Top 15 Dropshipping Tips & Ideas from the Pros
- Consider finding a reliable partner to share the profits
- Find out what people are passionate about
- Go easy, safe, and slowly move your way up
- Consider having more than one dropshipping supplier
- Choose an eCommerce platform solution wisely
- Make your online store a brand
- Don’t sell products you can’t understand
- Invest time in creating great product descriptions
- Build a strong relationship with your dropshipping supplier
- Attend industry events for ideas and acquaintances
- Build a proper business plan and strategy
- Avoid selling numerous goods, focus on a niche
- Always have samples of your products at hand
- Ensure safe and timely product shipping
- Check out products with special discounts for bigger profits
Everyone wants to learn a few things before they start something new. This especially applies when they come to an idea they haven’t tried out before. For example, let’s say you are a tourist. You need a map, or a guide, someone to show you the local attractions. Same with the dropshipping industry. There are some dropshipping tips and tricks you might find helpful. Many people feel lost when they start something new. No one is born completely informed and with all the knowledge, but you must start from somewhere. For that reason, we gathered these dropshipping ideas, and tips from professional dropshippers to help you avoid everyone else’s mistakes and save precious time and money.
Consider finding a reliable partner to share the profits
The first one of the 15 dropshipping tips from pros is – to consider finding reliable suppliers for your drophipping journey. More specifically, if you are planning on starting this business as a second job and feel like you won’t have the time to fully dedicate yourself, follow this tip.
In fact, everything in life is much easier when you can share it with someone. It’s the same when you’re opening an online store. You need to find a person responsible enough to be your partner and who is already interested in starting a dropshipping business. Moreover, you can share all the responsibilities and work, getting to the top much quicker. You can also share the problems and business issues with your partner and handle them more easily, together. In other words, you can be there for each other in both good and bad times.
Find out what people are passionate about
Some people choose one thing over another and this is the situation where you need to find the balance and understand their wants and needs. For example, if you are having second thoughts about whether you should sell makeup or branded clothing, there is a much bigger chance for you to earn while selling products from the latter.
It all comes to what kind of clientele comes to your site and what they are passionate about. It’s rather simple, but might be the most useful tip of all dropshipping tips you’ll come across. Use tools like Google Trends or Exploding Topics to find out what people are currently into in order to define which niches are the most profitable. Therefore, it’s to your advantage to get the hang of Exploding Topics and learn how to use Google Trends for dropshipping.
Go easy, safe, and slowly move your way up
“Consistency is the key”. Don’t forget this when reading these dropshipping tips from professionals in the industry. The longer you are on the market and earning, the more trust you’ll gain from customers over time. This is a fact everyone aims to materialize in reality. You shouldn’t be tempted to sell whatever product seems easy and profitable at first glance. In many situations, you’ll be led to the point where you will want to sell whatever, just to get the money. Instead, choose your products wisely, start safely, and slowly move your way up.
One of BrandsGateway’s best dropshippers from Lithuania, Oleg, completely supports this claim. He agrees that any dropshipper should choose their niche wisely, so his advice is to start selling items that you like and are passionate about. In fact, Oleg started selling his own clothing and then moved on to branded clothes, being in the same niche.
Even before he started dropshipping with BrandsGateway, his experience in the clothing industry was already vast. His best advice is to “Just start working on it. Don’t waste your time thinking about it or just planning, go and dig into it, learn by working on it, and learn from your mistakes. Literally, everyone can get into dropshipping, it is easy but you have to figure it out and you have to invest your time, nothing comes overnight.”
Consider having more than one dropshipping supplier
This is one of those dropshipping tips for those who are already in the business. If you believe your current supplier isn’t reliable enough, this one is for you as well. It’s best to check out TrustPilot and other consumer review websites to find out more about the supplier you currently buy from. If their ratings are great, you can continue working with them. Unless people leave reviews with late deliveries, lack of customer service, and other negative comments, you might consider using another one, just in case. Luckily, most dropshipping suppliers are professionals in the industry and rely heavily on quick shipping, swift customer support, and providing better services to all dropshippers.
