Introduction
In this digital era, technological innovations are integrated with businesses. People are going digital and finding ways to earn income while sitting in the comfort of their homes.
Moreover, as we all know, the COVID-19 outbreak has shattered the economic sector. To reduce the severe economic effects of the virus, people had to find various alternatives to work. One of the best ways is to go digital.
Dropshipping business in 2023 has turned out to be one of the best digital careers for people. The basic things required to start a drop shipping are a PC or mobile device and an internet connection.
You may pursue dropshipping as a side gig. According to research, more than 44 million Americans opt for a side gig. A side gig helps them earn income and provides them with security for their salary.
This means that even if you lose your primary job, you will still receive income from your side gig. This is where dropshipping comes in.
Dropshipping is a way for people to make money without having to deal with all the trouble that comes with opening an online store.
These complexities include the necessity of a garage or a warehouse for storing products, managing inventory, orders, and shipping, etc.
The drop shippers do not need to store the products in a physical location. Hence, dropshipping is one of the best e-commerce strategies for people.
But before knowing the steps required to start a successful dropshipping for beginners, let us know the meaning of this term.
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an e-commerce technique using the retailing method of business. The major advantage of this method is that the retailers do not need to own any inventory.
They simply need to purchase products from a wholesaler or manufacturer and market them. The manufacturer assists in the shipping of goods after the retailer generates sales.
This is a major difference between a dropshipping business structure and an e-commerce business. In a dropshipping business, the retailers do not need to handle the stock or delivery and shipping expenses.
It is due to this reason that people with a single online platform can easily earn income through dropshipping. All they need to do is create a website and open an online store.
On this online store, they can market the products and sell them directly from the manufacturers to their customers.
Hence, the operational costs and selling and distribution expenses are reduced in the dropshipping business. But this can decrease the profits of the dropshipper as well.
So, the dropshippers generally aim at increasing the average order value of the products to compensate for the reduced profits. They can also focus more on their marketing skills and customer acquisition plan by reducing operational costs.
To understand the concept of dropshipping in a better way, let us know the difference between the retail business and dropshipping.
Retail versus Dropshipping
Here are some examples of both of these concepts.These examples will help you understand the difference between a retail business model and a dropshipping model.
1. Retail Business Model
Company A deals with electronic products. You visit the store and look out for certain television sets. Later, you decide to purchase the Samsung TV. You tell the retail company to pack the television for you and drop it at your place.
In this example, company A is engaged in the retailing business. The company has stored the product in its office. It has, henceforth, given rise to different expenses related to the transportation of the product from the manufacturer’s location to the retailer’s store.
Besides these expenses, the company also has to bear the packaging, selling, and distribution charges of the product. Other expenses required to store the product, like taking care of it in case of damage, have also been borne by Company A.
Hence, the major task of a company engaged in retail business includes storing the stock in the warehouse or the office and taking care of it. Now let us have a look at the dropshipping business.
2. Dropshipping Model
You have a dropshipping business related to electronic products, and you market your products on your website. The visitors, or your customers, open your website to look for electronic products.
If a person would like your product, he or she will simply click on the purchase option. Here, your role as a retailer is over.
You have persuaded your visitors to purchase the product, and now the shipping and delivery responsibility goes to the manufacturer. The manufacturer is required to ship the product to the customer on your behalf.
Different costs related to selling, distribution, and maintaining the inventory are reduced here. Hence, you can better focus on your marketing strategies. The major part of a drop shipper’s job is to market the products and ensure their delivery.
Need to Start a Dropshipping Business
Here are certain advantages that will show you the importance of a dropshipping business.
1. Minimal Startup Costs
Generally, to start a business, you require huge financial resources. Due to the lack of such financial resources, people may not be able to start their own business.
But this is not the case with dropshipping. Beginners can easily start dropshipping without many funds. Minimal costs are required to start your dropshipping business.
You will only need to spend a handful of dollars on purchasing your domain and hosting. This domain and hosting are required for your online store.
However, you do not need any amount for your warehouse or to transfer the products from the supplier’s location to yours.
