Sun rays cannot break through narrow windows and dividing walls, so I have to content myself with dim lamps on the ceiling. The air is stuffy and dense like jelly. My back and eyes hurt from hours of working at the computer.
And the worst part of it is my neighbor who’s listening to metalcore all the time, and I can hear the wild growling even through massive headphones. And I hate metalcore!!!
Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating, but you get the idea. Today, we’ll talk about the organization of a working routine for self-employed eCommerce entrepreneurs. Your options are working from home, using a coworking space or even doing your business at your full-time job.
Working at… work
Most newcomers start their eCommerce ventures while still having a full-time job. You might think that these two things are incompatible. Think again!
At my previous job, a colleague of mine showed me a website one day and asked for my opinion. I looked at the screen and saw a page devoted to… fishing.
‘Since when do we promote fishing websites?’ I laughed.
‘We don’t. It’s my own project. Just a hobby,’ he replied.
I grabbed him to the coffee machine, made sure we were alone and said, ‘Are you nuts? If the boss finds out you’re paddling your own canoe at work, you’ll get fired!’
He shrugged and said he’d been doing it for the past half a year. And nobody caught him.
Naturally, after work, I bought him a beer and forced to tell me how the hell he managed to do it. So here’s the manual.
Rule #1 Be a cyberpunk!
It’s all about cyber defense. Nowadays there are programs that can spy on your computer via local connection and show another user what you’re doing. So whenever you start watching videos with cats instead of working, your boss knows.
In other words, make sure your company doesn’t spy on you.
Rule #2 Location, location, location
Once you’ve checked the cyber security, move on to dealing with tactical reconnaissance. Make sure your battle station… I mean your table is located in such a way that nobody can see the screen of your computer. At the very least, you should be able to close all unwanted windows in a second.
Open space may be a problem. Having a private office is a blessing.
Rule #3 Strategy
It’s not a good idea to tend to your own affairs in the morning while everyone is on the alert. Keep an eye on the atmosphere. If people start moving around, you’d better not take chances and play safe.
Rule #4 Play fair!
All right, kids, this one is important. You might be so cool at it that James Bond himself is not worthy to black your boots, but you’ll get fired anyway. Unless you honestly do your job.
My colleague explained that he never slacked off, and his work was always done on time. First of all, it’s fair – you still receive the salary for that job, after all. Second, by performing your duties diligently, you avoid unwanted suspicion.
Working from home
How come Godzilla can easily ruin buildings without even scratching himself? Apparently, it has something to do with integrity. So I could do the same if it was a tiny building made of cardboard.
Unfortunately, the cabinet in my room was made of pretty thick wood. And my big toe was made of thin bones. Which cracked.
But every cloud has a silver lining! Since my foot was shut in a cast, my boss allowed me to work at home. And here’s what I tell ya: working from home is awesome!!! And that’s why:
I could get enough sleep. Finally! Since I couldn’t go out (only ‘jump out’ maybe), I could get up later than usual, have my breakfast and get to work full of energy. Besides, not having to use a jam-packed bus every day was a paradise.
After a week of my new life, it got clear to me that household duties were a piece of cake. Every once in a while, I could put my work aside to wash the dishes, start the laundry or make a simple dinner. A 10 minutes break that won’t hurt.
I could have lunch anytime. No more waiting for my colleagues, no more lines in front of the microwave.
Speaking of my colleagues… Let’s just say, not having some of them around was nice too.
My cat was happy too, because I was home the entire day and she could get petted all she wanted. I guess it works with kids too, if you have any.
Lastly, I could shift my schedule any way I wanted. When I had to go to the hospital in the morning, I could easily make up at the evening.
However, my personal Eden lasted for two weeks. Then something began to corrupt my Garden.
My first problem came from my relatives who wouldn’t stop asking me to do this or that. ‘You’re staying home anyway!’ they used to say. And trust me, saying you still have to work just doesn’t work.
Speaking of relatives. They distract! It was Ok when I stayed home alone. But when not, they just kept pestering me all the time.
But the real serpent was me.
After I while, I began to go to bed later than usual and stopped having enough sleep. Forcing myself to work got much harder. Playing with the cat or watching videos on the web was too tempting. Besides, it always seemed that I had plenty of time to finish the job later. Making diners became rare and I started ordering sushi and pizza. And then I decided to use weigh scales…
After the cast was discarded and I came back to the office, things quickly turned back to normal. And I realized how much I missed the guys. Working from home is really comfortable, but one needs self discipline. So be careful about it.
Oh, and I still envy Godzilla.
