You will learn the best ways to find dropshipping products for your Shopify store in 2026.

A niche and products present an enormous hurdle to most newbie dropshipping entrepreneurs.

Hang in there, let’s explore some of the best ways of Finding Dropshipping Products for our dropshipping store in 2026.

Choosing the best dropshipping products is a crucial phase, as it’s likely to impact both the business’s success and failure in the long term.

Often, passion or personal interest sways the choice of dropshipping niche and products; that’s a mistake.

However, it’s a winning strategy if interest in your product forms the central objective, rather than business success.

If you are in it to make money dropshipping products, it’s paramount that you create a profitable dropshipping site. Additionally, consider your passions while conducting market research.

Or better yet, ensure the niche & products meet the threshold laid bare in this article.

Finding Dropshipping Products To Sell Online

All customers don’t cut from the same cloth. You’ll engage cool, calm big spenders and some hot-headed clients often demanding the high heavens, and yet, they are small-time spenders.

To find the best dropshipping products, focus on unique products, solve a problem, or cater to specific hobbies, using tools like the AliExpress Dropshipping Center and the Facebook Ads Library to find and analyze trends and competitor strategies. 

Analyze market demand using Google Trends, conduct competitor research, and look for indicators of success, such as high social media engagement and positive reviews, to validate potential products. 

Your business can reap big from the right demographic, and as such, dropshipping products that allure the target demographic portend a windfall:

Business products

Strive always to address items that appeal to both businesses and individuals.

However, many price-conscious business customers get it at times; they will almost invariably place orders in higher volumes than individual clients.

Connect, establish a good rapport, win their trust, and you’re sure to open the floodgates of long-term, high-volume, profitable engagements. 

Hobbyist products

You’d do exceedingly well if you target the right hobbyist niche and then successfully win over the enthusiasts by addressing their needs. Some people are deeply passionate about their hobbies and will spend a considerable amount on items such as training, tools, or equipment.

Serious fish sports enthusiasts, for instance, will spend mind-boggling figures on fishing gear, such as boats. Individuals who own mountain bikes often have bikes that are more expensive than their cars. 

Products with repeat purchases

Repeat purchase means recurring revenue. Disposable products are a key source of recurring revenue, as they often require regular reordering.

As you build your loyal customer base that returns to purchase, leverage repeat purchases to snowball.

Other considerations when picking dropshipping products

The perfect price

You must consider price points in relation to the pre-sale service you intend to provide. Ordinarily, clients comfortably place small purchase orders online, such as $49.99, without speaking to sales representatives.

However, a considerable purchase, such as a $2,000 item, is highly likely to require the customer to speak directly with a sales representative to verify the authenticity of both the store and the item before committing.

Dealing in high-priced products requires personalized phone support, and you’ll need to adjust margins to ensure they’re just right, thereby rationalizing the pre-sale support.

The $50-$200 price point ordinarily allows you to maximize revenue without offering extensive pre-sale support.

MAP pricing

Some manufacturers set a minimum advertised price (MAP) for their products and demand that resellers price their products at or above specific levels. MAP pricing model deters price wars, often associated with products that are quickly drop-shipped.

The pricing floor also enables merchants who deal with the manufacturers’ products to make a decent profit.

You’ll reap significant benefits if manufacturers in your niche enforce MAP pricing, especially if you plan to create a high-value, information-rich website.

With prices the same across the board, it means you have a level pricing field. Therefore, you can compete on the strength of your website without worrying about losing business to less reputable but cheaper competition.

Marketing potential

Consider promoting your business before launching. It’s never prudent to market your business midway through the realization that customer acquisition proves difficult.

Explore various avenues to market your store, such as reaching out to active online communities that use the products you sell, giving away products, or writing articles.

Additionally, consider selling products with multiple accessories, as this presents an opportunity to increase your margins.

Additional accessories to sell

In retail, the margins on low-priced accessories far surpass those of higher-ticket items. For instance, it’s possible that the latest smartphone yields only a 5% margin, while the case that complements it rakes in a 100% or even 200% margin.

Generally, customers tend to be price-conscious about high-ticket items and less concerned about low-priced accessories. Like in the case of a smartphone, you’d hunt for the best price on a big-ticket smartphone. However, it’s unlikely you’d shop around for the best price on a $20 case. Heck no.

You’ll likely buy the case from the same shop where you buy the phone. 

Low turnover

It’s an open secret that staking on a high-quality education-rich site has generous dividends. As such, find products that do not require annual updates with new models so that your investments on the site have enough time to maximize returns. 

However, if the items you sell are updated yearly, rest assured that the site’s sustainability will quickly become a nightmare.

Hard to find locally

You stand to succeed if the items you sell are in short supply locally, as long as you don’t get too particular. For instance, where would you find a falcon training equipment or a medieval knight’s costume? You’d likely need to use Google search to improve your chances. 

However, most people needing a garden rake or a sprinkler often head to a local hardware store.

Smaller is usually ideal

Online clients almost always expect free shipping, and as such, selling large, heavy items proves tricky due to the associated high shipping costs of the equipment. However, smaller items have proved easier & cheaper to ship to clients.

Finding the right dropshipping products is no cakewalk. It behooves consideration of several factors, such as selecting a profitable niche market, for instance. This guide provides insight into the kinds of tested and proven drop-shipped items.

How to be successful in selling online

Picking an in-demand dropshipping product is one side of the coin. At a bare minimum, you must do one of the following to pull off a successful dropship business:

Create your products

Production of your products enables you to control the sole source and distribution of the item. That way, you limit competition, and you have the latitude to charge a premium price. Dropshipping means you sell products that are already manufactured by someone else. 

Secure exclusive pricing or distribution.

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Secure exclusive pricing from a supplier or manufacturer, or arrange an exclusive agreement to sell or distribute a product. These arrangements enable you to sell your products profitably online without needing to manufacture them. 

However, the arrangements do not come easily, as many other dropship merchants also have access to the same items and wholesale prices.

Offer the lowest price.

Selling at the lowest price might gain you a small piece of the market, but as a strategy, the business model is bound to hit a snag. A low price cannot stand as the only value you offer; you’ll soon get caught in pricing wars, and all your profits will go down the drain.

On the whole, taking on eCommerce giants like Amazon in pricing makes for a flawed strategy.

Add value in non-pricing terms.

Entrepreneurs endeavor to solve problems, and this is a norm rather than an exception in the eCommerce and dropshipping landscapes. 

Within your niche, you can, for instance, offer guidance and an expert opinion. Provide valuable information that enhances your products, allowing them to stand out from the crowd and charge a premium price.

Offering expert advice, guidance, and valuable info are some of the best ways entrepreneurs can leverage to build a profitable dropshipping business.

Adding value in eCommerce

Adding value isn’t as easy as it sounds. Consider a couple of crucial attributes that make adding value to educational content easier.

And, of course, some products lend themselves more to this strategy than others.

Have many components

Customers often turn to the internet for solutions to products that require additional components to function correctly.

The more components a product needs and the more variety among those components­, the higher your chances of adding value through advising clients on compatible products.

For example, you buy a home security system that requires multiple cameras, a recorder, and complex wiring.

Are customizable confusing

Offering specific guidance on the types of items that best suit particular environments & customers is an incredible way to add value. Also, customizable products can help you add value through content.

How do you pick the best hot water solar panel configuration for your climate, or what types of wireless dog-collar system best fit your yard? 

Require technical setup or installation.

Products that prove challenging to assemble, set up, and install make it easy to offer expert guidance.

Take, for instance, the security camera; suppose the camera site has a comprehensive 50-page installation guide that also covers the most common mistakes people make when installing the system.

If the guide proves to save you time and you believe it could spare you the hassle, you’d likely buy the guide on the site, even if it costs more there than elsewhere.

The guides incur no additional costs once created and equally help the entrepreneurs add value to clients. 

There are a couple of ways you can use to create value for complex & confusing niches. And the ways entail:

• Creation of installation and setup guides
• Creating detailed product descriptions & listings
• Creation of in-depth videos that demonstrate the product’s workings
• Establishment of an easy-to-follow system for understanding component compatibility
• Production of complete buyers’ guides 

Assessing demand for dropshipping products

The most well-known and famous is the Google Keyword Tool.

Without demand, you’re left with a tight situation, making no money. And if nobody wants your products, it won’t matter whether your niche of choice ticks all the attribute boxes highlighted above. 

The thing with demand is that fulfilling an existing order is way easier than trying to create it.

Fortunately, several online tools help gauge the demand for a product or market. The Google Keyword Tool is one such tool, and it’s a popular choice.

Google Keyword Tool

If you can get insights on how many people search for a product using a search engine like Google, then you have a superb way to assess the demand for a product online.

