This article is dedicated to our clients who want to start drop shipping in Nigeria! Typically, they have the same questions about this business, so I’ll try to cover all of them here.
Lots of AliDropship clients are the residents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In this country, there are some regional factors that may influence the operation of a drop shipping store. Don’t worry, though – here’s everything you need to know about drop shipping in Nigeria!
#1 Drop shipping in Nigeria is a profitable business
To illustrate my point, I will use the example of one of our clients, Olusola David – you can read his full interview here.
Long story short, this guy participates in several affiliate programs, and runs his own drop shipping store. In total, these activities bring him more than $9,000 every month!
And no, his Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science wasn’t the secret ingredient that destined his success. Actually, he admits that he had a zero experience when he started his ventures!
#2 Drop shipping in Nigeria is simple from the legal point of view
In his own drop shipping review, Olusola David, as the resident of Nigeria, explains the local legal aspects of this business.
More specifically, he says:
If you do drop shipping with AliExpress in Nigeria, you don’t need to pay any taxes as a business owner.
If you target the local market, you don’t need to pay a tax duty when the packages arrive to Nigeria.
It’s not strictly necessary to register your business officially. At the beginning of your business journey, you can work perfectly without any legal record. As your business grows and brings you more money, you might want to register it, but it’s up to you to decide.
So, as you can see, if you live in Nigeria and import drop shipping products there, you don’t need to worry about taxes and legal papers. That’s a nice thing to know!
#3 There are at least 2 ways to start drop shipping in Nigeria
In order to start drop shipping, you need to get a specific website.
It should look like an online store filled with the images and descriptions of actually existing items (AliExpress is the perfect product database). Naturally, it should be a fully functional online store with all the necessary elements: proper product pages, shopping cart, payment system, etc.
If you want to get such a website, we can offer you 2 options:
Get AliDropship plugin that can turn any WordPress website into a ready-to-go online store. If you already have the plugin, follow these instructions to build a drop shipping store with its help.
Order a ready-made custom store that is also based on AliDropship plugin, but already has all the products, settings, and other important elements. Read this article to learn more about this easy way to start a drop shipping business right away.
These instructions apply not only to people in Nigeria, but to all the other entrepreneurs across the globe. It doesn’t matter where you live – you can run this business from any country in the world!
#4 AliExpress sellers can ship their items to Nigeria
As you probably know, AliExpress is not a ‘store’ itself. It is a platform where sellers demonstrate their products.
All these suppliers have their own specific terms of sale and shipment – but, most typically, they can deliver their products to Nigeria. You can easily check it yourself!
To do that, go on AliExpress and see whether it is displaying your country correctly.
If it doesn’t, change the country manually. In the top right corner of the page, click on the ‘Ship to’ field, and choose Nigeria in the dropdown window.
Now, you will be able to view more relevant information about purchasing and delivering items to Nigeria – I will explain it below!
#5 Various shipping companies can deliver AliExpress items to Nigeria
Let’s suppose you’ve picked Nigeria as your destination country, and your regional settings are correct. Now, you want to know how quick the delivery will be.
Again, it all depends on the particular seller. So, to estimate the delivery time, simply go on the product page of an item you liked.
Here, in the ‘Shipping’ line, you see the suggested shipping method (China Post Registered Air Mail), its estimated delivery time (23-42 days), and the shipping fee ($2.37).
Quite often, AliExpress sellers support more than 1 postal service. To check them, click on the tiny arrow in the end of the ‘Shipping’ line, and choose the method that you like more. Here is a guide on AliExpress shipment methods if you need it!
#6 You are not limited with a Nigerian market
If you live in Nigeria, does it mean that you can only sell drop shipping products within your home country?
Absolutely not!
You can work with any target audience in any point on the globe.
Nothing can stop you from selling drop shipping products to people in Brazil, or in Poland, or in Spain, or anywhere else.
Drop shipping has no geographic boundaries! As long as you know your target audience (what is the language they speak, which of their issues you can solve with your products, how much money they are ready to spend on these items, etc.), you can freely target your marketing efforts at any customer segment.
#7 Dozens of payment providers can support your drop shipping business in Nigeria
The financial aspect is the most important question for a drop shipping store owner, right?
In the global eCommerce practice, online payments are typically done through PayPal. But, unfortunately, PayPal is not supported in Nigeria.
Nevertheless, if your store is based on AliDropship solutions (go back to #3), you can still accept online payments and turn them into cash!
AliDropship supports not only PayPal, but a lot of other reliable and secure payment gateways. So, you can easily integrate the most suitable ones into your drop shipping store.
