Selling products online is not easy, and you must have the right product line or else you will be stuck with inventory you do not want. If it is seasonal inventory, you'll have to wholesale it out at the end of the season or store it for next year, or try to sell it on the other side of the planet in the bottom half hemisphere where the seasons are backwards from here. Okay so let's talk because not too long ago this question came up while I was doing some consulting and it is a good question; Should I sell seasonal products online?
An online entrepreneur wrrites; "It's not too hard for me to think of seasonal items, I just prefer to avoid seasonal items (one can get stuck with holding onto too much unwanted and excess inventory, after the season ends) and prefer to look for niche items for which there tends to be more year-round demand. "
Okay but why not find things people need when the weather is good, and it is not seasonal. You are thinking locally, think Glocally – Australia has summer during our winter time, the season is perennial see? Do not think in a box, we live on a Pale Blue Dot, it's a sphere. It's always summer somewhere and the Internet is Global, so are today's customers right?
The entrepreneur reiterates to me "To minimize competition (of course) and give myself as much of a head start as possible before the other sellers (eventually) converge on the market. I also re-purpose items in order to stand out a bit from the crowd sometimes, too. Bottom line is that I am not really focused on seasonal items. really focus on them as much now.
Okay But! New trendy items are also 'Seasonal' if you call the top of your 'Product Life Cycle Curve' summer and the bottling out a dormant Winter. Every product is seasonal – every product has its trend, its time, its peak. Just like the Summer and Winter Solstice. I see it all as one – please start thinking like this okay?
The entrepreneur also states; "I try not to generalize too much with groups of people or use AI software to guess what people might also want to buy that I sell."
Okay but, if you say it is not good to generalize with groups or people, well, I say it's not good to generalize with seasons, what's the difference? Do you see the hypocrisy of both our arguments here? Ride the product life-cycle wave, watch the trends, seasons, geo-code the sales, see what's working, use analytics, try something new, re-invest as you grow, and be bold, play to win, kick-ass, and leave all the regular people in the dust, focus and win, aspire to be Human +.
