas

PET LEASHES

Gooten and Printify are print-on-demand companies that allows you to sell pet leashes. You could customize the leash with your customer’s pet’s photo, your logo, or a popular design.

PET COLLARS

A print-on-demand company like Gooten also sells pet collars that you can customize with your customer’s pet’s name or with an attention grabbing design.

Gooten Pet Collars

PET BOWLS

Gooten is the only print-on-demand company that sells pet bowls. You can customize the pet bowl in numerous ways to appeal to all pet owners.

Gooten Pet Bowls

Conclusion

That’s our roundup of 85 print-on-demand business ideas you can choose to start your own print-on-demand business! With the information and ideas in this article you should have an understanding of how to get your print-on-demand business started and some product ideas to get started selling!

The post 85 Easy to Sell Print-on-Demand Product Ideas in 2022 appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

How to Start an Online Marketplace

Richard Lazazzera — Fri, 22 Jul 2022 16:00:22 +0000

An online marketplace is a type of ecommerce business that can be rewarding to create, however, it comes with its own unique set of challenges. If you’ve ever thought of doing some online selling like the marketplaces you see online already such as Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, Etsy, or Airbnb then this is the perfect article to start off with. In this article, you’ll learn all about online marketplaces, what they are, how to start one and how to become marketplace sellers.

Ready to start online selling? Read on.

What is an Online Marketplace?

An online marketplace is an ecommerce store where multiple sellers can sell goods or services to customers. Examples of online marketplaces include Facebook Marketplace, Amazon, Etsy, Airbnb, and eBay. These online stores are considered to be online marketplaces because there are many merchants (hundreds of thousands, in fact) who can sell their products to the customers that browse the online shopping website.

Traditional ecommerce stores sell the goods and services of one brand, but not ecommerce marketplaces, which have many marketplace sellers who sell online on their site. They have a greater product offering which can draw more visitors to browse the website. One of the main advantages of online marketplaces is that they draw in lots of digital foot-traffic, which can mean greater exposure for the merchants on their site.

What unites all the online sellers together is that there’s one checkout process. When customers shop on an ecommerce marketplace, they don’t need to click away to different websites to complete the transaction, they can purchase from many different merchants on the marketplace at once, even if the merchants aren’t associated with one another.

When customers make purchases from sites like Facebook Marketplace or Amazon, the merchants they purchase from get a notification that someone has purchased their product, and then each online seller can individually ship and send the customer the products that were ordered from them.

This means that although a customer can complete just one transaction when purchasing from multiple different sellers, their products will be shipped from each seller individually meaning they’ll receive a shipping package from each merchant they ordered a product from.

Essentially, for online shoppers the experience is like shopping from several different online sellers at once, while being able to pay all the merchants in one transaction rather than in many transactions.

Another thing that unites online marketplaces together is that they usually are focused around one particular niche. Amazon, for example, started as an ecommerce marketplace of booksellers. Airbnb started as an online marketplace to rent rooms in San Francisco. Facebook Marketplace started a profile for users, which eventually lead to building a big userbase, which made online shopping possible. When they center around one niche, it’s likely to become successful because it gives consumers a reason to shop there and when they do shop there, they know what to expect from the online sellers.

It can also referred to as a “Collaborative Economy” or a “Sharing Economy” because it’s usually made up of merchants who work together to share or sell their idle assets on a community-accessible marketplace.

Why You Should Create an Online Marketplace

One of the main reasons to start an online marketplace is to either help third-party sellers sell more product and to help shoppers get access to goods or services more easily.

Online marketplace sellers benefit from you creating a place where they can sell goods, spaces or services online at a cheaper price, better quality, or in a more convenient way.

Starting online marketplaces is great because you don’t have to own any inventory to run one. This makes them an attractive option for entrepreneurs who want to provide a service or solve a pain point without investing a lot of their own capital into the business. Since merchants sell or rent their goods or services on ecommerce marketplaces, they source the inventory.

“Uber, the world’s largest taxi company, owns no vehicles. Facebook, the world’s most popular media owner, creates no content. Alibaba, the most valuable retailer, has no inventory. And Airbnb, the world’s largest accommodation provider, owns no real estate.” – Tom Goodwin

How to Create an Online Marketplace

There’s plenty of online literature documenting how ecommerce entrepreneurs can start their own online businesses, but those online businesses tend to focus on solo entrepreneurs who are interested in selling their own products on their own websites. That’s not how online marketplaces work, so another approach must be taken.

1. Building Online Marketplaces

The best online marketplace platform we’ve come across, and the one that we recommend building yours on, is Sharetribe.

Sharetribe is well-recognized in the ecommerce industry as being the most reliable, user-friendly and cost-effective way for entrepreneurs to start their own online marketplace. With their software, any entrepreneur will be able to build a well-designed online marketplace in the most efficient and secure way possible.

Creating one from scratch with a team of web developers would cost you thousands of dollars, but Sharetribe doesn’t cost nearly as much and you’ll be able to have your site up and running faster than if you were to completely have it built from scratch. Keep things simple, streamlined and efficient by starting your online marketplace on a hosted platform like Sharetribe.

2. Ecommerce Marketplaces Niche

Honing in on one particular niche will ultimately lead to greater success. Select a niche market that your online marketplace will cater to.

This is an important step in the process of starting an online marketplace because it will impact what you sell on your website, the merchants who sell there, and the customers who are online shopping.

Note: Need help finding a niche? Check out our free downloadable guide of 500 Niches. It lists a variety of niches in a range of different industries and it can help you think outside the box and really focus in on a niche for your online marketplace.

3. Determining Your Minimum Viable Product Category

With Facebook marketplace and others in the world, it can be easy to get wrapped up in thinking about how you’ll scale yours to service millions of consumers right away. We encourage you not to get caught up in this way of thinking, because it takes a long time to grow one as big as Facebook Marketplace, and you can still build a successful one without being a giant in your industry.

When you’re just starting out, we suggest focusing on your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and creating that. Don’t get caught up in thinking about how you’ll create the biggest ecommerce marketplaces, just focus on creating an one that a small subset of your niche market really believes in, and start from there.

By thinking too big too soon, you’ll likely cause yourself to feel overwhelmed in everything you have to do and accomplish to get there. However, by zoning in on creating your MVP, you’ll be more likely to stick with it for years to come and that’s how you’ll grow.

Create something that at least 10 or so users can be interested in and use their feedback and experiences to grow from there. Like we mentioned earlier, Facebook Marketplace and Amazon started small too, and so can you.

4. Establishing a Budget for Online Sales

Just like any ecommerce business, starting an online marketplace will take some funds to get going. Fortunately, you don’t have to purchase or create an inventory for online selling to happen, which is pretty light on the budget. The main aspects of your budget will likely include:

The Cost of the Ecommerce Platform: Using a hosted online marketplace platform like Sharetribe will require monthly or yearly payments.
The Cost of Advertising to Online Sellers: You’ll need merchants with products to sell to set up shop on your online marketplace, and when you’re just starting you’re going to need to reach out to a lot of sellers to get some to actually start selling on your site. This means plenty of outreach which likely means you’ll need some cash to spend on advertising. Whether it’s advertising on social media, influencer advertising, print advertising, etc. it’s likely that you’ll have to spend money on some form of advertising to get sellers on your ecommerce marketplace.
Cost of Advertising for Customers: Customers will not come running before they know you exist. You’ll likely have to spend some money on advertising to get customers to start online shopping on your site.

Don’t spend too much in the early days when you’re still learning. It can be tempting to pump as much capital as you have, but remember that it’s going to take some time to grow.

In the beginning, focus instead on hustling to get free advertising whether it’s through SEO or your own social media. Let your online marketplace generate its own revenue before you invest too much more into it. Even if it’s slow growth, it will help to validate your online marketplace idea.

5. Knowing Your Value

Finally, when it comes to creating an online marketplace, don’t forget to focus on the main outcome of the online marketplace. Ask yourself, what are you aiming to achieve with your online marketplace? How does it add value to those in the niche market it services.

The goal of any online marketplace is to connect merchants and customers within a niche to sell or rent goods or services, so think about how that actually works and how you want to bring that to life.

Types of Online Marketplaces

There are several different types of online marketplaces, and although they all run in a similar fashion, there are slight differences to them which can impact the shopping experience, the types of products that are sold, the customers that shop there and the service that the online marketplace promises to fulfill.

1. Physical Products

Some online marketplaces focus on selling physical products only. This means that the merchants create or supply physical products that must be shipped to the customers who purchase them.

When you have an online marketplace that sells physical products, customers will receive shipping packages from each merchant they order a product from, which can impact their user experience. It means that they’ll be receiving multiple different packages, which can be confusing for them if they don’t know to expect that. Be upfront with customers who shop on your online marketplace—if it’s a physical product online marketplace—that even though they may be completing one transaction, the products are sourced from individual merchants and the products they’ve ordered will be arriving individually from each separate merchant.

2. Digital Products

Another type of online marketplace that exists is digital product marketplaces. These online marketplaces sell digital products that can be downloaded to computers or smart devices immediately after purchase which means that customers don’t have to wait for their products to be shipped and they won’t be receiving products one-by-one from each separate merchant they order from.

An example of a digital marketplace is Creative Market, where designers and creators sell digital assets like stock photos, logo templates, graphic designs and more. We wrote a complete Creative Market Review, and we’ve even rounded up some of Creative Market’s Best Instagram Templates, which we highly recommend checking for your online marketplace.

3. Property and Spaces

Another type of online marketplace is one that rents or sells property, rooms, event spaces or locations to customers. A great example of this type of online marketplace is Airbnb, which is an online marketplace for property owners to rent out rooms, apartments, houses or properties all over the world.

This type of online marketplace comes with its own unique set of challenges, such as government regulations, property insurance, and booking confirmations that must be adhered to and organized in order to be viable and successful.

4. Services

Other online marketplaces can sell services to their customers, where merchants can rent or sell their own specialties to the marketplace. These types of online marketplaces can provide digital services that can be carried out online, such as website development services, or they can provide services that take place in-person, such as painting and restoration work, for example. For example, Fiverr is one of the top online marketplaces to sell services on.

The Challenges of Starting an Online Marketplace

Building online marketplaces is quite different from building online stores. Here are a few of the top challenges you can expect to face when starting an online marketplace:

1. Convincing online sellers and online shoppers to choose you

When you first start an online marketplace, attracting both merchants and customers to use your marketplace is going to be your biggest challenge. Because you’re new, you’re going to have to build trust within merchants to sell on your site and you’re going to have to make sure customers know your marketplace exists so they even think to shop on it.

It will be challenging for you to convince merchants to come sell on an online marketplace if there aren’t customers already shopping there, and it won’t make sense to attract customers to your online marketplace if there aren’t any merchants selling their inventory there yet.

By reaching out to suppliers first before attracting customers to your online marketplace, you’ll also build the inventory supply that your marketplace has to offer which is crucial for customers when they start landing on your online marketplace. Without any inventory, there’s no incentive for your customers to shop on your marketplace at all, so secure the goods and services before you start reeling in customers.

In order to start finding merchants to sell goods and services on your online marketplace, consider reaching out to merchants who are already selling on Amazon, eBay, Facebook, or Etsy. This shows that they’re already comfortable selling on online marketplaces and if you give them a good enough reason to sell on yours too, they might be interested. Look for merchants that sell products that align with your online marketplace’s focus niche.

Sharetribe’s article on How to Build Supply for Your Marketplace can be an invaluable tool to help you attract merchants to your online marketplace when you are first getting started.

2. Providing a useful service

Online marketplaces can only be successful long-term if they solve a real problem for both merchants and customers. This is why it’s so important when starting your online marketplace to make sure that you validate your idea beforehand so you don’t find yourself months or years later with a failed marketplace because it didn’t provide value to merchants or consumers.

Like we mentioned before, take your time building your online marketplace and don’t invest too much capital upfront just in case your online marketplace idea isn’t something that can withstand the test of time. It’s better to grow your marketplace slowly so you can adjust and adapt to merchants’ and consumers’ needs as you go which can result in you creating an online marketplace that provides value to those merchants and consumers and thus, becomes a successful online marketplace long-term.

Focus on solving a problem for both the merchants and the consumers, and you’ll be more likely to provide a useful service for both parties.

3. Dealing with competition

Even if you think you’ve come up with a great idea for an online marketplace, it’s likely that someone else has already thought of it, too. Competition can be a hindrance to starting and growing your online marketplace, however, it shouldn’t completely deter you from pursuing it, either.

If there’s already an existing online marketplace, then you have to find a way to compete against them. Try competing on price, selection, quality, choice, the number of merchants, the geographic area or something else that gives your online marketplace an edge over any others.

If you aren’t sure whether there are any existing online marketplaces that are in direct competition with your online marketplace idea, then be aware that there probably is someone else also working on the same idea and you will eventually have competition. If this is the case, your only option is to execute your online marketplace idea better or faster than anyone else starting a similar online marketplace, so consider how you can make that happen.

4. Marketplace Costs

Every marketplace needs to earn revenue and profit to survive, so you’ll need to determine a viable strategy to ensure that your marketplace earns the revenue and profits that it needs to last without eating away at sellers margins and scaring them away. Here are some tips on managing the costs:

Funding needs to come from the community you’re serving, so consider how your users will fund your online marketplace
You need to “own” each transaction which usually means you charge a commission on every transaction you facilitate. This helps you generate revenue for your online marketplace. On average, top online marketplaces charge around 20-30% commissions as seller fees.
Focus on how many transactions occur on your online marketplace, not users. Your online marketplace exists to facilitate transactions, and that’s likely how you’re going to be earning your revenue, so that’s the most important metric to keep track of.
Think about how you will pay your merchants and how they will earn revenue from providing your online marketplace with inventory. You also need to consider when to move each transactions’ money from the customer to the merchant. It generally makes sense to only transfer the money from the customer to the merchant when you’re sure the customer will be receiving the goods or services they paid for, without any issues, such as refunds.

For great information on financing your online marketplace, check out this article on How to Design Your Marketplace’s Transaction Flow.

How to Run a Successful Online Marketplace

1. Select An Online Marketplace Business Model

Your online marketplace business model will impact how you will earn revenue and profit and how your merchants will earn revenue and profit, as well. It’s a fundamental aspect of every online marketplace and one that you should decide on before you launch.

The different types of online marketplace business models you can choose from include:

Commission-Based Business Model: This is the most common type of online marketplace business model and means that you will earn a commission from every transaction that takes place on your online marketplace. It’s an ideal business model because you’re guaranteed to earn revenue from each transaction and it builds trust within merchants and customers because they know that facilitating successful transactions is important to you because you have a stake invested in it.
Membership/Subscription Fee Business Model: This business model sets up your online marketplace so that each merchant or customer pays a membership fee in order to sell or buy on the online marketplace. Using this business model ensures that you get a consistent amount of revenue monthly but it can also deter merchants and customers from using your online marketplace.
Listing Fee Business Model: By using this business model your online marketplace will charge merchants a fee for listing their goods or services on your online marketplace. The listing fee could be based on a flat-rate amount or a percentage of the value of the good or service, and it’s typically used when there’s value in how many listings a merchant has posted on the online marketplace.
Lead Fee Business Model: This business model is more common in Business-to-Business (B2B) industries, as there’s often a lot of value at stake. When using this business model, the customer posts a good or service they’re looking for and merchants pay a fee in order to bid for the work. This isn’t a very common online marketplace business model, but it can work well for some industries.
Freemium Business Model: This is a great business model for online marketplaces that facilitate sales of low-cost items. When using this business model, merchants and customers can use the online marketplace for free, and the online marketplace will offer other services to the merchants and customers can purchase that boost the value of the online marketplace. These types of services could include providing insurance, vetting services or delivery options.
Featured Listing & Ads Business Model: When using this business model, merchants can often list their goods or services for free on an online marketplace but in order to promote their listing to a viable audience, a fee must be paid. This ensures merchants use the marketplace but the online marketplace can still earn revenue from merchants who are eager to sell their goods or services.
Any Combination of These Business Models: Oftentimes, these business models are combined together to create more favorable conditions for merchants to sell their products and for online marketplaces to earn consistent revenue.

2. Create a Positive User Experience

A large part of creating a great online marketplace includes creating a great user experience. If merchants can’t run their online business or customers can’t do their online shopping the way they want to, then they’ll simply go elsewhere.

Make it as easy as possible for customers and merchants to connect with one another so a transaction can take place. There are some important aspects you can integrate into your online marketplace to help make this as efficient as possible:

Have a Smart Search Function: When customers come to your online marketplace with a purpose, a search function is going to be instrumental to their success. Make sure you have a smart search function embedded onto your online marketplace so customers can use it to find exactly what they’re looking for as quickly as possible.
Make Your Marketplace Browse-able: Some customers may come to your online marketplace knowing exactly what they’re looking for, while others may not. Customers who aren’t sure what they’re looking for need a way to browse through your marketplace, so make your online marketplace friendly for browsers. This could mean using categories, filters, and menus to help browsers navigate around your marketplace.
Use Systems: If you’re providing services, in particular, or if your online marketplace is focused more on renting items rather than selling them, you may need to use certain systems to ensure that everything operates smoothly. These types of systems could be calendars, booking systems, maps, etc. and could be essential to how your online marketplace operates.
Merchant & Customer Profiles: It’s likely that merchants and customers will need to create profiles on your online marketplace to ensure that they can create listings, access their purchase history, manage their orders, etc. so your online marketplace will need to be equipped to handle these profiles and define how they’re able to interact with one another. Keep in mind that most people prefer to check out as Guest, so don’t forget to add that as an option for customers.
Mandatory Listing Information: It will be useful for you to determine upfront what kind of information merchants on your online marketplace will have to include in their listings so it can remain consistent across all merchants. Having consistent information across all third-party sellers will help customers make informed purchasing decisions which can drastically affect their experience on your online marketplace.

Best Practices for Launching Online Marketplaces

When it comes to bringing your online marketplace to life, your launch will play a role in how your marketplace continues to progress over the course of its lifetime. Utilizing promotion channels like an email list, advertising, press, influencers and online communities such as Product Hunt to get the attention of people who might be interested in what your marketplace has to offer.

No matter how you choose to draw attention to your online marketplace when it launches, it’s arguably most important to build trust within each and every user that enters your website as soon as you launch. No matter how many people your promotion tactics bring to your website on launch day, focus on building trust within them as they experience your online marketplace.

Tactics to instill trust in visitors to your online marketplace include:

Create a Good First Impression: How your website looks, the types of products you sell, the quality of your merchants and their products, your FAQ Page, and your About Page can all affect a visitor’s first impression so put in the work to make it a great impression.
Have Inventory Ready to Sell: Make sure there are products ready for your customers to purchase. You don’t want to be driving visitors all the way to your website with nothing for them to actually buy.
Be Transparent: If there is still room for improvement on your marketplace, let customers know that you’re working to make things run more efficiently and that you’re putting in effort behind the scenes to make it the best possible online marketplace experience for them. Customers appreciate transparency, so if you experience any hiccups throughout your launch, be sure to let customers know what’s going on.
Be Honest: No matter what your online marketplace promises customers, make sure you deliver on it. Don’t make claims you can’t fully commit to.
Allow Reviews: Customer reviews help all websites build credibility, so leave a place on your online marketplace for customers to leave their thoughts and feedback. Customer reviews are generally non-biased in favor of the brand, so other customers are more likely to trust what they have to say. You may not have any reviews when you first launch but as your brand grows you’ll be able to accept reviews as they come.

Note: Need more help with launching your online marketplace? Check out our downloadable Ecommerce Launch Checklist to ensure that you cover all your bases.

Conclusion

You’re now well-equipped with the knowledge to start your own online marketplace. Remember that choosing the right niche will be what sets your website apart from other marketplaces in the industry. Focus on getting suppliers for your marketplace first and then instill trust into every visitor that lands on your online marketplace after launch day. Have a good online marketplace idea? Get started!

The post How to Start an Online Marketplace appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

How to Sell Photos & Art Online in 2022

A Better Lemonade Stand — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 16:00:14 +0000

Traditionally, photographers and artists sell their work through galleries and art shops. While these sales channels are still thriving, if you’re an artist or a photographer, you may want to consider selling artwork online. After all, cutting out the middlemen has never been easier—plus, selling your art online will widen your reach to a worldwide audience and you’ll be in complete control of what you sell and how much for—win-win!

If you’re an artist first and a business-person second, this may feel like a daunting prospect. But, today, selling art via ecommerce stores and social media is an increasingly profitable way for independent artists to get their work in front of the people who appreciate it.

If you don’t know how to sell photos online or how to sell art online, we’re going to streamline the process in this article and break down exactly what you need to do to start marketing and selling your art and photography online.

How to Sell Photos Online: Create a Great Website

1. Selling on your own stock photography website

A great-looking website showcasing your work is no different from gallery walls and windows displaying your art to its best advantage.

Your best option to set up a website to sell your art online is to use an ecommerce platform like Shopify. A solution like this allows you to set up your online store in just a few clicks so you don’t have to spend too much time on the technical side of things and can go pretty much straight to selling your art.

With Shopify, there are plenty of easy-to-use website themes that can help you design a beautiful digital storefront. (We recommend using a Shopify theme with a white background—a bit like a gallery wall—that way, your art can speak for itself!) These templates are super easy to customize, so you can tweak your site, without any coding skills needed.

Shopify prices start as low as $29/month, and you can try it for free for 14 days too. Shopify’s most significant advantage is that it provides everything you need to sell and market your artwork in one place. If you’re interested to know about Shopify and what it can do to help you build and run a better online business, check out our Shopify Review.

2. Selling Photos on Social Media

You can also sell your artwork either directly on your social media profiles or on social networks via your chosen ecommerce platform. If Shopify is your ecommerce platform of choice, you can link up your online store with your own Facebook Shop or Instagram Shop in just a few clicks. This makes it super easy to sell on social media while still having it connected to your main online store.

3. Selling Photos on Third-Party Websites

To sell photos online people need to know you exist. While many people find success via their own website, those early days when you’re just starting out can start off slow. Having a few photos on stock photography sites with links back to your own website can be a good way to build hype for your photos. You can add a few free photos to free stock photo sites and a few high-quality photos to paid stock photo sites to help you build recognition for your brand. A stock photography website linking back to your official site is also really good for SEO. Often, when you add your own links from relevant properties it helps Google understand the relevance of your new site. So this is a good tactic for those early days. Once you’ve better established your brand, you can choose to remove your photos from third-party websites if you think they’d find better success on your official domain.

How to Sell Photos & Art Online: Selling Originals vs. Reproductions

Whether you’re a painter, photographer, or any other kind of artist, you may have strong views about selling originals, reproductions, or limited edition prints of your work.

With that in mind, there are a few things you should consider when thinking about which art pieces of yours you want to sell online:

Do you want to sell original pieces, prints, or both? Depending on what you settle on, they’ll need to be priced accordingly
Do you want to sell framed/unframed work?
Will you accept commissions?
Will you print your work on things like t-shirts, phone cases, cushion covers, cards, tote bags, placemats, etc.?
Do you want other online businesses to sell your work too?
Will you collaborate with other artists?
Will you sell digital-only versions of your work too?

You can, of course, change things and sell a mixture of different things as time goes on, but it’s wise to have some sort of game plan as to what your main collection will be so consumers know what to expect from you.

A NOTE ON COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS & PATENTS

As an artist, photographer, and creator in general, the topic of copyright protection, trademark infringement, patents, and intellectual property in general might be at the top of your mind. After all, it takes time and energy to create your work and when you put it out on the internet, it can be so easy for others to steal it and use it without your permission.

So how can you protect yourself?

Warning: Keep in mind that we have no legal qualifications and can’t advise on this topic, or any other, from a legal perspective. Conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified professional for advice on this matter. Check out the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) website for additional information.