If your store is based on the original AliDropship plugin, you can choose any payment provider from this list. If you’re working with WooCommerce and your store is built on AliDropship Woo Plugin, you can choose any of these payment options.
As you can see, there are lots of alternative providers that you can choose from. All of them are safe, trustworthy, and functional, so you can go with any option that is convenient for you and your customers.
Now, you see that there is nothing difficult about managing drop shipping in Nigeria. There are some regional aspects, of course, but you can successfully deal with them thanks to our smart solutions. I hope that you are now inspired to follow the lead of a successful Nigerian entrepreneur who makes over $9,000 every month!
Are you thinking about starting an online store with dropshipping in 2019? We’ve collected the most important stats about this industry! So, here’s what you need to consider if you’d like to get an independent dropshipping business in the coming year.
#1 B2C eCommerce market will be worth $7,724.8 billion by 2025
Okay, first of all, that’s a lot of money.
These estimates are given by Grand View Research, Inc., and the company also expects that the market will grow by around 11,7% every year.
That’s an impressive number, too – but what should tell you?
B2C eCommerce is a specific type of online trade: it means that a private individual buys something for a personal use from a company/corporation/manufacturer/, and makes this deal via Internet.
So, every time you sell something through your dropshipping store, you perform as a eCommerce market player.
Wowl
Now, you’re getting it: as a dropshipping store owner, you will be a part of this booming, thriving market. And, as this market player, you can count on a fair share of this incredible cash flow!
We have a lot of evidence supporting this theory – check it out right now!
#2 There will be over 2,14 billion online store buyers worldwide by 2021
When the market is on the rise, there are lots and lots of players on it.
It makes some people worry: what if the market will overheat? What if the competition will be too intense, and there won’t be enough demand? What if everyone will go bankrupt eventually?
Billions of people worldwide will make online purchases in the nearest future, which means that supply and demand across various eCommerce markets will stay balanced.
Interestingly, these findings are supported by the already quoted Grand View Research report. Its authors explain that there are multiple reasons for people to buy more things online:
A rising level of disposable income (the money that’s left in a family after all the taxes are paid out)
The growth of middle-class population (the people who neither live in poverty nor are super rich)
An increase of Internet penetration and smartphones use (more and more people get an easy access to technology)
More intense use of social media (clear without any explanations )
The use of innovative techniques of customers’ research, marketing, and advertising (companies create new ways to learn more about their target audience and to tailor their offers to the public needs).
Simply speaking, as a dropshipping store owner, you won’t see a lack of customers.
Thousands of people can potentially buy the products in your online dropshipping store – but, their purchasing decisions depend on your business management, and that’s our next point to consider.
#3 You only have 15 seconds to grab your online store visitors’ attention
This 15 Second Rule means that if a person doesn’t get really interested with your online store in 15 seconds after opening it, you lose this customer.
Since you already know about these findings, you can definitely consider them when you’re starting an online store with dropshipping. More specifically, it’s wise to pay attention to:
Your online store design: it should be professional, trustworthy, and relevant to the interests of your potential buyers.
The tech aspects of your website: it should load quickly, perform smoothly, and be secure for payments transactions.
Read our free guide on 30 reasons why people leave your store without making a purchase, and go through this checklist to make sure your website is convenient to visitors.
#4 Customers trust real-life product reviews 12 times more than the ‘official’ product descriptions
For dropshipping stores, this is an exceptionally important aspect to consider. Your buyers don’t have the chance to see, touch, or try the products before the purchase. Naturally, they might have some doubts.
There is no wonder, then, that they only can rely on the previous buyers’ experience.
And you, as a dropshipping store owner, need to find a way to create the perfect environment for placing an order. Here’s when some interesting findings from Flockler come into play.
Apparently, in eCommerce, the conversion rate increases by 20-30% if, while placing an order, a buyer sees user-generated content that is related to the purchased product.
Basically, you can dramatically boost your sales if you include honest feedback from your previous buyers in your online store! Here are 5 ways to do it on a dropshipping website.
Now, you’re ready to dive into this business!
Arm yourself with the valuable stats we’ve shared in this article, read the tips and educational materials we’ve included here, and make the most of starting an online store with dropshipping in 2019!
In fact, the challenges described in that article are not ‘exclusive’, and they are not typical for Nigeria only.
There are 195 countries in the world, and of course, many of them experience similar issues that in regard to:
Geographical ‘remoteness’ of these territories;
Long delivery time and high shipping fees that are explained by these countries’ location;
Unavailability of major payment gateways that are commonly used in the global eCommerce practice.