Through its Keyword tool, Google endeavors to publicly provide search volume data. Type a word or phrase, and the tool displays the number of people who search for it monthly.

There is a comprehensive training module dedicated to using the Keyword tool, and in this resource, we’ve limited space to cover the tool extensively. And to get the juice of the tool, you’ll need to remember the following:

Match type – The tool allows you to choose a broad, phrase, or exact match type when reporting search volumes. Unless otherwise specified, you need to use the correct match option, as it provides a better perspective of the applicable Google search volume for the Keyword. Acquaint yourself with the resources that elaborate on the match types. 

Search location-Check the difference between local search volume, country, or user-defined region, and global search volumes. You can disregard the international results and focus on local search volumes if you intend to sell in the US. The regional results will help find the customers.

Long-tail variations- It’s easy to obsess over the broader, one- or two-word search terms that receive massive search volumes. But it’s the long-tail searches that account for most of your traffic from the search engines. Often, long-tail searches tend to be longer, more detailed, and have lower search volumes.

And since you are exploring potential markets and niches to enter, a search term with several variations that is actively searched is an indicator of the market’s depth in terms of variety and interest.

Conversely, a quick drop off of search queries and related volume right after a few high-level words points to the likelihood of a few related long-tail traffic.

Google Trends 

The Keyword tool is excellent for raw search figures; however, Google Trends provides more in-depth insights. This tool provides more info that’s beyond the scope of Keyword as follows:

Search volume over time-You want to enter niches that grow, and Trends gives you this insight. You can see the growth or decline in search volume over time for any given period.

Top and rising terms-The Trends lend you a sneak peek at the most popular related searches and the queries with the fastest popularity. You can leverage the popular & fast-growing terms to plan your marketing and SEO efforts.

Geographical concentration-The Trends lends you the capacity to see from where the people search for a term geographically. The feature enables you to identify customers who heavily concentrate, thereby forming a base for a niche.

For instance, if you sell canoes, Trends can help you identify where most of the customers concentrate.

Seasonality: You must understand the seasonality of markets, as the Keyword tool provides data on a monthly basis. Therefore, you can make inferences on search volume results at the wrong time of the year. 

Take canoes; for instance, kayaks are a seasonal search term with peak demand in the summer months. You’d grossly overestimate the demand size if you assume that the measured summer demand remains constant throughout the year.

You must take time to understand the niche’s search volume for any product you want to sell. The Google Trends tool enables you to understand high-level search trends, geographic concentration, seasonality, and search volumes. Insights into all these elements help you avoid costly pitfalls and thus optimize your marketing efforts.

Evaluating competition for your product

Competitive analysis of a potential market can be a challenging endeavor. A cutthroat competitive environment makes it hard to generate traffic and compete with the big cats. Too little competition points to a small market with limited growth potential for your business.

There are dropshipping stores with paid ads, but the majority build a profitable business model that counts on the search engines’ free traffic. Check up the organically listed (no ads) sites on the first page of Google for a specific term; it’s an excellent way to evaluate the overall competition in the market.

You’d need to successfully outdo the sites on Google’s first page to build decent traffic.

In this dropshipping guide, we won’t cover the entire world of SEO. For more details, read our business SEO checklist or a comprehensive Beginner’s Guide to SEO. 

When evaluating the competition, the following four metrics help you quickly assess the field’s robustness and the challenges it presents in outsmarting your competition and building traffic. 

The number of linking domains, for the most part, determines Google ranking, mainly due to the importance of links. Other factors being kept constant, a site will rank higher in search results if it receives more links. 

Having insight into the number of links that point to a site provides a sneak peek into the amount of work involved in building links & earning a competitive edge. 

Although several different SEO evaluation methods are commonly used, a unique linking domain, often referred to as a linking root domain, is one such handy SEO metric, particularly in evaluating the ranking strength of a site and the number of unique linking domains.

Link root domains represent the number of unique domains (independent) that link to a site, and do not take into Account the replica links from the same domain.

The linking root domains concept is comparable to personal recommendations. Look at it this way: your buddy recommends a restaurant to you, and then keep it in mind.

But your friend rants about it seven days straight —that’s seven recommendations. At this rate, you barge, then eat at the restaurant. 

However, your buddy’s enthusiasm isn’t as compelling as seven highly unique, unrelated friends vouching for the restaurant, because, as independent sources, their endorsements carry much more weight.  

The same analogy applies when analyzing links to a site. Standard SEO evaluations, such as the total number of links, can create an inaccurate picture when measuring a site’s strength because a domain can repeatedly link to a website. Still, as such, it’s just one unique recommendation.

Since SEO metrics like the total number of links can prove inaccurate, you must examine the number of linking domains to get a clearer picture of how murky it can be to compete with the site in the search results.

You must put a top dollar on unique linking domains, just the same way Google emphasizes this.

Tools like Link Explorer offer an excellent way of obtaining the correct figure, as they provide a couple of vital SEO metrics & data, including Linking Root Domain. 

Scrutinize Google’s search results and, while doing so, meticulously examine the link metrics for the top few sites, such as #1 & #2, and the link metrics for the last site on the front page, #10 in Google. 

The scrutiny enables you to form a mental picture of just how much work goes into ranking as #1 and how to achieve a spot on the first page of search results.

And because most searchers will wind up clicking on any of the top ten results in Google, you must have a handle on the difficulty of getting your site ranked.

Below, we provide a cheat sheet to facilitate the interpretation of the figures for unique domains. The cheat sheet offers a guiding framework to help crunch the numbers.

• 0 to 50 linking root domains. You may find these links on the low end for most worthy markets. The majority of sites with quality content and some marketing and SEO efforts should receive 50 linking domains annually.
• 50 to 250 linking root domains: For top-ranked sites, 50-250 linking root domains make for a feasible range in decent-sized niche markets. It may take some years to build a backlink, but it’s possible to achieve this goal. A profile, as such, tends to have a high work-reward ratio. This is a more realistic range in a highly competitive environment, especially for small teams or individual dropshipping entrepreneurs.
• 250+ linking root domains. For gifted marketers and seasoned SEO experts, building up to 250 unique links is no mean feat. We’re talking here of unparalleled time and commitment. However, it’s not an icebreaker; nevertheless, ensure you suit up for some cutthroat competition.

Check the Domain and Page Authority of competing stores.

When determining a site’s rank or Domain Authority, Google doesn’t just crawl the number of backlinks in a store.

It primarily focuses on the quality of the link. 

In determining a site’s rank, Google goes beyond the mere figure of the links a website has.

It calls for considering the quality of those links. For example, a link from the Dropshippingit.com blog with seven readers won’t have as much impact as a link from The New York Times.

Google uses PageRank in its assessment of a page’s authority. PageRank isn’t the alpha & omega of SEO metrics; however, it offers an overview of how Google regards a page.

A look at the homepages of top-ranked sites reveals that unique linking sites afford you a sense of the competitiveness of the market.

You can check sites manually; however, a browser extension like SearchStatus for Firefox provides the easiest way to check PageRank. 

Consider the following for a swift interpretation of PageRank readings for a site’s homepage:

• PageRank 1 to 2. PageRank in this category does not hold massive authority; instead, top homepages in this range tend to target a smaller market. 
• PageRank 3 to 4. Typically, highly ranked sites in competitive niche markets fall within this range. Although not impossible, reaching this level of authority is no mean feat. Markets in this band offer an exceptional work-reward ratio.
• PageRank 4 to 5. This stage commands a relatively high level of influence. Reaching this level requires you to receive several links from reputable, influential sites alongside a decent number of other links.
• PageRank 6+. Competing in a market with sites of this caliber means you’ll need to have a fully-fledged marketing & SEO department in place.

Qualitative metrics to consider 

Solid stats like unique linking domains & PageRank can help determine how tough it will get to outsmart your competition; however, it’s also crucial that you look at a couple of qualitative factors: 

Site quality and usefulness. To make a sense point, assume the position of a customer, then visit the top-ranked sites for a market. Examine to find: Do they appear warm & inviting or old and obsolete? Do they provide high-quality information and detailed product listings, or do you have to squint to figure out the tiny product images? Are the sites well-organized, or does even finding the search box prove a nightmare?

Generally, what’s the likelihood you’d purchase from the top-ranked sites? If you get mesmerized by the two sites in the market, you’ll find it hard to differentiate yourself, and as such, look into a different market. 

But in case you spot room for improvement, an opportunity to add value, then it’s it.

Site reputation and customer loyalty: Assessing sites by appearances can prove nightmarish. Because you can find an eCommerce business despite a plain & old design boasting a robust reputation anchored on its years of excellent customer service, conversely, some of the most beautifully designed sites might synonymize the awful customer service.

The Better Business Bureau documents customer complaints, so it’s a good idea to check with them regarding the history of customer complaints against a company. Equally, conduct a web search and see what people say in social media and online forums. 

