In last article, we wrote about the most common channels for dropshipping business.
But in this article, we are going to teach how to start your dropshipping business.
Today’s economic environment is very different. The e-commerce economy is developing rapidly, while the real economy is gradually weakening.
In the old times, when we say to open a shop, it is to say to first rent a storefront in some place commonly, and then the next step is to restock, for example 100 products. And then we wait for customers to come to the store and do business.
After selling for a period of time, and if found it difficult to make transactions, such as you only sold 10, the remaining 90 will be a net loss, not including the store rent, water and electricity, also other expenses.
But in today’s e-commerce environment, when we say open a shop, it generally means to open an online store.
Among cross-border e-commerce companies, many people choose dropshipping, because there is no financial pressure, no inventory pressure, the operation is simple and convenient, and there is no need to store goods in advance.
After the customer places an order, you pay for the product from the supplier, who delivers it directly to the customer. If you choose the Dropshipping business mode, most people use Oberlo to import products from Aliexpress into the store, and then you can reset the prices and profits by yourself.
Dropshipping is the easiest and safest way to start a new store. First of all, you need to have your own online store. Just build one with shopify. After setting up the store, use Oberlo to import products from aliexpress.
Oberlo will be synchronized to your store if the supplier’s inventory or price information is updated. After the customer orders, you go to the supplier to pay for products, then suppliers can direct delivery to the end customer.
1, Does the customer know that the product is shipped from aliexpress directly?
Unlike Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and other platforms, shop owners on aliexpress offer dropshipping directly, so they are already familiar with the business model.
More and more people are using Oberlo for dropshipping business, with thousands of new sellers signing up for oberlo every month. Dropshipping mode is to deliver the products directly to the customers. The products are not delivered by their own hands, so they would feel a little worried to let someone else to deliver the products on their behalf.
Did the supplier put their aliexpress store information in the package? Did they leave their own promotional messages?
Do you have their contact information? In fact, you can send information to the supplier when you place an order or in advance, and ask the supplier not to leave any relevant information. In terms of mode of transportation, you can ask the supplier to send in any logistics methods you want.
2, Why do customers buy from you? Isn’t aliexpress cheaper?
Very simple, because the information is not equal! You’re probably doing a good job of marketing. Customers might have seen your product and your website first. It could also be that your brand is more trustworthy and customers feel more secure buying from you. What’s more, your service may be better and you can build a good trust relationship with customers. It’s important not to have a price war. Can you match the price with the supplier? There are no minimum prices, only lower prices. Moreover, price is not the deciding factor. You have to focus on the marketing strategy, how to build an amazing brand.
3, The delivery time of aliexpress products is too long, and the customer is unwilling to wait so long. What should we do?
As a matter of fact, most customers won’t have a problem if you write down the shipping time and rules on your website, so that they have a clear expectation of how the package will be delivered. Maybe some buyers will leave the site after seeing the shipping time, but there will also be some buyers who are OK with it. Now free shipping should be the store standard, you just calculate the international freight into the product price.
The three most important things to do in dropshipping business：
(1) select products
(2) advertising
(3) making and optimizing landing pages.
In terms of workflow,
(1) selection
(2) making and optimizing landing pages
(3) advertising
(4) making and optimizing landing pages.
There will be (4) because you may need to do a new round of optimization on landing pages after a little advertising. Of course, you can add a lot of other, such as in-site optimization, SEO and so on, but I personally feel the most important is the above three points. Among them, product selection is the basis, advertising is to release the energy of good products, landing page optimization is actually throughout between products selection and advertising or after.
Why is product selection so important?
All your advertising and marketing is based on your product. You can’t say that I create an advertisement that is completely unrelated to your product. So if your product is really bad, it will happen that you still won’t sell any even if the advertising materials and landing pages are really excellent.
Fundamental reason is that the product is not good, may be the function of the product itself is very weak, maybe you feel the product of function is very good, but your audience does not feel very well, or the product is very good but the market is saturated.
In either case, the time to give up the product is the necessary choice, especially when do dropshipping. We should be able to accept that there are bad products in the world, and that there are products that cannot be pushed out no matter how hard we push them. Dropshipping means that we should try more products, instead of hanging ourselves on one product. It is unnecessary.
Even if it is a very “useless” product or fake demand produce. If the marketing innovation is good enough and the sales team is strong enough, can still get people to buy?
It depends on how you define “useless”. Some products are useless to you and useful to some specific groups of people. After you get a product, you need to analyze which groups of people it is useful to, and then launch an advertising test. Of course, there are a lot of products out there that don’t really work, and that are really hard to sell.
Must the product meet the rigid demand only then has the vitality and the continuity?
First of all, rigid demand is for different groups of people. Some people think something is just necessary, but some people think it is not. Gaming keyboards and mice, for example, are rigid for professional esports players, but certainly not for the general public.
In fact, even if you want to cut rigid demand, you only need to cut a specific group of rigid demand, do not say to do all the things that everyone just needs. My personal favorite product is rigid demand + high frequency consumption + high customer unit price, which is the best, such as premium dog food (dropshipping is not easy to sell dog food, but the family has a dog for example).
Rigid demand means that the demand is relatively large, the market is relatively large, the volume will be large. High-frequency consumption means that if you’re doing well, repurchases will be high.
Although I personally like the products that meet the rigid demand, but I don’t mean that Non-rigid products are not good. If you are the TOP One in the Non-rigid market, you also can earn money for a long time.
If the product is not for rigid demand, then you need to pay attention to a lot of things in the advertising. It may not be easy to do very large and you need to be patient. You also may need to invest in some content to do better.
Cater to rigid demand is basically the red ocean market? Does the red ocean market mean there is no opportunity?
As for the red ocean market, there are some just-needed products in the red ocean market, but there are also some that are not. If you invest more in dropshipping, you will gradually develop a deep understanding about this.
You need to dig for products that are not yet saturated and push them up. Even if it is red ocean market, it doesn’t mean there’s no chance at all.
Generally, a product may be near the red ocean when it reaches the mature stage.
However, according to my experience, there is still some profit at this time. Of course, if the product is already in decline, it’s best not to buy it.
How do you rate the market for odd-looking products like remote-controlled inflatable sharks and built-in toilet lights?
So when you see a strange product, your first reaction should be whether it can solve a problem for a particular type of people, or whether it can be used in a particular situation. The most direct way is to simply run a whole video AD and see how the audience responds. Don’t judge the market of a product by your personal feeling. Some small things may turn out to be a hot item.
Words in the End
I still want to emphasize again, if the product is really bad, no matter how good the advertising technology is, it will not sell well. There are really products in the world that you can’t sell no matter how hard you try. Don’t get too carried away. So that was our advises about how to start your own dropshipping business.
