How to sell services online?

The digital age has brought many changes to the way we live and consume. Today, more and more people are buying services online, whether it's online courses, development services, website or app subscriptions, coaching services, or personal development services, etc.

If you want to sell online, it's important to know how to go about it. In this article, we explain how to sell services online!

Why sell services online?

Let’s start by explaining why selling services online can be an excellent way to boost your business. The main reasons are as follows: expanding your potential audience, greater accessibility, and simplified logistics.

Selling services online expands your audience

If you sell services online, you can reach a much broader customer base than if you only sell locally. Internet users from around the world can access your website and services, so they’re not necessarily limited to your geographic area.

Selling services online improves accessibility to your services.

By selling your services online, you can make them available 24/7. You don’t need to be available to make sales. This means you can generate revenue both day and night, even while you sleep.

That permanent availability comes with precise obligations, and they apply to services too, not only to goods. For a distance sale to a consumer in the European Union, the 14-day right of withdrawal applies, with one crucial nuance for services: if the service starts before that period ends at the customer’s express request, the customer must have acknowledged that they lose the right of withdrawal once the service is performed. In practice that means an explicit checkbox at order time, not a line in the terms and conditions. It is the most common omission on service websites.

Simplify your logistics by selling your services online

When you sell services online, you don’t have to worry about product storage or inventory management. Additionally, production costs are generally lower since you don’t necessarily have to pay for premises, equipment, or staff.

On collecting payment, two rules prevent the most expensive incidents. Never let a card number pass through your site: a provider-hosted page such as Stripe Checkout dramatically shrinks your compliance scope. And never trigger service delivery on the browser’s return, which is lost if the customer closes the tab: confirmation goes through webhooks, with signature verification and deduplication, since the same event can arrive twice. For a subscription the rule is stricter still: the webhook is what decides whether access is opened, extended or cut.

Create an offer to sell your services online

To put it simply, if you want to start selling online, you need to define two key elements: the content of your offer and the price of your offer.

What do you want to sell online?

You need to precisely determine the type of service you want to offer. For example, it could be website development, online coaching, training in a specific field, content writing, etc. Defining your offer in detail will help you tailor your communication correctly and reach the right audience.

Defining the offer also means deciding what data you collect, and that decision has a framework. The French regulator’s developer GDPR guide sets three principles applicable from the order form onwards: state the purpose and the recipient, collect only what genuinely serves the delivery of the service, and set a retention period, three years from the last contact for a prospect. A “how did you hear about us?” field is useful; a date of birth requested for no reason is data you will have to justify if audited.

At what price should you sell online?

Once your offer is properly created, you need to set a selling price. How much do you value your online service? To help you, study the competition, compare market offers, and assess the costs required to create your offer. When pricing your services, don’t forget to account for the time you spend preparing and delivering them.

Sell your services online via dedicated platforms

There are several ways to sell services online. The first is to use dedicated platforms like 5euros.com or Fiverr. These platforms list numerous service providers like yourself.

The advantage of these platforms is that signing up and starting to offer services as a seller is very straightforward. However, these platforms are primarily suited for micro-entrepreneurs. Competition is extremely fierce, sometimes forcing sellers to offer ultra-competitive and often very low prices. Additionally, brand identity is weak since sellers are listed in a directory.

Dedicated platforms may be suitable for selling micro-services online but are ill-suited if you want to build a brand identity, sell more premium services, and retain your customers.

In this case, you should consider creating your own website.

Creating a website to sell your services

To create your website, you have two options: develop it yourself or work with an agency of experts to guide you.

Develop your site yourself

If you have strong development skills or plenty of free time to dedicate to learning, you can choose to build your own website to sell services online. You can do this using code or a no-code platform like Webflow. 

This solution can save you money if you're skilled in development. Conversely, it can cost you a lot of time and money if you're not comfortable with website creation and don't do things properly. Take the time to make the right choice, as the quality of your site can reflect on the quality of your services.

Hire Scroll agency to develop your site

If you don’t know how to develop a website or simply don’t want to spend time on the technical side, don’t worry, Scroll agency is here to help! 

At Scroll agency, we develop ultra-high-quality websites on the CMS Webflow. The product sites are fast, well-designed, dynamic, and fully optimized for selling services online.

The advantage is that you stay focused on defining your offering while we handle the technical side. All you need to do is entrust us with your project, and our experts who make up our Webflow agency will take care of making it take off. Online service sales are yours! If you have a project, don’t hesitate to contact us!