By max July 19, 2023
The market for digital products has been growing exponentially. These products might not be tangible, but they carry significant value and are fairly easy to sell. There’s relatively less overhead cost and no inventory involved in digital products, making them a suitable option for businesses that lack space for inventory.
Likewise, for those who don’t have the capital needed to start a business with a brick-and-mortar store and physical goods, digital items can be a great alternative. And these are profitable. You just need to do the marketing well, and these products will sell in large numbers. If you are also planning to sell digital products online, this guide is for you. We’ve compiled a list of the digital products you can sell, the selling platforms, and some creative ideas to increase your conversions. Let’s get started.
What are Digital Products?
Digital products are non-tangible items that you can’t use physically, but people consume them regularly. Examples include video streaming, audio, downloadable files, software applications, digital art, and templates. The Netflix subscription service, for instance, is a digital product. It doesn’t have a physical presence but is used online by millions of users worldwide.
Since there’s no physical product, you don’t need a warehouse to manage the inventory or transport them to the customer’s destination. It saves you considerably in the product packaging, shipping, and delivery cost. For instance, an eBook that’s available as a downloadable file doesn’t need any physical storage, shipping, or packaging. You can show a few pages of the book as a sample and send the complete book to the buyer over email.
Sell Digital Products Online – The Popular List
You can set up your online store in a few minutes and start to sell digital products online immediately. The process is much easier, cheaper, and faster than the brick-and-mortar stores that take months before the owner commences the business. If you are confused about which digital product can generate the best results, we’ve listed a few interesting and lucrative options that are in high demand lately.
Online Courses
You may have come across online courses in different niches on Udemy, Coursera, and other educational platforms. These courses are published by experts that specialize in a particular field and help people learn new skills. Today’s generation prefers online courses, especially part-time workers and students that want to pursue a new skill but don’t have much time to attend school in a physical setting.
The income from the educational market is projected to reach a whopping $166.60 billion in 2023. So, there’s plenty of scope in selling courses online. If you are an expert in any topic, such as finance, digital marketing, coding, cooking, singing, or two languages, you can build a digital course and sell it. These courses can target anyone, from a high-school student to a part-time employee who wants to switch careers.
Templates
People no longer create cover letters, resumes, applications, and other creative letters from scratch. They use a ready-made template to fill the blank fields with their details and forward them to their clients. If you are passionate about designing or have knowledge of creating templates for business cards, brochures, resumes, and advertising materials, you can sell them for a fixed price. Customizable templates that can be reused for different purposes can sell easily.
Ebooks
Another digital product that sells in large numbers is eBook. Readers prefer these electronic books because of their convenience. They can read just about any book on their smartphones, laptops, tab, and other devices. These are portable, meaning you just need your smartphone and you can read them while traveling, at work, or wherever you like. It’s much better for frequent travelers and avid readers. Instead of carrying multiple books on the road, they can just download their favorites on their mobile.
Ebooks are not just convenient for readers, but they are equally interesting and lucrative for publishers. If you have a knack for writing, you can publish fictional and non-fictional eBooks on a variety of topics. Besides, you get a lot of flexibility when it comes to publication. You can proofread it on your own and publish it within minutes. All that’s needed is a reputable eBook-selling platform where you can list your eBook with the title and price, and you are good to go. You can also sell it on your website, landing page, or social media.
Services
Freelancing has become a new standard today. People love the idea of working from the comfort of their homes and taking up as much work as they can. The flexible timings and the freedom to work from anywhere sound incredibly tempting and far more flexible than a 9-5 job. So, those who specialize in any digital services, like graphic designing, content writing, virtual assistant, digital marketing, search engine optimization, and more can offer these services on freelancing platforms. That’s another example of a digital service you can sell.
Photography and Digital Art
Photography is a good business idea for freelancers and those who prefer selling digital goods online. Like other digital items, it doesn’t require any inventory or investment. If you have a camera and good photography skills, you can publish your photos on Shutterstock and other photography websites. They pay you for every picture that sells on its platform. If you don’t want the middleman, you can sell the photos and digital art on your eCommerce website.
Subscription and Membership
A subscription or membership business is a great idea for generating recurring payments. You can offer an online gym membership where you offer a training course to your subscribers and regular gym sessions online. Or, you can offer a newsletter subscription. The options are countless. The best example of a subscription-based service provider is Netflix. The company charges a fixed monthly or annual fee for allowing streaming access to its subscribers.
In addition to these digital products, you can earn from selling downloads, software products, and mobile apps.
Tips for Selling Digital Products Online
Digital products are famous for their convenience and the easy-to-sell process. You don’t need to be a tech-savvy user or possess any special technical knowledge to enter this market. We’ve explored some tips for selling these products online. Let’s take a look.
Find the Right Digital Product
Start with brainstorming digital product ideas. You need to select a product you will offer. It might sound tempting to sell multiple products, but it’s best to stick to a single category when starting. Look for something that has a huge market and room for a new business to grow.
Most importantly, you must consider your expertise to find out a product that suits your requirements and is relevant to your skills and qualifications. For instance, if you have enough knowledge of digital marketing and you think you can teach others how to grow their businesses, consider selling digital marketing courses that cover all vital components of marketing and offer extensive knowledge in this subject.
Develop Your Online Store
You have two options. You can either list your product in a popular marketplace, such as Amazon KDP, or you can develop your own eCommerce store where you can display the full catalog of the products you’d like to sell. You need a merchant account to accept credit and debit card payments on your eCommerce store.
If creating a website from scratch sounds too complex and time consuming, you can try Shopify and BigCommerce. These are eCommerce store-building platforms that provide you with the tools to build your customized eCommerce store with simple drag-and-drop features and amazing color schemes.
Display Your Products
For those offering a single product, you can easily import the item saved locally on your computer to your eCommerce store. If there are multiple products, such as different courses, you can add them at once. Most eCommerce platforms allow you to upload the entire product catalog in one click, making it easy to list your products. You can also customize your store settings to make them relevant to your brand and ensure brand consistency across all digital channels.
Marketing is Crucial
So, you have an online store, a digital product to sell, and everything organized on the eCommerce platform. But how do you inform your target audience about your services? Or, how do you bring them to your store? Fortunately, marketing is easy.
You can use search engine optimization, social media marketing, PPC advertising, influencer marketing, and other ways to get enough exposure. Your ultimate goal is to bring organic traffic to your eCommerce store and get them to buy your digital product/service. You can run a Google ad campaign and use email marketing to attract the attention of your audience. Giveaways can also bring people to your store.
Bottom Line
The digital market offers convenience and some exciting opportunities to grow for merchants. Due to the high demand for these products, people are starting the business of digital products. Hopefully, the above ideas might help you launch a store that helps you grow your virtual business seamlessly.