Did you know you can get a fully automated, USA based dropship website, built for you, in whatever niche you want, in 72 hours or less? Go to https://learn.dropshipusa.io/webclass to register for our free webinar that will teach you our secret dropship model, and how you can get it built for you. Now let's dive in!
Do you want to start a dropshipping business? Before you jump into the first dropship business model you find, let us walk you through what dropshipping is and give you 5 easy steps to get started!
If you're really interested in how to build a dropshipping site or how to get a dropship site built for you, be sure to check out our completely free webinar on how to build a successful dropship business! (Spoiler alert: In the webinar, we walk you through our secret dropship model that destroys AliExpress dropshipping in 2020!)
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a method of fulfilling online orders that lets a store owner sell their goods directly to consumers without pre-purchasing any inventory. When a buyer purchases a product from a dropshipping store, the products are shipped to them by a third party supplier. The dropshipper gets the benefit of offering an unlimited amount of inventory, without pre-purchasing any of it. The customer pays the retail price; you pay the supplier’s wholesale price and make profits without setting up a large inventory.
Starting a dropship business can be really confusing. Adding to the confusion is the fact that, just like last week's iPhone, there are tons of outdated dropship models that are no longer relevant.
Some advantages of dropshipping stay the same no matter what. You don't have to stock products and you don’t have to pay upfront for products. But, those products have to be stored somewhere. Are they in the same warehouse? Are all of the products you're sourcing even in the same country? These are important questions to ask when starting a dropship business in 2020.
Read on to find out how to start a dropship website in 5 steps!
1. Choose a niche
A niche is a fancy term for a category. Every business has a niche because you can’t sell everything to everyone. Whether it's skincare or beauty products, apparel, food, fitness, etc., you can sell anything you like. Just keep in mind that you need to have a strategically chosen niche to actually sell your products. There needs to be a strong underlying demand for the items you want to sell. The more the demand, the greater success of your dropshipping business.
To get a free Dropshipping Niche Guide e-Book, just watch our free webinar. We send out the guide to everyone who attends just to really get you started off on the right foot!
2. Select vendors
You'll need to decide on a source market for your dropship business. Often overlooked, but critically important, your source market can make or break the success of your site. Some vendors may have great prices, but long shipping times. Some products may require import duties and tariffs that skew the profits.
If you're thinking of linking into a small supplier, show them that you have the power to sell products and talk to them about how you would want to set up your business strategy so that it benefits both of you. The easier (and much more popular route) is to link into a major marketplace and leverage the warehousing and logistical capacity of these e-commerce powerhouses to your benefit.
3. Do your research
Ok, so you've chosen your niche and decided on your vendors. Now, you'll need to do some competitor research to understand how the industry works. You'll find valuable information about industry terms, your competitors marketing plans, what’s currently selling in the market, and much more.
If your market has a lot of competitors, targeting four or five companies should be enough to give you some ideas. If you're not sure about what to do, here are some things that can give you a head start:
Start with search engines
Suppose your niche is selling skincare products; searching Google using keywords like “face mask” or “moisturizers” will show you the top competitors for the market and how they promote their products. Try to identify what it is about their promotional strategy that's helping them grow. Model success. What can you model from their strategy so that your business attracts more customers?
These are the questions you should be answering while doing competitor research.
Keep a close watch
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer! Ok, your competitors aren’t really enemies, but it's still a good idea to keep a close watch on their Facebook and Instagram pages. Search for ads in your niche by using the Facebook Ad Library and spy on their marketing campaigns. Check out how they are interacting with their customers. These steps might seem small, but they can have a huge impact if you implement what you learn! Another great idea is to subscribe to their newsletter or email list to get a peek at their follow-up strategy.
4. Create a marketing plan
When you know your niche and consumers, creating a marketing plan becomes a lot easier. For beginners, here are some quick suggestions for how to advertise your dropship site.
- Create a social media ad (Facebook is preferred) that promotes your products.
- Create a "like" campaign and give away a free product when you get 100 likes.
- Take those 100 likes and create a "Lookalike Audience" to get better results with your ads.
- Create video ads for your products (15-30 seconds)
- Hire a Social Media Marketing Agency or an SEO agency
Gather ideas about your strategy and then use these tips to implement your plan!
5. Create a dropshipping website
Ok, now you've chosen the best dropshipping products, the best dropshipping suppliers, you've done some market research and come up with a marketing plan. All that's left is to create your site!
So, how do you make your own dropshipping website? Well, you have three options: become a software developer, fumble around with different systems and learn in your spare time, or get one built for you by DropshipUSA!
To learn how to build your dropship website, watch our FREE webinar.
To have your own fully automated USA based dropship website built for you in less than 3 days, click here!
We wish you the best of luck! As always, if you have any questions just reach out and we'll be happy to chat with you!
Don't forget, you can get a fully automated USA based dropship website, built for you, in whatever niche you want, in 72 hours or less. Go to https://learn.dropshipusa.io/webclass to register for our free webinar that will teach you our secret dropship model, and how you can get it built for you in only 3 days!
