Thus, in this article, I’ll provide a step-by-step guide, A to Z, to creating, designing, and building a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch for complete beginners.
This article will teach you everything you need to know to create a successful store.
If you just found out about dropshipping, that’s brilliant because it’s a fantastic business model, especially if you are starting with the online business and with eCommerce, building your own profitable Shopify dropshipping store, and earning a passive online income.
I’m giving away information that would cost $4,000-$5,000 in courses for free.
I’ll show you how to create a profitable Shopify dropshipping store without using Oberlo and AliExpress.
I’ll also walk you through the Branded Dropshipping method, a strategy for building Shopify stores that earn seven figures annually.
I curated this comprehensive tutorial because I seek to offer you every possible step you’d take and all the information you need as a newbie to launch a successful online business with a Shopify store and build a worldwide brand.
I draw inspiration from my frustration with all the useless courses that encourage copy-paste AliExpress using Oberlo.
I figured that was a path to failure, which wasn’t the right way to build a global brand.
Table of Contents
A-Z On Creating A Profitable Shopify dropshipping Store.
So, this article is cut out to be a complete A to Z, 0 to 100%, and a step-by-step walkthrough that also includes:
- How to design your store running Facebook/ Instagram ads
- The best sources of traffic
It would be best that you follow along and take action as we go through this walkthrough guide.
Now, for this particular article, I’ve lately drawn a lot of inspiration from many resources out there, and admittedly, some are incredible; however, the thing is that they’re all obsolete.
All of them were created around 2017. I’ve been in eCommerce for some time now; therefore, my word is bankable. Things have changed, and a lot continues to change daily.
That’s why I’m ecstatic to present you with this article today. I endeavored to ensure it’s current and offers an excellent strategy, the fastest possible path to success.
So, you can quit your 9 to 5 gig forever and replace it with a profitable Shopify dropshipping store online business.
And then even more tiring in the avalanches of content showing you how to build a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch using Oberlo & AliExpress; copy-paste products from AliExpress to your Shopify store using Oberlo.
The method may have worked backward in 2018 but no longer works. It has weathered its luster, and at present, it’s a short-term solution.
The only proper way to realize success is through laser-focusing on the long term.
This write-up outlines how to build a long-term business with Shopify that will put money in your pocket monthly for years.
A company that qualifies as an asset you can perhaps, later on, pass to your kids or sell for a price in the millions of dollars range.
I will share a strategy I developed and used on stores with a yearly cumulative of eight figures.
If you scale up your business to that, leverage the strategy I’m showing you. Raking in eight figures per year isn’t crazy. It’s entirely feasible via eCommerce, mainly when you deal with stuff priced at $50 or $100 per unit.
The strategy is called branded Dropshipping, and It is the future. Entrepreneurs use it to make millions of dollars in online sales.
You’re creating a brand. You take a product and build an authentic brand with complementary products.
A look at any successful eCommerce store points to a branded store, right?
And they likely launched as Dropshipping. And so, the thing with dropshipping, however, your unfamiliarity with the business model, is that it’s terrific for a newbie, someone who is starting.
Beginners incur zero risks at the starting phase. The only thing you have to pay:
- The Shopify plan $39 a month after 30 days $1 free trial
- The domain name that’s $20-$30
And that’s all. I mean, with dropshipping, there isn’t further expense to incur.
The impressive part about dropshipping is that you’re insulated against the risks of maintaining an inventory often linked to Amazon and other companies.
Right at the beginning with Dropshipping, in a nutshell, is that you can:
- Test your products
- Build a Branded Store
- No Inventory needed
- Test your products
- Build a Branded Store
- No Inventory needed
They’ll execute it with the excellent packaging and branding design you create. I’ll also show you how to do that.
This way, you won’t take any inventory risk, and when customers come to your store to pay for your product, you send the money to pay your supplier only then.
Assuming a customer pays you $50 for your store and your supplier $10 for the product, you pocket the difference between ($50-$10=$40) and the ad. Suppose you spent $10 to acquire the customer, making ($40-$10= $30) $30, which is your profit.
Do you see the tactics most dropshippers use to create a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch? Hang in there; there is more to it.
