It’s a fact that today’s retail industry is vastly different than 100 years ago, especially with the advent of the dropshipping business model.  Even comparing it to 20 years ago will show remarkable changes. Did societies ever think their monthly shopping will happen in front of shiny screens and that ordering something from the other side of the globe is possible for almost anyone?

While consumers enjoy the luxuries that today’s technology brings them, it’s up to retailers to keep up with the times. If you’re not part of the latest trends you may lose customers to those who stay updated.

No matter what type of retailer you are, dropshipping should be in your vocabulary and we want to show you how to get it right.

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What is Drop Shipping?

While many consumers partake in the process of drop shipping, they may not even know what this term means. In short, drop shipping refers to the process of a retailer—such as an eCommerce company—managing a delivery process straight from the manufacturer to the client, other retailers or a shipment company. In this flow of actions the retail entity itself does not stock the merchandise and may never even handle the goods.

Why Consider Drop Shipping for Your Business?

So, why is this so remarkable? Should you be doing this more in your business?

First off, it’s clear that you can save costs if you don’t have to own premises or storage space in order to sell goods. That means even with relatively low capital you can start a business as long as you can organize distribution channels for your products.

Apart from the monetary advantages for startups or business owners who want to expand, drop shipping also carries these benefits:

• You save money in comparison to other types of retail because you don’t have to purchase large amount of stock in advance. The added bonus is that you won’t get stuck with items nobody wants once a trend blows over.
• The product doesn’t change hands as many times as with conventional ordering, so items get damaged less.
• You don’t spend time or effort on packaging goods.
• It opens up more options as you can sell items you may find difficult to store under normal circumstances. You may want to sell perishables. Keeping these items fresh and cool will be up to the manufacturer & those in the distribution line, not you.

You can see this is a more effortless way to do business in many regards. And thanks to today’s fast, efficient communication it’s easier to manage such a system compared to a few decades ago.

For up and coming entrepreneurs it’s the ideal solution when they have innovative product ideas but limited capital. Younger generations—such as millennials—also tend to have in depth knowledge of internet marketing skills since they were raised at a time when this medium played such an important role in society. With these skills in hand they have all they require to successfully launch and manage businesses, such as eCommerce sites, where drop shipping is the ideal distribution solution & business model.

Is this what your business needs to optimize sales and serve a larger audience? This is how you can get it right.

5 Vital Steps to Get Drop Shipping Right

There are many benefits to this type of distribution, but as with all other aspects of business, planning is vital to enjoy success. We discuss the main factors you need to have in place to experience growth with a drop shipping business model.

1. Do You Know What You’re Selling and Who You’re Selling it to?

Perhaps you already have an idea of what you want to sell. Our suggestion is to revisit this aspect multiple times as there are many factors at play in finding a niche that will work and to cater for that niche’s preferences.

2. Be Passionate

When people mention that you need to love what you do, those aren’t naïve words. In business it’s important to do what you’re naturally interested in.

Firstly, you’ll quickly get bored—and therefore have no work satisfaction—if you don’t really like what you’re doing every day. Even if you’re simply selling products to make a living it’s wise to pick product types you find attractive. It will be effortless to do research to find additional products that fit your niche or even go so far as developing your own.

Secondly, business rarely runs smoothly 24/7. When your business experiences a drop in sales or a new competitor starts attracting your clients, you need passion and commitment to deal with those challenges. If you love your product, you’ll believe everyone needs to have one. That passion will motivate you to keep going. If you don’t have any drive, you may give up very easily once the going gets tough.

3. Be Practical

While you must consider you personal passions, you also need to be realistic. Not all products you find interesting will make business sense. If some of these characteristics also apply to the niche you consider, you may have a winning business idea:

• Products that aren’t easily available in your local community will gain traction of you sell it online and find a way to quickly transport it to buyers.
• You need to be found online to make a sale, so distribute items that people are already searching for. It only takes some research on Google Trends or its Keyword Planner app to determine what consumers want. Especially if you’re still a start up, don’t opt for something no one is searching for yet. You can always launch new products later on when you already have a customer base to showcase it to.
• Does your product appear on shopping lists of those who have cash available? The niche audience you target must have the financial means to pay for the product. If you have a high asking price for items that low income consumers find valuable, you’ll never make a sale.
• Research whether your product is something impulse buyers will find interesting. This is the best type of customer.
• Can you distribute your product without spending too much? Low packaging and shipping costs are vital. If shipping escalates the overall cost, customers will lose interest. If you can keep it low you can even opt for free shipping, which will boost sales.
• A higher priced product is a better option than low priced goods. You’ll put in more or less the same amount of work to market them, but from a $10 item you’ll make very little profit compared to selling a $1000 product. Optimize your profits from the start and enjoy better cashflow with which you can grow your business fast.

