mitrobeDropshipping is one of the most popular eCommerce models that has been growing in popularity over the past few years. Dropshipping allows you to sell products without having to buy inventory or pay for shipping costs, which means more profit for your business and less risk. This article will help teach you how to start a successful dropshipping business, so read on!
How Does Dropshipping Work?
Dropshipping is a business model where you don’t keep any inventory at all. This means that, unlike other models of eCommerce like retail arbitrage or consignment selling, there’s no need to purchase products upfront for your store and pay for shipping costs when they get delivered to your customers’ homes.
The dropshipping process can be broken down into three steps:
– Step one: Assemble an online store on Shopify. Learn how to find great product ideas, customize your shop theme, import authorized retailers such as AliExpress and eBay, and a couple of other dropshipping platforms into your account so that you can buy directly through them without having to deal with international payments or order fulfillment yourself.
Advantages Of Starting A Dropshipping Business
- -Dropshipping allows you to start a business without spending any upfront money. It also has the advantage of being scalable, meaning that it can be grown as your budget and time allow.
- – The dropshipping model is perfect for people who are looking to create an online store but don’t have much capital or experience in eCommerce.
- A great thing about this business model is having access to wholesale prices from suppliers which means that you’ll be able to sell products at retail value (or even higher) while only paying wholesale prices! In other words, because there’s no need to purchase inventory upfront, you won’t risk losing money if a product doesn’t sell well on your online store.
- As a Dropshipper customer doesn’t have an idea that you’re just an intermediary and not the end supplier, so you can sell products at higher prices. Dropshippers usually start with an inventory of one product and keep adding more as their store grows.
How to Start Dropshipping Business
If you want to start with this kind of online business and don’t know how to get started, we have prepared for you some tips that will help:
- Choose a niche (you need to identify many things about it so choose wisely).
- Do market research on what items people usually buy in this niche, and if the products are easy or hard to find at stores near their homes.
Once you’ve done all these steps, go ahead and open an e-commerce store!
There’s no better time than now (to do something really good)!
Dropshipping is not so expensive to start up, and you will be saving a lot of money.
The good thing about dropshipping is that it’s not as expensive to start up, and you’ll save money in the long run.
At the moment, there are quite a lot of platforms where you can build your dropshipping business.
Choosing a Niche.
The great thing about Dropshipping is that you can sell any niche with the possible exception of drugs, pharmaceuticals, or other illegal products.
This makes it easy to grow your business no matter what size and scope you want!
In the next few lines below you’s be able to see some dropshipping niches that you can choose especially if you’re just a beginner. You might have some ideas but don’t know if there’s enough demand in a certain niche, so let’s take a look at some popular niches below:
What Niche is Best for Dropshipping?
Clothes & Style – Clothing stores are always profitable because people will always need clothes which means they’re going to continue buying them until they die (probably). Plus trends come and go so even when one fad dies out another pops up.
Baby & Kids – This is a popular niche for lots of reasons. First, there’s always going to be new moms and dads that need things for their child so they’re going to keep coming back! Second, kids grow like weeds so it’s not just clothes but toys too. Third, even if you specialize in one type of baby product the chances are good people will ask about other stuff as well (like cloth diapers or highchairs).
Food – If your food looks appetizing enough then anyone who sees it might want to buy some. But what does that mean? Well first off we can say anything, edible counts, since all food has at least SOME demand (ask any farmer), plus restaurants have been doing this forever so you can do it too.
Kitchen Supplies – Think about the last time you had to buy something for your kitchen. Chances are it wasn’t some obscure item that only a handful of people would be interested in, but rather something like pots and pans or cooking utensils. That’s because kitchens need stuff constantly so there’s always someone who needs what you’re selling!
Appliances – Appliances have typically been one of those things that most people want new even though they don’t really NEED them (they still work fine after all). But think about this: how many times has your warm bath/shower not been hot enough? How many times did your oven heat up unevenly? And how often does your fridge make annoying noises.
Phone Accessories– I’m willing to bet that you have at least one phone in your household. And if you don’t, I’ll also wager that it’s because phones are expensive enough for people who do. So what about all the other little things we use on our phones? What about screen protectors or charging cables and cases (if they break)? We replace them!
Hair Extensions and Wigs– If you’re reading this, I’m guessing that it’s because your hair is not perfect. It might be too thin or frizzy and unmanageable. Or perhaps the color just doesn’t match what you want to do with yourself? That’s where extensions come in! It so much of a big business at the moment.
Luggage– If you travel often (or even if you only go on a trip every now and then), luggage can get pretty expensive as well. Especially if we’re talking about more than one bag – like suitcases! If you have kids who need their own bags for school, they’ll also add up quickly.
More dropshipping niches are Cars and Motorbikes, pets, home improvement products, Photography and videography products, makeup and cosmetics products, and more.
Do Market Research
Dropshipping business is very challenging even when there’s no restriction on who can start the business. You need to do a lot of market research before you invest your time and money in this business.
– What is the demand for that niche?
– Are there any other competitors operating in that niche?
– How much competition can I handle as an entrepreneur with limited resources, such as time or capital?
– Is it possible to find suppliers from my country who will ship goods on a regular basis without incurring high shipping costs? Do they sell products for less than $100 each? and so on.
You also need to brainstorm the strategy to use to stand out from the fierce competition, this also largely depends on the type of niche or product that you decide to retail in your store.
Do Product research
There are tools and strategies to find profitable dropshipping products which will make it easier for you to find a product that has the potential to bring in profit.