Isn’t Dropshipping amazing? Especially when you’re starting.
Right, this article is going to be a complete tour. I’ve chosen a layout that enables you to skip to each part individually. I’ve tried to segment it into sections so you can skip into every different part separately.
Follow the below-highlighted section to start and run a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch
And we’ll go over:
Product: You’ll learn how to choose the right product.
Store: We’ll go over how to create and design your store, implement the themes and apps, and handle all the technical stuff, from installing your pixel and Google analytics to your payment method and shipping zones.
Email Marketing: We’ll also go over email marketing and as well also
Oberlo: Show you even how to use Oberlo if you want to start simple, although I’m confident that not everyone is a fan of the app, not a fan of the app.
Facebook ads: We’ll dissect Facebook ads. I’ve spent significant time on them for years across online businesses.
As such, I know a thing or two about Facebook ads, and we’ll delve deeper into them. I’m super excited about that.
Instagram ads: We’ll also discuss Instagram ads, influencers, and some vital hacks for Shopify’s success.
Thus, by the end of this article, if you don’t have a functional Shopify store with the right product, that is the stuff that solves problems for people in a target market, an authentic brand.
You might have missed a thing or two; therefore, it would be best to re-read because there is much information herein.
So, before we get into all that and the nitty-gritty of creating a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch, I must answer some of the FQAs you might have before starting Dropshipping.
Can I Dropship from anywhere in the world?
This is a ubiquitous question. And yes, you can. Regardless of your locale anywhere in the world, you can dropship, and that’s why dropshipping is incredible. Many opportunities exist for people to transform their lives through eCommerce via a Dropshipping business model.
We’re experiencing the wildest transformation in history, and eCommerce has considerable potential. It could grow a hundredfold more significantly than today.
That’s why I’m so excited that you’re reading this piece today to acquire the correct information and thus set yourself up for success. That’s the long and short answer to that question.
How much money do I need to start?
This is another frequently asked question: how much money do I need to start?
You can start with as little as 100 or 300 bucks. If you have 50 to 100 bucks, you could also start, but realistically, that’s low. $200 or $300 should suffice.
With the Dropshipping model, you won’t need a lot of money, and that’s great because you don’t have to order a load of units upfront.
That’s why, even if you have only a few hundred bucks, you can get your store up and running, and that’s the most critical part. Taking action is the most crucial step.
If you take action today, your circumstances will undoubtedly align with the path to success.
Often, people in numbers don’t take any action, and that’s precisely why startups hit a snag and die: people don’t even try.
If you can follow all the steps in this piece, you have a high chance of success. So, at $200 or $300, you can comfortably start.
But if you have $500 or more, let’s say $1000, that’s even better because, with such a budget, you can start running Facebook ads.
At that budget, your store can take off quickly, and boy, Facebook ads and Google ads alongside Instagram ads, which we’ll cover compared to fuel.
The ads will make your store grow like wildfire, and that’s key. We’ll get to that as well later.
Can’t my customers go over to AliExpress and buy the product themselves?
Can’t the customer go on AliExpress and buy it themselves? You might ask. I get that a lot, and the answer is yes, they can, but they won’t. The reason is simple.
Have you ever wondered why several successful brands’ products are manufactured in China, yet all the items can be found on AliExpress?
Regardless, people still want to buy the product in stores or online on their eCommerce stores, not from AliExpress.
Folks want quality, and brand building guarantees quality, so branded Dropshipping is the ticket.
It is a sure ticket to success on Shopify. Big-shot brands have effectively applied the strategy, starting as dropshipping stores, building a brand, and then selling the brand for over ten figures of dollars.
As the owner, I mean, picture this: By creating a Dropshipping Store today, a few years later, you can sell, and you walk away with a 10 million dollar check, right?
You sure want to acquire these vital skills, given the dynamics in today’s booming world of eCommerce.
Do you still want to start and run a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch? Continue reading.
How to Find the Perfect Product
Now, we’ll discuss finding the perfect product to start a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch.
