What Are The Best Products to Sell Online to Make Money?

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The first step to starting a profitable eCommerce business is choosing the right product to sell online.

If you are ready to start an online business, you might be wondering what are the best products to sell online to make money?

There certainly is a huge number of possibilities, but narrowing them down is not as difficult as you might think if you stick to key points.

Sometimes inspiration can hit from real life, like it did with Sweet & Spark when they started a very successful and profitable business selling jewelry products.

But sometimes there are just too many ideas! So what should you do when looking for a product to sell online?

The first thing you should do is research. Look into product options for selling online. Brainstorm a bunch of ideas and then learn everything you can about them.

Use the product selling guide below to help you know what to look for and how to evaluate the best products to sell online.

Here is what to look for when choosing the best products to sell online and some specific examples:

Below is a guide to help guide you choose the top selling products for your eCommerce business!

Product Profitability

Find the most profitable products to sell online to make money — The best products to sell online are the ones with high profit margin

You should definitely understand the profit margin on a product before you launch an online business. If the cost of goods you will have in something vs. the price you can sell it for only leaves a few cents of profit it won’t be worth your time.

As a first-time online retailer, you may feel that you want to sell a product you personally love or use. But you should approach everything from a smart business sense. Don’t just choose something that you love for the sake of that alone.

Choose a product that you are going to make several dollars on each time you sell it! Ideally, you can find a product you feel passionate about that also has a good potential profit margin.

Make it worth your while, and increase your chances of strong revenue and success. Review what wholesalers are selling products for vs. what you can charge consumers.

Find an item that has an inherently good margin so that you can pocket the most profit possible on each sale.

Do your research to find the most profitable products to sell online.

Here are a few top selling products online that are high in profitability:

If you are looking for the most profitable product to sell online, this list should give you a starting point. Any of these options would be good.

To get started sourcing any of these products from dropshippers or wholesalers I highly recommend Salehoo.

Jewelry

Jewelry is low cost wholesale which means high margin and high profit for selling.

Jewelry also doesn’t require a lot of space for inventory since it is so small. Which means you can even store it in your house for selling.

The average margin is $5-$35 which means there is a lot of possible profit. One of the downsides to selling this product however is that there is a lot of competition in the market.

Beauty Products

There is always going to be a market for beauty products. And it is a big market! While there is a lot of competition with selling beauty products, there is a lot of profit to be made.

The average margin is anywhere from $5 to $25. You can check wholesale prices on Salehoo.

Kid’s Toys

Another highly profitable product to sell is kid’s toys. The margin is big as is the market.

It is however a marketplace dominated by some big brands that are hard to compete with. Average margin is $10-$30.

Phone Accessories

A profitable niche product to sell is phone accessories. Anything from phone cases to chargers and even apple watch bands.

Margin is typically from $3-$15 and best of all, there isn’t as much competition or big brand names in this product marketplace.

Check out the options for wholesalers on Salehoo.

Pet Care Supplies

The average margin for pet products is anywhere from $5 to $50. $50 margin on a product sale is a ton of profit!

There are of course a lot of big name brands like Chewy that are difficult to compete with though. Source products on Salehoo.

Active wear

Another profitable product to sell online is active wear, also known as athleisure wear. Basically, it is just what you wear when you work out.

Brands like Lululemon have shown how popular active wear is. Expect to make $5-$15 in profit margin.

Popularity: What Products are in High Demand?

One of the best things to sell online is anything that is popular. Obviously the more popular an item is, the more you will be able to sell it.

Do some research on products to sell online before you choose one. Figure out what is popular so that you can sell a product with built-in demand.

There is a list below of some of the most popular products to sell online which we have compiled for you. But you can also do some of your own in-depth research on hot products.

Online sites to help research product popularity

You should also use google to research popular products to sell online. Once you have a list of potential product options, run them through Google Trends.

This will show you how many people are searching for that product! Figuring out what products are in high demand will help set your business up for success.

You can plug in your favorite potential products to sell online and compare the search volume for each to get an idea of the available market and potential sales volume. Check out this in-depth article on how to calculate market demand.

One thing to keep in mind when researching products is customer pain points. If you can sell a product that solves a problem for your customer’s it will have some inherent value and popularity.

If you are really stuck even coming up with product ideas in the first place, read this article on 17 places to look for product ideas from Shopify.

A few of the most popular Products to sell online:

Subscription Boxes
Shapeware
Skin Care
Fashion and Clothing (T-shirts are a hot item!)
Yoga Mats
Face Masks
Water Bottles
Exercise Bands
Laptop skins
Board Games

*Bonus tip: If you have found some popular products, do some research on “related products.” It will potentially expand the options for you. You may be able to find a product to sell that you love that is also profitable and popular!

Niche Products to sell Online

Niche items can create high demand sales — A top selling product online can be a niche item

Choosing a niche product can actually be smart for business. While the target market might be smaller, they are usually highly engaged. Plus, it makes marketing to a specific group of people more cost-efficient with better ROI.

In addition, a niche market may have less competition, making it easier for you to create a volume of product sales.

Here are 3 niche products to sell online:

Shapewear

A good example of a niche product is shapewear which you probably already know is tight fitting undergarments that can help slim you. Spanx is the most recognizable name in the industry.