Find a product that represents a balance between all these factors and then move to the next step.

4. Did You Study the Competition?

Once again, the competition aspect of drop shipping is all about balance.

You may think you need to find a product that not many other entities sell. Then you don’t have to compete with the big names such as Amazon. But have you thought about why they’re not selling it? Chances are they’ve tried and failed. Perhaps the need for the item isn’t as big as you think. Or alternatively this may not be something consumers order online. What if they prefer testing it out in a brick and mortar shop first?

Of course it’s ideal to be the only distributor of an item and if you’re selling a brand new item guaranteed to become a trend, you’re set for success. But with existing products, take other drop shippers’ actions as advice on what really works.

5. Suppliers are Essential to Success

Once you’re sure you have the right product in mind, take your time in finding the ideal drop shipping supplier. By ideal we mean:

• The company communicates well, responding to your messages quickly.
• The entity has the production capacity you require now, and if your business grows they will still cope with supplying all your orders.
• You can find reviews about them online so you have other companies’ confirmation about their ability

Chances are your supplier won’t be in the same country as you. You won’t be able to visit them, so finding out whether they’re dependable is essential to keeping clients happy and protecting your future reputation.

Your Website—Your Door to the World

Your product is ready and now you have to showcase it to the masses. The modern way: a website.

You’re luckily doing business in a time where it’s easy to create your own eCommerce website. You don’t even need a developer these days as platforms such as Wix and WordPress allow for relevant plugins that will support the drop shipping business model.

Be smart and add an app to your company’s list of features. It’s a popular trend and worth investing time in. Once again, there are platforms that allow you to do this by yourself. It’s how you stay one step ahead of the rest and make your customers feel they’re part of the latest trend.

Tip: Today’s available templates for first time website owners are modern, stylish and user friendly. Even if you doubt your own skills, simply get started with a basic website and employ a developer later on—when you have to cash—to improve it.

How to Connect with Your Future Customers

Having a stylish virtual store front isn’t enough unfortunately. How will you draw people to it?

Social Media

While marketing is a complex process, you’re lucky because the platforms that are the most effective for marketing are the ones most people use on a daily basis:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

All the social media platforms can showcase your products to a worldwide audience. And if you already have a list of friends you have an audience to market to.

The next step would be to use the dynamic tools Facebook created for businesses. You can boost your ads to a relevant audience in terms of:

• Age
• Geographic location
• Career
• Gender
• Interests

SEO

Since your website is a prime role player in your business you need to do everything in your power to get it to the top of SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). That requires SEO (Search Engine Optimization). We talked about this in our drop shipping secrets to improve conversions post.

In short you need to impress search engines’—such as Google—algorithms by proving you have a quality site that should be showcased to keep online browsers happy. You can do a lot to improve your value and rating:

• Use keywords relevant to the niche so search engine crawlers notice your content.
• Add quality content that is free of grammatical errors.
• Upload product images that quickly load on visitors’ pages.
• Create user friendly content with many images and videos.
• Ensure your website is mobile friendly. In 2019 this has become more important as consumers browse the web more via their phones than their computers.

Email

No, this is not an outdated marketing tool. Email should still form part of your marketing campaigns, especially because most people have email addresses. In an email you can easily share images, videos and in depth information; all important when you’re trying to prove your product’s value.

Remember to add a feature to your marketing to collect consumers’ emails so you’re able to send past customers information about new products.

Measuring Your Progress—the Key to Stay One Step Ahead

That paints a dynamic picture of how to get started. But how will you fare in a few months’ time? Markets change constantly so what is popular today may not be trending next week. To make sure your marketing, product selection and overall image stay aligned with consumer preferences you need to measure your performance throughout.

There are handy tools in the form of:

• Google Analytics that help you measure if you get noticed online.
• Measuring hot spots on your website shows you which features attract attention and lead to conversions.
• Activating online reviews will give you feedback from consumers so you know what to change to impress them more.

With a drop shipping model your customers are often far away from you, so you need to find ways to understand them better all the time.

