How to Sell Kitchen Products from Home
Online selling is the way of the world today, with 2.14 billion people shopping online. That’s one in every four consumers who rely on e-commerce for their everyday needs. The digital evolution has helped increase that number as smartphones and computers make purchases easy and secure with just a few clicks.
Due to rising demand, it makes sense why people would want to enter the online retail business, and it turns out, you don’t have to have years of experience to get started. There are numerous categories to choose from and various methods of selling when opening an e-commerce store. A good place to begin? Selling cookware from home.
The kitchenware industry had already been valued at $56.8 billion a few years ago and is projected to expand to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5% through 2025. The pandemic may have something to do with the spike in numbers as people were spending the majority of their time at home in 2020 and part of 2021.
Many don’t know where to start when it comes to selling. What to sell? How much should items be priced? How should I market my store? All of these are questions sellers have in their early days as they decide what will reach the most people, at a profitable cost, without being swallowed whole by the competition.
A look at Amazon Best Sellers in the Kitchen category will show which small kitchen appliance or kitchen tools are the top contenders. Everyday items like KitchenAids, InstaPots, air fryers, food choppers, and cookware sets are in the top spots consistently. People need and use these items regularly.
Programs like Amazon FBA have made it easier for entrepreneurs to start their own ecommerce stores, whether as a side gig or as a full-time endeavor. Of course, being successful requires careful planning, time, and attention. The three basic steps for learning how to sell kitchen products from home are: where to source, how to sell, and ways to market.
Step 1: Where to Source
As an Amazon FBA business, there are a few ways to source products to stock your e-commerce store. However, if you’re just starting out, retail arbitrage is a good entry point for beginners. Retail arbitrage involves buying a deeply discounted kitchen item or kitchen gadgets and reselling them.
It requires time and research to hunt down the best bargains on products that people want to buy. There are selling tools, including what’s available through the Amazon Seller portal, that can help you decide which products to sell, how they rank among competitors, and how to price the items to make a profit.
Dropshipping is another popular option which means the product manufacturer ships your customers’ orders for you. It allows you to sell kitchen products from home without having to find storage space to house your inventory and set up a packaging and shipping system.
Step 2: How to Sell
Although there are other routes of selling online, such as eBay and Etsy, one of the key advantages of selling as an Amazon FBA business is that it’s set up so you can grow and scale at a rate that makes sense for your business. Amazon FBA has two plans to choose from when getting started.
The Individual plan is $.99/item sold plus additional selling fees (like storage and shipping), which is recommended for sellers who are selling less than 40 units a month. This could be the more favorable option if you’re starting a kitchen and bathroom business with smaller items available in fewer quantities and haven’t yet fully built up your inventory.
Then, once you’ve built a strong inventory and have established supplier relationships, the Professional plan is $39.99/month plus additional selling fees. With this plan, you get access to Amazon’s advanced selling tools to promote your store and help with sales growth.
Step 3: Ways to Market
Once you have your store up and running, marketing your business is essential to help it grow. Market through updating page descriptions with keyword-rich listings, add videos and photos that demonstrate product use, and take advantage of the advertising tools available through Amazon FBA. Also, create engagement on social media by sharing recipes, cooking demonstrations, and other content that highlights the kitchenware as you build an audience.
When selling everyday items like kitchen products or home goods, there’s a high level of competition, but you can carve out a niche within your store and target a specific audience with your branding. Eco-friendly kitchen appliances, smart-friendly kitchen gadgets, and products that can be part of a kitchen design theme are examples of how to choose a niche.
Selling kitchen products from home starts by addressing these key steps and using the data available to make improvements along the way. Amazon FBA helps guide small businesses through the jumping-off point and provides a solid baseline to eventually build a profitable store.
If your end goal is to sell your e-commerce business for a profit, taking the Amazon FBA route is beneficial for many reasons. At Forum, we seek out brands with 70% or more of the sales through Amazon at least $200K annual net profit. Even if you’re just starting out, this goal may be closer than you think, especially when you’re selling kitchen products everyone needs and wants.
Sources:
https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/kitchenware-market
https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/how-many-people-shop-online
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/small-business/how-to-find-products-to-sell-on-amazon
https://burst.shopify.com/business-ideas/sell-kitchen-supplies-online