2. Low Risk
Dropshipping is low risk because dropshippers are not required to manage or store stock. They can easily back out of their business if they think they are not earning many profits. Lower risks work as an incentive to attract people towards this side gig.
3. Greater Flexibility
Lower risk provides greater flexibility to drop shippers. Drop shippers get the option of choosing from a large product base. They can also partner with different suppliers, manufacturers, and wholesalers to supply the products to their customers.
4. No Order Fulfillment Costs
As mentioned above, the responsibility for the delivery of the product is in the hands of the manufacturer. Hence, the retailer is not responsible for order fulfillment costs.
Such costs relate to sourcing the product, its packaging, and delivery. The retailer is saved from all such costs. He or she only needs to ensure that the product is delivered to the customer.
5. Automation of Syncing the Inventory
There are some dropshipping suppliers or wholesalers who provide the option of automating the inventory syncing process for the drop shippers. Inventory source is one such supplier.
These wholesalers let drop shippers know how many items they have in stock and sync that number with the manufacturer. You can also know when your inventory is running low. This helps you tell your customers about the same.
6. Change in Your Niche
A niche is the category of products that you sell on your online store. The dropshippers can easily change their niche. They may do this if their current niche is not helping them earn enough profits.
Changing the niche is easy in dropshipping because the dropshippers do not need to maintain their inventory.
Hence, with all such benefits of dropshipping, you may pursue dropshipping as a side gig.
Moreover, in this era of digitalization, traditional shopping is coming to an end. Generally, people tend to surf the web on their mobile devices or PCs to purchase products.
This helps them get things easily from the comfort of their homes. So, you can take advantage of this and attract an audience to your online store through dropshipping.
How Does Dropshipping Work?
Once you create your online store, the basic process of dropshipping starts.
Then, the major steps of the dropshipping process are as follows:
- Customers visit your online store and purchase a product. They charge you money for these products.
- Once you have the customer’s details, you forward this information to your supplier or wholesaler.
- Along with the information of the customer, you also pay the entire wholesale amount of the product to your wholesaler.
- After receiving the information about the customer, the supplier starts packing it and putting the brand on it.
- The supplier is ready to supply or ship your product to your customer. He or she ensures that it is represented as if it were given from one of your stores.
- Once the product is shipped to your customer, you receive the profit. This profit is earned from the difference between the selling price and the cost price of the product.
Now let us have a look at the process of dropshipping for beginners.
Start Dropshipping for Beginners 2023
1. Decide a Dropshipping Niche
Deciding on the niche of the products you sell is one of the most important decisions in dropshipping. The category of your products has a long-lasting impact on the success or failure of your business.
Hence, before starting your online store, you need to decide the niche of your products. This niche should include a category in which you are interested.
This is because if you are interested in the category of the products, you will be better able to market them. When you are interested in the niche of the products, do you know the use of your products and what they do?
Moreover, the niche of your product should also be focused on a specific market. Impressing a larger target audience out there in the market is a difficult task.
So you should always make sure to choose a selective niche that targets a specific segment of the target audience. In this way, you can encourage a huge number of customers to purchase your products.
Let’s take a look at some other factors to think about before deciding on a niche.
i) Profitable Niche
Profits are your only goal when running a dropshipping business. So you should focus on a niche that can help you earn higher profits. Selecting a niche that includes higher-priced products can help you earn great profits.
This is because your marketing strategies will be the same for different kinds of products. You will need to use promotion and advertising techniques whether your product costs $20 or $2000.
So it is better to select a niche with high-priced products that can help you earn greater profits.
ii) Creating Your Brand
If you can brand your products, then they will have more value. As a result, you should look for a niche that you can also white label. This market will assist you in start selling products with your brand and packaging.
iii) Low Shipping Costs
The shipping costs in a dropshipping business are handled by the manufacturer or the supplier. But if your shipping costs are way too high, the customers will not want to purchase your product.
You will have a lower conversion rate. So you should find a niche that has products that are inexpensive to ship. In this way, you can also offer the option of free shipping to your customers.