Conclusion

You do business in an exciting world. With a drop shipping business model you utilize some of the best tech features ever created such as communicating in real time with someone on the other side of our planet.

Are you going to do dropshipping right and leave a legacy in this world?

Are you a drop shipper but certain irregularities have been barring your way from reaching profitabilty in dropshipping?

Do you have an interest in e-commerce, and drop shipping always comes to mind?

You’re in the right place because here, you’ll learn some important details on dropshipping and why drop shipping is so lucrative. Most importantly, you’ll learn about mistakes that can bar your way to being a successful drop shipper, and how you can avoid them.

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Why Dropship?

To anyone trying to start out an e-commerce business model, dropshipping is one that always comes to mind. As opposed to a physical shop, dropshipping requires no upfront cost. That said, dropshipping removes one of the greatest hurdles in the path of any business starter.

The bulk of your work is to market and then sell your products. But most importantly, you can easily keep track of consumer behavior. While it is very hard to do so in the real business world, with e-commerce, everything seems possible. You can successfully carry out online surveys to find out about your customer’s behavior, preference of goods, their opinion on your products, how they feel about your customer service, and so on.

All these help a drop shipper to stay on top of their game, thereby making dropshipping a very lucrative business model. While it may seem very easy, there are certain things you need to know. As a beginner, if you would take heed to these instructions, and avoid the mistakes I’m about to share with you, then you would become a successful drop shipper in no time.

25 Dropshipping Mistakes to Avoid

1. Sales of Trademark Goods

This is one mistake that can easily take you out of business. You cannot sell trademark goods without permission. To mention a few, copyrighted goods include characters (e.g., Marvel and D.C), logos (e.g., Adidas and Nike), sports teams (e.g., NBA teams) and even phrases (e.g., “Super Bowl”). You need a license to sell these items.

License for these goods ranges from a few hundred dollars to millions of dollars. Instead of risking the legal hassles that accompany selling copyrighted goods, sell goods that have a genuine brand instead. They are also known as “white-label goods”.

2. Posting Unrealistic Shipping dates

Shipping from China can be generally frustrating. You might never know the exact date your shipment would arrive especially if you can’t track your order. The Suppliers themselves don’t know as they only give you estimates.

That said, being truthful to your customers as regards shipping is very important. For example, if your supplier says your shipment would arrive in 20-40 days, it is better to give your customers this exact time frame than saying it’ll only take two weeks.

Offering too optimistic shipping dates builds distrust if it eventually falls through, and distrust is bad for business. Be open, and make them realize why it’s worth the wait and you’ll do just fine.

3. No Plans for Promotion

Promotions and advert campaigns are important for your business growth. Before you get started, ensure you have a Facebook page, and other social media handles. You can organize a simple competition on any of these platforms in which participants would be required to like your page.

Liking your page builds trust, and trust is good for business. On the other hand, you can also go for paid ads on Facebook, Google, and other social media platforms. Be careful not to spend too much on ads though. Prepare your budget and stick to it.

4. Lack of Customer service

In an already saturated market, what’s your best bet as a newbie? Its customer service. Customer service is a good way to keep customers from going to other stores. Customers need information on products from time to time. Providing this information round the clock is very crucial if you want them to stick with you.

If you’re always there, they wouldn’t need to go elsewhere. More so, your appealing customer service would force them to tell their friends and families about your store. This strategy markets and grows your brand faster than ads.

5. Poor Website Structure

Your website is your storefront on the internet. A good website structure attracts customers, while a poorly structured one would only confuse prospective customers. If you are experienced in coding and HTML, you can easily create your store using WordPress.
On the other hand, you can simply buy a store on Shopify. Though it is a paid option, it is easier for you if you don’t have coding and HTML knowledge. It doesn’t matter its Shopify or WordPress, the most important thing is to create a simple and easy-to-use store.

6. Going Too General

This is a very common practice among newbies. They surf through a major dropshipping website and suddenly, they want to drop ship every item they see. It’s true that selling all types of goods opens you to more audience. But, are you prepared to attend to the needs of an audience that large?

The narrower your target market and audience, the easier it is to satisfy the needs of the group. More so, you’ll also have the full trust of your customers as they would see you as a specialist in the product you sell.

