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Feb 08, 2021 - 12:08 PM
Gone are the days when one had to do some heavy lifting in order to sell things. The digital evolution has seen changes in the way trade is done and it's become extremely easy to sell a variety of items. Even if you are an extremely small store or just want to sell one item, you will find a great solution.
If you only want a ‘buy button’ on your website the simplest solution is PayPal. Using PayPal’s buy button/cart also helps with conversion rate because buyers who use PayPal don’t have to enter their credit card!
Otherwise, the other great solution would be to find an already existing marketplace, take a few pictures of your item, write a nice description and wait.
An added benefit of doing this is you can ‘borrow’ their trust. Your no name website with a buy button selling just one item has a significantly lower chance of making a sale compared to an established marketplace.
Four Good Online Marketplaces for Physical GoodsFollowing are some places where you can sell as many or as few goods as you want.
These marketplaces let you open a shop, give it a name, upload your product, link your parent method, and sit back to see which customers will come looking.
They include:
• Facebook Marketplace is hosted on the popular social media platform Facebook and displays photographs of items that have been listed for sale near you. People can search for specific items or browse in particular categories so you have to make sure to place your item for sale in the right category and with the correct description.
• eBay will let you upload a product to sell and setting up the ship is a very easy process. They take a cut of your final sale and may have a small monthly charge depending on how many items you have listed. Because of its popularity, you are assured of many people potentially seeing your item if you write a good description.
Image source: Freepik
• Etsy is mostly for handmade and vintage products so if your item is in this category, check them out. You will have to open a shop and pay a flat fee for each item you list; a few cents at most. After setting up your shop and uploading your item following the prompts to make sure your description and images are good, you will be live and can send the shop link to social media pages to try and market it a bit if you like.
• Craigslist is not really a shop because its purpose is to host classified ads covering a wide category from job postings and services to items for sale. Many people browse it and so you will be sure to get quite some views as long as you describe it well and put it in the right category.
Digital Goods MarketplacesThese next options will work perfectly for you if you have a digital product as opposed to a physical one so think eBooks, subscriptions, plans, memberships, tutorials etc.
Their premise is pretty simple: create a store, upload your item and write a description for it, add your parent method, then wait for the next customer who will come looking for your product and sell. Simple enough, right?
Here's a brief outline of six such marketplaces:
• SendOwl is a great platform that uses popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Drip, Convertkit, Applepay, and many more.
According to their site, all you need to do is to create and upload your product(s) from which point they take over. They integrate your product with payment gateways, create a conversion-optimised checkout, ensure your digital product is delivered, then you get paid.
• E-junkie lets you either copy and paste a link to sell digital media on any website or create a shop easily and start selling. With this platform you can even paste the link on eBay and market it there.
Image source: E-junkie
• Sellfy actually lets you sell both digital products and merchandise so you can set your store up in five minutes and upload your item. Make sure to add the right payment method then have your item added to the Sellfy store where it will be placed in front of plenty of prospective customers.
• Gumroad is the final platform and it allows creators to upload and sell their digital handiwork. In existence since 2011, it's an easy task to set up and they let you use Facebook or Twitter to sign up. After this, add your product and write some details about it then sit back and wait for a notification when your item sells.
A Good Description is KeyAs you've probably noticed by now, the most important thing you need to do besides finding a good platform for your item is getting a good description for it. How you describe it is what will inspire clicks and help the algorithms funnel more people your way so give it good thought.
Don't spend too much time overthinking and trying to find the perfect option. Since these marketplaces mostly lack an upfront fee, you can pick one and see how much traction you get, or even upload your product to a few of them at once.
Just be sure to pull down the item or archive it once you sell it on one platform to avoid people trying to buy it after it's already gone!
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