If you are thinking about starting an online business but are worried about the storage of products. Then you are at the right place to know about, How to sell products online without inventory?
If you traditionally sell your products, then you have to do lots of things which would be time-consuming and boring. You need good wholesalers, manufacturers, or distributors. You need storage space to keep stock inventory, fulfill orders, deal with customer complaints, and many other things.
If you don’t want such hassle to start your business, then there are several ways to run a profitable online business without carrying any inventory at all.
In fact, it’s a very easy way to run a full-fledged online selling business without worrying about storage space, packaging, keeping an inventory, and shipping.
So, how to sell products online with inventory?
We have come out with some best ways to do it successfully.
Table of Content
1. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is an online marketing strategy that connects the link between advertisers and affiliates.
As an affiliate, you receive commissions only when your website generates revenue via affiliate links. Companies pay only after the actual sale happened thru your website or blog.
Affiliate marketing means you campaign for other company’s products and gets your commission fee if the people you’ve reached, actually buy these products.
You don’t need to purchase and store any items.
You just have to advertise another company’s product from your website or blog.
Before you join any affiliate network, you must first learn and observe its rules and regulations.
Affiliate marketing is a popular strategy for increasing sales and generating considerable online money without having to store product inventory.
This way you can easily sell products online without inventory.
Advantages of affiliate marketing
There are many pros and cons to affiliate marketing, and below we have listed perhaps the most important ones.
Let’s start with the benefits:
Risk-free
The biggest advantage of affiliate marketing is that it is almost completely without risk for you as an affiliate.
If you are not paying to advertise your site, then the fixed costs are only for the domain and web hosting. That’s only a few hundred dollars every year.
You may work from home without having to deal with any expensive equipment.
Revenue continues to come
Once the affiliate ADS are posted, your role is only to drive traffic to your website. The revenue continues to roll in year after year. You do not have to work continuously with the website. However, we recommend that you always do maintenance and minor updates to the site so that it feels fresh.
Can conduct business worldwide
As an affiliate, you can operate worldwide. You can start websites all over the world and almost all affiliate networks have advertisers in several different markets and languages.
Safe with an intermediary
Having an affiliate network as an intermediary may sound unnecessary, but it’s really nice in many situations. If there are payment problems, tracking problems, and other difficult situations, it is very nice to just be able to contact the support on the affiliate network and they will solve the problem in question.
Works even without a registered company
Affiliate marketing is one of the few industries where you can work with an unregistered company. Virtually all affiliate networks also accept members who have not registered companies and they then take care of all social security contributions and withholding taxes and finally pay your compensation as a regular salary.
Disadvantages of affiliate marketing
Paid afterward
Your compensation is usually paid in arrears. It often takes 1-2 months after the purchase before you receive your commission.
The advertiser can end the collaboration at any time
On most affiliate networks, advertisers can end the partnership with a specific affiliate whenever they want. If you spent a lot of time building a website focused on a single offer from an advertiser, it can be very frustrating if this advertiser emails you one day and terminates the collaboration.
Great competition in certain niches
The fact that it is very lucrative to be an affiliate has led to very high competition in some profitable niches.
In summary, there are smart ways to sell products online without an inventory that are so easy to build a passive income. Whether you want to quit your regular job and invest wholeheartedly in an online affiliate business or you just want to increase your wallet each month, affiliate marketing is worth you should try.
2. Sell Print on Demand
There are several prints on-demand companies that give you the option of making your designs on products. And If that product gets sell then the print-on-demand company will give you the profit margin of your sales.
Since they’re print on demand, you won’t need to have an inventory. You may sell t-shirts, purses, caps, keychains, cups, mugs, home décor, and a variety of other goods.
So, this is another way to sell products online without inventory.
Simply link your online business to a print-on-demand provider and create your own unique apparel and accessories.
Even you can set up shop right on their website.
When a consumer purchases a product from your shop, the orders are printed, packed, and delivered straight to the consumer by a Print-On-Demand service provider.
Then Print-on-demand service provider cut their manufacturing cost, other expenses, and profit and pay you your profit margin as decided.
This allows you to simply sell things online without inventory.
Advantages of Print on demand
There are several advantages to using print-on-demand services for you.
