If you have the right strategy and target the right group of people, you can sell anything you want. That includes online sales as well; it’s just that webshops have certain limitations that offline stores don’t have. Obviously, shopping virtually you can’t check the smell or texture, so you’re generally deprived of most of the senses. That doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to sell certain products at your webshop. It just means that it will require more effort from you.
Bestsellers
Statistically thinking there are five categories of products that sell at eshops lately. The first are books (44% of online sales) followed by clothes (36%) and airline tickets (32%). Then we have electronic equipment (27%) and hotel reservations (26%). Does that mean that selling any of those gives a certain success? Not necessarily. The products in your webshop must be also presented in a convincing way. There are many online clothes shops just as there are thousands of online libraries.
With such a great competition you also need to put a lot of effort to pierce through with your products even if they are one of a kind.
Our shopping orientation
You probably won’t be surprised, but there are products that we are more likely to buy online rather than in store. Good examples are music and videos, as 74.1% of all of the sales come from eshops. No wonder, if nowadays you need those on your computer anyway. With the fast pace of life, it’s extremely convenient to buy at least such things from home. In the case of the mentioned products, also delivery isn’t a problem.
Other category of products are furniture, 65.8% sales are coming from the web while only 34.2% comes from in store sales. But, what about electronics? As much as 74.4% of sales belong to eshops.
It seems that we also prefer to shop for sporting goods, toys and games as well as books and magazines via webshops. And what’s most surprising Americans even like to buy food online (57.9%) rather than in store. This widespread laziness is a chance for an e-business of any kind!
Image source: econsultancy.com
Challenging job
Only 8.8% percent of drug and health aids come from webshops. Of course there are products and drugs that need prescriptions and thus can’t be sold online but there are quite a number of those that we buy without any special permission. The problem is probably the drug store experience, as people are used to the fact that pharmacist is an expert that can help us choose precisely what we need. And since health is what matters most, we tend not to rely on ourselves when trying to improve it.
There exists a solution – to sell such products successfully a considerate e-retailer should invest in a good customer care service that would also include a live chat with an expert.
Needs a sample or a guarantee
A similar problem affects cosmetics sales on the Internet. Here we need a right scent, shade or consistency. And none of those can be checked via an electronic device, at least not yet… Thus, customers will only buy the products one they tried it offline. But no need to worry, you can work around that problem, too. You’ll leverage your sales offering free samples of products or a longer return policy. It may last a bit longer but with a tempting offer, a variety of samples and good, imaginative descriptions you may gain loyal customers. It works for cosmeticmall.
Image source: costmeticsmall.com
Outlaw
The other problematic category of products are intoxicants. To sell alcohol or any other of those you need a special license, but since your shop is on the Internet it may turn out that you’ll need more than one of those permits. The law referring to alcohol sales may differ across one country, not to mention different continents.
In some cultures it may even turn out that your eshop is a pure evil selling illegal substances, so research carefully before targeting anyone with a controversial offer.
This is a short film telling you how to sell alcohol inline in United States. Although, it’s one country, it turns out that laws regarding the transactions differ even between states. Now imagine the differences around the world.
What else can sell great online? Are you facing any problems selling your products? Share with us!
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