How to Sell and Market Inflatable Toys Online
If there's one product perfect to sell in summer its cool inflatable toys. In this video we go through the ways you can market and sell cool inflatable products
Video transcript: Don’t you just hate it? You’re in the swimming pool having the time of your life, but there’s no inflatable toys – no pink flamingo – floating around to hold your beverage.
Hi world, it’s Mark from Oberlo. Welcome to Show and Sell. It’s where I take a couple of minutes every Monday to dig deep into Oberlo’s marketplace. What am I looking for? Products that are likely to sell fast. I also share tried and tested marketing methods for getting sales. If you would like more product recommendations and marketing tips every week, then now is the time to turn on the notification bell.
The products we’re going to see in this video can all be dropshipped with Oberlo. They are all available with ePacket shipping. This is another great niche for dropshipping. It’s a product with fast shipping times. What is it? Inflatable toys. Inflatables are especially well-suited to students who want to start a dropshipping side hustle. Why? Students usually have plenty of free time throughout summer. And that’s the season when sales of inflatable products skyrocket. If you’re looking to start an online business that requires your time for only a few months of the year, then this might be it.
Inflatable Toys – The Perfect Summer Product
So what do I mean when I say inflatable toys? I’m talking about beach balls, pool loungers, drinks holders like these, sports games, anything you can take to the beach or pool or park and blow up with your own mouth. I have with me 12 inflatable drink holders as an example. These bad boys are made from environmentally-friendly PVC, and they come in a range of fun shapes and characters. We’ve got a yellow duck and a pink flamingo, a pineapple, a watermelon and a green leaf ring. Three versions of a donut, a crab with pincers, a heart-shaped one, which seems perfect for honeymoons, a palm tree island, and finally, this multi-coloured one, which proves that unicorns do exist.
→ Click Here to Launch Your Online Business with Shopify
So why do beach inflatable products like this sell well? When you dropship inflatables, you have the comfort of starting a low-risk business. This is a seasonal niche. But thanks to the dropshipping model, you won’t ever need to hold on to an inventory of inflatable products during the spring, fall and winter. Simply fire up your online business during the summer months and start selling. But this kind of product is not limited to the summer season in the US only. You can run flash sales to keep customers coming back to your store during colder months. And once summer rolls around again, just price your inflatables as you would normally. And let’s not forget, when it’s winter in the northern hemisphere it’s summer in the southern hemisphere.
Marketing Inflatable Toys: Blogs, Images, and Influencers
So in theory, you can sell these products online all year round. And speaking of selling, this niche is a great option for your online store, because it comes with so many positives and you can communicate them to your audience. This lightweight product is no hassle to carry around in a suitcase, and thanks to its convenient sizing, it’s eligible for fast ePacket shipping too. That means customers in the US can enjoy faster delivery times. On top of this, inflatable toys go hand in hand with fun, sun, sea or the pool. In other words, something everybody wants more of, vacation time. With this in mind, marketing your inflatable product range should be a joy not just for your customers but you too. Find product images that convey blue skies and sunshine. When you brighten up your customers’ days, they’ll be in a great mood, and perhaps more likely to make a purchase. A blog for your online store is an awesome way of doing this. You can publish content focused on summer activities, like how to plan the perfect summer vacation, or suggestions for unique games to play at a picnic in the park. Whatever the topic, as long as it’s related to summer and vacations, you can subtly include your products in the content.
SEO, Search Engine Optimization, is very handy when it comes to creating a blog for your store. Facebook ads are ideal for products like inflatables. Bright playful imagery of people having a great time on vacation is something that will immediately get an emotional response from viewers. For merchants using Shopify, the picture sourcing platform, Burst, will have plenty of beautiful images of inflatable toys that you can use in your store and they’re free too. Seen on Facebook, compelling images like these encourage potential customers to make an impulse purchase.
Here’s another pro tip for this seasonal niche. People love sharing pictures from their summer vacations. So offer your shoppers an incentive to include your products in their social media posts. You can feature this content on your home page. This is something that’s called social proof, and it basically means that your customers are doing some of your marketing for you. And this makes it really valuable, because it doesn’t come from you, it comes from your customers. When shoppers see previous customers enjoying your products, it will give your visitors the feeling that there is a community around your brand, and that your brand can be trusted. One way of doing this is to create a customer referral program. Offer your customers a discount for promoting your inflatable products to their Instagram following, and the word will spread from there.
And while we’re on social media, influencers. Instagram influencers love to include bright eye-catching products like these in their feeds. Send a few free samples to influencers who live by the sea, ask them to tag you in their photos if they like your product, and you’re all set for a low-risk, low-effort social media campaign that will get eyeballs on your products. If you’re wondering what kind of revenue you can generate with this kind of product, then let me tell you. Inflatables have awesome profit margins. An inflatable basketball hoop will cost you around less than $20, and can be sold for as much as $65 to $80. Just remember to price your products smartly. Include the costs of marketing and other expenses if you have any and you’ll stay safely in profit. There is a link to a case study below. If you want to see how the pros go about pricing, then the product pricing spreadsheet in this study is your new best friend.
So what do you think of dropshipping inflatable toys? Have you marketed inflatable drink holders like these before? I read and reply to every comment so let me know. Thanks for watching, and remember; learn often, market better and sell more.