Free shipping serves as an incentive for the customers and helps you increase your conversion rates and profits.
iv) Target Audience
The niche that you select for your online store determines your target audience. You should make sure to select a target audience with disposable income.
Such an audience will not just visit your website but also purchase products. This will help to increase the conversion rate of your website or online store.
Hence, you should find a product that appeals to the market segment that has the financial capability to purchase it.
v) Uncommon Niche
If you choose a very common niche, then people will avoid purchasing products from your online store. Instead, they could purchase these products locally on their streets while going out.
So you should choose a niche that is not readily available on the local streets.
Conduct Extensive Research
Deciding on a niche requires you to conduct extensive research. First of all, you can research your prospective niche on Google’s Keyword Planner and Trends.
You should type some common terms related to your niche. If people generally search for such terms, then your niche can attract an audience.
But if nobody searches for these terms, then you should not choose this niche. It will not attract the audience later because people do not want to purchase it.
Second, doing a lot of research will help you figure out how much demand there is for your niche and how much supply there is. You should select a niche only after considering its demand-supply level.
There can be two situations when you consider the demand-supply level of a particular niche.
In the first case, the demand may be greater than the supply of your product. In this situation, you should select such a niche. This is because more demand means more people want to purchase the product.
But since the supply is low, they are not getting these products. So they would even be willing to pay more to purchase products with a low supply. You can meet people’s demand by increasing supply and producing products in such a niche.
In the second case, the supply may be greater than the demand. In this situation, people are producing the stock of the products and creating supply. But this stock is unable to find a buyer.
As a result, you should avoid choosing a niche where supply exceeds demand. If you produce such products, they will only add to your inventory and not find a buyer.
In addition to determining the demand-supply level, you should conduct research to discover various aspects of your niche. These aspects include the suppliers, manufacturers, or wholesalers dealing in such a niche.
You should also make sure to estimate the distribution, selling, and manufacturing costs of the products in this niche. These factors have a direct influence on the cost of your product. The cost of the product further determines the profits of your business.
Considering the competition in your niche is also crucial. Less competition is always better. When you enter a market with high competition, you are likely to be driven out by poor marketing strategies.
Let’s take a look at some niche ideas you can try.
- Lifestyle niche ideas: Water bottles, home decor, tourism gears, home devices, gardening tools, etc.
- Tech-niche Ideas: Mobile phones, laptops, VR devices, 360-degree cameras, Wi-Fi products, accessories, and wearables.
- Fashion niche ideas: Hair clips, the latest clothing accessories, ladies’ clothing, beauty products.
Factors to Decide the Type of Product
The products that you sell depend on different factors. Let us have a look at them.
i) Price
In a dropshipping business, the price of your products is the most important part of how well they sell. This price determines your success in the dropshipping industry and the profits that you earn.
A very low price for your products can help you enhance sales, but this will also reduce your profits. Whereas high-priced products are difficult to find customers.
There will be a lower conversion rate in the case of higher-priced products, but such products will help you earn more profits. So it is crucial to maintain a balance between these two.
For this, you should research the competitors in your niche. This will help you decide on a competitive price for your products.
ii) Grudge Purchases
Grudge purchases include purchasing products that you are not willing to purchase but have to buy. This is because the alternatives to such products are limited.
Circumstances force you to purchase such products due to your requirements. Such products include medical supplies, engine oil, automobile tyres, etc. You may deal with such products.
However, indulging in these products at the beginning of your dropshipping business is a challenge. You should always try to deal with such products when you have experience in the dropshipping industry.
But these products are not purchased in bulk, and the profit margins of these products also tend to be low. So, you should be very careful while dealing with such products.
iii) Size and Weight
The size and weight of the products you choose also determine their price. Products that have more weight are likely to increase different charges related to their packaging and shipping.
So it is better to start with products that are smaller and have a lower weight. Such products will help you avoid additional costs and will lead to lower shipment charges as well.
iv) Upselling and Cross-Selling
Choosing the niche of your products, which can help you to upsell and cross-sell your products, is a profitable option. The strategies of cross-selling and upselling will help you sell more and earn more profits.
