As the people increasingly buy everything they need (and don’t need) on the Internet, various sales channels has been appeared. One of them is Dropshipping. Merchants who are in this business make a lot of money. Despite that, people know very little about this method of earning.
So let me try to explain in the bit more details, what is Dropshipping?
Before you start this business model, you should know this 4 things:
- You need to have your own online shop where you sell various things, or even one single thing.
- You are not a manufacturer of products, and you do not have any of them in stock. You never physically touch the products you sell.
- You deal exclusively with marketing – bringing people to your site.
- The products and stock has someone else (usually in China, but can be locally). The manufacturer is engaged to produce, to receive and to ship orders every day.
Although it seems simply, this is not easy money. You really need to have very good knowledge of marketing, social trends, and psychology of the buyers. A sense for people’s needs and their passion.
How to create a Dropshipping business?
First you need to decide on which eCommerce platform you are going to build your online shop. My suggestion would be Shopify platform because it’s simple to use. Beside that, through this platform you also have plenty of plugins that could be helpful. Generally, most dropshipping courses and seminars you would like to attend are using Shopify.
Also, one of the most important aspect of online shop is web design. It should look examined, clear, with a large amount of empty space. If you are not familiar with web design, don’t worry, Shopify themes are already made to convert.
When you create your shop, it’s time to find some good stuff to sell. One of the most popular B2B online store is AliExpress. There you should get something that is popular, trendy and with high quality. People should be able to come back to your shop and to trust your selection.
One of the best place where you can target the people who are interested in your product is Facebook. This means that you should open the Facebook Audience Insights and do a good research of a certain topic – whether there are sites that gather such people, and to check is there any potential.
The second thing that needs to have quality is the image of the product. Since you do not have the goods in your warehouse it’s safe to order some things to check whether they match your expectations. And if you are satisfied with the product but not with images, you could take pictures of them!
Once you have filled your shop, you need to specify the prices. Usually, it’s at least double in relation to the purchase price (including shipping cost). So, if the product price is 4$, and shipping cost is 3$, in your shop it could cost 14$ with free shipping! Another option would be to “give one product for free” and all the paying buyers need to do is 14$ of shipping. People love to think they get something for free!
It’s time to promote your store!
One of the most popular way to do your web campaign is through online advertising, or via influencers. Advertising usually convert well to Google and Facebook, and influencers on the Instagram. It’s good to know the psychology of the people you want to sell the product. Make a very good and interesting advertisement – description and images must be creative, but also call for action. The knowledge of copywriting, photography and design is priceless.
Today if you want to increase sales, it is good to find people on the Instagram that are followed by the people you think might be buyers in your shop! Then you make a deal with them to promote the store.
My advice to you would be to find influencers who are not very famous and who will charge you for about 100$. The ones with a million followers are asking for a couple of thousand dollars. You can contact them when your business grows. It’s better to not experiment with such amount of money at the start.
Make sure you tag the URL that you give the influencer to share so that you can see in Google Analytics exactly how much of sale your influencer did.
At the beginning you may be at a loss. But do not worry, for every successful business it’s necessary to invest time and effort to pay it off later.
How to handle your orders?
When the buyer place an order on your web shop, you forward it to the manufacturer. Using a drop shipper, you need to purchase items from the manufacturer at a reduced rate, keeping the profits for yourself.
Let’s say you had 70 orders today, $10 per order, and the price you need to pay to the manufacturer is $5. You pay him $350 and send him the addresses.Then when the manufacturer receive all that, he immediately send the items to the buyers all over the world.
In case of any complaints or anything, you should return the money to customers without any argument. That’s the only way it pays off. At the end, this is why it’s important to choose product with high quality. To win customers trust and keep their satisfaction.
Aside from all this, you also collect the base of your customers, from wherever they come from. Later, you can import their email addresses to Facebook and give them some new offers.
If you want to make a career as a Dropshipper, go for it! Here I wrote basic concept and I hope the principle is clear. You have a variety of video courses on the Internet, explore a bit more. I hope this content was helpful to you!
Did you want to become a Dropshipper after reading this article like me? Do you want to know more about dropshipping? You can buy this book below.
