5 Tips When Starting a Dropshipping Store

Starting a business can be a headache on its own. Dropshipping is no different. Below are 5 tips I found helpful when starting your own dropshipping store.

Dropshipping is very much like wholesale. You have a supplier and sell the supplier’s inventory in your store. What makes them different is that wholesale requires you to make large quantity purchases, such as 500 t-shirts, while drop shipping does not. Dropshipping allows stores to select which items they want from a seller without physically carrying them in stock.

When an order is made, it goes directly to the supplier who then ships the purchased item to the customer. This essentially makes the store a middle man. By not carrying inventory, the store avoids the upfront costs such as bulk orders and rent making dropshipping affordable to a large number of people who want to set up an online shop without the financial burden.

Tip #1: Figure out what you want to sell

Figuring out what you want to sell is the first step in starting your dropshipping store. Not all suppliers sell the same items and not all items are of the same quality. Figure out the items you wish to sell, your price range, and where you want the items sourced.

For example, I wanted to carry American-made products in my store so I chose Spocket a supplier site that specializes in North American and European-made products. I saved myself many hours of research and from seeing products that aren’t American made such as the products in AliExpress.

Tip #2: Find a Supplier website

As I stated above, it’s much easier to figure out a supplier once you find which items you want to sell. Also, you want to find a website that meets your wants and needs. Make sure to look at the business’s BBB profile and past customer reviews to find the best fit for you. Most websites require a tier-based subscription, though not all, so make sure to pay attention to this as well.

Tip #3: Determining your Individual Suppliers

After finding your dropshipping supplier website, now it’s time to find which products you wish to add to your store. One of the perks of dropshipping is that you are not bound to a single supplier so take advantage and be picky.

Look at the individual supplier reviews as you scroll through your options. Not every supplier has a return policy and not everyone has a great shipping/receiving time. If you offer a product that your customers’ say is poor quality, don’t fret. Simply change that product out for a different one. Dropshipping allows for instant changes and it only takes a few clicks to remove an item and offer a different one!

Tip #4: Create Your Digital Store

Once you know your products, dropshipping website, and your suppliers, next is finding an online marketplace for your store. You can use Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, or create your own website using WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace. I used Shopify but choose whichever is best for you.

After selecting your shop’s domain, next comes making it look professional. Use colors that are consistent with your products, market area, and logo. For example, the colors green and blue are commonly associated with healthy living, so if you’re selling organic products, it’ll be wise to incorporate those two colors.

Creating a logo is simple and there are plenty of free options on the internet. I used freelogodesign.org.

You answer a few questions about your business and it then generates multiple logo templates for your company. Once you select your template, you have full customizable control over the color, wording, font, and layout.

Tweak your logo until it looks perfect and then hit finalize. Freelogodesign then emails you the logo for free. The logo is low-resolution for the free version but you can upgrade and have a high-resolution logo for a single set price.

Tip #5: Connecting & Opening Your Shop

Now that you’ve created a website, it’s time to connect it to your marketplace. Spocket makes this extremely simple by having you enter your website’s URL. After doing this, Spocket takes care of the rest. It inputs your selected inventory into your shop automatically including pictures, price, and description. These are all changeable on Spocket as well so if a product’s description has a misspelled word you can change it yourself. Just be careful with changing prices because if you miscalculate and undercharge for a product, you’re liable to pay the difference (this includes discount codes)! Suppliers do a good job of telling you the product price and shipping price while giving you a recommended final price to have on your store.

By following these 5 steps, you have a fully functional website selling dropshipping products! However, these are not the only 5 steps to fully operating your own store but give you the platform and zen to continue making your shop the best it can be! A few options to further your website is to create social media pages for your company, advertise, or create a blog.