Making your own products for your webshop is a good way to make a product that is fully tailored to your own wishes. In addition, you can have your own stock faster and cheaper because you have no transport costs and fewer start-up costs. This also allows you to determine your own selling price and have better profit margins. If you want to start with a webshop, you can choose to make your own products and buy the materials at home or abroad.
A consideration that you have to make is whether the transport costs outweigh the lower purchase prices. Transport has become incredibly expensive since COVID-19, a container from Asia to the Netherlands has become 10 times as expensive. Closer to the Netherlands, transport costs are lower, but labour is more expensive and the purchase price higher.
You can make your own products in different ways and via different platforms:
- develop the materials for production yourself
- develop the product yourself, especially if it is a digital product
- start a conversation with a local manufacturer to purchase materials
- buy materials through platforms abroad such as Amazon, Ebay and Alibaba
In addition to making a new product yourself, you can also choose to burn existing successful products with your own brand on them. This is also a form of making products yourself, it is then more like making your own brand. You can choose to purchase and improve it or have it sent directly from the manufacturer to the end customer. The latter is also called ‘branded dropshipping‘.
For which entrepreneurs is this suitable?
Making your own products is very suitable for entrepreneurs who have a unique idea in their head. Especially products that have never been developed or can be improved, it is very interesting to make them yourself. If you make a product yourself, it is good to think about any patents.
Benefits of making your own products
If you get started with making your own products for your webshop, there are many advantages:
- you can express your creativity
- control over the finished product
- set a price yourself
- better protect against copycats through patents and trademarks
- guarantee higher quality
- can be set up entirely in your own brand house style for more distinction
Of course, it is not only rosy, there are also disadvantages to making products yourself.
Disadvantages of making products yourself
Making your own products can also cause a number of disadvantages to come up, especially if you have a limited budget:
- spend more time and money on product and competition research
- get scammed by your manufacturer
- a manufacturer who runs off with your product idea
- Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)
- lead time, it can take months to years before your product is launched
Higher profit margin for own e-commerce brand
In general, you can say that products under their own brand have a higher profit margin in the longer term. In the initial phase you will have more start-up costs but as soon as the start-up phase is over you will notice that you can ask for a higher selling price and the purchase price drops as you purchase more from the manufacturer.
If you use dropshipping, you usually purchase per piece and the purchase price is much higher. In addition, there are often several dropshippers active on the same product, which means that the sales price also drops. As a result, the profit margin is compromised.
Have risks made of products
As described above, in addition to advantages, there are also disadvantages to having products made. There are numerous risks involved. First of all, you must have done good research into whether there is a demand for your product. Before you know it, you’ve bought thousands of products and no one wants to buy them…
In addition, you may have invested a lot of time, money and energy in product development and competition research. Charge yourself an amount of 50 euros per hour and keep a log of your hours. You will soon see that you have quickly used a capital of time. You could also have invested this time in paid work.
Try to start with an MVP, also called a Minimal Viable Product. A prototype of your product. So you can start selling. You can also start up via Kickstarter, a platform where you can pitch, validate and raise money for your idea while the product is not yet in production. If your launch does not make it, you can refund sponsors.
Having products made has given me more challenge and satisfaction personally. Especially if you are very creative and see rapid improvements to existing products, this gives a unique opportunity to find a gap in the market and be successful. With my company https://www.lifedeals.com I currently have a hybrid form of existing brands and my own brand.