Let us understand this with the help of examples.
Cross-selling includes selling complementary goods together. These goods include shoes and shoelaces, pens and notebooks, mobile phones and mobile covers, etc. Hence, cross-selling will help you increase your sales and profits.
On the other hand, upselling is a technique that helps attract traffic towards your products through different campaigns.
For example, you might make offers to your target audience to use your products at significantly reduced prices.
Customers who enjoy using the product can purchase it from their website. So dealing in products that can help you try cross-selling and upselling is a profitable way to market your dropshipping business.
Once you have decided your niche and the type of products you want to deal in, the next step is to find suppliers.
2. Find a Dropshipping Supplier
Dropshipping Suppliers or wholesalers are the individuals who will provide you with products to sell in the market. The role of a supplier is very important in a dropshipping business model.
The reason behind this is that the supplier deals with the shipment of the products and the management of the inventory until it finds the buyer. So choosing the best supplier is a daunting task in a dropshipping business.
Connecting with the wrong supplier may lead to losses and the ultimate shutdown of your business. Several strategies can help you find the right dropshipping wholesalers.
But before reaching out to any wholesaler or supplier, you should complete other tasks. These tasks include completing all the legal paperwork and deciding your business objectives.
This is because, generally, wholesalers and suppliers require proof that can verify the authenticity of your business. This proof should help them know that you are a legal business before they can partner with you.
Once all your legal paperwork is completed, you can find dropshipping suppliers. There are four ways to find the suppliers:
i) Connect with The Manufacturers
Generally, the manufacturers know various suppliers because they partner with them. So, you can solicit information from the manufacturers about different wholesalers and distributors.
Prepare a list of these suppliers and contact them. Contacting them will allow you to schedule a meeting with them and determine whether or not they are involved in the dropshipping business.
ii) Search the Web
In this era of digitalization, one of the best ways to find suppliers is to search on Google. Google will help you get a list of high-quality suppliers near your area.
But for this, you should know how to research different websites that can help you. Several websites with capabilities can provide information about different drop shippers.
iii) Go Through the Directories
You can go through different offline and online directories. These directories will make it easier for you to find a list of different suppliers. The suppliers are listed in such directories according to the niches and categories in which they deal.
iv) Trade Shows
Trade shows are one of the best platforms that help link different wholesalers and manufacturers with drop shippers. You can always search for different trade shows related to your niche and attend them.
But you have to be very vigilant while searching for the right wholesalers at such trade shows. You can ask them questions and verify their authenticity. Request prior works from suppliers to determine their credibility.
Qualities of A Good Dropshipping Supplier
Before choosing a supplier, you should look out for the following qualities:
i) Tech-Savvy
In this era of digitalization, technological innovations are integrated with businesses. Hence, dropshipping also requires people to have skills in technology and its innovations.
Technology can help you perform certain activities like creating customizable data fields, order histories, online catalogs, etc.
In the event that the suppliers are not up to date with the latest technological skills, they won’t be able to keep up with the latest trends.
ii) Punctual and Organized
Suppliers should always be punctual, organized, and efficient. In this competitive era, fast shipping is one of the most critical aspects of dropshipping.
If you are unable to provide the products to your customers at the required time, they will switch to your competitors. You would lose your customers and profits.
So, you should prefer to choose suppliers who can ship your products within 24 to 48 hours of your order. To test the punctuality of your supplier, you can place a test order.
You should also make sure that the suppliers are efficient while carrying out the delivery process.
iii) Experienced and Dynamic Team
As a dropshipper, you have to ensure that your customers get their products. Since you are not a part of the shipment process, you have to ensure that the suppliers are efficient enough to carry it out.
This is because the suppliers tend to portray the image of your business while delivering the products. As a result, an experienced supplier can provide your products to customers more effectively.
