HOW TO START A DROPSHIPPING BUSINESS
(With Just A Laptop)
In e-commerce, there’s been a lot of talk about drop shipping. If you are not familiar with drop shipping, it’s a business model where you, as a store owner, don’t need to buy products in advance. You just add a necessary product to your site and when someone purchases it, you buy it from supplier who ships this item directly to your customer. So, when starting an online business, it lets you easily avoid the hassles of things like developing products, tracking inventory, setting up warehouse space, and maintaining a confusing shipping/receiving infrastructure. Drop shipping is considered a low-risk business model making it a great and extremely popular home-based business model among new entrepreneurs. To develop it, internet marketing skills are needed above all compared to financial capacity. Since there is no need to create a warehouse for the items you are selling, it is possible to start a dropshipping business with limited funds. Here's how to start a dropshipping business.
How to start a dropshipping business
The items, which will be sold through the dropshipping model, are purchased from a supplier or manufacturer. This not only reduces operating costs, but also allows you to focus all efforts on customer acquisition.
But be careful! While the dropshipping business does not require large funds to start, it will require an immense amount of hard work.
How dropshipping works is basically explained in the picture provided below.
1. Choose a niche
The niche you select must be well focused. It also has to be something you are truly interested in. As it takes a lot of work, if you are not passionate about the niche you select, you will be more inclined to get discouraged. Here are some points to consider when selecting your niche:
- Look for attractive profits. In dropshipping, the amount of work required to sell a $ 20 item is essentially the same to sell a $ 1,500 item. Select a niche with more expensive products
- Low shipping costs are very important. Shipping costs that are too high keep customers away. Find something inexpensive to ship. You will then have the opportunity to offer free shipping
- Make sure your product is targeting impulsive buyers with disposable income. The products you sell must generate impulse purchases. They also need to attract those with the financial capacity to make an immediate purchase
- Make sure people are actively looking for your product. Use Google AdWords and Trends to check out some common search terms related to your niche
- Build your brand. Creating a successful brand is very important. Furthermore, your dropshipping business will have more value if you can rebrand whatever you are selling.
Sell something that is not readily available locally. Pick something your customer can't find easily
2. Research the competition
Remember, you will be competing with other dropshipping companies and with giants like Walmart, Amazon, eBay. Looking for a product that has little or no competition is not productive at all. On the contrary, it is a sign that there is no demand for that particular product.
How to create a successful dropshipping business? Look for products that have competition, as it is a sign that there is a strong demand and the business model is sustainable.
3. Get a supplier
Collaborating with the wrong supplier can ruin your business. Since most of the dropshipping service providers are located abroad, communication becomes extremely important. Pay close attention to the ability to respond quickly and understand each other. If you are not 100% sure of the communication skills of a potential supplier, go ahead and continue your search.
For research, you can use Alibaba, which has become one of the largest online resources for identifying and communicating with potential manufacturers and suppliers.
4. Create your e-commerce site
The fastest way to start a dropshipping business website is to use a simple e-commerce platform, like Alidropship. No particular technological skills are required to use it and it has many apps to increase sales.
So, especially at the beginning, if you don't know how to start a dropshipping business, it is recommended to use one of the plug-and-play options. Only later, you can proceed with the customization of the web page.
5. Create a customer acquisition plan
There are several ways to attract potential customers. The most effective option is to start an advertising campaign on Facebook. Facebook, in fact, allows you to place your offer directly in front of a highly targeted audience. Of course you can also take advantage of free social media such as YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.
You also need to think long-term, so SEO and email marketing must be the center of attention. Through emails you can, for example, offer discounts and special offers for your customers.
6. Analyze and optimize
The final move on how to start a successful dropshipping business is to keep track of all available data and metrics. Only then will you be able to grow your business. This includes traffic data from Google Analytics and Facebook. Being able to track every single conversion allows you to improve what works and eliminate what doesn't.
As you probably know, AliExpress is an extremely popular retail platform, whose order volume exceeds that of Amazon and eBay combined. And AliExpress' prices are so low that you can multiply them by 10 and still have the best offers in your market. No wonder that so many online entrepreneurs are doing drop shipping business with AliExpress.