After all, those who haven’t achieved any of these feats, usually go out of business. Thus, always remember to check out honest reviews from people who’ve been using a supplier’s services long enough to freely praise their work.
Choose an eCommerce platform solution wisely
Setting up and running your dropshipping business with an eCommerce platform is a wise choice. Today’s eCommerce platforms are designed to support online store owners every step of the way. Platforms like Shopify and WooCommerce are built as all-in-one solutions with features that make drop shipping easy as pie.
Not only do they have built-in features for easier management of your store, but they also allow integration with third-party tools. Therefore, do your research, and choose a platform that best suits your needs. Have in mind your dropshipping supplier as well, does he provides the option for Shopify integration, or not? By choosing a supplier that offers integration with different eCommerce platforms you’ll save a lot of time. This way you would benefit from automating everything for your business to run smoothly without any interruptions.
Make your online store a brand
One of the most important things to do when dropshipping is to make your own store a brand. This tip falls under the category of dropshipping tips related to eCommerce marketing. Start with the logo, slogan, social media presence, and official accounts, and create an identity of your brand. For example, if you’re selling branded clothing, your store will need a logo that identifies with the audience, i.e. customers. It will need to contain any of the colors used in marketing luxury products, such as black, gold, and white. You can also use details such as arcs, laurel wreaths, and other elements for better visualization.
Don’t just sell anything you come up across, because most customers won’t identify your store as an authority in the industry, but rather as an AliExpress affiliate site. Be concise with what you’re selling, so that every customer will remember your site as a great source for selling specific, niche products.
Don’t sell products you can’t understand
If you need more advice on how to get good at drop shipping with these dropshipping tips, hear us out on this one. Don’t sell something you don’t understand. If you don’t know what it’s for, and what use it has in everyday life, just move on to the next product. You have to be somehow connected to the product you’re selling.
Don’t be tempted to sell whatever, just to earn. That kind of money is not sustainable. Sooner or later, none other than yourself will get bored of it and start selling without passion. With no passion, there won’t be any good strategies, ultimately forcing you to give up. Some researchers have also mentioned how dropshippers who love the products they earn from and use them on themselves, usually earn more profits.
Invest time in creating great product descriptions
In terms of product marketing, one fundamental thing is to combine content and SEO together, for increased sales. How can you do this? Simply selling the right products is not enough in the eCommerce world. You’ll need to allocate time and resources to market your products properly in order to achieve greater success. This is where you need to put an emphasis on product descriptions. Sure, you can use your supplier’s product information to create descriptions, but in most cases – it’s just not enough. It’s best to sit down and start typing descriptions for each product individually.
In case you’re short on time, you can find other ways of writing product descriptions. However, in most cases, it’s something you should be doing by yourself. For example, hiring generic description content writers is not a good idea, as they might add the same information and keyword to products that your competitors offer.
It definitely looks like it’s a lot of work, but you have to make yourself do it. It’s that kind of work that you cannot just skip or leave it to the machine. This is the part that can either lift you – or push you down to the bottom. Make sure to make the description original, not copy it from anywhere else, and use the exact keywords that are searched the most. This way you’ll efficiently market your products. If you also include some passion in the descriptions, that will surely catch someone’s eye. It’s even better if you like the product too and are emotionally attached to it.
Build a strong relationship with your dropshipping supplier
If you are ready to follow all the previous dropshipping tips we gave you, don’t overlook this one. Build a strong relationship with your supplier. You can’t collaborate with someone you don’t have a good relationship with. If you do well together, you’ll work towards mutual profits, and make the best deals by compromising. This way, you’re more likely to be successful.
All relationships and partnerships work with a mutual compromise. You need to work out together every little detail that’s related to your store. How do you update the inventory, and how you’ll transfer it to your online store? What percentages do you get and what percentages does the other side get? How fast do they ship products? Where are you able to ship those products and how much are you ready to spend on shipping to increase customer satisfaction?
These are all relevant questions to ask a supplier. Something that works for you, might not work for your supplier, and vice versa. Once you figure out your and your supplier’s requirements and needs, and both your interests match, you are ready to collaborate.