Such a supplier should also have teams of sales representatives and experts. The team knows all the complexities related to dropshipping and can handle the shipment process better.
iv) High-Quality Products
The long-term success of your dropshipping business depends on the quality of your products. Selling high-quality products will help to attract a larger audience to your online store.
If people are satisfied with the quality of your products, they will come to your store again and again. In this way, you can get some regular customers. So selecting suppliers who deal with high-quality products is very important.
Before choosing a supplier, you should ask him or her several questions. These questions include:
- Do you have a return policy?
- Can we negotiate the pricing terms of your products?
- What is the expected price fluctuation?
- What are the requirements for free delivery?
- Can I expect some amount of customization in your products?
- Is there an approximate warranty period for your products?
Once you get the answers to the above questions, you can move further. If the answers are in alignment with your requirements, then you can choose the supplier.
Such answers will help you connect with an authentic business supplier. Detecting fake suppliers is very easy. One of the best ways to detect fake suppliers is to ask for information about the registered address of the supplier.
This will help you to differentiate between legit suppliers and fraudulent ones.
Once you are done finding the right supplier, you can move onto the next step. The supplier will provide you with goods to sell, but how will you market these goods?
You need to create an online store where you can show your products to your target audience. It is from this store that the audience can purchase your products.
3. Open Your Dropshipping Store
Once you have arranged for the products, you should create a platform where you can market them. This platform is known as your dropshipping store.
One of the best ways to open your dropshipping store is by creating an e-commerce website. To create your website, you can choose different platforms.
Shopify is one of the best mediums that can help you create your e-commerce website without even having any technical skills.
You can build your own e-commerce website, or you can hire a professional who knows what they are doing. Such an expert is known as a web designer.
The web designer will help you create an intriguing website for your dropshipping store. He or she can also help you with customization.
Site customization means you can govern the look of your website according to your brand. You may choose the theme, designs, logos, and other aspects of your website.
To create a website, you need to purchase a domain name and web hosting service. The domain name of the website is the URL which the visitors click on to open your website.
So you should choose a domain that is easy to remember. The best way to name your store is according to the niche of your products. This name will be self-explanatory. It will explain your product categories to the target audience.
You can also name your store by combining two words. For example, you may combine the words “infinite” and “store” to name your store “infinistore.”
Moreover, you should always purchase a domain that is likely to exhibit your professionalism. For example, yourstore.com. In this example, “yourstore” stands for the name of your store, which in our case is infinistore.
4. Market Your Dropshipping Online Business
In this competitive era, many people are engaged in the dropshipping business. They are selling products in different niches through their dropshipping store.
So, how can you be at an advantage and stand apart from these competitors? The answer to this question is effective marketing. Marketing your dropshipping store will help you attract a greater audience to it and set it apart from your competitors.
But how can you market your online dropshipping store? First of all, you need to know about your target audience. This is because you need to persuade this target audience to use the products in your store.
So you should research your target audience. This research will help you to know the problems of your audience. Once you know their problems, you can find solutions for them.
One of the best ways to attract your target audience to your store is to solve their problems. But how can you solve the problems of your audience?
You can do this by providing them with the required products that can help to solve their problems. Once you provide such products to your target audience, you can also market them. Marketing your products will increase your customer base.
These products will be able to solve the problems of a larger target audience. But how can you market your online store and products?
You can market your online dropshipping store in the following ways:
i) Social Media
One of the best ways to use digital marketing is to market your products or services on social media. In this era of digitalization, almost every person has access to social media.
When people surf social media, they can find your products. If they like them, they may even visit your dropshipping store.
So, you can promote your online store on different social media platforms. These platforms can include Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.
Besides promoting your channel through posts on social media, you can also run various advertisements on such platforms. These ads will help promote your online store directly on the feeds of people who have similar interests.
So advertisements have a greater capability of increasing your customer base. This is because your social media posts are shown only to your followers.
But the advertisements are shown to a larger target audience with similar interests. Besides social media marketing, you can also engage in another marketing technique. This technique is email marketing.
ii) Email Marketing
Email marketing is another effective form of marketing for e-commerce businesses. You can send emails to your customers or target audience using email marketing. These emails should consist of content that can easily entice the audience towards your products.
