How to Start a Successful Dropshipping Business?
Where to start in Dropshipping? Learn how to find a supplier and what products will work for you. Good practices to avoid the pitfalls of Dropshipping.
Where to start in dropshipping? In this article, we will guide you step by step through the essential tools to start Dropshipping. What is niche marketing, and how to choose your niche? How to select your products and suppliers. And finally, which web platform is best suited to host your web project.
Dropshiping Where to Start and Niche Marketing
It is essential not to try to be everywhere and focus on certain types of products so that your offer is targeted and impactful.
When thinking about getting into Dropshipping, it is essential to focus your energy and time on a niche market.
What is niche marketing? Niche Marketing means understanding the target audience for your products. Having a well-identified niche is crucial to know who the people or profiles are most likely to buy your products.
Understanding your audience allows you to present your company, your business and your products in the most appropriate way for your customers.
In marketing at Ohma, we always start by analyzing our clients’ audiences. Starting with your niche in dropshipping allows us to match each audience’s wants and needs with the product features that resonate most with them. We work on the brand message with real-life examples of customer issues to ensure it is relevant and practical.
Find your niche to build your audience; this article will help you: ” Ikigai – How to Find Your Niche in 4 Simple Steps.”
We have also created a PDF guide to help sole traders and entrepreneurs define and understand their audience: “Buyer’s Persona Exercise: Define your Audience.”
Dropshiping Where to Start and Products
Where to start in dropshipping with products? There are many suppliers available looking for partners. Most of them already have an online presence, and you can find them on the Internet.
How do you get started? Firstly, you need to take the time to choose a good product that has potential, as a poor choice could handicap the launch of your website and your sales. We have put together the characteristics that make a product a good candidate for Dropshipping.
Choose your products well:
Some products have potential; others don’t. The perfect product does not exist, and the objective is to anticipate the potential obstacles to purchase and the consequences of using a product for your customers.
We do not recommend cosmetic, food products, and baby products. The list is not exhaustive.
Pay attention to the manufacturing standards between your supplier’s country and the country where you distribute the product.
For example, European regulations are stricter than in other areas on materials used in cosmetic products or products manufactured for specialist audiences.
The majority of suppliers locates themselves in Asia. It is crucial to consider local regulations and standards and choose products that meet users’ expectations of quality and reliability.
Finding trendy products:
The best asset of an entrepreneur who wants to start Dropshipping is before being an excellent trend hunter— listening to your audience, understanding the latest fashions to offer the new product exclusively.
The time factor is essential. There is a lot of competition in Dropshipping, and if you want to be the first, the pressure can be high on the choice of product.
Keeping abreast of current events, observing the audience and buying, consuming and using behaviour are the primary qualities of a talented entrepreneur starting in dropshipping.
These skills are often related to marketing and sales. It is not uncommon for this to be the prior training of many entrepreneurs in this field.
Download the free PDF guide to defining and understanding your audience: “Buyer’s Persona Exercise: Define your Audience.”
How to find a supplier?
Where to start in Dropshipping with suppliers? It is vital to find the best possible supplier for your e-commerce. The supplier represents your products and services’ final quality and, therefore, your customers’ satisfaction. The fact that you base your choice on specific criteria will be essential for your brand image and your business’s sustainability.
Therefore, when choosing them, it is essential to define specific criteria:
- Product delivery delays
- The quality-price ratio of the products offered
- The reputation of the company (customer reviews)
- Services provided (after-sales service, customer returns)
- Respect for standards (charters, rules)
How do you do this? Clarify your expectations and those of your audience. For some products, a delivery time of 2 weeks is acceptable compared to the market average. For others, it is much too long, for example, in short circuits.
What are the supplier’s habits with returns? How do you want to deal with customers? What are the manufacturing standards and reputation of the company?
These lines of thought are the basis for a successful distributor/supplier relationship. Not all suppliers have ready-made specifications for their partners. Approach your potential suppliers with kindness and flexibility. Great human adventures are built together in small steps.
Dropshiping Where to Start and Website
Where to start in Dropshiping with a website? There are several solutions to create your website quickly.
WordPress and Shopify
Platform solutions offer to create an e-commerce site via a content management system called CMS in English like Shopify or a plugin such as Woocommerce added directly to a website developed with WordPress.
With these SaaS platforms, you don’t need any prior knowledge, and everything is explained to you when you create your site and even afterwards. These solutions range from a monthly/annual fee to a sales percentage, such as Printful for clothing.
Setting up a website is time-consuming. Most entrepreneurs who start Dropshipping choose a quick and easy solution that allows a minimum of customization without going into the code.
Web Agency
For an ultra-personalized web experience, a web agency such as Ohma and its partners can help you create your website.
An e-commerce website is usually more expensive than a shop window site. The number of product pages and the need to update and maintain the site may lead you to opt for the easiest solution to use in the back office.
Do you need help setting up your website? Contact us!
Dropshiping Where to Start Key Concepts
Creating your website is the critical step to getting your product on the market to get started in Dropshipping. What are the essential points to respect to develop your business?
In summary, the steps to get started:
- Find your product and your sector of activity
- Prepare the ground with your supplier
- Choose the most suitable web solution (agency or solo)
- Create your website and e-commerce shop
- Import your products
- Plan your media
- Launching your business
Therefore, we have observed that Dropshipping is an excellent way to launch your first e-commerce site if you wish to discover new professional and personal experiences.
Dropshipping requires little financial investment and a minimum of technical skills and is therefore accessible to start a business quickly.
To get started, it all depends on your objectives and your future motivations!
Suppose you enjoyed this content and want to continue the dropshipping adventure for your business. In that case, you may be interested in these articles on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Niche Marketing for the success of your project.
