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What To Sell Online - Finding and Evaluating Products To Sell Online

Date post: 26-Aug-2014
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What to sell online? Finding products to sell online is one of the most common questions of a new ecommerce entrepreneur. In this slideshow, you'll be introduced to the most comprehensive list of criteria for finding and evaluating products to sell online. Choosing products to sell online can be one of the most daunting aspects of building an online business. If you’re like most people, you have a few ideas but you’re not sure how to evaluate them. This infographic will help you choose and evaluate products to sell online with 20 questions and considerations to recognize opportunity and avoid pitfalls. I highly suggest you check out my other posts on finding the perfect product to sell online: Part 1: What to Sell Online – 8 Strategies To Find A Product To Sell Online - http://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/what-to-sell-online-8-strategies/ Part 2: What to Sell Online – How To Find Products To Sell Online - http://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/part-2-what-to-sell-online-where-to-look-for-products-to-sell-online/ Reverse Engineering The Perfect eCommerce Product - http://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/reverse-engineering-perfect-ecommerce-product/ What To Sell Online - Finding and Evaluating Products To Sell Online Infographic - http://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/products-to-sell-online-infographic/ Summarized Questions: 1. Q. What is the potential market size? 2. Q. What does the competitive landscape look like? 3. Q. Is this product/niche a trend, a fad, growing, or flat market? 4. Q. Does this product/niche have local availability? 5. Q. Who are my target consumers? 6. Q. What is the potential markup? 7. Q. What is the potential selling price? 8. Q. How many different SKUs do I need to manage? 9. Q. Can I re-sell to the same customers with a subscription? 10. Q. What is the size and weight of my products? 11. Q. How durable or fragile is my product? 12. Q. Will my niche suffer from seasonality? 13. Q. Does my product/niche solve a pain point or serve a passion? 14. Q. What will my product/market/niche obsolescence look like? 15. Q. Is my product consumable or disposable? 16. Q. Does my product have a shelf life, what is its perishability? 17. Q. Do my products or market have any restriction or regulations? 18. Q. Will I be able to scale this product/niche/business? 19. Q. Can I sell/position this product better than my competitors? 20. Q. Am I passionate about this product/market/niche?
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WHAT TO SELL ONLINE: HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT PRODUCT TO SELL ONLINE For more information and details, please visit www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com
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Page 1: What To Sell Online - Finding and Evaluating Products To Sell Online

WHAT TO SELL ONLINE:HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT PRODUCT TO SELL ONLINE

For more information and details, please visit www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com

www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com

Page 2: What To Sell Online - Finding and Evaluating Products To Sell Online

www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com

The perfect product has a large, growing market with little competition, but a substantial, validated user base because it solves a huge pain point for its target market. The perfect product is not available locally, it is only available online.

It has a market validated selling price of $100 and you can purchase it from several trusted manufacturers in China for less than $10 per unit.

The perfect product won’t perish over time, but is consumable. Because the perfect product is consumable, consumers like subscribing to it and automatically receiving a new order every month. It’s just easier. Shipping is easy and cheap because the perfect product is small and light. Therefore storage at your fulfillment warehouse cost next to nothing. Another bonus is that because it is so small and light, you can cover the shipping cost in your selling price allowing you to remove one of the biggest reasons for shopping cart abandonment.

It’s easy to manage inventory because the perfect product only has a few SKU’s. Having limited SKU’s will mean fewer mix-ups when shipping to customers. The perfect product is also very durable, so there is a lower risk of customers receiving damaged units, and the number of returns you must process will also be minimal.

The perfect product target customer is very comfortable making purchases online and the majority of the target customer base is over the age of 18 with a credit card and disposable income. Revenues will be steady year round because the perfect product doesn’t suffer from seasonality issues.

The Perfect Product

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1. Potential Market Size2. Competition3. Trend, Fad, Growing or Stable Market 4. Limited Local Availability5. Target Customer 6. Markup7. Selling Price8. Limited SKU’s9. Subscription10. Product Size / Weight11. Durability/Breakability12. Seasonality13. Passion/Pain Product/Niche 14. Low Product Turnover15. Consumable or Disposable 16. Perishability17. Restrictions & Regulations 18. Scalability

Key Considerations

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Choose a product/niche with a small but sufficient market size. Try to avoid what I would call micro-niches that are too small with very low keyword searches.

#1 Potential Market Size

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What does the competitive landscape look like for your product/niche? Are there no competitors, a few competitors or many? What are their strengths and weaknesses? If there are a lot of players in your niche, it can be a signal that the market has been validated. In order to break thought though, you will have to do something different to attract customer attention and build market share. If there are none, it could be a sign, the market doesn’t exist. The sweet spot is usually somewhere in the middle.

