■No need to touch, smell, or even see clearly. Products that really require a close view generally don’t sell well online. That’s why it’s hard to sell furniture online and difficult to sell unique works of art or perfume. And that’s why well-known brands can sell online . . . because people know what they’re getting. In other words, although it’s hard to sell perfume that your potential buyers have never smelled, it’s not hard to sell
perfume from Christian Dior.
■ High value products are good. You may do better selling a $500 product than a $5 product. You’ll have less competition—making it easier to compete using Pay Per Click and in natural search—and will make much higher “margins” (gross profit). Low-price products can be very difficult to deal with online. Think very seriously before selling anything below, say, $50, unless you’re pretty sure you can really pump
out high volumes.
■Junk is hard to sell. This may sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many merchants just post any kind of junk online and hope to make a business out of it. Mass produced statuettes of kittens from China, junk jewelry, handicrafts from the wilds of Wisconsin . . .come on, you can do better!
■ Products you understand and love. These are easier to sell. If you have a passion for skydiving, there’s a natural business for you selling skydiving products. Having said all that, it’s important to realize that every rule can be broken. Groceries can be sold online, for instance. Diamonds, products that most jewelers would say need to be looked at carefully before purchase, are selling very well online. And though Furniture.com crashed and the big grocery-store sites (PeaPod.com and WebVan.com) went down with it, some companies are selling furniture online and some companies are selling groceries online. (PeaPod, for instance, was bought up by a grocery chain.) So, you can break the rules. But you’d better have a good
reason to believe that it will work.
