E-Commerce is without a doubt one of the most profitable business ideas of the decade. We have seen young entrepreneurs become millionaires in this industry. Are you too motivated to start an eCommerce business? Do you wonder what to sell online?
This guide will tell you which products sell most online in the current market and how to discover the best things to sell online with proper product research and market analysis.
Before that, it’s crucial to note that eCommerce may be a multi-trillion dollar market, but it doesn’t mean that selling random stuff will take your business up in the billion-dollar club. E-Commerce is also one of the largest in terms of venture failures within the first year itself. You may know about the popular products to sell online, but that doesn’t mean all best-selling products online are an apt fit for every seller. Based on your own product, market, competition, and infrastructure research, you need to find out your own set of things to sell online.
What makes a good product to sell online?
There are N numbers of things to sell online and make money, but the most vital thing that makes or breaks an eCommerce business is the demand for the products it sells. Sometimes, you pick a trending online product and sell it to tap on the flowing river of sales. However, sometimes, you create your demands; especially when you are also the manufacturer of the products you sell.
If you can’t get through the concept of demand in, either way, you might end up investing your whole life into marketing and selling the products that don’t sell. In such a case, you would keep wondering, ‘what can I sell online to make money’.
Be advised that trends change, and so do the concept of demand with them. One year, its fidget spinners, while next might be for the printed t-shirts. Whereas, there are also some products their demand stays stable with time. Irrespective of the trends, here are five keys to finding the most profitable products to sell online at any period in time in any market:
· Profitability
When you come across a product that you think might sell well, ask yourself if it is profitable to sell that product. As a first time online seller, you might somehow uncover the ideas that seem like a great choice. You might think about your own personal views. For example, selling a product that you personally use and love will crack the code.
Trust me it’s a bad idea.
When selecting what to sell online you might consider the problems a particular product solves for you, but you shouldn’t always believe that everyone has identical problems. You are going to start an eCommerce business, not an eCommerce hobby. The most critical thing to consider is selling what makes you the most money.
For example, let’s assume you are selling fidget spinners.
You purchased the same from your supplier at $10. After adding a 20% tax, shipping cost, storage cost, packaging cost, and online payment processing fee, the cost to you is now $17 per product.
Moreover, you might consider running some Ads on search engines, social media, and display networks. Let’s take the overall Ad cost at $3 per sale. This makes your total cost per product at $20. Again, to make at least a 33% profit, you would have to sell per fidget spinner at a minimum of $30.
Now, consider this price and analyze if people are actually going to buy a fidget spinner for $30?
That’s how you can consider profitability while deciding a product to sell online. Study every outlay you make and then decide if the final price is feasible enough to land you with profits while also being competitive in the market. The key is to find a unique product that sells at high prices or minimizing every other cost to maximize your margin.
· Price point
The price point is a dual-edged sword. The price point considerations that work charmingly for one seller might just do the opposite for others. It’s a very sensitive factor and you must know the correct way around it to crack the code.
Let’s say you dropship Shirts from the UK at $0.10 each, and sell on your website at $1 per shirt. At first, it seems like a great margin of 90%. However, if you look closely, you are making only $0.90 per product, which is not an ideal cut to make you rich.
On the other side, you shouldn’t even select a high price product randomly. We don’t mind selling expensive products to maximize the actual cut, but higher the price, harder it is to convince a customer.
Say, you are selling a $10 shirt and a $2000 D-SLR. It is easier to convince a customer to purchase the shirt than the D-SLR. First, if a customer is buying a $2000 product, he or she is going to be extra careful. The buying decision in such a case comes only after checking out dozens of reviews, websites, and competitors. Moreover, the customer might also think it’s better to visit a physical store and test the product personally than trusting a web store.
Unless, the customer doesn’t have a massive amount of wealth and no time to visit a store, he or she would probably won’t make such a purchase very easily.
As per the words of hundreds of sellers we have been working with, the best things to sell online carry an average price of above $50 and below a few hundred bucks. Customers who buy such products fall above the lower-income group and don’t think extensively before making a purchase.
By choosing a product at an apt price point, you can maximize your margin and avoid the bombardment of pre-sale inquiries that do not translate into sales. This could be an ideal way to find the best things to sell online and make money.
