For new Entreprneurs who are looking for ways of making money online, dropshipping business model is one of the business models to adopt due to its popularity and the ability to scale faster compared to other business models.
In dropshipping business model, you don’t need to stock the products you are selling and you can start with little or no capital. Dropshipping business model gives a dropshipper free time to focus his/her efforts on customers’ acquisitions due to the fact that products selling are actually done through third party agents (suppliers/manufacturer). Suppliers or manufacturers, are the ones that fulfill orders on behalf of the dropshipper which also helps in cutting operational costs.
Although, with little funds, one can lauch an online store in minutes and start adapting the dropshipping business model but in the real sense of it , it requires a lot of hard work for success to be achieved.
Are you ready to start your dropshipping business journey? Then the following steps would guide you;
Select a niche for your Business
Niche is your business idea/area of specializtion which must be what you are really passionate about. In choosing your dropshipping product niche, you have to focus on less competitive niche or niches. If you aren’t passionate about the niche you select, you may become discouraged, because it takes a lot of work to successfully scale a drop shipping business and if you choose an overcrowded niche, it might be difficult to compete with the retail giants that are already succeeding in that niche.
In selecting a niche, choose products with attractive profits. Remember your focus is on customers’ acquisitions and marketing, choose products that are highly priced by selecting a niche with higher price products because you are definitely going to be needing the same amount of efforts in marketing a higher price products and cheaper products and you know their profits are not going to be the same. So why waste your time on $5 products instead of going for products of let’s say $25.
Also, make sure you go for products with low shipping cost or products with free shipping. With free shipping, you can easily shift the shipping cost to the customers but it must be very low so it wouldn’t affect your sales. Also make sure consumers are highly searching for the products (hot selling products) and make sure the products you are selling should be able to trigger impulse buys and appeal to those with the financial ability to make a purchase immediately.
In addition to the above statements on niche selection, make sure the product you choose to dropship is not readily available down the street of your home and try to see if you can re-brand the product via white label and sell the products under your brand name.
2. Carry Out a Competition Research
Competition research is necessary in running a successful dropshipping business. It is important to note that, products that are relatively competitive are high demands products that any droshipper shouldn’t over look. Don’t be afraid of competition by opting for less competitive products that may end up not selling at the end of the day. Don’t be afraid of competing with other dropshippers and other retail giants like Amazon, Walmart, Jumia, Konga etc. Look for competitive products because it is a sign that people are buying the product (high demand) and the business model is sustainable.
3. Secure a supplier for your Dopshipping Pruducts
This step is very crucial to the success of your brand. Partnering with the wrong supplier can ruin your business reputation. Alibaba and aliexpress have become the largest online resources to identify and communicate with potential manufacturers and suppliers. You can sort for your suppliers there but make sure you ask a lot of questions and learn what their production capabilities are should in case your business grows exponentially in the nearest future which will definitely happen. Your supplier or suppliers must have the ability and capabilities to scale with your business.
4. Create an e-commerce website for your Dropshipping business
A dropshipping business model requires a store to operate successful. So, you need to setup an e-store for your dropshipping business. You can easily create one using worpress and woocomerce platform, you can use shopify platform starting with their 14-days free trial or get a custom store with Alidropship.
Alidropship offers a custom store that can speed up the whole dropshipping process and save you time but it will cost you $299 one time payment to start selling immediately.
You can order for a properly setup custom store at Alidropship with some plugins that can really help in scaling your dropshipping business and the good news is that you can have it set up at 10% off your order when you use the Coupon code “smart10” at check out.
Get 10% Off Alidropship Here
(Use Code smart10 at checkout)
Alidropship also have some add-ons designed to really help your dropshipping business grow very fast and they all come at a 10% off your order (themes, add-ons, custom store and plugins) when you use the Coupon code “smart10” during checkoutSome of them are;
Social Rabbit Plugin for woocommerce– a wordpress social media plugin designed for promoting your website in most popular social networks. Price:$79
Alidropship Woo– This plugin helps in importing your products from aliexpress into your store in a single click. It allows seamless importation of products from aliexpress into your store. Price :$89
Facebook Business– This plugin helps you kickstart your facebook marketing campaigns by helping you in creating products catalogs with a single click. Price : $27
Abadoned cart– This plugin helps you generate more sales by helping you in retrieving abandoned cart via email notifications. Price : FREE
Recent Sales Pop up – This plugin helps you to build trust and add credibility to your store by notifying your customers of recent sales. Price : $29
Google Mechants– This plugin helps in marketing your dropshipping products on google. Price : $27
Add-on Bundle (6in1) – There are lot and lot of add-ons you can find on alidropship website that can help in supercharging your droshipping business but with this 6 in 1 bundle plan, you can save some bucks. Price : $145 instead of $208.
Get 10% Off Alidropship Add-on Here
(Use Code smart10 at checkout)
In creating an e-commerce website with wordpress + woocommerce, you don’t need a web developer to do this. You can refer to my previous article on how to setup an online store with wordpress and woocommerce step by step or make use of the shopify/bigcommerce platforms or get a custom store for your dropshipping business.
5. Create a customer acquisition plan
How do you intend to sell your products to your prospective customers? It is important you figure this out. Having a hot selling products plus a well designed website are not the things that would sell your products but having a strong and effective marketing plan will definitely do that. Though, the formal may contribute to the success of your marketing plans. Having a good product and a website is great, but without customers looking to buy, you don’t have a business. You can start by making effective use of Facebook ad campaigns, Google ads or Email marketing.
With Facebook ads, it is possible to generate a lot of sales which also helps in scaling your business through targeting and re-targeting. Also with google ads campaigns, you can target those already searching for your products via SEO (Search Engine Optimization) with the proper keywords usage. Email marketing also helps in collecting emails of your dropshipping store visitors from the start and helps you set up automated email sequences informing your subscribers of various discounts and special deals. It’s an easy way to leverage your existing customer base and make sales without additional advertising or marketing.
6. Analyze and optimize
Analysizing all the datas and metrics obtained from all your store visitors through tracking helps in the optimization process of your dropshipping store. In order to run your dropshipping store successfully, you need to track all of the data available to grow your business. Some of the ways to carry out your tracking are the use of Google Analytics traffic and Facebook conversion pixel data, If those are the channels you used in generating traffic to your store. You need to know where your customers are coming from by tracking every single conversion path they took on your website that eventually led to a sale for you to be able scale by retaining what works and eliminating what doesn’t work for your business .
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