Tips to Start A Drop Shipping Business

For the last decade, the drop shipping business has become quite popular all over the world. It has emerged as a great opportunity for business owners as well as for wholesalers.

E-commerce and drop shipping interconnect 

Due to the online availability of products in e-commerce, the concept of a drop shipping business could take shape. Through drop-shipping, you can earn millions of pounds in a year sitting at home and can also grow business at a fast pace. 

All across the world, people are working on ways to start drop shipping business. If you are also convinced with this concept and want to start a business in this sector, get some success tips.

What is a drop shipping business?

The drop-shipping business is a method of retail selling in which customers order a product online. The product seller does not store the products in the store. Instead, as soon as he receives the order, he forwards the order details along with the payment to a drop-shipping supplier.

The drop shipping supplier packs the product and ships it to the customer. Due to this model, the business owner selling the product does not have to store the product. 

Only when the order comes, the seller sends the details to the drop shipping business supplier of the concerned area. Then the supplier delivers the product to the customer.

How to start a drop shipping business?

Now when you are familiar with the concept of drop-shipping business, here are few tips to start the business. 

Choose an online platform to sell 

By choosing a good online selling platform, you can ensure the progress of your business to a great extent. Amazon and eBay are two such popular platforms where most manufacturers and product sellers list their products. 

One advantage of listing products on popular platforms is that you do not have to spend much money on advertising. These platforms already have their goodwill in the market. 

However, there are plenty of deals available for short-term business loans offered by direct lenders on lower rates. You can borrow funds at a lower rate for business promotion. But like every business owner, you should try to save as much as possible. 

Apart from this, if you list a popular product, you get customers easily. For example, kitchen appliances are a popular product and dropping in this sector usually proves to be a good deal.

Choose the product 

Choosing the product range is perhaps the most important part of the drop shipping business. Millions of types of products are sold in the world. In such a situation, choosing which product can do profitable business is a challenge. But it’s not rocket science. 

You can choose a product that caters to a specific demographic. For example, hover-boards are very popular among most youngsters. You can do business in this product range. Gradually, with the growth of your business, you can also start selling parts of the hover-boards. 

Some drop shippers also sell a variety of products because they want to minimize the risk. This is also a wise step in itself. If one or two products of your range are not giving good business, the rest help to compensate the loss. 

The product selection needs an in-depth market research. It would be better if you get ideas from an existing drop shipper. You can learn things from his website. They can tell real life facts about their business journey online.

Source the product suppliers/distributors

It is very important to have consistent delivery of the product you want to sell. Whatever product you choose for yourself, you will have to search for multiple distributors who deliver it. 

There are some popular marketplaces where you can easily source the product. These are –

• Ali Express, 
• Worldwide Brands, 
• Megagoods, 
• Wholesale Central 
• Doba 
• SaleHoo etc. 

These are all world renowned suppliers. Some of these suppliers also publish statistics of popular products. Get to know how popular your chosen product is. Gather the information about which demographic sells the most for a specific product. This information can be very useful for your drop shipping business.

However, you must keep in mind that whenever you choose a high-demand product, you must have ample funds. Whenever the customer orders, you have to forwad it to the supplier with payment.

There are flexible e-commerce finance options available, which you can avail yourself of through mainstream lending or direct lending. If you need funds on an urgent basis, direct lenders are considered the best options. They provide you with funds according to your repayment capacity upon instant approval.

Register the business 

Registering a business is the most important step, without it you can never fulfill your dream of drop-shipping business. Only after proper registration, you are able to separate your business from your personal assets.

For this, you have to choose a separate domain name and also get proper government registration done. Your business will be considered registered only after you get the business number and GST registration details. You receive approvals and business number only after successfully submitting the online application. 

Your bank account is created through a business number that links to your payment gateway. This bank account is the place to do all expenses and receive deposits from your company. This also includes maintenance and web hosting. You have to pay tax in every province where you sell your products through the same account. 

Build your online e-commerce store 

Drop shipping business cannot happen without e-commerce. No matter what product you sell, you need to display it somewhere. For this, it is necessary that you create your own online store, which has all the features for e-commerce buyers. 

Every online store has some vital parts which you, too, need in your e-commerce store. Without a few elements, your online store cannot function. These are – 

• A content management system 
• Web hosting, 
• A domain name 
• A built-in payment gateway. 

The best e-commerce website automates the sale. Whenever an order comes, it reaches your supplier directly. If this process is not automated, you have to enter all the details manually, increasing the chances of error. 

It would be better to automate all your procedures and choose the best e-commerce platform for yourself. For example, Shopify, eBay, and Amazon are the most popular options. 

You can use multiple selling channels instead of just one e-commerce platform. But for that you must have the resources and funds available to manage all e-commerce platforms.

Invest in marketing 

After establishing the business, it is important that people get to know about your business. For this, you need to do more than just word of mouth publicity. Marketing is a combination of many small and big promotion methods. Join social media groups where you can participate in a productive way with relevant businesses. 

Don’t just sell your product, answer people’s questions. Tell them how your product can provide a solution to their problem. Become an expert in your community and provide expert advice in relevant sectors. Create your business page on all social media accounts for example Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. 

You can attract attention only through regular product posting. Apart from social media efforts, invest a little in actual sales and advertising. If you are concerned about funds, don’t worry. Direct lenders offer multiple short term and long term loans for multiple business requirements. 

Save your time by hiring a business loan broker. These brokers give you unbiased suggestions about the best lenders in the industry. Also, a broker assists you during the entire loan procedure. Apart from this, in terms of marketing, you can drive traffic to your e-commerce website by running Facebook ads. 

Educate consumers about your products through blogs. Search engine optimization techniques help in every way in business promotion. For a new business, it is necessary to follow all these methods. 

Conclusion 

All the tips above help you to establish a good drop-shipping business. However it is very important to know when you interact with ground reality, your challenges may look bigger. 

If you are really determined to follow your passion for drop shipping, work consistently while keeping a slow and steady approach. In three to four months, your drop shipping business will be fully established. For more informative articles, visit here.