Dropshipping is one of the most profitable and inexpensive business models in recent years.
Dropshipping has given birth to some of the youngest millionaires in the world!
Selling your own products would be a hectic and expensive process. Dropshipping allows you to bypass those hassles and makes it possible to sell online without even owning the product!
What is Dropshipping and how does it work?
Dropshipping is a business model where you don’t need to own a product to sell it.
You have to work with a supplier or a wholesaler who will create the products for you.
All you have to do is to set up your own eCommerce website (using Shopify), add products and promote it all over social media.
Moreover, you have to handle all the marketing tasks like creating graphics and letting people know about how your product can impact people’s lives in a positive way.
When a user makes a purchase from your shop, the drop shipper orders the products from the supplier and sends them directly to your customers.
In this tutorial, I will explain dropshipping using Shopify (for building your online store), Oberlo (Dropshipper) and Alibaba (supplier).
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy for more information.
Why choose Shopify for your eCommerce store?
You must have heard of Kylie Jenner, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, who is famous for Kylie Cosmetics, a store built entirely on Shopify!
Here are some of the reasons why you should choose Shopify over other platforms:
i) You don’t need any technical skills:
Shopify is extremely reliable and a beginner-friendly platform where you can easily create and manage your store without knowing how to code or any technical skills.
ii) SEO optimized
Shopify has all the features that a business owner needs to rank their website on the first page of google. After all, it is a waste of time if users cannot find your store on the internet.
iii) Perfect pricing
The cheapest Shopify plan costs $29 a month, which is pretty reasonable if you pay attention to the return on investment.
How to start dropshipping for beginners
Here is a tutorial on how to start dropshipping as a complete beginner.
1. Choose a Niche/Topic
Choosing a high demanded product is the first step in learning how to start a profitable dropshipping business.
The secret to a successful dropshipping store is to find out the best products to sell and then promote them.
Brainstorm ideas. Just take a piece of paper and write down what you want your store to look like.
Check out some of the popular Shopify stores and see what they are selling.
Get a rough idea about what you want to do and then find out the trending products.
Head on to Google Trends and type a keyword to check its popularity.
Let’s take “maternity clothing” as an example.
The search volume is high and consistent over a long period of time.
That’s an evergreen niche and is not going to die anytime sooner!
Now, go to the Google Keyword Planner to know the exact search volume of the specific keyword. Just type in the name of your product and it will show you the average monthly searches.
Your success depends a lot on your niche. Also, make sure that your store has a combination of some evergreen products and trending products.
If your product doesn’t have a high search volume, just remove it from the list. Do not waste your time and energy on something that is not in demand.
2. Sign up for Shopify
Now, let’s dive straight into the meat of this blog post i.e setting up your Shopify store from scratch.
The best part is that Shopify offers a 14-day FREE trial. No credit card is required to sign up!
Click here to head on to the homepage of Shopify.
Click on “Start a free trial” or enter your email address directly.
It will then redirect you to this page where you will have to set your password and enter your desired name for the shop.
After that, you will be asked for some information like this, which would help them to know more about you and your business.
That’s all! You are signed up and your store is ready to go!
You will be redirected to the dashboard where you can set up your store.
Easy-peasy, right?
Now, let’s talk about setting up your store with a professional-looking theme, product pages and domain name.
3. Choose a theme
Go to the “sales channels” on the left menu and then select “Themes”.
It will lead you to a page where you can customize your theme.
Take some time and play around with the look of your website. See which theme is suitable for your niche. You can also import a theme that you brought from somewhere else.
For this tutorial, I am using the “Dawn” theme.
To customize it, just drag around the box and add images.
4. Add Products
Just install Oberlo, an application where you can find the suppliers of the products that you want to sell.
Oberlo works exclusively with Shopify and Ali Express.
Once you make a sale, Oberlo will order the item from Ali Express and will ship products directly from suppliers to your customers.
Moreover, Oberlo won’t mention anything about the suppliers in the packaging, making the customers think that the product directly came from you!
Just sit back and collect the profits!
Not complicated, right?!
5. Set up payment systems
Go to “Settings” > “Payment”.
The default option is selected as PayPal.
But, not everyone has a PayPal account. So, it is safe to add a credit card payment processor.
Other payment options include Stripe, PayU Money, 2Checkout and many more.
6. Buy a subscription
Now, it’s time to choose a plan for Shopify and register your domain.
Shopify doesn’t allow you to go live during the trial period.
So, you can utilize those 14-days to see if that is something you want or something that is worth your time.
You need to buy a subscription when you are ready to make your website go live.
Visit the “Select plan” page and choose the Basic Plan. It is more than enough to fulfill your needs as a beginner.
It will cost you thousands of dollars to set up a physical store! But, just $29 a month for setting up your online store!
What’s a better deal than this?
In my opinion, it is pretty much affordable compared to what you are getting in return.
7. Get a domain name
A domain name is the address of your website/online store. It is something that people will type on the search bar to reach your website.
Every Shopify store comes with a default domain name. For example, if your business name is Misty Look, your Shopify username will be mistylook.myshopify.com.
So, if you want to build a brand identity for your store, you have to buy a custom domain (for example, mistylook.com).
Purchase a top-level domain such as .com, .org or .net. The domain name must be short and easy to read.
The price of a domain name is $14 for a year and the basic plan will cost you $29 a month.
Therefore, you will be paying $43 for the first month and $29 each month for the rest of the year.
Go to the homepage and click on “Add domain”.
Enter the domain name you want to purchase and pay for it.
NOTE: You can purchase domains from other sites too but it is best to purchase them from Shopify. Otherwise, connecting the domain and the store would land you up in technical difficulties.
You can now launch your brand new store!
Bravo! You did it.
8. Promote your store
Now that you know how to start dropshipping, it’s now time to drive traffic and make sales.
This is the final step in learning how to start a successful dropshipping business.
NOTE: Creating and setting up your store will be done within a few hours. But, it’s your marketing skills that will set you apart from your competitors.
So, apart from knowing how to sell, the dropshipping business does not require any specific skills.
First of all. let all your friends and relatives know that your store is now live and they can purchase from there. Then, focus on social media to drive organic traffic to your website.
Social media
Don’t change the niche of your online store while establishing your presence on social media.
If you do so, your existing followers will turn into a dead audience which in turn will hurt your sales.
If you already have a social presence or a few thousand followers on Instagram, you can make your first few sales by sharing your products with your followers.
Try your luck with Pinterest.
With over 433 million active users, Pinterest has the potential to make your shop go viral within a few months!
You can grab the attention of millions of people by promoting your store on Pinterest.
Over 76 percent of Pinterest users are female. Hence, if you have a female-targeted product such as maternity clothing or jewelry items, Pinterest is going to do wonders for your business.
Use high-quality images of your products and get the sales rolling.
Facebook ads
Make Facebook ads your best friend.
Running Facebook ads is one of the most popular ways to drive traffic to your eCommerce store.
It can make you generate sales even if you don’t have an established audience.
With over 2.9 billion active users, Facebook is one of the most effective marketing platforms.
Facebook ads help you to target a specified set of audiences who are actually interested in your products and are most likely to convert into your customer.
And, you are done!
The Bottom Line: How to start dropshipping for beginners
Now, let’s wrap it up.
I hope this article was useful to you.
Now that you have an idea about starting a dropshipping store, it is high time you should take an action.
Learning how to start dropshipping can be tedious but it is going to be worth it in the long run.
The sky is the limit here and it is not impossible to make thousands of dollars a month with Shopify!
Click here to try Shopify free for 14 days.
Be patient with your business and don’t hesitate to invest whenever necessary.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