But, none of these factors can stop you from launching your own dropshipping store!
Dropshipping is a business that provides equal opportunities to everyone. So, even if you were born in a faraway country, you can enjoy the benefits of this amazing venture.
How?
Let’s look at the example of South Africa!
How to start dropshipping in South Africa
Our experience proves that this business is quite popular in South Africa. Our company regularly processes requests from the new entrepreneurs of this country!
Surely, it proves that people in South Africa are strongly interested in this business, and are ready to get first-hand knowledge of its countless advantages!
So, what do you need to do if you want to open a dropshipping store there?
In fact, the algorithm of launching your own dropshipping store is identical for every person living in any point on the globe: you can view a beginner’s checklist here.
In the article linked above, I explained the technical resources and the market knowledge you need to have, and gave a full action plan to launch your website and promote it in order to achieve your first sale.
Whatever is your country of residence, you need to follow these steps carefully. This is you key to achieving the best business result possible.
And, if you live in South Africa, you need to make a number of region-specific decisions about your store. The most important one of them is the choice of the target market – let’s see what I mean by this.
2 ways to run your dropshipping business in South Africa
So, when you’re deciding how exactly to run your future business, essentially, you have 2 options:
Living in South Africa and aiming the store on your fellow citizens;
Living in South Africa, but targeting a foreign country instead of the domestic market.
Each of these options has a number of pros and cons, so it’s important to consider all of them before you proceed with your business launch.
Dropshipping in South Africa: pros of the local market
This option can seem to be fairly logical. As you live in this country, you can easily adapt your business to the regional specifics, right?
Therefore, in this case, you get the following advantages:
You know the laws
Taxes, customs’ policy, ban on some product import, and other bureaucratic things won’t scare you off. As the citizen of this particular country, you know what regulations may apply to this business. And if you don’t, you surely know the codices and other legal documents that contain the necessary information.
Ideally, you should fill your store with the items that are highly popular, but not really commonly sold in this particular area. So, if you target the country you’ve known for years, you understand what are the most desirable products here, and which of them are not accessible (not sold in offline stores, or sold for a super high price, etc.). Selling these exact products through your online store, you get a HUGE competitive advantage – and do a really responsible thing for your local community!
You know your target audience quite well
When you’re targeting your fellow citizens, you have a clear idea about the language they speak, the amount of money they’re ready to spend on your products, the most trusted informational channels, etc. Even if you don’t know something about your potential customers, you have a direct access to this market, and you can easily conduct your own research. The data you collect is the vital element of your product policy, marketing strategy, pricing decisions, etc. Thanks to these findings, you can tailor your business to the specific needs of your future clients.
It’s much easier for you to research the market
I’ve already mentioned the research aspect several times, and I should say that as the resident of your target country, you have a great advantage in this case. At the very least, you know where and how to look for the necessary stats (governmental statistics bureaus, regional research agencies, local analytical websites, etc.). Moreover, the stats is provided in your well-known language. Therefore, you don’t need to translate anything, and there isn’t a language barrier that would stop you from understanding the data and the terminology.
You can get your first sale quite easily
Usually, your first sale happens in several weeks after the business launch. But, if your dropshipping store is aimed on the people within your own country, you can try speeding up this process. How about persuading your family, friends and relatives to buy a couple of things from you? Their actual shopping experience will let you test the whole process and understand whether everything is OK with your website. Plus, their real reviews will serve as the foundation of the social proof in your store – which is a great thing for your media coverage, reputation, and further customers’ trust.
Does it sound like an opportunity of a lifetime?
Dropshipping in South Africa: cons of the local market
If you live in South Africa and run a dropshipping business here, you should remember some region-specific aspects of it:
Not every AliExpress seller can deliver the items to this country
It’s a fact – but not a problem.
Some Chinese manufacturers can’t arrange a delivery to South Africa – but, it shouldn’t disappoint or discourage you!
The best thing you can do is filter these sellers out at the very beginning of your AliExpress search. To do this, take a look at the top right corner of your AliExpress page. There, in the ‘Ship to’ field, your location should be recognised by the system automatically.
If the automatically set country is wrong, choose the correct option in the dropdown menu.
To make it even more convenient, you can also change the default currency shown by AliExpress – don’t forget to save your settings!
As the result, after applying all these filters, you can confidently browse AliExpress and have no worries about the seller’s capability to send the items to your country. If the products are shown to you when these filters are on, you can totally add them to your store!
The delivery options can be inconvenient for your buyers
That’s another issue you need to consider if you want to dropship to South Africa.