To start with, it’s important to know the differences between copyrights, trademarks, and patents:

Copyrights: Protect works of art like writing, art, music, movies, and photos
Trademarks: Protect brand identities like names and logos
Patents: Protect ideas like inventions and innovations

If you’re an artist or photographer, it’s likely that your work will be protected by copyright. In most cases (although it may depend on the current laws and/or the laws in your region), copyright is automatically applied when you create something. This means that you don’t have to formally register your creation for it to be protected by your copyright.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s completely protected if someone else were to steal it or use it in a way that you don’t consent to. Many creators have their work stolen even though they have the copyright for it, and they aren’t able to obtain any retribution even in a court of law if they pursue legal action. That’s important to know because although your work is copyright protected without you having to formally register it, it doesn’t automatically mean that copyright infringement won’t happen to you or that you can successfully sue someone for using your work without your consent.

You can formally register your work to have your copyright ownership on record, however, that process takes time and money. The same goes for trademarks and patents.

Formal copyright, trademark, or patent registration is not the right choice for every business but may be the right choice for certain businesses at certain times. If you’re interested in formal legal protection, your best bet is to consult a lawyer who specializes in the protection you’re looking for to better understand exactly how much it will cost and when the right time is for you to register it for your business.

In our non-expert opinion, copyrighting, trademarking, or patenting is not usually worthwhile because it’s usually only effective in the country where you file it, it’s costly, and when you’re just starting out you are just developing your brand so you usually don’t really have anything to protect. Your best bet is to focus on your business’ branding and setting your product apart from copycats in any way possible—whether it’s quality, price, options, availability, etc.—so consumers purchase from your brand to get the real thing and steer clear of knock offs.

Copyrights, trademarks, and patents are a tricky subject and in an ideal world, no creator, brand, or business would have their work stolen or used by others without their knowledge and consent, however, that’s not the reality—as harsh as that may seem. You’re better off building a strong brand so consumers want the real thing and work with a legal team if an infringement occurs (if you have the time and money).

Again, we’re not qualified professionals in this area, so conduct your own due diligence and seek the advice of qualified lawyers in your area for up-to-date information.

Tip: You could watermark your images to protect them and display image sizes on your storefront at a lower pixelation to prevent plagiarism (but enough so that you’re not completely compromising on the image quality).

Presenting Your Artwork & Photography Products

Your customers need a real sense of what your work will look like in-person. This is the only way they can accurately visualize it in their homes or office spaces. This means that uploading high-quality photos of your art or photography is essential. Not only that, but you should also include the following details:

The dimensions of your artwork or photography piece
Whether it’s an original or a print (and if it’s a print, whether it’s limited edition)
The material of your work
The printing process you use
Print sizes
The price
The shipping costs
Best-sellers or Featured collections
Any special offers to upsell your customers (such as buy 2 get 1 free, get 20% when purchasing a print and a frame, etc.)

If you have a large body of work that you plan on selling, consider categorizing it into different collections. For example, if you’re a photographer, you could categorize your images into collections like nature photos, people photos, travel photos, or whatever is relevant to your business.

On Shopify, you can easily sort your products into different collections. This makes it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for if you have lots for sale.

The Shopify App Store has numerous apps you can install that specialize in augmented reality (AR). Since most people will likely be hanging your art on walls, having an app on your website that allows them to see your art in their space can really enhance the user experience so they pick the perfect photo or art for their space. Alternatively, you can also use 3D apps for items like canvases so people can see the thickness of your canvas in real view. Having apps that specialize in AR and 3D can help reduce refunds and boost sales.

Many stock photography sites have collections for their best-sellers or featured photos. Having collections based on this will help new visitors who’ve stumbled onto your site to find the photos that best represent your photography style. If you’ve recently gone viral for an epic photo, having it featured will allow people to quickly find that photo or art to purchase quickly. It’s easy to sell photos online when you make browsing through your site easy for visitors.

Photographing Your Artwork & Photography Products

It’s harder than it might seem to photograph original art and photography because of glare and misrepresentation of color. Also, some artwork and photos can seem very flat when photographed.

And remember, we live in a photo-led world so good product photos are essential for the success of your business. If your website visitors can’t clearly see what you’re selling, they likely won’t buy from you.

It’s this simple: The better your product photos are, the more likely your audience will want what you’re selling. Fortunately, you’ve already got that handy photography experience under your belt, so taking high-quality product photos should come naturally.

If product photography doesn’t come naturally, here are a few pointers:

Have Enough Light: Shoot near a window so your artwork is adequately and evenly lit and photograph your work against a white background, preferably laid flat, to get a clear product-only shot. Always photograph your work in the same light to avoid shots with darker backgrounds or different shadows because you’ve shot at different times of the day.
Add Dimension: Hang your work in a stylish interior space with lots of light to get a shot of your artwork “in action.” Make sure the background isn’t too fussy so it doesn’t distract from your piece.
Don’t Use Any Filters: You want the colors and tones of your piece to be as accurate as possible.

You can also check out our DIY Product Photography blog post for more tips about how to take great product photos at home, and check out our Photoshop Tutorials for Ecommerce blog post to learn some tips and tricks for post-production product photo editing.

Alternatively, for photos, prints, and some artwork (usually artwork that isn’t too three dimensional), scanning can be a viable and affordable alternative to photography. If the work is too large for a scanner, you can scan sections and stitch it together with Photoshop. This approach works best with canvas or paper artwork.

As a final tip, don’t forget to showcase multiple different shots of your artwork on your product pages. Your customers want to see more of each piece, not less, plus, you can give them different ideas of how to hang or style your work. If you’d like to sell more of your art, you might even showcase which art pieces work well together in a trilogy or professional home decorating way. This can really help with selling photos online. Having art in a similar color palette, design, or that look good together can help you sell more stock images.

Include shots of your artwork hanging in homes or office spaces. This helps customers envision your work on their own walls, and it provides a better perspective of your artwork’s scale and size. You have to lead your customers and encourage them to buy your art for themselves so paint a picture in their head for them (no pun intended).

Describe Your Art & Photography in Your Product Descriptions

Yes, photography can and often does speak for itself, however, some customers need a little bit more information when they’re buying artwork. You should put as much information as you think shoppers need to make a purchase in the product description of every piece.

For example, if you’re a painter, describe what you paint with and why. If your a photographer, share the equipment and tactics you used to capture a photo. If you’re a sculptor, share the material and composition of each piece.

Try to see your artwork from the viewer’s perspective. Perhaps you could also include a description of what your inspiration was? You know your artwork best, so communicate your thought processes and outcomes to your visitors. A few words that engage the shopper can make the difference between them purchasing a piece and not.

Here are a few pointers to get you started with your product descriptions:

Be Descriptive: You’re not just selling your art or photography—you’re selling an emotion of what they’ll feel every time they see it. Tell shoppers the story behind the work, how long it took to create, what inspired you to create it, what it reminds you of, etc.
Be Technical: Shoppers will likely want to know how you created it and out of what materials, so tell them! Get technical and show off your artistic abilities. Don’t forget to tell people the dimensions, so people can accurately measure it for their space.
Be Helpful: Instruct shoppers on how to care for the piece (if necessary) and how to style it. Remember, this can be a great way to sell more stock photography. If you want to sell photos online, showcasing multiple photos that complement one another can be a good way to boost photo sales.
Be SEO-Savvy: Check out Google’s SEO Starter Guide as a first port of call. Put simply, you need to insert keywords into your product title descriptions so that customers searching for your kind of work can find it via search engines. Add keywords that art-buyers are searching for into your product title and description but make sure the keywords are relevant to your piece. Use a tool like KWFinder (KWFinder Review) to search for keywords. For example, if you take travel photos, your title might be the name of the city and art, such as Tuscany Framed Art or Tuscany Art Print or simply Tuscany Art.

If you’re really unsure of where to start, check out some of your competitor’s websites to see what they’re doing. Don’t copy them of course, just use them as a point of reference.

Pricing Your Artwork & Photography

The beauty of having your own website and digital storefront is that you’re in control so you can set competitive prices. If you’re running your store through an ecommerce platform, they may take a small commission off each purchase, but other than that, you’re in charge.

If you’re selling large print runs, you’ll normally charge less than you would for a signed limited edition print. The same goes for a one-off, custom-made piece. So take into consideration what you’re selling and at what volume, and price accordingly.

If you’re selling mostly original works, you could, for example, calculate how long it takes for you to complete each piece. Then, settle on an hourly rate. Add in material costs and then see what comparable pieces are selling for before settling on a price. Typically, people charge a three time multiple for a product. The cost of labour and the cost of goods should be bundled into one price, then multiply that number by three. If you accept commissions, be clear about your commission prices so there’s no room for misunderstandings as most artists will charge more than their standard rate for a commissioned piece.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with special offers, too. For example, we mentioned above providing a discount when a frame is purchased with a piece of artwork. You could also sell bundled sets of your photo print on a canvas, phone case, and tote bag. If you market to businesses as well as individuals, you could provide discounts for bulk orders.

Make sure you honestly evaluate your work and compare it with artists doing something similar or working with the same materials. If you really need pricing guidance, ask fellow artists what they’re selling for and have a candid conversation about why they’re pricing their work for the amount they do.

Marketing Your Artwork & Photography Online

Below are some suggestions on how to market your photography and art to sell photos online. The same steps apply to marketing pretty much anything online—just adapt them to suit your products and audience!

Work Out What Your Message Is: What makes your art special or different? What do you stand for? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
Know Who Your Customers Are: Who are you selling to (demographics), where do they come from (sites they visited before they found you or physical location), what is their profession (home decorator, work from home employee)? You can’t sell the same message to everyone so figure out who your core customer is and market your products in a way that would attract them. Google Analytics provides valuable insights into who your audience is, who’s looking at your website, and where they’re located or look at your social media and see who follows and engages with your art content.
Set Realistic Goals: By setting targets before marketing your art, you’ll see whether your marketing tactics are working or not. For example, you could aim for:
- A specific number of sales during your first quarter
- A set number of new email subscribers
- Net profit made on your pieces after costs
- The number of visitors to your website
Choose Your Marketing Channels: Where do your core customers hang out online? Figure that out and use those places as your main marketing channels to promote your business online. For example, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Etsy, festivals, conferences, shows, etc. Also, word-of-mouth is still a great marketing tool (yes, even in the digital world) so ask customers to recommend your work, post pictures of it on their social platforms, etc. Perhaps you could run a competition or offer a discount to incentivize them to do this?
See What Works: When you find marketing channels that work—keep using them! Focus on them and put as much time and effort as you can into them to keep the momentum going.

Selling Photos Online And Offline: Don’t Be a One-Trick Pony

There’s no reason why you can’t sell your work online and offline. For example, you can still sell at festivals, galleries, markets, popup shops, cafes and restaurants, and gift stores. Any of these sales channels are viable, especially if you’re also using your online store and blog to tell customers where they can find your work in the real world.

Online and offline sales channels should always complement one another. So, have printed marketing collateral at the ready in these locations that point to your online store and describe who you are and what you do.

If your town or city hosts art festivals where artists open up their studios to customers, this is another excellent avenue to explore. Promote your open studio days from your online store and promote your online store at your studio!

Selling photos online isn’t just about taking epic photos. You need to have the sales skills to promote yourself. As you build out your photography collection, contact businesses, retail stores, and other places that sell art regularly to potential add them as B2B sales. Remember, selling to a business typically results in bigger orders so you can sell more product. When you only sell to the end consumer, you need to do a lot more heavy lifting to find customers. A successful business of selling photos online will typically require a broader distribution, which you can get from other businesses.

Shipping Your Artwork & Photography Products

As an artist, you know that your work needs careful handling whether you’re packing and shipping it yourself or paying a company to do it on your behalf.

If you’re selling posters and prints, the safest method is to roll them into cardboard tubes. Or, if they’re smaller prints or photos, rigid mailing envelopes are a good option. Don’t forget to protect the inside of the cardboard packaging too, by using something like clear cellophane or grease and water-resistant paper. Adding a “do not bend” sticker on packaging can also be helpful for delivery persons.

However, if you’re shipping more substantial items such as canvases and frames, you’ll need larger packaging and more protection for your items. Namely, cardboard corners and specialized boxes for artwork. You can purchase these sorts of supplies from UPS and Uline or other packaging suppliers listed in our Shipping & Packaging Suppliers Directory.

But, if you’re shipping canvases or original artwork, shipping costs can get high. To combat this issue, some artists create their pieces on unstretched canvases and then roll them into a cardboard tube. The customer can then have it stretched again somewhere locally. Talk to a few specialist art shipping companies who can advise you about their approach to value, safety, and cost. If you’re shipping something expensive or of high value, it’s worth using a private freight organization and one that’s properly insured. Alternatively, you can also sell digital versions of your art for people to print on their own.

However, if shipping is a necessity, don’t scrimp in this shipping insurance. Imagine your work is lost, stolen, or damaged, and you have no insurance? Your customer will need to be refunded, you’ve spent money on shipping, and your work is irreplaceable.

Most shipping companies like UPS or FedEx will offer insurance that covers the basics. If, however, you’re sending more valuable items, research what your carrier protects you against, and more importantly, what they don’t. If necessary, look into taking out your own comprehensive insurance policy to cover the areas your carrier won’t reimburse you for. It might seem tedious to do this right from the start of selling your art online, however, if anything were to happen you’ll be so glad you were prepared.

Tip: It’s a nice touch to add a personal note with each delivery, thanking customers for their order. You could also ask them to review you online and follow you on social media and tag your brand when they hang your art. This is an effortless way to build a rapport with your customers so put a bit of thought into your unboxing experience.

Best Places to Sell Photos Online

1. Etsy

If you’re looking to sell photos online, Etsy is a good place to start as it’s very artist friendly. The cool thing about Etsy is that you can actually sell the digital downloads to customers. So, if a customer wants to use your photo for a print, they can get the digital copy to print the image themselves. Stock photo sites typically only allow you to sell the digital image. However, on Etsy, you can also sell the photos on products, such as framed art, posters, calendars, and other stock photos friendly products. If having your own stock photo website appeals to you, hosting on Etsy might be a good idea since it’s marketplace will help you find customers without you needing to do much of your own marketing.

2. Stock photo websites

All the popular paid stock photo websites like Shutterstock, Dreamstime, Getty Images, and so on are great places to sell your stock photos. Keep in mind that while they’ll be easy to sell on, the earnings on them will be relatively low compared to adding your photos to a physical product and selling those instead. However, since you own the rights to the products, do your research and see if you can retain your rights to sell products with your photos on them and place your photos on multiple stock photo sites. That way, you can sell photos online while increasing your earnings.

3. Amazon

Whether you create a photo book, postcards, art prints, or some other physical product, selling photos online is possible on Amazon. While most people won’t buy a digital image on Amazon, they’ll likely buy it when it’s placed on a product. Think about the types of products that people tend to buy for the images and create those types of products using a print on demand website or via a manufacturer overseas. You can sell photos online quickly by sending your email list to your Amazon listing, so that your product rank soars. You can also sell photos online by promoting your Amazon link on social media.

Ready to Start Selling Your Photography & Artwork Online?

So there you have our guide to selling photography and art online. If you didn’t know how to sell stock photos online or how to sell art online, now you have all the basics! Start by creating a beautiful online storefront and selling your amazing artwork and photography online!

The post How to Sell Photos & Art Online in 2022 appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

50 Online Business Ideas: Product Ideas You Can Sell Online

A Better Lemonade Stand — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 16:00:06 +0000

Looking for online business ideas and product ideas that you can sell online? You’ve come to the right place. We have our ear to the ground when it comes to all things ecommerce, so we have an idea of what’s selling well online and what kind of products are currently on the upward swing.

Whether you’re looking for online business ideas without investment or online business ideas to run from home, there are some great options on this list. Even if you’re looking for online business ideas for students or simply just the best online businesses to start this year — you’ll find some great ideas that you can turn into successful online businesses.

Not only will this post give you lots of great online business ideas, but if you’re looking to actually source some of these product ideas so you can start selling them online, then take the next step and check out our directories. This is where we got some of the ideas for this post — from the suppliers that are currently already making these products available to business owners.

Interested in 50 great online business ideas you can sell online right now? Let’s jump into it.

50 Online Business Ideas: Product Ideas You Can Sell Online

Planners & Journals

One of the online business ideas you can launch this year are planners, journals, and notebook products. This product tends to peak around July when people begin searching for planners for the upcoming year. Whether you create a gratitude journal or a work planner, there’s an abundance of the types of products you can create in this niche.

To learn all about how to start a planner business, click here to check out our full blog post on it

Fragrances

North America is the largest global market when it comes to fragrance products and in 2021, the global fragrance market was worth 33.5 billion — by 2027 it’s estimated to be worth over 47.6 billion (Source). With more and more small brands creating their own fragrances, it’s not just a product left for celebrities and superbrands to develop — anyone can create their own fragrances with the right know-how.

If you’re looking for a product idea in the personal care industry, consider creating perfumes, colognes, home fragrances, or hair fragrances (yes, that’s a thing!). Just be aware that shipping some fragrances like perfumes and colognes can come with challenges as they may not be able to ship by air, so make sure to do your due diligence to ensure you can ship worldwide if you want to sell to the global market.

For an introductory look into perfume notes and how to make perfumes, check out The Easiest Way to Make Perfume by WikiHow

Niche Food & Beverage Products

Whether it’s your famous hot-sauce recipe or grandma’s favorite cake recipe, you can make your own food and beverage products and sell them to the masses. Find a food manufacturer to turn your bespoke products into sellable items, or even source food and beverage products from wholesalers and private labelers. The world’s your oyster with this home business idea! (No pun intended.)

Check out the FDA’s website for helpful information about how to start a food business

Sustainable & Earth-Friendly Products

The topic of sustainability is big right now, and consumers are looking for products that will help them live a more eco-friendly life. Whether it’s reusable bags, non-plastic straws, biodegradable single-use coffee cups, or even beeswax “plastic” wrap, consumers are open to trying new and innovative products if it will mean living a more sustainable life. Think of all the products you use on a daily basis that aren’t sustainable or reusable and find a way to make a similar product that is. Not only do eco-friendly online business ideas have a profitable market to tap into, but you can feel good about working towards a good cause.

Check out Spocket’s post on the Top 10 Sustainable Products to Sell

Sunglasses & Glasses

Sunglasses are the type of product ideas that are relatively easy and inexpensive to source and they’re small to ship which means you’ll incur less in shipping costs. Plus, they’re also highly brandable which makes them a great contender for entrepreneurs looking to start a new business. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this business idea, you can just take the technology that already exists for sunglasses and glasses products and create cool frame designs that will appeal to your target market. Online business ideas like sunglasses are a good seasonal niche product as they’re often purchased in spring and summer. Many sunglasses businesses choose to sell other accessories or winter seasonal products so that they can capitalize on sales year round. Remember, that you can always start with a single product and expand into other verticals as your sales grow.

To kick off your sunglasses brand, try your hand at designing sunglasses products first! Check out this Free Sunglasses Designing PDF Kit to get started

Haircare Products

Haircare is a personal care sector that’s picking up steam right now as consumers are becoming more aware of the types of products they’re using in their haircare routines as well as the types of ingredients that are in their products. There are so many different consumer niches within the haircare industry — like consumers with color-treated hair, curly hair, thin hair, or struggling with hair loss, etc. — that you can pick a niche and create hair care products specifically for that niche if you’re looking for online business ideas related to the hair industry.

Check out this WikiHow article on How to Create a Haircare Line to learn the basics of hair product manufacturing

Protein Bars & Energy Bars

Online business ideas like protein bars and energy bars have been growing in popularity for years. They tend to peak around the new year when people are investing in their health and fitness full-force. However, they’re still popular nearly the whole year except December, according to Google Trends. Product ideas you can create include sugar-free protein bars, diet-based bars, such as keto, paleo, gluten-free, and flavored based on consumer’s favorite snacks, such as cookies and cream.

Create your own protein bars or energy bars with YouBar!

Homewares

There are so many different types of homeware products you can sell online, including pillows, towels, bedding, throws, vases, lamps, dishes, furniture, tiles, etc. so if you’re looking for home-related online business ideas, look no further. You can manufacture your own homewares, find wholesale suppliers, or even dropship some homeware products!

For a wide range of different homeware products you can dropship, check out Gooten

Fake Flowers

While flower shops typically sell online locally, you can also choose to sell fake flowers as your online business idea. Whether you sell luxurious silk, plastic, or fabric flowers is up to you. Consider making bouquets or centerpieces for weddings as 2022 is set to be the ‘biggest year in the wedding industry.’ You can also choose to sell items, such as artificial flower petals, which can be sold around Valentine’s Day, anniversaries, or for special events like proposals or weddings. You can expand your fake flower business by selling DIY items, arts and crafts products, or wedding accessories. The possibilities are limitless.

Source custom fabric flowers from industry experts M&S Schmalberg

Everyday Carry Products & Small Leather Goods

Everyday carry (EDC) products and small leather goods (SLGs) are those small items you carry with you every day that you don’t usually think about but are actually really useful. Think wallets, keychains, laptop bags, pocket knives, bottle openers, money clips, etc. There’s a passionate niche around these products and consumers look to spend good money on high-quality, beautiful, and well-designed versions of these items.

Work with local craftspeople and leatherwork shops in your area to create bespoke products for your business

Phone Cases

Phone cases are a stable online business idea you can invest in with low product costs and good retail value. Whether you’re creating custom designs or re-selling popular designs via dropshipping, the opportunities for selling phone cases are abundant. You can sell phone cases dropshipped using Spocket or design them yourself using Printful. These small products are easy to ship, making them a simple product idea you can launch today.

Head over to our How to Make Phone Cases to Sell Online article to learn more.

Pet Products & Accessories

People spend a lot on their pets, and there are so many different kinds of pet products out there that you can sell online. Whether you want to design your own pet products like our readers Tuft & Paw do (head over to our case study on Tuft & Paw to learn about their pet product business), or create pet accessories like collars and leashes, or even dive into the pet food industry — there are lots of different pet product online business ideas out there. Think about what pets use and need, or what products would make pet owners’ lives easier. In the past couple of years, 3.2 million pets were bought making this online business idea a viable option.

Check out our article on How to Make Pet Products for more information

Books & Stationery

Books and stationery products aren’t dying out yet — even though the online world has impacted these industries slightly, people still like reading physical books and writing things down on paper. If you’re passionate about books or stationery products, manufacture your own goods or find wholesale or dropshipping products related to these industries.

Check out our article on How to Make Ebooks if you want to keep things digital

Art, Prints & Posters

Art is an in-trend online business idea. As more people invest in their home renovations, home decor is becoming more popular. One of the most popular products to sell in the home decor is art. Using unique photographs or even stock photos, you can sell wall art using a website like Gooten, which also ships your art directly to your customers. Whether you’re a graphic designer, photographer, or have a knack for finding great designs or photography, starting an online art business is within your reach.

Check out Printful to get your art, prints, and posters made and distributed to your customers, and check out our article on How to Sell Photos and Art Online for more information

Fabrics

Not only can your art be printed onto canvases or posters, but it can also be printed onto fabrics. This is a pretty niche business idea, but there’s a market for fabric-buyers out there whether they’re looking to make clothing products, home goods, or anything else that requires fabric, so conduct your due diligence and see if there’s potential for your designs in the fabric world.

Check out this post on the basics of how to make different types of fabrics

Fitness Products

The fitness industry is booming right now and consumers are looking for fitness-related products to meet their exercise demands. Products like fitness bands, mats, gloves, towels, water bottles, running shoes, gym bags, athletic gear, etc. are all in-demand right now and they’re products you can manufacture, wholesale or dropship. Fitness products are most commonly purchased around January when the resolutioners are prioritizing their health goals. You can partner with fitness influencers, bloggers, and other fitness enthusiasts to promote your products.

Camping, Outdoor, & Safety Gear

There’s a steady market for camping gear, outdoor products, and safety gear, so if that’s a niche market you’re interested in then find online business ideas based around what you would want to see exist. Products like tents, sleeping bags, portable solar panels, outdoor cooking wares, camping apparel, outdoor shoes, first-aid kits, and more are all viable products to sell online within this niche.

Source camping products from suppliers in our Dropshipping, Manufacturers, or Wholesale Suppliers directories

Makeup

The easiest way to spot popular online business ideas is to look towards what celebrities and influencers sell. Many popular celebrities have been creating makeup lines. Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, and many popular YouTubers have created their own lines. While the makeup industry is highly competitive, it also means that there’s a large audience as well. The makeup industry is expected to be worth $716 billion by 2025 up from $483 billion in 2020.

