Want to start your own business, but are wondering which kind of route to go down? Deciding whether to sell digital or physical items might be one of the very first things you have to work out- so here are some tips highlighting the pros and cons of each.
Businesses with physical products
Pros
It’s much easier to sell a physical product than it is a digital product or service. This is because items that people can see and hold are viewed (quite obviously) as being ‘real’ and therefore having value. When you’re selling a physical product
Cons
The cons of selling physical products can range from manufacturing (which is a huge job and can be costly) to storing to shipping items. If they’re bulky items then just getting them from your warehouse to your clients or customers can be a task within itself. You will need to work out the logistics of manufacturing (or sourcing products) and fulfilment to make this kind of business a success. You always have the option to outsource to a company who can tackle this side of things for you if you want to make things easier for yourself, however this will come at a cost. With physical products, you also need to make sure they meet safety standards- from using materials that have been shown to be safe to proper testing, even things like scuff testing on labels needs to be considered to ensure you’re meeting legal standards.
Businesses with digital products
Pros
We live in a very digital world, and people are becoming more and more used to and comfortable with using digital products and everything that comes along with them. There’s plenty of opportunity still to find your niche, and take advantage of the changing world that we’re in. One of the biggest advantages to businesses that sell digital products is there’s no physical storage, you’ll have to pay for things like online cloud storage but you won’t have to worry about renting big warehouses. You can also deliver things like subscriptions, online services and online products pretty much directly and instantly, which allow you to avoid shipping costs and give the customer what they want which in this day in age is instant gratification.
Cons
Online products can be harder to sell, especially if you’ve found a relatively new niche- as customers can struggle working out the value of them. And when parting with money, all of us want to feel as though we’re getting a good deal, so this element of things can be tricky. It will generally be harder to sell digital items, and so this is something to bear in mind when you’re starting out in this kind of business.