Dropshipping Vs Digital Products?

[IM Legend]

I'm curious what your opinions are. Which do you prefer to sell and why? I realize I'm in the dropshipping subforum so replies may be biased, but I'm wondering if you have access to any case studies? I imagine conversion rates are higher with dropshipping sites, but overhead costs are lower with digital products. Is this necessarily true? Also, I'm betting it's easier to sell upfront with a physical product. Whereas with a digital product you have to capture leads and build a reputation. Would you say selling software would be the compromise between the two? I have my own inputs, I'm just curious and really would like to hear your thoughts.. crowd source some new perspectives and data.

 

[jamilWinkelbaum]

I would agree with your thoughts. But, if you can market your product well and target it to a specific audience then I don't think it really matters if you're drop shipping physical products or digital products. Just from doing a little research you'll notice there are a fair number of people who have claimed they are making thousands or tens of thousands each month through drop shipping. There are also people who are selling courses on how to actually do drop shipping and those guys seem to be doing quite well too.

 

[nimblemerchant]

IMO decent physical products are easier to sell (explain benefits to people). This is due to bias toward digital products as likely scam (too much BS around).

 

[IM Legend]

I would agree with your thoughts. But, if you can market your product well and target it to a specific audience then I don't think it really matters if you're drop shipping physical products or digital products. Just from doing a little research you'll notice there are a fair number of people who have claimed they are making thousands or tens of thousands each month through drop shipping. There are also people who are selling courses on how to actually do drop shipping and those guys seem to be doing quite well too.

Right, obviously having the skill is more important than having the right product, but say we had two hypothetical scenarios.. both with the same marketer with the same skill level, and each scenario having targeted their audience accordingly relative to their product type. Which then would have higher yields? So basically, where should a marketer spend his/her time?

 

[IM Legend]

IMO decent physical products are easier to sell (explain benefits to people). This is due to bias toward digital products as likely scam (too much BS around).

These are my thoughts as well. Not that digital products don't sell.. they just take more time because you have to build that trust factor with autoresponders and facebook pages etc

 

[jamilWinkelbaum]

Right, obviously having the skill is more important than having the right product, but say we had two hypothetical scenarios.. both with the same marketer with the same skill level, and each scenario having targeted their audience accordingly relative to their product type. Which then would have higher yields? So basically, where should a marketer spend his/her time?

I would say this is tough to determine because this is highly dependent on the product being sold. My best guess is, in most cases the physical product has the potential for higher yields since that sort of product can target a larger demographic of people vs. a digital product that is typically narrowed down to a specific niche. The benefit of the digital product are the margins. It costs next to nothing to duplicate a digital product whereas a physical product requires much more time to funnel through your sales system and business to reach the end customer. Are there particular products you are interested in selling?

 

[IG Professor]

I'm curious what your opinions are. Which do you prefer to sell and why? I realize I'm in the dropshipping subforum so replies may be biased, but I'm wondering if you have access to any case studies? I imagine conversion rates are higher with dropshipping sites, but overhead costs are lower with digital products. Is this necessarily true? Also, I'm betting it's easier to sell upfront with a physical product. Whereas with a digital product you have to capture leads and build a reputation. Would you say selling software would be the compromise between the two? I have my own inputs, I'm just curious and really would like to hear your thoughts.. crowd source some new perspectives and data.

I hope this can help you decide : http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2009/05/04/selling-physical-products-vs-digital-products/