And the following is a criterion I’d highly suggest that you heed in finding the best product:
- Wow factor
- Product Quality & design
- The product be found on AliExpress & Alibaba
- Niche/Target market
- Problem-solving product
Wow Factor
I’ll show you the best product research and cutting-edge techniques far superior to the rest.
I’ve used two of these techniques, and using the techniques I’ll show you; I found products that made me hundreds of thousands of dollars monthly in sales.
Making money isn’t complex stuff; it isn’t hard. It’s a simple, step-by-step process.
You have to follow what already works for someone. This instance has worked for many other entrepreneurs, including me. So, the product must have a wow factor.
Product Quality & design
The product must meet the high-quality threshold. It must be of excellent quality and have a great new design. Should you find the product on AliExpress or Alibaba, assuming we will talk about finding products on Alibaba?
That’s like my hidden holy grail in figuring out how to build a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch.
Suppose you can find the product on Alibaba, but the quality isn’t excellent. In that case, you’ll likely experience hindrances with your store.
It will always perform dismally, as in not as well as possible, because your product has compromised quality.
First, find and create a great product. The better your product and the higher the quality, the faster and more successful you’ll be.
AliExpress & Alibaba
The product must be found on AliExpress or Alibaba. These are two different websites, and that should be clear right off the bat.
AliExpress is essentially the most common dropshipping website.
It’s the website where all the out-of-depth resources encourage you to go and copy-paste products.
Because of that, AliExpress has become the most competitive website.
It brims with intermediaries, not even manufacturers—folk in China who know the system’s ins and outs, play it, and exploit the fact that so many people intend to launch Dropshipping.
The middlemen tend to follow outdated information, which results in high prices and unreliable shipping. It doesn’t work; basically, it’s just a broken system.
You can check out our other resources. In the articles, I featured why you shouldn’t use AliExpress.
However, your product must be found on AliExpress or Alibaba. Preferably, I use Alibaba because, before venturing into dropshipping, I successfully sold on Amazon and still do.
Dropshipping was sort of like an off-shoot of selling on Amazon. I wanted to master both; you want to do the same, like eCommerce Dropshipping and private labeling on Amazon.
So, I discovered Alibaba. There are suppliers on AliExpress and Alibaba, and they aren’t that different. They may be the same suppliers, save for suppliers charging more on AliExpress.
Then I figured, what if I sent out my supplier template on Alibaba to the suppliers and asked them some dropshipping-related questions, like, “Do you Dropship?” and “Would you put a logo on items?” etc?
It worked, and today, most—that’s half or more of my successful Dropshipping products—come from Alibaba suppliers.
Suppliers on this website are so much better because they handle huge numbers and are accustomed to professional relationships.
And they’d be eager to make something work with you, and it matters less that you’re starting.
Profitable Shopify dropshipping store: Target Market/Niche
Finally, finding a great product requires finding a fantastic, passionate niche product or a target market.
It’s always better if your product is in a target market; if not, let’s say you have broad products that work incredibly.
However, if your product isn’t a passionate niche, for example, hiking, fishing, beauty, or, let’s say, sustainable beauty, veganism, or something about food.
Ordinarily, people are very passionate about stuff, and you know, the more you can niche down, the better.
Still, you also don’t want to niche down excessively because you’ll miss out on having as many people interested in your product as possible.
Frankly, I’d either go with something super broad, a product used by lots of people, or something in a more passionate niche, a target market that is more niched down. That way, it’s easier to target on Facebook.
Product research
Before we get into product research, you’ll need a Shopify subscription. Although there’s a 14-day free trial, ensure that you sign up immediately before we delve deeper into this article.
You must sign up now because you will need a Shopify subscription to navigate the rest of this guide. The beauty of this subscription is that you can cancel it within 14 days if your store fails to work, you don’t like it, or whatever the case.
Start a free 3 Day trial and enjoy 3 months of Shopify for $1/month Instead of $39/month on selected plans. Sign up now
Though it would be best to push through, persist because success has persistence as an ingredient.
Please pause reading, get the subscription right now, and come back. Before we discuss the first product research technique, let’s review the list of the best niches for dropshipping.
There are so many niches that there aren’t any particular niches that are way better than others.