In fact, here’s the thing: there aren’t many shipping services that can deliver AliExpress products to South Africa for free. Plus, it commonly takes them over a month to deliver the orders. For a quicker delivery, you need to pay a higher shipping fee.
Yes, it might be unpleasant. But, there are a couple of tricks to modify this situation!
Look at this product page. By default, this seller will send the item to South Africa by the China Post Ordinary Small Packet Plus. This shipping method is provided free of charge, and the estimated delivery time here is 42-59 days.
To chose alternative shipping terms, click on the tiny arrow next to the name of the default shipping provider.
A window with the possible options will open, and there, you’ll be able to find something more suitable.
To pick the best alternative out of all the available options, please, read this article.
And, don’t forget that even a long delivery isn’t always a bad thing. Buying a product with a month-long delivery is better that being unable to buy the product at all So, if you’re selling the products that aren’t available in your country, your buyers will be happy to have at least some way to get them.
Not all the globally recognized payment providers work smoothly in South Africa
Probably, the most popular global payment gateway that is used for eCommerce businesses worldwide is PayPal. Technically, it works in South Africa, too. Still, many users claim it’s inconvenient (the money must be withdrawn from the account in 30 days after receiving it, it’s obligatory to have a credit card to use this system, etc.).
There’s nothing to worry about, though! As an owner of a dropshipping store, you are not obliged to only work with PayPal. There are lots of other worldwide payment systems that you can easily integrate in your site.
As you can see, dropshipping in South Africa, indeed, has a number of special regional characteristics. However, with a wise management, you can easily overcome all these obstacles and sell dropshipping products on the South African market. By the way, that’s exactly what our forum contributor Daniel does: as he shares it in his forum thread, he targets the buyers from South Africa. And, as he tells it in his inspirational success story, he makes $80-$150 per month with this activity – not bad, right?
Dropshipping from South Africa: pros of the abroad markets
If you live in South Africa, it doesn’t mean that you can ONLY dropship to South Africa.
Dropshipping is the business with no geographic boundaries at all, so if you want to sell your products to Portuguese stay-at-home moms, or to Japanese students, or to Canadian retired people – it’s up to you to decide.
Certainly, this business strategy gives you a number of serious advantages:
You can start without any official registration
Legally speaking, when you’re dropshipping, it doesn’t matter where you live and what is your target country. AliExpress sellers readily cooperate with any buyers. They don’t even ask whether you are a private individual or a company representative. Plus, they don’t mind if you ask them to ship the order in a country different from your place of residence.
So, you may only feel the need to register your business officially when it grows to a super large scale. That’s what our client Mousslim did when his monthly dropshipping profit hit the mark of €67,000 – check out his storyto learn more.
There are no limits on the products choice
If you are planning to sell your items to the South African customers, naturally, you can only pick the items that can really be delivered to this country.
At the same time, if you’re going to sell your products to the people from European or American countries, you can choose from a much wider range of items. So, here you can fill your store not with the items you CAN dropship, but with the items you WANT to dropship!
A cheaper and quicker delivery is available
If you want to dropship globally, you can use the service of advanced shipping companies. There are providers that can deliver your packages in a couple of weeks, and won’t charge much for it.
A shining example of such a brilliant service is ePacket: it only costs around a couple of dollars, so you won’t disappoint your customers with extra high fees. What’s even more important, with ePacket, the average delivery time is 2-3 weeks or even less. Isn’t it great that your buyers won’t have wait for long?
As of May, 2018, ePacket delivery was possible for 37 countries in the world. So, if you’re planning to dropship overseas, you have plenty of appealing regions to choose from.
There are no geographic boundaries
When you don’t need to tie your business to a specific geo location, you can make really interesting niche storesthat are appealing to diverse customer segments across the globe.
For example, in your store, you can unite cooking enthusiasts, or embroidery fans, or followers of a specific sports activity – and it won’t matter for you where do these people come from!
You will be able to create a niche shopping destination that is attractive to a specific fan group; and, for a number of reasons, this store will be much more appealing to them that a giant marketplace like AliExpress itself.
You can work with richer customer segments
It’s not a secret that from country to country, the purchasing power of an average citizen differs a lot.
If you’re choosing your target market at your own discretion, nothing stops you from concentrating on the people who can easily afford online shopping and don’t mind spending a little extra. In this case, you can lure them by creating the right environment for impulse purchases.
As you can see, working on a foreign market is as appealing as dropshipping in South Africa. Maybe, it’s just the perfect business strategy for you.
