How to start a dropshipping business in 2023

If you are contemplating dropshipping, then consider taking the very first step in learning all the basics of this business model and then mastering it and taking charge of your empire. Just so you know, dropshipping business isn’t easy, no business program is anyway but learning how to start a dropshipping business before starting up is a great way to fire up, dominate, and excel in no time in dropshipping.

Fortunately, you don’t have to own any physical store or hold any roster to start up a dropshipping company, moreover, you don’t need to buy products and ship to customers you only act as a marketer or middleman who brings in customers for product owners or distributors and if you are consistence and serious enough, this could fire up your financial status. Moreover is a great step into the world of entrepreneurship.

What Is Dropshipping?

Often, people tend to confuse Dropshipping with affiliate marketing or networking, or let’s just say it’s similar to….but not. So what exactly is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model that authorizes a business to sell products without even upholding an inventory of the products. This is to say that the business doesn’t necessarily have to produce or have physical contact with the product in question. Now the customer sets an order, and then the dropshipping company alerts the manufacturers or distributors of the product that an order has been set and it should be lowered into cargo for the consumer or client. Then the manufacturer or distributor ships down the said product directly to the consumer on behalf of the dropshipping company.

In a simpler explanation, “Mr. A” who is a Customer/consumer/ client sees a product in a store, likes it, and wishes to get it, he then contacts “Mr. B” who is a drop shipper and the store owner, and then makes the payment for the product, then “Mr. B” will now alert the manufacturers or distributors of the product to let them know of “Mr. A’s” interest in the product and then the manufacturer or distributor can now ship the product down to the customer ( Mr. A ) on behalf of “Mr. B”

Typically, dropshipping means marketing products for manufacturers and/ or distributors for some little commission. A drop shipper is a marketer, and they’re a huge help in the manufacturing sectors as they help to create awareness and sell products that can be stacked on shelves for so long.

However, in this article, we are going to be talking about how to start a dropshipping business and excel in 6 simple steps.

Here is how to start a dropshipping business in 6 simple step

Find your Niche (Dropshippin business idea) and make research.

First thing first, there are a lot of products for sale out there, ranging from fashion products, kitchen utensils, beauty products, phone accessories, Health care products, etc. Now what you need to do as a newbie is decide on what product you want to get yourself involved with, then make your research and find out
“If people are buying those products”
” How many people are buying the products”
“Is it a hot product”
“What kind of people are buying this product? Old people? School kids? Footballers? Musicians? Women? Or Men?”
“Where is this product most like to sell”

Fortunately, there are a lot of tools that can help make your research easy, tools such as the Shopify e-commerce store, social media search bars like the Facebook or Instagram search bar, keywords everywhere, Google Trends, and even a market survey would go a long way.

Little tips on how to make research – assuming you have gotten a niche you want to dive into, now let’s assume you want to be dropshipping fashion products like Men T-shirts, the next thing to do is make a little research to see if this t-shirt will sell well. which design is trending? and who can wear this shirt?

Now the next thing to do is go to the Shopify store and search for the best-selling products in the fashion category, and see if the men’s T-shirts are listed as best-selling products, ( the best-selling products on Shopify are products that are trending and sold regularly) If men Tshirst are listed there, then the niche is good.

Then proceed to social media, e.g go to Facebook (meta) search bar, and type in your keyword which is T-shirt, Facebook will display all keywords related to your main keyword, for example, you will see things like “T-shirts design, Tshirts for girls, T-shirts for women, T-shirts for men. Click on “T-shirts for men” and see a list of men’s shirts with various designs then check if people are buying those shirts, with the engagements on such posts you would be able to determine if the products sell more than women’s t-shirts and kids’ t-shirts by checking in on the categories also.

After that, the next thing is the use of Google Trends, with Google Trends, you can determine if a product is trending upward or downward, and also get to know the seasons they tend to trend in. However, Google trends might not be lenient enough to show you the volume of buyers or searchers for your keyword, which is why you may need to consider the next step.

The next and probably the last keyword tool you will need before concluding your search and deciding if the niche is profitable and easy to deal with is Keywords Everywhere. This research tool unlike Google Trend shows you the monthly search volume for your product and how competitive it is. With the information it provides, You can scale the popularity of your dropshipping niche and even obtain fresh product ideas for later days.

Source for Products

Now after choosing a niche that interests you and making proper research using the method above, it’s time to source for products from different platforms, search different suppliers/distributors that sell the same products, and find out the best wholesale price for the product you want to list on your store.