Suppose your top competition slacks and fails to satisfy in the area of customer service. In that case, it is a strong indication of an opportunity for the business to deliver superior service.

An important note on search results

When you search, remember that Google uses your geographic location, browsing history, plus other factors to personalize the results you see. 

To gain a clear picture of the competitive landscape, you need impartial results from market analysis.

If you reside outside the US but intend to sell to customers in the US, you’ll require access to the search results from your US-based clients, as it’s those sites you’ll compete with.

There are tweaks you can employ to get around these issues, and the two are as follows:

Incognito search

The Chrome browser allows you to browse in incognito mode. Incognito mode clears all browsing history and personalized settings, allowing you to get an impartial sneak peek at how sites rank. To browse incognito, head over to File> New Incognito Window, or click on the icon in the upper right corner of your browser and select New Incognito Window. Other web browsers also have hidden search modes that discard your browsing history. 

Forcing region-specific results. 

To see results that appear in a region other than your area, add a few texts at the end of the URL on a Google results page to have a return of country-specific results.

For instance, if you are based in the US and want to access search results returned for searches in the UK, you’d add the &gl=uk parameter at the end of the URL on the search results page and then hit Enter. The same applies if you want to see search results returned for searches in the US. However, in the UK, you’d add &gl=us to the end of the URL.

The list of country codes provided by Google, along with articles such as the guide to tweaking geo-targeting with Google, sheds more light on how to execute region-specific results.

Hopeful dropshipping entrepreneurs often seek assurances that their niche is viable, but in reality, there’s no guarantee. Although the tips & guides on the subject can significantly enhance your chances and help you make informed decisions, there’s no guarantee of knowing whether you’ll thrive in a market without trying your hand.

Many entrepreneurs have launched multiple businesses. Some failed, some succeeded; often, the cloud of doubts clouds the beginnings. Uncertainty is an inherent part of launching a dropshipping store, and it’s what separates entrepreneurs from wannabes —the grit to venture into the unknown.

So, leverage your thorough research and gathered info to make data-guided decisions, then proceed with your misgivings and fears notwithstanding. Because you’ll never start if you wait for a perfect market and all uncertainties resolved.

The Easiest Way to Sell Online.

At this stage, the presumption is that you have a better grasp of the dropshipping fundamentals and are ready to launch your dropshipping store.

However, before you begin, you will need to consider both business & financial steps related to your new venture.

Dealing with these steps beforehand saves you a great deal of time, as some steps are mere good suggestions, whereas some are necessary steps.

The commitment to launch a dropshipping business

Building a successful dropshipping business, like any other business, takes dedication and realistic expectations over the long term. If you expect to rake in a six-figure income from six weeks of part-time work, sorry to burst your bubble, but this is no get-rich-quick scheme.

You have to invest heavily in either time or money. These two currencies are vital in launching a successful business. Then adopt a realistic approach to your profitability.

Time investment

Entrepreneurs must put in the work to build their business. We vouch for the sweat equity over money investment, especially for new entrepreneurs, for the following reasons:

• You acquire several new skill sets that make you a better entrepreneur
• You learn the ins and outs of business operations, which is crucial in managing others on a business scale-up
• You minimize spending large sums on projects with little significance to the success of the organization
• You get to learn about your customers and markets, thus making data-guided decisions

Most people won’t quit their jobs to spend six months plus ramping up their online presence for their new store. It can prove a bit draining, but it’s not impossible to start dropshipping while maintaining your nine-to-five job, as long as you set realistic expectations regarding fulfillment times and customer service for your clients.

As your business scales up and grows, gradually transition to working full-time on your business as cash flow and profitability permit.

Although we acknowledge that all entrepreneurs and businesses possess unique attributes, a $ 1,000-$ 2,000 monthly income stream is achievable within 12 months, working 10-15 hours per week to build your business. 

Working full-time on your business presents a perfect opportunity to enhance your profit potential and increase your dropshipping success rate. You must channel all your efforts into marketing during the early days of building momentum.

If you consistently emphasize marketing, tested experience indicates that it would take a minimum of 12 months of full-time work to transition from an average 9-to-5 full-time income to a dropshipping business.

Although it may appear a bit too much for a relatively small payoff, note the following two:

1. Once you’ve set up your dropshipping store, maintaining it won’t require much time; it’s typically a part-time job, usually involving less than 40 hours per week. The dropshipping model offers efficiency & scalability; thus, your investment gets a healthy ROI.
2. Building a business goes beyond generating a modest income stream. A company is an asset with a sale value. As such, you must consider your return in relation to cash flow and the accrued equity value.

Money investment

While we’d advise against it, it’s possible to successfully build and grow your dropshipping business by investing large sums of money. From experience, entrepreneurs have the most success from sweat equity, putting in the work.

In the early days, the entrepreneur must invest intensely in building a successful business from scratch. If you have limited knowledge of your business workings at all levels, then the expensive marketers, developers, and programmers will quickly devour any profit generated.

Although you don’t need to do everything, you must be at the forefront. To start and get your business operational, a cash cushion of say $1,000+ for minor operating expenses, e.g., suppliers & web hosting, and pay all incorporation fees.  

Deciding on a business structure

If you seek to establish a serious enterprise, you must establish a genuine business entity. Though we’re handicapped to offer you legal expertise, we’ll walk you through three commonly utilized business structures:

Sole Proprietorship

Sole proprietorship is the simplest business structure to implement. It poses minimal filing requirements, and you’d report the business earnings on your taxes. You won’t need to file other state or federal business documents. However, a sole proprietorship offers no personal liability protection; it means your personal assets are at risk of seizure should the business be sued.

Limited Liability Company (LLC)

In contrast to a sole proprietorship structure, an LLC offers more protection. Although an LLC establishes your business as a separate legal entity and, therefore, enhances security for your assets, liability protection isn’t guaranteed.

With an LLC, you may need to comply with additional filing requirements and pay both incorporation & ongoing fees.

C Corporation

The majority of big corporations incorporate as C corporations. And when set up correctly, the C corporations provide the most liability protection. Incorporating a C corporation will likely result in higher costs, and it’s subject to double taxation because income does not pass directly to shareholders.

Which structure to choose? We won’t simulate legal expertise; therefore, we recommend consulting with a lawyer before committing to incorporation. The majority of small entrepreneurs opt for either an LLC or a sole proprietorship.

For all our dropshipping businesses, we’ve utilized an LLC. We’d recommend an LLC as it offers an ideal trade-off between liability protection and autonomy from personal finances & costs.

Note: The business structure and EIN information provided above apply to entrepreneurs in the US and aren’t applicable in other countries. Refer to the notes at the end of this chapter, where we provide information on incorporating a US-based business from outside the US.

Requesting an EIN for your business

All businesses are required to comply with the IRS’s requirements for obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN). The EIN is the equivalent of a Social Security Number (SSN) for your business. You require an EIN to open a bank account, apply for wholesale dropshipping accounts, file taxes, and generally, all activities relating to your business.

Obtaining an EIN is a relatively straightforward process. For free, you can easily apply for an EIN online.

Sorting out your finances

Mixing personal and business finances is a common mistake that entrepreneurs often commit. It causes confusion, complicates accounting, and can lead to your assets incurring business liabilities. 

Mixing personal & business finances can lead to trouble with the IRS during an audit. You must separate your personal finances from your business finances, and the best way to achieve this is by opening new accounts in your business’s name.

You can open a new:

Business Checking Account

All your business finances should be managed through a single primary checking account. All revenue is deposited into it, and all expenses are withdrawn from it. A business Checking Account makes accounting easier.

Credit Card

Your store must have a business credit card primarily for business expenses & dropshipping inventory purchases only. And since you’re bound to purchase lots of merchandise from suppliers, you can accrue some incredible rewards from the right travel cards.

We’ve since found that Capital One outrankscurrently outranks the rest in terms of the best travel reward program, whereas Fidelity’s Visa/American Express offers the best cash-back program.

Collecting sales tax

You cannot collect sales tax unless both the following hold:

• One, the state from which you operate collects sales tax AND
• Secondly, an order is placed by a client, a resident in your state

For all orders placed by residents of other states, regardless of whether those states charge their sales tax, you have no obligation to collect any tax. In the coming years, we’ll witness changes to these laws, but as it stands, the tax laws currently privilege small online merchants.

If your home state charges sales tax, you will need to collect it on orders placed by customers from your state. You must contact your state’s Department of Commerce to register as a retailer and inquire how often you’ll need to submit the tax you collect.

Local business licenses 

Businesses in most towns & cities would be required to obtain a business license, subject to regular renewal. For dropshipping stores, many of which are home-based operations, the requirement may present a different ball game. It’s a good idea to research your local laws to determine what’s required, if any.

