How to Start Dropshipping Business – A Step by Step Guide

Do you know what dropshipping is?

How many times have you thought about starting an eCommerce business?

Dropshipping is a business opportunity for starters looking for how to make money on the internet with little investment. It is one of the best businesses on the internet that is getting a lot of attention and making some people rich.

It is so unfortunate that a lot of people still do not know about the business.

The Dropship Model

Image: DropshipExtensions

Dropshipping is a business model where you don’t need to own products you are selling. All you need to do is find cheap products from a company and sell that product to buyers at a higher price while the company handles the delivery. All of these dropshipping activities can be accomplished quickly and efficiently with the help of experts like ecomcircles.com. They will assist you in saving time and focusing on becoming more efficient.

You don’t get to buy the product from the company with your own money. The customer buys a product from your store at your own listed price, you forward the order to the company and pay the original price, the company ships the product directly to the buyer in your name.

That’s it!

You don’t get to do any inventory or stocking of the products you are selling. You don’t even get to see the product you are selling physically. How much you want to make per product is left for you to decide.

With dropshipping, all you need to do is set up an electronic (online) store, list the items you are selling, and focus on marketing and selling the items.

This blog post contains the information you need to start a dropshipping business. It will lay out every step you need to take, how to do them, and what to do next so that a week from now you can start your dropshipping business.

Let’s get started.

How To Start Dropshipping Business

1. CHOOSING A NICHE

This is the first thing you need to do to start a dropshipping business. You must pick the product from a niche you are interested in or else it will be difficult for you to make sales. Would you like to sell products in the health, skincare, electrical appliances, or fast-moving goods niche? Finding a niche you are passionate about and interested in is the best way to go about this business.

Factors to Consider when Choosing a Niche

• Attractive Profit Margin

When selecting a niche, look at the item you will be selling on that niche and look at the profit margin you will get selling each product after advertising. This is very important so you don’t end up spending money on ads and don’t make good profit. It is better to sell higher-priced products.

• Low Shipping Costs

Even though you are not the one handling the shipping, if the shipping costs for your products are high, it can repel the customer from purchasing the product. Focus on products that are inexpensive to ship so customers can gladly purchase your products.

• The Percentage of People Purchasing the Products

This is a very important factor. If nobody is buying what you are planning to sell, you are dead in the water before you begin. If you are to pick a niche, it must be a niche that appeals to a lot of buyers with disposable income.

2. SECURE A TRUSTED SUPPLIER

Now that you have chosen a niche, it is time to find a trustworthy supplier that will be doing the dropshipping for you. Partnering with the wrong dropshipping supplier can ruin your business. It is very important you don’t rush this step.

Here are few suppliers I recommend. You can try them out. They have delivered over the years with good support and easy to set up.

• SaleHoo: A powerful supplier directory, and online community for dropshippers, wholesalers, and e-commerce stores.
• Spocket: A top supplier of original US/EU products with thousands of dropshipping suppliers all over the world.

You can also ask other entrepreneurs running this kind of business to refer a trusted supplier you can rely on in the business.

3. CHOOSE YOUR SELLING PLATFORM

Now, you can choose to use any eCommerce platform to list your items and start selling. You can also choose to build your own eCommerce site and sell your items. It all depends on your budget.

Platforms like Amazon, eBay, Shopify, Bonanza are great for beginners without any funds to build their own eCommerce store. But, it is much better to build your own eCommerce store as you don’t have to face any crazy rules or fees. With your own store, you control what you sell and how you sell them.

4. PROMOTE YOUR STORE

Having a beautifully designed store with good items to sell is great, but without customers to buy, you don’t have a business. As far as you are starting out, it will be very hard to start making sales even without many competitors to deal with.

To make sales, you will need to promote your store to potential online shoppers.

How to Promote your eCommerce Store?

There are many ways you can promote your eCommerce store to make great sales. Here are the most effective ways that have proven to work for many eCommerce sellers.

• Facebook Ads and Campaign

Facebook ads allow you to generate sales by placing your offers directly in front of a highly targeted audience.

• Using Referral Discounts

This is a marketing tactic used by top marketers to help them reach new customers fast. The idea was gotten from the Uber referral program that allows new customers to get a free ride if they sign up for the app using their friend’s link.

You can offer something similar. Something like giving new customers a 10% discount off their first order and another 10% if they refer a friend that ends up buying too.

• Influencer Marketing

This is also another marketing strategy that has proven to work effectively for any business. You are going to be more creative to use this tactic. You can build a relationship first with the influencer to a large extent before asking for endorsement.

You might need to pay a little fee to get the job done faster. Just look for an influencer in your niche market with a large social following and do what you have to do to get them to promote your products.

• Search Engine Optimization

This is another way to get targeted buyers into your store using search engine marketing. You have to learn how to do this to be good at it.

5. Analyze and Optimize

Lastly, you will need to be tracking all of the data so as to see what is working and what is not working. This activity helps to grow your business.

Check your conversion rate. Which of the marketing strategy is working better and which is not. These include Facebook ads, SEO, and other of your marketing tactics. When you are able to track every conversion, it enables you to scale what works and eliminate what doesn’t.

Hope you now have a good knowledge and understanding of the business? Leave a comment below and don’t forget to share with your friends. If you need further clarification or inquiries, you are free to contact me.

Remember to check out these dropshipping suppliers – SaleHoo and Spocket.

 

Affiliate Disclosure: I may earn a commission for my endorsement, recommendation, and/or link to any products or services from this website.