5 Ways to Make Money Online with Ecommerce

These are:

1. Amazon
2. Print in demand
3. Etsy
4. eBay or Facebook
5. Dropshipping

Today, will give you a primer on each of the five best ways to make money online with ecommerce. Each section will give you an idea of how it works. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to choose one, do your research, and get started.

1. Sell Products on Amazon

My first recommendation is that you sell on Amazon. By far, this is one of the most effective ways to make money online.

Amazon is a marketplace where people buy and sell on retail. To get started, you only have to sign up for an Amazon seller account.

There are two main methods by which you can sell. These are Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) and Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM).

In FBM, you post your items for sale on Amazon. If a customer buys it, you ship the item from your house or your store.

In FBA, the process is different. In a nutshell, this is how FBA works:

• You send your inventory to an Amazon warehouse
• They catalogue it
• You post it in your Amazon store
• Once the item is bought, Amazon ships it to the consumer

In FBA, the products are in Amazon’s warehouse, and you can only send it to them once they have approved your application. They take care of the boxes and the shipping fees, so you only have to worry about your selling fees and profit.

The good thing about Amazon is that you do not have to do some heavy marketing. They take care of it. The platform also has a huge base—and you can even sell to the UK and other countries if you want, provided that you do the FBA.

As always, there are fees that you have to pay. First, you have to pay a Selling Plan fee, which costs $0.99 per unit sold, or you can be a Premium Member and pay $39.99 per month no matter how many units you sell.

There are also referral fees and fulfillment fees. You have to study the fee table and make sure that you price your products correctly.

2. Print-on Demand T-shirt

My second recommendation to make money fast today is called print-on-demand or POD. In this business model, you create a design, and then you work with an independent POD company.

A POD company is one that offers to print different types of products only when there is an order. You do not have to order hundreds for an item or design. You can order only one at any given time.

This is how it works:

• You register for an account in a POD company
• You create your design
• You upload that design in the POD system
• You create a mock-up and display that on your store
• Customer buys, POD company prints it and ships the item to your customer

As you can see, you only shell out money if an order has already been placed. In this business, the most common items that are sold are t-shirts, but you are not limited to that. You can sell hoodies, mugs, umbrellas, and many others.

To get started, you need to choose a POD company. The two most popular are Printify and Printful. The next step is to decide how you will sell.

You can build your own e-commerce store with Shopify or WordPress with WooCommerce. If you do not want your own website, you can sell on other platforms like Teespring, Moteefe, RedBubble, and more.

The great thing about this business is you can design as many shirts as you want. You do not have to print them, so you do not have to keep inventory. You do not even have to ship them because the POD company will take care of that for you.

The best part is that all designs are customizable. You can ask your customers to send you photos that they want to print. Forward that design to your POD, and they will print it for you.

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3. Sell new or handmade goods on Etsy

Etsy is like Amazon. It is a marketplace where you can sell physical and even digital goods. The main difference is that on the Etsy platform, the things you sell must be handcrafted.

You cannot sell ready-made or mass manufactured goods on Etsy. Everything must be handmade. If you are selling products made by machines, the product that you sell must be your design, not something that people can easily find in other marketplaces.

Here are some examples of what you can sell:

• Craft Supplies and Tools
• Wedding items like souvenirs
• Jewelry and other accessories
• Monogram Keychains
• Bags, wallets and purses
• Mugs with initials
• Anything where the buyer can ask you to engrave something

Like Amazon, you have to sign up for an account. Once you have an account, you can give your store a name and choose a design. As a marketplace, your product is visible to millions of people. You can also choose to pay Etsy to do marketing for you.

If you do this, Etsy will showcase your products in its ads on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms.

Now, there are also fees that you have to think about. Here are some examples:

• Listing fee – costs $0.20 per listing
• Sales fee – costs 5% of the total gross sale, including shipping and gift-wrapping fees
• Payment processing – if you use Etsy’s default payment processor, the fee is 3% of the transaction cost; the same fee is charged if you use PayPal

The beautiful thing about Etsy is its uniqueness. Here, the consumers you will find are willing to pay top dollar because they know that they are buying products that are unique.

If you are a dropshipper, you can dropship products on the Etsy platform, but only if the items you sell are those that you designed.

4. eBay and Facebook Product Flipping

Flipping is the process of buying something on the cheap and then selling it for a profit. It works if you know how to spot items that are in demand, but there is no supply.

Examples of these are collectible items like comic books or computer games of old. You can also buy unique items like antiques. You can find products to flip on eBay and Facebook, and you can re-sell it for a profit. It is up to you if you want to restore the item or not.

Here are some tips to consider before you start product flipping:

• Choose the right products
• Look for free products if you can
• Study if there is a buyer for the product you are flipping
• Do not limit your product hunting online

As you can see, you can go to thrift stores and then buy things really cheap. Then, you can sell them on eBay or Facebook for a profit. At best, you have to bring our phone with you while shopping. This way, you will find out if you have competitors for the same product.

You can also visit Craigslist if you want. There are many items on Craigslist that are free. You only have to pick them up as the owners will not spend money to ship it to you.

Take note that you have to concentrate on unique items. You cannot sell these items if there are so many of you selling the same thing. You must also do your due diligence. What this means is that you should not sell anything that is illegal or fake. 

5. Dropshipping

The last on my list of ways to make money online with ecommerce is dropshipping. It is a retail business where you sell products that you did not make.

The main difference between this and the usual retail is that in this business model, you do not buy inventory.

Here is how it works:

• You choose a product or niche
• You choose a supplier who does dropshipping
• You build an online store with Shopify
• You post the products in your store

Once a customer makes a purchase from your store, you go to your supplier’s online shop and place the order. Then, the supplier will ship that item to your customer.

So, what is your profit?

The profit you make is the difference between what you paid the supplier and your selling price. For example, if the supplier sells a product for $10 and you sold it for $25 on your shop, your gross profit is $15.

There are many suppliers online, but most dropshippers look for suppliers in AliExpress. This is a platform like Amazon, but it is bigger. It is a Chinese marketplace where all sellers ship internationally, and they will ship to your customer’s address.

You are not limited to working with suppliers in AliExpress. You can use other dropship supplier tools like Oberlo, Spocket, uDroppy, and many more.

To succeed in dropshipping, you must choose a product that has a high demand. It must also be a targeted niche. While dropshipping does not involve a lot of money to get started, you have to know that many people fail because they did not think the business through.

In dropshipping, you need to serve a specific market. For example, you have to sell sports apparel for women instead of putting up a general clothing store.

Summary: Ways to Make Money Online with Ecommerce

If you need guidance on how each method works, the best thing to do is to listen to experts. Start by watching free YouTube videos, but do not get started yet. What you have to do is to take an online course.

Use YouTube videos to learn as much as you can on how to make money online. Take note of the different marketing strategies that experts share, and then decide which one works best for you. Then, start looking for a course by a person or teacher that you can trust.

Many of these courses are available for less than $200. With a course, you will learn how the system works, and you will receive a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your chosen business work. The good thing about getting a course is that you will avoid the mistakes that many people make—mistakes that cost a lot of money.

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