– Dropshipping tools
Examples of these are Oberlo, Jungle Scout, and Profit Bandit. These tools offer resources such as keyword research which can be used to get ideas before investing time into building your store or finding profitable dropshipping products.
A great tool for dropshipping is Oberlo which allows you to import products from suppliers directly into your Shopify or WooCommerce account in seconds!
Oberlo also includes a marketing suite where they give out free Facebook ads templates that have been proven to work time and time again! It’s pretty amazing what it can do if you’re looking to get started quickly without having any technical skills.
They also give you an idea if there is already competition with similar niches out there so you know whether or not its worth your investment. This tool helps save money by avoiding costly mistakes like stocking unprofitable goods in your inventory because they look pretty on Instagram (gasp).
– Niche Research
If you want to target a specific niche then this should be your next step. You need to know the general topic of your product. This is important because you want people who are interested in that niche to be able to find and buy from your store without having a hard time navigating through it.
– Product Research
Search for products that are related to your niche and then read reviews of these items to get a better understanding of what the customer is looking for in their purchase decision. This will be important when you decide which dropshipping business model to use (manufacturer, distributor, or marketplace). For example,
How to get dropshipping suppliers?
The key thing in dropshipping business is the ability to find a good supplier. If you do not have a good supplier, then the dropshipping business would fail.
Manufacturer Dropshipper vs. Wholesaler Dropshipper
If you are looking for an opportunity to manufacture products and sell them at your own price on eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, etc., then this is what we call manufacturer dropshippers.
Manufacture drop shipper usually has more knowledge of product design and manufacturing process than wholesalers who only buy finished goods from manufacturers in bulk quantities and resells it with their markup on online stores. This could potentially provide higher profit margins but requires more investment in capital costs for inventory.
How to Create a Dropshipping Store On Shopify
Building a successful eCommerce store can be tricky. There are many moving parts that have to come together in order for things to work properly. Our team of designers can support you through the process of building your own Shopify Dropshipping Store from scratch and how you can leverage tools like Oberlo, BeastMode, Quixey as well as other apps which will help improve your chances of being successful with this business model.
Creating an e-commerce website with WordPress
If you want to start your store on a low budget, you can also build your dropshipping store using woocommerce and then use Oberlo to help you find products.
WordPress is a great platform to use for your website because of the ease with which you can create one. You will need:
-A domain name and hosting,
-A WordPress Theme
A domain name is simply the name you decide to give your online store. This can be your own name, business name, just make sure it’ss catchy phrase that will make people remember and associate with your store.
To host your dropshipping website we recommend using Hostgator as they have a great shared hosting package and they are also an established company with years of experience in the industry.
For your dropshipping store design, you need to pick a WordPress theme that is well suited for your niche and has a design that is easy to navigate.
A good way to choose the best theme, without paying any upfront costs, would be to use ThemeForest and find one you like while there are still free trials available.
But we can do the heavy lifting for you and help you create a fully functional dropshipping store either on Shopify or WordPress without having to break the bank.
Dropshipping services:
– Dropshipping store setup on Shopify or WordPress with no coding necessary
– Marketing and SEO Consultation to help you grow your business for free!*
– Dropshipping Email Templates that will make people remember and associate with your store. Free samples available
How to Promote your Dropshipping store
Promoting your store will be the key to success. Fortunately, there are many ways you can do this for free or at a very low cost.
Social Media: Developing and maintaining an active social media presence is one of the best things you can do for your company’s visibility online.
Paid Advertisements: One of the best ways to promote your store on social media is by using paid advertisements, such as Facebook Ads.
Blogging: One of the best things you can do for your company’s visibility online is to blog about topics relevant to your industry or products available in-store on a regular basis.
Free Giveaways: Holding free giveaways with prizes that are related to your store’s products is a great way to attract new followers.
Use local business directory: Local business directories are a great way to get your store name out there and attract new customers.
Link Exchanges: Link exchanges with other sites in your industry or with stores similar to yours is one of the best ways you can build up good links back to your site, which will help improve its visibility on Google among others.
Influencer Marketing: Another way to get your company out there and attract new followers is to work with influencers in the industry. Influencer marketing can be done on social media, such as through Facebook ads that target a specific demographic of people who may find an influencer’s account or posts about your business interesting.
Video Marketing: Video marketing has become a very popular way of marketing products and services. Video marketing can be done through websites such as YouTube or Facebook, where companies post videos demonstrating the use of their product or service to a targeted audience.
Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization is an important part of any successful online business so that customers may find your website easily via search engines like Google when they come online to find solutions to their problems.
Best Payment Gateways for Dropshipping Business in Nigeria
-Paystack: In Nigeria and Ghana you can also use Paystack to accept payments from your customers. You may need some business registration details to get started.
-Flutterwave: Flutterwave is a payment gateway for developing countries that make it easy to process payments for merchants in countries like Ghana and Nigeria.
-PayPal: PayPal is the most popular and well-known form of online payment. It offers a lot of benefits to retailers, including having an easy setup process for customers who have already been on your platform before.
-Stripe: Stripe has become one of the leading ways for small businesses to accept credit cards as payment online.
-Coinbase: Coinbase is one of the most popular cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges in the world, which means that they also offer payment gateways for retailers looking to accept Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies on their platform.
#Conclusion
Dropshipping is a profitable business but needs a lot of time to start and grow the business. Dropshipping can be done by anyone but it is not an easy way out as you have to invest in your own company and work hard on making it grow so that the profit remains in your hands.
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