This type of marketing helps you directly engage with your customers in their inboxes. You can use email marketing software to assist you in the email marketing process.
These software tools assist you in sending out automated welcome emails. In your welcome emails, you can talk about your products and their discounts.
You have to be very careful while creating emails for your email marketing campaign. This is because, generally, people do not even open their promotional emails.
So, you should create intriguing and compelling emails that can grab the attention of the readers. When they open your email, they will be directed to the official website of your products via a link.
When people find the link to your website in their emails, they are likely to click on it.
iii) Paid Advertisement Campaigns
You can promote your online store in many different ways, like on social media and through email. You can run these campaigns on different platforms, like Facebook and Google.
The following are some examples of paid advertising campaigns:
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Pay per Click Advertisement
Pay-per-click advertising or Google search engine marketing are similar things. This advertisement method appears on top of Google search engine result pages.
Under these advertising methods, the users create advertisements based on certain keywords and the title. Text is used to make the ad, and it also has a description of a product or service.
Once the advertisement is ready to be published, the users can even select the geographical area. This geographical area is the location where you want your advertisements to be visible on the screens of the users.
Besides the geographical area, you can also schedule the time when you want your advertisements to appear on the screen of the audience.
So, visitors can only see your advertisements after they search for a particular keyword. When a visitor clicks on your advertisement, you have to pay Google for a single click.
The payment for a single click is known as the “cost per click.” The cost of pay per click advertising is determined by the number of people who click on your ad.
However, this kind of advertisement method can be very expensive for people who are just beginning their careers in dropshipping.
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Google Shopping
Google Shopping Advertisements are another method of advertising your online store. E-commerce retailers can create their own advertisements for Google Shopping about a particular product.
All they need to do is place the product feed on their advertisements. When people search for similar keywords, they can come across your product. Besides the picture of the product, the advertisement also has text.
The products of different competitors are placed together. This enables the viewers to compare the products of different competitors and decide which one to purchase.
Hence, with the help of dropshipping, the users can not only market their store but also decide about their niche. Google Shopping is one of the best ways to research the popularity and demand of your niche.
If you are a beginner in the dropshipping industry and you find out that your niche is competing with huge brands, then you may change it.
5. Maintaining Inventory
Once you have marketed your store, the next step is to maintain your inventory. Dropshipping does not require you to have a physical warehouse or garage where you stock your inventory.
However, you need to keep track of the inventory in the warehouse of the supplier. The major reasoning behind this is that the products are being sold to customers under your brand name.
So you should ensure that you have enough inventory to sell these products to your customers and market them. If a particular product is out of stock, then by keeping track of your inventory, you can easily notify your customers on your online store about this.
To maintain your inventory, there are various inventory management software programs. These programs can help you track the amount of inventory in the warehouse of your supplier.
You can also use various multi-warehouse dropshipping software available on the web.
One of the best inventory management programs is InFlow Inventory. This software will help you know the availability of stock for different products.
When you know that the product is out of stock, you can notify your customers of the same. This will enable them not to place an order for the particular products.
This software will also help you place reorders in time for the products that are out of stock. With the help of InFlow Inventory, you can communicate with your customers to improve their user experience.
6. Customer Support and Customer Acquisition Dropshipping Business Plan
The sole motive of a drop shipper is not just to have a good e-commerce store with high-quality products in it. He or she is also required to find customers who can purchase these products. Your good products and e-commerce store are useless without customers.
A customer is the sole motive of any business.
Research conducted by Gartner in 2014 showed that 50% of businesses compete on customer service. Giving customers the best user experience possible will help business owners sell their products.
Due to this, the levels of competition in different businesses have been on the upswing. You can outperform the competition by providing excellent customer service to your customers.
This support can be provided through different platforms like social media, emails, live chat, telephone, etc. Customer service that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week will assist you in answering your customers’ questions.
Once their queries are cleared, they will be able to easily purchase your products.
