85% of beginner entrepreneurs fail in the world of internet sales due to not knowing how to choose the right business model or not knowing the basics of internet sales.
There are many types of profitable online businesses so if you want to earn income online selling online through a platform you should ask yourself these questions: "What to sell?", "To whom to sell?" and "How to sell?"
All large companies do their market research before launching something new to sell. In this way they ensure that there will be online sales even before investing in the manufacture of the product. If there is no demand or competition, it is because there is no market there.
Doing a market study is not difficult. You just have to search, ask or do surveys to see if your product or service is in sufficient demand.
Another good option is to see if there is already someone on the market offering your idea; and of course pay attention to social networks, that's where you can see the trends of the moment.
Do not forget to use Google Trends to detect market trends based on the words you put.
In general, the most widely used platforms for selling online are:
A professional blog
Use a website with a blog full of articles about your products. At this point it is important the quality of the hosting service and that you have your own domain. In both cases they are an aspect that the consumer does not demand directly, but generates a barrier to the sales process.
Online stores
Ecommerce has become very fashionable. Here the first decision is whether it is convenient to offer this product on a social platform (For example MercadoLibre) where all the competition is and you can only compete for price. There are platforms that offer the store as a service (For example Tienda Nube), that option is more successful in a differentiation sales strategy, but it is worth bearing in mind that it has high commission costs per sale and functional limitations. Finally, opting for the acquisition of your own ecommerce, this in the long term is the best alternative since it does not have commission costs, they are more flexible in assembling the purchase flow and (usually) allow the integration of external tools for control stock, delivery validation, etc.
A YouTube channel
If you get to have a considerable audience it is one of the best ways to sell online. But this does not mean that you should have a platform of your own.
A landing page
Combining it with advertising such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads is the best way to generate online sales with the lowest initial capital investment, these types of pages are the fastest to launch and with minimal maintenance. The main disadvantage, when pausing advertising, traffic and sales are paused. In other words, it does not have organic traffic traction.
Social networks
If you only want to sell using social networks, you must first focus on having a considerable number of followers and that they are of quality. This method is ideal for small entrepreneurs to test the demand for their products. But taking into account that once the product demand, the price level, the logistics ... have been validated, you must have your own site that gives your brand its identity on the web.
