Dropshipping is one of the best businesses you can start off with as a newbie entrepreneur. It’s very easy to get into, and you are able to try out different business ideas with low risk. 

You can try out selling one product for a month or less and see if you are gaining any profit from it, and if it is unsuccessful, you can easily switch out the product with something better as you do not buy and hold onto any products.

You can start off by doing the following steps to start your dropshipping business.

Find your niche

To begin your dropshipping business, you have to find your niche. For instance, Face masks became a hot item in the health & personal care niche during the Covid 19 pandemic in 2020, and many customers started to buy designer face masks.   

The growing reputation of dropshipping leads to market saturation, especially during the Covid 19 pandemic, where many online businesses have started to pop up, including dropshipping.

However, more businesses means newer products surfacing every week, so you can still grab your opportunity to be one of the pioneers to sell these products.

So what can you do to identify the best niche?

• Profitable niche – Choose a niche which you can profit off at least 40% after taxes, shipping charges, etc.
• Analyze the competitiveness in various niches – Find a niche with low to medium competition.
• Profit off on your own problems – Fix your own problem, chances are there are millions of other suffering just like you.
• Motivated by interest & passion: Product knowledge is essential when deciding your niche.

Find The Best Product

Once you have selected your niche, it’s time to find your product.

Finding the best dropshipping products that can ensure profitability require some of the following characteristics that your product needs to meet:

• Not ruled by major brands, easier to compete
• Small & lightweight, shoebox-size and weighs less than 4lbs
• Non-seasonal products that are very demanding throughout the year
• Priced between $15 – $200, which the majority of customers are willing to spend online

Find The Best Supplier

Finding the best supplier can be challenging during the beginning of your dropshipping business. 

Suppliers are essentially business partners that help you keep your products stocked and ready to be sold, ensure your product quality stays optimal, and ship products on time to your customers – keeping you and your customers satisfied.

Also, try to avoid dropshipping suppliers that charge high order fees to ensure you receive as much profit margin, 40% or higher, for your business to continue to prosper.

You can find dropshipping suppliers on some of the websites below that serve drop shippers worldwide:

• SaleHoo
• Worldwide Brands
• Doba
• Alibaba

Choose The Best Platform

After you’ve selected your product and supplier, it’s time to choose which platform you want to sell your products on.

Selling in the right online marketplace may be the game-changer that decides the fate of your business.

The online marketplace has several benefits for drop shippers, and this includes:

• Easy to set up virtual store & start selling
• Millions of buyers visit them every single day
• Consumers trust these online marketplaces

Sounds great, right? Well, not always… Here are some of the drawbacks of selling in an online marketplace

• Incur fees after every sale
• Limited branding and customer service experience
• Compete with 1000+ sellers with similar products.

Now if you want to try out your luck on an online marketplace, best of luck to you, but you can avoid all this by investing in an independent online store.

Here are some of the best services you can subscribe to build your online store:

• WooCommerce
• Shopify
• Magneto
• BigCommerce

Promote your business

Now that your stores are ready for your customers, It’s time to promote your products and business.

Promoting your store, it doesn’t have to be costly! With the right knowledge and persuasion skills, you can advertise your store using the following methods:

• Social Media – Start with one or two social media platforms and start posting about your products there for the public to see.
• Paid Ads – You can promote your products using Facebook ads for a small fee, and filter these ads to target your audience
• Email marketing – Any time potential customers visit your online store, give them a discount code, in return for their email addresses in which you can send regular emails that’ll convert them to potential recurring customers.
• Content Marketing – Build trust with potential customers whenever they visit your website by writing articles/blogs that will inform them why they need to get a hold of your products that’ll make their life easier and/or more fulfilled.

If you have no idea what to do or how to do any of these, I recommend seeking help from a digital marketing agency. They will be capable of handling all aspects of marketing for you, allowing you to achieve your goals much faster. Click here to get started.

Review your business performance

Now that you have been operating your dropshipping business for quite some time. Try to constantly review your business performance at least every 3 months, to ensure you are staying profitable.

If your business isn’t going very well, try to utilize Google Analytics to monitor your numbers closely, checking where your customers are coming from. Also, learn what products are trending and see if you can sell these products in your store. 

Last, but not least, see if your customers are returning your products, which may signify quality issues from the supplier side and/or your product descriptions may be unclear.

The Bottom Line

Dropshipping is one of the easiest ways you can start to make money online, without needing to carry the extra baggage of inventories that could potentially become a liability.

Now is the best time to get into drop shipping as more and more businesses have transitioned online due to the pandemic. Billions of customers are now relying on online shopping more than ever, so I advise you to start now to get a piece of the pie that could potentially help you make thousands of dollars per month as a side hustle, or possibly make it your full-time job!