7. Choosing the Wrong Niche

Before picking a niche, it’s important to research, and understand the basics of that niche. Be sure the niche you choose adds value. Customers would only part with their money if you offer them value. Beware of niches that lacks value and are overrated. To ascertain the viability of a niche, look around you, engage people, or even use a quick Google search. Check out things in vogue.

Also, it is important you pick a niche you’re already a customer for, that is products you know so much about. This would give you an insight on how to market the products to your target audience. You’ll also have more persistence if you’re selling a product you love.

8. Copying Policies from Other Sites

It is quite tempting to copy policies from another site since you feel you’re in the same line of business. It doesn’t matter if you offer the same product, or you’re writing for the same niche. Their policies may be vague, and not fit what you’re trying to achieve with your site.

Another issue is, the policy you’re trying to copy might not be legally sound. You need a policy that can stand a lawyer or a judge’s scrutiny. Research about your niche, write privacy, shipping, and return policies that fits your store.

Then, ask an attorney to help you rewrite those policies in accordance with existing laws. It might not seem a problem now, but your policy is the only thing that can protect you and your site in the case of chargebacks. That said, it is important to have one without loopholes.

9. Unhealthy Price competition

You might want to undercut your competition by offering the lowest prices on your site. After all, lower prices mean more customers, right? As many drop shippers had to learn the hard way, price as a competitive advantage cannot be sustained in the long run. Profit margin reduces every day with more competition.

You can only be successful using this tactic if you are a very big retailer. That is, your product catalog exceeds tens of thousands. Anything else, you would lose money in the long run. Instead, sell high priced items for an increased profit margin. Then, make up for the price difference by offering top-notch customer service, easy-to-use website, and valuable information about your products via your site.

10. Not Considering Holidays

Holidays, such as The Lunar Year in China is one to consider as a drop shipper. During this period, the entire Chinese population goes on holiday for a week. It’s safe to say that no business transaction would take place for an entire week.

If you work with China-based suppliers, then this is one holiday you’ve got to put into consideration. You should contact your suppliers in advance to know about their schedule. Once you’re informed, you can either list the products affected as “in stock” but at a longer delivery time or buy a lot of these items several weeks before.

By so doing, you can deliver to customers who order during those periods. You can also temporarily delist the items to avoid disappointments and negative feedback.

11. Wrong Choice of Suppliers

Your success as a drop shipper depends largely on the services of your supplier. After all, they control the inventory and shipment of your customer’s orders. If you deal with a supplier that delivers goods at a later time or even sends defective products on a regular basis. Then the odds are high that your dropshipping business would soon come to a standstill.

Your supplier may have good products, but how often do they answer your inquiries? Do they have good customer service? Do they have a good site rating? Working with a reliable supplier is crucial to the success of a dropshipping business.

12. Depending Solely on a Single Supplier

When you eventually get a supplier that fits, you might probably think you don’t need a new one. But what would you do if the supplier suddenly decides to stop working with you? Or even goes out of business? Meanwhile, your customers are patiently waiting for the fulfillment of their orders. Your options are to either cancel the orders or find a new supplier.

Both options are quite difficult if you’re unprepared. Either way, your customers would be dissatisfied. You can successfully prevent this by having a backup supplier. That is, asides from your go-to supplier, you should have another option if things go sideways with your go-to supplier.

13. Poor Relationship with Your Suppliers

A good relationship with your suppliers sets you up for numerous benefits such as discounts and priority service. Don’t act as you own them, they can easily decide to discontinue working with you at any time. So how do you foster that relationship?

Never think you have control over their time and products. Respect them, always pay early, it is better to work together to solve issues than blaming your supplier. Suppliers would do more on their end to help your business succeed if you maintain a good relationship.

14. Poor Inventory Record

If an item is listed as “in stock”, customers expect it to be so. Since you don’t control the inventory, the onus is on you to ensure your supplier keeps you updated at all times. Problems may arise if you list an item as “in stock” when actually, your supplier is out of stock.
In case this happens, canceling the order and offering an apology would do. You can appease them by offering a discount when the item finally comes back in stock. But it’s better to prevent this from happening at all.

Always request for inventory count from your suppliers on a regular basis. Good inventory management is a criterion to choose a supplier in the first place.

15. Having Unrealistic Expectations

The fact that dropshipping is lucrative doesn’t mean you’ll earn six figures in a month. Dropshipping takes time and a lot of learning to successfully make a profit. The most successful drop shippers faced a lot of difficulties before they made a living off drop shipping. If you aren’t fully prepared mentally, you could find yourself demotivated and even give up in a short while.