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As a store owner, you can get started right away for free without investment and risks and make money on every order through commission.
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After you’ve uploaded your design, you may sell it on numerous articles of apparel or accessories.
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You do not have to think about warehousing or logistics – Spread shop prints, packs and sends directly to your customers.
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The spread shop takes care of the entire customer service, from the execution of the order and the payment process to any complaints.
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Changes to your designs or products can be made at any time and included in the print.
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You can simply test business concepts and design concepts using print-on-demand.
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As an illustrator, artist, or cartoonist, you may focus on your ideas while still selling things to your fans.
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As an influencer on social media, you can turn your followers into customers without much effort.
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You may target small niches without worrying about the size or purchasing power of your audience.
Disadvantages of Print on demand
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You don’t have control over the Fulfillment process and quality of the products.
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Dependency on your printing partner for products and their availability.
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Delay in order Fulfillment. After receiving orders, every product is printed on-demand, this process takes a long time to fulfill orders rather than the available stock.
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Returns management. Despite quality printing on product and packing delivery if your customers don’t like and want to return a product. Then it will be a very frustrating and painful experience. Hence you must have to set up a proper return policy to avoid such headaches.
Must Read
How to Start a Dropshipping Business with no Money. A Step by Step Guide
How to Start Amazon FBA Business. A Step by Step Guide
3. Third-party Fulfillment centers
Third-party Fulfillment is an outsourced Fulfillment solution in which you hire a service firm to store items, select and pack orders, and manage shipping logistics on your behalf.
The key to understanding third-party Fulfillment is that the seller purchases merchandise in bulk and then contracts with a third-party Fulfillment warehouse to handle all parts of Order Fulfillment.
This is the best solution who are worried about “How to sell products online without inventory?”
The third-party Fulfillment centers can stock your products and ship them for you.
You can also make your orders directly from the manufacturer and send them to the third-party Fulfillment center for them to package and send the products to your customers.
There is a fee for using this service, but it relieves you of the burden of finding the product, packaging, and shipping.
Finding the appropriate Fulfillment center might be tough, but it is worth it in the end to save time and money.
How to select the best 3PL provider?
These are the main points to be considered and evaluate before choosing the right 3PL provider.
Customer service
When working with a third-party logistics provider, it’s critical to have dependable customer support. You may not be able to get support fast when you need it. Most of the service provider does not have clear and defined policies in place.
Warehousing
Automated warehousing may be the ideal alternative if you send high volumes and want to expect a speedy delivery. Manual warehousing may be a better option if the freight requires more customization.
Specialization
Some third-party logistics providers having specialization in transportation between locations, while some providers specialize to manage everything from warehousing to execution, inventory management, and transportation.
Management tools
Management tools give an extra edge for the smooth function of the operation. Some service providers have systems in place that allow e-commerce businesses to increase sales through logistics.
Costs
Cost is the most important factor to be considered before approaching any 3PL provider. There should be no hidden or start-up fees; instead, pay as you go based on order volume. There are ready-to-use free integrations for most e-commerce platforms.
Advantages of Third-party Fulfillment centers
Specialization –
These companies are highly specialized because they are designed to provide logistics help to a variety of industries.
Faster delivery –
They usually have a network of warehousing centers. It enables third-party logistics to deliver orders faster.
Competitive shipping prices –
They have the ability to handle a large number of clients at a time. Hence due to the high volume of clients, have very competitive shipping rates.
Advanced new technology –
This businesses typically have access to superior technology than in-house logistics teams due to their high expertise.
Disadvantages of Third-party Fulfillment centers
Lack of communication –
It might be tough to identify a third-party logistics provider that will collaborate with a firm to achieve joint goals.
High dependency –
When you hire a third-party logistics supplier, you are entrusting them with all your logistical operations. This makes you more reliant on them.
Limited direct insights into logistical operations –
When you outsource your logistics operations to another company, you lose direct control and supervision.
4. Drop-Shipping
Dropshipping is an excellent alternative for sellers who wish to establish an online selling business without having any stocks inventory.
You can easily start selling things online without having any inventory with the power of drop shipping.
In Dropshipping, you are accepting orders on your own in your online store but your supplier, wholesaler, or distributor are responsible for delivering the product to the end client.