· Size / weight
If you have just started, it’s ideal to sell lightweight products that don’t take up much space. This helps you to reduce the overall warehouse, shipping, and packaging costs. Subsequently, with time and optimization, you might also be able to offer free shipping services to your customers, which is an ideal way to increase conversion rates and prevent shopping cart abandonment.
Selling non-bulky products also make it easier to expand your target areas and sell overseas. However, it’s wise to start with the domestic market and keep the expansion down the road for a year or two. One pro tip to sell profitably in both local and overseas markets is to use dropshipping. Although the margins are comparatively lower in the dropshipping model, you would be able to save on the costs of warehouses and logistics here. It’s an ideal way to start an eCommerce business without owning an inventory if you can’t decide what should I sell on my eCommerce website.
· Popularity
No doubt, trending products sell well in every market. However, how to know which products are trending? Well, you can get an idea by observing your local market, but this is not the only way. There are online tools that you can use and improvise to detect trending products to sell online.
You can browse the big eCommerce marketplaces like Amazon, BestBuy, eBay, Etsy, and Walmart and see the most popular products there. All of these sites have dedicated pages where they display their popular products; you can check them. You can also browse dedicated websites that specialize in detecting eCommerce trends.
Besides, Google itself provides tons of information via its tools. For example, Google trends for general research, and Google webmaster tool for deeper, keyword-based research.
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Google trends let you filter your research based on crucial factors such as time, related keywords, location of the trend, and legacy demand over an extended period in time.
For example, you already know that many reports suggest the market of vapes and e-cigarettes will grow by over 61 billion by 2025. You can research them on Google trends and find what to sell online in the Vaping niche. Using this data, you can also club many medium-priced vaping accessories, which are more likely to increase in demand as vaping as a whole is trending. This particular method will let you not only tap on trending products but also find various related products.
· Competitiveness
This particular factor shakes the effectiveness of all the above considerations. It doesn’t matter how profitable it seems, how much is the expected margin, how easy it is to ship, or which product is trending, if you are not competitive with your prices, product quality, shipping, and exclusivity, it’s tough to survive the heat from your rivals.
However, that doesn’t mean you should start selling a product so unique that no one has even used it before. It’s great if you can create a demand for your unique product, but it’s a long shot aim and not favorable for starting as a small seller. On the other side, it also doesn’t mean you should sell something that is trending but also sold by hundreds of other sellers.
Take printed t-shirts for example. Thousands of sellers sell millions of printed t-shirts. Although they are in demand, it’s not easy to stay competitive selling mass-produced generic printed t-shirts. Alternatively, if you can secure an exclusive right to design or print that is trending, you can make profits from the same niche.
Take the following Google trends analysis of two keywords –printed t-shirts and superman shirts for instance.
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Both have a very similar trend. Therefore, instead of focusing on generally printed t-shirts, if you can acquire an exclusive right to related but niched products, you would get better chances to tap on the full potential of the trend.
So find a product that is in-demand but not generic or massively produced. Unless, you can afford to slash your margin to almost nil, avoid such products. The same product research tactic in the previous step will help you identify unique but trending product ideas.
Be advised that price is a powerful determiner of competitiveness. Irrespective of the products, you should always try to keep the prices lowest, but without hampering your profit margin. Choosing a niche could be an ideal way to stay competitive and find the most profitable products to sell online.
What to Sell Online: 25 best-selling products online
The above ways will help you come up with products as per your individual circumstances. However, if you are still unsure of what is the best product to sell online, we have prepared a list for you. These are some trending product ideas to sell in 2020:
1. Vegan Supplements
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A few years ago, the Atkins diet was a trend and related products soared in demand. Then came the time of Paleo and Keto diets. These diets are still in fashion, but Vegan life is all in the bigger rage these days. From vegan food to wallets and belts made from Vegan leathers, the vegan supplements are the biggest in demand. Here is what Google trends suggest about the vegan supplements and other vegan products in the current market, especially the Collagen supplements:
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It’s not that only Vegan diets are trending, the market is equally raging with all kinds of vegan related products. You can see that above in the yellow-colored graphical trend. Think about your vegan product ideas today.
