How to choose the right e-commerce business model to sell products online successfully

Looking to start a new business venture in 2021? Then you should consider starting an e-commerce business. Why? Because e-commerce sales have risen over 300% in the last ten years alone, and it’s a business you can do from the comfort of your home.

As consumers, we spend more time online than ever before—especially because of the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than making a journey to a physical retailer, many people prefer to research, compare, and then buy online from e-commerce stores. This has created an immense demand for products to be sold online, so why not be a company that supplies them by starting your own e-commerce business?

If you’re thinking of getting started in e-commerce, you have plenty to consider. Any e-commerce checklist takes you through most of what you need to think about. Of course, you need to decide what you want to sell and how you will sell it, but you also have to think about the e-commerce business model you want to use.

Let’s go through the most common e-commerce models so that you can see the pros and cons of each.

Dropshipping is a convenient way to sell products

Dropshipping is one of the easiest ways to sell products online. You play no part in the design, manufacturing, storage, or shipping of products. Instead, you essentially become the middleman between buyers and manufacturers.

Your role is to create and market a platform where customers can purchase products. They visit your platform, place their orders, and pay. You inform and pay the manufacturer, who then fulfills those orders. In this model, you sell products that you never touch, see, or own.

This makes dropshipping one of the most convenient e-commerce business models at your disposal. You don’t have warehouse costs, manufacturing worries, or have to handle shipping.

This model comes with some cons, however. You have little control over many facets and have to bear the brunt from customers when things go wrong. You have no control over fulfilling orders, the quality of the products, or how quickly customers receive their orders. As the platform selling the products, customers contact you when issues arise.

Also, the profit margins are smaller than other e-commerce models. Add that to lots of competition from other sellers selling the same products, and you have to work harder to find and convert leads. That said, dropshipping is a great way to get into e-commerce as you don’t need to pay up front for products. All you need is a website, and those are easy to create with platforms like Wix. Just decide what kind of products you’d like to sell, and then you can start dropshipping on Wix quickly and hassle-free.