Hence, leveraging your existing customer base and increasing your revenue through excellent customer support is one of the best ways for drop shippers to grow.
7. Product Exchange and Refund Policy
To provide excellent customer support to your users, checking your product exchange and refund policies is very crucial. These policies can either help you take your business to new heights or break it.
In the case of careless product exchange and refund policies, the customers will not hesitate to spread negative word of mouth about your business.
So you should make sure to earn the goodwill of the customers. In cases of product exchange and refund policies, you can take immediate action.
Product exchange and refund policies also show your support for your customers. If you are ready to handle the complaints of your customers and address their issues, then you should prioritize your customers.
This will help you increase your existing customer base. Immediate exchange and refund policies for your customers will also enhance their customer lifetime value (CLV).
The return policy should be simple for users. These customers should be able to easily return their products in case of any problems. Once your supplier receives the product back, you can provide a refund to the customers.
8. Analyse and Grow to Build a Profitable Dropshipping Business
Dropshipping requires long-term investment in terms of efforts to generate great profits. So, you should analyze your business and focus on its growth regularly. This will help you know the weaknesses of your business and improve on them.
To analyze the growth of your dropshipping business, you can get reports of different data and metrics related to it. Several metrics include Facebook conversion, Pixel data, Google Analytics, etc.
When you get the data related to all such reports, you can easily know the sources of your customers. In this way, you can know which methods are helping the growth of your business.
This will help you to eliminate the methods that are only increasing your costs rather than increasing the customer base of your dropshipping business.
As a result, analyzing will allow you to test out various advertising and marketing solutions. You can always keep up with the latest trends in the e-commerce industry by constantly analyzing and growing your business.
The following ways can help you grow your business.
i) Multiple Platforms
Here we will examine two situations to determine which one is better. In the first situation, you use a single platform to exhibit all your goods and services.
Whereas, in the second case, you use several channels to promote your goods. So which situation can help you gain greater profits? The answer is in the second case.
In the second case, you can take advantage of multiple platforms. These platforms can include Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, etc.
By exhibiting your products on multiple channels, you reach a greater target audience out there in the market. This can help you increase your customer base. A single channel will not help you connect with a broader audience.
However, with great power comes great responsibility. If you are using multiple platforms to showcase your products, then you need to keep several things in mind.
The most important thing is that you should always make sure that your products are always in stock. The reason for this is that when you sell your products on different platforms and the purchases are high, they can go out of stock.
This will lead to dissatisfaction among the customers and, hence, show your unprofessionalism.
ii) Work on Your Online Store
Your online dropshipping store is a reflection of your brand. You can never earn high profits if you do not maintain your online store. Building your online store will help you gain control over several features of your website.
You can control the marketing, stocking, and products of your online store. Governing the look of your online dropshipping store means that you can control the look of your brand in the eyes of your target audience.
If you have an online dropshipping store, you will not need to pay commissions to a third party. This commission is paid if you want to get your products showcased in someone’s store. This will eventually lead to a decrease in your profits by increasing your commission costs.
To improve the look of your store, you can use the various website and e-commerce builders. A website builder has several designs, themes, and pre-made templates.
Besides the design tools, such builders also provide you with analytical tools. These tools will give you insight into the growth and performance of your business.
iii) Right Advertisement Channels
Customers will be unable to find your products if you do not advertise and promote them through the appropriate channels. So investing in the right channels is a crucial decision for drop shippers.
It is for this reason that you should always conduct market research before creating your marketing budget. To know the right advertisement channels, you should know your target audience.
Knowing your target audience will help you determine the sources they use most. You can advertise your products on such resources, which will help you maximize customer visits to your website.
iv) Video Advertisements
Once you have placed your products on your online dropshipping store, it is necessary to reach out to customers. One of the best ways to connect with the prospective target audience and regular customers is through video advertisements.
Video advertisements will help you reap the benefits of the shift of the web towards videos. Several statistics also show the importance and efficiency of video advertisements.
