How To Make Money With Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a popular online business that majority of people are doing. Any beginner that comes to the mindset of “how to make money online” most likely end up doing dropshipping. But the problem is more of them will fail without a proper guidance on making money with dropshipping.
In this article I am aiming to help you to get a good idea about dropshipping and explain about how to start dropshipping and start making money with dropshipping.
What Is Dropshipping and How Does It Work?
Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method that a person does not have to maintain an inventory. Instead, the person can sell the product and passes the order to a third-party supplier which will ships the product to the customer.
So the dropshipper does not have to actually own or physically have the specific product but can easily make profit with selling it.
How do I start a dropshipping business?
Starting dropshipping business is and easy task. Total beginner can build an online store and begin making money from it. So, I will explain the whole process with few steps:
- Choose a niche
- Do proper research and find a dropshipping supplier
- Build your online store / site
- Market your business
- Analyze, improve and scale your store
Choose a niche
Before you going to sell all the products you can just STOP!. Yeah, you will have more room to scale and earn more money. But in the long run you will get overwhelmed by trying to keep up.
Having a niche online store helps you to focus more on the products that are only related to the niche itself. Don’t go and include every item in your store. Select a niche that most likely you love to be around. It maybe home décor, pet suppliers, fitness products, health products etc. Just narrow down to one niche and you can focus on your niche and sell products with confidence.
Do proper research and find a dropshipping supplier
Third-party supplier play a big role in dropshipping business. If you want to make money with dropshipping your supplier must be reliable and trustworthy. If not your whole business will collapse. Shitty suppliers can cause you losses in your business and many customer complaints will be directed to you.
So, when you starting your dropshipping business do proper research about your suppliers and select only ones that provide faster shipping times and better communication. Faster shipping time means your customers will get their ordered product in time and if anything goes wrong you can contact your supplier and resolve the issue immediately.
There are many places you can find suppliers from. If you are looking to dropship from AliExpress, I have a step-by-step tutorial which explains how you can automate the dropshipping process.
Read full article from here >> Set up a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store using Alidropship plugin
Build your online store / site
You chose your niche and found a really good supplier. Now for the most important part, setting up your online store. Building an online store is so much easier now.
You only need a good hosting provider to host your store and a good domain name relatable to your online store name. In a previous article I explained about how you can build a WordPress blog. In that article you can learn to build your online store. Blog/website/store the initial steps are all the same for everything.
Read about >> How you can build your site with WordPress
This is my recommended Web Hosting provider which will help you to build your WordPress site.
After building your site, you need to install a plugin called WooCommerce. Using that you can build your online store in a day.
Market your business
Now you are done with your store. You have really nice looking online store. But people don’t just find your store and come to buy things. The person who needs to reach out to them must be you. To do that you need to have a marketing strategy.
Marketing is easier nowadays, because you only need to have social media accounts in order to post about your business. Marketing can be done by using organic or paid methods. Either way, bringing potential customers to the online store totally depend on your marketing strategy.
Paid advertising can be more quick way to bring customers, but bringing customers through organic methods will be helpful in the long run. Because it builds your brand and trust among customers.
Analyze, improve and scale your store
Once your online store is doing well and you are getting pretty good sales its time to go further. If you were bringing customers through organic methods try to get more customers using paid advertising. Paid advertising really helps to scale any business. You can target specific people with demographics which suit better with your niche.
Even better, you can start building your own brand around dropshipping business. If you really interested in making money with dropshipping you must build a brand. It helps to grow your customer’s trust about you.
As like that, with simple steps you can start your dropshipping business and start making money with dropshipping really fast.
What are the benefits of starting a dropshipping business?
Low Startup Cost
Since you don’t need to buy inventory and locations to store, you are already saving huge money upfront. And also you do not need to hire staff to fulfill orders, So more people are considering dropshipping as a low barrier entry business. If you are afraid of starting a retail business because of big investment requirements, you can turn your focus on making money with dropshipping.
Less Inventory Management
In this business model having no physical inventory is a real comfort. Because of that you don’t have to track inventory, manage the warehouse conditions, and shipping processes. They are all done by the outsourcing supplier for you. All you gotta do is sit tight and asses.
Flexibility
Simplicity of dropshipping brings more flexibility. You can operate from anywhere in the world if you have an internet connection and a laptop. Offer many types of products and change offers accordingly to the market preference.
What are the risks of dropshipping?
Has to rely on third – party suppliers
Having stable and reliable suppliers is crucial in this line of work. Because the supplier you chose fails to deliver the product in time or not deliver at all you are the person who is going to take the blame from customer. The customer ordered the product from you, not from your supplier, so you need to do a proper research when selecting suppliers for your dropshipping business. Else you will end up with chargebacks, refunds and customer complaints instead of making money with dropshipping.
Higher competition
The easy process of dropshipping does comes with many obstacles. Many people are doing dropshipping because the initial steps to begin are very clear and simple. You will find many competitors are selling the same products as you are.
So, in order to standout from the lousy market, you must come up with a plan to beat your competitors. Some of the nice tricks to beating customers is offering faster shipping, customize the item packaging with your brand, offer discounts at a reasonable rate.etc.
Is Dropshipping really profitable?
Yes, Dropshipping is a very profitable business model because hold no responsibility for manufacturing and shipping of the products. If you find the right suppliers, you will earn huge profits just by sitting at wherever you want. Because maintaining an inventory and handling shipping process costs are no longer in your profit calculation.
Is dropshipping legal?
Yes, Dropshipping is a legitimate business model. It’s an order fulfillment business if you put it in simple terms. But for both yours and business’s safety, you should definitely have a Dropshipping Agreement Contract.
The only way you’re gonna get in legal trouble is when your suppliers are not doing their task as they are supposed to. So you need to choose your suppliers very carefully. One messed up supplier can shut down your whole dropshipping business and lose your customer’s trust.
How much do dropshippers make on average?
Most dropshippers who maintain their business good are making about $100,000 per year on average. That’s around $1000 – $5000 per month. The other amount spend for purchasing products from the supplier, Website hosting fees, and marketing.
But if you are really good at making money with dropshipping you can go far from those numbers I mentioned. There is fair amount of people that makes 6 figure income per month with just pure profit. So, it totally depends on how you perform and how you handle your business.
Final Thoughts
Dropshipping business model is a simple model to start to anyone with zero experience. Like any online business it has its pros and cons. If you can understand and use precautions to stand out from them you can easily succeed.
Also remember, there is no get rich quick method in any online business. You must put the work done upfront, work hard & smart in achieving your business goals. Only then you will be able to make money from any business. So, if you are goal to making money with dropshipping I suggest you should do proper research and start your online store and pave your path to success.
Good luck !