Dropshipping from South Africa: cons of the abroad markets
At this point, you might be wondering: are there any downsides of dropshipping on a foreign market?
The entrepreneurs choosing this strategy should consider the following aspects:
These are vitally important questions to answer. Do you know at least one of the globally spoken languages (for example, Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindustani, Spanish or Arabic)? If you do, you can aim your business at a global community of this language speakers. But, if you only speak your native language, you won’t be able to work with a worldwide audience.
Unknown customer profile
Targeting the people who live outside your home country, you need to know much more than their first language. You should understand their mentality, know their wishes and demands, learn the promotional channels they trust, etc.
To do this, you need to go through the region-specific marketing reports, and research your audience. Sometimes, it might be a time-consuming task – especially if you don’t know where to look for information, or don’t know the local language well.
Unfamiliar legal terms
If you work on a foreign market, it’s important to know the laws the countries you’re targeting. Some countries may have a limit on the volume of imported goods, or a ban on some particular product types, or a specific tax system, etc.
This is why you need to dedicate some time to reading the official documents of the targeted countries. You will have to pay a special attention to tax laws and regulations and customs policies. They will let you understand what is the amount of tax your buyers will have to pay (if any), and what types of products you can’t import.
Usually, these regulations allow you to do dropshipping business easily. Most likely, there won’t be any tax fees on importing small-scale packages. And, the commonly forbidden types of imported products are drugs, explosives, weapon, and other life-threatening things that you’re highly unlikely to dropship
So, if you want to run your dropshipping business on some foreign markets, you can easily pull it off! That’s why our another forum user from South Africa was recommended to start exploring the US market. And actually, lots of entrepreneurs target the customers outside their home countries: for example, our client Pirn from Estonia targets the USA market and enjoys his $10,000+ monthly revenue, which is totally awesome!
That’s it!
Now you know what are your options of dropshipping in South Africa, and we hope it will inspire you to move your own business forward!
To be, or not to be, that is the question! The question that is topical even nowadays.
The year is taking over, and many people who dream of launching their own business are wondering whether they should start dropshipping in 2019. As some eCommerce “experts” like to warn others, the hype for it has already worn off. Do their claims have a ground? Let’s figure it out!
What usually kindles people’s passion to follow their dreams?
Right, the same thing that could prevent them from doing so. The stories of other people’s success or failure. The first ones could inspire. The second – rid you of “illusions”.
A lot of time has passed since companies like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba broke the mold and established new rules.
Before that, most people could only dream of having their own businesses. Whereas getting access to the international audience was an unaffordable luxury which only the richest companies could brag about.
Then things changed.
Instead of putting money into big offices and warehouses and hiring a lot of staff to manage the process, entrepreneurs discovered they could run their business with a PC or laptop.
In the sales industry, we see a stable eCommerce growth from year to year. In 2018, only in North America, it grew by 16% to over $500 billion.
Besides, according to 451 Research, a leading technology and advisory firm, global eCommerce transactions will grow at more than 20% rate. Their total amount is predicted to exceed $5.5 trillions by 2022.
Sounds promising, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile, even well-established and rich brick and mortar giants have made a point of selling their products online. For them, it’s a remedy to reduce their spending on staff and inventory for avoiding bankruptcy.
And it leads us to the second reason why you should start dropshipping in 2019.
Reason #2: Brick and mortar retail crisis provides new opportunities
The traditional model of retail business is undergoing irretrievable changes. The huge investments in staff, warehouses and stores put a strain on brick and mortar companies. As the result, plenty of them have gone belly-up, and many are expected to do so.
According to CNBC Lauren Thomas’s report, the amount of retail space closing in 2018 is going to break the record. Big retail companies were compelled to move out of business due to the huge maintenance cost that brick and mortar business requires.
However, there is a bright side of this story for dropshipping entrepreneurs.
While these unfortunate companies are going bankrupt, they’re leaving a gap in the market – and dozens of their ex-clients.
Why wouldn’t you fill the gap and win the abandoned market share?
Since dropshipping is free from the burden dragging down brick and mortar retailers, it seems to be a great chance to succeed!
Reason #3: An increase in the use of mobile devices and social media pushes online shopping up
According to the research conducted by Pew Research Center in 2018, more than nine-in-ten millennials in the US own smartphones. That’s only 7% more than so-called Gen Xers (age 38-53). They are followed by generation of Baby Boomers (age 54 to 72) – 67%, and Silent generation (age 73 to 90) – 30%.
So what’s the point?
