9 Proven Ways to Make Money Via E-commerce
— No. 8 is Something You Never Knew Existed
E-commerce in simple terms is selling products through the internet. Customers place orders online and receive their goods either digitally or physically.
The various ways of earning through e-commerce have their uniqueness, it is possible to earn thousands of dollars and up to millions from them. It all depends on how big and profitable you can grow them.
Now, let’s dive right in!
The Two E-commerce Pathways
When starting your journey of making money off e-commerce, you can take two paths.
(1) The First Path is building your brand/business on an existing platform (example: Amazon, Gumroad, eBay, etc). This means making use of their existing business infrastructure. Of course, you pay either upfront or share revenue.
(2) The Second Path is building your brand from scratch where you will have to create an internet presence from the ground up and handle all other business needs yourself.
Each path has its pros and cons the choice is yours to make.
9 Proven Ways to Make Money Via E-commerce
1) Sell Digital Products/Businesses
Digital products are intangible goods delivered as digital files or software over the internet. Some examples include eBooks, templates, apps/software, courses, etc. Selling digital goods requires little to no inventory and no shipping/logistics involved. Also, there is no recurring cost of goods. All these allow for a high-profit margin on sales. In addition, the whole sales process can easily be automated and scaled.
Where to Sell Digital Products:
You can choose to set up your own sales funnel any way you wish. Or you can choose to sell using already established platforms —
- General: Etsy, Gumroad, Sellfy, Creativefabrica, Payhip, etc
- For Courses: Thinkific, Teachable, Creativelive, Udemy, etc.
- For Software: Appsumo, Flippa, etc
Where to Sell Digital Businesses:
- Empireflippers, Flippa, etc
Fun fact: Digital entrepreneurs collectively earn around $2,274,585 per week on Gumroad (as of the time of publication).
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2) Sell Print-on-Demand (POD) Goods
How this works is that when a customer views the product on your website (e-store) and places an order, the Print-On-Demand company you have partnered with will print your designs on the product(s), pack, and ship it to the customer.
Most Print-On-Demand companies deal with easy-to-print products such as t-shirts, hoodies, bags, phone cases, laptop sleeves, mugs, books, shoes, and fan merch.
You choose a Print-on-demand(POD) partner to get started (Printful is recommended). They handle everything from the printing of goods to the final shipping to customers. Printful allows you to link to customers on your website and even platforms like Amazon, Etsy and shopify,
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3) Sell Handmade Products
Thanks to the e-commerce world, you can turn your artistic skills into a money-generating online business by selling handmade products.
These products include Accessories, Artwork, Baby Wear, Beauty & Personal Care, Clothing, Shoes & Handbags, Home, Outdoor & Home Care, Jewelry & Watches, Kitchen & Dining, Pet Supplies, Sporting Goods, Stationery & Party Supplies, and Toys & Games.
Where to Sell Handmade Products:
- Amazon Handmade
- Etsy
- Your website
- Made It
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4) E-commerce Referral/Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is promoting other brands’ products after which you’ll get a commission when a sale happens. You can choose to do this from your website, social media handles, or even word of mouth. Many brands across the world have affiliate programs, yes nearly all major brands have as well.
Where to Find Affiliate Programs:
- Brands websites: eBay, Walmart, Nike, Microsoft etc
- Affiliate networks: Clickbank, Flexoffers, Awin, CJ, etc
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5) Dropshipping
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This is very similar to print-on-demand, the difference is that this is not for just printables. Here is how dropshipping typically works: — The customer places an order from your online store.
(i) Your store automatically sends the order to your dropshipping supplier
(ii) Your dropshipping supplier prepares your customer’s order.
(iii) Your dropshipping supplier ships the order directly to the customer. It is possible to make thousands of dollars in profit from a dropping business. However, a dropping shipping business is one with many moving parts so do proper learning and possibly get mentoring.
Here are Some Valuable Resources:
- www. shopify. com/blog/how-to-start-dropshipping
- https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/how-to-start-a-dropshipping-business/
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6) Sell Digital Creative Works
This involves selling works that are born out of your digital creative ingenuity. These can be stock images, graphic art (illustrations, vectors, etc), NFTs, digital artworks, videos, music, beats/instrumentals, and more. Recurring royalties can be earned from some kinds of creative works. There are several platforms where this can be sold. Be sure to sell only works that you are the original author of.
Where to Sell Digital Creative Works:
- Photography/Images:- Shutterstock. Getty Images, Dreamstime, Adobe Stock, etc
- Graphic works:- CreativeFabrica, Vecteezy, etc
- Videos: Videezy, Adobe Stock, etc
- Music: Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, Audiomack, Amazon Music, etc
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7) E-commerce Reselling
Online reselling is an exciting opportunity for new and experienced entrepreneurs, especially if you don’t want to research and develop your products.
You can resell second-hand and specialty items or wholesale products through third-party platforms like eBay and your e-commerce storefront. You start simply creating your e-commerce storefront using platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and the like, or create one from scratch.
Established E-commerce Reselling platforms:
- eBay
- Decluttr [musicmagpie (UK Market)]
- Poshmark
- Swappa, etc
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8) Subscription Boxes
A subscription box is a type of product kitting in which multiple products are shipped to customers on a recurring basis. This can be a very competitive line of business. However, choosing a niche where you have strengths in your skills and passion can give you some advantages.
Examples are:
- Beauty subscription boxes
- Food subscription boxes
- Shaving supply subscription boxes
- Pet subscription boxes
Where to sell subscription boxes
- Crate Joy (Sell.cratejoy.com)
- Amazon (https://sell. amazon. com/programs/subscription-boxes)
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9) Sell on Major E-commerce Platforms
Launching and running an e-commerce business is a huge mission. There are piles of tasks to perform — creating a website, selecting products, managing shipping, payment options, marketing, and many others can all be tiring, especially if you are a beginner.
Big and powerful third-party e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, Walmart, Etsy, etc., can simplify the whole journey for you. They do this by taking the major difficult work of setting up an independent e-commerce site off your plate — displaying products, taking orders, collecting payments, shipping orders, and tracking the delivery.
These big companies employ state-of-the-art e-commerce tools, expert marketers, and brilliant developers to showcase your products across the world of millions of customers.
It is a mutual win-win situation. A point to note is that these big platforms host websites and manage third-party sales in exchange for a small fee, vendors connect with the intent-driven audience to sell products more easily.
