How to make the highest return of self-employment (12 tips from professionals)

 If you want to increase your income and start a new project, or want to expand the scope of your project's work, selling products online is the most appropriate and fastest solution to do this.

This is due to the advancement of technology and the increased reliance of consumers on the Internet to shop and buy their products both via social media platforms and e-stores.

How to sell products online (from scratch to first sellers)

If you are a retailer or business owner, or want to start doing business to increase your income, being online is now one of the most important things to do to increase your income and achieve some profitable sales.

This article is for aspirants looking for how to sell products online, we will address the steps and ways to sell products, the most important tips that help you increase sales, the months of challenges that sellers meet and how to overcome them.

Why do you have to sell products online?

Selling products online has many labels, such as: selling online or e-commerce, and it is also considered one of the most important methods of profit from the internet.

It has many benefits for vendors, helping them to make huge profits with minimal effort, such as:

1. Selling products online is a quick and guaranteed way to increase income and increase return on investment, and there is no requirement for substantial expertise in selling or technical matters.
2. Low risk, you will not initially need to have significant capital but may not need capital from the foundation.
3. Access to customers in a wider geographical range, you are unrestricted by the inhabitants of the city or country you inhabit, but there are many places beyond the borders of your country that you can target.
4. The ability to sell and communicate with customers on an ongoing basis, interact with them and receive their opinions and comments directly, helping you to know the problems they have and try to address them and develop your business to get more profits.
5. Online sales is an opportunity to start as quickly as possible in a business, as it saves the costs of establishing or renting a headquarters for sale on the ground and all the costs for facilities, such as electricity, maintenance, construction procedures, etc.
6. In online sales, various e-marketing methods are used to promote products and reach customers, such as: paid ads on social media and search engine ads, email marketing which is much more effective than traditional marketing.
7. Online sales are easy to manage and require no more effort, and measurement and tracking are easy to do because of the existence of analysis tools that make it easier to track orders, inventory, returns and customer behavior towards your products.
8. Availability of many customer service tools that help build a good relationship with customers, earn their loyalty to your products and make them permanent customers.
9. The online sale process continues all the time not to observe certain working hours, vacation days or public holidays as you receive your customers' orders any hour of the day.
10. Due to lower online product sales costs and lower e-marketing costs compared to normal sales, the rate of return on investment and the expected profit margin of sale is higher.
11. Keep up-to-date with customers' needs and demands and work to provide them, through customer inquiries that they leave both on search engines and social media pages about products.

Steps to sell products online

It's not easy to start selling products online without arranging or planning ahead and without going through clear steps.

That's why I'll show you some steps to do plus several important factors to consider until you start selling your products online.

1. Choose a field or specialize your sales

In order to ensure the success of the efforts made in the sale process you must have strong ideas for products you sell, and depend on a strong study of the commercial market and the products it needs.

And to examine the extent of demand for these products from customers, you certainly want to profit from the sale process, so there must be high demand from the public for these products.

At least initially, you need to choose niche products with little competition, that is, there are not a large number of competitors selling them.

It's not just this, you also have to identify where to get these products and rely on reliable sources.

A set of recommendations to follow when choosing a product supplier are:

• Select a number of suppliers, know the sales systems offered and choose the most suitable.
• Ensure the quality of their products, and commit to delivery.
• It is preferable to periodically ascertain the size of their product inventory.

2. Identification of target customers

The intention is to identify customers who are interested in acquiring your product because it fits their interests and needs, which is very important because it helps you identify the pain points, problems and needs that meet your potential customers to offer them the solution in the form of your product.

3. Learn how to sell products

The methods of selling products through the Internet are multiple that you can follow, and start doing your business, so we will show you some ways that you can rely on, as follows:

Method 1: Create an online store and sell through it

The e-store is a great idea that helps you sell your products online as it serves as your official online business headquarters.

This is appropriate if you own the products you will sell through; Whether you own a physical store and want to expand the scope of the business, or have the skill with which you can manufacture products and do their sale through this store.

If you don't own any products and don't have enough capital, you can set up an online store and work with the Shipping Ways system, which will save you the capital of the products and the storage place, but also shipping products to the customer.

All you need is to own an e-store and subscribe to the Dropshipping system provided by some e-commerce platforms, in which these products are displayed and the wholesaler or manufacturer sends these products to customers and you get the difference between the sale price and the purchase price.