As technological progress keeps advancing, mobile devices are becoming more and more widespread among people. Even older generations following the example of so-called millennials deepen their dependence from their smartphones and tablets for dealing with everyday problems.
Another great sign that looks promising for online entrepreneurs is the increase in time the average internet user spends on social media. This time equals a bit more than 2 hours.
Social networks have always been useful marketing tools for online stores’ owners. They have always been serving as a bridge between customers and sellers.
Social media users can get to a necessary online store in one click with the help of Facebook or Instagram ads or direct links within social communities.
And there is more good news!
In 2019, social networks promise to bring online shopping to a new level. Following by Facebook, Instagram will allow its users to register their credit cards as part of their accounts. That will let them make a purchase right on the social network. As the result, it will reduce the process of checking out to one click and increase online sales.
Reason #4: Lack of trust to big famous companies
One challenge every business is going to face in 2019 is overcoming the lack of customer trust.
It’s never been so hard to win trust and so easy to lose it as is is today. Believing anyone becomes difficult if you’re surrounded by “fake news”, cunning criminals and hackers.
But it starts getting worse when you bring a global scale fraud to light.
Everyone remembers the infamous “Dieselgate”. Volkswagen, a company that is supposed to cherish its customers, put money before the clients. The company deliberately rigged its cars’ anti-pollution system in order to meet the US regulations. In other words, they betrayed customer trust for the sake of profit.
By the way, this scandal caused an examination of other car makers. And it revealed that they had been cheating as well.
Even the richest company in the world, Amazon, has feet of clay.
Of course, all these facts erode the reputation of well-established companies and institutions and deepen customer distrust.
However, while big companies and authorities are losing their credibility, small online businesses might get some benefits.
People tend to trust people who have the same way of thinking and share the same interests. At the same time, big firms and corporations look too distant and alien for them.
This way, your clients will treat you like someone from their circle. They are going to be in for a treat while visiting your website.
Reason #5: Reduction in delivery time from AliExpress
Although earlier it took up to 2 month to get your purchase from AliExpress, most people were ready to wait patiently for it due to the low prices.
Now, even the most impatient buyers can have a sigh of relief. After the US Post and Hong Kong Post signed an agreement which put a stop to the long customer anticipation, ePacket came to China!
That meant goods no longer have to be shipped by sea, which significantly reduced delivery time.
Many people who wanted to start dropshipping with AliExpress used to be scared that they could lose customers due to the waiting time. Since ePacket option became available, those fears have been unsound.
With this option, buyers can receive their packages within 20 days!
The combination of low prices and short shipping time should do the trick, shouldn’t it?
Reason #6: More and more people prefer to shop online
It’s really striking how the world has changed in the last 30 years!
30 years ago, nobody could imagine buying anything without leaving their homes. Yes, the Internet and technological progress have definitely made our life different!
Indeed, what could in-store shopping offer consumers? Limited choice, high prices, staying in line? Doesn’t seem to be a great pleasure.
People choose convenience. Online shopping gives it to them.
Reason #7: It’s easy to start dropshipping now due to the development of automated tools in 2019
Dropshipping is definitely a great business model. It allows people to avoid taking great risks related to huge investments as well as managing complicated process of storing and shipping goods.
But would it be so easy and timesaving to run a dropshipping business without any automated software?
Hardly. Imagine receiving each customer order, sending the necessary information to your supplier and tracking the package. How can you handle all these tasks manually?
If you have two, five or even ten clients a week, it seems to be bearable then. However, it’s easy to confuse something, in my view.
Anyway, what if you’ve got more customers? What then? In all likelihood, you’ll mess something up.
Fortunately, a solution to this problem exists! Our team runs several self-owned dropshipping stores and knows all the obstacles and difficulties that entrepreneurs could face.
Thus, we’ve developed software for dropshipping business based on our own experience. With its help, the process of running your shop will turn into plain sailing.
AliDropship plugin automatically manages the most complicated tasks of your business process. So, you will be able to take your time to think of scaling your business.
Conclusion
We’ve listed seven reasons why it’s worth starting dropshipping in 2019. Now, it’s up to you to weigh the risks you take and opportunities you may get. We have no doubt you’ll make the right decision. Good luck with your online business in 2019!
Our team always strives to help people overcome any obstacles on their way to gain financial independence. We hope this article was useful and helpful for those who had their doubts about starting dropshipping in 2019. If you have any questions left, feel free to ask them in the comments section below!
In dropshipping, like in every other venture, those who are better prepared show the better results. In this article we’re going to outline 10 necessary things everyone should know before starting a dropshipping business!
