One Crucial Thing You Need To Think About Before You Try To Sell ANYTHING Online
Look at that title – either painful or enticing.
This is probably going to be a short article, but it’s crucial that you read it if you have a goal of trying to sell anything online.
Let me preface the article by saying that you might have already thought of this. You probably have. When I first realised that there was a single question I could ask myself at the beginning of every online sales project which would highlight whether or not the project was worth it, I thought the question was obvious. Too obvious for me to have missed.
It’s a question you need to ask yourself before you start an online project, even though you intuitively know it.
I hate those articles that will leave you in suspense and then give the thing you’re looking for in the P.S. Section (Or, they’ll make you click through a gallery of twenty images before you get to the hot cleavage shot you were actually looking for,) so I’ll just come out with it. Then I’ll explain it. Then I’ll tell you why this subject came to mind today.
The question you need to ask before you try to sell anything online is the following:
“Do people actually buy this product online?”
THAT IS GOD-DAMNED OBVIOUS JAMIE! WHY AM I READING YOUR STUPID ARTICLE?
Short answer: I don’t know.
Real answer: You’d be amazed at how many people (myself included) don’t actually ask this question.
My first e-commerce project was a complete dud. I still can’t talk about it to this day because it was that much of a failure. This was back in 2009, so long before I actually knew what I was doing.
The fact is, I sunk time and money into a project that I could have saved if I’d just asked; “Do people actually buy this online?”
The answer in that case was “no.”
Some items are not bought online, or, they’re very rarely bought online. If you wonder why you can’t find an online retailer for something that’s ubiquitous in brick and mortar stores, ask yourself why. Think about whether people would rather buy at a B&M store. If they would, you’re better off looking for a new project.
I hate to be a cisgender-privelege-whatever, but here’s a helpful tip: Selling to women tends to mean a lot more of this. Men’s motivations to buy are more often triggered by online stuff- they’ll go for the money-saving deal and they won’t worry about the slightly shifty-looking e-commerce store as much. That and more products for women are simply incompatible with buying online: They spend more on clothing (which they generally have to try,) cosmetics (which they generally have to try) and “experience” items. Those are different from things like power tools, sports memorabilia and tech gadgets, which aren’t so much try-and-buy and cater more to both male shoppers and online shoppers.
What Caused This Revelation Today?
I browsed two niche websites today that made me think about why you can’t just sell anything online.
One was a niche site for aftershave and perfume in a particular niche.
One was reviews of “adult” items.
As a disclaimer for those who think I’m into some weird stuff right now: I tend to follow other people who build niche websites to ‘spy’ on their projects. These two people both have pen name niche sites that sell the above.
One of these immediately struck me as a good idea. The other struck me as a bad idea.
Why?
Because if you’re selling perfume – especially considering the perfume wasn’t brand name – a large part of that market isn’t going to buy online. You have to smell the product before you drop £40 on a bottle of the stuff.
Whereas in general the “adult” niches are great for online selling. Why? Because people who are looking to buy sex toys or weird outfits aren’t going to wander into their local shopping centre and start asking where the sex toy shop is. (Again, generally.)
In regards to this, the whole e-book craze was basically started by Ellora’s Cave and other erotic romance publishers specifically because of this very phenomenon; people (mostly women) wanted to read smut without people being able to see what they were reading.
Final Thoughts
My point isn’t that you should start selling bondage apparatus. It’s that when you’re considering a niche, it’s worth taking two minutes to think about whether your selected niche is good in the sense of the buyers being online and buying online.
It seems like a simple question, but it’ll weed out a lot of non-starter ideas before you waste time on them.