Incorporating outside the United States

For international merchants, incorporating a business in the US from outside can prove complicated, but it’s possible. The merchant needs to travel to the US to complete the necessary paperwork; you’ll need to hire an agency to set up everything, or you can get a dependable partner to act on your behalf.

If you successfully incorporate in the US, your business will have access to US-based dropshippers and customers.

How to Run a Dropshipping Company

In this chapter, we’ll focus on providing information to those who have never operated a dropshipping business before. The info promises to spare you frustration and weeks of wasted time. 

Two basic principles inform a lot of these detailed suggestions, and they are as follows:

1. Things do get messy. You may need to accept from the onset that yes, dropshipping offers convenience, but at a price. Third-party involvement in all sales usually complicates things. Prepare to contend with fulfillment problems, out-of-stock items, and botched orders. Acceptance of this mess beforehand will help sustain you in business.
2. Adopt a KISS mindset. The dropshipping model requires a KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) mindset. Owing to the intrinsic dropshipping complexity -shipments from different locations, multiple suppliers, et cetera-you’d be tempted to optimize your system to track your costs and inventory correctly. 

Tracking your costs & inventory at every stage will prove a nightmare; you may spend large sums on custom development and never start your business. 

When launching, you can leverage the easiest-to-execute solutions, regardless of the solutions’ imperfections.”

Now that you are aware of the two concepts, let’s discuss how you can structure your business to operate smoothly.

When suppliers mess up an order

Occasionally, you may encounter fulfillment errors; even great suppliers are bound to make mistakes. So, what should you do if your supplier delivers the wrong item or nothing at all?

Consider the following viable options:

1. Own the mistake. First, the client doesn’t even know the dropshipper exists, and as such, you cannot dare blame your dropshipper for the error. Doing so only leads to confusion, and you come across as a novice. You must own the mistake, apologize, and then assure the customer you are working to resolve the hiccup.
2. Make it up to them. The severity of the mistake will determine your approach to redress. You can offer the customer a discount or compensation for the error. For instance, you can refund the shipping fee or offer an upgrade if the client requests to ship a new item.
3. Make the supplier pay to fix it. Assuming responsibility for the error doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll pay for it yourself. Any reputable dropshipper pays for its mistakes, including shipping fees for returned items. However, it’s unlikely they’ll provide freebies or upgrades to clients you offer. You can rack up both upgrades or freebies as PR and branding costs.

As already alluded to, even the most reputable dropshipping suppliers occasionally make errors; however, be watchful of a supplier that is always inclined to ruin your orders and improperly fulfill them. Habitual botching of orders puts your business’s reputation at risk. Unless you can tilt the scale in your favor, it is unlikely that you will start looking for another supplier.

Managing inventory and multiple suppliers

The majority of seasoned dropshippers agree that maintaining inventory status across various suppliers presents a significant challenge in running a dropshipping business. You mishandle this job, and you’re soon reduced to continually alerting customers that their orders are out of stock. And there’s no way you can appeal to repeat business & loyal brand fans this way.

Managing inventory across multiple suppliers and minimizing out-of-stock items can be a complex process. Ordoro and eCommHub are two web-based services that can help you sync your inventory. The facilities offer an incredible option when suppliers provide real-time data feeds; however, suppliers may not always offer this type of data.

To help significantly limit the out-of-stock items you sell, consider the following best practices for inventory management:

Use multiple suppliers

There are benefits to accessing various suppliers, as having multiple suppliers with overlapping inventory can significantly improve your order fulfillment ratio. If one supplier has an item out of stock, another supplier is likely to have it in stock.

Additionally, it’s risky to rely heavily on a single supplier as the sole source for your products. Should the supplier go out of business, raise their prices, or worse yet, decide not to transact with you anymore, that puts your business’s future at risk.

It’s impossible to find two different suppliers that carry all the same items. However, if the suppliers work in the same niche or industry, it’s likely that both stock the best-selling products. Of course, the best-selling items occupy your top priority. 

Pick your products wisely.

This point is closely tied to the underuse of multiple suppliers, which encourages the sale of products carried by both suppliers. As such, you have two possible fulfillment options.

Use generics to your advantage.

Although your suppliers may not stock the same products precisely, two suppliers may carry near-identical items that can be interchanged. It’s often the case for smaller accessories and product add-ons.

In this scenario, two products are confirmed to be near-identical; proceed with writing a generic product description that allows you to fulfill the order from either supplier. You can list both suppliers’ model numbers in the model field and forward an invoice to either supplier with zero changes.

Disclaimer: You must proceed with caution. Each market will have reputable brands, as you’ll come to find out, e.g., Bose and Nike. As such, you shouldn’t substitute their products. 

Check on item availability.

When you see an item listed on a dropshipper website, that’s no guarantee the supplier always carries the item. You would like to discuss the availability of products with your sales representatives.

Determine whether items are stocked 90% or more of the time, identify if the dropshipper only keeps a few of the items on hand, and then face hurdles in getting the products reordered from the manufacturer. You’ll want to avoid stocking the products that prove challenging to reorder.

Dealing with out-of-stock orders

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It matters not even with your foolproof planning; the reality is that you’ll have to contend with a client order you can’t fill. That being the case, you still can’t tell the customer that the item is out of stock. Instead, offer a complimentary upgrade to a similar but superior product.

The offer will likely excite your customer; yes, you might not earn any profit on the order, and that’s fine, but you’ll have retained a valuable customer relationship. In any case, had the customer canceled the order, you wouldn’t have made any money. 

Order fulfillment for dropshipping

We’ve already discussed the benefits of using multiple suppliers, including the increased likelihood of items being in stock, reduced reliance on a single source for your products, and geographical diversity for faster delivery times.

However, multiple options for filling an order present another headache: how do you pick the best-suited supplier? Well, we’ll consider a couple of various methods, and they are as follows:  

Route all orders to the preferred supplier.

If a supplier can offer superior service and a great selection, that’s the best supplier to work with; route all orders to that supplier by default. You can easily automate the entire process by simply adding your supplier’s email address as a recipient for all new order confirmations.

If you implement this method, it’s likely your preferred supplier will stock most of the items you sell. Otherwise, you’ll often have to re-route orders that the supplier couldn’t fill.

Route orders based on location

In case all the multiple suppliers you use stock most of your products, route the order to the supplier closest to your customer. This way, you save on shipping fees while also expediting delivery to clients.

Route orders based on availability

If you stock an extensive catalog of products from multiple suppliers, you should route each order based on which dropshipper stocks the item. You can use services like eCommHub to automate this option if your suppliers offer real-time data feeds.

Route orders based on price

One supplier must significantly offer better pricing; otherwise, determining the supplier with the cheapest pricing only sounds great in theory. Although it’s possible, implementing an accurate automated system to determine the most economical supplier is challenging.

Automation of any solution requires that you factor in potential real-time shipping rates, drop fees, and real-time supplier pricing.

NB: You won’t route all your orders on price, but as you scale up your business, you can pit your suppliers against each other in a bid to get the best pricing. However, you can’t do it right from the outset. As a newbie, it’s too early to ask for pricing discounts. You’ll likely offend your supplier.

Having tried all four methods, it turns out there’s no “best” way. It depends on personal preferences, your supplier, and your store.

Security and fraud issues

Storing credit card numbers

If you save your customers’ credit card information, reordering becomes easy, and it may increase sales. Storing credit card data means you are bound to all kinds of PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance rules and security audits. Merchants with limited technical know-how find the process complex and expensive. 

You may be held responsible for stolen credit card information if your server is hacked or breached. If you self-host, the ease of reordering and potentially increased sales typically won’t justify the security issues and liability.

You should steer clear of storing clients’ credit info; instead of fussing about security issues, channel all your energies into marketing and customer service. Fortunately, hosted platforms like Shopify spare you the agony that comes with security issues. However, with self-hosted carts, you’ll need to turn off the store card information feature in the configuration panel.

Dealing with fraudulent orders

As a newbie, the prospects of fraudulent orders taking place can send chills down your spine. However, a bit of caution goes a long way in helping you minimize losses that result from fraud.

The address verification system 

The AVS (Address Verification System) is a widely used tool for fraud prevention. With the AVS feature enabled, transaction approval will require customers to enter the address associated with their credit card.

The AVS verification buffer deters fraudsters from successfully making online purchases using just the raw credit card number. It’s difficult to fraud orders that pass the AVS check, then ship directly to customers’ billing addresses.

Most fraudulent online orders occur due to discrepancies between shipping and billing addresses. In such situations, a fraudster enters a separate shipping address for the items and then keys in the card owner’s address as the billing address.

The problem is that if you don’t allow customers to ship to addresses other than their billing addresses, you risk losing many good orders. On the other hand, if you allow customers, the risk of fraudulent orders arises. The credit card company will bill you when fraud occurs if you ship to an address other than the cardholder’s address.