Makeup kits and lip kits tend to be the product ideas with the most potential

Clothes

Clothing is always a popular business idea and the clothing industry isn’t going anywhere soon. You can manufacture your own clothing products or you can curate clothing products from different wholesale suppliers to create your own online boutique, or you can even dropship clothing products (and other products!) like t-shirts, leggings, dresses, shorts, and swimwear from suppliers like Printful.

Check out our How to Start a Clothing Line blog post for more information

Crystals

Crystals are definitely a trending product right now, but they’re majorly in-demand by people interested in their healing properties and/or decorative appeal. Selling crystals in their raw form is one business idea, or thinking of ways to incorporate crystals into other products or accessories.

To get started, educate yourself on the different types of crystals and the different healing qualities they’re believed to have

Personalized Products

Consumers love personalized products, and personalizing all types of products from water bottles to pens holiday accessories like ornaments or stockings are all in-demand at the moment. Think of the products that consumers in your target market would love to have personalized and find a way to make that a reality for them.

Jewelry

Starting a jewelry business can be extremely lucrative, and there’s so much freedom to create the kind of products you want to exist. Either make jewelry products yourself, source them from wholesale suppliers, or work with a manufacturer to create your specific designs for you.

Our article on How to Start a Jewelry Business has everything you need to know to get started

Skincare

Skincare is a huge business, and niche skincare brands that meet consumer demands have a lot of potential to build a passionate audience. You can source skincare products through manufacturing, private labeling, and wholesaling but if you’re interested in creating skincare products, make sure to research and understand the laws and regulations both in your area and globally so you meet all the requirements. Shipping skincare products can also come with some special rules and regulations, so be sure to look into that, too.

To develop or source skincare products, check out suppliers from our Dropshipping Suppliers Directory, Manufacturers Directory, Wholesale Suppliers Directory, or Private Label Manufacturers Directory

Shapewear

Sara Blakely recently sold a majority of her shapewear company making her a billionaire. Kim Kardashian has also recently created a shapewear brand called SKIMS. Shapewear has been a popular product for a few years making it a viable option for anyone looking to invest in helping women showcase their silhouettes.

Learn How to Source Products from Chinese Manufacturers if you’re looking to try out this online business idea

Shoes

Another steady online business idea that’s not going anywhere, if you have shoe designs that will appeal to your target market, then why not create a shoe brand! There are all types of shoe products out there that you can create your own versions of with a manufacturer, or source shoes via wholesalers or even dropshippers to sell directly to your customers.

Hair Extensions

Hair extensions are a popular hair accessory that give the appearance of longer and fuller hair. This online business idea has great margins allowing you to earn a sizable profit. You can promote this online business idea by creating YouTube videos around hair tutorials, selling your brand to local salons, or partnering with influencers who highlight your hair extensions with their followers on social media.

Check out this StarterStory on how Private Label Extensions started a $650k/month hair extensions business

Board Games & Card Games

There’s a passionate market of board game lovers out there and the great thing is that there’s usually always room for another board game or two in everyone’s collection. Taking the time to make up a board game that appeals to a niche or target market can be a lucrative business idea.

Check out this StarterStory on how the founder of Facade Games turned his love of games into a successful online business idea

Cardboard

The term “cardboard” gets approximately 229,000 monthly searches around the world according to Ahrefs. With ecommerce sales drastically growing and expecting to grow in coming years, product packaging sales will also be on the rise. Selling cardboard boxes can be a highly viable industry for those looking to capitalize on the ecommerce trend. Beyond ecommerce, cardboard can also be used for packing boxes when people move or store items.

To learn more about this check out The Ecommerce Guide to Shipping Boxes: Shipping Boxes and Mailing Envelopes 101

Watches

This is another home business idea that’s becoming more and more saturated as time goes on, however, there’s still potential to break through and become a top player in this industry if you listen to your target audience and make the kind of watch products they’re looking for. Consider everything that your niche audience wants from their watches and create watches that meet their needs.

For everything you need to know to get started, check out our post on How to Start a Watch Brand

Swimwear

Swimwear is a steady market that has the potential to be “niched down” to appeal to targeted consumer groups. If creating swimwear products appeals to you, think about how the designs, fabrics, appearance, and functions of your swimwear products can be created to appeal to certain consumer demographics. Since swimwear is a highly saturated industry, narrowing your focus will help you stand out and survive in the marketplace. This seasonal product can be supplemented with winter accessories so you can sell products year round. You can also create an accessories, clothing, or beach-themed store, so you can expand your store into other verticals.

Design your own swimwear and dropship it to your audience with Printful’s swimwear range

Snacks & Candy

Consumers love to snack, we don’t have to tell you that! New snacks and candy are always welcome in the food industry, and snacks that meet dietary preferences or restrictions have the potential to build passionate followings around them. Also, consider whether your snack or candy products could be made with local ingredients to increase the appeal within your local area.

Reference the Food & Beverage section of our Manufacturers Directory to find suppliers that develop snacks and candy products

Cleaning Products

With cleaning products picking up steam all over the world, the growing interest in this market is calling for new and innovative products to meet consumer demand. Pay attention to what consumers want from their cleaning products and look at cleaning products and trends in other parts of the world to see if you can bring those product ideas or trends to your area. There’s so much potential in this industry and if it’s something you’re interested in, there are lots of online business ideas to be brought to life here.

Learn how to make cleaning products with this WikiHow article

Home Improvement

Home sales keep climbing and so do renovations. Selling home improvement is a great online business idea for 2022. You can sell popular product ideas such as wood, drywall, door knobs, light switches, floor boards, tiles, and much more.

Also think about complementary product ideas that go along with home renovations, such as mirrors for home gyms, fireplaces, shower and bathroom fixtures, and more

Kids Toys

Toys are an online business idea that is here to stay. Consumers are most likely to search for toys around November and December during peak holiday shopping. However, there are always new trending toys that go viral on TikTok and Instagram, such as slime. Your toy store can be divided by different age groups as many parents shop for toys based on their child’s age. Promoting your toys using influencers or viral content can help you capitalize on sales during the holiday rush.

Check out our Manufacturers Directory, Wholesale Suppliers Directory, or Private Label Manufacturers Directory to find toy manufacturers and suppliers

T-Shirts

Starting a t-shirt business is a great first step if you’re looking to get your feet wet in ecommerce and learn the ropes — that’s how so many entrepreneurs started their first online businesses. It’s a pretty saturated market so you’ll have to have a passionate audience or really unique designs to stand out.

If you’re looking to start a t-shirt business, read up on how our founder started and launched his t-shirt business in 24 hours here.

Handbags, Bags & Backpacks

This is another steady market that has so much potential for different designs and product variations. Plus, there are so many different innovations that can be made to these products to suit different types of users so take that into consideration when making or manufacturing your own handbag, bag, or backpack products.

See Printful’s assortment of bag products you can customize and sell online here

Tools, Automotive Parts & Accessories

Household tools like hammers, nails, and screwdrivers or automotive parts and accessories are items you can sell online. If this is an industry you or your audience is interested in, either work with manufacturers to create your own innovative or user-friendly products or find these types of products via wholesalers.

Find tool and automotive suppliers in our Manufacturers Directory, Wholesale Suppliers Directory, or Private Label Manufacturers Directory

Socks

Socks are another steady market that can be made to suit so many different consumer niches, so if you have interesting artwork or innovative sock designs, you’ll be well on your way to competing in this saturated market. These cozy accessories are most commonly sold during November and December and make great stocking stuffers (pun intended). Given their small size and low cost to manufacture, this can be a lucrative and easy business to run from home.

Check out Printful to design and print your own custom sock products

Digital Products

One of the online business ideas you can invest in is digital products. That can take the form of ebooks, teacher resources, budget spreadsheets, online courses, stock photography, graphic designs, and so much more. Digital products typically cost your time instead of a financial investment, allowing you to earn more profitably.

If you’re interested in learning more, consider reading this How to Sell Digital Products Online guide

Gardening & Outdoor Products & Accessories

There are all sorts of gardening-related and outdoor product ideas you can sell online such as plant pots, gloves, watering cans, hammocks, umbrellas, chairs, etc. so if you’re looking for seasonal products to sell to plant-enthusiasts or outdoor-loving consumers, this could be a niche area to look into further.

Find suppliers of gardening and outdoor products in our Manufacturers Directory, Wholesale Suppliers Directory, or Private Label Manufacturers Directory

Gift Wrapping

This might be a niche product idea and one that’s often overlooked, but it’s no secret that the gift wrapping industry is a big one and consumers spend money on gift wrapping that appeals to them. Think about your target audience and what they’re drawn to aesthetically — is it bold colors, sleek designs, neutrals, patterns, etc.? — and create gift wrapping products that they’ll love.

For a complete look at the gift wrap manufacturing process, check out this post

Holiday Decorations

If you live in the suburbs, you might notice that neighbors decorate the outside of their homes for Halloween and Christmas. Selling holiday decorations, such as lawn stakes, lighting, inflatables, or even indoor accessories for the home, such as Christmas trees, can be an excellent online business idea.

Check out this list by Curated Interior on a list of Christmas decorations you could sell

Luggage & Suitcases

With the major success that has been Away suitcases, this business idea had to be featured on this list. Consumers are interested in traveling in style, so creating practical luggage that meets the needs of consumers is a viable market to get into right now. Think about how you can innovate within the luggage space to make traveling easier for consumers.

After a few years of being unable to travel, many believe 2022 will be all about ‘revenge travel’ making luggage a great product idea.

Non-Alcoholic Beverages

The non-alcoholic beverages market is on the upswing right now as consumers become more interested in consuming less or no alcohol, so as a result, non-alcoholic beverages like alcohol-free beer, wine, and cocktails are on the rise. The good news about this from a business perspective is that there’s likely much less red-tape surrounding the sales and shipping of non-alcoholic beverage products than there is around the alcoholic kind, which means it’s easier for you to do business.

Reference the Food & Beverage section of our Manufacturers Directory to find suppliers to create non-alcoholic beverages

Organizational Products

As consumers lean into minimalism and strive towards more organized spaces, products that help them achieve that are in-demand. Organizational products like drawer organizers, cupboard organizers, organizational systems, desk organizers, standing organizers, stacking boxes, etc. are all product ideas that consumers are using to make their spaces clutter-free and more functional.

Belts

A solid product idea that’s stood the test of time, belts are a steady business idea to think about selling if you’re interested in the accessories market. It’s definitely a saturated market so you’ll have to create a product that stands out in consumers’ minds but if you can create a unique, high-quality, or functional belt product then you have a chance at measuring up to the competition.

Find local leatherworkers and craftspeople in your area to create belt products for your brand

Hats

Hats are a tried-and-true accessory and there are so many different variations out there whether it’s beanies, toques, fedoras, ballcaps, bucket hats, etc. — there’s a hat product to suit any niche. Work with manufacturers to create your own hat designs from scratch or source hats from wholesalers or dropshippers to bring your hat online business ideas to life.

Check out Printful’s wide selection of print-on-demand hat products here

Greeting Cards

This is another major industry that’s often overlooked and if you’re an artist or graphic designer, it’s a great business option for you to pursue. Create your own greeting cards with a printing manufacturer or get a local printer to print your designs for you so you can start selling greeting cards online. From birthday cards to holiday cards, there are many different styles that you can sell. Inspirational cards are also a popular product idea you can sell.

Print your own greeting cards with Gooten

Beach Products

This is a seasonal product industry in many places around the world where it’s not sunny and warm all year long, so if you want to sell beach products online think about the seasonality swings you may incur. When selling globally, however, you may be able to navigate seasonality more smoothly if you strategize properly but it’s still worth taking into consideration. As for beach product ideas, think beach towels, beach games, umbrellas, beach toys for kids, sun-blocking tents, etc.

Create print-on-demand towel products with Printful

Ties, Bowties & Pocket Squares

Product ideas such as ties, bowties, and pocket squares are definitely part of a saturated market, but if you create the right designs for your niche or have innovative ideas, you have the potential to stand out within the market. Create your own ties, bowties, and pocket squares from scratch with a manufacturer or source them via wholesalers or dropshippers to sell directly to your customers.

Create your own print-on-demand ties with Gooten!

Niche Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes can be extremely lucrative as users sign up to your service and pay monthly or quarterly to receive their subscription box so if you can devise a theme for your boxes and curate products to put in them, you have great business-building potential. We suggest choosing a specific niche subscription boxes theme so that you can stand out amongst all the other subscription boxes that are available on the market, and so you can build a dedicated following of consumers interested in that theme. Meal delivery kits are also a popular subscription box product idea, particularly for specialized diets, such as keto, paleo, and more.

Cratejoy is a platform you can use to launch and sell subscription boxes online

Stickers

Stickers are definitely a niche product, however, there’s a passionate market of sticker enthusiasts who use them for decorating their stationery products, or for teachers who use them for their students, and there’s even a growing market of “stickers for adults” that say funny things or reference pop-culture memes. There’s a lot of potential in the sticker market so if it interests you, it’s worth looking into.

Use Sticker Mule to make your own stickers to sell online

Start a Marketplace

Another online business idea that works for so many different industries is to create an online marketplace where sellers and consumers converge to buy and sell goods. If you’re unsure of what marketplaces are and how they work, we recommend checking out our How to Start an Online Marketplace blog post for all the details, but some popular examples include Etsy and Amazon. Digital products can also be sold via online marketplaces like they are on Creative Market and Filtergrade (see our Filtergrade Case Study here to learn more about how it was founded). If you don’t necessarily want to be the one selling products yourself, you can always create an online marketplace where sellers can sell their goods and you can earn part of the profits from each sale.

Conclusion

There you have our roundup of 50 online business ideas so you can sell products online! If this gave you all the inspiration you needed to put the gears in motion to start your online business, then head over to our Online Store Set Up blog post and our Launch Checklist to learn about the next steps to get your store up and running.

The post 50 Online Business Ideas: Product Ideas You Can Sell Online appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

50+ Best Trending Products to Sell in 2022

A Better Lemonade Stand — Tue, 28 Jun 2022 16:00:27 +0000

The trending products for 2022 include a little bit of something new as well as some classic favorites. If you’re looking to start an online store using Printful or Spocket, you’ll find an abundance of products to sell on this list that are trending right now. These products may not be popular for long, so check out our recommendations and act fast. You can run your product or niche idea through our Instant Product Evaluator to better understand its strengths and weaknesses by evaluating it against 18 important criteria!

Note: The trending products listed on this page are not necessarily suggested products to sell online. All information should be considered carefully and combined with your own due diligence before making a decision to sell a particular product.

The Top Trending Products & Niches for 2022

ALCOHOL-FREE ALCOHOL

“Sober curious” is a new trend as drinking-age adults are looking towards non-alcohol drink alternatives to replace or supplement their usual alcohol intake. Typical reasons for this lifestyle choice include personal preference, fitness and health goals, and concern over the negative health implications of binge drinking.

Because of this, consumers are looking for interesting, delicious, well-branded, alcohol-free drinks that are a step above soda/water/cordial alternatives. Just because some consumers choose not to drink alcohol, doesn’t mean they’re not interested in innovative and exciting drink combinations!

This is why more and more brands are offering alcohol-free cocktails and spirit substitutes.

If you’re an ecommerce startup looking for an exciting venture, check out this CNBC article, which shares that “people are paying top dollar for cocktails with no alcohol in them.”

In addition to non-alcoholic drinks, you could also sell trending products online, such as cocktail shakers, glassware, and environmentally friendly straws.

CBD PRODUCTS

If you’re looking to start an online business, consider CBD tea, gummies, oil, and more.

Much has been researched about how CBD products can positively impact people experiencing anxiety, chronic pain, and sleep issues, so it’s no wonder that general interest and Google searches for CBD are on the rise. Monthly US Google search figures are currently coming in at 450,000 searches per month, and a global increase in searches rose 335% over the past five years.

If we dive in a bit deeper and look at search results for specific CBD products, this what can be found:

CBD for Skin: A 1440% increase in global searches in the past five years
CBD Gummies: An 8300% increase in worldwide searches over the past five years
CBD Oil: A 700% increase in international searches in the past five years
CBD Tea: Receive about 11,000 monthly searches, according to Ahrefs

These products certainly look like they’re here to stay, so if you’re looking to break into the CBD niche, it’s worth finding a reputable CBD supplier that you can trust. This means taking the time to thoroughly verify their products’ safety, quality, and compliance with the US Hemp Authority program.

MACADAMIA NUT MILK

There are quite a few trending products in the milk alternative space—from ubiquitous options like oat, soy, almond, cashew, hemp, coconut milk and macadamia milk.

In fact, according to The Good Food Institute, purchases of plant-based milk grew 5% in the past year and 14% over the past two years, making the plant-based milk market worth 2 billion dollars in the US alone.

Macadamia nut milk is a new and exciting option to offer customers. If you’re looking for an innovative product that appeals to the vegan, plant-based, and health-food markets, macadamia nut milk might be worth considering adding to your online store.

SNACK, GRAZING & CANDY BOXES

Snack boxes are a fun way to consume candies or treats—or even a unique presentation of charcuterie boards that people can order online and have delivered to their homes.

Monthly searches for snack boxes sit at around 18,000 searches at the time of writing. You can run Google Ads to promote your snack box online business to consumers who are searching for this product. Snack sales, in general, account for 40% of the US packaged food market, and this is attributed mostly to Millennials who apparently snack more than any other generation.

MEAL BOX SERVICES

Food meal box services such as HelloFresh are super popular at the moment. These meal boxes are usually sold on a subscription basis, and they’re often positioned as an alternative to ordering-in, while making at-home cooking simpler and less time-consuming.

Typical meal box service USPs include innovative, fast, and simple meal ideas that are healthy and waste-free.

There were 22,000 monthly Google searches for meal kits in the US alone at the time of writing, so it’s clear that the growth of its popularity is worth starting an online store in.

When starting a food meal box service, you could focus on niche dietary preferences like vegan, keto, or paleo diets. Or, consider focusing on consumer demographics facing allergies to dairy, gluten, or nuts.

FUNCTIONAL BEVERAGES

“Functional drinks” are beverages with an intended purpose or outcome. A well-known example of a functional drink is Gatorade—a beverage that helps health-conscious consumers achieve their fitness and wellbeing goals.

Other examples of this growing trend include mushroom coffee, sugar-free energy drinks, CBD drinks, and coffee replacements such as matcha and turmeric lattes.

An August 2020 report by the Business Research Company found that more consumers than ever are looking for healthy food and drink alternatives. More and more consumers seem to be searching for ways to boost their immune systems and overall health, making this a trending product to sell online.

Big brands such as Coca Cola and PepsiCo Inc. are already on board with this trending product category and are introducing their own functional beverages such as Coca-Cola with Coffee and PepsiCo’s Driftwell. It’s no wonder that they are, since the functional beverage market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.96% between 2020 and 2025!

EAR DROPS

Ear drops are a classic product used to clear up ear infections or soften ear wax. They’ve been around for decades, but a new breed of natural and homeopathic brands in this niche has resulted in a 70% increase in searches related to ear drops over the past five years.

Brands like Natrulo that contain ingredients like “mullein and garlic bulb extract” are popular. Also, ear drops that are alcohol and preservative-free are another appealing choice for those wanting a natural remedy to soften ear wax. If you look at Google Trends, you’ll quickly see that ear drops have been steadily increasing so if you’re looking for trending products to sell, you’ll want to add this to your online store.

ACNE PATCHES/PIMPLE PATCHES

The job of acne patches and pimple patches is to speed up the healing process of blemishes by absorbing toxins. They use hydrocolloid technology to absorb the pimple’s toxins and create a moist environment to promote healing. They’re also proven to be useful at preventing the wearer from scratching or squeezing the spot.

The largest market right now is interested in invisible or transparent round patches in different sizes.

Google searches for this product have grown, with over 106,000 monthly global searches for “pimple patches.” Trending products to sell like this one should be marketed via Google Ads.

SKINCARE TOOLS

The global skincare market is predicted to increase to more than $180 billion dollars by 2024 and data from Spate (as reported by Vogue Business) identified that an increased interest in skincare tools was one of the top emerging trends during the pandemic.

With beauty spas and salons intermittently closing, skincare tools empowered consumers to take care of their complexions at home while creating a calming, at-home spa experience.

These are some most popular skincare tools at the moment:

Red and blue light masks
Microdermabrasion kits
Gua shas
Quartz, jade, and amethyst face rollers
Facial steamers

Looking just at face rollers alone, Google searches ran to 108,000 searches per month worldwide. You can attract customers when you create video content on social media and with an affordable price.

SWEATPANTS

2022’s hottest trending product to sell online in the fashion category is none other than sweatpants.

Anyone working from home—whether they’re tied to Zoom meetings or otherwise—is now familiar with the joys of not having to wear workwear to… Well, work.

The best part is that even if you’re summoned to a Zoom meeting, you can throw on a neatly pressed shirt to look smart from the waist up, and still chill in your sweatpants from the waist down. Maybe that’s why searches for sweatsuits have escalated by 100% in the past year alone.

The key term “sweatpants” generates around 366,000 monthly searches globally, making it a great addition to a fashion online store.

Tip: To find sweatpant suppliers, check out our curated directories! Find garment makers to create bespoke pairs in our Clothing Manufacturers Directory, wholesale sweatpant suppliers in our Wholesale Suppliers Directory, and even dropship sweatpants from one of the suppliers in our Dropshipping Suppliers Directory.

SLIPPERS

Trending products to sell like slippers are growing in popularity according to Google Trends. As working from home becomes the new normal, the rise in slipper sales reflects consumers’ need for comfortable footwear to wear around the house. Slippers are most commonly sold around the holidays and are expected to see triple-digit growth since 2019.

SILK PAJAMAS

If your audience leans towards more premium tastes, then silk pajamas are a perfect substitute for sweatpants.

Google Trends searches for pajamas have risen with about 64,000 monthly searches worldwide. In fact, Adobe Analytics said that online pajama sales rose by 143% in April 2020 compared with March.

Depending on your customer personas, you could opt to sell more affordable satin pairs or more premium pure silk ones. The key here is to focus on luxurious comfort that consumers can experience at home.

HIKING BOOTS

As more people head outdoors to work out, trending products online include hiking boots and other outdoor apparel.

Consequently, online searches for hiking boots have risen according to Google Trends, and boast about 203,000 monthly searches according to Ahrefs at the time of writing.

The beauty of adding hiking boots to your ecommerce store is that you can market them for outdoor exercise and as fashion items.

LAPTOP STANDS

Remote working has risen exponentially allowing lists of trending products to sell in the home office space to grow. A useful accessory to lessen back pain and assist with better posture when working from home is the simple laptop stand.

Searches for laptop stands are stable according to Google Trends but still boast over 253,000 monthly searches worldwide so we weren’t kidding about this being one of the best trending products to sell this year.

There are multiple takes on this compact accessory that you can sell online—aluminum, plastic, and acrylic. Plus, there are folding options, lightweight options, and ones that even suction onto windows.

STANDING DESKS

The standing desk market is expected to grow to 9.541 billion by 2027 according to WBOC. With remote working on the rise, and health and fitness still a priority in many consumers’ lives, the standing desk market is continuing to grow.

Many workers turn to standing desks as a way to stay active, alert, and keep better posture while they work. Some standing desks are also adjustable to suit different heights and working positions.

ERGONOMIC OFFICE CHAIRS

In the past, ergonomic chairs tended to be bought by businesses for their employees. Fast forward to today, and around half of all American workers are now working from home, and consequently, consumer demand to replicate their office environment is growing.

Google Trends shows that this product is still expected to grow in searches, though it already generates 234,000 monthly searches globally. So if you’re looking to innovate a market that was previously more focused on B2B retail, you could consider making appealing ergonomic office chairs for B2C on your online store, with a flair for DTC.

AT-HOME WORKOUT EQUIPMENT

Fitness products are always trending products to sell online, including but not limited to folding treadmills, indoor exercise bikes, weights, yoga mats, workout bands, ankle weights, resistance bands, etc.

Although the market is predicted to grow just under 3% between 2020 and 2025, we’ll just have to see what the next few months have in store for public gyms and workout classes. Companies like Peloton have seen their sales surge by a whopping 172%, and over one million people have subscribed to their streaming classes making it a profitable niche.

