Pros And Cons Of Selling Digital Products Online

The Advent of Internet and popularity of E-commerce has opened the doors for many people and business owners to run a business over the web, by just having a website. Eliminating the need of huge workplace start-up costs, online selling is making big money for many entrepreneurs and housewives.

Ecommerce is the up and coming way to run a business, mainly because of the investment costs. Of course not free, but compared to brick and mortar store it is cheaper. Physical products are highly sold over the web, however digital products that include-books, graphics, software, videos are also becoming a good source of making money for many people having unique skills. And, in the context of internet marketing digital products are real, unlike physical products that can’t touch or feel.

In this article, we will highlight the pros and cons of selling digital products online that will give you an overall picture of this trending business.

Selling Digital product: Pros

1- No storage space and cost

Digital products are intangible (products that cannot be touched), hence it does not require storage space. The only space it will utilize, is of your hard-drive.

2- No inventory shortage

You make hundreds or even thousands of sales, you’ll never experience the risk of stock issues. Also, you eliminate the hassle of updating stock when a sale is made.

3- No shipping hassle

Digital products does not include any tangible products, as customers will purchase products in the form of downloads. Therefore, it automatically eliminates the need to deal with shipping hassles.

4- Delivery on-the-fly

When an order is placed for your digital product, you need to share a link or file with the customer. The customers will then receive the product on download, hence it results for an instant delivery.

5- Unlimited source of income

Once you create your digital product line, it won’t cost you for selling online. Hence, you can make more than 100% of the sale price unless you sell it over marketplaces or selling platforms.

Selling Digital product: Cons

1- Maintenance

When you deal with digital products, you need to ensure that your server up and running, always. In case your server is down, your customer will have to wait until the system is up. Therefore, the concept of selling digital products will involve a huge server maintenance costs for opting a high bandwidth.

2- Competition

As discussed above, selling digital products is proving a good source of income, hence many are jumping into this business. And, with more competition digital business owners are seen to list their products at a lowest possible price to gain a competitive advantage. Hence, there are chances for your products to get lost into the crowd, unless you have a strong marketing structure in place.

3- Ideas can be copied

Your offering may be unique, not until when they are up on the web for sale. Whether it’s an e-book, video, or music file – the basic idea of the product can be copied easily. This again, can lead to more competition for your same product line over the web.