You just serve as a go-between for the wholesaler and the buyer. You are just needed to collect the commission on the sale. Hence, dropshipping is the best answer to How to sell products online without inventory.
Overall, dropshipping can be a very attractive business if you don’t have a lot of money and if you plan on having a long-time horizon for your business.
Easy Step-By-Step Guide to start your Dropshipping business.
5. Amazon FBA
What is Amazon FBA?
Amazon FBA is a system that allows you to do e-commerce on Amazon. The system allows you to sell your product in different countries.
If you send your product to the Amazon warehouse in the Amazon FBA system. When a product gets sold, the product is getting delivered from the amazon warehouse to the buyer.
Amazon FBA is incredibly appealing because it not only handles everything, but you also get access to Amazon’s massive buyer base.
Inventory management and storage are two of the most significant benefits of Amazon FBA. Amazon sellers will not need to spend large amounts of capital for storage space if they are using the service.
Amazon FBA helps you to sell your products to different countries by saving your cost and headache of managing warehouse and inventory.
So Amazon is the best option, If you are worried about How to sell products online without inventory?
However, the main drawback is that you must adhere to Amazon’s policies. They have taken a substantial commission of your profits.
How to Get Started with Amazon FBA?
To get started with Amazon FBA, you must first open a selling account. For Amazon FBA two options available for the sales account.
You can also sell by opening a personal account. The most important detail you need to know here is that you can only stock 40 products for a personal account.
That’s why it’s extremely important that you must open a professional sales account for a comprehensive amazon FBA business. You have to pay fees to get a professional account. After you open your Amazon professional sales account, you can start selling by uploading your products.
Conclusion
If you really want to start your business but are worried about How to sell products online without them, there are many options to choose from.
If you are good at creating a website, blog, email marketing, then Affiliate marketing is a good option for you. Additionally, you have to be very good knowledge of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and able to fetch a good amount of traffic towards your affiliate campaign.
But the downside of affiliate marketing is, you can only promote other’s products with very little commission. Hence you will not able to create your own brand.
If your vision is artistic, if you can create beautiful, cache designs, logos then you can go for a Print-On-Demand platform to start your business. But in the Print-On-Demand service platform, products scope is limited to t-shirts, bags, hats, keychains, cups, mugs, home decor-like products only. In this option, you will be entirely dependent on a Print-On-Demand service provider company. You will not able to create your brand as well.
If you are ready to invest a sizable amount to start an online business and your only headache is ‘How to sell products online with inventory?” Then Third-Party Fulfilment centers are the best option for you to start an online business.
One of the best options to sell products online without inventory is Drop Shipping. In this, you don’t have to put your money to purchase products. You just have to create a beautiful website, online shop, and place products of manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers in it. You just need to drive substantial traffic towards your website or online shop and make conversion out of it.
If you are comfortable investing some money on products but don’t want the headache of Storing products, packing, Shipping, Then Amazon FBA is the right choice for you. Even you don’t need to create websites and drive traffic on them. Just create your sellers’ account as Amazon FBA and send your products to Amazon. That’s it. Amazon will take care of everything and give your profit as per sell.
Frequently Asked questions
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What are the bestselling Print-On-Demand products?
All types of T-shirts, Bags, Purse, Mugs, Caps, Phone cases, All types of Jackets, Yoga Pants, Hoodies. These are the bestselling POD products. -
What are the best Print-On-Demand companies?
SPOD, Printful, T-Pop, Printify, CustomCat, Redbubble, Printy6, T-spring, JetPrint. These are some best POD companies. -
How much you can make with Print on Demand sites?
Print on demand is a profitable business, if you have skills and patience then you can easily earn more than 1000$ per month. -
What are third-party fulfillment centers?
Third-party Fulfillment is an outsourced Fulfillment solution in which you hire a service firm to store items, select and pack orders, and manage shipping logistics on your behalf. -
What companies have fulfillment centers?
ShipBob, Rakuten Super Logistics, Simpl Fulfillment, ShipHype, ShipMonk, Easyship, FedEx Fulfillment, Shipwire, Red Stag, Radial, Moduslink, Hollingsworth. These are some of the best fulfillment centers.