In light of all of this, selling home-friendly workout equipment and accessories could be a trending product worth considering.

For tips on how to make the most of consumer’s growing interest in fitness, check out our article on Creator Marketing Tips for Health and Fitness Brands.

AIR-PURIFYING PLANTS

As consumers are spending more time indoors, sprucing up their indoor space means adding a little bit of nature.

It was NASA who, in 1989, discovered that indoor plants help to remove air pollution. So, given the current events of the world, air-purifying plants have an even more attractive quality to them. Google Trends shows that this these best sellers are on the rise, with an astounding 30,000 monthly searches worldwide.

According to NASA’s study, they recommend having two to three indoor plants for every 100 square feet, so for many consumers, that likely means having multiple plants in one household. As an ecommerce plant seller, your target market could use a lookbook of suggestions about where to best place air-purifying plants for maximum health benefits.

LIVING WALLS (WALL GARDENS)

A living wall is a vertical outdoor or indoor garden that’s attached to a wall.

Google Trends shows that “living wall” searches are steadily climbing and boast 24,000 monthly searches globally.

This increased interest could be attributed to people wanting to improve their homes as they spend more time indoors. You could sell living walls on online stores in the plant and flower niche. Trending items like this could complement various niches, such as home offices, a dropshippping store, or potential buyers in the influencer marketing space looking for a backdrop.

UNDER-DESK TREADMILLS

In an effort to stay active while working from home, consumers are making use of under-desk treadmills.

This piece of equipment is ergonomically designed, portable, and has a low impact on joints. Not only that, but it can connect to your FitBit, iPhone, or Android device to track your movement throughout the day.

You can sell online under-desk treadmills, which are still growing in popularity according to Google Trends, making them an innovative trending product to pursue if you want to target the health and fitness niche. Online stores selling products like this can also include fitness best sellers, home office accessories, or other fitness or home-office related items.

MASSAGE GUNS

Trending products to sell in the health niche, include top selling items like massage guns.

These tools are easy to use and combat soft tissue aches and pains by providing quick bursts of pressure into the muscle, which enhances blood flow to the affected area. More people are taking a do-it-yourself approach to massaging their muscles after a workout, making this a high demand product for online businesses.

Google Trends shows a huge increase in search volume for massage guns. However, ecommerce stores stocking up massage guns can reach a target audience size of 631,000 monthly searches. In the health space, these trending products to sell are still picking up steam.

LED LIGHTS

TikTok is responsible for bringing to light a huge new high demand trend: LED lights.

These products are especially popular amongst teens who use them in their bedrooms to create a tranquil space they can switch up at the change of a button. But, not only do they create a calm ambiance, they also make for interesting backgrounds behind video content that users post to their social feeds.

At the time of writing, monthly worldwide search volume for LED lights is over 1.1 million. Ecommerce stores that sell this product at an affordable price via Facebook Ads, SEO, or search-based ads like Google can generate a lot of ecommerce sales.

If you’re interested in selling a trending item with constant demand, you’ll find that LED lights come in multiple colors and are often sold in strips that switch between different colors and lighting modes. Start selling online today.

AIR PURIFIERS

Since the population at large is spending more time indoors, it’s no wonder that consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality of the air they’re breathing.

Cue, air purifiers.

Air purifiers rid spaces of indoor pollutants, allergens, and particles and right now, there’s no better time to sell a product that does those things.

According to a report from AP News, the air purifier industry is expected to increase by around 10% between 2019 and 2029. This projected increase is attributed mainly to broader concerns about air quality since the pandemic started.

If you’re looking to start selling this trending item, it’s essential to clarify what they do and don’t do. The last thing you want is to make any unsubstantiated promises to your customers!

AIR FRYERS

Finding a healthy way to eat fried food was never going to be unpopular. The statistics support this, with the air fryer market size expected to grow from almost $895 million in 2018 to $1,425.7 million by 2026—and global Google search volumes make up over 4.1 million per month. Plus, take a look at the climbing Google Trends data, air fryers are the trending products to sell in 2022, if you want to run Google Shopping ads on your dropshipping store. You can get a lot of organic traffic if you optimize your website for search.

From an ecommerce seller’s perspective, emphasizing the benefits of air fryers—such as their ability to remove high fat and calorie-dense oils from the cooking process—makes a strong sales pitch.

There are multiple versions of the air fryer out there, with prices retailing as low as $50 on Amazon to higher-end models for hundreds of dollars. It’s also worth considering selling air fryer accessories on your online store, such as paper liners and cookbooks.

RING LIGHTS

Trending products to sell like this vibrant ring light are worth pursuing in 2022. Ring lights are circle-shaped lights often used by content creators, video streamers, or Instagram influencers.

According to Google Trends, there was a slight dip in the search volume over the years. However, there seems to be a growing uptick again.

If you’re in the beauty niche, these trending beauty products could be used for making viral social media videos of you doing your makeup in good lighting.

Search volume has been growing the past few years. And right now, the monthly search volume for “ring light” is about 1.4 million meaning that a lot of these have been sold online already but there is still a large target audience.

VIDEO PROJECTORS

Cinemas around the world remain primarily closed so one possible solution to the pain movie buffs feel at the loss of the traditional cinema experience is to use a video projector.

Video projectors bring the movie theatre experience to the home without busting the bank balance and with so many people stuck at home looking for any way to elevate their at-home living experience, now is one of the best times to capitalize on consumers’ growing interest in video projectors.

You can create your own brand with this trending product from the past few months. The search volume for the keyword “video projector” boasts 20,000 monthly searches globally. You can add this to your electronics, movie, or accessories store.

LUXURY CAT LITTER

Anyone who’s owned a cat knows that cat litter doesn’t smell like a bed of roses—far from it, in fact. That’s just one reason why searches for luxury cat litter, and brands like PrettyLitter, have surged.

This type of cat litter is made from silica which absorbs unpleasant odors and it also helps cat owners detect possible health issues that their feline might have due to changes in urine pH levels.

While it might seem like a niche product idea, there are over 95 million house cats in the USA, and it’s likely that their owners are very open to innovation in the cat litter market. It’s also a product that a subscription delivery service can be built around, which can increase consumer loyalty and bring in recurring revenue, which is obviously good for business.

GAMING GLASSES

There are 2.7 billion gamers worldwide, with the Asia Pacific region taking the lion’s share, followed by Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and then the US. Gaming is big business, and gamers need (and love) accessories.

One rising trend according to Google Trends is gaming. Consumers are interested in the product’s apparent ability to reduce eye fatigue, eye strain, and headaches caused by many hours of gaming. Searches for these products have risen by an astonishing 2,800% over the past five years.

The glasses are meant to filter out blue light given off by digital devices, which is often the root cause of the symptoms listed above.

There are plenty of places to source blue light glasses nowadays, so whether you’re interested in dropshipping, manufacturing, private labeling, or wholesaling, you should be able to find an option that suits your needs.

PUZZLES & BOARD GAMES

Jigsaw puzzles and board games are long-established pastimes enjoyed by people of all ages. Interestingly, global searches for jigsaw puzzles have grown by 94% in the past year. A CNBC report in April 2020 also found that jigsaw puzzle sales for one US game maker, Ravensburger, rose by 370% over the past two years!

Given the amount of time consumers are spending indoors, it’s no surprise that they’re looking for creative ways to fill their time.

Forbes reported back in April 2020 that sales of board games, puzzles, and crafts had risen enormously. One retailer reported its sales increased by 4,000% in the last week in March 2020.

Global search volume for board games generate 468,000 monthly searches and rise every December according to Google Trends.

ONLINE GAMES

Since Zoom became part of our everyday lexicon, so have games that can be played via online chat and video apps. Here we’re talking about things like online board games, online card games, online bingo, etc.

Online board games are a fun and effective way for friends and families to stay connected with each other during the pandemic. If games are your passion or you have a good idea for an online game people can play over video calls, now’s the time to launch it!

CHESS

The Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit has gripped viewers since its launch in October 2020, with a total of 62 million households having watched it!

One interesting by-product of The Queen’s Gambit is a renewed interest in chess. In the past three months alone, global searches for chess boards have risen by 354%. Also, since the show’s launch, the New York Times reported a 125% rise in chessboard sales, with some retailers reporting increases as high as 1000%!

The beauty of selling chess products is that both budget-friendly and upscale products are available and desirable to different consumer groups, so you have plenty of options.

MATCHA

Matcha tea is an increasingly popular variation of green tea and is considered to be a premium product. Ultimately, it’s a high-end green tea that has been ground into a fine powder and because you actually consume the whole leaf as opposed to just steeping it in hot water, you get a much higher concentration of good things from the tea. Much like green tea, this product can be used as an ingredient in many other products as a flavor, infusion, or extract.

For merchants looking for a premium tea to sell, or premium tea-flavored or tea-infused products to sell, then matcha is worth looking into. In fact, we have an entire case study dedicated to building a matcha tea dropshipping business from scratch here if you’re interested in learning more about the set-up process.

Selling products like matcha can be a great endeavour as global search volume is over 740,000 monthly searches. If you have a tea accessories store, this can be a great item for your target audience of tea lovers. Google Trends data shows that matcha is still on a steady rise, so this specific niche is worth tapping into due to the high search volume.

NOOTROPICS (“SMART DRUGS”)

Nootropics, also referred to as “smart drugs,” help consumers focus better, think clearer, and work harder, and they have been rising in popularity in recent years. Popular faces in the ecommerce industry such as Tim Ferris introduced many people to this relatively new term in 2015 and it seems as if this has just added fuel to the fire ever since.

One thing to keep in mind is that nootropics are a mostly unregulated market at the moment so you’ll want to take careful consideration about choosing them as a potential product idea to sell and do your own research before blindly selling them to the public.

MACRONUTRIENTS & WORKOUT ENHANCING POWDERS

Macronutrients and workout enhancing powders are not new inventions that consumers have never heard of before, however, their up swinging trend stems from their delivery to the end consumer. Consumers concerning themselves with their macronutrient intake is becoming more and more prevalent as people’s interests are rapidly shifting towards their health, diet, and wellbeing.

Macronutrients are nothing new, consumers have just become newly interested in them. This has started to generate a response in brands who are looking to connect with these consumers by advertising their food product’s macronutrients at the forefront of their marketing campaigns.

Protein powder is a well-known workout enhancement powder that helps muscles repair after a workout, but it’s nothing new. It has been a part of mainstream trends for many years now, however, the workout enhancing powder market has started to shift into new territory: Pre-workout powders. Pre-workout powders, commonly referred to simply as “pre-workout,” has started to carve a place in the market.

While protein powders are commonly consumed post-workout to help muscle repair, pre-workouts are meant to be consumed before the workout, giving individuals a hit of energy to help them have productive workouts. This innovative delivery of a simple product is an ingenious way to sell to the end consumer.

Already in the fitness industry? Shift your focus and offer pre-workout supplements while this trend is on the upswing. Marketing a food or beverage product? Shine the light on its macros. Not in the diet, health, or fitness industry yet? Get on it sooner rather than later, because consumers are buying into it more and more each year due to the number of people promoting via influencer marketing, ads, and social media networks.

BALAYAGE PRODUCTS

The beauty niche always has a variety of trending products with lots of search volume. Balayage is a popular form of hair coloring that makes the hair look like it has natural volume with the use of highlights. While this is a recurring trend in the fashion and hair industry, this time around it seems more popular than ever! The look can be achieved at home or by going to a salon which means that the target base is slightly bigger: Salons, stockists, and individuals can all be targeted for sales.

The products used to achieve this look include hair toners, lighteners, spatulas, color application brushes, aftercare products (shampoos, masks, conditioners, etc.), and more. As a lot of influencers on social media are continuously sporting the look, this trend continues to spread and the sales stay high. If you are looking to break into the beauty segment and especially the hairstyling and care niche, the balayage trend and the associated products may be worth looking into.

The term balayage current has a search volume of 1.7 monthly searches, trending niches like this need to be jumped on quickly so you can sell the most beauty products.

BODY WIPES (“DUDE WIPES”)

Men’s hygiene is a niche that doesn’t get the attention it really deserves and, despite that, it’s certainly on an upswing right now. In this case, there are manufacturers that already create hygiene wipes for children and women, however, smaller vendors have recently noticed that there’s a great opportunity to supply a similar sort of product for men as well.

The “dude wipes” are targeted to men across the board—from those who enjoy camping and outdoor activities, to those who have busy urban lifestyles and commute a lot. Due to the fact that body wipes are a product that needs to be purchased regularly as it falls into the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) group, manufacturers are making “customers for life.” For a vendor, that offer the potential for subscription purchases or automated re-ordering.

FAKE EYELASHES

Fake eyelashes have been around for a while, however, in recent years they’ve experienced a massive overhaul in both style and innovation to make them more beautiful and functional than ever before.

Brands, makeup artists, and influencers have been creating their own collections of false eyelashes in recent years by using different materials, sizes, colors, and even adhesive methods in an effort to make false lash application easier and for a more worthwhile result. There’s lots of room in this niche for innovation and creativity and consumers are open to trying new things.

The product also falls into the category of products that can be upsold. In most cases, false eyelashes are bought in bulk. Furthermore, these are disposable items thus the chance of returning customers is extremely high. These are also a great product to dropship since ePacket delivery is easily available, they are extremely light and cost-efficient to manufacture and ship. To learn more about starting a false eyelash company from scratch, check out our case study with Esqido, a luxury false eyelash company.

NICHE-SPECIFIC BRANDED APPAREL & HYPER-LOCAL APPAREL

Companies like Printful are making it increasingly easy to create a clothing brand. As they continue to increase the number of ecommerce platforms they integrate with along with the apparel and customization options they offer, creating a custom apparel brand is only going to become more popular. But with apparel being such an over-saturated market already, any new businesses will have to work hard to stand out. Two ways to make that happen are to have very niche-specific branded apparel or hyper-local apparel.

Niche-specific apparel refers to clothing items that are only relevant to a certain type of consumer whether that’s because of the clothing item’s style, functionality, or even the designs on it. An example of niche-specific apparel includes the IconSpeak t-shirts that appeal to the niche of people who like to travel, which we discussed in our Nomad Gear: 10 Minimalist Travel Essentials for Digital Nomads article.

Hyper-local apparel refers to creating products that cater to a very defined audience in a certain geographical area. For example, we launched a 24-hour t-shirt business as a fun side project and targeted a hyper-local audience with creative designs that appealed to commuters that frequented local subway stations.

Here are some other examples of hyper-local apparel brands:

Detroit vs. Everybody (Detroit)
Drake General Store (Toronto)

ENAMEL PINS

Enamel pins seem to be one of those recurring trends that come around every few years and has been around for several decades. These days, enamel pins are trending again due to the capability and ease of designing and/or personalizing your own pins.

These pins are a great fashion accessory as they spruce up anything from bags to jackets to t-shirts, etc. They can be tiny and still be called statement pieces. Enamel pins, on the other hand, are also used by companies, NGOs or individuals that want to represent that they stand for something in particular. A tiny product like this holds great social and cultural significance as it can be a signifier or the medium of a certain message.

Ideally, to sell these in high volumes, you might want to build a strong marketing campaign and perhaps target fandoms, lifestyle groups, and pop culture enthusiasts. If you’re interested in learning more about how to start your own enamel pin business, check out this article.

FITNESS LEGGINGS

Another great product for dropshippers is fitness leggings. These have been around for a couple of years now and by the looks of it, they don’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. This product caters to multiple trending niches which make them a versatile commodity for anyone focusing on building a fashion, fitness, or athleisure brand.

Just like beanie hats, fitness leggings are also extremely light, come in a plethora of styles, fabrics, and colors, and are inexpensive to stock and ship. As a dropshipper, you can easily stock your inventory with multiple styles and options to test out what sells the best, while providing your customers with great options, which keeps them happy and coming back to your store.

You can promote this items to your target audience on your online shop via Facebook Ads, search ads, and by reading success stories from similar brands on how they did it.

NOVELTY SOCKS

Socks. Yep, you read that right. Socks are another one of those evergreen products that are almost always trending. In fact, novelty socks have been trending for a few years now, especially around the holidays.

They’re a perfect product: They’re comfortable, aren’t restricted to a specific gender, age, or style and are simple to coordinate with an outfit, too. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that while novelty socks are a great niche, regular socks have far more competition and the market is saturated for them. Novelty socks are a great alternative to the more traditional ones as the market is still growing.

ATHLEISURE

Athleisure is described as activewear that is worn as an everyday look instead of for solely athletic purposes. This clothing trend emphasizes comfort, durability, and style which is exactly why it’s been trending in recent years.

As a seller, this opens a wide door for you as you can sell multiple products such as leggings, sweatpants, t-shirts, shoes, socks, headbands, sports bras, etc.

What makes athleisure great is that unlike most fashion trends, it is here to stay. This niche also gives you a great entry point into other market segments such as sports and fitness or health and holistic living.

With social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest making athleisure even more popular and influencers promoting athleisure products, the trend is going to be around for a while.

BACKPACKS

Backpacks have increasingly become very popular on Google Trends in recent years. Part of this can be credited to startups on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and their mission to create the perfect urban backpack but carrying backpacks to work has also become cool again and now there are many types and styles that are easily accessible in shops.

The new style of anti-theft backpacks that safeguard the belongings of urban commuters, or the tracking systems and battery charging capabilities of high-tech urban packs has ushered in a new age for a product that used to just be seen as a back-to-school special. While the August to September back-to-school period is definitely peak sales time for this product, it doesn’t mean that the product won’t sell year-round, especially for a more professional crowd.

As a merchant, stock and sell different types of backpacks that could be targeted to different age groups, activities, and styles—such as to students, travelers, IT specialists, urban commuters, etc. This trend is a great way to explore the different directions that one product can take you in.

MATTRESSES

While a mattress might seem like an awkward fit on a trending products list, it makes total sense. Not only is there almost always a demand for mattresses but with the evolution of technology, mundane and everyday objects like mattresses have also evolved.

Just a few examples of the new breed of high-tech mattresses include ones that track your sleep and sleep health, ones that have auto-temperature settings that cool down in the summer and heats up in the winter, ones that are attached to automatic coffee makers, and ones that have a built-in vibrating alarm system, to mention a few.

Even the benefits of mattresses differ: Some aid in orthopedic healing and others help with sleep disorders—the choices are vast and the technology is constantly evolving. There are even mattresses that come bundled up in a box so they’re easy to move into new places, they’re compact enough to fit in elevators or to be carried up stairs. It would be a very smart idea to jump on this trending product while the market still has space to carve out your own niche.

FAIRY LIGHTS

Fairy lights are another product that has become extremely popular due to social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest. People have been using these lights for home decor, in restaurants to create a cozy ambiance, as holiday decorations, and more.

There are even entire social media pages dedicated to teaching consumers how to utilize fairy lights and style them to their taste! These lights are often bought in bundles and can be sold with other decorative products, too.

AUTO-FOLLOW DRONES & UNDERWATER DRONES

Not only are drones trending, but there are new types of drones coming into consumer’s lives. In the past few years, we’ve seen drones rise swiftly into popularity as they became a more justifiable purchase for consumers to make but throughout the years, drone technology has continued to advance and the way people utilize them in their everyday lives has continued to evolve.

This year, expect to see drones as one of the top trending products, however, expect further advancements in technology that will allow consumers to integrate drones into different aspects of their lifestyles. First, auto-follow drones are coming into trend now because their advanced technology allows users to manage the drone in a hands-free way.

Also on the rise are underwater drones which help users to locate fish and chart underwater landscapes.

Search volume for “underwater drone” have stabilized according to Google Trends since they rose in popularity showing that this product is here to stay. The search volume for the term “underwater drone” generates about 17,000 monthly searches.

ELECTRONICS ACCESSORIES

For many businesses, this is going to be the largest window of opportunity when it comes to finding the perfect product to sell online. With consumers adding more and more technological products into their daily routines there is more interest in accessorizing these devices to make them more stylish, streamlined, and functional.

These accessories can add style to the device itself whether it be a phone, computer, camera, drone, etc, or these accessories can be a more stylish version of something you regularly use in tandem with a device such as docking stations, power banks, cords, chargers, etc. Some popular accessory items include the iRing and PopSockets which add additional functionality to the smartphone devices, AirPod Skins add style and protection to the Apple Airpods, or even sweaters for drones and Airpod floss stickers. The smartphone accessories market has an abundance of products you can sell in your ecommerce business today.

Take advantage of the demand for stylish, sleek, streamlined, and functional accessories and create a new product that makes an existing device or accessory better. The beauty of this approach is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. Spend some time thinking of the devices you use every day and what small accessory would make them either function or look even better. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel here, just think about useful, functional, quirky, or customizable additions that make existing devices better.

SMART HOME APPLIANCES

Along the same wavelength, smart accessories are seeping into other aspects of consumers’ shopping habits. Appliances such as the Google Home, Amazon Echo, and even smart toothbrushes and cutting boards are aimed at helping consumers improve their day-to-day lives, and they’re becoming more popular.

Anything and everything seems to be on the table and there’s no telling where the future will take us. These smart appliances are slowly becoming a part of the average consumer’s daily life and we expect to see them become even more normalized as they continue to improve and consumers start to see real benefits to integrating them into their lifestyle.

Pay attention to your daily life: Where can you see smarter innovations being made in your home, no matter how seemingly small the innovation might be. Smart appliances are the future and we’ll definitely see their popularity rise throughout the year.

3D PRINTING

Finally, 3D printing is on its way to becoming part of mainstream business and consumer’s daily lives. For so long it seemed like a futuristic experiment that we mere mortals could only dream of but the time has come where owning a 3D printer can be a reality.

The technology and development are finally coming to a place where it’s an approachable item for some consumers to purchase. It hasn’t become a fully justifiable purchase for the mainstream market yet, however, we expect to see leaps and bounds of growth over the course of the next couple of years. Keep an eye on its progression and start getting your ideas in place ready to take advantage of this trend as it becomes an active part of consumer’s lives.

It’s likely that you don’t have the technological know-how or the means to produce your own 3D printer, so leave that to the experts and focus on the accessories. Once it launches into the lives of the masses they’ll be eager for add ons that make the experience even more streamlined.

SMART LIGHTING

As children, we all probably wished that we wouldn’t have to get up from our comfortable position on the couch or bed to turn the lights on or off. We wished we could just clap and voila! Job done. Welcome to the future! Not only are there smart lights that respond to clapping but there is an entire universe of smart lighting systems and smart lights. A few to mention are eco-friendly lighting, automatic timing for lights, mood settings, color control, remote access to lighting systems in places with wifi, motion-activated lighting, and more. There are endless options!

As the options in the industry grow by the second, so does the consumer base. Customers have become more sustainability-centric, and have created a demand for smart lighting companies to get creative with the products that are offered.

Listen to the customers: Create a product that they’re asking for that isn’t available, or a tweaked version of an existing one. Smart lighting is the future of home lighting and it’s picking up steam now so it would be a good idea to jump into the sector when you can.

JOURNALING

Again, not a new innovation by any stretch, however, it all comes down to how it’s delivered to the end consumer. Journaling has started to rise into popularity as people are looking for ways to destress, reflect, and practice mindfulness or gratefulness in an effort to take care of their mental and emotional health.

Products such as The Five Minute Journal, The Bullet Journal, The Happiness Planner, The Anxiety Journal, The Passion Planner, and the SELF Journal have become popular in recent years. Consumers will tell you that these simple tools reap so many benefits that lead to improving their overall quality of life.

Do you have a great idea for a journal or a journaling system you want to share with the world? Start developing and refining your idea and turn it into a journal business! It’s too early to tell if it’ll last long term or be a fleeting fad, but nevertheless, there’s room for more growth in this market.

FIDGET TOYS

Every year there is this one product that turns into a phenomenon that tends to last for quite a while. The last year was dominated by fidgeting toys, years after the virally popular fidget spinner. Be it the spinner toy, the fidget cubes, or the squishy toys that you can attach to your phone or laptop, they all were selling out like crazy.

The fidget spinner, however, enjoyed cult status with its own social media challenges cropping up all over. The demand for these toys was so high that at some point the manufacturers that created the ball bearings being used in the toys were under pressure to create more than their capacity allowed.

