The online shopping industry in India is undergoing a major transformation and India is one of the biggest emerging marketplaces in the world.
From big players like Amazon, Alibaba, and Walmart to hundreds of start-ups, everyone wants to take advantage of the “Big Indian Online Shopping” wave.
Today, anything under the sun can be bought online. The convenience of shopping while lying on one’s couch, the endless array of designs and innovative products, and incredible discounts are all hooking in the Indian consumer like never before.
Coming to the big question, What to sell online in 2018 and beyond?
The focus should be on finding a niche product or service. Once you have figured that out, you can be sure that customers will automatically follow. Here are a few ideas to help you get started.
List Of Profitable Business Ideas
1. Smart Home Devices
The houses of the future would be something like this — all devices including alarm clocks, audio systems, air-conditioners, water heaters, fridges, lights, door locks, etc will all be connected to the internet. These devices would be able to communicate with one another and provide you with a seamless, integrated interface to operate them with just a few taps.
This isn’t fiction. But, in the near future. Home automation and smart devices are big in 2018 and this is evident with the popularity of devices like Echo, Google Home, and more.
2. Fitness Programs and Sports Nutrition
Today, almost everyone is bitten by the fitness bug. Gone are the days, when gyms were frequented only by young males who were looking to build their muscles and win dates. Today, everyone from the baby boomers to millennials is focussing on a fit lifestyle.
The market is enormous for anything fitness related. Specialized workout programs, sports nutrition drinks, workout apparel suited for the Indian market, health drinks, and customized meal programs are some of the best-selling products this year.
Also Read: 5 Clever Ways To Boost The Sales Of Your eCommerce Store
3. Fresh Meal Delivery and Online Groceries
In today’s hectic urban life, no one has the time to cook meals from scratch or visit the local supermarket to purchase groceries. You can sell pre-cooked fresh meals that can be delivered to homes, offices, schools, and more. Additionally, by focussing on the nutritive value of your meals you can win customers who are looking for home-cooked meals that are healthy and fresh.
Alternatively, you can sell gourmet meal kits. These include everything for a meal — from pre-measured ingredients to the recipe card. All the customer has to do is follow the instruction and prepare the meal in his/her kitchen. Online groceries are also another huge product this year.
4. Subscription Boxes
These are one of the biggest hits in the Indian online marketplace this year. The concept is this — the customer pays for a subscription — 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months. Each month a curated box is sent to the customer with a selection of products.
There are plenty of subscription boxes for everything from — books, cosmetics, fashion, kid’s clothing, learning activities for kids, snacks, and much more.
Also Read: Top 5 Innovative & Profitable eCommerce Business Ideas
5. Niche Fashion
It’s true that fashion retail is one of the most crowded industries in India. There are hundreds of corporate players in this space. Yet, a handful of small startups are creating their own set of loyal fans. The reason — is they offer niche fashion.
Niche fashion is defined as catering to “hard-to-fit” or “hard-to-find” needs. Minimal fashion, only black clothing, sustainable fashion, casual workwear, and indie fusion are some of the popular categories in niche fashion.
Turning Business ideas Into A Successful Business
Before devoting resources, time, and effort, to bring out a plan and execution of an idea, one must know whether the idea is at all worth investing in to come up with a viable business.
- Determining the viability
To determine whether an idea can be successfully and sustainably converted into a business, certain parameters must be assessed meticulously before taking the next step;
- The vision
Visualization is a key aspect of converting an idea into a successful business. If there is no vision, the planning and execution become meaningless. It involves having to consider how best the idea could bring forth new opportunities and potential targets for the viability of the venture.
- The mission
Once there is a vision backing the idea, there needs to be a mission or a purpose of the venture that is worth the effort, time, and resources. The mission needs to better the lives of the people that the business intends to target. There should also be enough originality in the idea to thrive in the competitive market, whether on a local or a global scale, depending upon the resources being planned to be invested in the business.
- Problem-solving capability
If a business idea does not solve the existing problems persistent in the life of people the venture targets, it is not worth the time or resources, let alone the efforts. A business that does not provide a unique or better service to its consumers and end-users, could never become a successful business. Thus the business idea should be such that the consumer finds it beneficial, which leads to a successful business that is not only sustainable but also viable.
- Identifying the target population
One of the most vital aspects of any successful business is to determine the target population. The business idea should thus include the population to which it is being targeted. Any business without a target population is as good as a failure, even before an idea can be fully formed or executed.
- Identify trends and competitors
Before a business idea could be taken toward fruition, one must know what the current trends in the market are. The entrepreneur should also have an idea about the potential competition that already exists in the market. It would be a fool’s errand to push a business idea, before identifying and predicting the market trends, and understanding what and how things would be different to convert the idea into a successful business.
Figuring out the revenue stream
Although there are several factors to consider before starting a business, this is difficult to predict in the early days. However, there must be plans in place to recover the costs and figure out the return on investment from the business. Thus identifying and later securing such revenue streams is a crucial aspect of setting up a successful business venture. This can be achieved by two main procedures;
- Business validation: The business venture needs to be validated before being launched full scale. This means that before locking in all resources and efforts into the business idea, the business should be run at a smaller and local scale, and identify the revenue streams. It will also help predict the long-term revenue streams that the business venture would eventually achieve.
- Talking to potential customers: This will help determine how the business idea would solve the problems of the consumers and the redundancies of the current potential competitors in the market.
“Ideas are bulletproof” Hugo Weaving, V for Vendetta.
Converting the idea to fruition
After determining the viability of a business idea and figuring out the road to its fruition into a successful business, the following steps need to be followed;
Market study
Conducting a market study is of paramount importance to set up a successful business. Market studies also help analyze and predict the current trends in the market, the potential problems that the end-user faces, and standing out from the already existing competition in the highly competitive market on a global scale.
Team building
A business venture can never be successful on the shoulders of one person alone. Hiring the right people is also not a standalone procedure either. The employees and associates of the business must come together as a team and put their own ideas and inputs into the planning and execution processes. Building a proper team also helps in increasing the reach of the business. An interconnected world, with social media platforms, will help a business increase its global outreach and provide its services to more people.
Execution of the plan
A successful business is not built in a day. Starting out directly with a high-end product is also not advisable either. The business should launch rough prototypes and low-end versions of their ideas before going all out into premium services and goods. After launching such a prototype, customer feedback and testimonials are also highly important, to determine the problems with the product or services, and improve upon them with newer and more improved products, with more appeal and outreach.
Summing up
In conclusion, a business idea is not a standalone thing. There is a need to convert the idea into a concept and execute it accordingly to come up with a successful business venture. Identifying potential customers, the advantages over the competitors, and the problems faced by the end-user must also be taken into consideration. To achieve this an idea is not enough. It needs planning, execution, and a proper team to carry out the tasks and utilize their own personal and professional connections, to improve the global outreach of the business.
Be Unique to Carve a Space for your Business
Though the online marketplace is highly cluttered, you can win big if you find the right creative product or service, that lets you stand out from the rest. And once you have found the right idea, the next step is to raise capital.
Apply Loan For eCommerce Business
This is now easy with digital lenders like Indifi, who offer business loans for small businesses and start-ups with minimal documentation and fuss.
Build your e-commerce store and make your entrepreneurial dreams come true!