Some popular and trusted marketplaces to make your research and get prices of goods are :

•AliExpress
•Worldwide Brands
•SaleHoo
•Megagoods
•Doba
•Wholesale Central

You can also search for print-on-demand clothing, home goods, or books. Print-on-demand clothing firms print custom graphics for many brands and categories of clothing, including T-shirts, socks, and jackets. These are products that could sell very well too.

Finda reliable dropshipping supplier

One very important step you shouldn’t skip before setting up your dropshipping store is getting a reliable supplier, although there are so many suppliers out there, getting a trusted and reliable one could be overwhelming as they are few fraudsters roaming the net. However, one needs to be careful while searching for suppliers to build a successful dropshipping business, since a dropshipping business will cease to exist without a supplier.

The best place to find reliable dropshipping suppliers are online marketplaces like saleHoo, Amazon, AliExpress, and worldwide brands, these platforms have a documented list of trusted suppliers and their track records. However, Shopify provides a plug-and-play technique for finding reliable suppliers by connecting
DSers to your online store.

What is DSers? DSers is a marketplace that makes it effortless to find products to sell online Regardless of your niche. With the DSers connected to your store, you can find products with good profit possibilities from dropshipping suppliers around the world and add them to your store with one click. The app manages to forward customer orders to your dropshipping supplier, so you never need to worry about packaging, shipping, or managing inventory. And the good thing is, the app is free of charge and you don’t need to be afraid of anything.

The DSers app employs the help of Aliexpress to enable you to find and add products to your store. However, If you want to learn more about the quality of a product or the shipping times, or further get a supplier, you can do so from the DSers product page.

However, always aim to sell quality products from DSers that provide ePacket shipping if your supplier is from China. ePacket is a reasonably cheap and fast option for shipping items from China to other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Rather than waiting for months for a package to arrive from China, your customers will only have to wait up to two weeks, for a cost of only a few dollars, these will make your customers put more trust in you and even recommend new customers to your store.

Set an online store

Now after the above three steps, everything is set and the next thing you ought to do is give your business a face by setting up an online store, the online store helps you to showcase your products in a professionally brilliant manner while maintaining the shopping carts needed to handle the purchase transactions.

Although setting up an e-commerce/ online store can be a bit overwhelming if it’s your first time since there are a few moving parts. However, Shopify has made it easy using their API you can easily build a dropshipping store like that of Shopify. Although you might want your store to look different and unique, this is where you will be needing a uniquely designed content management system (CMS), such as WordPress, or Squarespace, A domain name,
Web hosting (for WordPress)
Integrations with your chosen drop shippers A built-in payment gateway to accept online payments.

Furthermore, it is also advisable to not only depend on the store’s conversions, but it is also advisable to market your products using other channels like social media (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, or Instagram), Etsy, and Amazon. This is because, Multi-channel marketing boosts your business exposure and pushes more sales, so it’s always advisable to do so. But that is if you can manage the stress that comes with it although it’s worth it, you can as well hire a marketer to assist with this.

Market Your product

Of course one needs a proper marketing strategy to make sales, dropshipping isn’t just about making research and setting up an online store or a social media business page. And to do this, you need to source for social media groups that are related to the product you are selling and then remain active and post content related to your products, tell people more about it and try providing answers to their questions, provide helpful tips and tricks without moving away from your focus product. Become an authority, and build trust and likeness so that when you introduce your business page to them they will trust you enough to buy from you even amidst competitors.

Also running ads/ sponsored posts could be a huge advantage. if you know how to target the right audience for your product your ads will convert well and you will make great sales. You can start your ad campaign on a very low budget targeting the right demographic location and driving huge traffic to your dropshipping store.

Another way to market your product and drive huge traffic to your site is using the SEO ( search engine optimization ) method. all you need is just to write a well authoritative blog post about the product so that when people google the products your site pops up and they can easily get the right information they seek, and hopefully, they will buy from you.

Test new products to see If it sells well

As a good business person, you should always introduce new products to your customers to see if they find interest in them. Fortunately, that’s one of the fun in building a dropshipping store, the only thing it is going to cost you is your time in sourcing for new products and updating your store, and announcing its availability.

However, to make things easier, you could build a strong relationship with your suppliers and persuade them to notify you of the production of new products related to your focus product to provide your customers with new things to test always, and also don’t forget to accompany the pulling of the new product with a compelling blog post that tells them everything they need to know about the new product. This would leave customers checking up on your store from time to time as they trust you to always introduce new products especially when they trust your brand to always provide them with quality products.

You can also run ads with a very low budget and then compare the product with the old products and see how it fares.

Concl­usion

Starting up a dropshipping sto­re could be fairly easy especially when you are starting on the right track and being consistent without letting making millions in a week be your main reason for setting up an online store. However, following the due step will take you far in your dropshipping business and you will excel in due time.