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What to Sell Online in 2021: Booming Businesses and Products to Avoid

Written by Michael Villeneuve
March 16 2020 (Mis à jour le 11 March 2024)
5 min

You want to start selling online, but before you begin any steps you want to find the market in which you have a good chance of success?

Here is a list of online activities that will explode in 2021, those that will remain timeless and those to avoid for positive results!

If you are a creative artist, a multi-tasking confectioner or an opportunist wishing to invest in a field that you like but above all that will allow you to generate many sales and create a real lucrative activity, this list guides you in the fields that are in high demand on the web.

Don’t have your online store yet ? Open an account on our easy-to-build e-commerce platform!

In which online activities should you start in 2021 to succeed on the Internet?

Activities in 2021

Fashion and fitness products

In the age of teleworking, new habits have emerged.

A new fashion has become widespread: Athleisure, a contraction of Athletics and Leisure, is a category of clothing products combining comfort and fashion.

Sports equipment is also still very much in vogue and coveted online.

Indeed, revenues from health and fitness equipment more than doubled to $2.3 billion, from March to October, according to NPD retail sales data.

Product Ideas for Sale :

  • Athletic products: leggings, training pants and shorts, hoodies, shoes, etc.
  • Fitness products: Yoga mats, large and small fitness equipment (electric mats, exercise bikes, dumbbells, etc.) etc.

Pet accessories

The number of pets is increasing every year around the world. In Canada in 2018, 8.2 million dogs and 8.3 million cats accompanied the homes of Canadians and $8.2 billion was spent in 2017 on their welfare.

See all pet market figures in this article.

In 2021, le New pets (NAC) will significantly increase the number of animals in households.
Who says new means new opportunities and products for these NACs are still not very easy to find, what if you specialized in this market?

Whether it is for classic dogs and cats or the new rabbits, mice, pigs… their owners want the best products to pamper them.

Their well-being is important, but so is their look. And to achieve these goals, scarves, toys, clothes ... are a common expense.

As with travel, pet owners want their beloved pet to be as cute as possible to show it off easily online. They even open their own Instagram account for these little pets.

Some of these animals have become stars with millions of subscribers on Instagram such as Grumpy Cat, Juniper the Fox, Marnie the Dog, Nala the Cat or Pumpkin the Racoon.

Ideas of products for sale :

  • Fashion accessories and toys for New Pets.
  • Clothing line for all pets.
  • Unusual toys, good for the health of the animals and for the environment (products designed with recyclable materials).
  • Grooming products.

Personalized and recycled wood products

Wood is a noble product and unlike plastic it is not a big polluter and can be recycled.

And it is for this environmental side that wood has been fashionable for a few years now in decorations, kitchen accessories or children’s toys.

In 2021, “recycled” or 2nd life wood products will be the kings of online sales. A lampshade with an old wooden birdcage or a shelf with an old wooden box is the trendy interior decoration in 2020.

And to stand out from the others, why not propose the personalization of these products. Lasers allow you to easily engrave on wood the shapes or texts you want. A headboard with the names of the people sleeping there, a toy for children with their first name… will be an original added value very appreciated on products already of quality.

After the fashion to be able to personalize our clothes with the printing companies, in 2021 the personalization of toys or accessories kitchen and decoration in wood will be the trendy products!

Ideas of products for sale :

  • Wooden products “2nd life” for interior decoration.
  • Customized wooden toys and home accessories (laser engraving).
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Sectors still in fashion in 2021

Some areas that have been working very well in recent years will continue to be in high demand online.

  • Knitted products are still very popular on the web.Internet users are looking for original, quality products that are not designed on the other side of the world.
    Between environmental approach, fashion aspect with unique (or reduced) products and the quality of the textile, knitted clothes and decoration will still be popular in 2021.
  • Handcrafted soaps and bath bombs are a must on the canvas. Soaps have become more than just hygiene products, they are real decorations for our bathrooms. In addition to being made without harmful products, handcrafted soaps are appreciated for their pretty and colorful visuals.
    Bath bombs, a more recent trend has taken up a lot of space in online soap shops in the last year. An important but very competitive market.
  • Soy candles will still shine online in 2021. As with soaps, candles have become real decorative objects. With handcrafted candles, Internet users are looking for originality and local manufacturing, while 100% soy brings the “ecological” image of these candles.

Markets to avoid in 2021

This has been the trend in recent years: Dropshipping. 

Many gurus boast about the many advantages but dropshipping is no longer relevant in 2020.

Internet users know its downsides: no after-sales service, long delivery time, poor quality...

Dropshipping sales will strongly decrease in 2021.

Dropshipping deserves an article by itself but you will find many of them by yourself without any difficulty. At Panierdachat we do not recommend it.
Dropshipping was interesting about ten years ago, when it first appeared, many sites were able to take advantage of Asian products sold at low prices to resell them 2 to 10 times more expensive on the web and all this without stock.

It is often summarized as having no risk to try but to make yourself known quickly you will not miss the Facebook or Google advertising, plus all the costs related to your e-commerce site, plus the big taxes that will fall on you at the end of the years as a result of this exercise very few people find the right vein. Of course you can try the adventure but you will still have to invest some Money before you can start making real Money with it. And the time you will spend on this project may be wasted because of the small percentage of success of a dropshipping store.

So the markets to avoid in 2021 are all the products bought at low prices on the other side of the world resold without any added value on your online store. With the dropshipping method or not.

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about the author

Micheal Villeneuve is the President and founder of Laradev. Laradev is certified in Laravel development, specializes in universal application, and offers training and support.