Even though these toys were initially created for those with anxiety and/or autism and have been around for over 25 years, this now became one of the must-have office toys. Now is a good time to jump in and stock up on these items, for adults and kids alike. Is there another niche you could target fidget toys to, or is there another type of fidget toy you can create?

PLUSH TOYS

Plush toys are the perfect addition to your store if you run a home or lifestyle business geared towards products for children. These types of toys have always been popular, however, there’s always a new type of plush toy that becomes the talk of the children’s community and is a must-have for every parent and child out there.

Research into popular plush toys at the moment and consider how you can make a plush toy that’s irresistible to children, or one that has special functions or additional benefits that parents might be interested in.

Conclusion

We hope this post gives you a sense of what this year has in store for ecommerce businesses as old trends fade away and new trends rise to take their place. Take these trending products and niche ideas into account and either integrate aspects of them into your existing business or use them as inspiration to develop something new that consumers can get excited about.

The post 50+ Best Trending Products to Sell in 2022 appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

Write, Design & Sell Your Own Ebook: How to Make an Ebook to Sell Online

A Better Lemonade Stand — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 17:00:15 +0000

Pretty much anyone can make an ebook—that’s one of the best things about them.

They’re also a super accessible digital product to sell online because they can be made on a small budget or a big budget.

The trick with ebooks is, you need to have something to write about. Something that your audience wants to know more about that they want to get from you.

So if you’re knowledgeable or experienced in a specific area, then you already have a good starting point! But even if you don’t think you have enough knowledge or experience on a topic to make and sell ebooks about it, don’t worry. There are still other options and it’s still possible for you to make ebooks and sell them online.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in.

Ebook Ideas: What Can Ebooks Be About?

The best part about making an ebook is that ebooks can essentially be about anything. As long as there is a demand for the topic the ebook is about, then it’s worth creating!

Most people have enough experience and knowledge in a particular area that they can turn it into an ebook. You can make an ebook about a topic related to your job, your hobby, or even about the food you like to cook or the exercises you like to do. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Plus, you don’t even have to be an expert or have any qualifications related to your ebook’s topic to write and sell one. So long as you’re honest with your audience and let them know up front that you’re not an expert and that your ebook is based purely on your own opinions and/or experiences, you won’t be misleading them.

So, these are some ebook ideas to get your mind going:

Write a guide about study tips for people who learn information the same way you do
Make an ebook full of recipes from your family or your culture
Create a series of travel guide ebooks about places you’ve been with recommendations and resources
Create an ebook of worksheets that educators can use in their classrooms
Make an ebook with instructions on how to execute complex code and website development
Make an ebook of printable games or worksheets for adults or children
Create an ebook guide full of tips for growing all sorts of plants
Write an ebook guide for restoring antique furniture
Sell digital novels suitable for eReaders like the Amazon Kindle or Kobo

These are just a few ideas to start off with—they might apply to you or they might not, but they just demonstrate how versatile ebook content can be.

The topic of your ebook can be very niche—it doesn’t have to be something that everyone would buy—because you can reach a much larger audience since your product is basically available worldwide. This allows you to hone-in on a narrow niche and you’ll still have a large population to sell to.

How to Make an Ebook

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty details of how to actually make an ebook.

There are two parts to making an ebook: The content of the ebook and the design of the ebook. Let’s look more closely at both sections.

How to Write Ebook Content

There are a few ways you can create the written content for your ebook:

Write it Yourself: Since your ebook will likely be about your experiences, skills, or knowledge, it makes sense to write it yourself! What’s better for the reader than to get the information straight from the source. This is a good option if you at least have some writing skills and basic grammar and punctuation knowledge. After all, you want your ebook to be as professional as possible so some knowledge of grammar and punctuation goes a long way. For some help, use Grammarly to catch mistakes you otherwise wouldn’t have noticed.
Hire Writers: If you aren’t a confident writer or you don’t have the time to write your ebook, hire a writer! This way you can relay all the information you want them to cover and they can craft it into a well-written ebook. You can find writers in so many different places online, including iWriter, Upwork, Fiverr, and FreeUp.
Compile Interviews, Research & Case Studies: The content of your ebook doesn’t always have to be your own writing—you can combine content from multiple different sources like interviews, research, case studies, or even testimonials and quotes. You’ll have to have the appropriate permissions to include any copyrighted work in your ebook and you’ll also have to properly reference and cite any work that is not your own, however, it can add a lot of value to your ebook to include opinions, insights, and information from other industry experts.

A Note on Copyright & Plagiarism

This last point brings us to an important topic: Copyright and plagiarism.

When creating content for your ebook (both written content as well as visual content), it must be created by you or you must have the appropriate permissions to feature someone else’s in your ebook, and/or you must include the proper citations so you don’t plagiarise others’ works or infringe anyone’s copyright.

If you’re not sure whether a work is copyrighted or whether you need someone’s permission to include it in your ebook, err on the side of caution and ask them for their permission anyways. It’s better to be safe than sorry.

We’re not qualified legal experts so we can’t give any official advice on this matter, however, we suggest that you do your own due diligence to ensure that your ebook isn’t plagiarizing the work of others and that it’s completely original to you. You can run your written content through a tool like Copyscape to ensure that it doesn’t match with any existing content on the internet, and also if you do hire a writer or use stock images in your ebook, make sure you have the right permissions to be able to use that work in a product that you’re going to be selling and make sure their work is original and doesn’t plagiarize anyone else’s.

How to Design an Ebook

There are also many different ways you can design an ebook, either yourself by using different types of software, or you can hire a professional to make one for you.

If you want to make an ebook yourself, you can use these software options to actually design your ebook:

Canva: Canva is a really good option for beginners who don’t have much design experience. They have lots of different ebook templates to choose from that you can customize and add your own original content into. If you’re looking for a really quick way to get started with a software that’s easy to get the hang of, check out Canva.
Adobe Photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator: If you have a little more design experience, you can use Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator to create your ebook instead! This option requires knowledge of the programs so you know what to do and how to do it, but it gives you a lot more freedom to create an ebook design completely unique to you because you’ll be making it from scratch. If you’re already familiar with Adobe tools, this is probably a good option for you. If you don’t know where to start, you could check out Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator classes on Skillshare.
Creative Market: This option is the best if you want a mix between having the freedom to design a custom ebook while it also being easier than making one completely from scratch. On Creative Market, you can find ebook templates that you can customize in software programs like Canva or Adobe InDesign so you can plug your content into a template and move on. It makes it insanely simple but also very professional-looking so your ebook will have the best chance at success.
Use a Text Document: Or, keep it super simple and just make your ebook in a text document. Most ebooks are PDF files anyways (we discuss this more in the “How to Save Your Ebook” section down below) so if you just want to write your ebook in Word, Pages, or a Google Doc, then do that! It’s a nice experience for your ebook reader to purchase an ebook that’s been thoughtfully designed with images, illustrations, and other visual assets, but ultimately if your audience wants to read what you have to say, then give it to them in a plain text file. Do what works for you!

And finally, if you don’t have the know-how or time to design your own ebook, you can always hire someone else to do it for you! Find ebook designers on freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or FreeUp to take the design process of your hands.

How Much Does it Cost to Make an Ebook?

The best part about ebooks is that they’re pretty inexpensive to make. You could go all-out and hire writers and designers to create your ebook and even purchase premium stock photos if you wanted, but you don’t have to! There are so many resources out there that can help you cobble together a really professional-looking ebook without having to pay a lot to do so.

It’s because of this that ebooks are actually a really great budget-friendly ecommerce product. If you’re starting a business on a budget and need an inexpensive product to make, ebooks can be a really good option! If you really want to, you can make an ebook without spending any money.

But if you have a budget to make your ebook products, these are some of the costs that might come up:

Hiring Writers: On platforms like Upwork, it costs around $20-$40 per hour to hire a writer, sometimes even $125 per hour.
Hiring Designers: Hiring a designer on a platform like Upwork to make an ebook for you can cost anywhere from $35-$65 per hour.
Paying for Software: If you want to make your own ebook, you’ll likely need software like Canva (can be used for free, but to access all features you’ll need a Pro account which starts at $9.95 per month) or Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, or Illustrator (each cost $20.99 per month, or choose the $52.99 per month plan to access all Adobe apps).
Purchasing Templates: To create your ebook from a template, Creative Market offers a wide range of options, with most costing about $16-$40 for a commercial license. Make sure you purchase the right license though based on how many ebooks you plan to sell.
Purchasing Stock Photos: To add stock photos to your ebook, you can purchase them from a variety of different sources like Creative Market or any of the ones listed in our 200+ Graphic Design Resources article. A single photo can cost anywhere from $2-$10 or more, and a bundle of photos can cost around $20-$40 or more. Again, make sure you purchase the right licensing option.
Outsourcing Custom Graphic Design: To get custom images or illustrations made by a graphic designer, you’re looking at anywhere from $20-$60 per hour.

How to Format Your Ebook

While all ebooks will be different depending on their topic and content, most ebooks have a similar formatting structure like this:

They start with a cover page
Followed by an introduction page
Followed by the Table of Contents
Then they include the ebook’s content, separated into chapters
And finally, they end with a concluding page
Somewhere at the beginning or end, they usually also have a legal page detailing any relevant terms and/or copyright usage warnings

Your Ebook Doesn’t Just Have to Be an Ebook: What to Include in Your Ebook

When most people think of an ebook, they think of it being an all-text document that the user reads off their digital device. The main advantage with ebooks, however, is that they are so much more versatile than physical books because you can add other digital assets to them! They don’t just have to be made up of written content, they can be made up of all sorts of other content, too.

Make your ebook as fun, interesting, informative, interactive, helpful, and engaging as possible by adding:

Worksheets: Especially if your ebook is educational or you want it to be interactive—include worksheets! You can make your own worksheets or find worksheet templates on Creative Market.
Video Content: You can add videos to your ebooks! Or at least, you can link out to video resources that your readers might find helpful.
Links: Include links to resources that your readers need to know about, or to resources that will help amplify their learning experience.
Images: Don’t forget to add images to your ebook to illustrate it and make it interesting for your users! Create your own, purchase images from Creative Market, or hire a designer to make images for you.
Quotes: If it’s relevant, add quotes to your ebook! It enhances it, illustrates it, and can keep your readers in the right frame of mind.
Call-to-Action Buttons: And finally, don’t forget to add call-to-action buttons to encourage your readers to take further action. Usually, call-to-action buttons bring users to a product page if you want them to make a purchase from your site, but your calls-to-action could also encourage users to sign up to your email list, check out your new products, follow you on your social channels, join your community’s group, or anything else. Just try to extend the user’s experience past your ebook and into your sales funnel so they stay in your ecosystem.

How to Save Ebooks

The file type you save your ebook as is important because it will impact whether your ebook will be accessible to your readers.

There are some file types that can be accessed on many different devices, however, some file types can only be accessed on specific devices. For example, PDF and EPUB file types can be accessed on most devices, however, other file types, like the AZW file type, are specifically made for ebooks published on specific eReaders.

For a more in-depth look at all the different file types that ebooks can be published as and which publishing platforms those ebooks are compatible with, check out the Comparison of E-Book Formats Wikipedia page.

That being said, these are the most popular ebook file types to get started with:

PDF: This is one of the most common and easily recognizable file types and it’s ideal for ebooks because it’s compatible with many different publishing platforms and it’s not editable by the users that download it (unless you save it as an editable PDF, which would be useful for digital worksheets, as an example). Most software choices that you can make your ebook on (like Canva or Adobe) should give you the option to save your ebook as a PDF or you can use ebook software converters online.
EPUB: This file type was made specifically for ebooks, and it’s commonly used because it’s compatible with so many different publishing platforms. As the Comparison of E-Book Formats Wikipedia page says, this file type can be read by the Kobo eReader, BlackBerry devices, Apple Books, the Google Play Books app, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, Adobe Digital Editions, FBReader, PocketBook eReader, the Mozilla Firefox add-on EPUBReader, and many other reading apps. To save your ebook as an EPUB file type, you can use ebook software converters online.
iBooks: This is the optimal file type to use if you’re selling an ebook on Apple’s Books library, but it’s not compatible with any other publishing platform, so if you want to sell your ebook elsewhere then this is not the file type to go for. You can save your ebook as an iBooks file type with the free iBooks Author ebook software.
AZW/AZW3/KF8/KFX: These are all file type options that are compatible with Amazon eReaders like the Kindle and Kindle Fire. These file types are only compatible with the Amazon ebook publishing platform, so they’re not useful for any other platform. To save your ebook in these formats, you can find ebook software converters online.

To see a useful chart detailing which eReader supports which file types, check out the Comparison of E-Book Formats Wikipedia page.

Ebook Publishing Platforms: How & Where to Sell Ebooks

Once you write an ebook and have it ready to publish, you need somewhere to sell it! There are a few different options for where to sell an ebook online, so we’ll cover the most common ones. You can sell your ebook through one of these methods or all of them—it’s totally up to you!

Sell Ebooks on Your Own Online Website

A really common option, especially for ecommerce entrepreneurs, is to sell their ebook on their own website.

You can set up an online store with Shopify (Shopify Review) and use their Digital Downloads app so your customers can purchase and download your ebook, or you could make a simple landing page on Carrd (Carrd Review) and include a call-to-action button to purchase the ebook and then email the customer a link to download it. Or, you could even set up a WordPress website and use a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads so customers can purchase and download your ebook.

There are plenty of options, but selling your ebook on your own website gives you complete control over your product and brand, and direct contact with your customers. The main downside is that you’ll have to get traffic to your website yourself, which can be tricky if you haven’t built up an audience already.

Sell Ebooks on Amazon Kindle Books

Publishing on the Amazon Kindle is free and it gives you access to Amazon’s huge user-base which makes it easier to get traffic and customers to your ebook.

It’s important to note that the EPUB file type is not compatible with Amazon Kindles—the primary file types are AZW, AZW3, KF8, and KFX. To learn more about self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle, check out the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing page.

Sell Ebooks on Apple Books (formerly iBooks)

Apple’s main hub for digital books is Apple Books, and you can self-publish your ebooks on their platform as well. Head over to their Sell Your Books page to submit your book.

The primary file types supported on Apple Books are EPUB (which can be created with Apple Pages) or iBooks.

Sell Ebooks on Google Play Books App

The Google Play Books app is available on both Android and iOS devices, and the EPUB file type is compatible with it. You can self-publish your ebook on their platform quite easily, however, you must be located in a country that they support for “seller sign-ups.” Head over to their How to Sell a Book on Google Play: A Checklist page to learn more.

Sell Ebooks on Barnes & Noble Nook

The eReader for one of USA’s largest bookstores, self-publishing on the Barnes & Noble Nook is also pretty straightforward. Both the PDF and EPUB file types are compatible with this publishing platform. Head over to their Self-Publishing for eBooks and Print Books page to learn more.

Sell Ebooks on Rakuten Kobo

Publishing on the Kobo eReader is also a simple process, and they also support PDF and EPUB file types. The Kobo Writing Life page has all the details you need to know about self-publishing and selling your ebooks there.

Sell Ebooks on Podia

If you’re looking for a fully-supported way to sell your ebooks downloads online then using a platform like Podia is a good option. They make it easy for you to set up your own website and they’re made especially for individuals or teams that sell digital assets like courses, memberships, and downloads so they’re optimized for those kinds of products.

If you want to sell a full course of ebooks or want users to purchase monthly or yearly memberships to access your ebooks, then Podia is a great choice. If you just want to offer one-time-purchase ebook downloads without having to worry about setting up and maintaining the backend part of your website, then Podia helps relieve some of that work as well.

How to Price Your Ebook Products

Figuring out the pricing for digital ebook products is very similar to how you would figure out the pricing for physical products: Take the costs to make the product into account (like labor and creative assets), plus your running costs (like your ecommerce platform), plus a markup (so you earn a profit).

But, the main difference between pricing digital products and physical products is that with digital products, you only have to incur the costs once to then have a product you can sell over and over. So this means that your pricing strategies can also differ from physical product pricing strategies

Ultimately, the good news with digital products is that your product costs and running costs are usually much lower than they would be if you were making physical products, so they don’t eat into your profit margins as much. This means that you have the ability to price your ebooks competitively while still bringing in a worthwhile profit!

But it’s also important to take the market value of your ebook into consideration as well. If you’re creating an ebook about your chosen topic, you’re likely very knowledgeable about it, have a lot of experience, or you have a unique skill set that not many others have. This puts you in a position to charge at a more premium rate than if you didn’t possess any sort of special requirements. If your audience values your knowledge and skills, they’ll pay the price to have access to it, so don’t sell yourself short.

To help determine the pricing for your ebook products, take these factors into consideration:

How Much it Costs to Make Your Ebook: You have to at least cover the costs of making your ebook, so add up everything including the cost of writers, creative assets like graphics, illustrations, stock photos, etc. plus any designers you hired to make your ebook or the templates you purchased.
How Much it Costs to Run Your Site: Don’t forget to also take into consideration the monthly or yearly running costs you incur to run your business, including your ecommerce platform’s fees, any apps you use to run your store, the software you subscribe to make your ebooks, and even the people you hire like customer service agents.
How Much Profit You Want to Make: After you’ve calculated all the costs you have to cover, consider the amount of profit you want to earn on each product to keep your business growing and to get you paid.
How Much Your Competitors Charge: Also take into consideration how much your competitors charge for their products. This can give you an idea of what your pricing is like and how much consumers are willing to pay. If you don’t know where to even start with your pricing, checking out competitors’ prices is a good place to start.
How Much Your Audience Would Be Willing to Pay: Your audience is going to be the one purchasing your product, after all! So think about how much they would actually be willing to pay to access your knowledge and expertise.

Since pricing ebooks is similar to pricing physical products but a little bit different, you might want to adopt a competition-based pricing strategy, a project-based pricing strategy, a premium pricing strategy, or even a value-based pricing strategy rather than simply just a cost-plus pricing strategy. All of these strategies are covered in this Pricing Strategy Guide by HubSpot. In their article, they suggest that prices for digital products, “reflect your brand, industry, and overall value of your product.”

Conclusion

If you wanted to make an ebook and sell ebooks online but weren’t sure how, we hope this article has demystified the process for you.

To recap, here are the steps to make an ebook:

Figure out what you want your ebook to be about
Figure out if you want to write it or hire others to write it
Write your ebook content
Design your ebook visuals, or hire a designer
Format your ebook in an organized way
Make sure to add multimedia to your ebook to keep it interesting and helpful
Save your ebook in an ebook format (usually PDF or EPUB)
Figure out where you want to sell your ebooks
Price your ebook products accordingly
Sell your ebooks!

Making an ebook can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, and you can create one with a very small budget or a very generous budget—it’s all up to you!

Think you have enough knowledge and experience to make and sell your own ebooks? Give it a try!

The post Write, Design & Sell Your Own Ebook: How to Make an Ebook to Sell Online appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

How to Sell Digital Products Online: Digital Products vs. Physical Products

Richard Lazazzera — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 17:00:31 +0000

When most people think of ecommerce, they think of selling physical products online. While that’s not entirely incorrect, it’s also not the complete picture. Turns out, there’s more to ecommerce than just selling physical products online — digital products can be sold online, too! In this article, we’re sharing everything we know about selling digital products online including the different types of digital products, how to create digital products, where to sell digital products, how to price digital products and more.

If you’re curious about how to sell digital products online, keep reading.

What are Digital Products?
Why Sell Digital Products?
- Pros & Cons of Selling Digital Products
- Digital Products vs. Physical Products
Types of Digital Products: Digital Product Ideas
How to Create Digital Products
Where to Sell Digital Products
How to Price Digital Products

What are Digital Products?

Digital products are intangible assets or content that are sold and/or distributed online. Digital products can come in a wide variety of different formats such as ebooks, images, videos, games, media, courses, templates, software, services, and more. They’re distributed digitally meaning that they don’t actually get shipped to customers which means that they can instead be downloaded, streamed or accessed immediately by the purchaser on their computer, smartphone or tablet.

Why Sell Digital Products?

Digital products have so many different advantages, many of which make them a desirable alternative to selling physical products. In general, digital products are simple to make, easy to distribute, are a sustainable business model, and have a high profit margin earning potential.

For example, ebook publishing revenue in the US is expected to grow from 5.31 billion dollars in 2018 (source), digital album sales totaled 53.4 million units in 2018 (source), and the global self-paced online learning revenue in 2018 totaled 43.84 billion dollars (source). Digital products in virtually all categories are lucrative, and since there are lower barriers-to-entry to create digital products and also simpler distribution methods compared to physical products, many ecommerce entrepreneurs are making the switch to sell digital products full-time.

Let’s look more closely at the advantages and disadvantages of selling digital products so you can decide whether selling digital products is a good fit for you.

The Pros & Cons of Selling Digital Products

Advantages:

Passive Income: You don’t have to make a product every time a customer orders from you, you simply make one product, automate the selling process, and then earn income passively
Personal Freedom: You can sell from anywhere, to anywhere — digital products put no limits on your lifestyle
Lower Overhead Costs: Costs to produce digital products are generally low and there’s no need to hire a warehouse to store inventory
Easy to Reach Target Market: You’re not bound by a brick-and-mortar location where your only potential customer base is dependant on who lives locally to you. There are few limitations to the audience you can reach online
No Inventory Management: There’s no need to store products, manage inventory or SKUs
Easy Manufacturing Process: There are no MOQs when ordering products from a manufacturer
No Shipping Process: No need to pick, pack, and fulfill orders or hire a warehouse to do it for you
Low Product Return Rate: No damaged products and a lower chance of customers receiving a faulty product
Easy Automation: Pretty much the entire process of selling digital products can be automated
No Shipping Limitations: Some physical products — like beauty products, food products, and machinery products — have limitations on where and how they can be shipped but digital products generally have no distribution limitations
Lower Barrier-to-Entry: It generally costs less to create digital products and anyone can create a digital product
Independence From Suppliers: Usually when creating a physical product you have to work with a supplier to actually manufacture the product and bring it to life but, with digital products, they don’t have to be created by anyone else unless you want them to be
High Profit Margins: Because digital products are generally inexpensive to make and you just have to create the product once and then it can be sold an unlimited number of times — plus, there are generally low overhead costs — digital products usually have the potential for a very healthy profit margin
They Don’t Break, Perish or Wear Out: Digital products can last a long time because they’re not subject to the same kind of wear and tear that physical products experience
Always In-Stock: You can’t sell out of digital products so you’ll never miss out on sales and you’ll never over-sell your product
Immediate Distribution: No need for customers to wait for their product to arrive, digital products are sent directly to the customer after the purchase goes through so customers don’t have to wait for the product to arrive
Easy Refunds: Your customers don’t have to ship the product back to you to return it, simply refund their order if they’re dissatisfied
Offer Free Trials: It’s much more difficult logistically to offer free trials for physical products but providing free trials is a great way to get potential customers to purchase your digital products
Low Risk: Selling digital products is a much lower-risk option than many other types of products

Disadvantages:

Easy to Replicate: Since digital products are sent out online, they can be easy to copy, duplicate, replicate, and share with others. There are ways to limit this, such as by using expiring links, license keys, watermarks, source code protection, PDF stamping, and digital product distribution platforms that offer product-specific security features
Not Tangible: Digital products can’t actually be held by a customer (unless they’re able to print out the product for themselves), which may bother some customers. Some customers prefer a tangible product they can experience in real life
Some Customers Don’t Understand Digital Products: Some customers still expect all products sold online to be physical products that they’ll receive in the mail, so it’s important to be quite clear and direct on digital product pages when an item is, in fact, only distributed digitally, just to clear up any misconceptions a customer might have
Lower Perceived Quality: Consumers may perceive digital products to be less valuable because they exist in an intangible way
Competing Against Free Products: It’s likely that consumers can find similar versions of digital products online, but for free, so you have to make sure your product can compete against what kind of content is already available for free
No Repeat Buyers: Once customers buy a digital product there’s no need to re-buy it (unless it’s a digital membership/subscription service)
Competitive Market: Because creating some digital products has such a low barrier-to-entry, it can be a very competitive landscape to exist in as an ecommerce merchant
Some Restrictions Apply: While digital products may not face the same shipping restrictions that physical products can face, digital products face some sales channels restrictions like not being permitted to sell through Facebook or Instagram. Right now, Facebook and Instagram list “primarily selling physical goods” as a criterion for their business approval requirements, which means that business Instagram accounts must be for companies that primarily sell physical goods only

Digital Products vs. Physical Products

If you’re just starting your first ecommerce business and you’re wondering whether to sell physical products or digital products, you might be quite conflicted between the two. While digital products have many appealing advantages like their high profit margin earning potential and their easy distribution methods, they do have several disadvantages as well which we listed above.

