Heard about Dropshipping and you wonder what it’s all about? Are you thinking of starting a business with little capital? Whether you are dead broke and still fancy starting a business or you’re only looking for more streams of passive income, this is the perfect article that has all the answers to your questions and will help you kick start an exciting dropshipping business.
Together, let’s go through all you need to know and start a dropshipping business in 3 stages:
- What Dropshipping is all about.
- How to start a Dropshipping business online with little or no capital
- 10 amazing sites you can use for Dropshipping.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an e-commerce innovation that seeks to leverage product knowledge, information about suppliers, and access to buyers. As a dropshipper, you make money because you have information about where to get the product at a very affordable cost price and where to get buyers who will buy these products at your own stipulated selling price without having to be responsible for product storage, and inventory management, product quality, or shipping.
All you are responsible for is marketing and sales of the product and you get your profit from the cost-selling price gradient. interesting right? Well, that means you can begin this business with technically no capital.
How To Start A Dropshipping business Online
As established earlier, little or no capital is required to begin a Dropshipping business, but to get the best returns as quickly as possible you may need to spend a little. To begin a Dropshipping business all you need is an internet connection and a curious mind to learn as fast as possible. Let’s go through the whole process in 4 easy steps:
- First of all, you will need to create an online store for your Dropshipping business. This is more like an online shop. You can do this using websites like; Woocommerce, Shopify
WordPress and others.
- You will need to host this store on the internet if you chose Woocommerce or WordPress to build your store. If you want Shopify then you will have to pay a token and they will host your site for you. If you don’t have money the former is better since you can host using hosting sites that charge less or give free hosting depending on your budget and taste.
- Next, you will need to find Dropshipping companies where you can get the desired products you want to sell to your customers. Some will charge a monthly or lifetime fee in order to provide Dropshipping services while some are free. These companies will take your order and have it delivered to your customers within the time range of delivery. Examples of such companies are; AliExpress, Spocket, Salehoo, Modalyst & cc.
- You will need companies that will process your orders. They are also companies that offer free plans for processing orders. Examples of these companies include; Oberlo, Dsers, Alidropship
- You will also need companies that will help you find products to sell. They make it easy for you to find products on various websites and their prices make it easier to get products for your customers. These include: Niches scarper, Ecomhunt, and Alishark, the list is endless so let’s keep it short.
Top 10 amazing sites for Dropshipping:
One thing that is noticeable from the beginning of this article is the numerous amount of sites that have something to do with dropshipping. The list is endless and the more you search, the more you find. Taking a closer look at the 10 most useful and easy-to-use sites will definitely help you achieve your aim. These 10 sites are all you need to have a successful dropshipping business.
- Shopify: it is used for creating a store and hosting it on the internet. This will cost a monthly fee. Shopify is the most popular website for getting your store online, it is reliable and specific for e-commerce stores. They have a wonderful customer support service and they are readily available themes. It costs $300.
- Woocommerce: it is also used for creating online e-commerce stores. It doesn’t offer to host service, hence, you will have to do self-hosting using hosting services.
- AliExpress: It is most times referred to as the Amazon of China. Please don’t mistake AliExpress for Alibaba, Alibaba is used majorly for wholesalers and bulk purchases. AliExpress has a very large inventory of products you can pick from.
- Spocket: If your customers are based in the US and Europe, Spocket might be your best bet. It gives you access to Dropshipping suppliers from the US and EU. This helps beat the time of delivery to the barest minimum. Delivery will only take a few days.
- Salehoo: it has a massive directory of Dropshipping suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and liquidators. You can try out their 7-day trial for $1. They have very flexible categories of products and make it easy to identify your desired product. A premium plan costs $67 per year and 127$ for lifetime access.
- Oberlo: It is the biggest Dropshipping company bought by Shopify in 2017 and only works with AliExpress and Shopify for processing orders. You can’t take orders in one click but will have to place orders singly, this makes the process slow and tiring, hence; in the long run, you will need a virtual assistant to handle order processing.
- Dsers: It is also used for processing orders. It can process orders in one click. It is an official partner of AliExpress and it also integrates with Woocommerce. Free plans are available.
- Alidropship: It only integrates with AliExpress and specialized in WordPress and Woocommerce dropshippers. You will be required to pay a one-time fee of $89 with a 25% discount when you use the code ‘GETPLUGIN25’.
- Niche scarper: This is the company that helps you find products to sell, it offers a free plan and also a 13$ per month plan using the discount code ‘Do Dropshipping’. Filtered and handpicked products are presented daily depending on your interest
j. Ecomhunt: This is also a company that helps find products. You can get a free account. It is suitable for beginners who need assistance with Facebook Ads targeting prospects.
