It has become easy for the entrepreneur to sell anything online, especially electronics. The online electronics market is said to hit $1.5 trillion by 2024, and this no surprise as the market is filled with suppliers, dropshipping business, niches, and supplier directories. This article shows you how to sell electronics online. We’ll cover everything from your e-commerce model to sourcing for suppliers and where to sell.
Business Models for Selling Electronics Online
There are several e-commerce business models, each has its pros and cons. We’ll go through the dropshipping and warehousing models.
Dropshipping
Dropshipping involves the use of a dropship supplier to fulfill orders. It is a popular e-commerce model due to its flexibility, low overhead cost, and high-profit margins. With dropshipping, you don’t store products in a warehouse. Dropshippers liaise with suppliers and manufacturers and connect them to customers via an online store.
In practice, you list your items (i.e. electronics) on your online store. When customers place orders, you forward that order along with other information like the customer’s shipping address to your dropship supplier. The supplier then ships to the customers directly. Your profit is the markup from the supplier’s price. With this model, you only handle sales and foster transactions between your dropship supplier and your customer.
To start a dropshipping business, you’ll need dropship suppliers, an online store like Shopify, and a dropship fulfillment service. Most dropship fulfillment services also give access to dropship suppliers on aliexpress and other directories.
Warehousing
Warehousing involves storing physical products in a warehouse and sorting logistics yourself when customers place orders. While this model has pros like quality assurance, it comes with extra overhead costs compared to the dropshipping business.
Sales Models
You can be an electronics wholesaler or retailer.
Wholesale
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If you choose to be a wholesaler, you’ll need wholesale suppliers. There are online directories that provide information on wholesalers, like Salehoo, who stock worldwide brands. You can also get bulk electronic orders from suppliers on aliexpress. You can be a wholesaler as a dropshipper, just ensure that your suppliers can fulfill bulk orders quickly.
Alternatively, you can run a warehouse and handle logistics yourself.
Retail
You can choose to be a retailer. You’ll need supply, but not in bulk. You can get discounted refurbished electronics products from marketplaces like TheStore who sell certified refurbished electronics with a one-year warranty. You can also buy products at wholesale prices and sell at retail prices.
Where to Sell
It’s obvious that you’d be selling online, but there are several vehicles that you could use to sell to customers online.
Online store
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You can build your own store to sell from. There are several services that support the creation of online stores like Shopify. You can create a Shopify store easily. Once on Shopify, you can be either a dropshipper or use a warehouse.
If you choose to be a dropshipper, you have the option of using an automated system like the one from Modalyst that offers a directory of hand-picked suppliers of worldwide brands. They also handle the fulfillment of orders. If you choose to source for products yourself, you can find supplier directories online that list businesses like Salehoo or Doba.
C2C Marketplaces
Marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, etc provide the opportunity to reach thousands of customers within your niche. These marketplaces remove the need for website creation and all the costs associated with running a website, although you’d still have to market your products on the site.
You can get the best of both worlds by running an independent Shopify store and a store on a marketplace.