Physical products, on the other hand, also have many advantages such as it being easier to demonstrate the value of a tangible product so their perceived quality may be thought to be higher than digital products, but physical products are time-consuming to manage, not to mention expensive to source and ship.

What it comes down to, ultimately, will be your own product ideas, the niche market you’re serving, your risk tolerance, and how much of your business you want to be automated. Let’s discuss this in more detail:

If You Have Product Ideas: If you already have an idea of what kind of product, or products, you want to sell online then you’ll probably already know whether it’s a digital product or a physical one. Depending on your product idea it’ll likely fit better into one category rather than the other, so that will help you decide.
Think About Your Niche Market: Some niche markets are more likely to be open to purchasing one product type rather than the other. Think about your niche market’s age demographic, for example: Are they primarily people who have access to computers, smartphones, and tablets where they could download and stream digital products? Or is your niche market made up of people who don’t prefer to use smart devices to access content or products and they’d rather have a physical copy to hold in their own hands? Taking your niche markets’ preferences into consideration can help you decide between physical and digital products.
What’s Your Risk Tolerance? If you’re a low-risk, slow-and-steady kind of business builder then digital products might be a great choice because they’re generally less expensive to create, and you don’t have to purchase inventory upfront which means you have less to lose if sales don’t go well.
Do You Want Your Business Automated? Ecommerce stores that sell digital products and physical products can both be completely automated, however, it will depend on the types of products you sell, the ecommerce platforms you sell through and the level of support you’ll have to perform to keep your customers happy. Generally speaking, stores that sell physical products usually have some aspect to them that requires more hands-on work because there are more moving parts in the process — like picking and packing the orders, shipping the items, warehousing the products, managing returns, etc. — while stores that sell digital products don’t have to manage quite as many of those steps and for the steps they do still have to manage, usually they’re simpler.

If you’re really having a hard time choosing, however, choose both! You’re the boss of your own ecommerce store, so if you want to sell physical products and digital products then go for it. In fact, bundling digital products together with physical products can help increase your sales, so consider whether that’s something you’d like to apply to your online store.

Tip: Upsell customers purchasing your physical products with a digital product that enhances their experience of the physical product! When they add the digital product upsell to their order they’ll get more value and you’ll get more revenue that likely has a higher profit margin percentage than your physical product. It’s a win-win!

Types of Digital Products: Digital Product Ideas

There are so many different kinds of digital products that can be sold online — really, the only limit is your imagination. Take this quote from SendOwl, a digital product distribution platform, for example:

We have customers that sell tiny house plans, doll clothing patterns, a Jamaican Patois language audio course and dictionary and best-selling indie video games. We also have customers who sell a combination of physical and digital products. (Source)

Selling digital products isn’t just about ebooks anymore — not that there’s anything wrong with ebooks it’s just usually the first example someone thinks of when they imagine a digital product but it’s certainly not the only type of digital product that can be sold online — so here’s a list of what kind of digital products can be sold online.

Ebooks
- PDF Guides
- Tools
- Resources
- Documents
- Workbooks
- Fiction/Non-fiction books
- Manuals
- Poetry
- Stationery
- Essays
- Scripts
- Journalism
- Cookbooks
- Sheet music
- Textbooks
- Travel guides
- Blueprints
- Activities
- Budgets
- Contracts & policies
- Lead magnets
- Case studies
- Printables
Courses
- Educational resources
- Video courses
- Email courses
- Ebook courses
- Bootcamps
- Test preparation courses
- Social media courses
Photography
- Art
- Stock Photos
- Image presets/filters
- Drone photos
- Travel photos
- Event photos
Video Content
- Self-created video content
- Video footage
- Stock videos
- Webinars
- Video training courses
- Animations
- Drone footage
- Video journalism
- Interviews
- Product reviews
- Tutorials
- Video logos
- Live streams
- Advertisements
- Trailers
Audio Content
- Podcasts
- Audiobooks
- Music
- Sounds effects
- Stock audio
- Audio logos
- Recordings
- Royalty-free music
- Text-to-audio conversion
- Mixing and mastering
- Voiceovers
Digital Assets
- Licenses for digital assets
- Social media graphics
- Icons
- Infographics
- Fonts
Templates
- Email templates
- Website templates
- PowerPoint Templates
- Product mockup templates
- Resume templates
- Presets
- Photoshop actions
- Website graphics and vectors
- Posters & signs
- Patterns
- Business cards
Software
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Apps
- Website themes
- Plugins/extensions
- Video games
- Code
Art
- Photography
- Videography
- Choreography
- Literature
- Visual Arts
- Prints
- Phone & computer wallpapers
- Digital art
- Illustrations
- Book covers
- Music album covers
- Graphic design
Services
- Consulting
- Graphic design
- Logo design
- Branding
- Workout/nutrition plans
- Translation services
- Web services
- Video editing
- Digital marketing/ad creation
- Data entry
- Research
- Social media services
- Music lessons
- Programming
- Product package design
- Brand audits
- Editing
- Transcription

How to Create Digital Products

How you create your digital products will obviously depend on the type of digital products that you want to create. The creation process will differ vastly from ebooks to courses to templates to software, etc. but ultimately you’ll have two options: You can create your digital products yourself, or you can get someone else to create your digital products for you.

Creating Digital Products Yourself: If you’re just starting out and don’t have the means to hire outside help, or if you have the knowledge and experience to create your own digital products then go ahead and create them yourself! One of the main advantages of digital products is that you don’t have to work with a manufacturer or supplier to create your product for you if you don’t want to, which is one of the major barriers-to-entry that merchants sourcing physical products encounter.
Getting Someone to Create Your Digital Products For You: You also have the option to hire help to create your digital products, whether you need help actually creating the content of the product or if you need help assembling the product into a digital format. You can hire freelancers, experts, agencies or other companies to create your products, depending on what kind of budget you have and what your desired outcome is.

These services can help you create your digital products:

Blurb: Create ebooks to sell online
Aerio: Create ebooks to sell online
Creative Market: Search for ebook templates and other digital asset templates
Teachable: Create online courses
Kajabi: Create online courses

Use these services to hire freelancers to help you create digital products:

FreeeUp: Hire the top 1% of freelancers in their respective industries
Upwork: Hire all kinds of freelancers from around the world
Fiverr: Hire all kinds of freelancers from around the world
iWriter: Hire high-quality freelance writers

Where to Sell Digital Products

There are so many different ways to sell digital products online; you can sell them through your own store, on your blog, on marketplaces, on social media, on Amazon, and on Etsy. Before we jump into all the options, we’re going to run through the main ways to sell digital products on your own store or website and the difficulty level of each option.

If you’re selling your digital products on your own store you’re going to need a way to actually distribute your digital products to the customers who buy them. The three top-recommended digital product distribution platforms are Easy Digital Downloads, SendOwl and Gumroad. Let’s dive into the reasons why, so you can choose the option that’s the best fit for you:

Starter Option: If you’re looking for an easy way to get your digital products ready to sell, Gumroad is a simple digital products distributor that’s tailored to helping artists and musicians sell their work, however, they do have features to help all kinds of digital good sellers. Some of these features include pay-what-you-want pricing, rentals (like movie rentals, for example), selling multiple versions of your product, pre-sales, and more. They’re not the most sophisticated or feature-rich digital product distribution channel out there, that’s why they’re not always the most top-recommended option, however, they’re known to get the job done and get bootstrappers up and running. As far as pricing is concerned, they have a free pricing plan option but to get all features there’s a monthly fee plus a percentage taken from every sale.
Standard Option: If you’re looking for a digital product distribution channel, SendOwl comes as a highly-recommended option. They’re well known for their sophisticated and feature-rich software, but in order to use them you’ll have to have a blog, website, store or social media account to sell from — they don’t support the actual digital product store, they just help connect digital product sellers to their customers so they can sell their products. They also offer reasonable pricing plans and only charge a monthly fee for using their service, they don’t take a percentage of each sale.
Premium Option: If you’re looking for a digital product distribution method that gives you the most control over your branding and the most premium experience for your customers, then your best option is to go with WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. Using WordPress as your ecommerce platform gives you full control over how your website looks and functions, but it can also be time-consuming to manage and expensive to upkeep. Easy Digital Downloads offers the most sophisticated digital product distribution channel which integrates with many other services you’ll likely be using like Dropbox, MailChimp, and PayPal, however, it only works with WordPress so you can’t use it if you’re not using WordPress to host your website. It’s also a fairly pricey option, compared to the two other options we mentioned previously.

How to Sell Digital Products on Shopify

If WordPress isn’t an option for you whether you’re not interested in the upkeep or just want to use an ecommerce platform that handles the backend aspect of your ecommerce store so you don’t have to, then Shopify is likely going to be your top pick. They come as one of the top-rated ecommerce platforms in the ecommerce industry, just check out our Shopify Review to learn why, but they’re usually only recommended when it comes to selling physical products online because selling digital products online through Shopify isn’t quite as smooth and seamless.

What it comes down to is that Shopify as an ecommerce platform was made to help merchants sell physical products, not digital products. Because of that, they don’t innately offer the same kind of robust features as the three services we discussed above, so to sell digital products on Shopify you’ll have to use an additional app. Out of the digital product app options on the Shopify App Store, the Digital Downloads app and the SendOwl app are the two that come the most highly recommended.

Shopify’s own Digital Downloads app was their response to merchants who were looking for a way to sell digital products on their stores, and it offers fairly simple functionalities. This is a good option if you’re selling ebooks or other similar downloadable products but it certainly won’t be a good fit to distribute all types of digital products.

If you’re looking for a more sophistication option that offers additional features like security protection in the form of expiring links or PDF stamps, or even if you’re looking for more extensive functionalities like video streaming, product “drip” release (releasing content over a predetermined period of time), and integration with Shopify POS so you can sell digital products in-person, then the SendOwl app is a great option.

It’s worth noting, however, that while these two apps, in particular, and the other app options available on the Shopify App Store, enable you to sell and distribute digital products to your customers, there will always be some limitations because Shopify is currently just not innately designed to sell digital products. Depending on the digital products you sell, one of these apps might be the right solution for what you need, but if you’re looking to sell online courses, for example, you likely won’t be able to do that on Shopify without using a bunch of other workarounds.

How to Sell Digital Products on Amazon

Yes, you can sell digital products on Amazon but only certain types of digital products and only through Amazon’s designated distributions channels. You can self-publish ebooks through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, audiobooks through ACX, music and film through Amazon Media on Demand, apps, games, and software through Amazon’s App and Game Submission form, and videos through Prime Video Direct.

Not all types of digital products are able to be sold on Amazon, so if it’s not listed above then it’s likely that right now, it can’t be sold on Amazon.

Selling your digital products on Amazon can be hugely advantageous because you’ll be able to tap into their massive audience and target your customer-base more efficiently. You can also sell your products on your own store as well as on Amazon, so you get the best of both worlds.

How to Sell Digital Products on WordPress

We recommend selling digital products on WordPress through Easy Digital Downloads. It’s how we sell our digital products and, as we mentioned above, it’s one of the top-recommended ways to sell digital products through WordPress.

Easy Digital Downloads operates exclusively with WordPress so all of its features and functionalities are optimized for WordPress users. It also means that it offers flexible options like WordPress does so you can really make it your own and incorporate it seamlessly into your own website. The only downside is that it’s a premium-priced product which may not make it a favorable option for bootstrapped digital product sellers, however, we believe that, in this case, you get what you pay for and the price Easy Digital Downloads charges is worthwhile.

How to Sell Digital Products on Etsy

Yes, you can sell digital products on Etsy and it’s fairly straightforward. Check out this excerpt about selling digital products from the Etsy Seller Handbook:

Listing a digital download on Etsy is just like creating a listing for a physical product, except you’ll upload the file your customers will receive when they make a purchase. After buyers purchase a digital file on Etsy, it’s immediately available on their downloads page. You can upload audio, image or text files to your listing.

Check out Etsy’s full help guide here to learn step-by-step how to list a digital product on Etsy.

How to Sell Digital Products on Marketplaces

When selling digital products, you also have the option to sell through online marketplaces as well. We’ve discussed online marketplaces in detail in our How to Start an Online Marketplace article but if you’re not sure what a marketplace is, just think of Amazon. Amazon is a marketplace where many different sellers can sell many different types of products (including both physical and digital products) and many different consumers shop from the Amazon marketplace. Other marketplaces exist online, and some marketplaces specifically focus on selling digital products.

One of the advantages of selling your digital products on online marketplaces is that you don’t have to work so hard to bring customers into your website to see your products. The marketplace does all the hard work for you to bring traffic in, you just have to have a great product and a compelling product listing that makes customers want to purchase.

Examples of online marketplaces where you can sell your digital products include:

Creative Market: Sell all types of digital products ranging from photos, fonts, icons, templates, and more
Steam: Sell video games online
Skillshare: Deliver video courses as a Skillshare instructor

As an example of a digital products marketplace, check out FilterGrade which is a marketplace where photographers can sell their Photoshop actions and Lightroom presets. We’ve connected with the founder of FilterGrade to learn more about why and how he started this online marketplace so if you’re interested in learning more, check out the FilterGrade Case Study.

How to Price Digital Products

When you’re just starting your first digital products store, it can be hard to know how to price your products. The difference between pricing physical products and digital products is that usually digital products don’t have the same kind of overhead that goes into them like physical products often have.

When determining the prices for your digital products, take these factors into account:

Overhead: Any overhead that went into creating the digital product, whether you hired someone to create the content, someone to format the digital file, or even the monthly fees you pay to keep your store up and running. You want to recover all the costs you incurred to make the product and all the costs you’ll incur to sell the product.
Value: How valuable is your digital product? Consider how much value your customers will gain from what your digital product provides them and how it will enhance their lives. More valuable products should have that reflected in the price.
The Competition: How do your competitors price their products? Check out your competitors’ sites and see what they’re charging and decide whether you’d be charging too much or not enough if you charged the same prices for your products.
Your Niche: How much do you think your customers will be willing to pay? Think about your target market — do they have a lot of disposable income to spend on your product or are they more likely to be reserved and frugal with their cash?
Who You’re Selling To: If you’re selling your products to other businesses or business owners rather than directly to consumers, you should put a higher price tag on your product. Other businesses will be re-selling your product or making a cut of the revenue in some way, so take that into account.
Offer Discounts: If you plan on offering discounts on your digital products whether for special occasions or as an ongoing thing, think about how that will impact your revenues and profit margins.

Conclusion

You should now have all the information you need to decide whether selling digital products online is the right choice for you. Take into consideration all of the advantages and disadvantages of selling digital products and how they compare to physical products. The sky really is the limit to the types of digital products that can be sold online so get creative!

The post How to Sell Digital Products Online: Digital Products vs. Physical Products appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

What is Dropshipping? Drop Shipping 101 for Beginners (in 2021)

A Better Lemonade Stand — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 16:00:53 +0000

What is dropshipping? Anyone who has ever looked into how online businesses work has probably come across this term.

Yet, few people actually understand how it works.

To someone who is new to the online business world and looking to break into the ecommerce scene, the dropshipping process can seem a little intimidating as it can be difficult to find a reliable source that tells you everything you need to know.

So here it is: The definitive guide to dropshipping. It covers everything from what the term essentially means, how this particular business model works and, if it’s for you, how to find the right product and supplier to actually run a successful, booming ecommerce dropshipping business. So let’s dive right into it!

Understanding Dropshipping
Who Is Dropshipping For?
Who Isn’t Dropshipping For?
Finding the Perfect Dropshipping Products to Sell
Finding the Right Dropshipping Supplier
Running Your Drop Shipping Business
Growing Your Drop Shipping Business
Example of a Successful Drop Shipping Business
Additional Dropshipping Resources
Conclusion

Understanding Dropshipping

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a type of business model that enables a company to operate without maintaining inventory, owning a warehouse to store their products, or even having to ship their products to their customers themselves. How it works is that the retailer partners up with a dropship supplier that manufactures and/or warehouses products, packages the products, and ships them directly to the retailer’s customer, on the retailer’s behalf.

In simpler terms, this is how dropshipping works:

The customer places an order for a product on the retailer’s online store.
The retailer automatically or manually forwards the order and customer details to the dropship supplier.
The dropship supplier packages and ships the order directly to the customer in the retailer’s name.

This kind of business model is extremely attractive as it eliminates the need for the store owner to have a physical business location such as an office space or warehouse — instead, all they need is a laptop and an internet connection.

Note: Many businesses that do own physical spaces (offices or warehouses) of their own also use drop shipping for some of their goods as it helps free up resources and space for other products.

Video Overview of Drop Shipping

Pros of Dropshipping

As a business model, dropshipping has several different aspects that prove to be beneficial, such as:

It’s Easy to Set Up: It doesn’t take an entire village to set up since it essentially involves just 3 steps — find the supplier, set up your website, and start selling the goods! To someone who is new to the ecommerce industry, this business model is relatively easy to understand and implement.
The Cost of Setting Up Your Dropship Business is Next to Nothing: In traditional business models, the majority of the costs are related to setting up and running the retail operations, such as purchasing inventory. Since dropshipping eliminates that step, and thus the cost of it, all you have to pay for is the associated costs of running your website (hosting, theme, apps, etc.).
You Don’t Have to Worry About Exorbitant Overhead Costs: As previously mentioned, the business owner is not required to purchase inventory thus the costs of renting or buying warehouse/office space and the other smaller yet substantial costs pertaining to it (electricity/phone bills, stationery, etc.) aren’t an issue. The fixed costs of managing the website is all that a business owner has to worry about.
The Risk of Dropshipping as a Business Model is Significantly Lower: If the business doesn’t sell products it still doesn’t lose anything, so there is little to no pressure about having to sell your inventory.
The Business Can be Run from Anywhere & is Location Independent: No office, no warehouse, no employees, and no hassles. Little to no commitment to a physical space means that you could be sitting at a beach, sipping on mojitos while still turning profits. All you need is your laptop and the internet.
There is Lots of Variety When it Comes to the Products You Want to Sell: There is a drop ship supplier for almost anything that you would like to sell! You can rely on one great product, sell several products at once or mix it up; it’s all up to you. Find your niche and there is bound to be a supplier that caters to it.
More Time & Resources to Scale Your Business: In traditional retail business models, if you want more profits you have to do more work and invest that much more of your resource pool. With dropshipping all you have to do is send more orders to your dropship supplier and then let them handle everything else while you earn the profit and are left with more time to develop your business plans and scale!
Reduced Losses on Damaged Goods: Since the shipment goes directly from the supplier to the customer, there are fewer shipment steps involved which drastically reduces the risk of damaged items while moving from one physical space to another.

Cons of Dropshipping

Just like everything in life, there are some disadvantages that come along with the many advantages of dropshipping. Here are a few cons to the dropship business model:

Slightly Lower Profit Margins Comparison to Wholesaling or Manufacturing: Depending on your niche, location, or requirements, suppliers and vendors will charge you higher prices for dropshipping products, which does eat into your profit margins.
Complete Liability When Something Goes Wrong: Since the customer is purchasing the product from the retailer’s website, if the supplier messes something up, it’s still the retailer’s fault as the brand is the face of the retail process. This is one of the reasons why it is incredibly important to choose the right supplier.
The Brand has a Significantly Lower Level of Control: Customer satisfaction is often linked to the details — personalized packaging and branding of the shipped products, freebies, and notes accompanying the order — it’s almost always the smaller things that count. Unfortunately, the dropshipping model seldom affords retailers the opportunity to control how their brand is presented during the delivery and fulfillment process as the supplier is the one who ships the products. However, there are some suppliers who may be willing to go that extra mile — be advised, it may cost you though.
Certain Issues May Arise Due to Complexities with Shipping: selling multiple products may seem like a good way to drive up sales and make a substantial profit, but this could actually be counter-intuitive if the retailer has multiple suppliers for these products. Different suppliers will charge different shipping costs depending on factors like location, type of products, etc. If a customer orders multiple products which ship from different suppliers, the retailer will have to work out and pay the shipping costs separately. Transferring these varying shipping costs to the customer may negatively affect conversion rates, thus, in turn, impact the profit margins.
Level of Competition is Relatively High: The attractiveness and popularity of the dropshipping business model means more and more retailers in every segment and niche. Unless a retailer is catering to an extremely specific segment or niche, the competition could possibly be detrimental.
Managing the Inventory Can be Tricky: keeping track of the stock of the supplier is nearly impossible. Miscommunications can cause issues such as cancellations and having to place orders on backorder. This aspect can, of course, be managed with software these days but those too come at a price and may increase your overhead and fixed costs

How Viable & Profitable is Dropshipping?

Typically, the profit margins for dropshipping can range from 15%-45%. However, the profit margins for consumer durables and luxury items (for example, electronics, jewelry, etc.) can yield a profit margin of up to 100%. It’s about finding the right niche and supplier while entering a market that isn’t already overly saturated. A good way to ensure higher margins can be to source directly from a manufacturer instead of a vendor/supplier, thus effectively cutting out the middleman.

Once the business is off the ground and gains a little traction, it can quickly turn into a money-making machine that only requires minimum input. Successful dropshipping businesses such as that of Irwin Dominguez, an accountant turned ecommerce entrepreneur, have made USD $1 million in sales in just 8 months of launching the online business! This won’t be the case for every dropshipping business, but the potential exists.

Bonus: Check out these case studies about starting a dropshipping business from scratch:

Aren’t Drop Ship Manufacturers, Wholesalers & Aggregators the Same?

No.

Even though these terms are often used interchangeably in the ecommerce world, they aren’t the same. Let’s clear up the confusion:

A manufacturer is someone who actually produces the products themselves. They may or may not have a dropshipping program, but the retailer is lucky if they do as it removes the hassle and inflated costs of the middle man, giving the retailer the best possible prices. These reduced costs translate to larger profit margins.
A dropshipping wholesaler/supplier is someone who purchases one type of product from the manufacturer in bulk and helps to package and ship it to buyers online through the retailer’s ecommerce businesses.
A dropshipping aggregator, on the other hand, is someone who buys different products from multiple manufacturers to provide the retailer with a variety of products to sell. Several disadvantages of drop shipping can be solved when an aggregator is used — no multiple wholesaler shipping costs, less time sending out multiple orders to multiple vendors (therefore preventing a mix-up and delay in the orders and shipment) — however, do bear in mind that aggregators take a higher cut which could adversely affect your profit margins.

Who is Dropshipping For?

Dropshipping is a pretty great business model for a first-timer who is just dipping their toes into the online business world. It’s attractive to a novice as it’s a low-risk and low-investment way of starting your own business, thus, doesn’t feel like so much of a gamble.

Since the amount of capital that needs to be invested into this business model is minimum, it is also ideal for someone who is already a store owner with an inventory but is looking to try out particular products in the market to see how well it does before stocking up on it. If you’re interested in learning more about this, check out our How to Test Product Ideas with Dropshipping When You Don’t Dropship post.

For someone who is expecting amazing margins right off the bat, this business model may be disappointing. If profit is your primary interest then you’d be better off going straight to the source — such as the manufacturers — but manufacturers don’t always facilitate dropshipping. Since dropshipping profit margins are also considerably lower in comparison to other business models such as manufacturing and wholesaling, dropshipping would perhaps not bode well with a brand that is a new startup, as the business doesn’t have the ultimate control when it comes to customer satisfaction through branding and brand experience.