Attend industry events for ideas and acquaintances
Make sure to attend various eCommerce events to obtain valuable information about anything business-related and meet new people. You never know who you might run into. Also, you don’t have to travel across the country to meet new people and attend events. There are numerous online events related to eCommerce at which you’ll get to hear some experiences from people that have seen much more before you started.
Usually, this is where the best ideas come from. It’ll surely help you get better by listening to what the industry professionals have to say. Also, you don’t have to throw away thousands of dollars to attend one of these meetings. Events, where numerous dropshipping professionals hang out, can seriously awaken your artistic side and make you even more creative. You can think of new ways for promotions, product descriptions, discount opportunities, and more.
Build a proper business plan and strategy
Nothing starts without a good dropshipping business plan. Also, how you will make an entrance is the most important part. Many of your visitors decide whether they will buy from you or visit your competitors, as soon as they visit your store for the first time. Don’t rush into starting an online business if you don’t have a thorough plan and strategy at the very beginning. First, focus on your store’s branding and design. If you think that this is insignificant, think again. The first impression is essential in online businesses, as online shoppers run away from poorly designed and disorganized online stores.
Second, don’t forget about product prices, and discount opportunities. Having a proper strategy for your product prices and discounts can help you attract more customers. To differentiate your offerings from the competition, look for ways to convert your potential customers into buyers. Make a plan for giving them personalized discounts and special offers on special occasions. Especially to those who once bought from you and that it seems like they are not coming back.
Avoid selling numerous goods, focus on a niche
The famous saying “The more the merrier” doesn’t apply in the dropshipping industry. As mentioned earlier, you need to choose your products with caution. In other words, having numerous and varied products might not be a good strategy. In dropshipping, it’s the niche and the approach that matters. Having a specific focus on a certain niche can bring you more benefits than wandering around and trying to sell diverse types of products at the same time.
Another successful dropshipper on BrandsGateway, Sam, explains how choosing a niche market while focusing on a targeted approach will benefit your business. In other words, it’s better to focus on a few product categories, rather than sell anything the supplier has in store. Sam’s online store wasn’t making any real profits for over half a year. However, with the right strategy, products, and audience, he’s now making over $44.000 on a monthly basis.
Always have samples of your products at hand
When selling online, a product picture is worth a thousand words. As online buyers are not able to hold the product in hand and experience it in real life, they are always looking for high-quality product images. Be prepared to be asked to share real-life pictures of the products you sell. For example, if you are dropshipping clothes and your product pages lack quality images and descriptions, your customers might ask you to take a picture of a certain product before they make a purchase.
Therefore, don’t feel ashamed to ask for a piece or a sample to have at hand from your supplier. You can either take pictures of the item, use it on yourself so you can have a better image, improve the photo with a clothing photo app, give a shot to creating videos to describe it, and more. In case your supplier doesn’t agree with your request, try another strategy. Ask each customer to take a picture of the product they bought so that you have ‘real proof’ of the authenticity and quality of the products you sell.
Ensure safe and timely product shipping
A dropshipping supplier with a wide collection of high-quality products is not enough if they are not delivered securely and on time. People get easily frustrated and disappointed when the product they ordered is missing or delayed. So, if you find a supplier that suits your needs in terms of product quality, you can still lose valuable customers over their shipping.
What’s left is to monitor your supplier’s performance at the beginning by ordering sample products. If the products arrive on time and in great condition, you are safe to proceed with that supplier. Otherwise, start looking for a replacement as soon as possible to avoid any inconvenience with your customers.
Check out products with special discounts for bigger profits
Finally, the 15th of the most important dropshipping tips you should have in mind when dropshipping. Most suppliers offer amazing prices on products that haven’t been sold yet. It doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t sell them just because no one else could. If your online store has tons of visitors on a daily basis, you can surely capitalize on this opportunity. Thus, always look for special offers and discounted products on your supplier’s website, because these are often offered at prices up to 95% off retail. Ultimately, this can bring in the extra profits you’ve been needing to mark a successful month.
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About the Author
Kristina Gjorgievska
Kristina, Head of Content at BrandsGateway. Eternal inspiration: The Doors music and lyrics, Bernardo Bertolucci's timeless “Stealing Beauty”, and the dynamic and meditative Ashtanga Yoga.