When you’re going to a trip abroad, isn’t it better to book a hotel in advance?
For sure.
Imagine arriving to a foreign country, trying to find a decent lodging, café to eat, etc. Aside from wasting time and energy, you might be overcharged, get food poisoning, or face other unnecessary problems.
Not the best vacation, isn’t it?
That’s why you need to sort out some things before setting out. It makes your journey pleasing and predictable.
Similarly, mapping out your dropshipping journey could save your money and time, as well as ensure your success.
You get around competing with Amazon, eBay, and offline supermarkets which offer the same goods
Large-scale stores often lack the flexibility and customer-friendly attitude. You, in turn, can take the, on board and therefore, secure a huge competitive advantage!
It’s easier to find your audience and target it
It’s hard to come up with a marketing strategy when you run a general store. For that, you need to know the websites and communities your potential clients visit.
Something comes to you mind?
Right, it could be anything.
Narrowing down the range of products you sell lets you draw up a clear marketing plan. And marketing is vital in dropshipping business!
SEO tasks become much easier
We’re sure, you want people to easily come across your online store while shopping on the Internet.
That means you should make your site and product pages SEO-friendly. This task is almost impossible in the case of general store. At the same time, taking a niche allows you to conveniently pick the necessary keywords and make your website come up on the top of Google search results.
It’s true that dropshipping rids you of the tiring and complicated process of storing and shipping products. In other words, it makes running your business easy and quick.
Yet, a wrong choice of products might turn it into a pain in your neck. Dealing with angry and disappointed customers is not the most pleasing thing in the world, is it?
To avoid this letdown, we urge you not to sell the next types of products:
Copyrighted products
Of course, it seems tempting to sell products marked with a famous brand. People are eager to buy them.
However, it will certainly blow up in your face.
Such items are knock-offs. And that might mean serious legal problems for you. Not to mention that these actions might harm your reputation which will be difficult to claw back from.
Fragile products
Nobody wants to get a ruined purchase, right?
Due to a complex delivery process, there is a high risk of damaging items on their way to customers.
Heavy products
Heavy items are not only hard to lift.
They’re going to make the delivery process more difficult and expensive. Besides, their weight makes them easy to get damage during shipping.
Technically complex products
When you’re buying a PC at an offline store, you can easily check whether everything is normal.
Your clients also expect to receive a fully functioning product. During online shopping, it is impossible to make sure the product is of a perfectly fine quality. So, it’s better to avoid the products that require a careful checkup before the purchase.
If you want to learn how to pick the best products to dropship, please, read this article.
3. Rely on Google Trends to pick your niche
Would you buy a slide projector?
Only for a museum exhibition, maybe…
Here’s the thing: your products should be in demand! Otherwise, your business doesn’t make sense.
Fortunately, there is a free tool to research the market: Google Trends.
Choose a product you’d like to sell, pick a time period, and the tool will show you how many people were googling this item or a related topic. You will be able to see all the ups and downs in products’ demand depending on the season, location, etc.
Then it’s up to you to decide whether or not this product is worth adding to your online store.
As you can see, slide projectors won’t bring you much money.
At the same time, GPS trackers, for example, should do the trick.
4. A research is necessary to choose a reliable supplier
Your suppliers may either ruin your dropshipping business or help it take off.
Keep it in mind!
You, not the suppliers, will be in charge of solving problems and dealing with annoyed customers if something goes wrong with product quality or delivery.
There could be dozens of suppliers selling the same type of items on AliExpress. However, you have to find the business partners you could actually lean on.
You may be wondering how to pull it off. How to figure out whether a supplier is reliable or not?
Stay calm, there is no rocket science!
Here are the simple steps:
Go to AliExpress
Type the title of a product you need
Tick the “4* &Up” box
Sort the results by the number of orders
Look into the suppliers’ stats (time of their activity, feedback score, etc.)
Read the customer reviews
Make sure the suppliers offer free shipping options
Now, you’re good to go. Examine the data, put it all together and make your choice.
The best option is to choose one supplier who is focused on a narrow range of products that matches your niche. It will make your service brilliant. Imagine customers buying various items from your store and receiving them all together at the same time. Wouldn’t they be pleased?
5. Choose your domain name carefully
Before starting your dropshipping business, you need to choose a domain name for your website.
Many beginners take it lightly. Meanwhile, it’s an essential part for your future success. A properly chosen domain name may take you to a higher position in Google search results and inspire customers’ trust.
The right approach is choosing a domain based on your niche keywords.
Yet, it shouldn’t contain a bunch of them, or it will not seem secure and reliable. In all likelihood, customers will avoid visiting such a website.