But consider this list right here:
Luxury Accessories: So, for example, luxury accessories are an incredible niche, and drop shippers are raking up a million dollars in sales worth of luxury accessories
Camping: Camping is terrific, although it’s more seasonal. So, undoubtedly, those products are more in the summer than the winter. But in the winter, you can find an alternative niche as well.
For example. The opposite of camping, survival & hiking would be like snow sports. It’s also another great niche, and China has tons of products for snow sports to match.
Hiking: Hiking is a fantastic sport; however, it’s a summer sport like survival and camping.
Survival: Survival is another remarkable niche, but it’s also seasonal.
Eco-friendly Products: Eco-friendly products are the other massive trend of late, and trends work well with Shopify and dropshipping.
Golf: Golf is one of the fantastic sports niches. You won’t be selling directly, like golf balls; instead, you can focus on accessories, such as products that improve the golf swing.
Tennis: Some other great ones are sports like tennis, where you could deal with accessories, like the right accessories for tennis, and revolutionary products that can be found in China that can, for example, improve your performance in tennis. There are several opportunities.
Football/Soccer: Some other great ones are sports like soccer. It’s not like you’ll directly sell soccer balls, but you could sell stuff like accessories fitting accessories and revolutionary products found in China.
Cooking/Kitchen: The cooking/kitchen is enormous. Please take my word: Folks would spend a fortune in this niche.
Outdoor Patio/Lawn/Garden: People always want their houses to look fantastic and unique, especially their outdoor patio, lawn, and garden. Gardening is excellent, too, so people are very passionate about gardens.
Beauty: Beauty is immense, and you can take so many angles. For example, sustainable Beauty Products that are eco-friendly or Luxury Beauty. I mean, there are plenty of different ways you can approach beauty.
Jewelry: Jewelry is equally a massive niche, and thus, you might, perhaps and rightly so, be concerned about the high-end jewelry brands.
You can’t compete with these super expensive Brands, but you can get into the luxury jewelry niche trust.
For instance, many watches that cost thousands of dollars are made in China and can be found for 50 to 100 dollars.
It’s how the world functions because the global supply chain shows that 99% of things come from China. That’s the reality; following this guide, you can cash in on this opportunity.
Clothing: The clothing niche is also rewarding; however, it would be best to shun having a general clothing store because clothing is a highly competitive niche. It would help if you like to have a strategic clothing niche.
A good example would be focusing on clothing and plus-size people. Undoubtedly, that’s a huge target market.
That alone is a fantastic niche for dropshipping. Or eco-friendly clothing, perhaps made using sustainable materials.
Automotive: Automotive and car accessories also make for a brilliant niche to cash in on.
You can find products for any of these niches and don’t have to find something you’re passionate about. That’s a huge misconception.
You’ll need to find something that works.
Buy stuff where you can see that the product meets the mentioned criteria—the wow factor and excellent quality.
You can find the product on Alibaba and AliExpress, and it also has a passion that has people in the niche.
The customers are immensely passionate about their products and are willing to spend money on them.
Product Research Techniques
This section will open my favorite product research techniques that don’t involve different tools.
Most newbies start online businesses on a limited budget because they still keep their 9-5 job bills.
As such, they’re only left with meager cash, perhaps to invest in launching their online business, which is entirely within reason.
Let’s get right into discussing the product research techniques, shall we? Great!
Product Research Techniques: Social Media Feeds
The technique is perhaps the best one available right now. Plenty of resources are available, including YouTubers who vouch for all kinds of special tools, about 20 different tools that cost lots of cash.
Entrepreneurs who start and heed these YouTubers’ calls will surely hit a snag and find it difficult due to their limited budgets.
Social media feeds might now seem surprising, but they’re one of the best ways to leverage and find profitable dropshipping products.
On a social media platform like Facebook, scroll down on the feed.
You’ll find many unique products. Let’s take a watch, for instance. You’ll see it’s some watch store, which strikes you as a nice watch at first glance. It looks high quality and isn’t cheap because it ranges between $350-$400 Canadian bucks.
You might think it’s an ad showcasing the watch. Further scrutiny will attest to whether it’s a dropshipping shop.