Fortunately, fraudsters tend to follow patterns that make it easier to detect fraudulent orders before they are shipped. Separately, the signs can’t help you flag a fraudulent order. However, if you spot two or three signs together, you should scrutinize.

Consider the following:  

• Different billing and shipping. Over 95% of all fraudulent orders have differing shipping & billing addresses.
• Different names. If you see different names on the shipping and billing addresses, that might signal a fraudulent order or a gift purchase. 
• Unusual email addresses. Usually, the majority of people have email addresses that feature part of their name; thus, you can line up part of an email address to a client’s name. However, when you encounter an address like kjfensdddea@gmail.com, it’s likely a false address and a warning sign for potential fraud. 
• Expedited shipping. Because fraudsters bill everything to someone else’s card, online thieves will mostly opt for the fastest and most expensive delivery method. The idea is to reduce the amount of time you have to catch them before the item is delivered.

If you suspect a suspicious order, simply call us. It’s almost certain that a fraudster never puts their legitimate active number on an order. 

For a proper order, you may need to speak with a representative who can clarify any concerns you may have. In the event of fraud, you receive a dead number, or someone is unaware that they have ordered a 25-foot boat scheduled for overnight delivery. In this instance, you must cancel the order, issue a refund, and prevent chargebacks or other issues.

Understanding chargebacks

A chargeback is what you receive when a customer calls their bank or credit card company to dispute a charge you made. Next, your payment processor temporarily deducted the contested amount from your Account and sought to establish that you delivered the goods or services to the client.

If you fail to provide evidence, you lose the amount in question and get a $25 chargeback processing fee. Note that accruing too many chargebacks in relation to the volume of orders you process could result in the termination of your merchant account.

Although fraud is the most significant cause of chargebacks, customers contesting a charge for various reasons can also result in chargebacks. These reasons include customers forgetting about the transaction, not recognizing your business, or being dissatisfied with the products upon receipt.

Typically, you have only a couple of days to respond to a chargeback request, so a swift response is crucial. Recovering your funds requires that your proof provide documentation related to tracking order information, showing delivery, the original order, and possibly a wholesale packing slip indicating the products purchased & shipped. 

If the disputed charge were for a genuine transaction, you’d likely get your money back, provided you didn’t, in the course of trade, make untrue statements or promises. 

However, if the chargeback relates to an order with different shipping & billing addresses, you’ll almost always lose out. The majority of the payment processors compensate only for fraudulent orders shipped to the card’s billing address.  

Dealing with returns in dropshipping

Before you begin drafting your return policy, ensure you have a clear understanding of how your suppliers handle returns. Suppliers who offer a 45-day return window lend you the leeway to write flexible terms. 

It just takes one supplier’s rigorous return policy to prompt you to review the terms you can have in place.  

In the event a customer wants to return a product, the process will assume the following format:

1. A customer requests a return, and they do it by contacting you
2. Request an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) number from your supplier.
3. The client mails back the merchandise to your supplier, noting the RMA number on the address
4. The supplier then refunds your Account for the wholesale merchandise amount 
5. You then refund the client for the full amount of the merchandise

Usually, the process is never that simple because the following can complicate returns:

Restocking fees

There are suppliers with whom you’ll incur a restocking fee. If you examine it closely, the restocking fee is a surcharge for having to return a product. If your supplier charges the costs, you shouldn’t include it in your return policy.

The fees appear uninviting and obsolete to the customers. Undoubtedly, you’re bound to incur a couple of payments hither and thither, but you’ll almost always recoup your money in the form of more clients who opt to transact with you.

Defective items

Besides receiving a defective item, you’ll also incur the additional postage for returning it. The majority of dropshipping suppliers do not cover the return postage for items that are faulty. The thinking is that because they didn’t manufacture the item, they aren’t responsible for the defects. The suppliers consider defective products solely as a risk in retail markets.

Read Also: Discover 27 Best Free Shopify Apps In 2021

However, if you look to build a reputable business, you must always compensate your customers for the return shipping fees. Besides, the return postage is one fee you can’t pass; it’s part and parcel of the cost of running an excellent dropshipping store.

You need a UPS or FedEx account to print the prepaid shipping label to issue a shipping refund. Otherwise, it will get challenging to compensate customers for their out-of-pocket expenses. However, ensure that you establish a mechanism for compensation.

For the relatively inexpensive items, it’s often economical to ship a new item without needing the customer to return the defective product. This method offers some benefits compared to requiring customers to return the faulty items. 

Some of the advantages include:

• The cost-effectiveness. There’s no economic sense in paying $10 to return an item that your wholesaler sells you for $12. You get a $2 net credit, but, admittedly, it doesn’t warrant the hassle your supplier, customer, and staff go through.
• The customer is blown away. Companies will rarely ship out a new item without first requesting the return of the defective item. It rarely happens. The method may back a customer for life. Compared to when the faulty product is returned to the warehouse before a new one is dispatched, this strategy allows the customer to receive the product much faster.
• Your supplier may pay for shipping. Although suppliers do not typically cover the cost of return shipping for a defective item, most will agree to pay for a new replacement to be sent to the customer. Since they’ll pay for return shipping anyway, it’s possible to persuade most of the suppliers to cover the freight on a replacement item purchased separately. Additionally, suppliers will gladly avoid the hassle of processing returns.

In the event a client wants to return a non-defective item for a refund, it’s a requirement by most companies that the buyer pays for the freight fees. The policy proves rational. You’ll stand out if you can afford to provide free returns on everything. Zappos, for instance, has incorporated a free return policy and successfully built a unique business model. A free return policy can be expensive, and most buyers soon realize that they don’t have to pay the return freight costs for the non-defective item they ordered but didn’t like. 

Shipping issues

Shipping rate calculation can turn into a massive mess for dropshipping merchants.

Given the numerous products that ship from multiple locations, it’s incredibly challenging to calculate shipping rates with pinpoint accuracy for orders.

The three types of shipping rates you employ are as follows:

• Real-time rates. In this type of shipping rate, the shopping cart calculates the collective weight of all items purchased and the shipping destination to determine the real-time quote. The method boasts accuracy; however, it’s challenging to calculate shipments from various warehouses. 
• Per-type rates. Employing a per-type shipping rate means you set flat shipping rates based on the types of items ordered. All small widgets ship for a $3 flat rate, while large widgets ship for a $10 flat rate.
• Flat-rate shipping. With this type of shipping rate, as the name suggests, you’d apply one flat rate for all shipments, irrespective of class. We can offer free shipping if you’d like. Of the three methods, flat-rate shipping is the easiest to implement, albeit the least accurate in reflecting the actual shipping fees.

Regarding shipping, you must consider the primary principles about dropshipping listed at the beginning of this chapter. We sought to find a solution that prioritizes simplicity over perfection, especially when launching a dropshipping business.

Some merchants struggle to configure proper automated shipping rules for a store that has yet to generate even a single sale; they will spend days on end, which could run into weeks. 

The merchants would find it worthwhile if they focus instead on issues like marketing and customer service, and swiftly implement a shipping policy that’s sensible overall.

As the business grows and scales up, merchants can invest in a more specific system. While you focus on marketing & customer service, it’s beneficial to estimate an average shipping rate and then set the average as your overall flat rate. You’ll likely lose money on some orders and recoup it on others.

Even when you can implement a system that passes the additional shipping fees based on the suppliers’ location, please don’t. We appreciate that most customers are hesitant to pay bloated shipping fees, especially when they assume their order originates from a single location.

To avoid incurring extra shipping charges, consider a more practical and long-term solution. For instance, try to be selective about the products that you sell and limit several shipments by using suppliers with overlapping inventory.

International shipments

Over the years, international shipping has evolved, becoming more natural, although not as simple as domestic shipping. You’ll need to consider and deal with the following when shipping internationally: 

• Excessive fees for sending large and bulky items
• Various weight & length limitations for different countries
• Surcharge costs for resolving sticky orders that result from inflated shipping fees
• Extra prices that suppliers charge for processing international orders

The market you’re in and your profit margins will determine whether the hassle is worthwhile. For example, selling small items with higher margins, an expanded market reach might make dealing with the hassle & costs of providing international shipments a profitable venture. 

As for the merchants selling larger and heavier items, the expense and the inconvenience outweigh the value of the added benefits.

Choosing a carrier

It’s essential to choose the right carrier, as it can save you a significant amount of money. You sure will face a difficult choice in the United States between the US Postal Service & UPS/FedEx.

• UPS/FedEx. These reputable, privately run carriers are best suited for domestic shipments of large, heavy packages. They offer significantly reduced big shipment rates than the USPS rates.
• U.S. Postal Service. USPS offers unbeatable rates for shipping small, lightweight items. The carrier provides a more suitable option for international shipments, particularly for smaller packages. Besides dropshipping fees, you’ll almost always ship items for $5 or less via USPS, whereas the cheapest UPS shipping fee you’ll incur is about $10.