As I noted on this point, it's all about how you do your own online store.

Now it's easier than ever. Creating an online store is very easy, and you can learn more about this through a lot of articles you'll find here on the winners' website.

For example, you can easily use some ecommerce platforms that allow you to create an integrated e-store.

It provides you with all the solutions and tools that facilitate the process of trading and selling products online. Without the need for any software experience and start showing and selling products with ease and ease.

Just everything you need to select a way to pay on your store so you can receive the money you have sold and integrate with some companies that offer shipping services so you offer your customers an integrated shopping experience.

One of the most popular of these platforms is Shopify, which is easy to use and integrate with all the tools and advantages that guarantee you a successful sale.

We will not touch much on this topic, as I will leave you this article which will be useful in starting to create your store: creating an entire e-store and showcasing your products with it.

Method 2: Commission Sale

Through this method you will not need much capital to own the products you sell, the concept of commission sale is that these products you will sell are owned by e-stores or other brands.

All your job here is to help them sell those products for a commission or a percentage of each sale.

It's a double benefit for both parties. Brands make a wider spread and get more sales for their products, and the seller gets commission for his effort in the marketing process.

In this way, the commission marketer would not risk his capital in acquiring the products and setting up a shop to sell them.

There are a range of steps you need to start:

1. Choose the product you will market to.
2. Define the characteristics of the buyer's audience for this product.
3. Being where the audience is. If it's on search engines, your marketing efforts tend to have a good source for visits to search engines, as well as on social media.

Just all you do is use different marketing strategies, such as:

• Email marketing.
• Articles and blogs.
• Video marketing.
• Facebook Grooves.
• Landing pages.

Through these strategies, the category interested in these products is targeted and relies on directing these customers to buy from the brand owner's website or e-store.

You may be wondering now how I can calculate how many products are sold on site through me and how the site knows that too. The advantage of commission sale is that you will get a link with your code to track the number of products sold through this link.

What is important to ensure you succeed in selling your commission, which you should be aware of, is:

• Product features and characteristics and target audience study so you can write content that sells your product and attracts them to make the purchase.
• Rely on funded campaigns on different platforms so you get more visits and sales deals.

Method 3: E-commerce Markets

E-commerce markets are major platforms specializing in selling products online that allow shoppers to buy through them and allow sellers to display their products through them.

The most popular markets in Egypt are Amazon - a former marketplace - and Jumia and Noon.

For example, Amazon enables you to register an account as a seller by entering all your data from name, bank account number, email, and national identity, and lists your products, page address, product description, price and all product details.

Amazon offers you several shipping options that you can choose best for you, namely:

• Shipping through Amazon: In this case your products will be stored and transferred to customers by Amazon.
• Easy shipping: In this case storage matters will be your responsibility while transportation for customers will be Amazon's responsibility.
• Self-shipping: Here you will store and transport products for customers.

Method 4: Selling products on social media

People who have just started selling online usually use Social Media to start their business, and creating a business account on Facebook or Instagram is one of the most popular methods to be followed by the majority.

There are many strategies on each platform that can be used to your advantage to generate huge sales.

For example:

1. Facebook:

There are many strategies that can be used in selling on Facebook, such as:

a) Facebook Marketplace: Facebook Product Store is a free service launched by Facebook through which traders can view their products on it with a simple description and price, customers can review the product and contact you directly to inquire about the rest of the details.

b) Creating a Facebook page: It is the common thing that the majority of owners of even service and non-profit activities do to start showing photos of their products through and interacting with the public. You can also measure the performance of your marketing effort through visions provided by Facebook.

A) Facebook Store: A modern strategy launched by Facebook enables you to create a store and link it to your online store, so that the public starts browsing its offers and completing the purchase process through the Facebook store.

d) Funded Ads: A driven strategy that enables you to target a particular audience by age, education, geographical area, interests or even place of residence through Facebook ads.

e) Facebook Pools: This strategy requires you to interact with customers on your business-related Elvis Pods who have a common interest, advise them and provide useful information on the products you provide.

But these tips are required to be given abnormally to appear as an expert in front of the public, and then you can display your products and invite them to visit your store or page to browse your products.