If you scroll down further and look at the very bottom, you’ll see the shop and be able to tell if it’s a Shopify.
You’ll see the store Dropshipping the watches if it’s a Shopify store.
You’ll find stores that do not even follow my branded Dropshipping model, like a store selling a brand that their store is.
If we proceed to Alibaba and try finding the same watch, at the search bar, type in luxury leather wristband watch, perhaps then hit search and try to see it, the Luxury watch leather wrist.
The search will return results, and you’ll see watches priced at $5, $15, and $27, similar to what we found.
The search results will surely return many watches on Alibaba, and even those with an eye for style will relish this terrific opportunity.
Alexa Traffic
The prevailing thinking is that watches aren’t incredibly competitive; however, you can use an app called Alexa traffic rank on a store. It’s a free app that you can install.
Go to Google and type in the Alexa site rank using the Google Chrome extension. It tells you how much money a Dropshipping Store is making, but not in monetary value; instead, it tells you that in traffic rank.
Well, here is how to interpret that: Click to install Chrome. Then, go back to the Alexa store site rank. I bet you’ll have so many of them. We can use a hypothetical figure of 250,000 traffic rank in the US and 470,000 worldwide.
Statistically, this means that Alexa (by Amazon compares to a robot you place in your house), a cloud tool in Amazon that scans every website based on traffic.
Traffic essentially is the number of people who visit the website each day. A rank of 250,000 is very high and significantly high in the US, considering the many websites.
So, a website with 250,000 visitors would be almost the website with the most visits in the US and 435,000 worldwide.
We can tell right off the bat not precisely how much money a store makes, but we know they are bringing in the money.
Facebook.com/ad/library
The other way to check if the store is profitable and brings in the money is to go to facebook.com/ad/library. There, you will find a fantastic tool that can show you precisely all the ads the store you’re looking at runs.
This way, you can see whether the store makes money or not. If the store runs no ads, it may not be making money and probably shut down its operations.
First, to check this, go to the top right and click All. That way, you’ll see all the ads the store runs. Otherwise, the tool will display only the ads in the country where you are located. For example, suppose you are in Norway. You’ll only see the ads in Norway.
Therefore, ensure you click on All and then kill the key in the store name. In our example, the store is a watch. Suppose the store threaded 54,000 likes. That’s huge. Check if they run ads, and you’ll see the exact times.
If you hit play, the ads may, for instance, indicate that they were made in Switzerland in 1800.
These brands can put anything they wish on the ads, but then again, if you don’t want to promote that part of it, you must report on the facts.
Either way, yours don’t need to come from Switzerland. Instead, you can indicate it’s designed in Germany, California, or even made in China; it’s your call. And since you’ve access to the exact ads the store runs, it can only mean the store makes money.
By scrolling through Facebook, you’ll find many fantastic product ideas.
If you go through the feed, you’ll see ads, which might sometimes prove a bit difficult. For example, you’ll come across a dropshipping store or branded dropshipping store, and no one is talking about that on YouTube, but this is the way to go; it’s the future.
If you look further on the branded dropshipping store website, you might find that they promote intelligent air conditioning.
Sometimes, you’ll land on some nice-looking website, possibly even from a non-Shopify store.
The good thing is that you can recreate the same store setup in Shopify and find the same item on Alibaba.
These days, everything exists on Alibaba, including innovative air conditioning, controllers, and stuff. Repeat the same process, check, and see if the branded dropshipping store makes money. Using the Alexa site rank shows the store ranking of 236,000 in the US; for instance, now that’s popular.
Turbo ad Finder
You can use the Turbo Ad Finder, a Chrome extension, to accelerate this process.
You can install it, although the tool is sort of yoyo, meaning, at times, it’s available on Chrome. For some reason, it goes on and off.
And what Turbo Ad Finder does is that if you turn it on, it will only show you ads. As a Dropshipper, you’ll find it resourceful because it shows you all the ads.
You can tell whether a brand is a dropshipping store and whether the store evolved to a branded dropshipping approach and private labeling. After you’ve built a profitable store, this is the next phase of your dropshipping expedition.
