Why Digital Entrepreneurs Should Also Sell Physical Products

A step-by-step method to make and sell your products

Not everyone wants to buy online courses or printables. By keeping your business a solely digital one, you could be excluding some potential customers.

Do a little research into selling physical products and you might find that they suit your business and they might be just the way to scale your income.

Take my spray tanning business as an example. Unless I teach someone how to start their own business, there isn’t really a digital product I can sell that would work. However, I am currently looking into expanding by creating my own line of at-home self-tanning products and moisturizers. These physical products will match my current business model and I can sell them both at work and from a website.

Even if you have a business that can sell digital products, having also something physical will help diversify your income. And it is great to have tangible products because you can stock them in other shops that can ship out the products for you.

Debunking the perceived ‘hurdles’ to physical products

This rise in digital products is due to:

1. the myth that they are sources of ‘passive’ income
2. the minimal upfront cost
3. the fact that they don’t need storage

Yes, these are great, but they aren’t necessarily hurdles for physical products. Let’s break them down.

Digital products are passive income, while physical products are not.

I’ve written about it before, but selling digital products and having an online business is NOT passive income.

There is so much work required in the upkeep of having a digital presence. First, you have the seemingly endless unpaid work required to actually build your presence. Then you need to create your course or printable to sell. You need to talk to customers, deal with complaints and refunds and update the course all by yourself. If you’re already doing this much work, you may as well consider developing a physical product, too.

Furthermore, if you have a successful business, you can hire labor, thus minimizing the work it takes to request inventory and post orders. It’s likely you would need to outsource work if you scale up your digital products anyway.

Having a business that sells a tangible product may take a bit of work, but so is having a digital business.

Physical products require a high upfront cost.

This isn’t necessarily true.

Firstly, with the rise of print-on-demand, you can design your own products for your website and not have to invest much money at all. You only need to pay for a product as someone purchases it.

Secondly, there are tactics you can use to reduce your personal investment, such as starting with one small, low-cost item to sell alongside your current digital presence. Or, you could arrange pre-orders for your product, which will help you with the upfront manufacturing cost.

Physical products require space for storage.

As with the previous point, this all depends on the products you’re selling. If it is a small item such as jewelry, you wouldn’t need much space. If you choose print-on-demand, you’ll require no storage at all.

For my spray tanning business, I intend to develop one type of gradual self-tanner, one tanning mit and one type of body lotion. I intend to order only enough for pre-orders, so I won’t need to worry about storage when they arrive. If they prove to be successful, I’ll order more cases to sell, but my types of products are small and will be easy to store in my garage.

Another idea is to sell your product through Amazon. You send the inventory to them, they hold it and take orders from customers and then ship it out on your behalf. Yes, they take a small fee, but it completely eliminates your need to look for storage. Also, you can potentially gain more customers from random people who buy your product, not just your regular audience to whom you advertise.

The steps to develop and sell your physical product

Now you’re probably wondering how to go about developing your physical product. Here are the steps I am taking and you can take, too.

Step one: Create a presence

Your presence could be physical or digital; you just need a way to find your audience.

For me, I have only had an in-person spray tanning business. It couldn’t be digitized at the beginning. However, that doesn’t matter. I already have loyal clients who are my ‘audience’. I am now starting to have a digital presence by working on my social media. This will give me more reach once I have finished developing my products.

What presence will you have? What platform will you use? What will be your niche? Begin to build your audience.

Step two: Think of a related product

Once you have your audience, see what kind of products they might like. Get into a conversation with them. Analyze their behaviors and their opinions. Discuss their likes and their dislikes. See if you have any ideas that might solve their problem.

For me, I had a number of irregular clients who like the particular combination of spray tan I developed and wished they could come in weekly, but they can’t afford that expense. So the solution is I can develop a self-tanner that has the same look I provide my clients. This way, the irregular clients can still see me on occasion and also purchase my product to top up their look.