YouTube shows how more than 500,000,000 hours of videos are watched by people in a single day on this platform. Not only this, but 33% of the online activity of different people is spent watching videos.
The famous social media platform, Twitter, also shows that 82% of the users on this platform use video.
Hence, you can attract a larger target audience to your dropshipping store through video advertisements. Videos have the ability to imprint a visual image in the minds of viewers and entice them to purchase your brand or products.
In your video advertisements, you create various videos that have intriguing and compelling content related to your products. You can even include product links in your videos.
When customers click on such links, they are redirected to the official website of your product. From here, they can make their purchases.
Once your video is ready, you can publish it on various platforms. These include different social media platforms, YouTube, emails, etc. You can even advertise your video on a third party website.
A Successful Dropshipping Business Model
Hence, dropshipping is an ecommerce business in which you act like an intermediary between your consumer and supplier. As a middleman between the two, you can earn profits without even having to manage the inventory or delivery of the dropshipping products.
This helps you earn great profits with the right marketing techniques and strategies.
There are several dropshipping companies that have earned great profits. One of the best examples of a dropshipping company is Wayfair. This company was started in 2002 by two Boston University graduates.
With enough time, both graduates were able to earn 25 to 35% of profits per year. Currently, this company is connected with more than 14,000 suppliers and has more than 10 million products on its online dropshipping store.
The revenue and earnings of this company in 2018 were more than $5 billion. This shows how, with the right techniques and strategies, you can earn huge amounts from dropshipping.
But dropshipping may work for some people, whereas it may not work for others. So who is the target audience for whom dropshipping is meant?
Dropshipping is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs who do not have huge financial resources to start their business. Earlier, it was very difficult for people to start an online store without any funds.
But now, in this era of digitalization, it is very easy for people to start dropshipping businesses without any initial funds.
Hence, drop shipping is best for the following types of people:
i) Entry-Level Businessmen
Entrepreneurs who are stepping their feet into the e-commerce industry can start their businesses through dropshipping. Dropshipping will help them learn several tricks, techniques, and tactics of the e-commerce industry.
They may fail a few times while starting their dropshipping business. But since the risks are low in this kind of business, they can try until they succeed. So, with lower funding costs and lower risks, entry-level entrepreneurs can engage in dropshipping.
ii) Entrepreneurs with A Tight Budget
If you want to make profits without having enough money to invest, you can engage in dropshipping. A tight budget will not allow you to start your warehouse and take care of other expenses.
These expenses include managing the inventory and the selling and distribution expenses of the products.
So, dropshipping helps you to eliminate all such expenses and start your business with fewer funds.
iii) Side Gig
If you want to earn passive income with a side gig, then you can indulge in dropshipping. Dropshipping is a great side gig that provides you with security in terms of your income. This means you can start your dropshipping business while working primarily at another job.
iv) Multiple Product Niche
You may engage in an extensive range of products that have different niches. In such a case, dropshipping is an ideal business for you. This is due to the difficulty that sellers with multiple products in different niches have in maintaining stock and inventory of different products.
This becomes a cost incentive, and taking care of different products is difficult in the long term.
Hence, dropshipping eliminates the need to take care of your inventory of products. So you can easily sell a different range of products through dropshipping. This will save you money and help you earn profits.
v) Doubtful Retailers
Certain people have products to sell, but they are doubtful whether their product will find a buyer or not. In such cases, they are fearful of the failure of their business.
So these retailers can engage in dropshipping. This is because dropshipping does not require them to create a warehouse or take care of other such costs.
So, you can test out the success of your business through dropshipping. It will help you to know the response related to your products. In the event you get a positive response, you can earn great profits.
But if you get negative responses, then you will not get the negative losses as well. So with lower costs, dropshipping is an ideal business for doubtful retailers who want to seek validation for their business.
Hence, if you belong to any of the above categories, you can pursue dropshipping. A comprehensive marketing strategy will work as an incentive for your dropshipping business.
With such a marketing strategy, you can find your target audience and influence them to become your regular customers. Once you understand the tips and tricks of the dropshipping industry, you can earn great profits.
