- What is dropshipping?
- How to be successful in dropshipping?
- Are there Dropshipping Tools to Help Business Become Better?
- Conclusion
Everywhere you go in the world, you will often hear people saying that they want to start a side hustle to supplement their main income; this may be due to the increased cost of living, or the need to have an additional source of income.
Most people opt for side hustles that are somewhat passive and those that don’t consume a lot of time and capital and so they will try to find a business that can run despite their busy schedules.
Dropshipping has become among the most preferred business models as it offers a way for you to do business without necessarily having to hold any inventory while having flexible working hours.
What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an order fulfillment method that allows you to conduct your business without having to hold any stock.
In a dropshipping model, a seller will purchase products from the third party who is often the supplier or manufacturer, and have it shipped directly to the customer.
The business owner will often act as a middle man linking the supplier to the customer and the customer to the products.
To people new to the business, dropshipping may seem hard but in essence, it is a business model that can allow you to run your business without having to hold inventory.
This fact makes the business cheap to start and easy to run compared to the other business models.
This may be because you don’t need a lot of capital to buy stock and find a store for the products.
Running an eCommerce business is not easy especially if you have to be responsible for packing and shipping products, managing inventory or handling returns, and managing the level of stock.
Dropshipping is one of the easy ways to get into e-commerce as most of the “hard work” is done for you since the supplier is responsible for how the product reaches the customer.
Since you do not need to have a physical store to run your business, you can easily have your business running from any place and with very flexible working hours.
In dropshipping, you only need to be in communication with the suppliers and the customers and because the business is mostly online, you can run it from anywhere as long as you have an internet connection.
Dropshipping allows you to have a selection of products to sell; this is mostly because you do not need to purchase any stock and so you have a wide array of choices.
This is an important aspect especially in the fashion business as fashion trends change rapidly and so you constantly need to update your products.
Since the dropshipping business is mostly conducted online, you can easily scale up the business to reach more customers throughout the world.
You will need to first find a supplier who ships products to wider geographical locations and then you will have to find ways to market your business through various online channels to ensure that you are visible to potential customers.
How to be successful in dropshipping?
Dropshipping is fast becoming a highly popular business model especially among the millennials and generation Z, who are widely conversant with the online marketplace.
Since the business does not require a lot of capital, it is relatively easy to start and run because you do not need to purchase any stock.
The various factors to consider if you want to be successful in the dropshipping business include:
Select a niche
Selecting a niche allows you to be very particular on a product that you are interested in.
By selling a product you are interested in, you will be conversant and aware of the various market trends and you will also be less likely discouraged in case the business does not go as expected.
Research the market
The online market place consists of a wide range of businesses and when choosing a business, you will probably find other people already in the market.
You, therefore, need to carefully consider the market and your competition so that you can set up your business to provide products that will earn you profits.
Find a supplier
For a dropshipping business to be successful; you need to find a good supplier to work with.
The supplier is the most important component of the dropshipping business as the whole operation is dependent on them since they are responsible for providing and shipping the product to the customer.
Set up a website
Since dropshipping is based online, you will need to set up a website to run your business.
The website should be detailed and easy to use to give your customers information on the products and allow them to make purchases.
Market your business
Marketing is the only way to attract customers to your business.
Marketing has currently been made easy with the availability of social media which makes it possible for you to make customers aware of your business without having to pay money for advertisements.
Are there Dropshipping Tools to Help Business Become Better?
The answer is YES! And on the rest of this page, the 10 best dropshipping tools will be shared. Get them all, and it will let your business get better.
Dropshipping tools are automated systems that are used to run a successful business.
The tools constitute the various processes that can be used to generate emails and process orders along with various other customer support services.
An efficient dropshipping tool is one that will help you run your business without much hassle.
Some of the highly recommended dropshipping tools include:
Google trends
This is a tool that can be used to analyze market trends to help you know the best products to sell.
The system allows you to find the product niche that has the highest volume of sales, which is important if you want to make profits.
The tool also helps you create keywords related to specific searches which are necessary if you want to gain more traffic.
Inventory source
Inventory source is software that enables you to manage your inventory and order routing.
The software automatically uploads products and links orders virtually to various suppliers.
The software contains pre-built supplier interrogations and full data on various products.
camelcamelcamel
This is an Amazon price tracker that provides dropshipping businesses with information on the price history for various products, including price drop alerts and price watches.
This is useful as it helps dropshipping businesses find the best selling products that can easily sell to make profits.
Auto DS
Auto DS is an all-inclusive dropshipping automation tool that is used to monitor pricing, automate orders, find product listings, and offer customer support.
The software can also be used to track your business performance by providing clear graphs with information on your sales.
My profit
My profit is an app that is used to provide dropshippers with statistics on the profits for your dropshipping business.
The app tracks your sales on eBay and calculates the profits that you have made which are important to note if you want to find how the business is performing.
Canva
Canva is a great tool to use if you want to customize your website, the app can be used to boost the images in your product listings to help you have a unique website.
If you are doubtful of your graphic skills, Canva is a tool that can help you easily edit your website to make it unique.
Woocommerce
This is a customizable e-commerce platform that can help you build your online business.
Woocommerce is a WordPress plugin that can be used to host your dropshipping store.
The platform is highly popular since it is easy to install and customize.
Dropship.me
Dropship.me is also a WordPress plugin that allows you to get the best products along with professionally edited images and quick product searches.
Dropship.me saves you time on editing and product research making it easy for you to set up your business and make profits.
Alidropship
Alidropship enables you to successfully start a dropshipping business by offering you a one-click import feature that allows you to access products that are available on Aliexpress.
The plugin allows you to connect with suppliers of the bestselling products to enable you to run a successful dropshipping business.
Doba
This is a dropshipping tool that is essential in a dropshipping business as it helps you to find the most profitable products for your business.
With Doba, you will have access to a wide variety of products from different marketplaces along with notifications of products that are out of stock so that you can remove them from your store.
The tool will also provide you with information on the performance of various suppliers to allow you to choose the best supplier for your products.
Conclusion
The dropshipping business model is increasing in popularity throughout the world; this is because it is the easiest business to start as you will require low amounts of capital to start.
Despite the ease that the model offers in starting a business, you will need to conduct thorough research on the best way to run your dropshipping business and this can be through selecting the best tools to use.
The dropshipping tools are meant to make it easy for you to run your business and so you need to choose tools that you can easily use to make profits.
One Comment
Pat Mazza
Thanks for the post.Really looking forward to read more. Much obliged.