On the other hand, set realistic goals and ask questions from other drop shippers. Join a dropshipping forum, this way you would be able to interact and learn from the veterans in business.

16. You Don’t Care About SEO

Many drop shippers invest little or nothing into proper optimization of their stores. Probably because it requires more time and money than traditional advert models. However, in the long run, SEO provides an incredible return on investment.
Ideally, you should start SEO before you launch your store. Find out the keywords that are most relevant, and construct your website content in line with these keywords. If your site is properly optimized for conversions, your products have a good chance of appearing on the first couple of pages on google if searched for.

SEO is a way to gain an advantage over your competition even before you start to dropship. While ads would only last as long as you’re paying, SEO may last months depending on the level of optimization, and the quality of your content.

17. No Returns Policy

Returned goods or canceled orders are unavoidable in dropshipping. Your customers might have ordered a wrong product, or your supplier may send a deformed product. Either way, if you aren’t already prepared for this, it’ll be quite difficult for you to handle when it finally happens.

Whenever this happens, you should always give your customers a refund. Make arrangements with your suppliers on how returns would be managed. You should make sure all returns are handled as quickly as possible.

18. Poor Handling of Order Problems

Customers would always make a mistake when placing their order. Some may order the wrong size, while another may order the wrong quantity, or even decide not to buy anymore. The way you handle situations like this defines your business.
It is better to cancel the order and refund any customer that files a complaint. If you decide to ship, you can end up with a negative review which would drag your store in the mud. Remember, customers are always right.

19. No Access to Order Information

If you’re promising a smooth dropship experience for your customers, they would certainly want to see proofs. Set up a channel in which order status is displayed on your store. Also, constantly communicate with your supplier so as to keep you updated. In case of any delay, you’ll already have your heads up.

20. No Product Description

Customers want to know as much information about a product before placing their order. They want to know the pros and cons of each product. Research on your products, and add a piece of content to each of them on your store. But be careful not to exaggerate the product. Customer may object if the product doesn’t fit the description upon delivery.

21. Hassles on Shipping Cost

Multiple shipping rates can be confusing to your customers. Although shipping rates differ from one location to another, setting a flat rate would help you a great deal. It may reduce your profit margin at the moment, but not for long. It makes things easier and straightforward for you and your customers alike.

22. Poor Branding

As a newbie, you probably think adding as much random product to your store sets you up for great sales. This is wrong and must be avoided. If you want to stay relevant in the long term, it’s important to brand your store, and stick to your brand.
Creating a fan page on Facebook and other social media platforms is a good way to start your brand. With few incentives, you are sure to get people to like your page on a regular basis. Get your fans to participate in a competition to win your product.
These baby steps put your brand on track for a lengthy stay in the minds of people. And it’s these people that’ll buy, or refer people to buy your products.

23. Thinking Too Much and Doing Nothing

Don’t overthink your steps to becoming a successful drop shipper. There’s a high chance you’ll get stuck and probably do nothing. Instead, pick a niche you think is best suited to you and run it. At the initial stages, you have little or nothing to lose so it’s okay if you fail. Instead of overthinking, get started and learn from your mistakes. It’s best to figure out the basics of drop shipping early when the stakes aren’t high.

24. Investing in Just One Form of Promotion

After launching your store, you still need to sell products. That explains why you need to promote your store. While you can choose any of the advert options mentioned above, it is better you do a little of both. Focusing solely on one is risky, and may leave you short of money very soon.

25. Giving Up Early in Business

It’s okay to make mistakes, but the most important thing is to learn from them. Dropshippers who make thousands of dollars in profit also made mistakes. With patience and hard work, you’ll be ahead of your competition in no time.
People who set unrealistic goals don’t last long in the business. Set goals you can achieve in a short while. Then set another. Make sure you’re strategically placed to be seen if your competition eventually decides to give up.

Conclusion

Don’t beat yourself up if you’re already making these mistakes. Now that you know, taking advantage of this list would save you time, money and a lot of frustrations. The most successful drop shippers are those that learn from their mistakes, and never repeats them.
Note that your customer service is your greatest asset. It either makes or mars your dropship business. And at the same time, always ensure your suppliers keep things running smoothly on their end. If you can do all these successfully, then you’ll be at the top of the dropshipping food chain in no time.