While setting the shipping options, you can categorize them by shipping time, such as within 5 Days. As such, you can afford the flexibility that enables you to select the most economical carrier for every order and delivery time. 

Providing customer support

You can not use an Excel spreadsheet to manage all emails, requests, and returns. However, no matter how excellent Excel is, it’s not well-suited to handle customer support. 

Likewise, as the business grows, so does the team; therefore, using a single email inbox will fast become untenable, leading to breakdowns and service lapses.

Establishing a help desk is one of the most effective ways to ensure that your customers receive quality service. Help desk software comes in various forms; however, all offer a centralized platform, thus enabling the management of customer support correspondence and issues. 

With the majority of desks, it was a matter of quickly assigning issues to team members and maintaining a communication history among all related parties involved.

Here is a rundown of a few famous help desks to choose from: 

• Help Scout. Cleaner than other desks. Help Scout handles every issue as an email and removes all conventionally embedded ticket information that clients see with support requests. Instead, the tickets assume the appearance of regular emails to customers, creating a personalized experience.  
• Zendesk. Among the most popular help desks available, Zendesk is robust and highly customizable, providing tools & integration. With a bit of customization, you can tailor Zendesk to your company, and voila! You’ve got a mighty help desk in place.
• Kayako. With this help desk, you’ll find an all-in-one platform that provides built-in phone calls, live chat, remote support, issue management, and ticket-based support.

Offering phone support

The decision of whether to provide phone support can prove a dicey affair. Undoubtedly, it’s a terrific way to provide real-time support; however, phone support counts among the most expensive methods.

If you are launching a business while retaining your 9-to-5 position, it’s impossible to handle calls.

On the other hand, if you work full-time on your business or can staff phone throughout the day, then call support becomes a viable option. 

However, if staffing the phone all day isn’t possible, consider having your phone ring through to voicemail, then call your customers later. It’s not a fantastic solution, but a bargain, an excellent middle ground.

When considering how to provide phone support, it’s essential to consider the types of items you sell. Suppose you’ve built a professionally info-rich website, and you sell products whose prices fall in the $25-$50 range. Ideally, most buyers will be able to make a purchase comfortably without phone support. 

However, suppose your store specializes in jewelry items with price tags ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. In that case, most customers will be uncomfortable placing such a large order without speaking to a live sales representative.

Your decision to offer phone support should be based on an evaluation of strategic ways to do so. Adding an extensive contact to the top of every page can lead to a plethora of low-value phone calls, which is more costly to support.

Therefore, add your number in more strategic places, such as the Cart Shopping & Contact Us pages. At least here, there is a higher likelihood that the visitor will make a purchase. 

Whether you resolve to deal with sales requests, you should always be prepared to follow up with the customer after the sale to address any issues that may arise. It’s equally important to evaluate the best ways of providing pre-sale support. Still, regarding attending to customers who have purchased from you, refusal to assist on the phone is never an option.

There are services you can leverage to set up a toll-free number and sales lines. Consider the following: 

• Grasshopper. Grasshoppers offers phone services designed to cater to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The service is available at a reasonable monthly fee of $25. Grasshopper provides a toll-free number, unlimited extensions, voicemail & call forwarding.
• RingCentral. RingCentral is a giant in the VoIP industry, and since we’ve previously used it, our experience has produced mixed results. The service boasts a flexible interface that provides for custom routing & extensions setups. Unless you purchase a VoIP phone, as a Mac user, it’s better to use a different company because RingCentral’s phone software for OS X gets buggy & unreliable.

How to Make Dropshipping a Success

Up to this point, we’ve covered a wealth of information, examining everything from the fundamentals of dropshipping to the nuances of selecting a niche and running your business. 

Thus far, you’ve gathered enough information for a solid foundation, and you can now research and proceed to launch your dropshipping business.

Because there’s so much to evaluate, you can easily get consumed and lose sight of what’s essential. It’s with that hindsight that we’ve created this list of fundamental elements to success. The elements constitute decisive steps on which the success or failure of your new venture depends.

If you can successfully implement these core “must-do” actions, no doubt you’ll get quite a lot of other stuff wrong, but still, you stand a fantastic chance at success. 

1. Add value

In the dropshipping landscape, as is the case for all businesses, you must have a foolproof way of adding value to customers. Value addition is the most critical success factor. For dropshipping, you must have a solid plan on how to add value to clients, as your competition consists of numerous other “me-too” shops selling the same items.

With dropshipping, you may mistakenly think that you’re simply offering your customers a product. However, successful small merchants recognize that they sell more than just a product; they also sell an experience.

They’ve understood that beyond products, they offer info, insights, and solutions. You imagine yourself as an eCommerce merchant, but you’re also in the information business.

If you’re uncertain about how to add value and help solve clients’ problems, it’s best to re-read the topic in depth.

If you find it difficult to answer this question on a specific niche, you might find it worthwhile to choose a different market.

If you can’t offer quality information & guidance, then price becomes your only front to compete. Although brands like Walmart have achieved success with their pricing strategy, it is not possible to build a successful dropshipping business in this manner.

1. Focus on marketing and SEO.

Coming right on the heels of adding value as a primary success factor, generating traffic to your new website is crucial. New merchants must contend with the frustrating problem of a lack of traffic for their new site.

Many merchants spend months working on a site, only to launch it into a marketplace that remains unaware of its existence.

Both marketing and driving traffic are critical pillars to the success of your business, and it’s incredibly challenging to outsource these core functions, especially when you’re bootstrapping your business and working with a tight budget. You must develop your SEO, marketing outreach, and guest posting skills.

You must develop these skills during the first 6-12 months when you are still new, and little is known about your business. After launching your site, set aside a minimum of 75% of your time marketing; we’re talking here a minimum of 4-6 months of SEO & traffic generation.

Once you have a robust marketing foundation, scale back and slow down a bit on the work you put in. It’s noteworthy that during the early days of bootstrapping your business, it’s impractical to stress too much on the marketing element.

Supposing that you’re not yet an SEO or a marketing specialist, the following blogs and resources make for an excellent means of getting started: 

Finding Dropshipping Products; SEO resources.

• Distilled. Distilled, as a marketing and SEO agency, boasts of a superb blog and a couple of excellent training courses & guides, most of which come free of charge.
• SearchEngineLand. This blog is one such high-volume SEO blog dedicated to producing a steady stream of new posts daily. 
• Moz. Among the most popular SEO communities online is Moz. Moz has a notably more resourceful beginner’s guide to SEO for newbies.  
• SEOBook. With SEOBook, you have a one-stop shop for a paid private community for SEO specialists and a popular SEO blog. 

Marketing resources

• HubSpot Blog. The resource offers guidance on all aspects of marketing, from generating traffic with email to social media hacks.
• Seth Godin’s Blog. The resource is home to top-grade recommendations and instructions on building an audience.
• QuickSprout. The renowned entrepreneur Neil Patel is the brain behind QuickSprout, a blog primarily focused on SEO, marketing, & traffic generation.
• Sparring Mind. The resource emphasizes the importance of using behavioral psychology to influence customers and promote your business. 
• Copyblogger. The resources deliver content marketing hacks while emphasizing the importance of compelling and captivating copywriting.
• Mixergy Here, you’ll interview with triumphant entrepreneurs in both spheres of technology and online. Mixergy also focuses on relevant information for hopeful entrepreneurs, including marketing & early-stage guidance.

Ecommerce marketing resources

• Shopify Blog. This eCommerce resource is an in-depth blog offering high-volume posts on effective ways to promote and market one’s online store.
• EcommerceFuel. This eCommerce resource is primarily written with individual store owners and smaller businesses in mind. On EcommerceFuel, you’ll find hacks from an active eCommerce entrepreneur on how to find, grow, and market online stores.

1. Specialize

It’s the norm rather than the exception that almost all thriving dropshipping stores you come across have something in common; each store specializes in a particular product or niche. The more specialized a store gets, the higher the likelihood of its success.

The concept is more than just selling backpacks. You’re looking at selling backpacks designed for travelers who are enthusiastic about lightweight gear, suitable for use worldwide. To you, it’s not just the security of surveillance cameras because you’re looking at the security systems of the gas station.

The majority of people regard specializing as a limit to their potential customer base, which, in turn, costs them sales. The contrary holds. Specializing allows you to communicate efficiently with your customers, enabling you to stand out and be apart from your competition, competing against a smaller field. Narrowing your focus-Specializing is rarely a false start in the dropshipping venture.

When launching a product in a new niche, you’ll find it challenging to determine which segment of customers to target. However, as you gain experience with your clients, identify the most profitable section that allows you to add the most value.