#2 Competition

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Make sure you understand to the best of your ability where your product/niche stands. Knowing if your niche/product is a trend or fad can mean the difference between success and a costly mistake. Does your product or niche fall into fad, trend, stable or growing market?

#3 Trend, Fad, Growing Market

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If your product is readily available locally there is one less reason for people to seek your product out online. If your product can be bought locally, what can you do to differentiate yourself and convince people to buy from your online store? Can you offer a better selection? Higher quality? Better price?

#4 Limited Local Availability

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Who is your target customer? At this point you don’t need to go into extreme persona detail but you should be aware of they type of customer you would likely be selling to and their online purchasing capabilities. If you have a product geared for teens, you should keep in mind that most don’t have a credit card to purchase online. If your product geared towards baby boomers, keep in mind that many are resistant to purchasing online.

#5 Target Market

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Markup is important. There are lots of little fees that willeat away at your margin so you need to be able to cover those and still make a decent profit. It has been recommended by many ecommerce professionals that you choose a product with a minimum of 5-10x markup.

#6 Markup

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Your best bet is a product that can be retailed for between $75-$150. The reason behind this is if you sell for too little, you need to sell too many units (and find customers) to generate a good profit. If you sell for too much, customers will have too many questions, they might be weary about spending that much, or spending that much online without actually being able to touch the final product. You want to try to limit the amount of time you spend on the business and not be bogged down with customer inquires and providing too much time consuming and costly customer support.

#7 Selling Price

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You don’t want a huge variety of products to manage and warehouse. In my opinion, the more SKU’s you have, the greater the headache. It also increases you minimum order from your manufacture and takes up costly space in your warehouse. Choose products with limited number of possible variations/colors/styles. Less is more in this situation. Henry Ford said it best “People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it’s black”.

#8 Limited SKU’s

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You will hear it time and time again. It’s much easier and less expensive to sell to a current customer, than to also have to find new customers. A subscription-based ecommerce business allows you to sell to the same customers many times over, automatically. There are generally two types of subscription-based ecommerce businesses, discovery and replenishment.

#9 Subscription

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Product size and weight can have a big impact on your sales and bottom line. More and more customers expect free shipping these days. If your product is oversized and/or heavy, costly shipping can deter potential buyers. Did you know that shipping costs are the #1 reason for shopping cart abandonment? The larger the product, the greater amount of space it will take at you fulfillment warehouse, further increasing your costs.

#10 Product Size & Weight

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How fragile is your potential product? Consider that the more fragile the product is the greater the chance of your product being damaged during shipping. Even if it is the shipping companies fault, it’s ultimately your customer and part of your customer’s overall experience with your business and product. Highly breakable/fragile products are going to increase the number of returns/exchanges and the overall amount of time you spend dealing with customer issues.

#11 Product Durability

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Is your product/niche seasonal? Businesses with seasonal products can suffer from inconsistent cash flow. It’s important to note and be prepared for seasonal revenue swings. Not only can seasonality can have a big impact on cash flow abut overall business viability as well.

#12 Seasonality

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Products that sell best serve a passion, relieve a pain, or solve a problem. Tylenol is an easy sell when someone has a headache and when someone is passionate about something they will spend ungodly amounts of money to support their passion. A good example of this is sports and outdoor enthusiasts like hikers, rock climbers and mountain bikers.

#13 Passion or Pain Product

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It’s risky to have products that constantly need to be changed. If your product line is constantly changing year to year, you’ll end up spending valuable time on resources that will soon be outdated. Selling a product line with limited turnover ensures you can invest in an information-rich website that will be applicable for years.

#14 Product Turnover

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As we discussed in point 9 on subscription, it’s easier to resell to existing customers than to new ones. Selling a consumable or disposable product is a built in reason for your customer to re-order from you.

#15 Consumable/Disposable

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Perishable products like food are risky for a physical storefront, never mind for ecommerce. They’re expensive to ship and the selling window is tight. Of course, this is dependent on exactly how perishable the product is.

#16 Perishability

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Before you dive into a niche or choose a product, make sure there are no regulations or restrictions, or make sure they are at least manageable.

Certain chemical products, food products, cosmetics amongst some other product categories can carry restrictions by not only the country you are importing your goods into but also countries you are selling your product into.

#17 Restrictions/Regulations

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Many people don’t think about scalability when they first start out. It’s difficult to think about the future when you are still in the launching process but scalability should be thought of and built into the business model right from the start.

#18 Scalability

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For more details, examples and tools for each criteria, please download the Get Started Guide at:

www.ABetterLemonadeStand.com


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