4 Considerations When Thinking About What to Sell Online

This post won’t tell you what to sell online. If that’s what you’re looking for, there’s plenty of information on the web that can give you suggestions and get you thinking.

But ultimately each seller has to figure out their product strategy for themselves, based on their own personal interests, business goals, and target market.

That said, there are some key considerations that can benefit all online sellers in the long run. The reason is they can help you maintain a strong foundation, and this increases your chances of being profitable and successful.

#1 Know your profit margin upfront

You’re in business to make money, right? This means that regardless of the particular product(s) you plan to sell, you need to first have a good idea of how much revenue you’ll need in order to generate a profit.

Simply put, your profit margin is the difference between your total revenue and all of the costs associated with running an online store, such as hosting fees, inventory management software, shopping cart fees, and more.

#2 Don’t sell what everyone else is selling

Sounds obvious, but deciding what to sell online is not about what the competition is selling—even if they’re catering to the exact same target customer as you.

Think about it. All else being equal, why would their customers buy from you over someone they know and have already done business with?

But you can still generate product ideas by knowing what makes your target audience unique. As a result, you’ll easily attract their business because they’ll sense you have s genuine understanding of their needs.

#3 Learn as much as possible about products

There’s not much to say here except that it’s important to learn about a potential product’s features, inside and out. See if you can identify its unique benefits as they pertain to your customers. Then you can decide if you want to sell this product.

#4 Love what you sell and have a passion for it

Being knowledgeable about what a product does is one thing. But when customers can feel your excitement through written product descriptions, pinpointed benefits, and unwavering customer support, they’re more likely to become loyal buyers.

In short, developing a product strategy for deciding what to sell online is based on having an intimate understanding of your niche’s unique needs more than anything else.