On the other hand, your domain name should be quite short and roll off the tongue. This way, it will be easy for customers to memorize and use it.
You need to consider both sides of the issue. Choose something in between!
Keep it in mind that the most SEO-friendly and trustworthy domain names go with “.com”. It’s not easy to find such ones though. Go to GoDaddy.com and check if it’s available.
Once you’ve chosen a domain, you can find a hosting provider to build your dropshipping store.
6. Use a proper eCommerce platform for your dropshipping store
Before building your website, you should make up your mind about an eCommerce platform you’re going to use.
Most of these platforms charge their clients monthly fees. Apart from that, they keep entrepreneurs on a tight leash by limiting their ownership. For newcomers it may turn out to be the reason to back out.
Luckily, there is a key to solving this problem.
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that lets you create a convenient and user-friendly website. It’s free and quite easy to use. Building a website on this platform doesn’t require deep knowledge of the subject – here, you can read more about it.
Then, you can use AliDropship plugin to easily convert a WordPress-based site into a fully functional dropshipping store. This tool was developed by the people having their own first-hand experience of managing a dropshipping business. So, they considered the interests of like-minded entrepreneurs and built a software that takes care of the most difficult tasks in this business.
So, if you want to save your money and gain independence – you’re welcome to follow this advice!
7. Think of your payment gateways in advance
Trust is the most precious thing nowadays.
Your customers need to be sure that they’re safe while buying from your store. Setting a secure payment gateways is crucial for that.
But before doing so, you should consider some essential things:
Check if the gateway is accessible in your country and in the countries of your target audience residence.
Compare the transaction fees. Of course, it’s tempting to choose the option with the lowest costs. But hold on! Take your time! There is something more to consider.
Find out if the gateway has a multi-currency support. Don’t forget that you’re going to work with the international audience.
Make sure your gateways accept all the major credit and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, AmericanExpress, etc.).
Don’t forget that your store should accept PayPal payments.
Now, make your choice. We recommend you using Stripe and 2Checkout payment providers. You can learn more about the gateways supported by AliDropship plugin here.
8. SEO is a key to success
We’ve already mentioned SEO as an important part of building a successful online business.
Yet, many entrepreneurs underestimate the role SEO plays in their success.
It’s natural that nowadays people turn to the Internet in search of the necessary information.
Therefore, you need to optimize your site so that the customers could easily come across your store.
Write appealing titles and descriptions to your product pages. And don’t forget to include the keywords in these texts. Fill your site with interesting content and you will bring in more customers!
9. Your reputation precedes you
What do you do when you see a tempting offer to buy something on the Internet?
Right! You start searching for the info about the seller and the real-life product quality. To be more precise, you start looking for the customer reviews.
People trust people – the same consumers as they are.
The simplest way to check others’ feedback is to type the store name in Google search field and click on the search button. In the right part of the screen, there will be buyers’ reviews and even the store rating.
Facebook and Trustpilot.com are two other popular sources that people use to learn about an online store reliability.
Your reputation shouldn’t cast any doubts!
Every time when the happy customers thank you for your service in an email, ask them to also leave their comments on some of the sources mentioned above.
If somebody writes a negative review about your store, sort it out as soon as possible. Then, ask the client to remove or change the comment.
Reply to every comment, no matter if it’s positive or negative.
Your reputation drives your sales! Cherish and protect it!
10. Don’t give up if there are little or no sales at the beginning
I know you imagine tons of money pouring in on the next day after the launch of your dropshipping store.
I hope it will be so.
But the real-life examples show that some time passes before your business starts bringing you profits.
The most impatient entrepreneurs could even quit due to the delay. That’s a mistake.
First.
Before putting your dropshipping store into operation, you need to make sure that everything is OK. Your website design, product pages, descriptions, product images – everything – should be appealing, informative and of a good quality.
Second.
If you have a few sales in the first several weeks, review your PPC campaigns. Maybe, you’re paying your attention to the countries that aren’t attractive for this business, and you should shift your focus a little.
Third.
Maybe, you don’t have enough experience to step back and size up your online store properly. Probably, you can’t see and identify the weak points your site has.
Thus, it’s reasonable to turn to the experienced dropshipping professionals. They have been running their own online stores for a long time. So, they will easily figure out your problems and offer you the ways to fix them.
Now, you’re fully prepared to make your dreams come true. We hope this article will let you avoid the major problems dropshipping entrepreneurs face while starting their business. We are looking forward to your feedback and are always eager to reply!
Firm Funder 