This industry is on the rise and expected to continue to grow. According to Grandview Research, the global shapewear market size was estimated at 2.43 billion USD in 2019 and is expected to reach 2.62 billion USD in 2020. So there is plenty of room for sales!

All-natural beauty products

There has been an increase in awareness and concern over toxins in food and now in beauty products. People want to use products that are safe and healthy to use.

The nice thing about the all-natural niche, is there are a lot of available product options. You can focus on skin care, or makeup, whatever you are most interested in. If you want to be really adventurous, create your very own line of all-natural beauty products or skin care!

Eco-friendly Products

Another niche product that is a good choice for selling online right now is anything eco-friendly. With climate change becoming increasingly obvious, many consumers are trying to purchase more responsibly.

Eco-friendly water bottles, cleaning supplies or even solar powered toys are not only great niche products to sell, but are also trending in popularity.

Aside from the obviously popular products, are “the next big thing” products.

Find products that are just starting to trend. If you feel like something is on the rise, starting to sell it before it completely blows up means less competition and more sales for you.

Plus, if you were one of the first people to sell a trending product, you can easily become a brand associated with that product and a leader. (Like the aforementioned Spanx!)

For instance when KETO was first hitting the scene, that would have been an ideal time to start selling KETO friendly snacks. Actually, it’s still a good time to sell KETO products!

There is a lot of search volume for KETO and healthy food products in general. So selling items such as health bars and powders is a smart choice.

For 2021, some trending products include fitness equipment and supplies, skin care and hobbies and crafts. Check out this list of trending products to sell in 2021!

Here are a few trending products you can sell online:

Blue tooth speakers
Facial Cleansers
Nail Polish
Temporary Tattoos
Portable Projectors
Neck Massagers
Shapewear
Plush blankets
Touchscreen Gloves

And don’t forget in this new day and age that the demand for virtual can create lucrative service-based products. In the trending arena of fitness for example, you can offer online fitness classes for a fee.

With little overhead and cost-of-goods required, you just need to focus on marketing and promotion to bring in money for your time. Any type of service or on-going subscription is a powerful product to sell because it will generate recurring revenue.

Size and Weight

This is an easy factor to overlook when choosing a product to sell, but an important one. The size of the product you are selling will affect your shipping costs, and your cost of goods.

Which in turn can affect your profit! Not to mention it also determines how much space you need to accommodate your supply stock. And that affects your warehouse, or rent costs. (Unless you are choosing a drop shipping business!)

It is ideal to offer customers free shipping. Most of your competitors will likely be doing that, and it creates more incentive for people to purchase from you. It has actually become a key factor in driving purchase with consumers today.

So choosing an item that is lightweight, will make free shipping easier to offer, and less of a price point issue.

Competition for product sales

So this factor can kind of be at odds with the popularity factor. Because, if a product is really in demand, there may already be a lot of competitors out there selling it and doing well.

If one of your product ideas has a huge number of competitors already out there, and some heavy hitters that already have a lion’s share of the market, it may not be a good choice.

Breaking into an already saturated market can be challenging to say the least. Unless you have a ton of money for heavy advertising which you likely don’t when first starting out.

This can be another reason to choose a niche market. With smaller niches, there may not be as much competition. Which will leave more potential sales for you.

For any product you choose to sell, there’s likely already competition. But find one that doesn’t have quite as much competition.

And one that doesn’t have competitors with an already established, huge market share for that product.

What Steps Should you Take when Choosing a product to sell Online?

If you aren’t sure where, or how to start choosing something to sell online, here are a few important first steps you can take.

Brainstorm product ideas

Just write down a list of ideas of products to sell online! The first step in choosing something to sell online is knowing what the options are.

Brainstorming a list of ideas can give you a good starting point.

Research Products

Once you have written down a list of ideas, the next and probably most important step is to do your research.

You should be researching all the factors listed above as it relates to your list of possible products to sell. So popularity, profit margin, and shipping costs to name a few.

Doing the proper research ahead of time can directly affect the success of your eCommerce business.

Evaluate the Market

Really this is still part of the research phase. Evaluating the market is crucial for choosing what product to sell. You need to know how much competition there is, how much potential volume of sales, and what type of buyer would want your products.

Understand supply options

Once you have chosen a product you think you want to sell, you need to understand where you can get that product!

Is it something you can make yourself? Or will you need a product supplier? If you need a supplier, research the possible product manufacturers out there. You can even get product samples from relevant companies.

There are many product suppliers to choose from, but here are a couple of the more well-known options:

If you decide you want a dropshipping business, you may need to specifically look for a list of dropshipping suppliers like this one.

Once you have established some success selling your product, you can even look at product line extensions to expand your business.

Start selling Your own Products from Home

Once you’ve finally figured out what you want to sell, you have to start selling!

I highly recommend this guide from Shopify on How to Build, Launch and Grow A Profitable Online Store to help with launching your eCommerce business. Or, if you are ready to skip to straight to opening your Shopify store follow these steps!

Starting your own online business is an exciting venture! Take the time to research products for all of the key points above like profitability and popularity to make sure you are laying the groundwork for success.