The Basics of Getting Started With Drop Shipping (E-Commerce Store)

Drop shipping is defined as a business model where products are sold from a sourced supplier on an e-commerce website. The drop shipping business model existed long before the internet, but it became more accessible and popular in recent years. In other words, drop shipping means selling products at a slightly higher price from the supplier.

How does drop shipping work?

With drop shipping, you don’t have to own stock, all you need is to look for reliable suppliers of the products you want to sell on your website. When looking for reliable suppliers, it is always better to get those that sell their products at competitive prices. Upon sourcing products from a supplier with low prices, it will be easier for you to earn a reasonable commission without having to overprice the products on your site. 

To get started with dropshipping, you have to find a niche (theme) for your store. For example, this could be technology, animals, or even food products. The more specific your niche is, the more efficient it will be to build a brand alongside your business. Ultimately, your e-commerce site has to be unique and well built. The goal is to earn customer trust, having a unique and simple name such as “Petswelove.com” instead of “Petsproducts4sale.store,” can make a huge difference with results! 

Secondly, you have to decide which e-commerce platform you want to use for your store. Some of the platforms that can help with your drop shipping store’s launch include: Shopify, Bigcommerce, and 3dcart. From experience, I would recommend Shopify since it has an easy to use platform and a considerable user base, which makes finding solutions (in case you run into issues) more efficient. 

After all that is done, you have to set up your store and decide which suppliers you want to use. One of the most popular suppliers is Aliexpress, an online retail service based in China and owned by the Alibaba Group. This is where you will find your products at a lower price straight from the manufacturers and suppliers. Most e-commerce websites come with plugins that make it easier to export products right into your site. Take Oberlo, for example, a Shopify program that allows you to add products and change information within seconds. 

The last step is marketing your products. This can be the most challenging part of drop shipping. There are tools such as Facebook Ads where you can “train” your pixel and start building an audience to market your products to. Taking advantage of social media marketing can be very useful in helping you become successful. However, this might take some time and money.

What are the pros and cons of drop shipping?

Pros:

• It requires little capital to get started since you don’t need physical stock.
• Since there is no physical inventory store to look after, the operational costs involved are very minimal.
• It is easy to diversify. The fact that you don’t have to purchase the actual products makes it easier to deal with a wider range.

Cons:

• You have limited to no control over the shipping processes, which may lead to bad reviews for your website in case of delays.
• Inventory management is complicated. Not owning the inventory makes it hard for you to know what is available and what is not. 
• It’s very competitive. Since drop shipping involves little capital to get started, many people are doing it, which has led to more competition.
• Small profit margins. Beating the competition may require offering competitive prices, which in the end, reduces your profit margin. 

What are some drop shipping tips? 

• Don’t sell products that everyone else is selling. Try to look for products that are a bit unique but with ready demand. These are often called “winning products.”
• Make sure you’re in touch with your suppliers. Close contact with your suppliers will make it easy to deal with shipping delays and inventory level monitoring issues.
• Deal in products that you clearly understand. This will help you source products that are of good quality since you understand them well enough. That is why you should start a store that you are passionate about. 
• Take advantage of influencer marketing. Sometimes it may be harder for starters to optimize Facebook ads, so taking advantage of this could help give you a boost in getting started. Instagram pages such as @Techineer and @Gadgetings are some great examples for technology-related products. 
• Customer support is crucial. Always make sure you respond to all the customer queries as soon as possible if you want to build a good relationship with your customers.
• Make your drop shipping store SEO friendly. If you are not familiar with SEO, you may have to hire an expert to help you out. SEO will help your drop shipping store to get free traffic from search engines quickly.

In conclusion, drop shipping can be exciting and fun. However, you would need to put in a reasonable amount of time into researching what works best. The internet has a ton of valuable information that is available for free. While the risks are minimal, the work can seem daunting. In the end, dropshipping is a perfect outlet for aspiring store owners or teenage entrepreneurs.