Recently, I was thinking about the advantages of digital products over physical products.
People can buy physical and digital products online. Amazon, for example, makes a ton of money selling physical products.
As I build an online business from scratch, especially a passive income online business, I prefer digital products.
A digital product can be an e-book, training video, webinar, newsletter subscription, or software subscription.
Why do I prefer digital products? Here is what I came up with:
- Digital products can be ‘shipped’ or ‘delivered’ quickly. The product can be sent to the customer immediately via the internet to their email and accessed through a link to a website, video recording, or something similar.
- The lack of costs and logistical issues associated with physical delivery make digital products much easier to handle.
- I remember buying a house, and for the first year, Amazon delivery people would drop off my neighbor’s packages on my doorstep a few times a month. Finally, the neighbor had to put a huge sign in their driveway with their house number so the delivery people could drop the packages at the correct address! With digital products, there are no shipping issues. They are not lost in a warehouse or delivered to a neighbor’s doorstep.
- For the most part, digital products are ‘made’ once. They can become evergreen products offered to customers for many years with no additional ‘manufacturing’ or ‘production’ cost like a physical product that must be assembled.
- I spoke with someone recently who works at a business making electric guitar pedals. She told me how the prices of a specialized pedal part increased tremendously. The company found the same part in a different Asian country, which they had shipped for some time. Then, there were political disputes, and shipments from this country were being heavily delayed. It caused enough disruption that the company had to find another place to order the parts from. It became a huge problem to get one part!
- I don’t want to worry about ordering parts and shipping issues when building an online business. Using digital instead of physical products can be a much simpler way. And, because it does not cost much to make digital products, they can be offered for a long time at no additional cost to produce them.
Digital products are great for online businesses and any business interested in passive income. They’re less hassle to make and distribute, and there is no additional cost as more customers buy.
But I am sure some people might disagree! I would enjoy hearing your perspective on this if you are one of them!