Business ideas• Business Planning Process• Getting Started• Planning & Strategy

How To Ace Dropshipping Ecommerce Before You Even Get Started

The Dropshipping Triangle

Customers (1) place orders with Drop shipper (2), Drop shipper places Customers orders with Supplier (3), Supplier delivers products to Customers.

Source: hireme2writeit.com

According to recent Google Trends result, interest in dropshipping has more than tripled in the last 5 years.

The 5-Year Google Trend Of Dropshipping

Source: Google Trends

This means more and more people are getting on board dropshipping for some of the following reasons.

Benefits Of Dropshipping

There are businesses one can start with zero investment but dropshipping has the following advantages.

Freedom to work from wherever, whenever
Low or no startup capital
You pay supplier when shoppers pay you
You’re not investing your own money
You don’t need storage or warehouse facilities
Don’t need a showroom or rent store
Wide variety of products
Wide variety of merchants
Wide variety of customers
Global exposure

The Challenge

Dropshipping is an attractive business model due to low/no startup cost, but before you jump in there are key things to note.

In this article you will learn how to stand out and program your dropshipping business for success.

Key Areas Of Dropshipping

Platform, marketplace, storefront, supply chain, order fulfillment and customer service are some key areas of dropshipping. Problems arising in one or more of these areas can grossly impact margin.

Platform

Source: Pixabay

Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento are popular eCommerce platforms on which to build and run your online store. Things to consider when choosing platform include:

Free trial period
Price
Duration of contract
Support
Scalability
Themes
Apps and Plugins
Integrations
Payment gateways
Customer reviews etc

The other option is to self-host your web store on CMS like WordPress. This gives you more freedom and customizations but leaves all the crucial work platforms do for you in your hands e.g. auto-updates, backups.

Marketplace

Source: Pixabay

Amazon, eBay, AliExpress are known marketplaces that allow drop shippers and sellers open store and list products. Each has its advantages and limitations. When choosing consider:

Setup fees
Listing fees
Monthly fees
Any hidden charges
Payment options
Shipping destinations
Level of competition
Limitations
Customer reviews etc

Self-hosted stores offer unlimited customization and branding, zero on-site competition, less distraction and more opportunity for customer engagement with site content.

Storefront

Source: Pixabay

Your dropshipping website is your digital storefront. Product display, photography, distribution, description, landing pages, menu, calls to action, forms etc, are key areas. Your storefront doubles as your retail associate, it convinces shoppers to either buy or fly.

Watch out for:

Number of themes
Cost of themes
Updates for themes
Obtrusive landing pages
Lengthy forms with several repeat-input fields
Hidden menus
CTAs
Support
Integration with shopping cart
Payment gateways
Ensure your site is secured with https capabilities
Display trust marks if you have them
Display of social share buttons, contact information
Customer review of themes

Supply Chain

Source: Pixabay

A dropshippers supply chain is handled by dropshipping suppliers and/or manufacturers. This is a critical component of the business. The wrong supplier may deliver wrong or defective items that will return to hurt your reputation and revenue.

Consider:

Product research
Seller reputation
Duration of selling
Number of products sold
Customer ratings and reviews
Communication channels
Price flexibility for large orders
Average delivery timeline
Free shipping
Returns and refund policy etc

Order Fullfilment

Source: Pixabay

Poor order fulfillment can hurt your dropshipping business. If customers keep getting disappointed with your products, your ratings and revenue will plummet. Can you trust your suppliers to delight your hard won customers?

Consider:

Seller reputation
Seller reviews
24/7 Support for drop shippers
Order tracking
Speed of delivery
Branding
Packaging
Inserts
Personalized greeting cards
Return process
Customer feedback about delivery experience etc

Customer Service

Source: Pixabay

Customer experience can either boost or bust your brand perception and acceptance. If they have a bad experience and bad mouth you on social media, the negative effects will be far reaching.

To ace customer service, do the following:

Choose only the best suppliers
Choose only the best products with good verified ratings
Choose products with warranty
Speedily transfer orders to your suppliers
Track orders
Ensure you get their shipping addresses right
Find out if they received their orders
Find out if they’re satisfied
Be available to offer speedy response
Display buyer protection policy
Include customer reviews on your site
Return Policy should be displayed on invoice
Returns policy should be robust

Other Things To Pay Attention To

Website Load Speed

Slow loading sites are a big turn off for online shoppers. Akamai and Gomez found that nearly half of web users expect sites to load within 2s, they abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load.

Responsive Website Design

Reports indicate that 4 out of 5 US shoppers research retail content on smartphones and 40% will bounce from non-responsive sites. Many shoppers browse products on mobile and buy on desktop. If your site doesn’t display well on mobile devices you’ll miss out on this demographic. So, be sure to use Shopify theme customization to not only ensure it runs well, but also that it looks great to attract more customers, too.

Social Commerce

Social media marketing is a major means of creating engagement, awareness and driving conversion for your dropshipping business. 30% of online shoppers say they’ll likely purchase on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat.

Mobile Marketing

Recent reports suggest that 91% of Americans own text-ready phones and 98% of text messages are opened within 2 minutes. Similarly, 19% of all US retail sales occur on mobile. SMS marketing should be part of your strategy.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are becoming more relevant as a marketing method. If you have an app for your webstore, direct open rates for a rich push notification could increase by up to 56%. Don’t push push notifications aside.

Content Marketing

Content marketing has huge benefits ranging from SEO to customer satisfaction. The following statistics show benefits of regular blogging as a content marketing strategy:

Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website (Source: Hubspot)
72% of Marketers say relevant content creation was the most effective SEO tactic (Ascend2, 2015)
53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority (Hubspot, 2017)
Companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got about 4.5X as many leads than companies that published 0-4 monthly posts (Hubspot, 2015)
Inbound sources provide 59% of the highest quality leads for sales teams (Hubspot, 2017)

Drop Shipping Automation

Perhaps, the best thing you can do for your dropshipping business is to automate it.

Oberlo and some other apps do an amazing job of dropshipping automation.

Automation takes care of product importation, description, price rules, real time price and inventory updates; all the very important facets of your dropshipping business including order fulfillment.

Author Bio:

Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained eCommerce B2B/B2C Copywriter featured in eCommerce Nation, eCommerce Insights, Understanding Ecommerce, Floship, Huffington Post, Dumb Little Man among others. You can connect with him on Twitter @amos_onwukwe.

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