Start A Travel Products Business
About
Starting a travel products business requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.
If you're interested in how to sell travel products, or selling travel products online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.
Key stats
Startup Costs
| Min Startup Costs | Max Startup Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Office Space Expenses | $0 | $7,000 |
| Employee & Freelancer Expenses | $151 | $352 |
| Website Costs | $223 | $7,215 |
| Business Formation Fees | $5,600 | $20,400 |
| Inventory Expenses | $350 | $14,750 |
| Software Expenses | $162 | $3,094 |
| Advertising & Marketing Costs | $0 | $2,250 |
| Total Startup Costs | $6,486 | $55,061 |
Case Studies
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$1K/mo
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$50K/mo
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$60K/mo
Successful Businesses
| Business | URL | Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Matador | matadorup.com | #64,252 |
|
Johnny Jet | johnnyjet.com | #121,199 |
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TourScanner | tourscanner.com | #123,552 |
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Visit Philadelphia | visitphilly.com | #124,058 |
|
City Home | cityofsacramento.org | #126,989 |
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Bangladesh Trade Info | bdtradeinfo.com | #151,722 |
|
Ricardo Beverly Hills | ricardobeverlyhills.com | #171,416 |
|
Main Page | georgia.travel | #198,583 |
|
Business Travel Management | indianapolis.business.travelleaders.com | #207,203 |
|
TravelInsurance.com | travelinsurance.com | #320,809 |
|
Meet Minneapolis | minneapolis.org | #334,175 |
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Description |
|---|---|
| Flexibility | You can put as much time into the business as you'd like. If you like the work and have some initial experience, you can start small and manage all aspects of the business on your own. |
| Ability to start your business from home | It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning! |
| Rewarding work | Starting a travel products business can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about. |
| Scalable | With businesses and processes changing daily, there will always be demand for new features, products and services for your business. Additionally, there are several different business models and pricing tiers you can implement that will allow you to reach all types of customers. |
| Quick build time | The average time it takes to build your product is quick - typically around 9 months. This will allow you to bring your product to market faster. |
| Easy to encourage "impulse buy" | In the travel products business, you have a much higher chance of encouraging your customers to buy on impulse - you can easily alter the price, placement, packaging, and promotional value to influence the decision of your buyer. |
| Cons | Description |
|---|---|
| Crowded Space | Competition is high when it comes to your travel products business, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies. |
| Finding The Right Supplier | Most businesses in this space go the supplier/manufacturer route, which isn't a bad thing! However, finding the right supplier can take a lot of time, energy and trial/error. If done properly, this process can save you months (if not years) of time and energy. More on this below in the "finding a supplier" section. |
| Niche Market | A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience. |
| High overhead expenses | With starting a travel products business, there are overhead expenses that come with selling a physical product. You will want to make sure you strategically budget for these overhead costs. We discuss this more in the startup costs section below. |
| Time commitment | With starting a travel products business, all responsibilities and decisions are in your hands. Although this is not necessarily a negative thing, work life can take over at times. This can place a strain on friends and family and add to the pressure of launching a new business. |
| Be prepared to get out of your comfort zone! | Although this is exciting for some entrepreneurs, it can be a big challenge for others! You may find yourself in uncomfortable social and business situations, jumping into tasks and responsibilities you aren't familiar with, and pushing yourself as far as you can go! |
Marketing Ideas
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1
Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring in a new revenue stream, especially when you don't sell products or services.
Simply put, an affiliate program is an agreement where a business pays another business or influencer ("the affiliate") a commission for sending traffic and/or sales their way.
The affiliate typically gets a unique link where clicks and conversions can be tracked.
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2
Word of mouth
Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.
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3
Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.
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