How to start selling your products on the Internet

*This is a collaborative post

During lockdown, many of my friends and family have found themselves unexpectedly out of work. Suddenly finding their finances had become a lot tighter overnight, bills to pay and a lot more additional time on their hands, many decided to take advantage of their creative side and start creating their own products at home. Creating the products however is the easy part; reaching your target audience and selling your goods on the internet is where life starts to get a bit more tricky.

Here are some hints and tips on how to start selling your products on the internet:

Decide what you are going to sell

Firstly, it’s important to be selling things that your customer’s actually want or need. Now more than ever homemade goods and craft based products are a really competitive marketplace (I think i know at least 10 people who have bought a cricut machine in recent months), and therefore it’s important that your products offer something unique to your competition.

Ideally you should look to sell products that solve a problem or make peoples lives easier; are social media / instagram friendly or are taking advantage of a new trend that could be branded.

Use your own networks

A great place to start is by testing your product on friends and family and asking them to provide (genuine) reviews on the product to create a case study or rating before you start trying to sell to the general public. This also gives you the opportunity to gain genuine feedback on your product and make any tweaks or changes approach before you produce or source large quantities.

Build up your social media

Social media is a great place to sell your products to your existing community and their friends and family. Engagement is key (and at the moment can be hard to master due to ever changing algorithms) but again asking your contacts to support your new venture can help get your products seen by more people.

Use a customised shopping experience

Using a buy and sell marketplace is a great way to expand your products reach. The Incobis Marketplace buy and sell marketplace is the first multichannel shopping networking platform which combines shopping online with friends, personal assistants and community where people can share experiences and create a buzz around your products. They can also help match customers to products with their ecommerce seller central UK hub, and with online shopping expected to become more prevalent during these unpredictable times, it’s great to see a marketplace that keeps the social element of shopping alive.

Work with bloggers / influencers

Whilst as a blogger myself I despise the title influencer, they can be a great way to get your products seen by more people. Ask those with wide followings in your niche to review your products or give them a shout out on their stories in exchange for a sample. Choose your bloggers carefully and ensure that their followers demographics / audience is a good fit for your target market. The more matched they are the more likely you are to get engagement and positive reactions to your products.

Remember things take time

Unless your product is a never been done before invention, your products are unlikely to sell out over night. Diversify, keep using a variety of sources and keep showing off your products. Patience is a virtue!