[Last Updated June 16th 2009]
Before you set up any sales company you need to have products to sell — be it physical goods or services.
Products are the main component of a sales company. Without products there are no sales. So you must select the right things to sell online.
If you have bad products, you will have no sales, or at best, poor sales. This is not a good way to start a sales company. It leads to loses and failure. So you must select the right things to sell online.
RULE 2: Picking Good products to Sell Online
a. You have to make sure that the products you intend to sell are good and are also the right things to sell online.
b. It is best that you are very familiar with the products you intend to sell. (i.e. products that you are now dealing with, have a passion for or have experience and good knowledge of.)
c. You should be intimate with the products you sell. Know the quality of each product from each supplier. Know the product’s good and bad features etc.
If customers inquire about the quality of your products, you should be able to speak/communicate with authority and ease. Inform them of the advantages of your products.
Customers will often seek your advice and you should be able to advise them according to their requirements with regards to your product.
d. Your products should be current, in demand and priced competitively.
e. Be aware of fluctuating demand of seasonal products.
f. Be aware of products with short shelf life. Do not over stock these products as they run out of fashion fast.
g. Constantly check your competitors. Learn what products they carry and the methods they use to sell. Follow their good points.
If you are currently operating a brick and mortar business, you should already know your product category well. But, it is still important to constantly check your physical and online competitors and be aware of new products and their good methods of selling. Emulate all their good points.
h. Constantly strive to lower your purchase price. Negotiate with your suppliers, bypass the middle man and move up to the importer (or even to the manufacture/s) if your volume has grown large enough.
i. Have a few suppliers. This will ensure that you have the best prices and supply. Suppliers can go out of business any time. However, buy more from one supplier to get the best volume discount and credit facilities if possible. Conduct smaller business with the rest of your suppliers. This ensures that if you encounter problems with your main supplier, you can easily switch to your other suppliers for goods without delay. This way, you will have no disruption of delivery to your customers, which is very important.
j. If you are producing your own products, keep quality constant while constantly improving cost efficiency.
k. Keep your stock low but sufficient . Dead stock (stocks that cannot be sold for many reasons) cost money and occupy storage space that you may not have.
l. Constantly look for new things to sell online to add to your product range while dropping those that do not sell. However, newly added products should be of the same category of the other products you offer.
m. Search on Google for your competitors selling the same products. If you see many companies selling similar products, do not despair. It means the market is big and you have to apply Big Market Strategy.
If the number of competitors are small, it may signify a smaller market and you should apply an appropriate sales method.
n. Identify whether your products are for a mass market or a niche market.
If you are selling mass market products, you will have a huge market, but stiff competition and low margin. You still have a good opportunity.
If your product is for a niche market, then margin is higher. You’ll have less competition, but a smaller market. This is also a good opportunity.
Your strategy to cater for these 2 markets are very different though they are the rights things to sell online. Each requires different approaches. Both markets can make you money.
We will address these strategies in our future post on “Sales and Marketing”.
If you cannot find anyone selling your type of products online, it is either good or bad.
Good: You have the whole online market to yourself.
Bad: No one is looking for your type of products online and you have to create a new market.
Another reason could be your products are time sensitive (e.g. food that lasts 2 to 3 days) or products that are difficult to ship through the post. Here again make sure you have the right things to sell online.
Make sure to search for your products with other keywords. Each product may have multiple names. On the web, people come from many geographical locations and may call your product by different names.
If you really want to sell online and have no products to sell, we recommend you do the following to find the right things to sell online:
You can goto Amazon and enter a particular product category and you will see how much literature has been written about that product category. This will tell you how popular that product is, whether it is a Mass Market or Niche product, and also give you more ideas for other things to sell online.
Goto eBay and do the same.
Select around 10 products, study each product until you are familiar with them, and find out where you can source them the cheapest.
After you have done your homework, you can pick the product to sell online.
Make sure of the facts above. Wrong information leads to wrong decisions.
Good luck to you and your venture.
From “Sell Online And Profit!”
[Last Updated June 16th 2009]