Selling Products Online – If You Just Build it They Won’t Come

So you have a dream to make money selling products on the internet. Easy right? Well, not so fast. Just like selling something in the ‘real’ world, selling something on the internet takes more than desire and luck.

Many first time online sellers have created or acquired products that they thought would sell well and, in their enthusiasm, spent lots of time and or money is setting up a website, paying monthly hosting fees and possibly paying for product inventory. They toasted ‘launch’ day and then waited… And waited, and waited, and waited..

Building a baseball field in a corn field apparently worked for Kevin Costner, but for the rest of us it is not so easy. Building the best baseball field, or the product, or the service is just the first part of what it takes for ‘them to come.’ You have to let them know that you built it, whatever ‘it’ is. And, while the principals may be the same as in the offline world, letting people know you built it can be a daunting, albeit rewarding, task.

Let’s say you’ve just decided to sell mousetraps. You decide to set up shop in your local town to sell the mousetraps. What would you do next? You’d pick a location, buy an inventory of mousetraps so your shelves aren’t empty and then open the shop. Think about where your location would be. Would you locate on a back alley on the bad side of town or on Main Street? Maybe, even better, you’d locate near a large community of houses where you’ve heard there is a big mouse problem because of the adjacent landfill.

What about your shop? You’d decorate it, put up a nice flashy sign, probably with a picture of a dead mouse on it. You’d install a cash register and shelves. You’d then display the mousetraps in an appealing way (if that’s possible…). And then you’d open the shop. What if you did nothing more? How many mousetraps do you think you’d sell? If your guess is anything beyond ‘almost none’ you’re probably wrong.

So what did you miss? You’ve got a great product, a great location and a great shop. Heck, you even have with a nice picture of a dead mouse on the sign out front. What you’ve missed is ‘MARKETING.’ How do people know about your new store? Maybe a few drive by on the way to work? Maybe some are your friends and family? Maybe some were shopping at the grocery store next door, that by the way also sells mice traps and even for less money. The reality is that without marketing; letting them know you’re there, they won’t come.

Now sell that same mousetrap on the internet. Your shop and sign is that great flashy website. Your inventory is simply pictures on the website because you’re using a drop shipper to handle distribution. Sound’s good so far… No need to lease a shop, no need to by inventory upfront and you can work whatever hours you want. Now comes the hard part… Location, Location, Location and, oh yeah, Competition.

To Be Continued....