Moreover, I have regular clients who want to maintain their tans for as long as possible. So I am developing an after-tan body lotion that they can use to ensure their tans stay smooth for longer.

Find the problems your audience has and see what physical products might solve them. Or perhaps you even might improve upon an existing product.

Or perhaps you have a following on your content creation platform, such as Tiktok or YouTube, and you want to create merchandise. You would be surprised by how many t-shirts and mugs you can sell if you keep them relevant to your niche.

Step 3: Find a manufacturer

There are so many places you can get your product manufactured.

If you have a design you’d like to get printed on mugs or tote bags or t-shirts, perhaps using print-on-demand is your option. You can create your own Shopify website and they can take you through the steps of setting it up. Or, you might prefer to use a 3rd party website to sell on your behalf, such as Teepublic or Redbubble. I personally use Redbubble and have found it easy to navigate.

Perhaps you are developing your own product. You can look into either local or international manufacturers.

Local manufacturers are great because you can visit the factory, you live in the same timezone as they do and shipping will likely be more affordable. However, depending on the country you live in, they can be more expensive.

I am working with a local manufacturer to develop the body lotion and the gradual self-tanner. A simple Google search of “Moisturizer manufacturer Australia” came up with sources for me. Try it yourself: (product type) manufacturer (your country).

International manufactures might be less expensive to produce your product and it is very easy to connect with them using a directory such as:

• Alibaba
• Aliexpress
• Sourcify

I’m working with a manufacturer I found on Alibaba for the self-tanning mits. If you use this directory, make sure the company you choose is verified, a gold supplier, and has trade assurance.

Furthermore, there are groups on Facebook that you can join to help you source your product.

Step 4: Test a sample

After you find your manufacturer, have a sample made and test it out.

I will be testing out my products myself and I will offer free samples to some friends and three of my most regular clients.

Get feedback about the products. Is the product good? Does it do what you want it to do? What changes do you need to make?

Your manufacturer should be very open with communication and they should be able to work with you to make changes. If they don’t, consider shopping around for a new one. Just because you’ve already invested some time with one manufacturer, doesn’t mean you should stay with them.

I swapped manufacturers after the first one couldn’t make the changes I wanted. Their communication was terrible and they didn’t seem to understand what I was after. My new manufacturer is brilliant and has been able to work with me well. It is a more costly mistake to stay with a bad manufacturer than to try out a few different ones.

I even recommend ordering from your chosen print-on-demand website so you can see the product and you can ensure it is of the best quality.

Once you’ve tested it out and you are happy with your product, you are ready to move on to order.

Step 5: Order and sell

There are a few options for this step:

1. You can sell from your own website. For this, I recommend advertising before you place an order. Show off the product on your platform and build up hype. Ask micro-influencers to show off your product. Perhaps even take a pre-order. Be comfortable in your knowledge that you’ll have sales before placing an order.
2. You can use Amazon FBA. This is when Amazon holds your product and picks it for distribution on your behalf. If this is your chosen method, you need to get yourself an account and learn all about the system first. Once you know how the process works, you can start manufacturing. You can still send samples of your products to micro-influencers to help advertise, but you won’t be able to take pre-orders with this method.
3. If you are doing print on demand, you don’t need to make any orders at all. But you will need to advertise on your chosen platform and perhaps use the product yourself or have micro-influencers use it.

When I come to sell my products, I will be selling from my own website and from my physical business site. I highly recommend considering finding a local store in your niche to stock your product. It is a great opportunity to diversify your sales.

Having physical products are very beneficial to diversifying your business income because, while digital products are great, not everyone is interested in them. Having something tangible as well will allow you to fully reach your whole audience. Both types of products can work well in conjunction with each other.

Just remember that having physical products will take a long time to establish. I started planning my products several months ago and I am still in the ‘test a sample’ step. Yes, it is a lot of time, but it can lead to exponential growth in your business.

Remember your steps:

1. Create a presence
2. Think of a related product
3. Find a manufacturer
4. Test a sample
5. Order and sell

Good luck!