Once you’ve discerned the segment of focus, try to align your business to focus on those customers ‘ needs and problems. Rest assured that the conversion rates will skyrocket, and it matters less that you’re charging a premium price.

Note: Specialization empowers you to differentiate yourself, charge a premium price, and focus your marketing efforts more effectively. And remember, if everyone is your customer, then one is your customer. 

1. Have a long-term perspective.

The building process of a dropshipping enterprise is comparable to building any other business of value. 

It requires a massive amount of commitment and investment over time. Some people think it’s possible to earn a passive six-figure income through dropshipping after just a few months of part-time work. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way.

We’ve already mentioned that, in reality, it takes a minimum of 12 months to build a business that generates an average full-time income. 

The first few months will prove the most difficult. Your doubts will weigh you down, and you may struggle with issues related to your website, potentially leading to an underwhelming website launch that generates no sales. It’s a very normal phase.

You must prepare psychologically for a challenging start and manage your expectations about becoming rich overnight. Mental preparation enhances your chances of sticking with your business until it achieves success.

1. Offer outstanding service

For years, the internet has been a relatively transparent place until the rise of social media, making your business reputation a critical pillar to your online success. If you offer your customers a pathetic service, they’ll almost always tell the whole world, and the message will reach even the many potential clients.

Having a narrow vision regarding per-order profits or losses poses the most significant customer service risk for dropshipping merchants. We’ve already stated in the previous discussion that it’s crucial to acknowledge that dropshipping can get messy, you’ll foot the bill for some of these messes, and that you can’t always pass them on to customers.

You have to bite the bullet and occasionally lose money on individual orders to appease customers. Otherwise, it’s possible that you don’t offer an outstanding service.

The most effective form of marketing is keeping satisfied customers. As is the case for all businesses, you’ll find it more comfortable selling to a happy client than trying to convince a new prospect to make a purchase.

The key to attending to your customers exceptionally well is that it comes with the power of word-of-mouth. They’ll refer others your way. You can build a business by providing top-grade service, whereby repeat customers generate the bulk of your revenue.

From the outset, ensure that you make customer service a priority; this way, you set up your dropshipping business for success. 

1. Don’t get bogged down in the details.

Research and make an informed decision, but don’t let small decisions paralyze you.

It’s pointless to fixate on details. Your success won’t come from your company name, theme, logo, or email marketing service.

The factors that determine a business’s success, which we’ve discussed, are marketing, adding value, long-term commitment, specialization, and exceptional customer service. 

Yet, aspiring merchants spend weeks, at times, months, struggling to make decisions between two shopping carts or providers. Instead, valuable time can be well spent building the core aspects of the business. 

Research, make data-driven decisions, and, in the process, avoid letting small decisions paralyze progress.

1. The most important step

Getting started building the business is the most critical step that the majority of folks never take. Often inspired by fear & uncertainty, most people find this step the hardest to bear.

There’s a pervasive false impression that successful entrepreneurs have had a rock-solid conviction from the outset. If you scratch a bit, you’ll find beneath that the majority had fears and reservations about how stuff would pan out. However, they adhered to the plan despite these uncertainties.

You’ll need to do the same to build your dropshipping business. Research, evaluate alternatives, and then proceed with that information despite your fears, doubts, and misgivings. Start now. It’s what entrepreneurs do.

How to Get Your First Sale in 30 Days: A Marketing Checklist for New Entrepreneurs

The first real customer marks a significant milestone for any entrepreneur. But it takes time & focus to seal the deal on your first sale. With numerous marketing channels available, it can be challenging to identify the ones that best suit your business and deliver the desired results.

You can easily get sucked into a perpetual tinkering with your store in pursuit of elusive perfection. Instead, invest that attention in the most vital core aspects: draw people to your store.

You can try this: If you’ve launched your store, use the next 30 days to focus solely on generating targeted traffic that’s likely to make a purchase.

Why targeted traffic is crucial for new stores

With a new eCommerce store, you can easily misconstrue improvement for tweaking fonts, quibbling over branding, getting hung up on insignificant details, and second-guessing your pricing as you build your business.

But you can only realize real improvement by exposing it to the real world. You’ve no way of knowing which aspect improves unless you can set up a standard and quantify them via solid statistics. It’s the reason why traffic proves vital.

Without traffic, how would you know if there’s any interest in products? Without traffic, how do you know your prices are too high? Without traffic, how do you tell whether your brand resonates with the target audience? 

And for that reason, we urge you to consider this challenge: irrespective of your stage in business, above all else, use the next 30 days to focus on driving targeted traffic to your store.

To boost your marketing, we’ve structured some of the widely applicable eCommerce marketing methods into a checklist you can use to focus your efforts. With beginner-friendly resources, you can learn how to implement them.

On this checklist, we’ll start with free, accessible traffic sources, then progress to more highly targeted marketing that requires more time or even larger financial investments.

What to know before you begin

Please note that a tactic may not apply to your store or the products you sell; disregard it accordingly. For instance, if you sell computer keyboards, it’s unlikely Pinterest will make your first pick.

Set up Google Analytics beforehand and keenly monitor traffic as you execute every marketing tactic. Not every tactic will work, and if you can appreciate that, then prepare to utilize the next 30 days to learn and rehearse quickly as you work to seal your first sale.

Free traffic sources: Going for the low-hanging fruit

Free traffic should be your first source to explore. Often, it involves manually sharing your store with your network and related online communities.

Free traffic sources are a great place to start. You can easily create these traffic sources, and again, they’re readily available to all online store owners.

Even as you tackle free traffic sources, remember the following hacks:

Tip #1: Offer a discount code to attract clients to your store. Take Jewelry Wardrobe, for instance; they use LinkedIn as a manual outreach tactic, offering a $25 gift card in exchange for email addresses and survey responses from potential clients.

Tip #2: Every move you make online can generate traffic back to your store. You can add your store URL, for example, to your online profiles, such as your Disqus profile or Twitter bio, to receive blog comments.

Tip #3: Instead of spamming your audience with repetitive, low-quality marketing messages, seek to offer value. Make authentic connections.

Tap into your networks.

Many entrepreneurs owe their success to their first few sales, and that’s okay. Therefore, share your store on your Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram accounts to herald it to your entire network.

To promote your store, you can also send a direct email to your closest connections. And they don’t need to buy from you to demonstrate their support. Ask them to donate a share.

Although any sales that come your way via this route won’t be as satisfying as earning the trust of a total stranger as a customer, it’s a fantastic way of soliciting early feedback.

Don’t discourage yourself even when you don’t get any sales this way, because this is a list of qualified sources of traffic on the entire list.

Recommended for: Everyone, but especially those who are already active online with a decently sized personal network on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Snapchat. We all have friends, family,/co-workers.

Join online communities

Placing a link to your store in the right place conveys immense value. Post on forums such as Reddit, find niche online communities, and join Facebook Groups in your industry. All these channels offer opportunities to reach people who’ve coalesced around particular interests. You can search for interests relevant to your business.

Join groups that your target audience frequents, become an active member, and establish authentic connections with others in the community. After you’ve tacked a reputation and built genuine connections, proceed to share a link to your store with a discount code.

Additionally, the groups can provide you with access to the help & support of seasoned entrepreneurs. For instance, consider the following communities:

• Grow and Sell Facebook Group
• Bright Ideas and Entrepreneurs LinkedIn Group
• r/Entrepreneur
• r/eCommerce
• Shopify Community
• Shopify Entrepreneurs Facebook Group

Recommended for: Stores that cater to specific interest groups, such as cat owners. However, anyone can leverage entrepreneur-focused online groups to receive fantastic feedback from experienced entrepreneurs.

Paid advertising: Spending to make money

If you want to generate targeted traffic quickly, paid advertising is the most effective way to do so. Notably, paid ad channels allow you to pay per click. In some cases, it’s possible to start with a budget as low as $10.

Every advertising platform is unique; therefore, your choice of these channels should be based on who your target audience is and how the tools enable you to reach your potential target audience. If you target specific countries, you must research the popular social networks in each market.

Before delving into paid social media marketing, first populate your primary profile’s feed with numerous posts. One way to do that is through curating content. This way, it won’t be an exercise in futility when visitors check out.

If you have challenges, Kit can help. You hire Kit to support your paid marketing efforts —a virtual employee available to Shopify merchants at all times.

Many Shopify store owners have utilized Kit’s services to market their online stores. Kit handles from Instagram, Facebook advertising, social posting, and email marketing to generate sales and grow your business.

Facebook advertising

Facebook is one of the most popular social networks, boasting the most diverse user base in terms of age, gender, income & ethnicity, according to Pew Research.

It’s why a wide range of brands can leverage Facebook’s targeting options, which encompass age, job title, gender, interests, and location, to reach their ideal target audience.

