How much money should I prepare to start dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an easily-start business. Many people do it as a side hustle. But the opinions on capital money vary. Some think they need to prepare a lot of money to start. But some are dreaming about earning much from zero. What’s your opinion? Read this article to get some inspiration.
The timeline to open a business
Decide which kind of store you’re going to build
There are three types of stores. They are a general store, a niche store, and a one-product store. For beginners, we recommend a general store or a niche store. You can test whatever products you’re interested in with a general store. And develop your ability in choosing products. A one-product store is more suitable for experienced business owners with a deeper insight into a niche.
Do product research
Many shopping platforms are good resources to tell you what’s doing well, for example, Amazon, Ali Express, and Alibaba. You can pick your desired items from the best sellers list. And you can compare the price on a different platform to see if there’s an opportunity for price arbitrage. The copy, reviews, and items are well for your reference.
Then, make good use of social media. When scrolling Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Tik Tok, and so on, you will find what attracts them. Use hashtags for product hunting. Use the Facebook ads library to check saturation.
Don’t forget keywords research. It gives you a quick impression of what’s on-trend.
Build your store and list products
- If you start with Shopify, you have a 14-days free trial. After that, the basic plan charges $29 monthly. (Or you can get someone to build your store, and the fees vary.)
- Buy a domain: about $20 annually
- Buy a logo: about $20
The total price is about $69.
You can list your products from Ali Express and product research software. Or you can publish the desired items you find on Goshippro to your store.
Find a supplier
We roughly divide the platforms into two kinds. The first kind charges subscription fees, like Zendrop and Spocket. They provide you with their selected products list. If you follow their guide completely, you don’t have to do products research. And some platforms show you the contact information of a supplier. It will be convenient for you to express your demands. However, the service of printing your logo on the product requires you to order at least 1000+ items. Besides, you are limited to one single supplier. The shortcoming is the possibility of supplier error.
You should horn your skill by doing your research. Because these listed products are not always going to work. The second type charges services fees like Goshippro Dropshipping. As a services provider, we don’t charge pre-sale stuff. You won’t pay anything until you place an order. And we are expecting you to succeed because our interests are tied together.
We talked about how to find a dropshipping agent before. So this time, we want to remind you to be ready for annoying scammers who are active everywhere. After you find someone who can undergo a conversation, there is some information you must get.
Having this in your mind, let’s move up.
Start running your ads
Congratulation. You are finally here.
How you set the ads depends on your budget. For a tight budget, organic traffic will be a good try. Tik Tok can sometimes give you a surprise. For people who run paid ads, he can set it for $10 per day. Let the ads run for seven days to collect enough data. But you can also cut the ad beforehand if there’s no output at all.
Make sure you are not marketing on a single platform. Enrich the resource of the traffic to your site.
Some tips for marketing
1. Sell in the bundle
More items in one order is a way to increase per customer transaction and save shipping fees. You can give a discount for bundles.
2. Show reviews
The former reviews will magically let first-time buyers believe in your store. They get support from already buyers. If the comment is appealing, people will even persuade themselves to place an order.
3. Use a pop-up window
Using this tool properly can let more visitors stay and finish ordering. You can find tutorial videos on Youtube by yourself.
Summary
Dropshipping is not a mystery, not a game that only smart people can play. We have discussed from what to sell to how to sell. We think you’ve got your answer to the question we asked at the beginning. You can also send your feedback to let us know your thoughts.
See you in the next post.
