You must have thought about starting your own ecommerce business at least once right?
If you’re reading this, I am sure you did.
But the financial investment required to start a business along with a technical expertise to run a website can be daunting. However, there is one business model which can help you get the financial freedom you’re seeking and say goodbye to the dull 9-5 job forever.
Want to know more?
Let’s begin.
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping, in layman terms, is a simple business model where you don’t have to keep any product stock or inventory to business.
No products? Then, how will I make money?
In the dropshipping model, you don’t have to keep any products. Instead, when a buyer orders a product on your store, you simply pass that order to the supplier who takes care of the rest for you.
The best part about this model is that anyone- literally anyone with an Internet access and a laptop or PC can start their own dropshipping store easily.
But to make money from it is another game.
So, in this post, I’ll share how to start a dropshipping business to earn money online and make profits.
First let’s see, how this model works.
How Dropshipping Works?
It’s quite simple, actually.
> You set up your online store and fill it with products you wish to sell.
> The buyer places an order and makes the payment [which includes your profit markup].
> You pass the order to the supplier; fill in the customer details and place an order on their behalf.
> The supplier receives the payment and processes the order. He then packages and ships the order to your customer.
> Your customer receives the product.
I hope this simple process has made it clear how dropshipping works and can help you make money online.
Now, I’ll show you the exact steps needed in order to start your own dropshipping store and sell products to make money online.
How To Start Your Own Dropshipping Business: A Quick Walkthrough
Step 1: Find Your Product Niche
This is a very important part that will lay the foundation for your business success. Finding a niche that you are passionate about and the one that works takes a lot of market research and analysis.
You can check AliExpress Hot Selling Items or Amazon Best Sellers to get an idea of the most trending product niches and items in the market.
Google Trends is a great free tool to analyze how the product is doing in the market with exact numbers and stats in front of you.
Once you have found your niche, it’s time to get your site ready.
Step 2: Get Your Site Ready
You can source dropshipping items from AliExpress and sell them anywhere: eBay, Amazon or your own dropshipping store. The best way, however, is to get your own store as it’ll help you keep the complete control of your business to yourself.
Now the question arises: Which is the best ecommerce platform for dropshipping business?
I’d be discussing the two most famous ecommerce platforms that you can select for your dropshipping business.
- Shopify
- WooCommerce
Shopify is a subscription-based service that starts from $29/month and goes up to $299. If you’d like a hands-off approach to your web store and want an out-of-the-box store ready to sell products in under 40 minutes, you can go for it.
However, Shopify owns all the store data and you will have to adjust for limited customization features as well.
Another option I was talking about is WooCommerce. It is one of the most famous and loved open-source and fully-customizable ecommerce platform that powers over 28% of the online stores.
Built on WordPress, this plugin has a ton of features available for free and is by default SEO friendly as well.
Once you’ve decided which platform you want to use, the next step is to buy your domain name (preferably with a .com) and get hosting for your web store. (With Shopify it’d cost you $29/month for starter plan and for WooCommerce it’d be $21/year for hosting).
Step 3: Fill Your Store With Products
Have you set up your store? Good.
Now, it’s time to fill it with products you wish to sell. The right products will make or break your profit game. In order to ace this new business venture, it’s necessary to keep your store updated with products.
But, you must remember that in dropshipping business you don’t have any control over inventory or actual prices. So, you should select the suppliers with best ratings and good reviews.
Further, you’ll have to keep a tab on all the products in your dropshipping store to keep in sync with your supplier inventory.
Now, it may seem easy. But this is where things can get tough if you decide to do everything manually.
Remember:
Successful dropshippers are not those who do all the work by themselves. They are the ones who know what to do by themselves and leave the rest to automation.
Step 4: Automate Your Dropshipping Store
Now, you may be wondering how you can automate your dropshipping store. It’s quite easy.
If you have decided to go with Shopify, Oberlo is a great tool to import products directly from AliExpress with 1 click. You may think it’s an easy job but think about it for a second here.
It might be easy to import and keep track of a few products, say 10 or 20. But when it becomes 100 or 1000s of products with variants of their own, this would lead to a lot of wasted hours and efforts for you.
Did you select WooCommerce platform? Then, you can go with WooDropship.
It’s a SaaS designed for WooCommerce that automates the business tasks for you like importing AliExpress products in one-click, auto-update prices and inventory, edit products and auto order-fulfillment.
Step 5: Promote Your Store
Once you have automated your store and filled it with trending products, you have all the time left to devise and focus on the best marketing and promotion strategies for your business.
Initially, your focus should be on building your brand and making people aware of your existence. Take advantage of the Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram) and Inbound Marketing (Blogs, Content Marketing, Coupons) to drive traffic and sales to your store.
Final Takeaway
If you do it right, you won’t just earn a passive income but will soon be able to get rid of the boring 9-5 lifestyle and become your own boss- and do things at your own terms.
Dropshipping is a great business model which has leveled the money making game online. Whether you’re a mom, 9-5 employee, retired, senior citizen, college student or a high-school dropout, if you have the determination and passion to turn your dreams into reality, you can make it happen with your own dropshipping store.
Don’t wait anymore. Let’s make it happen today!
