Digital downloads vs physical products: which one should you sell?

By Yuri Burchenya read
15 Jul, 2015

As more and more people realize just how easy it is to start their micro-entrepreneur career these days, they often encounter a dilemma of sorts. Should they sell** digital goods or.. physical goods**? If you are one of these people, perhaps looking to start a passive income on a side, read on.

I think in the back of your head you always knew that there are a lot of advantages of selling digital products when comparing it to selling a physical product. This article will attempt to present these advantages in a structured way so that you know what you’re getting into.

Low setup time

If you’re only starting out and this is your first attempt at selling something online, digital product is just easier to create, put up on sale and market. In case of an eBook, you can create one as fast as in 30 day time. There’s no need to create physical product specifications, design a prototype, negotiate with Chinese manufacturers, find a perfect fulfilment company or dropshippers. You can just do it.

No postage charges

One of my favourite advantages to selling digital downloads can provide you and your business is zero shopping cost. You will never have to pay for postage or handling fees when you sell your digital goods.

Think about it.

No postage charges mean you can have significantly higher margins, reinvest your profits in product marketing and get even more sales. This is something that is close to impossible when selling physical products.

Infinite stock

I bet you never thought about this one. It’s true. Digital downloads are available in infinite stock. You can create valuable product once and sell it forever. You will never run out of downloads, you won’t have to pay storage fees and worry about logistics associated with transporting goods in and out of a warehouse.

Wide range of customers

With your product page always being out there online, you don’t have to be worried about opening hours or being tied up to one local market. Internet is borderless and you can reach thousands of people with similar interests – something that would be impossible with a physical product. With modern advertising tools like Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, reaching these people is also not as difficult as trying to advertising a physical product on a billboard or in a magazine.

Immediate access

Finally, it’s simply more convenient to purchase a digital file. It is instantly delivered to you, you don’t need to wait days or weeks for it to be delivered to you, as often happens when you purchase a physical product. With a few clicks of a mouse button, your customers will have the item you have created in their possession. This guarantees a better shopping experience for your buyers and takes your worries about getting the product to them in time out of the equation.

Over to you

You now know an overwhelming amount of advantages of selling digital vs physical products. So pick up a niche, something you’re really good at and create a digital product around it. Here’s a list of highly popular digital products, if you’re on the fence about the type of product you should sell.

***Still not convinced that selling digital products is the way to go? Or are you struggling with figuring out what products you should sell? Let me know in the comments section below and we’ll figure it out together. Seriously. It’s not that hard. ***