Dropshipping is popular for its simple and low start-up cost that doesn’t discriminate. We all can start a dropshipping business with as little as $100-$300 with the freedom of choosing whatever products we want to start off with and we don’t need to stock up inventory like other businesses. This makes it a relatively low-risk and beginner-friendly business model that everyone can get into.

What is a dropshipping business?

Dropshipping is an e-commence business model that does not require any inventory in advance. The supplier will directly ship out the order to the customers for you once it gets its sales. Simply put: the customer pays for the order. The dropshipper pays the supplier. The supplier ships the product to the customer.

If you are still on the fence about beginning a dropshipping business, here is a quick-start guide that can lead you to start as soon as possible.

 

1. Do your product research

Pick what type of dropshipping product you want to promote

Dropshipping does not have to be an actual product but can be special designs on clothing. Once you have picked one, that would be the foundation of your store and we should design our website based on this.

Perform in-depth dropshipping research on a reliable platform

A properly researched product to start with can have a higher chance of success so make sure to do your product research on the platform such as Aliexpress, TikTok, and even Youtube. The number of sales and views can be a very good indicator that the dropshipping product is doing well. Don’t forget to make good use of google trends too as google is the most popular search platform at the moment.

Scout your competitor

To know how your competitior doing with the products you are going to sell is equally important than product research alone. Search up their social media platforms, think about how they market their dropshipping product and what you can learn from them (what’s doing well what’s not.).

2. Find a reliable dropshipping supplier

Once you have finished picking a product, it’s time to choose a supplier that is reliable to work with and ship the product for you. Here are a list of things that you need to consider:

Reliability

Make sure the supplier sends products on time with reasonable shipping costs and times. In addition, you’ll want a supplier who keeps products in stock since it frustrates you and your customers when an order can’t be fulfilled.

Profitability

Having a good profit margin is important for sustainability of your business as we need to invest money into subscriptions and advertisement. Shipping and transaction costs should also be considered. It is a good idea to start with a profit margin of $20 on one product. Obviously, higher profits are great if you can generate them.

Quality

Make sure the supplier you choose offers the quality your company wants to represent. It is possible to charge more for better quality products rather than discount goods that may not be of high quality.

Return Policy

Make sure to look for supplier that offers good return policy for all orders. There is always a chance that your customer wants to request a return if the product doesn’t suit them well or found broken. Thus, you need to spend time on brainstorming how the return policies on your dropshipping store would be.

3. Build a dropshipping business store

Pick a domain

Domain is every dropshipping business’s identity. Try to think about a domain name that is:
–Specific to your dropshipping niche
–Eye-catching for your customer to remember your store
–Within 10 letters that won’t be too hard to memorize

Choose a good theme

Take the time to find a nice-looking theme. It will boost your revenue as well as increase the confidence of your customers.

Install applications

Once you have opened a website, it is time to install useful applications onto your dropshipping store. To run a successful business, you will need the following:

–Building an email list from subscription
–Fast loading speed
–Fast check-out
–Reliable traffic analysis
-Using the right-coloured buttons etc

Make sure to take your time to try out different applications that works for your dropshipping business. Find them complicating and time-wasting? CLICK HERE for free resources that can help kick-start your dropshipping journey ASAP.

4. Start your marketing plan

Budgeting

What is your budget for marketing? How much per day are you thinking to invest? For how long to test a product? These are to make sure we are not over-investing too much money and emotionally attached to just one product, which is a common mistake that most start-up dropshipping business owner make. If the product can’t drive sales within certain days, it is 100% not a winning product.

Pick a good advertising platform for your dropshipping product

Here are some popular advertising platform for most dropshipping business:

-Facebook
-TikTok
-Google
-Pinterest

Each platform has its own charateristis and specific audienence. For example, if you are leaning more towards art industry, you will find more sucess on advertising on Pinterest.

5. Optimize your customer reach

SEO

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Simply put, it means the process of brining your website to improve its visibility and popularity when people search for products or services related to your business niche in Google, etc. To do this, search up all the popular keywords from your products or niche and try your best to put them all into your copywriting. The only downside of this method is it takes time to rank your store high up but the cutsomers get brought in were usually very high-converting.

Analysis your marketing result

How many sales have you got after a few days of advertising? Is it enough? Is the data looks good? If not, we need to dive into the data and metrics to improve our advertising skills. For example: if the bounce rate is high, it could mean that your dropshipping website is loading slow or the pricing is too hard. Just put yourself into the customer perspective!

HERE is a popular and convenient platform that most successful online business owners have been using for years to optimize everything in their store.