When you see an ad promoting a branded dropshipping store, click on it. It could be one of the biggest Shopify stores. Scroll down and confirm whether the store runs on Shopify.
Better still, click on the store, scroll down, and right-click to view the page source. From there, you can command F or Ctrl F in Shopify. If it even says Shopify, it suffices to say that the shop runs on Shopify.
There are so many beautiful store layouts, and you can create the same as there’s not much difference between you, the next person, and the one who started the store.
We all start on the same footing, essentially learning from the information that we have.
You have this tutorial right now, which I’m delighted you do. If you go to Turbo, you’d need to ensure that it works and that it’s not blocking or only showing as sides here.
Try again, and then perhaps restart Chrome.
Alright, let’s now use a selfie stick store as an example. Turbo ad finder shows more ads for The Supreme selfie stick in the branded dropshipping store.
You’ll be taken aback by the loud murmur about it online; no one talks about the branded dropshipping model. Incredibly, there are lots of opportunities.
The store could be straightforward, like an online shop with branded selfie sticks. It’s incredible how people obsess about selfie sticks. As we said, while on the store, scroll down, and you’ll tell if it’s a Shopify store.
Product Research Techniques: eComhunt
eComhunt is the other best product research technique; I’ll explain how to use it in this section.
It’s an incredibly fantastic tool. Right from the onset, I alluded to not being a fan of promoting many tools, but this tool has come through for me with my own business.
Ecomhunt plays a significant role in creating a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch in 2020; leaving it out of this guide would have been a big mistake.
I’ve nailed down multiple products with the eComhunt, and it’s fantastic—the best of all the ones I found. The tool costs about $20-$30 a month. Essentially, it works by curating a list of products each day.
You can go to eComhunt and sort by product order. The tool will show you the highest-ordered products.
But again, sorting by order might not be the best option because these items have the most competition.
On the other hand, you ought not to be afraid of competition, assuming you’ve opted for the Branded dropshipping route. I mean, you’re building a unique brand.
And standing apart from everybody else is the key to winning against the competition.
Being different is critical to staying ahead because while everybody else fixates on outperforming each other, copy-pasting from AliExpress, you ride in another realm.
So, when using the eComhunt tool, you can go to the category and, for instance, choose cell phones and telecommunications. Then, take a look. You know, the essence of this exercise is to afford you some ideas you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.
In this instance, your chosen category, cell phones, and telecommunications might return Blue Calm, for example, a fantastic tool a big trend. Blue Calm is also an excellent idea for anyone looking to build a blue-eyed blocking glasses store.
When looking through, you might see the Supreme selfie stick boom! If you go on eComhunt, you can see the recommended selling price is $24.99, for instance.
Although it’s prudent to avoid selling at $24.99, I’d sell the selfie stick for at least $ 20.99 or $30.99.
eComhunt shows you the average product cost, and if you use my earlier Alibaba approach, you can reduce the average price.
You won’t have to pay the average fee on the eComhunt tool, which is too much if you ask me.
The eComhunt tool shows you where to find the product, like on AliExpress. It shows you the CPA from Facebook ads, which is crucial information as it tells you the cost of advertisements for every sale.
Assuming the CPA costs you between $3 and $6 for each sale. Let’s say $4. That means the profit margin is about $16, subject to your Facebook ad cost. The tool even shows you exactly what the target for the ads is.
However, I wouldn’t root for doing the ads this way. I have a wealth of lessons from my mentors, who’ve spent over $20 million on Facebook ads.
Conclusion on creating a profitable Shopify dropshipping store
All of their teachings are quite a departure from using the eComhunt ads targeting model, and I’ll share that knowledge with you free of charge in this article.
Instagram influencers: Here are a couple of examples from across different parts of the globe. At $23 for the eComhunt tool, I feel there’s value for money at that price.
If you’re looking for a new product, go to eComhunt stool and have a list instead of endlessly scrolling through Facebook.
Social media feeds & eComhunt make the best product research methods. You don’t need anything else.
After reading this, I guess you can now create a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch from anywhere in the world.
Watch for the second part of the next post covering how to create a profitable Shopify dropshipping store from scratch.
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