Online Product Sales

When you are starting out in any business, but particularly on the Internet, it’s difficult to find the right products and the right niche — at least something that is going to be profitable.  There is so much competition these days; you might think that most products and services are pretty much covered but there is plenty of scope for selling similar products – you just have to make yours better, cheaper or find a small niche market to escape from the majority of other sellers that appeal to the mass market.

Find a sub niche

One of the secrets to finding a profitable niche is to probe deeper and deeper into sub niches that are popular with potential customers and could earn you money but have little competition. For example, the weight loss industry is vast and general weight loss products are up against a lot of competition. However, if you can drill down and find a small specialist niche that is difficult for other sellers to get into, you could make a lot of money. Something in this category would be an online service such as virtual weight loss therapy or specialist hypnotherapy audios – something that requires some expertise or credentials that most other sellers won’t have.

Ready buyers

The great thing about getting into a small sub niche is that many of your visitors will be ready to buy.  Do you think someone searching for ‘weight loss virtual therapy’ is likely to be more tuned in to what they are looking for and be ready to buy than someone searching for a general term like ‘diets’? Or another example: someone searching for ‘Lamborghini sports cars for sale’ will be more ready to buy than someone searching for a much broader term like ‘cars for sale’? Yes, of course they will — and you could be there waiting to help them spend their money.

Keyword research

Before you start finding your sub niche markets, you should find out how many searches are done for relevant keywords and how much competition there is for these keywords.  Use one of the many tools that are available to help you with this – one is the Google Keyword Tool, www.googlekeywordtool.com.  Another piece of software is the Micro Niche Finder, www.micronichefinder.com which can help you find profitable niches.

What makes your business superior?

You really need a USP or Unique Selling Proposition to make your business stand out from your competitors – think hard about what it is about your business that no one else can offer. Is it your expertise, a unique product, an unbeatable price? Not only do you need a USP but you need the following vital qualities for any business to be successful in the long term.

Presentation is everything

When you are selling products online, you must remember that your website is your shop window and the first impression of you your visitors will get. You wouldn’t buy something nice from a scruffy or dirty high street shop or from owners that didn’t give at least basic customer service, so you shouldn’t expect others to buy from a badly designed or maintained website. Make sure you have a great design that is appropriate to the products you are selling and that you pay attention to basics such as your content, spelling, grammar, links that work and ease of navigation around your site. It’s too easy for people to click away from a poor website!

Leverage

Get the maximum mileage out of your business to create more wealth. You have the potential to expand via the Internet to reach new customers across the world. Diversify your products, cross-sell and up-sell related products or services to existing customers, franchise your business or go into a joint venture with others in a similar field. Find someone with an established network of customers and business contacts as a way of gaining leverage for your own business. Leverage is the way to create major business wealth.

Perceived worth

The worth of your product or service is often ‘perceived worth’. You can package something nicely, increase the price and people’s perceptions of it are that it’s worth a lot more. Find products with a high perceived worth, yet cost little to produce. Information products are a prime example. You can add a great deal of value when you sell information that people need, yet the product itself costs very little and can even be automated as a digital book. Perhaps you have special knowledge, which you could sell to others?

Look after your customers

It’s been shown that 20% of customers account for 50% to 80% of the profits in almost any business. Whilst it is important to keep finding new customers, it’s even more important to look after the ones you already have. Repeat business could form the basis of your success and satisfied customers will recommend others. This is the best way to establish a solid customer base.