So here’s the deal – by the time you see something come up near the top of a Google search results page, if it’s some advice that has anything to do with making money online then it’s too late for you to jump on the bandwagon. The same can be said for YouTube videos.
YouTube is owned by Google and the new frontier of the Make Money Online or IM (Internet Marketing) world is indeed YouTube. The same useless information you get searching for ways to make online via Google is now bundled up into videos and presented via YouTube. The only difference is the so-called YouTubers make their money by mere virtue of you having viewed the video, this through the adverts that are displayed.
Granted, some of the information may very well have been useful, once upon a time, but by the time the website on which it has been published is ranked near the top of the search engine, everybody and their grandmother has already tried their hand at implementing it. Again, the same applies to YouTube videos. By the time the video is suggested to you and you realise that it has amassed a couple tens of thousands of views, whatever advice they’re going to give you via that video is already outdated.
Now this brings into focus some advice around e-commerce, which in-turn brings into focus the question of whether or not it’s even worth getting into e-commerce in 2019. After all, doesn’t everybody and their grandmother have a shopify store, through which they target a specific niche which deals in the sales of products which are fulfilled via drop-shipping platforms like Oberly, etc?
Anybody who tries to give you some advice on e-commerce and particularly drop-shopping, at this late stage of the game, is likely only spewing hearsay or they’re simply relaying information which is outdated on account of its value being saturated. Most of these publishers, like bloggers, YouTube vloggers, etc, are really only trying to sell you some or other service through which they make their money, supposedly in support of your e-commerce endeavours. It might be better if you’re thinking about setting up your own business to have your own warehouse facilities, rather than rely on drop-shipping services to do the job for you. When it comes to warehousing, effective management of your space is essential, and investing in industrial equipment like a folding ladder, platforms, electric pallet trucks, and more may help to make your operations more efficient as you’ll be able to transport goods around the warehouse floor faster and easier. If you think you’ve missed the drop-shipping ship, so to speak, this may be the way to go! Keeping that aside, you may also need to think about your customers’ satisfaction and effective communication. If you have a Shopify store, for instance, you can make use of business text messaging platforms like Heymarket (https://www.heymarket.com/integrations/shopify/) and other platforms like them, which will allow you to send your shoppers messages alongside their recent orders, loyalty details, and customer notes. Customers appreciate small details like these, and it motivates them to be loyal to your business.
You may also need to market your business and expand your customer reach by advertising your brand in a digital format through a retail media network. The most significant benefit of retail media for resellers is the creation of a new revenue stream. Retail media revenue has been a lifeline for retailers looking to increase their profits. And because of the rise of e-commerce, retailers who use retail media (see this site) have become the new media moguls. This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for them in terms of revenue generation.
Having said that, you might also get offered some kind of training programme or something along those lines, which promises to help you make a success out of the same e-commerce venture that person selling you that training material actually failed to make a success out of.
I don’t mean to discourage you completely from trying your hand at e-commerce in 2019, but you’ll have to come at it with a different approach. As is the case with affiliate marketing, in order for you to make a success out e-commerce in 2019 you have to convince a group of people who already buy certain products and services to simply buy them through you. This means that you must offer them some kind of incentive to buy form you specifically, such as perhaps putting together customer reviews to help them make a better buying choice, or showing them a better way to use those products and services they’re trying to buy.