This week we learned about various options for sourcing product in the world of e-commerce. The three various options we considered included selling online retail (purchasing, storing, selling, and shipping product); running a drop-ship online business (you sell and contact the supplier, and they fulfill orders directly to customer); and affiliate marketing (your business would be to simply drive purchasing traffic to other businesses, who in turn pay you for each sale as a result of your marketing on your blog, social media, or YouTube, etc.).
Personally, I am very interested in an online retail business, of some sort. But after the reading and discussions this week, I am becoming very interested in affiliate marketing! One interesting idea, would be to see how a business which begins as an affiliate marketing business, begins to sell its own products retail. If it was a successful affiliate business they must have a large and recurring follower base, so it would be interesting to see how that could transfer into an online retail store.
SaraSorensen 