October 13, 2022
Kaitlyn

Is Dropshipping Worth It?

You may have heard of dropshipping, and if you haven’t don’t worry. We’re gonna go over it! You may have heard that dropshipping is oversaturated or a scam. That could be farther from the truth. I started a dropshipping business and I’m going to go over the reality of starting a dropshipping business.

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What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is simply selling items but not keeping the inventory. Inventory is kept by suppliers like AliExpress and Alibaba. You should create a brand including a website and social media accounts for you to market on. Shopify has great apps for you to include on your website that are specifically for Dropshippers to make it as easy as hitting a few buttons when someone purchases from your website. When someone purchases a product from your store, you’re notified, then through apps on your website, you notify your supplier to ship to your customer, and it’s as simple as that.

Creating a Dropshipping Business Takes Time

Unfortunately, too many people advertise dropshipping as a super easy business to get started and you just start making money in your sleep. You have to brand your business, spend time marketing on your social media that you created for your business, do research for influencer marketing, research your products you want to sell and build your website! It’s not something that can be done overnight or even in a few days. For most people, this can take a few months!

If you’re interested in starting a dropshipping business, be prepared to spend time making sure your store is optimized!

You Have To Invest Dropshipping

While dropshipping is one of the cheapest types of product-based businesses since you don’t have to buy inventory beforehand, you do still need to invest into your store. Because you aren’t holding inventory, it can be hard to test the quality of your products. I highly recommend buying one of every product you’re selling so you know what to expect. I had a few instances where I was very confident in the product from the pictures, but then when I received it, it was completely different!

Not only should you invest in your products, but you need to invest in a platform for your website, ads and influencer marketing. Shopify is a great platform for you to sell your products as a dropshipper. They have apps that are specifically made for dropshippers and allow you to just hit a few buttons when someone orders.

Ads are crucial for you to start making money. I recommend a minimum of $50/day/platform. This can add up quickly so make sure you budget it into your plans!

Influencer marketing is not only a great way to make sales but it’s also a great way to build trust in your audience and to build your brand awareness. Depending on the influencer, some may not have any rates and only require a free product, others are between $100-$1000 plus a free product and really larger influencers can be $5000+ and a free product. Do what you can afford!

Even though dropshipping is still cheap compared to other product-based businesses, there are still investments that you need to make in order for it to be successful.

Researching Your Products and Audience For Your Dropshipping Business

Research is key to not only a successful dropshipping business, but a business in general! You need to have a niche which is a specific “bubble” of products that you provide. For example, you shouldn’t just add whatever you find on AliExpress into your store. This will only confuse your customers.

By niching down, you’re optimizing your store. You could have a store dedicated to pet items. Then people who have pets would be your target audience. You’ll target your content to them instead of to anyone who happens to cross your page. This will help with your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who then purchase something)!

Once you have your products that you’re wanting and you know who you’re wanting to sell them to (your target audience), then you can go ahead and purchase the items you’re wanting to sell. This will allow you to test the product’s quality! If it’s to your expectations, you can add the description into your website, and if it’s not…then don’t add it!

Just like I mentioned earlier, dropshipping is way more than just finding products and adding it to a site. There is lots of research that goes into it! So if you’re interested in starting your own dropshipping store, be sure to dedicate time to researching if you want to see real results!

Customer Service in Dropshipping Stores

Unfortunately because suppliers are mostly located internationally (this makes shipping take sometimes a month long) and you can’t test every product you send them for quality assurance, your customer service needs to be top tier to build your reputation.

Most people are used to Amazon shipping times, so when they don’t get their order within 7 days, most customers will become impatient. I recommend getting an app on your site that will send them shipping updates so they’re aware of where their order is!

If you don’t have good customer service (offering refunds when appropriate, canceling orders and just being friendly to talk to), your store may not stay in business long. So, customer service is key in retaining customers, while marketing and researching is key to actually getting them in the first place!

Practice amazing customer service to consistently get results!

How Much Can I Make Dropshipping?

This depends on what you’re selling, your audience and how much you’re investing into influencer and social media marketing. It takes about 2 weeks – 1 month to see your first sale, so don’t panic if you haven’t gotten a sale within the first week of your launched business, even though you’re marketing!

If you do customer service, product research and marketing correctly, you can easily make anywhere from $10k-$100/month.

However, lots of dropshipping businesses fail because they expect it to not be much work because you’re not keeping inventory or shipping the products. I hope that by this point in the article, you know that’s not true!

Put in the work and do the correct marketing, and you’ll be set!