If you don’t know what a dropshipping business is, it’s where you sell products online to an audience from other sellers. This saves you from having to purchase merchandise and go through the trouble of listing it if you were like you do when you have the merchandise that you sell.
That means you are responsible for the marketing, customer support and the daily duties that you have to perform for your business. If you would like to know how to start your own dropshipping business then follow the directions below:
Table of Contents
Choose what you want to sell With Your Dropshipping Business
There is some planning that you will have to do before you start your eCommerce business.
The first step is you want to choose what you will be selling. There will have to be a huge customer base with eager customers.
The reason that this is a necessity is because your dropshipping business won’t be able to survive and grow without that kind of customer base. If you are having trouble making a decision, then think about what you are interested in and passionate about and include interests and passions from family and friends.
Depending on the interest, it might work as a business that will bring in many sales and if it’s something that interests you, you’ll love working at this business which will help your business grow.
Another test is the Google keyword test. This is to see the number of searches your chosen keywords will generate monthly.
The more searches your keywords generate, the more you will know what customers are looking to purchase online and this will help reduce your choices of what to sell.
You can also ask people’s opinions through websites like Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else that you may have a following.
After you have studied these, you can decide what you will be dropshipping in your business.
Create Relationships with Suppliers For Your Dropshipping Business
When you have decided on what you are going to be drop shipping, you have to find people who will be able to have the products. Some statistics state that search operators will save time then if you search through a search engine like Google.
The reason for this is because you will be searching out people that are important to your business. The best way to find different suppliers is to mix up keywords so you get as many different suppliers as possible.
Open up a Microsoft Excel file with all the information you acquire about different suppliers. This includes contact information, names of companies, website links, suppliers, operations and keywords.
You have to also check if the different suppliers accept offers of dropshipping services because not everyone will.
That’s why, based on the information you acquire and the rates that different suppliers will have, choose one that can match your needs.
When you have chosen the company that you want to work with, you have to create a wholesale drop shipping account for your dropshipping business. You will be needing either a resale license or a sales tax identification from the state that you live in and you will have to hand this over to your supplier along with the name of your company.
If you do not have these documents, get legal advice from a lawyer or use the online resources available to you.
Creating A Brand For Your Dropshipping Business
When you are building a brand, this is important for positioning and representation. This helps your company create an identity and you want customers to identify your business.
If your brand has a story that customers can relate to, this will help the relationship between customers and your brand. That relationship will increase the chances of customers purchasing items from you instead of other businesses.
When you are creating a story about your brand,, this story has to have something that will cover every part of your business. This is including the “About Us” page, your different pages throughout Social Media, customer support, photographs, and product descriptions.
The first thing that will make your company stand out is a logo using a specific color set and you also need a slogan for your business.
What Is The Best Platform For You To Create Your Dropshipping Business?
You have to decide what online platform you will be using to make sales. Some people say Shopify is your best choice. The interface is not confusing and you won’t have to pay a bundle to sell on that platform. You can also take advantage of the two free weeks that this website grants new customers. That way you can try out this website before you try selling on it for a career.
When you are starting a store, you will have to decide on a theme. This is how your store will be displayed to prospective customers. You also can modify the different colors, fonts and other options so the store looks the way you want it to look.
Start using the strategies you learned about promoting your items to the customers that will be searching for those items.
Once you have your store looking the way you want, it’s time to put on the different products that you will be selling in your dropshipping business.
One thing to keep in mind is that the items you put up for sale have some correlation to the category you chose when you were starting.
You might want to just put a few items, to begin with, and then as you get more and more visitors consistently then you can add more items. You want to be sure that your prices have profit built-in but are also providing value to the customers for a long term dropshipping business.