Dropshipping is a business model where you have an online store but you don’t have any products at your place. This means you just have to take an order from a customer and a third party who has the product will ship that product to your customer and you will earn a commission for your sale. For example, you opened a website and listed baby products. You made a deal with a baby product supplier to ship the product on your behalf, and you decided on a price for the product with the supplier, let’s say at 10 dollars. Now you will list that product on your website and you can decide any amount to sell the product. If you list your product for 20 dollars, 10 dollars will go to the supplier and 10 dollars will go into your pocket. So this is what dropshipping is. Now you have to do marketing and drive sales to your website and all the other work your supplier will do on your behalf.
The pros of dropshipping.
1.) Dropshipping requires less capital.
If you decide to open any offline store, you will require huge capital in the beginning and it is not sure whether it will be profitable or not. But this is not the case with dropshipping because you don’t have to buy any product. You just have to build a website, which you can easily make from Shopify, and then run ads for your product.
2.) Simple to manage.
Running a dropshipping store is very much easier than running an offline store because you don’t have to manage any physical products, you don’t have to rent a warehouse to keep products, you don’t have to pack and ship orders, and you don’t have to manage inventory, and you don’t have to hire staff to manage all these things.
3.) You can manage from any location.
One of the main pros of dropshipping is that I think you can manage it from anywhere in the world. You just have to run ads and take orders and then give those orders to your supplier who will do the other work like packaging, shipping, etc.
4.) Able to test a wide range of products.
Since you don’t have to store products, you can try multiple products and contact many suppliers for different products.
5.) Increased customer potential
If you open an offline store, then you will be limited to that area only. The people residing in that area will buy your product, but in a dropshipping store, you are exposed to all around the world. You can have customers from anywhere in the world and you can sell your product to them.
So these are the pros of having a dropshipping store. Now let’s see the cons of dropshipping.
The cons of dropshipping
1.) A small profit margin
Because dropshipping is easy to start, there are many competing stores because of which you have to keep the price reasonable. If you keep the price higher than other competing stores, you will not get sales. So there is a low margin in dropshipping.
2.) Inventory problem
Because you are dependent on the supplier to pack and ship the product, it is difficult to track the inventory. Sometimes you have many orders but there is no product at the end of the supplier, so in that case, you have to find a new supplier or all your orders will go to waste.
3.) Limited personalization
You don’t have the product in your hand, so you don’t have control over the product itself. Usually, the product is customized and designed by the supplier.
FAQ’S
how to start a dropshipping business?
1.) Pick a niche.
2.) Conduct product research.
3.) Locate a reliable dropshipping supplier.
4.) Build your online store.
5.) Promote your product
6.) Conduct analysis and make changes.
1.) Pick a niche.
The first step to starting dropshipping is to choose a niche. It can be any niche like fitness products, baby products, men’s products, etc.
2.) Conduct product research.
Product research means finding out the product which is in demand right now. There are various methods to do product research which you can find on the internet.
3.) Locate a reliable supplier.
After you have done with the product research, the next step is to find a supplier. You can locate a supplier in your immediate area or on the internet.
4.) Build your online store.
The next step is to build your online store, where you will drive customers. Take time to build your store and make it professional so that people can trust you. There are various methods to build your online store, if you know to code, then you can build it through coding. Otherwise, there are websites like Shopify from where you can build your website easily.
5.) Advertise your product.
After you have successfully built your store and decided what to sell, now you just have to focus on marketing. You can do marketing by running ads on social media like Facebook and Instagram. You can also do influencer marketing to sell your products.
6.) Conduct analysis and make changes.
Now you have to analyze and make changes accordingly. Something will work and something will not work, so you have to keep testing and keep learning.
Is dropshipping profitable?
Yes, dropshipping is profitable if you are consistent and hard-working. You will not be profitable from day one. It will take time, but you need to be consistent and you have to deliver good products to your customers so that they can come again and buy from your website. If you are ready for all this, then yes, it is a profitable business model.
Is dropshipping free to start?
Dropshipping is not free to start. At least you have to spend some money. Like to build your online store, you have to buy a domain name, and then for marketing, you have to spend some money. So it is not absolutely free, but it requires very little investment.
Who is the most successful dropshipper?
1.) Irwin Dominguez.
2.) Andreas & Alexander
3.) Cole turner
4.) Pierre Emmanuel
5.) Sarah and Audrey