There are a few types of entrepreneurs that the drop-shipping model will work well for. Let’s take a look at some of them:

Validating Entrepreneur: Dropshipping can be a great way to test new products, or even a new startup, before investing heavily into inventory that may not sell, making this the perfect business model for the entrepreneur that requires a high level of business and product validation before investment.
Budget Entrepreneur: Drop shipping is definitely the least expensive method of selling online because you don’t have to purchase any inventory upfront. Because of this, the drop shipping method works well for entrepreneurs who have a limited budget or would prefer to keep startup costs as low as possible.
First Time Entrepreneur: The drop shipping model for selling online also is a good business model for someone just starting out selling online. The fact is, selling online isn’t easy. Driving traffic and converting that traffic for the average marketer can take a long time to figure out and optimize. Because of the low costs associated with starting a drop shipping business, it allows new entrepreneurs to start to learn the ropes of setting up a store, driving traffic, and conversion optimization before investing thousands (or more) in inventory that you may get stuck with.
Walmart Entrepreneur: Drop shipping is also for the person that wants to sell a wide variety of products and models. Depending on what the price range is of the products you intend to sell, or if you want to sell hundreds or thousands of different products, it’s nearly impossible without massive funding to acquire all that inventory. In this case, dropshipping would be the appropriate model because, again, you don’t need to purchase inventory upfront.

Who Isn’t Drop Shipping For?

There are also a few types of entrepreneurs that dropshipping isn’t for:

Brand-Centric Entrepreneur: Building a long-term sustainable brand is difficult but the rewards can be incredibly worthwhile. However, building a brand while utilizing the drop shipping business model is exponentially more difficult as there are so many elements of the entire customer experience that you won’t be able to control. For example, many times you may find out that after a customer has purchased something from you it’s sold out with your drop shipper. This leaves you in the uncomfortable and frustrating position of trying to coordinate between your customer and your drop shipper and can become a really poor experience for your customer. Another point to keep in mind is because you’re not shipping the product yourself you don’t have any control over the experience of your customer receiving the package. Almost 100% of the of time it’s going to be the product in a big brown box with packing peanuts. You need to ask yourself if that’s the experience you want your customers to have. Finally, because you don’t ship the products yourself you don’t own the relationship with the shipping companies. When something does go wrong and your customer doesn’t receive the package you can’t simply call UPS and get the situation corrected. You need to coordinate this with a busy account rep which could take days to sort out, again, leaving your customer with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Margin-Focused Entrepreneur: Probably the biggest problem with the dropshipping business model is the razor-thin margins. Generally, for traditional drop shipping products and companies your gross margins (the price you sell it for minus the cost you pay your drop shipper) are around 10-20%. At the end of the day when you pay your credit card transaction fees, shipping cart, email service, and other app fees you will be looking at only a few percent. There is a fair share of online entrepreneurs running 1 million dollar revenue per year drop shipping businesses that at the end of the day are making a 40-50k profit.
Non-Creative Marketers: Most manufacturers (which can also be drop shippers of their own products) have sales goals in which 30% of the sales need to come from direct-to-consumer sales, usually through their own ecommerce site. This means that if you’re selling their products, you will be competing directly with your own supplier, a supplier that is able to have much higher margins than you on the very same products. Any chance of competing head-to-head against them is pointless. They will almost always win because they can afford to. If you’re going to beat your own supplier you need to be creative and find and exploit channels they aren’t using to acquire customers. If your only ideas are to use Google Ads and Facebook Ads, you’re likely out of luck.

Finding the Perfect Dropshipping Products to Sell

Criteria to Choose the Best Dropshipping Products

To have a successful ecommerce business, you have to find the right products to sell. But when it comes to dropshipping, finding the right product is possibly the most important aspect of your business.

There is almost no way to ascertain which products are completely “perfect” for the dropshipping business model, however, having a shortlist of product ideas that you are sure will sell (based on hard facts, figures, and research) is a good way to start determining the products that you will end up selling.

Here are a set of criteria that can help decide whether a product is suitable for dropshipping:

The Retail Price: When it comes to dropshipping, the retail price and the wholesale price are crucial. It’s all about hitting the sweet spot with the way you price your products: Low prices may encourage a larger number of sales but you’ll make a smaller profit margin per product, while higher-priced items might sell less but you’ll be able to make more profit per item. Find the balance that works for you and your customer’s expectations. As we mentioned earlier, profit margins for dropshipping can be between 15%-45% and that’s what you as the retailer should likely aim at. This typically means that pricing items between $50 to $100 is optimal, depending on the product.
Size & Weight: Packaging and shipping costs vary between different products based on how much packaging material is required and the effort (manual effort or machine effort) required to ship the product. In that sense, having smaller and lighter items are the cheapest to drop ship and give you the largest profit margin. Larger products can be drop-shipped with a relatively large profit margin too, but starting out smaller is the best way to go.
Cross-Selling Products: Selling sets of related products is a great way to give more value to your customers and encourage them to purchase more every time they make an order. Consider which products you can sell together that serve a related niche. For example, if you drop ship easels it may make sense for you to drop ship canvases, paintbrushes, and other art supplies, too. If you choose to go this route, consider how you can strategically price your products to make the sale worth just as much value for you as well as your customer. You might choose to sell your main product at a lower profit margin (say, 10-15%) to encourage your customers to buy it, but then make up for lost profit by cross-selling other accessories and components for the main product at a larger markup (such as 100%).
Durability: If the products and goods you sell are either disposable and/or renewable, there is a higher chance that your customers will place repeat orders, thus driving up your sales. Many retailers set up subscription options for their customers which ensures that there are always repeat purchases. You can make this an even more attractive offer for your customers by providing a discount for subscribers to your service.
Turn-Over Rate: Consider the turnover rate of the products that you are selling (the rate at which the product is changed, updated, discounted, etc.). As a retailer with an online store, a lot of your business will come from the product photography and the copy/content that you publish about the products. These are time-consuming and will potentially cost you too. Therefore if you sell products that keep changing in short spans of time, you will have to keep switching up the content which would be a constant re-investment of time and money — with the added stress of actually updating everything physically. Learn more about how to take great product photos, create a beautiful product page, and how to write great product descriptions.

Note: Evaluate your dropshipping product idea in greater detail with our Instant Product Evaluator tool! With this tool, you’ll evaluate your product idea against 18 of the most critical criteria to learn more about your product’s potential strengths and weaknesses.

Dropshipping Mistakes to Avoid

Common mistakes that should be avoided when picking a product for dropshipping:

Do Not Base Your Choice of Product on What Your Likes & Dislikes Are: Always base your product decision on facts, research, due diligence, and evaluating and validating the market’s demand.
Do Not Sell Knock-Offs or “True Copies”: Not only is this a cheap gimmick that won’t necessarily get you anywhere with customers, but it is also illegal in most countries! Stay away from these types of products so you can avoid the hassle or ensure that you dropship products from reliable and official merchandisers only.
Don’t Just Hop Onto the Bandwagon: “If everyone is selling it, I should too,” isn’t always the right reason to pick a product. The market for trending products is typically very saturated so there will be high levels of competition. If trending products are something you want to pursue then make sure to conduct thorough research into the rise and fall of the trend so you know what to expect from consumer interests. Check out a tool like Google Trends to help evaluate trends.

Know Your Target Market & Niche

Ensuring that you do your market research well will set a solid foundation for your business. Here are some tips to help you know your target market and niche better:

Step One: The first and foremost step is to measure the current demand for your product. Use the KWFinder tool to find out how your product’s keyword is ranking on a monthly basis — this will give you an idea of how many people are searching for your product in search engines like Google every month, and it will give you a general idea of what the demand is like for your product. Ideally, you want to find keywords with monthly searches in the thousands if you plan on building a business around it, but if your product serves an emerging market then there may not be any people searching for it yet. To learn more about keyword research and how it can help you build your business successfully, check our Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research and if you want to learn more about the KWFinder tool, check out our KWFinder Review.
Step Two: The second step is to understand how seasonality may impact your customer’s purchasing patterns. Certain products are only seasonal commodities while others will do well year-round, but how do you figure out the difference between the two? Guesswork may be futile and unnecessary when you can just use Google Trends. This tool gives the user a graphical analysis of the peak search seasons for any given product (or keyword) over a vast amount of time. Forecasting trends can help you prepare for dips or spikes in sales throughout the year and ensure that you aren’t caught off guard.
Step Three: The third step is to scope out your competition and observe how they engage with the market. Search out your competitor’s websites, social media platforms, or their presence on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay and pay close attention to the number of ratings, reviews, comments, and overall engagement that they receive and what their customers are saying. See if you can find any opportunities where your competitors aren’t meeting the market’s expectations so you can go ahead and close that gap.

Facts to Consider About Your Target Market

Factors that you should look at when analyzing your target market, include:

Demographics: The demographics such as the physical/geographic location, income bracket, etc. of your audience is important to understand in order to know how big your audience is, where the majority of them are and how you can cater your dropshipping products to them.
Gender: Statistically, men and women shop differently and have different spending and purchasing patterns when it comes to dropshipped goods or just products in general. While the gender of your potential target market may not be the most important aspect to know, it still may be worth looking into. The kind of device they use to shop, the kind of content that works for them (testimonials, product descriptions, etc.), the kind of language that would prompt customer conversion — all these are factors that may be influenced by gender, too.
Age Range: Being able to understand the spending patterns and purchasing patterns of different age groups can be incredibly useful. Millennials (individuals born between 1980-2000) are proven to fall in a lower income bracket and statistically spend less, thus drop shipping expensive products that specifically target the age range of young adults may not be completely advisable. The same goes for the 60+ bracket as they typically aren’t comfortable with purchasing products, dropshipped or not, over the internet.
Type of Institution: Are you selling your products directly to customers, other businesses, or government organizations? Whether you’re selling your drop shipped goods Business-to-Consumers (B2C), Business-to-Business (B2B), or Business-to-Government (B2G) will impact many aspects of your business such as who exactly your customers are, what quantity of products they purchase from you, their main goal for purchasing your products, how you market your products to them and more. Typically when you’re dropshipping the most common market you’ll be selling to is direct-to-consumer (DTC), so consider how that will impact your business overall.

Knowing Your Competition

In order to beat the competition, you need to know the competition. If the product you want to sell has established sellers already, it’s actually a good sign. However, if there are too many sellers in that space, it could pose a problem for your business to stand out amongst all the other businesses.

In order to scope out the competition, you could use these tactics:

Use Online Tools to Scope Out Your Competition’s Website: Online site explorers such as SEMrush allow you to check the ranking and domain authority of any website of your choice using only a URL. This helps you paint a good picture of how much of their traffic is directed from keywords and other links, and where exactly it’s coming from. This, along with scoping out their website personally, should give you a well-rounded insight into the workings of their website which you can base on facts and figures. Learn more about SEMrush here in our SEMrush Review.
Order Products from the Competition to Get an Idea of How their Process Works: The way something appears online can pretty obviously be different in real life. Ordering from the competition can give you an idea of the quirks that set them apart, negative aspects about their brand experience, and perhaps even ideas and tips for your own business. That being said, don’t necessarily copy some or the whole of their shopping and shipping process, simply observe any of their flaws so that you can work to improve them for your own customer experience.
Analyze their Social Media Channels: Your competitor’s social media channels are an amazing way to get direct customer feedback about their business and also gives you a good base to analyze their marketing strategy from. Check the kind of engagement their brand has and the flaws that you could possibly work on for your brand. Pitting your own content against theirs can also become easier when you know what kind of content and at which scale they produce it at.

Finding the Right Products to Dropship

Once you know what product you’re interested in dropshipping, you have to find out where to actually source that product from.

Start this process by creating a list, preferably a spreadsheet (use Google Sheets or Airtable) with names and sources so that you aren’t losing track of where you found a product. This spreadsheet/list can also serve as a database for reference in the future.

Do not underestimate the power of a simple Google search. Search for your potential product in Google and watch autocomplete do its magic. Most autocomplete suggestions are popular keywords that are based on what other search engine users (such as your potential customers or suppliers) are looking for. You can even hone into these autocomplete results to give direction to your brand strategy as you can find correlating terms, etc. Furthermore, the Google search results will also yield a list of “related searches,” which are essentially similar keywords that are high-volume search phrases.

Another unique way of basing your product choice on consumer demand is to check out product forums and review sites. Look for comments that are looking for certain types of products or are raving about it — then supply them. The review sites can also act as a ranking parameter as the more popular products will rank higher which means a better chance at making more sales on that particular good. Check out these product-related Reddit threads to get a better understanding of consumer thoughts and demand, and check out popular product review blogs such as Uncrate, AcquireMag and Bless This Stuff or trend publications such as PSFK, Cool Hunting, and The Cool Hunter. Find a more complete list of these resources in our definitive guide to selling trending products online.

Here are a few products that have been extremely popular in the past and have been specifically trending this year:

Notebook, Planner & Journals
Customized Phone Cases
Customized T-Shirts
Jewelry
Pet Products
Swimwear
Stickers
Watches
Tea/Coffee
Phone Accessories
Camping Gear
Healthy/Super Foods
Gym and Fitness Equipment
Baby Products
Skincare Products
Customized Mugs

A lot of these products can be related to pop culture and trends in the media which influence buyers, so this is not a definitive list of what works and what doesn’t — just the most popular selling items over the past year. Once you can understand trends in the media, it may benefit you as a business owner to forecast product trends, too.

Finding the Right Dropshipping Supplier

The entire drop shipping model is based on the supplier doing their job well and fulfilling orders punctually and efficiently. Therefore it goes without saying that choosing the right supplier is one of, if not the most important step towards setting up a successful brand. If your supplier/vendor messes up an order, you and your business are responsible, so the key is to find someone who sticks to the plan and is open to communicating any issues.

Here are a few factors to keep in mind when choosing a dropship supplier:

Find an Experienced Dropshipper with Helpful Sales Representatives: Nothing beats experience. A drop shipper who knows the pitfalls of drop shipping and how to handle them efficiently, coupled with a sales rep who can answer any queries to put your mind at ease, will make a good team and definitely reflect positively on your business.
Find a Dropshipper who Provides Top-Notch, High-Quality Products: High-quality products yield a higher level of customer satisfaction which means a lower rate of returned items and dissatisfied customers. Product reviews and testimonials can go a long way to boost business, therefore having a good quality product is imperative.
Find a Dropshipper who has Technological Abilities: When choosing your drop shipper, make sure that they have the technological capabilities to keep up with the times. If you need to scale your business, it would be a shame if you had to break a great business partnership with your drop shipper just because they wouldn’t be able to keep up with your growth.
Find a Dropshipper who is Punctual & Efficient with the Shipping Process: Drop shippers who ship products within a 24-48 hour period are a great way to ensure happy customers. Due to the competitiveness of the market, long shipping times can be unattractive to your customers. It would be advisable to place test orders with your supplier to see how the process works and get a better idea before you make an informed decision.

As simple as it may sound, Google is your best bet when looking for dropship suppliers. Several startup incubators and websites dedicated to ecommerce, that pop up as search results, will have complete directories of drop shippers and their contact information. Once you’ve obtained contact details for dropshipping suppliers who provide the products you’re interested in selling, send them a short but polite email asking some relevant questions. This way you’ll be able to gauge how quickly they respond and how helpful their sales reps are.

Bonus: Check out our Drop Shipping Suppliers Directory for a curated list of vetted drop shippers, including contact information, website URL, and what products they specialize in dropshipping. Also, check out our article of the 10 Best Shopify Dropshipping Apps to Help You Acquire Inventory for Your Business to find reputable drop shippers that integrate directly with your Shopify store.

It’s not always possible to know whether you and your suppliers will be a great fit right off the bat, however, it is possible to ask specific questions that will make the vetting process more efficient.

A few of the questions you ask in your first email could include some, but not all, of the following (try to stick to 3 questions in the first email so it’s not too overwhelming for the supplier):

Do you manufacture customized items if required?
What are your pricing terms and are they negotiable?
Are there any other additional costs besides the direct costs? (Always make sure there are no other hidden costs)
Do you have a return policy?
Are you also a retailer/direct seller?
What kind of profit margin can I expect?
Will the prices ever fluctuate?
Do the products come with a warranty or guarantee?
Do you have a dedicated rep that will answer any of my questions that may arise?
Do you have and use a data feed?

The point is to make sure that the supplier doesn’t take advantage of you because these questions prove that you have done your homework. The last thing you want is to not be taken seriously because you are considered a newbie. The retailer-supplier relation is a long-term one, thus needs a certain amount of commitment to it.

That being said, there are many dropshipping scams out there, too. In order to safeguard yourself and your business from them, you need to keep an eye out for any red flags. For instance, if a dropshipper does not accept checks or credit and asks for only bank transfers, it may be a warning sign.

Scammers will also avoid using an address on their business correspondence, website, etc. Any supplier that is working legally is required to display an address. Furthermore, many scams also involve the age-old “membership fees” and while this may not always be a scam, it’s advisable to conduct thorough research and do your own due diligence!

You can obviously take some measures to avoid being the victim of such scams and frauds:

Use online tools to check the age of a domain: This will help you cross-check the facts with what the supplier claims. A newer domain could indicate a scam, especially if it doesn’t match their answers. Besides, as discussed before, checking the domain age can also help establish how experienced the supplier is online.
Check reviews about the particular supplier online: Chances are if someone has been scammed by the supplier before the victim might have put out a warning message/negative review.
The supplier’s business should be registered and the address of their warehouse/office should ideally be listed as a place of business or commercial space. Getting “residential” space results online may be a bad indicator.
If you are still unsure, you could always contact the manufacturer directly to cross-check any facts. Just be wary about the fact that if it’s a big scam, the supposed “manufacturer” might be in on it too.

Asking the right questions, taking the required precautions, and doing your research should help you find the right supplier that fits your business! Once such major aspects are dealt with, you can focus on setting up a system for running your day-to-day operations as smoothly as possible.

Bonus: There are lots of great tips to help you safeguard yourself from scam suppliers in our Ultimate Guide to Safely Sourcing Your Product From Alibaba article, as well as additional information on how to successfully contact a potential supplier.

Running Your Drop Shipping Business

So you’ve done your research, you’ve managed to settle on the perfect products to dropship and have roped in the best supplier possible. You’re all set to start dropshipping goods and making that mullah! However, setting up the business is usually one thing, but running it on a day-to-day basis is a completely different ball game. There are various different aspects of running a business, even if it’s a dropshipping business, that you as the retailer have to consider: Marketing, refunds, returns, replacements, inventory, fulfillment, customer support, and more. So dive into these various aspects of running a dropshipping business.

Marketing Your Drop Shipping Business

How will you sell your products if no one knows about them or your brand? Why should anyone online trust you — a stranger? That’s the magic of marketing; it can make even strangers trust you enough to hand over their hard-earned money to you, willingly.

Marketing is a subjective field and there are a billion tactics that can be used to effectively position your brand while driving your brand’s awareness and sales up. If your strategy is well planned, it can help you weed out the rest of the competition too.

Social Media for Your Drop Shipping Business

One of the most effective ways to promote, advertise, acquire customers and distribute content is through social media, so it comes as no surprise when social platforms are also used for digital marketing. Facebook, for example, has over 1.7 billion active users from different walks of life and it is this variety that makes it so attractive to digital marketers.

One thing to remember is that content is key. No matter how big a platform is or how amazing the product that you are selling is, it means nothing without great content backing it up.

Customer Ratings and Reviews of Your Dropshipping Business

In the dropshipping business model, a few bad customer reviews can literally ruin a business. Think about it: When you shop online from websites such as Amazon and eBay, one of the deciding purchasing factors can be the product rating and what other customers have to say about it — it’s the same case with drop shipping too. A few great reviews can also give you that edge over the competition and that’s what’s going to help you successfully convert visitors to your website.

A surefire way to get great customer reviews is by following through on amazing customer experience: Short shipping times, high-quality products, excellent customer service, and asking for feedback to improve in the future. You can also use customer feedback as testimonials for your website and social media, which can also help you successfully convert more customers.

Email Marketing for Your Dropshipping Business

This is one of the most underrated tools in a digital marketer’s kit. Email marketing can be used to keep your customers in the loop about any major changes in the company: Price changes, sales, discounts, product-related content, and industry-specific content are just some ways that email marketing can be used.

These days, software such as Klaviyo and CM Commerce take the hassle out of sending out emails to your audience by automating some of the processes, creating and saving templates, and producing reports and analytics.

PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click Ads) for Your Dropshipping Business

As mentioned earlier, several social media channels allow pay-per-click advertising, for example, Facebook Ads. This is a typical digital marketing move that trades money for traffic to the ad buyer’s website. Google Ads is another very popular platform for digital advertising and is attractive due to the Google Analytics tool that can help marketers create reports with facts and figures with ease.

Growth Hacking for Your Dropshipping Business

Growth hacking is an inexpensive, yet highly effective way of getting creative marketing campaigns online. A few examples of growth hacking include retargeting old campaigns and appearing as a guest blogger for a popular website in your particular niche. Essentially most of this involves content marketing.

Refunds, Returns & Replacements for Dropshipped Products

As an online business owner, dealing with refunds, returns and replacements is inevitable. Initially, this may seem discouraging however it’s just part and parcel of running an online store. 100% customer satisfaction is a myth no matter how hard you try.

The process for refunding dropshipped products is as follows:

The customer will place an order for the refund with your business, either through email or over the phone.
You are then required to ask the supplier for a return merchandise authorization number.
Once the customer mails the product back to the supplier the supplier will refund the wholesale amount to your account, after which you can initiate the refund of the retail price for the product to the customer.

Even though this process may seem tedious, if the customer is returning a product within the time period stated in the supplier’s return policy, there should not be a problem. The only minor inconvenience that you may face is if the supplier charges a restocking fee, which you as the retailer will have to bear the cost of. In actuality, this should not be a major loss but rather just a minor inconvenience that comes as a side effect of owning an online business.

Important: While this might be a general returns & refunds procedure that many dropshipping suppliers operate by, it does not mean that all dropshipping suppliers operate by this system. It’s important that you ask your dropshipping supplier how they handle returns & refunds so you know how to handle them and can communicate the process clearly to your customers.

Defective Dropshipping Products

Defective items can be slightly trickier: Even if the customer is returning a defective product, someone will still have to incur the cost of returning the product. However, if the cost does land upon you, it would be unwise to transfer the cost onto the customer at the risk of losing or alienating them. It’s not your customer’s fault if you sold them a defective product, so it seems unfair to expect them to incur the cost of returning the product.

What Do You Do When it’s the Supplier’s Fault?

If the supplier messes up the order, they are usually willing to either reimburse the customer or replace the product for free. Most of the time it comes down to communicating what you expect from the supplier if they do mess up an order. In most cases, it is best to communicate over email as it also serves as a written record of conversations.

In cases where a mix-up has caused your company a large loss and the supplier refuses to pay you back taking legal action is always a viable option — this should only be kept as the last resort in extreme cases.

Handling Dropshipping Inventory

With the dropshipping business model, even though you don’t personally maintain any inventory, as a retailer you may still be required to manage inventory orders if your orders are not forwarded automatically to your dropshipping supplier. This process can be time-consuming and tedious, but there is now inventory management software available online and many drop shippers will have an app you can connect directly to your Shopify store so you can automatically forward your orders.

What to Do When Dropshipping Products are Out of Stock

If a customer has placed an order and the product is out of stock simply put the product on backorder in the supplier’s inventory and communicate to the customer that you will not be able to fulfill the order right away. Give them the option of waiting until the product is in stock again or for a full refund. The key is to communicate with your customers clearly on whether the product will be available anytime soon. If you aren’t absolutely sure, take a calculated guess and let them know the same. Honesty and communication with your customer is the best policy in this situation.

Drop Shipping & Fulfillment

The dropship fulfillment process is heavily dependent on your level of involvement: Do you want to automate it or not? Certain aspects will be automated such as the receipt of purchase, shipping information, etc.

If you have multiple suppliers, the fulfillment process will include sending all your orders to the appropriate supplier via email. The best supplier for each product and customer will rely on the location, cost of shipping, and availability. These processes can be automated at varying degrees.

Dropshipping Problems to Avoid

Even though we discussed scams on the dropshipping supplier’s end, fraudulent activities are not just limited to them. While running an online store, it may be common to come across fraudulent dropship orders from fraudulent customers.

One way of telling these fraudulent orders apart from the genuine ones is when the shipping address and billing address are different. Sometimes even the name on either address will differ. These could be clear indicators of credit card fraud.