That part on interests is instrumental. You can use pages that people have liked on Facebook as the basis for creating ideal client profiles, which determine who your ads target.

Recommended for: Store owners know precisely the makeup of their ideal target audience and what they like. For instance, a store that sells, say, t-shirts with pop culture references would quickly find its audience on Facebook if you target users who idolize pop culture icons.

United By Blue has effectively utilized carousel ads, which promote various items from their collections. The brand uses Facebook ads to promote its eco-friendly products. They target users with an interest in the environment and conservation to market their apparel.

Instagram advertising

The Instagram platform offers more than just an influential millennial audience and visual appeal.

According to data from Smart Insights, among social networks, Instagram has one of the most engaged user bases. Instagram is just terrific for influencer marketing. If you can use relevant hashtags, the platform is equally great for your usual unpaid posts to reach a significant number of people.

Instagram ads allow you to display your visual ads in others’ feeds to generate traffic. Follain, a beauty and skincare brand, leverages Instagram ads to market its free samples. Similarly, Brandless utilizes Instagram ads, such as videos showcasing their products, which drive sales.

It is recommended for Fitness, Food, Fashion, and all verticals with compelling visuals. Give Instagram a try if it specializes in high-quality and visually appealing product photos, targeting millennials.

Pinterest marketing

Pinterest is one of the least appreciated channels despite having the most clearly defined user base. You can drive a lot of traffic through its free and paid efforts. It’s primarily comprised of female users, according to Pinterest. HoofSuite reports that the majority of users have disposable income

Using Pinterest compares to scrapbooking, where users create boards to collect and save “Pins” in line with specific themes. It’s usually used to curate wardrobes and save interesting articles, so while running ads on Pinterest, remember that. 

Pinterest offers numerous tools that simplify advertising on its platform, whether it’s through Promoted Pins or Buyable Pins.

Recommended for: All verticals where visuals shine, from Fashion, artwork, home décor, designs, and Food, and if you’re learning to sell stuff online to a target female audience. There’s an ad run by ThirdLove, a bra company that takes users directly to the product page with a similar look and vibe.

Google Ads

The majority of people will look something up on Google before making a purchase. Google Ads previously Google AdWords lets your site display at the top of the page when customers search for related products.

Google Ads offers various options: there are text ads that appear primarily in search results, and then there are Shopping ads that display your product photo and price in an e-commerce-aligned format.

Conduct a keyword search to gain insight into the search volume of terms that your target audience might be searching for. Most people shy away from Google Ads owing to its complicated interface. And so, you should hire a Shopify Expert to seize the opportunity, especially if you’re the type that gets intimidated by Google Ads. 

It is recommended for: Local businesses, Trending products, and products or services with high search volume.

Read:

• 6 Common Google Ads Mistakes You Should Stop Paying For
• How To Use Google Remarketing for eCommerce
• How to Spend Your First $100 on Google Ads

Outreach: Connecting with existing audiences

The messaging about your brand falls short of effectiveness if it only comes from you. Fortunately, the internet has leveled the playing field, enabling anyone to build a platform and thus facilitating partnerships with them.

In this section, we’ll examine the tactics that help drive traffic and utilize content, such as product reviews or news stories, to establish brand credibility. The gist of successful collaboration is comparable to a two-prong approach strategy.

When pitching to forge these relationships, always remember to ask yourself regularly What’s in it for them? 

Reach out to bloggers.

That publishers are always searching for refreshing content and stories to tell is an open secret about online content.

Suppose you can execute a pitch based on a fantastic story or an exciting product. In that case, you’ll likely win a spot on a blog or publication that your ideal target audience reads—look out for publications that overlap with your niche and try pitching your brand to them.

Consider the following tips on how you can partner up:

• Write and submit a guest post. You can share your expert opinion on a topic, utilize your author bio to describe and link to your business.
• Ask for product reviews. In exchange for a review, you can offer your product to a blogger at no charge.
• Pitch a news story. You can deliver a compelling backstory or instead use a unique product as the bait for an interview-style piece.

Regardless of your choice, your pitch must capture the interest of both the writer or editor you reach out to and their audience. First, look at the publication in terms of the right “Fit.” Secondly, consider their readership size. 

Read Also: How to Access Your Shopify Login Page (2021)

It is recommended for Entrepreneurs with expertise in their niche, willing to share it, entrepreneurs with compelling backstories, and unique products yet to be seen by bloggers.

Seek out strategic partnerships.

Partnerships can be a great way to get your products in front of customers who are not your own.

Partnerships offer a terrific platform to showcase your products to someone else’s customers. You’re mainly looking for like-minded and non-competitive brands that already have the target audience you’re seeking.

These opportunities require some time and, at times, a bit of luck to find. However, the trade-off is in terms of how the nature of these partnerships lets you get creative.

Consider the following:

• Create a product together.
• You can run a contest with your product with a prize.
• You can sponsor an event.
• Package samples of your products or offer exclusive discounts along with complementary products. For example, a drink mix sample is included with each order of your partners’ merchandise.

Prive Revaux is a sunglasses brand renowned for its knack as a serial collaborator, forging a meaningful relationship with celebrities like Madelaine Petsch, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jamie Foxx in launching its sunglasses lines. 

Read Also: Is Shopify Stock Worth Buying Or Undervalued (2021)

Recommended for: People with sales expertise & business development, entrepreneurs already networking with other entrepreneurs in their niche, or who have contacts with the brand with which they’re in direct competition.

Work with influencers

Harnessing celebrity endorsement for marketing purposes is not exclusive to large organizations alone. 

You can effectively liaise with influencers, creators boasting significant audiences in your niche, to tap into an existing fan base for traffic and, in the process, have some content created about your products.

You’ll almost always find influencers on literally all channels, from Instagram to YouTube. Though it’s possible to reach these influencers and negotiate deals directly, many influencer marketplaces link creators and brands.

Some of these marketplaces are; 

• Grapevine: Among the most popular influencer marketplaces is Grapevine.
• Famebit: The marketplace has an endorsement baseline price of $100. To be listed here as an influencer, one must meet a threshold of 5,000 followers.
• Crowdtap: Although smaller than several others, the marketplace allows you to incentivize little content creation “tasks” using money and other rewards.

Recommended for: Technology & Fashion products present numerous opportunities for lifestyle brands to market their items in the context of lifestyle photography by liaising specifically with Instagram influencers. 

Guerilla marketing

It’s not a must that you generate all of your traffic online. If you experience challenges making early sales, take your promotion offline instead of spreading the word yourself.

For instance, let’s say you sell dog collars. Visit your local dog park and distribute flyers while engaging with fellow dog owners and their pets. If you can easily create samples of your product, consider offering some to potential customers for free. Setting up your shop can equally generate some buzz.

Read Also: Free Shopify Ecommerce Platform 2021 Review

Guerilla marketing combines both mettle and creativity. However, we live in a highly connected world today, unlike in the past. You can easily direct folks offline to your website and see if it converts into online traffic.

Recommended for: Individuals who reside near areas where like-minded groups meet offline. You’ll find it extremely necessary to be a people person, having no problem broadcasting yourself out there.

Analysis: Reflecting to optimize

Thus far, you’ve tested many tactics to drive a spike in traffic and earn a couple of sales. The essence of the entire process is to build a feedback loop, in which you expose the store to traffic, set standards for its performance, and work diligently to improve it.

You can start diagnosing the store’s potential problems by scrutinizing your analytics dashboard (Google & Shopify Analytics) alongside the feedback you received from actively marketing your store.

Several reasons can lead to customers not buying from you, and you can make a data-based hypothesis on how your traffic behaves: 

• If you have a high bounce rate, visitors come to your site and leave as soon as possible, usually because either your store takes too long to load or your traffic is of low quality.
• If none of your visitors add products to their cart, it’s possible that your customers don’t trust your store or that you haven’t found a suitable product/market. In this case, you must find the right niche or test a different product.
• If you have a high number of abandoned carts during checkout, that’s likely the case; it might make sense to re-evaluate your shipping strategy.

In light of these insights, you can tinker with certain aspects of your store; you enhance your chances of success the next time you have a marketing shot.

You’ll need to go out there to grow.

You must connect the dots between your brand & buyers. This way, you get to drive traffic in a world of infinite possibilities. The existence of numerous opportunities is perhaps the reason why marketing can be overwhelming. 

Read Also: How To Sell Digital Products On Shopify (A to Z Blueprint)

The straightjacket approach won’t work; you’ll need to explore, try, fail, and then improve – it’s the best way to find what works for you. Therefore, you’ll need to get out there. It’s this way you’ll grow. 

If you’re having challenges, put another way, you’re driving traffic but have zero sales, check out the guide on how to diagnose and improve your store.