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Tips for Selling Stuff Online

Aug 15, 2020

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When I first started selling products online, I noticed that a lot of issues could come up. Based on my experience and research, I thought I’d put together this helpful article to explain my top tips for selling stuff online.

So, what are my tips for selling stuff online? When selling stuff online, you should:

Look for products that you can make a good return
Market your products
Take into account customer feedback
Sell your products on multiple platforms
Create a brand
Customer service skills
Work on it every day

These together form a solid foundation for being successful in selling stuff online. So, below I will explain more details about them, as well as why they are essential and things to look out for.

What’s the best way to sell stuff online?

The best way to sell stuff online is to:

Look for products that can make a good return

Some products do well online, although with all the expenses and time spent, sometimes it only gives a modest return. Even worse, some products may cost you money to sell. So, market research beforehand will significantly help you be successful online.

A beginner’s mistake is to look at items that are selling well and then sourcing the same products and reselling them. This is often a mistake because the credibility of the store, which was built over time, is not considered, and is a key selling feature.

Many people will only buy products from an online store with good reviews and a clear brand that defines them.

Where do you find products that you can make a good return on?

You can do this by finding wholesalers and suppliers. Most of the good wholesalers are huge Chinese companies that sell on Alibaba.com. Because of the wage differential, the products are priced exceptionally low and can be resold.

You would think that people would just go and buy the products directly from the wholesaler. Still, it might not be the case as the wholesaler may only sell to distributors or have a high minimum order quantity to purchase. That is where your due diligence comes in and decide what product to resell and from what credible manufacturer or distributor.

I wrote a whole article about where to find cheap products to resell. You should give it a read. You can do that by clicking here to go to the article. Briefly, I will summarise them here:

Thrift stores
Garage sales
Liquidators
Wholesalers
Manufacturers

Thrift stores and garage sales are ideal places to get cheap items. This is because these items are somewhat used or open-box and unwanted by their owners. As a result, owners aren’t too fussed with getting much for them and would instead get rid of them.

This is great news for resellers because you can pick them up relatively low and sell them at a significant markup.

Liquidators get inventory from companies that have gone out of business, abandoned lots, and foreclosures. They get them incredibly cheap, and you can buy directly from them and then mark them up.

Wholesalers and manufacturers charge full price. But, because of how many products they make, they can offer them at low prices—making them ideal for reselling.

Other options for finding products that you can make a significant margin on

You can create the products yourself, such as custom arts and crafts and handmade items. Some people go as far as getting a 3d printer and then creating custom products such as Star Wars bottle openers to give you an idea.

People are often prepared to pay higher prices for quality handmade items and which give you a good return.

You can also create digital products such as e-books and online courses. In the case of e-books, they are mostly free to produce because you can replicate them at no cost to yourself.

There are also online courses you can offer. If priced right, you will be able to make a good return on investment. That is if your class is something people are searching for and nobody knows how to perform.

Another way to make money with a course is by not charging for the course but selling something they need to continue with the class. You’d post it on Youtube and create a cheat sheet or some sort of electronic manual for sale that users would require while taking your course.

Market your products

Marketing your products is a significant part of being successful when selling stuff online. Although the adage “build it, and they will come”, it can be true in some cases, but your products aren’t going anywhere unless people know about them.

So, marketing is a critically important tip. Don’t worry, it’s not that complicated, and can be done very cheaply or for free.

The key thing is to ensure you do it and do so regularly. This builds up a wave of customers that initially starts as a trickle but soon turns into a tsunami.

There are many ways to market stuff that you are selling online. Below is a list of some methods:

In-Person Networking
Direct Mail
Advertising
Social Media Marketing
Internet Marketing
Email Marketing
Contests, Coupons, and Incentives
Relationship Building
Content Marketing

Provided by Thebalancesmb.com

Starting with an audience first or beginning with a product first?

There are different schools of thought regarding whether you should build up an audience first and then sell products or having a product first and then trying to build up an audience.

In either case, your online selling business can work. Starting with an audience first allows you to gather feedback and change what products you sell based on the feedback you get.

Whereas, if you start with a product, you have to change all your messaging if a product doesn’t work so well. This means you have to update your website, online marketplace stores, Linkedin, Facebook, and anywhere else you talk about your product.

This can be a bit of an issue, and that is why some people start building an audience. This ensures you build a brand by getting your name out without initially selling anything.

Take into account customer feedback.