Customer Support for Your Dropshipping Business

Providing good customer support can determine how well your dropshipping business does. Due to how competitive the drop shipping industry is, if a brand has a good customer support system it can do wonders for the company.

Here are the most widely used and popular types of customer support in the ecommerce industry:

Phone Support: Having a phone customer support system is one of the quickest and most efficient ways of connecting directly with the customer. Not only is it easier to defuse tricky situations, but it is also the fastest way to get feedback from the customer. Google offers tools like Google Voice which lets you set up a free number that routes calls to any number specified by you. A similar alternative is OpenPhone, which is specifically made for ecommerce businesses.
Email Support: While the telephone is a popular method of customer support, email is more likely to be your primary method of providing support. It is advisable to set up domain emails for your website (example: hello@yourdomain.com). Not only is this professional but this also establishes your brand as a legitimate entity in the mind of your customers. Help Scout is an excellent email support software as is Gorgias if you’re using the Shopify ecommerce platform.
Social Media Support: Customers turn to social media pages of brands sometimes even before contacting the brand itself. This is because social media is a public forum and more often than not customers will already find the answers to their questions there. A good customer support representative on social media will be sure to engage with the audience even if the feedback is negative. This can help establish good faith between a customer and the brand.
Live Chat Support: Several brands are incorporating live chats on their websites as part of their customer service and support systems. This method is gaining popularity because it is as quick as a phone call, yet less intimidating than posting queries on a public forum. If you don’t want to invest in this yet, you can just use social media such as Facebook Messenger, or the direct message services on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Live chat customer support may not be the best way to go if your business is still limited to one person and can be worth exploring when your business scales. Check out Gorgias as well to launch live chat on your Shopify store.

Growing Your Dropshipping Business

Once you have running a business down to a science it’s only a matter of time until your company really starts to take off. Scaling your online store can be exciting, but there are a few things that you should keep in mind. The key point to remember is that scaling does not mean double the hours of work for more profits, but on the contrary, it implies being able to drive the sales number up even more with lesser time invested — through efficiency and allocating resources smartly.

While scaling the business does not necessarily mean bringing on more employees or contractors, it does seem like the most natural progression. It can be a challenging experience to trust others with your brand but once you do find the right people who match your own wavelength, it can be a rewarding step too.

Firstly, draw up a list of tasks that you can probably outsource and another that needs a more specific approach to them. This list will help you identify the tasks that are monotonous and do not necessarily require your direct input. You can redirect your resources to working out better business strategies, creating and strengthen your relationship with your suppliers and work towards making better marketing decisions.

Hire an Assistant

There are two ways you could go about this, depending on how location-dependent you want or need to be. You could either hire someone you know and work together with every day at a small office/coworking space or maybe even from home. The alternative to that is to hire a VA, commonly known as a Virtual Assistant.

The most attractive quality of hiring a VA is that the person does not even need to be on the same continent to be able to successfully do the job — as long as they have access to a laptop, phone, and the internet, while speaking at least one of the languages that you conduct business in, you are good to go.

This means if you find that assistants/VAs in your vicinity are charging extortionist rates, you could outsource the work to someone else who is location independent, perhaps somewhere in Asia or Eastern Europe, who will do the same job at a much more reasonable price. A few responsibilities that can be given to the assistant, are:

Social Media Marketing and Management
Customer Support and Services
Graphic Design and Content Writing/Copywriting
SEO/SEM
Maintaining the Website
Managing the Inventory Orders

Create a process flow and outline of each job to ensure that anyone you hire can understand how your particular system works for your dropshipping business.

You can list potential openings for VAs on several different remote job sites and on groups for digital nomads. There is almost always someone who knows someone who might be perfect for the job. Most remote working/digital nomad communities are very helpful and often collaborate with each other. Just make sure that the job description is well written so that the person applying can have a comprehensive understanding of what the job entails — use the process flow you created for this part.

Check out these resources to hire virtual assistants:

There are several templates for job descriptions online but here is one that can be altered per your requirements:

“Hey there,

We’re looking for a proactive virtual assistant to help run and manage [insert what you need help with here] at [insert your dropshipping business name here].

Your weekly tasks will include:

– [Task one]
– [Task two]
– [Task three]

You should have in-depth knowledge of [enter skills here], be comfortable using software/s such as [insert tools here] and be fluent in English (verbal and written) [+ any other languages if required].

In the first line of your application, please tell us what your favorite hobby is. If you don’t respond to this request, we’ll assume that you haven’t read the job description and won’t consider you.

Looking forward to hearing from you!”

Such templates can be used for job listing websites, forums, social media, and even for print.

In order to pick the right person as your VA, conduct a thorough interview over Skype and in person, if possible. Make sure that you have gone through their application and ensure that they have all the attributes required. Based on how much time you would have to train them, you can tell how well they would fit with your business. Shortlist at least 2-5 people so that you have some reliable backups if your original candidate doesn’t cut it.

Training your chosen VA can be a two-way knowledge highway. Not only are you teaching them, but can also stand to learn from their previous experiences, inside and outside the industry.

Supply tools to them (such as this guide) and other video material that is easily available, and then discuss how they can implement what they’ve learned. This material can also double as a refresher course in case they forget certain aspects of the job. Give constructive feedback on their work and praise them when they do a good job! It’s about creating lasting work relationships.

Scaling Through Multi-Channels

As your business grows, it would make sense that you would want to sell through multiple channels, namely Amazon, eBay, Shopify, etc. so that you can access a larger market. The problem with this is that you may list the same product from the same supplier on two different sites and get two different customer orders. It’s well and fine if the product is in stock, however, it may be problematic if that isn’t the case. Once backorders start piling up and shipments start getting delayed, customers often become unhappy.

This is in no way supposed to discourage anyone who wants to scale their online business through multiple channels, but rather serve as a reminder that it is important to strategically plan these things beforehand. A good way to handle this issue could be to get a virtual assistant as mentioned before and have inventory management software at hand.

Building Your Own Online Dropshipping Store

While using other online marketplaces can only get you so far, the key to truly growing and scaling your business is to have your own online store. Having your own store ensures but you have the most control over your customer experience and brand positioning. This also means that you will incur lower fees but gain higher profits.

There are several online store builders, such as Shopify, that can help create your web store — it comes with various different templates to choose from and all you have to do is add your products. To learn more about Shopify and the features and services they offer ecommerce entrepreneurs, check out our Shopify Review.

Utilizing Your Email List to the Maximum

Building a good email list is all about having recipients who are highly targeted and constantly engaged. When you do have a strong email list it can end up being one of the single most important marketing assets that you own. Strong email lists are closely related to owning your own store (Shopify) instead of using a marketplace (Amazon, eBay, or Etsy). With an email list, you have direct access to your customers — you don’t have to hope that they’re online and scrolling down their newsfeeds to see your posts, you don’t have to pay to get your emails into their inboxes, and you don’t have to compete with other sellers in your emails. Emails are one of the most direct ways to engage with your audience.

Building an email list isn’t too complicated. All you have to do is get your site visitors to give their email to you (try tools like Sumo or Privy that offer many different email capture strategies) and then send out email newsletters through a service such as Klaviyo or CM Commerce.

Marketing and Advertising

Merely increasing your marketing spend is not the best way to scale your dropshipping business. It’s not how much money you spend but how you spend your money that matters.

Allocating resources to pay-per-click advertising is a smarter move for the dropshipping business model. You can buy PPC ads on almost every social media platform possible from Facebook to Instagram to Twitter and Pinterest.

While PPC ads might seem straightforward, it can be tricky to know where to invest your money. You don’t want to be investing in the wrong kind of ads only to realize that they aren’t bringing in the traffic that you need or want. Like with everything else: Do your research, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising online.

Example of a Successful Drop Shipping Business

As mentioned earlier in this guide, Irwin Dominguez, an accountant turned ecommerce entrepreneur, has been one of the greatest success stories for dropshipping in recent times. Within just 8 months of establishing his drop shipping business, Irwin was already earning over 1 million US dollars in sales. Reaching a sales record of up to $30,000, he says, was his goal, and he wasn’t aiming to live luxuriously, just to be able to provide for his family.

Here is an excerpt from his interview with Oberlo:

When asked about how he got started and what his top recommendations are for anybody who is interested in drop shipping, he said:

“I literally just opened a Shopify account, created my store, added a few drop shipped products with Oberlo, and that’s it. I didn’t do a lot of reading or researching because I always try to learn by doing. Dropshipping ecommerce success requires very little capital and allows you to experiment a lot. This is what I love about it the most.

I do have to admit, though, that I Google a lot of questions that come up as I’m learning by doing….
…If I started ecommerce all over again, I would start sooner. I waited a full month-and-a-half after my good friend told me about his ecommerce success. It costs no money to launch a store and it’s so “simple” to get started with all the technology available right now — just get started, you literally have nothing to lose.

Opportunity, yes — I wish I started this sooner because if I were doing this even just one year earlier, there would’ve been a lot less competition; I would’ve made a lot more money; and I could have established myself in other niches. But overall, there are still plenty of opportunities — you just have to be a little more creative with marketing.”

Additional Drop Shipping Resources

How To Start A Drop Ship Business Video

Bonus: Check out our article on Finding Drop Shipping Companies or purchase our Premium Drop Shipping Suppliers Directory that includes a curated list of vetted dropshipping suppliers. Also, don’t forget to check out these blog posts: How To Start A Drop Ship T-Shirt Business In 24 Hours and 72 Hour Drop Shipping Business for more dropshipping inspiration.

Conclusion

So this concludes our definitive guide to dropshipping. If you have made it here, you now know how to set up and kick start your own dropshipping business. Just like with any other endeavor in life, setting up your own business also requires a certain degree of commitment, effort, and passion to make it work. It’s not just about creating the business but also following through and learning how to run it on a day-to-day basis.

The best part about dropshipping is that you can learn through testing your products and ideas, in real-time and if something doesn’t work all you have to do is remove it from your store. This business model is also a great way of testing out product ideas for traditional business models. Dropshipping provides a safe space to experiment and see what works without incurring any major losses which can definitely give business owners the confidence to say that they have a working knowledge of how the industry functions. No upfront cost and very little risk make the dropshipping business model an exciting business model to venture into.

So experiment with dropshipping your way and let us know how it works out! Share this guide with someone who would find it useful. Do you have any tips and tricks or general advice that could help the ecommerce community? Let us know in the comments down below!

The post What is Dropshipping? Drop Shipping 101 for Beginners (in 2021) appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.

11 Online Business Ideas for Teens: What Can Teens Sell Online?

A Better Lemonade Stand — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 21:06:17 +0000

Entrepreneurship isn’t just for adults. It’s for anyone who has an online store idea and wants to bring it to life. If you’re a teenager with a passion or interest in starting an online business, you absolutely can make it a reality. In this post, we’re sharing some great online business ideas for teens so you can start an online store of your own.

Let’s get into it.

5 Reasons Why Teens Should Start an Online Business

There’s more to be gained from starting a business than just a flexible lifestyle. Navigating the world can be challenging as a teen (and frankly, as an adult too!), and starting your own online business is a truly enriching experience that can boost a teen’s confidence and skills.

You may even unearth hidden talents, all the while putting money in your pocket. Needless to say, this is good news for teens and parents!

That said, here are some of the critical skills and attributes you could develop by starting your own business.

Learn Lessons in Adaptability & Resilience

Failure at some point is inevitable. It’s a frustrating part of life that we have to face head-on. However, we can use how we navigate and recover from our mistakes and disappointments to shape our future selves.

Operating an online business puts opportunities to fail in an entrepreneur’s path, and teens will likely benefit from the practice of handling and bouncing back from failures. Teens will soon learn that not everything goes your way, and it’s okay to fail, try again, fail again, and try once more.

Ultimately, failing helps build resilience and can boost confidence when recovered from it.

Foster Communication Abilities

Communication skills are an essential part of business and life. To be successful as an entrepreneur, one needs to communicate effectively with their customers, suppliers, and followers at large.

This isn’t just verbal communication either; “communication skills” encompass non-verbal communication, collaboration, written communication, and public speaking as well. As you go about running your business, you’ll naturally have to put many of these skills into practice and the practice will benefit you both personally and professionally.

Develop Finance & Accounting Skills

When operating your own business, you’ll need to stay on top of your finances in a variety of different ways. Whether it’s managing cash flow, purchasing inventory upfront, invoicing suppliers, handling your business’ bookkeeping, working with an accountant, etc. there’s a lot to learn — and learning it will provide you with valuable skills.

You don’t need to be an expert by any means, but familiarizing yourself with the basics and getting help from reputable bookkeeping, accounting, tax, and financial experts will benefit you greatly both personally and professionally.

Learn Real-World Skills Not Taught in School

When operating your own online business, you’ll likely learn a lot of things along the way that you may not learn in school like inventory management, customer service, financial management, delegation and outsourcing, marketing, website management and so much more.

Even if your business doesn’t last forever, the skills you learn along the way will. They will also likely make you stand out as a valuable candidate if or when you apply for jobs in the future.

Build Savings for the Future

Even if it’s just a couple hundred dollars per month extra, the profit you earn from your business could benefit your savings goals.

And if you automate your business to the point that you don’t actually have to spend a lot of your time managing it, the passive income you earn could be some of the easiest money you’re making each month! You don’t have to spend a lot of time to earn a decent profit once you get up and running, so make your business work for you and benefit from the return-on-investment you get, not only monetarily but also for your time spent.

These Teens are Already Running their Own Online Businesses

Looking for some inspiration? Look no further! Check out these teens who have turned their passions and ideas into businesses.

Ben Pasternak

One day, Ben Pasternak found himself bored in his biology class. His solution? To build a mobile app.

Yes, it may be an unconventional strategy to mitigate boredom, but it became the catalyst for Pasternak’s success.

Since then, he’s created several successful online projects — most notably, Flogg, the buy-and-sell platform for teens (which ended up flopping), as well as the video chat platform Monkey which raised $200,000 and was eventually sold.

His third startup — food tech company SIMULATE (known for their “NUGGS”) — raised $50 million dollars — and he’s only 21 now!

Langston Whitlock

Langston Whitlock is the co-founder of Safe Trip, a US ride-sharing app that aims to help the homeless and the elderly access medical transport without insurance.

Patients, carers, and health care providers can book medical transportation through the app for emergency and non-emergency use. Users are offered cars, vans, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and ambulances.

Plus, if users do have medical insurance, they can use the app to pay for the service.

Unbelievably, Whitlock co-founded the app when he was 16, and since the app’s conception, it has gained a staggering $2.3 million in funding!

Phoebe Cosgrove

While on furlough during the first Covid-19 lockdown, Phoebe Cosgrove started learning how to sew. A friend asked her to stitch a picture of her pug onto a jumper, which marked the beginning of Cosgrove’s business Pretty Paws.

Cosgrove set up her own marketplace on Etsy, and soon after, her living room became her production line. To gain customers, she uses social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube to share her products and business journey.

Cosgrove is only 19 years old, and her business continues to grow from her efforts!

Ashley Qualls

When she was 14, Ashley Qualls started a website called WhateverLife.com. She provided free MySpace layouts and HTML tutorials while her website was supported entirely by advertising revenue, like Google Ads.

In the first few months of business, she made a massive $70,000, and by age 17 she’d earned her first million.

After that, Qualls was approached by numerous people wanting to buy her company, but she denied every offer. In 2016, she then created the website SickNotDead.com which provides resources to chronically ill individuals.

The Pros & Cons of Starting an Online Business as a Teen

The examples above are proof that it’s possible to start an online business as a teen and be successful at it — whether you run it as a side hustle to your school or work or turn it into your full-time income is up to you!

If you’re an aspiring teenage entrepreneur, keep these pros and cons in mind before you get started.

Pros of Starting a Business as a Teen

Develop new skills
Gain financial management experience
Take on responsibility
Build a customer base
Earn extra cash
Potential to become financially free
Potential for time freedom
Bring your ideas to life
Make mistakes and learn from them
Evolve into a more well-rounded individual
Become a more desirable candidate for hiring managers

Cons of Starting a Business as a Teen

Time-consuming
Need to be responsible
May face learning curves with all the rules and regulations around owning and operating a business
Potential to make mistakes
Most businesses need at least a little bit of money to get started
May face a learning curve managing the finances of a business
Managing customer service inquiries takes time and effort
May require parental/guardian permission if under 18

Note: Check the laws and regulations in your area to understand whether you need parent/guardian permission in order to own or operate a business and open a business bank account. Conduct your own due diligence and consult the relevant authorities in your region for guidance.

Considerations for Parents/Guardians

Teens under 18 may need parent/guardian permission in order to start and run a business, depending on the rules in your region.

If you are a parent or guardian supporting a minor in starting an online business, we urge you to conduct your own due diligence to understand what the rules and regulations are in your area.

In addition to consulting a lawyer and/or accountant, we suggest keeping these things in mind:

How much time will your teen realistically have to dedicate to their business?
What roles will they be responsible for?
What roles will you be responsible for?
Will you assign each other’s roles through a contract?
What level of autonomy will your teen have when it comes to their business, and what actions will they need to check with you first before acting on them?
How will your teen be held accountable for their decisions? Will there be check-ins, meetings with you, reports that they’ll be required to share with you, etc.?
Will there be a procedure for addressing mistakes?
How will you keep tabs on your teen’s business to ensure that all aspects of customer service, order management, bookkeeping, accounting, etc. are being met?

11 Online Business Ideas for Teens

Here are some great online business ideas for teens.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #1: Sell Digital Products

Digital products aren’t just the future anymore.

They’re the here and now.

Consumers are purchasing all types of digital products these days, and since there’s no shipping involved and no actual physical components, they can be pretty easy to make, and that makes them a great product for teens to sell.

The biggest advantages? There’s no inventory to manage, no shipping to handle, no physical products to break during the transportation process, and no supplier delays.

Digital products can also be made quickly and easily, and they can be sold quickly and easily.

Here are some ideas of digital products you can sell:

Newsletters and email templates
Ebooks
Digital planners
Worksheets
Website themes
Photoshop templates
Infographics
Presentation templates
Mockup templates
Reference kits
Photography collections
Instructions and guides
Digital greeting cards
Downloadable stickers
Start a website, get a good amount of traffic going to it, then sell it

You can sell digital products on your own Shopify store (Shopify Review), or you can sell them on Etsy or Creative Market. Check out the digital product categories on the latter two sites to get even more ideas for digital products to sell.

For more guidance, check out our article on How to Sell Digital Products Online here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #2: Greeting Cards

The greeting cards industry is a billion-dollar market, so there’s definitely room for some new players. So, start your own greeting card business!

You can make greeting cards from scratch with a little bit of creativity and materials found in your local craft store, or you can design them digitally using illustrations you can purchase from sites like Creative Market (just make sure that you purchase the commercial license option!) and then print out your greeting cards yourself.

Another sourcing option is to get your greeting card ideas brought to life by a print-on-demand dropshipper like Gooten.

Ultimately, greeting cards are easy to make, there’s a big market of buyers, there are plenty of different holidays and events to create cards for so there’s demand year-round, they’re easy to ship since they’re small, and there are virtually no shipping restrictions on paper products like these.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #3: Sell Your Art or Photography

Do you make art or take great photos?

Then sell them!

You can get your art or photos printed on canvases, poster-sized paper, or as prints, and you can sell them to buyers all over the world. If you have the natural talent and passion for it, why not share it?! You’ve got nothing to lose, and passionate customers to gain.

Check out our article on How to Sell Photos and Art Online here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #4: Sell Notebooks & Journals

Another option in the stationery family is notebooks and journals.

Notebooks and journals are popular products, and if you source them from dropshipping suppliers (like Printful or Gooten) they can be simple to sell online.

If you’re a writer, drawer, artist, songwriter, scrapbooker, or have any other type of creative hobby that requires a notebook or journal, then consider starting a business around it! Design beautiful covers, add new collections periodically, offer limited-edition versions, and channel your creativity into an online store.

For more tips and strategies, check out our How to Start a Notebook & Journal Business article here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #5: Sell Swimwear

The swimwear industry is an interesting market to get into because you can get creative, source swimwear products from print-on-demand dropshipping suppliers, and they can be pretty lucrative to sell.

Create your own pattern designs, get them printed onto swimsuits (Printful has a lot of options), and then sell them to customers!

Keep in mind that swimwear can be a seasonal product to sell because consumers are more likely to purchase it in the spring and summer months, however, if you normally go to school or have other time-consuming commitments during the fall and winter times, then a swimwear business might actually be a good fit for your lifestyle. It would mean that your busiest business months line up with the months that you’re off school which would be a win-win situation!

Find out more about How to Start a Swimwear Brand in our post here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #6: Sell Pet Products

Passionate about the pooch or kitty in your life? Why not make and sell pet products!

The types of pet products that we recommend selling if this is your first business, is to stick to clothing-type products or accessories like collars and leashes, instead of delving into treats and pet food.

Treats and pet food are bound to certain rules and regulations in most regions, so it can be tricky to navigate the dos and don’ts. Plus, making ingestible products comes with a lot of responsibility, so we suggest steering clear of it right now, and sticking to the simpler parts of the pet industry.

By this we mean cute pet products like bandanas, sweaters, coats, booties, collars, and leashes.

You can find some pet products on Printful, or you could even make your own! We do suggest that, as always, you conduct your own due diligence to discover which types of pet products are subject to rules and regulations in your region before you start developing or selling any of them.

For more information on How to Make Pet Products, check out our article here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #7: Sell Headwear

Headwear products are a great idea to sell online because they’re pretty easy to source (Printful has a lot of options) and you can change up your inventory to suit the changing seasons.

Not only can you sell hats during the spring and summer months and offer beanies and toques for autumn/winter time, but another headwear option that’s lucrative right now is facemasks (find print-on-demand facemasks on Printful).

To really round out your inventory, you could also venture into selling scarves, neckties, and bowties as well.

There are plenty of headwear accessories to sell, so if you want to focus on a specific niche that offers a diverse range of product options, this is a great choice.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #8: Sell Phone Cases

Phone cases are a super popular product, so make and sell your own!

You can use a dropshipping supplier like Printful or Gooten to print your own designs onto different phone cases, and since you don’t have to purchase any inventory upfront, you won’t have to stock a bunch of different cases for every type of phone out there (which becomes a lot of inventory to keep track of).

Instead, your dropshipping supplier will do that for you and you just have to purchase whatever you sell on a customer-by-customer basis.

Learn more about How to Start a Phone Case Business in this post.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #9: Sell Stickers

Stickers are a great product to sell because they’re relatively easy and inexpensive to produce, they’re easy to ship because they’re small and light, and you can get creative with them!

You can produce your own stickers at home if you have sticker paper and the right printer (like a Cricut), or you can outsource the printing process to a supplier who can make your sticker products in bulk (such as companies like Sticker Mule or even Printful).

Learn more about How to Start a Sticker Business in our article here.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #10: Sell Mugs & Water Bottles

Drinkware like mugs and water bottles are always good product ideas to sell online because there’s plenty of demand, and you can have a lot of fun with them, too!

Get creative making designs to print on your mugs or bottles and use a print-on-demand dropshipper to get your ideas printed right onto your products! You can create collections centered around specific themes, or print funny phrases or sayings that you invent.

Source mugs and water bottles from dropshipping suppliers like Printful and Gooten.

Online Business Ideas for Teens #11: Sell Clothes

Starting a clothing line is a heck of a lot easier these days than it ever was before.

To start your own clothing line even only a couple of decades ago, you had to manufacture garments in bulk with a clothing manufacturer, however, nowadays you can create custom apparel simply by creating your own designs and getting them printed onto products by a print-on-demand supplier.

You also aren’t limited to just starting a t-shirt line these days; there are so many other articles of clothing you can source like hoodies, sweatpants, leggings, dresses, skirts, jackets, shorts, and so much more.

If you want to start your own clothing line, check out suppliers like Printful and Gooten for clothing products you can source.

Conclusion

Looking for even more product ideas? Check out these posts:

No matter what kind of online business you want to start, just start something. Even if you fail, you’ll learn along the way and ultimately, you have a lot more to gain than you have to lose. Just start something!

The post 11 Online Business Ideas for Teens: What Can Teens Sell Online? appeared first on A Better Lemonade Stand.