The digital media industry market with all its various digital products is massive and flourishing. What is the digital media industry and what are digital products? What business opportunities are there for you as an established small business owner or a full-time professional? And is it truly possible to make money while you sleep? Keep reading to have these questions answered!
Strong Growth Within The Digital Media Industry
People globally are spending more money and time on digital products such as ebooks, games, and apps. The reason for the rising popularity is the ease of buying, digital files are never out of stock, and you can download the files in a matter of minutes.
As there is a demand for digital products, this can also be seen in the strong growth of digital media sector during the past years. The digital media sector includes for example digital video content, downloaded or streamed digital music, digital games, ebooks, and e-magazines, all distributed directly online.
A market outlook report from Statista said that the size of the digital media industry was in 2021 estimated to be worth about USD 294 billion. The current pandemic is not expected to slow down the growth. Statista estimates the rapid growth of the digital media industry to continue, by 2026 reaching more than 447 billion USD in value. Another report, also from Statista, stated that video games is the largest market segment by far, with over 50 percent of the market volume.
What Is A Digital Product?
Let’s look at what a digital product is. A digital product is an intangible item that you can sell and distribute repeatedly over the Internet, without having to worry about manufacturing, inventory, quality consistency, and shipping. These products often come in the form of streamable audiovisual media content or downloadable digital files.
The benefits of digital products are that they are easy to create, never out of stock, and often more profitable than the physical products, as the product cost can be quite low.
There are a lot of different digital products that you can sell online, for example:
- Software such as apps, plug-ins and themes
- Ebooks
- Courses: either self-paced (also called on-demand) or with a restricted enrollment
- Games
- Graphics and digital art
- Music and audio
- Other downloadable products:
- Printable PDFs (300 dpi, CMYK): calendars, workbooks, etc.
- Digital PDFs (72 ppi, RGB): calendars, workbooks, etc.
- Templates
- Whitepapers
- Pre-recorded webinars
- Video
- Fonts
- Craft patterns: knitting, sewing, embroidery, digital papers, etc.
- Other creative content
Memberships are also considered digital products, which may surprise some of us. In any case, there is something for everyone!
What Are The Business Opportunities With Digital Products?
With such an enormous market size and expected strong growth, there are plenty of digital product opportunities within the digital media segment. Also, in challenging times it is important for one’s livelihood to be secured by offering products around the clock.
Could you start selling digital products either as a full-time entrepreneur or to create an additional income stream on top of your full-time job (also called a side hustle)? Or could you expand your business model into e-commerce. to include digital products to sell in addition to your existing physical products?
As many new players are entering the digital products market to get their share of the crop, there are some risks with tougher competition. The key is to attract customers away from the competition with good sales and marketing practices.
Where To Sell Your Digital Products?
There are a few alternatives where to sell your digital products. One option is to sell on an e-commerce platform like Etsy, Amazon, Creative Market etc.. The other is to sell your digital products on your own website. What is the better course of action? Well, there are advantages and disadvantages to both options.
Selling your products on an e-commerce platform can be easy, as you can start right away, and there are already customers searching for products on the platforms. However, the negative side is that you will pay a commission for each sale you make to the platform owner.
The other option is to sell your digital products on your own website. Yes, there is more work to set it up and it takes a longer time, but you will have control over your brand and the customer experience, and you own the customer data.
A happy medium is to sell in both places, because often people who frequently shop on a platform want to stay there because of how convenient it is to have all orders in one place, and also the streamlined checkout process means private data is kept in one place only. Don’t discount how impactful these arguments can be in the decision-making process of some people.
Digital Products Spread Risk
There is massive market potential in selling digital products. If your local economy is tight, selling digital products to a global market is an alternative.
Also, adding digital products to your physical product portfolio will help putting “eggs in several baskets” instead of just one. As they say, the world is your oyster.
Are you selling digital products yet? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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