With the eCommerce industry set to reach the dizzy heights of 1.3 trillion by 2025, it’s a good time for many to begin to think about their own entrepreneurial journey!
With a low barrier to entry and a potential sky’s the limit success, we will walk you through how to get started in our helpful article. So if you want to understand more about dropshipping for dummies, the basics, and benefits, then you’ve come to the right place!
Let’s start with looking into exactly what dropshipping is so you can get started right away!!
What is dropshipping?
In its basic terms, dropshipping is an order fulfillment method. The store owner or retailer chooses products, usually from a dropshipping platform – who will then go on to fulfill the order. The store owner holds no stock or inventory as all products are shipped from the dropshipping partner.
The best dropshipping partners can also offer extra services which help free up the store owner to concentrate on other areas of the business.
Some of these services include picking, packing. Warehousing and offering private label products. A private label product is one that can be branded with the store owner’s logo, colors, brand visuals, etc.,
“In its basic terms, dropshipping is an order fulfillment method.”
What are the benefits of dropshipping?
So as we saw above, one of the main benefits of using a dropshipping method to sell goods from your eCommerce store is the fact there is no need to have warehouses to hold stock.
This means that eCommerce and Shopify store owners do not need premises to store goods.
One of the other main benefits of dropshipping is its low barrier to entry in terms of cost.
Although having some capital can be useful in any enterprise, you can literally get started dropshipping with just the outlay for your website.
Some other benefits of dropshipping are:
- Scalability
- Ability to offer a wide product range
- Low overheads
- Sell and test products with less risk
Ok So now we’ve found out some of the main reasons for dropshipping, how do you get started? Read on to find out more in our dropshipping for dummies guide.
How do I start dropshipping as a beginner?
So like every type of business, it’s worth spending some time planning your venture and finding out best practices. No one should jump headlong into a new business and that includes dropshipping!
One of the first things you need to decide is the types of products you want to sell.
Choose a niche
Choosing a specific niche for your new dropshipping business is the perfect place to start. With so many products available, you will be spoiled for choice!
Some areas of retail such as children’s toys can offer good profits, or you might want to focus on selling more products with a smaller profit margin, for instance, home & kitchen products.
It is worth looking carefully at your niche first and taking a view of expected profits alongside the competition. The most successful dropshippers are those that have that balance right!
Decide on a name and brand
So this is often the part when anyone new to dropshipping and ecommerce can let their creativity run wild!
There is no limit to the type of branding you can use or the names you can choose. However, it’s worth choosing a name that is easy to spell and understand. Keep it simple as you don’t want people to continually be mistyping your store name!
Also make sure it doesn’t limit you going forwards so for instance ‘saucepans are us’ might start to limit you if you wanted to expand to other kitchenware, for example.
There are a number of business name generators online which might help to get you started.
Buy a domain
So once you’ve got your business name, it’s time to purchase the domain name.
Make sure that you check out other players in your area of retail first, to find out the kinds of names that are popular with industry leaders. As we said earlier, make it easy to type and remember. Avoid slang words and popular culture language that can date very easily.
Protect your own brand, but also make sure you are avoiding names that have trademarks attached to them, as that could leave you in a sticky situation as your business starts to grow.
Also, check out other domains than .com and keep it short and sweet. There are many domain registration sites that also offer web hosting packages if you are designing your own site.
Build a store
Building an eCommerce store is the next stage. You might not be a whizz with technology, but one of the beauties of a dropshipping business, is you don’t have to be!
If you do have the technical know-how, then of course that will stand you in good stead when it comes to finer details of website design, but many dropshippers will use a customizable storefront to run their dropshipping business.
The most well-known is Shopify, which as of January 2022 had a staggering 2.666. 627 online US stores.
Other sites which offer store templates are:
- Wix
- GoDaddy
- Magneto
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
The best dropshipping platforms will allow you to sync products straight from your store for fulfillment. For example, here at HyperSKU, we offer integration with both Shopify and WooCommerce.
Find partners
So finding reliable partners to work to supply products is obviously hugely important to any dropshipping success.
There are many different types of suppliers to work with. Some however do have what’s called an MOQ (minimum order quantity) so unless you are fairly established, it can be quite an outlay for the novice dropshipper.
For instance, Alibaba will require you to order products in large quantities to take advantage of their low prices. It’s a sister site, AliExpress is more set up for beginners in this respect as there is no minimum order quantity.
However, it’s also worth knowing that the shipping times can be fairly lengthy too, which might be off-putting for customers who are ever increasingly expecting shorter shipping times.
By partnering with the best dropshipping agents you can take advantage of reliable shipping with tracking and shorter shipping times. Here at HyperSKU, we can offer your customers those benefits.
Launch promotion
So finally with everything in place, you will be ready to launch!
Promoting your store is possibly one of the most important activities you will need to do and also where you are likely to spend the most of your time if you are hoping to make a six-figure income!
There are many ways to launch your promotion to get your store seen.
Make sure you entice customers with your initial launch and ongoing new products us by using social media. Building a tribe and a following, before launch day can benefit novice drop shippers. This way you have started to build connections with potential customers, who will be more likely to buy.
Going forwards, building email lists and making sure your website is full of good SEO blog content will help your store get seen above any competitors.
Dropshipping doesn’t have to be complicated
So as we’ve seen in our dropshipping guide for dummies, building a successful dropshipping eCommerce store doesn’t have to be complicated!
However, there is as with any business, some hard work to do as nothing worth having comes that easy!
But there are things you can do to minimize your time spent and maximize your profits.
Finding a reliable dropshipping supplier will help you rise above your competitors. Poor communication, after-sales, and long or delayed shipping can be some of the issues customers have with dropshipping stores which can cause disputes. So make yours stand out by using veteran dropshipping partners who understand the importance of reliability.
Another way to reduce time spent and help to scale your business is by outsourcing some of the administrative tasks of your business. To enable you to concentrate on building your brand and marketing. This can be done by outsourcing to a VA (virtual assistant). You can find a VA on websites like Fiverr and Upwork.
If you are spending more time than you would like or so on your dropshipping empire, once you are up and running, then you might need to think about automating the workflow.
By using partners such as HyperSKU, dropshipping order fulfillment can be done almost instantly, integrating via your store.
And to finish on…
So we hope that’s given you some great reasons to start dropshipping and that it’s not as complicated as you might think! By following some simple steps, and doing a little research you will be on your way to that elusive six-figure income in no time.
Here at HyperSKU, our dropshipping veterans can help you with growing your business and offer a dedicated account manager to help you fulfill orders.
With over 15 product categories and 2000 plus vetted suppliers, we can help you to source products, import to store and fulfill orders of all your stores within a few clicks. Find out more here.