Useful information: Vegan Supplements
- Search Volume: 3600
- SEO Difficulty: 50
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $2.63
2. Enamel Pins
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It has been some time since enamel pins got into trend. Interestingly, they are still in demand, as people love jazzing up outfits and accessories with them. Some of the biggest reasons for adopting this trend for your eCommerce product idea are their compact size and inexpensiveness, which encourage customers to purchase multiple items at a time.
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The trends in 2020 are exceptional. Tapping on the correct market with enamel pins will definitely be a wise idea. The demands have only been increasing over the past 5 years, and they do not seem to end anytime sooner.
Yet another interesting information is search trends for ‘how-to’ topics are soaring these days.
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It seems like entrepreneurs are catching up with the trend and looking for ways to manufacture and sell custom enamel pins. The B2B sector for these products is also developing rapidly.
Useful information: Enamel Pins
- Search Volume:33,100
- SEO Difficulty: 58
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $4.14
3. Beard Oil/cream/wax
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Women’s beauty products have always been a trend, but the men too are spending heavily is skincare and hair products these days. One such trending product idea in 2020 is beard oil. However, beard-care products are not limited to beard oil alone. There has been a great demand for beard creams, beard wax, and beard washes products too.
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These products are in great demand, especially in the festive seasons when people look for gift ideas for men. You can notice this in the regular peaks in the graph above.
Useful information: Beard products
- Search Volume: 6,600
- SEO Difficulty: 50
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $2.06
4. Messenger Bag
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Messenger bags have been in a stable demand for a very long time. Since the time they came in trend, there has been a very stable slope of high demands. Due to its unisex nature, a messenger bad gets the benefits of demands from both the genders.
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You can see this clearly that messenger bags topics have always trended much higher than laptop bags, which is actually a big in-demand product in the eCommerce sector. Selling messenger bags could be a big profitable idea, especially when you can tap on niches like vegan leather messenger bags.
Useful information: Messenger bags
- Search Volume: 60,500
- SEO Difficulty: 67
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $0.81
5. Korean Skincare
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Skincare products are all-time trends. However, the recent few years have marked a big spike in the demands of Korean Skincare products. Korean beauty products are known for their quality to provide flawless skin. This could be a great time to tap on this niche and start selling Korean skincare products. Just check out this massive search volume growth.
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Although the margins are not great when you are importing from a big brand, you can increase the same if you can find a way to white-label and sell under your own brand. The competition is already soaring up. Therefore, don’t just jump into the market immediately, look for ways to beat the competition and minimize the overhead costs first if you want to find the most profitable products to sell online in this niche.
Useful information: Korean Skincare
- Search Volume:4,400
- SEO Difficulty: 50
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $1.33
6. Menstrual Cups
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If you are a woman, you know what menstrual cups are for billions of other women out there. These useful women products replace tampons and sanitary pads. Although we have been seeing them in the US for a long time, they have gone popular only recently in many developing countries.
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If you are aiming for the personal care market, menstrual cups are a profitable investment with stable demand in the west, while growing rapidly in the developing nations as well. These are small and easy to ship products with great potential in both the domestic and overseas markets.
Useful information: Menstrual Cups
- Search Volume: 165,000
- SEO Difficulty: 78
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $0.69
7. Baby Care
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The global baby care products are expecting a CAGR of 5.2% for the period of 2019 – 2024. This market constitutes all kinds of baby care and baby healthcare products. From skin products to nutritional foods, you can tap on a very big catalog of stable demands.
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The search volume graph looks periodic. However, if you look carefully, the interest has never come below 50-100 mark, which is a sign that it’s a highly discussed topic. Be advised that baby care is a highly sensitive market with loads of regulations. You have to be extra careful about the brands you get in terms of the supplies.
8. Clogs
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Cosmopolitan publications termed clogs as the newest shoe trend of 2019. They were correct, and interestingly, the trend continues in 2020. From men to women and unisex clogs, people are talking about them and stores are popping up with trending designs every week.
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These chunky shoes are catching the attention in every niche, right from fast-fashion to daily use summer clogs and wool-padded comfortable clogs. There has been never a better time to welcome clogs on your online store.
