HOW TO DROPSHIP AND THE SECRET OF HAVING A SUCCESSFUL DROPSHIPPING BUSINESS
I know most people would have heard of dropshipping and don’t know what it's all about or how to go about it. Let me break this news here, dropshipping has been saving lives and still saving lives. Dropshipping has so many advantages and also has its disadvantages and if not carefully operated, it can take a wrong turn for your business.
If you have ever thought about starting a business but the issue is that you don’t have enough capital or don’t have capital at all to start. Then this post is for you, I am about to talk on how you can start a business without capital, giving you the pros and cons of dropshipping, where you can start your dropshipping from, and the secret of having a successful dropshipping business. Let get right into it!!!!
FIRSTLY LET EXPLAIN DROPSHIPPING;
Dropshipping is a retail method where a store doesn’t keep its product it sells in stock, it purchases the item from a third party(any reliable seller) and has it shipped directly to the customer. So the merchant never sees or handles the product.
As a non-inventory vendor for dropshipping, the products of your customers are directly sent to them. This means when including shipping details, you must include your customers’ full name, address, and phone number to the shipping details, this is to enable proper delivery. Your customer's phone number is included so by the time it gets to the post office, your customer is called to come to pick his/her parcel.
STEPS AND SECRET TO HAVING A SUCCESSFUL DROPSHIPPING BUSINESS
The first step in having a successful dropshipping business is to;
- Find a niche
This means you should find an interest, a specific market that has its own customers which is sellable and can be evaluated. Finding a niche will help you know your target market and know the kind of product you can sell. This step is very important before making another move, it helps you also to determine what company you will dropship with.
- Product listing
At this point, write a list of product around your niche that are sellable. For example, your niche is a beauty line; so you may want to sell products like; lipsticks, foundation, primer, eyeshadow, concealer, and so on. So list out the products you want to sell and make sure you know the market and how to target the market. This will give you a clear detailed step on being successful and gives you a clear understanding of which dropshipper/supplier to work with.
- Choosing the right seller/ drop shipper
When you find an e-commerce store e.g AliExpress, you will need to find a seller that sells products you want to dropship, and that also accepts dropshipping. Now this step can be a tough one and you have to be very careful when searching and choosing a seller to work with, you are going to find unreliable ones, the ones there products don't match their descriptions and the ones that never reply when an emergency comes up and you don't want to disappoint your customers, so moral of the story be very careful. Here are the things to look out for when searching and choosing a seller;
- Read reviews of buyers, you get to see people reaction whether good or bad on the product
- Take note of the number of purchase on that item, it counts also. The higher the purchase, the higher probability the product is good.
- You can make a purchase from the seller to determine if the description match product and how fast delivery is.
- Inquiry on dropshipping
- Shipping details and other criteria
ADVANTAGES OF DROPSHIPPING
The good thing about dropshipping is that you don’t need any amount of capital to start, why? for example; you get a client who wants to purchase a product from you, he/she is meant to pay before delivery, so let assume the product price you are offering is N5000, but the actual price of the product is N2500. When the customer sends the N5000 for the product, you use N2500 to order for the product from the seller and seller ship to your customer directly. This means you get N2500 as your profit without using any capital to start.
Bear in mind that some of this product comes with free shipping and some come with little shipping fee but your customer doesn’t know about that.
So let mention some point on the advantages;
- No capital is required to start dropshipping
- No inventory is needed
- No hassle on delivering customers item, since the seller will be sending it directly to your customers
- Fewer risks
- More returns if operated well.
DISADVANTAGES OF DROPSHIPPING
To be sincere, we know everything that has an advantage also has a disadvantage, this is not excluded also. Business is all about taking risks sometimes, but be prepared to manage it when it comes.
So let mention some points on the disadvantages;
- You don't get to see the product before it gets to your customers, sometimes the quality of the product might not fit the description.
- Falling into the wrong hands, the internet is crazy and we all know that. So be extra careful when choosing a supplier. Read this article well to pick a few points on how to avoid such.
- Return policy; to be sincere this might not work for some countries. So my advice is to calculate the risk that might occur and incur it in the cost of products.
POPULAR POSTS
THE MOST POPULAR E-COMMERCE SHOPPING SITE
To explain further on dropshipping, I will use the most popular online shopping site ALIEXPRESS to explain how to dropship, how to check for products, how to know which seller to buy from and so many more.
WHAT IS ALIEXPRESS?
AliExpress, I am sure most people would have heard of this but may not know how to use it or are scared shopping online. I will explain with my own understanding and experience on how i have used it and things you should know about when shopping.
I am based in Nigeria, so products are shipped to Nigeria with little or no cost for shipping. The first step to take to enable you use this App to make money is to know what you want to sell or if you just want to sell what is trending. Some people don't really have any particular product they want to sell, they just want to sell anything that trends and will yield profit, and that is fine but make sure you can create the market for it.
Let go into details concerning the App;
Like for example, let assume you want to shop for statement earring on AliExpress and you want an earring that is selling fast/trending, with AliExpress you can search preference/filter to bring out what you need. Check the attached image below.
If you take a good look at the image, I searched for a statement earring, then i went to the filter section to search for ratings 4 stars and above, and also searched for free shipping products. The rating 4 stars and above result will recommend products that have received good ratings. So I also searched for earrings ranging from N500 to N1000, you can input any amount depending on the price range you want. The result of your search will determine which supplier might be reliable. But I would recommend you firstly filter out 4 stars and above and see the result before filtering others, there might be a limit to the kind of product you can see if the specification is too much.
Once you are able to find a product you like, the next time is to check the reviews. Reviews are very essential you get to see people's thoughts and opinions about the product. There's a column that indicates your country flag when you check the review section, check the attached image, the first image shows a 3 dot column, clicking on it leads you to the second image that displays a flag. I am from Nigeria, so my flag will be displayed containing people from my country who have purchased the product and their view about it. So all the steps listed will at least help you choose the right products and the right supplier.
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| Second image |
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| First image |
Another thing to look out for is the product specification. It's very important you check what the product is made from; e.g the material, metal type, quantity, and the package. All you have to do to get started is to download the AliExpress app and sign in by opening an account. Payment is made through your debit card and also you have to add your name, shipping address, phone number, and zip code. It's important to change the currency to your country currency to enable you to know the price based on your currency.
I also advise you to check the description, color, size, number of items you are ordering in case you ordered more than required or less, and shipping address before proceeding payment. Any careless mistake will affect your shipping process. When all these things are accurately done, and your products have been shipped by the seller, a tracking number will be given to you, the item can be monitored via tracking i.d. If you didn't receive your item even after the expected date, don't confirm your order, message the seller about your item, and the seller can possibly from his/her side check where the item is. Items are delivered to your nearest post office using your zip code.
I hope I have been able to break the dropshipping process down for you. There are risks in business, all businesses involve risk, but the best way is to be prepared. You might not know all your risks but at least you are prepared for it.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop your question in the comment section.
Disclaimer: Reviews on Entrepreneurbizspot.blogspot.com is based on our independent research. Users review and comment are contributions from there opinion and Entrepreneurbizspot.blogspot.com is not affiliated with user's review.
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