What is Dropshipping?
Are you looking how to make passive income online today, we’re going to talk about Dropshipping, what it is, and how you can get started. I’ll also give you guys some basic steps to start your own dropshipping business today. If you have any questions or want to share your experiences with dropshipping, drop them in the comments below, and I'll be sure to answer them.
what is dropshipping?
Let’s say you’ve been thinking of opening up your own online business, but you don’t know where to start. You don’t know what you should sell, you don't have the money to invest in products, and looking around, you don’t have any place to store inventory. That’s what dropshipping is all about. You see, with dropshipping, you can sell products online without the products storing by your self or having the store. All you need is a computer, an online store, and a basic understanding of how to market and sell online.
How it works?
First, you need to find the product you want to sell from a supplier then list one buy one that stuffs on your own website at your prize. And when your customer places an order for that product, he will pay the retail price you’ve set, and you make a profit. Then place the same order with your supplier at their wholesale price using your customer details and have it shipped directly to the customer. So, let’s say you’ve found this perfume on a supplier’s website for $5 You would then list it on your own website for $20 When the order comes in through your website, then place that order with your supplier using your customer’s shipping information, keep the $15 profit, and have the product shipped directly to your customer.
You must be thinking, why wouldn’t somebody just order the watch directly from the supplier? Well, there are some reasons. First, customers may not know about the supplier to buy from them directly. Second, when customer buys products, they're not just buying products. They’re buying marketing, trust, positioning, and lifestyle those products represent.
Now, a couple of big challenges that need to be considered with dropshipping is finding credible suppliers with good quality products, and making sure you have visibility into your customer’s fulfillment process. Honestly, you can find suppliers on your own-. However, when you’re dropshipping on your own, you can end up spending a lot of time researching and negotiating with suppliers for your customers’ satisfaction. Another option is a tool like Oberlo, which with a few clicks gives you access to millions of products to sell, and has dozens of other features to make your life easier... like monitoring inventory levels, automatically calculating profit margins, fulfilling and tracking orders, monitoring shipping status, measuring delivery performance and more.
Oberlo Supply is also a part of the product, which helps you partner with vetted, trustworthy suppliers of great quality products, faster shipping times, and awesome customer service with thousands of different products available for you to choose from.
Want to get started?
All you have to do is start a Shopify store, install the Oberlo app, find products and start selling online. So why do people get into dropshipping? First off, it’s really fast and easy to get started and you can dropship with incredibly low investment costs. You also don’t need to have an established business entity when you start, though it’s smart to have one once you grow. You don’t have to worry about managing inventory, packing, or tracking, which means you can focus almost exclusively on marketing, promotion, and merchandising. You have access to millions of products instantly that suppliers are constantly researching to determine what’s trendy and what will sell. You set the retail price, so you control the margins. And dropshipping is really easy to scale because you can hire virtual assistants as your order volume increases. Of course, there can be some challenges with dropshipping too: First off, because it’s really easy to get started, there’s a higher potential for competition. That is why you’ll find a lot of advice out there recommends you start off finding a niche audience - like cat lovers, or gamers- so you can operate with less competition. Next, there are supplier errors. Though uncommon, it is inevitable that a supplier will mistakenly ship the wrong item to your customer. If this happens, don’t take it personally and handle the return like a professional - either order a brand new product from the supplier or offer a complete refund. Also, since many dropshipping suppliers are based on China, shipping times are generally longer, turning some consumers off. ePacket makes it easier, delivering some orders in as little as two weeks, but generally speaking, if you make your shipping times clear throughout the buying process, many visitors appreciate the clarity - especially if you’re selling an item or in a niche where delivery times are less crucial.
how to get started?
Step 1. Start a free 14 day trial on Shopify.
Step 2. Go to the Shopify app store and install the Oberlo app.
Step 3. Find products from the app you’d like to sell and add them to your store.
Step 4. Enable a payment gateway so you can start accepting money.
Shopify Payments is a great default option if you’re in one of the supported countries though you may want to enable a few other gateways like Paypal, Apple Pay, Amazon Payments, or any of the 100+ payment gateways that Shopify is integrated with.
Once you have all that, you’ll need to create a plan for sending traffic to your store. Finally, try to produce quality content for your store. From eye-catching photography to engaging product videos to great posts for your blog, your audience loves to know more about your products, how they can be used, and the story behind them.
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