12 replies
I have usually stuck to digital products online for the whole benefit of not worrying about shipping costs and physically handling stock and taking orders.

However, I've been doing some research lately into starting a website selling physical products. I have found some good wholesalers, who sell good quality products and not the cheap china crap, so now I need to set up a website.

I was just wondering how many people have gone down the physical product path and what your experience has been with it.

Also, can anyone recommend a good shopping cart to use for physical products sales and is there a shopping cart that can factor in shipping costs to different locations based on the products purchased?
#digital #physical
  • Profile picture of the author Steven Miranda
    I use Cart66 with Wordpress and it should do what you are looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    I have a friend who does very well shipping real products. (he does it full time as a job, and focuses on a single niche. that SOB.)

    It's possible to bank with physical products, and once you have a real following, you can start having fun.

    Attaching flyers around your city, inserting catelogs into orders, inserting discounts into your orders, offering 2% discount for joining your list, etc.

    You can start to be really creative, and creativity will lead to your success.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    Now that I think about it, I know another guy (this is in real life) that makes $5k a month selling a relatively common product that he buys in bulk, and makes a very nice profit.

    Physical products are very nice, BUT, you have to make sure that your SOURCE IS RARE. You can't go around selling VERY COMMONLY DROPSHIPPED ITEMS. Focus on something that is unique, rare, or difficult to find wholesalers for.
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  • Profile picture of the author handy
    I know people who do $30k/month (revenue) just selling clothes from a blog shop, so yeah it can work out very well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thanks guys. Steven I'll take a look at Cart66 - thanks
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  • Stuff = value

    You can charge more for shipped product than you can for digital and when I give people the option people will opt in for shipped products.
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    • Profile picture of the author WillR
      Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka View Post

      Thanks guys. Steven I'll take a look at Cart66 - thanks
      1ShoppingCart should be able to handle all this for you quite easily. You can definitely setup different shipping rates.

      Originally Posted by handy View Post

      I know people who do $30k/month (revenue) just selling clothes from a blog shop, so yeah it can work out very well.
      $30K revenue is great and all but what is their net profit? It's not like selling $30,000 of digital products where you get to keep 95% of all the profits. They might be selling $30k but after staff, product costs, shipping costs, etc they are left with only a tiny percentage of that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
        Originally Posted by WillR View Post

        1ShoppingCart should be able to handle all this for you quite easily. You can definitely setup different shipping rates.
        Thanks Will, I'll take a look at 1shoppingcart too. I had a look at cart66 which looks quite good - only problem is it has live ups shipping rates - but I'll be after Australian shipping rates so I might need to go for an Australian shopping cart.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Mangan
    Sheryl,

    I live in Melbourne and I set up a website that retails exercise equipment. The url is listed in my contacts page.

    Anyhow, I probably don't have the answer you're looking for as I dropship all of the products I retail rather than bulk buy and then ship them out from my home or office.

    Also, I setup up my business in the U.S. - while being in Australia. It's a U.S. LLC and has a U.S. address, U.S. bank and merchant accounts and a U.S. toll-free number and a heap of other stuff. I only retail to U.S. customers.

    As for shopping cart, I can definitely recommend Magento. I use it for my site and I love it. Rather than me typing a long post about its many features, just go to Magento - Home - eCommerce Software for Growth and read about what it can do for you. Magento can certainly automate shipping costs based on your customer's location.

    My experience with selling physical products is that it's hard work but very rewarding.

    When you're selling physical products you're not going to be able to hide from your customers. When they don't like the products you've sold or when the product is damaged or falls apart, you're going to be the one they come back to.

    When someone downloads an ebook and doesn't like it they can simply ask ClickBank or whatever for a refund. It's rather automated and the most aggroation you're likely to suffer is a non-compimentary post in a forum somewhere.

    When a customer isn't happy with the physical product you sold them they won't go to some thrid part to get a refund, they'll come and talk to you and you'll have the headache of dealing with returns and the cost of return shipping and replacement etc.

    And, if they've got an axe to grind you'll be the one taking the flak.

    I don't want to paint a bad picture about retailing online but I feel you should be aware that with retailing you really do need to 'stand infront of your stall'.

    Anyhow, I am really glad I started my online business and don't ever regret it.

    In some ways I seem to be going in the opposite direction to you.

    You started selling info produtcs and are looking to sell physical ones.

    I started selling physical products but have now written an ebook about how I did it all and am now looking at how to sell and promote an information product.

    Perhaps I should be asking you for advice

    Anyhow, I wish you the best of luck with your furture project.

    Robert
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  • Profile picture of the author SUPER Louie
    Sheryl, you should try ShopperPress, they have a lot of themes that's perfect for shopping online and selling physical products.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
      Originally Posted by siocowiz View Post

      Sheryl, you should try ShopperPress, they have a lot of themes that's perfect for shopping online and selling physical products.
      Thanks, I'll take a look at that one too.

      If anyone has any experience with Australian shopping carts would be great too
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  • Profile picture of the author Sheryl Polomka
    Thanks Robert, I'll take a look at that shopping cart also and your site. I'm quite excited about this project and I know it will be hard work, but it's in a niche that I love so hopefully it will be very rewarding.
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