Useful information: Clogs
- Search Volume:74,000
- SEO Difficulty: 84
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $0.95
9. Bluetooth Speakers
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Although the demand for Bluetooth speakers hasn’t created any chaos, the biggest reason to sell these in 2020 is the stability in their demands. Since the time they became prominent, they have managed to secure a decent space in the discussions.
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They might not be the coolest thing on the internet these days, but reports do suggest that the wireless speakers market is going through a CAGR of 10%, which will boost it to acquire the $31 Billion mark by 2023. Moreover, the market for wireless outdoor speakers has also been quite stable. A combination of both portable and medium-sized wireless speakers would make a great catalog in 2020.
Useful information: Bluetooth Speakers
- Search Volume: 246,000
- SEO Difficulty: 78
- Paid Difficulty: 100
- CPC: $1.35
10. E-Cigarettes
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Vapes have been controversial, but also at the same time, they give some hot topics of discussion. It’s a tricky job, as it is illegal to sell vapes in many regions. Nevertheless, if it is legal to sell them in your region, go for them, as there has been a massive outbreak of their demand, especially in the US.
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According to various reports, the business of vapes and e-cigarettes will raise up to 61 billion by 2025. If you are still in doubt about a profitable product to sell online, the Vaping could be the niche you can tap onto with not just e-cigarettes but also a catalog of many low and medium-priced vaping accessories. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the keyword analytics for e-cigarettes and vapes on the tools I have. However, if you see the search trends in the above graph, it is clear that there is a clad trend.
15 more trending products to sell online
Besides the above-given popular products to sell online, the following 15 products are some of the best-selling items in 2020. They too can land you with unprecedented profits with proper marketing and business strategies:
11. Subscription Boxes
12. Organic Tea
13. Pet Food
14. USB Type C Cable
15. Wireless Earphones
16. Led Light Strips
17. Fashion Dolls
18. Vinyl Wrap
19. Door Camera
20. Tooth Brush Holder
21. Showerhead
22. Smart wearables
23. Rear camera
24. Neon clothes
25. Imitation Jewelry
Where to Sell Things Online?
Once you have the idea of the products you want to sell online, the next big thing is setting up an ideal storefront for it. You can utilize one, two, or all of the following three major platforms to set up your online store:
Setting Up Your Online Store
You can build your own eCommerce website and sell on it. You don’t even have to develop your website from scratch. There are several ready-made solutions to build eCommerce websites; you can use any of them. To name a few-
- You can use an open-source eCommerce platform, such as WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Magento, and OpenCart.
- You can set up your store on a SaaS-based eCommerce platform, such as Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce, Wix, and Volusion.
- You can use a turnkey solution like our Genstore script and get the benefits of built-in features with open source code access. Genstore is a self-hosted multi-vendor eCommerce platform.
Selling on Amazon
Alternatively, if you don’t want to build your site, or you want to leverage the power of the marketplace model with your existing eCommerce website, you can set up a storefront on a popular marketplace like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, or Alibaba.
You just need to sign up as a seller on these sites and you can start selling on the go. You can even synchronize your existing eCommerce website and its products directly with your marketplace dashboard. In this way, you will be selling both on your website and on Amazon right from a single dashboard. We call it marketplace integration, supported by all major marketplace sites. Analyze Amazon’s catalog carefully if you want to find the best items to sell online to make money.
Selling on Facebook
Social media too has nowadays become a massive marketplace. You can sell on the Facebook marketplace. Facebook marketplace lets you list your products and also setup Ad campaigns for them. There isn’t an option for on-site online payment as of now. Customers contact the sellers and sellers arrange payment channels for their products.
However, despite this limitation, Facebook’s marketplace is growing rapidly, and businesses are using it extensively for marketing and promotion of their products. You too can set up your Facebook marketplace and list your stores’ products on it for enhanced visibility.
Conclusion
Be advised that all these products have recorded there sales figures and trends under diverse business models. The profits associated with selling them depend critically on business strategies, business models, conversion optimization, and experience on the website/application. A sale is not a mere result of putting some popular products to sell online in your catalog. You have to work equally hard to build your store with the finest features and customer-friendly policies along with a cutting-edge marketing plan.