In a previous post I discussed the concept of e-tailing, which is the profession of selling goods and services through the internet. I’d like to continue that conversation and get into the details of how to succeed and make money online as an e-tailer.

1. Identify the Marketplaces You Want to Sell On

There are many online seller marketplaces, all offering unique benefits that can help to increase your earnings. In the recent 2014 Sellers Choice Awards sellers rated their experience across various online marketplaces, with the top 16 making the final results, and top 5 including e-tail giants such as Amazon, eBay, and Etsy.

Amazon offers many tools for sellers, ranging from fulfillment tools, to marketing and advertisement.

Etsy offers tools for sellers as well, and while they may not be as comprehensive as other marketplace offerings such as Amazon, they put sellers in touch with a unique and extremely active community of global consumers.

Having been around for quite some time, eBay also offers many tools for sellers.

2. Invest in Software and Technology

E-tailing is extremely popular, and growing in popularity each day. With billions of items being sold worldwide there is now a comprehensive offering of online software for e-tailers.

Once such software is CrazyVendor, which provides features such as organization of orders across several marketplaces, logistics and shipping management, automated order processing, and more. As quoted by CrazyVendor Co-Founder Viktor Levitin, who has previously been awarded by eBay for outstanding sales, “CrazyVendor cut down our daily workflow from five hours to 45 minutes, enabling us to increase sales by 120% within three months.”

3. Leverage Social Media to Promote Your Products

There are many individuals, professionals, and businesses selling products online. To be a successful e-tailer, you need to separate yourself from the rest – you need to stand out.

One way to do this is by creating a personalized and social connection with your consumers. Creation of brand of product pages on major social media networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest is an easy way to do this.

When promoting your products on social media, make sure to be creative and connect with your consumers. Simple promotion will not be effective – respond to questions, offer promotions and sales, ask for feedback and invite consumers to create a conversation around your products.

4. Showcase Your Products

“A picture is worth a thousand words” – or in the case of e-tailing, a thousand sales. While writing an effective product description is important, consumers today are bombarded with extreme amounts of information. You only have a few seconds to grab the attention of a would-be consumer – make them count! Take professional photos of your products, display them in creative and informative ways that will make your consumer have to stop and read more.

Both Amazon and eBay have stated on several occasions that images play an important role in improving sales. This blog post by the Amazing Selling Machine, a popular course for Amazon Sellers, has additional tips on product images for Amazon sellers.

5. Work Hard

There is no such thing as a “get rich quick” profession. While e-tailing is certainly an amazing opportunity for professionals and entrepreneurs worldwide to make money online, it requires hard work and dedication. If your goal is to get rich quick, you won’t find it with e-tailing.

Analyze the results of your sales, listen to your consumers, track market trends and adapt to changes, and most importantly – be prepared to change your thinking.

Have additional tips for e-tailing that I missed, or have questions on any of the tips above? Leave a comment and let me know!

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Alex G. from Ukraine, who is a software engineer that uses SWREG, a Digital River MyCommerce Solution, as an E-commerce solution for his business:

“The history of our relations with the processing systems began more than 10 years ago. In those days we exposed our software that supports printing from DOS-applications, on new computers running Windows for the very first time.  Suddenly the software sparked interest and we got people from different countries willing to pay for a software license key. Living in a former USSR country meant that all payment methods would not work for buyers worldwide. So, we started to look for a partner who would accept and process our payments.

In those days there were about two dozen different processing systems, but we did not have a wide choice. We offered inexpensive software for a wide range of users: organizations, businesses and individuals. We had to find a processing center, that will allow to receive payments in as many ways as possible, with a reasonable commission deducted.

So we went for the British company SWREG, who already had a solid reputation and experience. They offered the best range of services:  processing credit and debit cards, different payment systems, PayPal, SWIFT-transfers and checks as well.

We have been working with SWREG for years. In the intervening years many companies disappeared and processing systems left the market, but SWREG joined Digital River along with other known brands such as RegNow and ShareIt. Our cooperation was not affected by these changes and all issues are still being solved very quickly.

Two years ago we decided to use a prepaid debit card, powered by Payoneer, in order to receive payments from our processing center. Payoneer is an extremely good solution that gives greater flexibility and versatility to our marketing model.

Now we are preparing to release a new product and reviewing the market for processing systems. We have not decided yet, but platforms offered by Digital River are the first in our rating. Most likely we will continue our cooperation with Digital River… “

Would you like to see your testimonial published on the Payoneer blog as well? Make sure to drop us an e-mail at community@payoneer.com!