You should give out surveys to your viewers, customers, and subscribers. This will help you find areas of your business to improve and ways to maximize your profits. Maybe you overlooked a product that your audience is excited about.

Helpscout.com has provided a list of some ways to gather customer feedback. Below, I will describe customer feedback surveys because they are the easiest to deliver and provide a wealth of information. Here are seven other ways to gather customer feedback:

Customer feedback surveys
Email and customer contact forms
Usability tests
Exploratory customer interviews
Social media
On-site activity (via analytics)
Instant feedback from your website

Customer feedback surveys

It often takes a bit of thinking with pen and paper or nowadays with Google sheets and documents. So, take some time to write out what you know about your customers. Such as:

What has sold the most?
What didn’t sell so well?
Why do you think certain products did better than others?
How is your sales page performing?
What do my customers think of me?

Once you have filled out this information, begin crafting some questions. Think about how to get the most information out of them. But, keep it brief to only 4-5 questions. You can even offer to give away something free to encourage more people to answer.

You should come up with the questions yourself because they are unique to your market and your brand. Therefore, it should come from you, and you want to avoid cookie-cutter questions. But, use them as a guide as to what types of questions to ask.

Sell your products on multiple platforms.

If you want to make more sales, you should list your products on multiple platforms. That way, you can see which platforms are performing the best. You could even go as far as to list your product on multiple platforms, especially if sales are coming in slowly.

For example, some of your products could sit on a website for weeks without getting sold. So, you would want to list them on various platforms to sell them fast.

This website you are on right now is an online marketplace where you can list items for free. They strive not to charge a selling commission or any hidden fees.

You should definitely create an account if you sell online, and take advantage of our free tier here.

Create a brand

Having clear and unique messaging is part of being successful in selling stuff online. You can do this in a few ways. You can find inspiration by mimicking other successful stores.

Exactly how you portray yourself depends on the goals of your business and what you are selling. As two examples, If you are selling high-end luxury items, you want your branding and messaging to look expensive and portray a luxury lifestyle.

If you are selling camping gear, you might want to take a survival angle and create content around survival and similar topics. Another key factor of branding is the types of content you create.

When marketing, people post to social media platforms. The platforms are Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram. You can post on any topic you like. You want to create content on topics your audience would be interested in.
You can see what types of content do very well by doing some research. You can then experiment with similarly-themed content. This establishes what your brand is about, which creates more trust.

It gives your customers a chance to get to know you. It also puts your personality out there.

You should be aware of ignoring trolls and people who make negative comments. Because often they don’t have anything constructive to say.

Customer Service Skills

Be yourself, authentic, and humble when you speak your voice. This is more self-help, mindset type of advice. But, it applies to business and selling stuff online.

This comes down a lot to your customer service skills.
If you have worked in customer service, you will know what I am talking about. There is a certain attitude that works well for customers.

I say this because sometimes customers ask you for information, discounts, extras. You have to be firm on what you can and can’t do.

Sometimes you will run into troublesome customers. They constantly argue and complain. It is better to deal with them politely and as quickly as possible.

You can also refuse to do business with them if they become too much. Sometimes it’s better to have peace of mind and lose business than be at fault with loss just to satisfy a customer.

Building Credibility

A mistake people make when selling online is to assume that they could pretend in specific ways because the customer couldn’t see them.

Such as putting up a fake image or fake testimonials. The customer wouldn’t know if it’s true or not.

This is something that will come back later down the road to bite you. Excuse my French. Once customers find out, they feel betrayed by you, and that will erase all the work you’ve put in.

It is more difficult initially to get your first customers. Doing this ethically will be more efficient than creating parts of your company deceptively and having to start all over again.

Work on it every day

Take some time to plan. Set aside time to work on your business. If you work full time, work on it in the evenings or early in the morning for one to two hours. You can even do a big chunk of work on Saturday and Sunday.

If you want to quit your job eventually, you should set a monthly income goal to generate before you quit. Also, put aside some savings and develop working habits. Habits are a key way to ensure you are successful.

One such habit could be to work on your business every morning for one hour. Be consistent.

You need to do some marketing, though. About one to two hours done consistently every day is enough. Over time this will accumulate, and your online business will be taking off.

Conclusion

My tips for selling stuff online are: to look for products that you can make a good return, market your products, take into account customer feedback, sell your products on multiple platforms, create a brand, develop customer service skills, and work on it every day.

If you are having trouble selling your products or want to sell more, then you should use these tips.