2. Instagram

You can rely on Instagram to sell your products through not only this but you can collect visits to your e-store through it, increase the conversion rate, deploy and promote your brand growth, and increase interaction between you and customers.

There are some useful strategies you should know, such as:

a) Instagram Store: A new feature that is now available, which is to create a store, display your products and connect the store to the Facebook store or the web store.

b) Rails: They are short videos that you can use to display the advantages of a particular product in 60 seconds.

c) Influencer Marketing: You can pay for one of the celebrities with Instagram followers to market your products.

4. Product Marketing

The fourth step with us in steps to sell products online is product marketing. Product marketing is more than just choosing or taking a step to sell your products, it is the way to grow your business, increase sales of your products and enhance your presence in the market and in customers.

This is not only about presenting products on the Internet, but also to measure and analyze your business outcomes to see your gaps, strengths and weaknesses, and to develop and improve them.

There are marketing strategies to be pursued to achieve a high percentage of sales and enhance your brand in the market and in the middle of your competitors.

These strategies include:

• Marketing using email.
• Content marketing.
• Search engine optimization.
• Marketing through social media.

It is worth noting that your way to sell online is not without challenges, which you have to expect and deal with, and that is what we will discuss at the next point.

Online Product Sales Challenges

During the sale journey you go through several steps and a lot of challenges, but you must learn what these challenges are, and how to overcome all the risks and challenges that will meet you.

These include:

1. How to make a plan to sell products online

Some beginners in selling products online are not fully aware of planning for sale and setting goals, and because the sale process is not a random process it needs to make a plan. There is also a need for some tools that help to follow a method that ensures the success of the sales process and the achievement of objectives.

2. Intense Competition

There is fierce competition for targeting customers through the Internet from both companies and entrepreneurs.

The solution is to do your utmost to make you have a competitive advantage for your brand, to offer high quality products and to focus product marketing on the benefits and advantages for the customer when owning your product.

3. Difficulty in gaining customer confidence

Consumers usually do not make the decision to buy easily and do not trust a seller from the first time, but there is a very important point you must seriously consider and manage to double your sales which is the customer's journey from realizing that your product exists to make the decision to buy and trust you and become your permanent customer.

Top tips to double the profits of selling products online

1. Make sure to provide a premium shopping experience for your customers by providing good services and products to customers, and provide an excellent shipping experience.
2. Offer special offers and discounts on products, and offer your products at special prices.
3. An important factor that helps you attract the customer is the professional and integrated product description that includes the product's characteristics, features and benefits to the customer when using it, and this requires you to study the products well.
4. Photos are the primary attraction of the customer's eye, so be careful to photograph the products professionally and high quality and highlight all angles of the product clearly and attractively so that the customer can see all the details of his product.
5. Clearly include the price before and after the discount and include all shipping information and delivery dates to make the customer aware of all the financial aspects of the product.
6. Using funded propaganda campaigns on social media and search engines, they are based on targeting a large audience that searches for your products and interests them in using them.
7. Use influencers and celebrities who have followers and provide content relevant to your products to showcase your products to their followers.
8. Periodically survey customers about the quality of services they receive via your online store, to ensure that customers are maintained and are loyal to your store, and that any mistakes that suppliers may make that are reflected in your store's reputation fade away.

Most frequently asked questions about selling products online

1. What are the benefits of selling products online?

• Low risk will not initially need significant capital but may not need capital from the foundation.
• Access to customers in a wider geographical range, you are unrestricted by the population of a particular city, but there are many places outside the borders of your country that you can target its population.

2. How do I sell products online?

1. Choose sales specialty (products to be sold).
2. Identify target customers.
3. Identify sales methods.
4. Doing marketing operations.

3. What are the ways to sell products online?

• Create an online store.
• Sale of products by commission.
• E-commerce markets.
• Sale through social media.
• Sell through email.

4. What are the challenges for vendors?

1. How to make a sales plan.
2. Strong competition between companies and entrepreneurs.
3. Difficulty gaining customer trust.

Conclusion

Selling products online is very profitable, anyone can use it to improve and develop their business or even start a new activity even if they do not have technical or business experience but only have the hoof to work and earn money through the internet.

In this article we shared with you all the information you need to start and professionalize selling products online, we hope you have benefited from it.

Share your opinion: Have you tried one of the ways to sell products online or not and which ones are more profitable?