I know a few people who have created thriving businesses by selling a product or line of products online. Because of the fantastic online merchant packages and platforms available across the internet (check out Yahoo! Merchant Services for one example), it is easier than ever to create your own online retail business. For more simple solutions, you can sell items through eBay, Amazon, and other big online retailers.
If you have a specific product, you can create a thriving business by simply “buying” traffic with online advertising like Google’s Adwords. If you factor in the cost of traffic with the conversion rate (how much of your traffic translates into sales), with the profit on your product, you can calculate potential profitability. If the formula works, then the sky is the limit with regards to how much traffic you can buy.
Another interesting offshoot of such a concept is renting products. For example, you might rent wheelchairs or wedding linens or other goods that somebody only needs for a temporary amount of time. You can turn your garage into your warehouse for storage and work completely out of your house. I actually know a few people who run these types of businesses and support themselves full time from such a venture.
The sky is the limit with regards to selling (or renting) products from a website. You don’t need a great deal of technical skills to setup the necessary features on a website to process credit cards and manage your inventory. You can even integrate with UPS and handle your shipping online. Incredible.
The below list is a list of ideas to help you get started in trying to determine a product or line of products to sell over the internet:
- Diapers or some type of baby gear
- Some temporary product or equipment that is needed for specific phases of life or specific jobs (i.e. a home renovation)
- Clothing
