When it comes to adult entertainment and sex toy products, our society has come a long way in a short time. 

More and more entrepreneurs are entering into this potentially lucrative sales stream with every passing day. If you want to number yourself among the success stories, incorporate the following suggestions into your business model.

Define your target audience.

One of your first steps is to determine who your customers will be. Human preferences and characteristics cover an enormous span, which is why it is essential that you refine your reach.

To that end, determine your audience: Are they into a particular fetish? Do they identify as LGBTQIA+? Married couples? College-age guys and girls? With your particular shopper profiles identified, it becomes a lot easier to decide which types of sex toys and other products to feature. 

By the same token, you will find that you can better match your merchandise choices with the preferences — sexual wellness, fantasy, and intimate clothing — that suit your customers.

Determine where you will source your products.

You have two choices as you determine your product origins: Either manufacture them yourself, or sell items that have been produced by someone else. 

When it comes to the former choice, you gain the ability to control the process from the beginning. You will be making one-of-a-kind products that may perfectly satisfy a previously unmet need or help to move the industry forward. 

Even so, you will need to overcome a steep learning curve and pay careful attention to consumer safety guidelines.

Alternatively, you can opt to collaborate with a proven manufacturer to bring your ideas to life. 

Doing so requires diligence in choosing the right partner and close supervision of the final product to ensure compliance. You might also face high minimum order quantities and quality control challenges. However, taking this route will enable you to scale your business quickly without the need to hire a lot of in-house staff.

Set a foundation of safety and discretion.

Ensuring customer safety is crucial in this industry, particularly if you design and manufacture your own products. Implement strict quality control measures, and make use of disclaimers, clear visual and textual instructions, FAQs, clear labeling, and accessible customer service to ensure that buyers are well-informed and have resources to consult if questions arise.

Take careful note of the standards and regulations that exist in the areas where you do business. If you are selling internationally, consider hiring a local consultant. 

Finally, help to protect your customers’ privacy by shipping in discreet packaging.

Craft your brand.

Now it’s time to figure out exactly who you are as a company and how you want to communicate your identity to the world. This kind of branding includes elements such as the image you want to portray, your goals, and the unique value that you will be bringing to your customers. 

Once you develop a comprehensive brand identity, you can create a fully compatible portfolio consisting of your logo, color palate, visuals, product packaging, and video content.

Set up your payments infrastructure.

Because sex toy sales are in the adult-entertainment sector, you will need to partner with an adult merchant account provider. Anyone selling in this industry is automatically placed in the “high-risk” category. 

You can expect to pay higher per-transaction fees and may also be saddled with other charges and contractual obligations.

In spite of these disadvantages, a high-risk merchant provider comes with upsides. A reputable one will have expertise in partnering with adult entertainment companies like yours and will provide you with a payment gateway equipped with security technology specifically designed to address the industry’s unique data safety challenges. This will help you to achieve a lower chargeback rate that may eventually lead to lower fees.

Build your sex-toy store.

Now it’s time to decide if you want to develop your own ecommerce site from scratch or if you would rather use a prefabricated model. Each option has its advantages, so give this decision some thought.

With your infrastructure in place, it’s now time to select your theme. 

Be sure that it gels with your brand identity and voice. Then focus on creating clear, compelling product photography that will draw potential buyers in while presenting a clear idea of what they will be getting.

Finally, concentrate on composing the fundamental pages that will appear on your site. At minimum, these should include your product catalog, FAQs, an “about section”, contact details terms, conditions, and policies and contact details. 

Keep transparency, thoroughness, and easy navigation as high priorities throughout your website development process, and test the results thoroughly before going live.

Price and market your products.

Spend some time determining how much you will charge for each item. This requires a careful balance between the need to make a profit and the necessity of offering competitive pricing. 

Scouting out your competition’s pricing and offering a wide array of items at all budget levels can help you to achieve these goals.

Finally, the time has come to market your business. 

To that end, adopt numerous strategies: showcasing your products at in-person events, mounting an email and SMS marketing campaign, driving traffic to your website with search engine optimization (SEO), and employing influencer and affiliate marketing to get the word out to a broader audience of eager customers.

Whether you invent your own innovative sex toys or distribute popular favorites, this industry provides you with the opportunity to make handsome profits while meeting a growing customer demand. As long as you build a strong foundation for your burgeoning business that takes your unique brand and target audience into consideration, you can create a thriving company.