Estimated reading time: 4 mins
Yes, technology can streamline your business. Yes, technology can help you to make that all-important sale. Yes, technology can help you broaden your customer base and audience. But did you know your business can actively make money from the Internet? Did you know you can actually use the Internet as a way of making money, rather than something that helps you make money? Specifically, did you know just how much money your business can make from online marketplaces? Read on to find out how.
Build an online marketplace
The first thing you can do is to not just set up a stall, but to set up a whole marketplace. By this it is meant that you don’t just have to sell goods via sites like eBay or Amazon. No, you can set up your very own marketplace for your business. When you do so you give your business the freedom to be able to sell what you like, when you like, by your own rules. If this is something that interests you then the first thing you should so in the venture is to set yourself up a website. You need to pick a website template and style that caters to your need.
Basically, you need to use a web hosting service that is able to connect easily to all the latest merchant technologies, such as PayPal — click here to find such a service. And once you find the hosting service that is right for you, you need to start in your venture of making the marketplace a success. One way to do this is scope out your competitors and see exactly how they are doing business. See what they are selling. See how much they are asking price-wise for what they are selling. And see how they are selling it, i.e. what their unique selling point it.
Once you feel as if you have gathered enough intel then it’s time to start implementing it on your own site. But do not, whatever you do, copy your competitors. Use them as inspiration only!
Become an affiliate
But if selling your business’s products in a place that its name is attached to isn’t the direction you want to take your business in there then there are still online options for money makeing out there. One such option is to become an affiliate. An affiliate is described as being ‘a person or organisation that is officially attached to a larger body’, and you can attach your business to a larger company. And in sticking with the trend of online marketplaces, you can attach your business to a company such as Amazon. This huge company has one of the biggest affiliate programs in the world. It’s free to join and would allow you the chance to advertise millions of products to your customers. And when you do advertise something, even just one product, you earn money for doing so. It really is the perfect way to make use of the online marketplaces of today if you don’t want to make one yourself.
Invest, invest, invest
But being an affiliate isn’t the only way you can milk the world of online marketplaces. No, by investing in one you can too. Now, you’re probably thinking that the time to be able to invest in online marketplaces has come and gone. You’re probably thinking that to do so would be futile as they are now too much of a giant in the world of the Internet and too many people will be too heavily invested in them already. However, the time has not come and gone to invest in the world of online marketplaces, even the giant of it: Amazon.
No, the time is now to invest in online marketplaces, especially Amazon. The time to do so is now because these marketplaces are currently growing beyond just being places to sell goods. They are now actively creating and selling successful products to consumers. Amazon, for instance, have recently released the Echo. This is a piece of artificial intelligence that has successfully made its way into the homes of consumers. It is for this reason — the fact that Amazon and its counterparts are now branching out into other, successful ventures — which should make you consider investing heavily in them. And, whilst we’re on the subject of artificial intelligence, the success of the Echo proves that that is something that should be invested in also!
So, whether you want to go all out and focus your efforts into creating your business’s very own online marketplace. Whether you want to make money off of a marketplace. Or whether you want to invest in one. There are a whole host of options to make money from online marketplaces in the online world of today.