Renting a coworking space
If you’re like me and find it hard to concentrate when working from home, you might want to try other places.
Renting an office is obviously not an option. Most office spaces are designed for at least several workers, so it’ll be too expensive for one person. Unless you enjoy having a cool sign above the door.
Some of my colleagues tried coworking when they had to work during journeys and trips. So I decided to figure out what it is.
Back in 1990s, a group of European programmers decided to share their skills and experience with each other. But not in a chat, but in a real room. That’s how hacker spaces emerged. They were spaces with all the necessary infrastructure where people with similar interests (mostly scientific or technical) gathered.
Later, in 2005, Brad Neuberg who got tired of working from home and the lack of communication came up with a similar idea. He offered other freelancers to share an office with free Wi-Fi and other facilities in exchange for a fee along with their company.
That’s how coworking was invented.
A coworking space is your typical office with tables, chairs, recreation room, a coffee machine and so on. Except it rented not by a firm, but by a number of freelancers or business loners. Each of them gets a place in an open room and internet connection.
But it’s still different from an office.
First of all, it’s cheaper than renting a private office.
The atmosphere makes you more disciplined than when you work at home. Besides, here you can draw a clear line between your work and recreation.
No more relatives saying, ‘You’re doing nothing!’ Because you go to work. In a suit!
Having to pay for rent makes you actually work. Because time’s money. Your money!
When tired or bored, you can talk to other people in the recreation room. Some even say you can find your future business partners here.
However, a coworking space has certain drawbacks as well.
Coworking isn’t that cheap. Prices differ very much depending on your city and the package you choose. In the UK, you can find spaces priced at up to £300 a month. In New York, monthly rent can cost you even $600.
You still have to go there every day wasting money and strength on transport. Totally not cool if you live in a densely populated city.
Other guys in the office may distract you. Besides, some people (like me) do not enjoy being surrounded by unknown men and women.
Some people tell stories about how their data and ideas were stolen in such places. So you’ll have to pay more attention to security issues.
As you can see, each option has pros and cons. If you want to try them yourself, it will be an interesting experience to compare how does it feel to be working from home vs coworking with someone else in a specially furnished space. I once watched a video blogger who regularly switched between them every time he got lonely from working from home vs coworking space. So, you might want to use the same approach for your own eCommerce venture.
Recently, we’ve been posting quite a lot of articles about the updates in our drop shipping software. We understand that this flood of products might be confusing for some of our readers So, if you’ve lost track of the solutions that we offer, here’s the latest guide on our tools and services!
Maybe, you remember it, maybe, you don’t, but historically, AliDropship company has started as an experimental local project.
At that point of time, we were just a bunch of enthusiasts who worked on their own drop shipping stores. This priceless first-hand experience of organizing the daily management routine helped us understand a life-changing thing. We realized that if we create some software that automatically performs some of the most important drop shipping tasks, we can turn this business around – and support hundreds of entrepreneurs across the globe.
So we did.
AliDropship plugin was the first drop shipping-related product that we have developed and introduced. We tried it on our own stores first, and documented every step of this experiment on the most reputed eCommerce forums: Warrior Forum, Digital Point, and BlackHatWorld.
You all know what happened next.
The plugin’s success was astonishing. Our own experimental stores started performing better than ever thanks to the plugin.
The external AliDropship plugin users got satisfied with the product, too! Our forum writings turned into the most popular threads in the history of eCommerce sections of Warrior Forum, Digital Point, and BlackHatWorld. Even the first plugin buyers spoke very highly of it, and we realized that a huge audience needs the solutions of this kind.
So, we started the testing and development of new, supplementary drop shipping software that serves the same purpose – making the entrepreneurs’ lives easier and better. This process never stops: there are so many aspects of managing business that can be upgraded!
This is why these days, several years from our journey’s beginning, we offer our customers a wide range of handy drop shipping tools, and there are more to come! Don’t forget to check this list once in a while to learn about our newest products!
Drop shipping offers from AliDropship: turnkey solutions
In this section, we will talk about the AliDropship solutions that help you create an online store that automatically performs some of the most important drop shipping tasks.
This plugin is the foundation of all our products and services.
It’s the tool that transforms your vision of drop shipping business!
Simply speaking, the plugin can turn any WordPress website into a fully functional drop shipping store with all the vital elements: product pages, shopping cart, payment gateways, etc.
So, with this plugin, you can:
Monetize your hobby and make money from the things & activities that you really like
Create a lovely designed store thanks to the profit-oriented built-in themes
By the way, the plugin is perfectly compatible with WooCommerce websites as well. Read this article to learn more about the differences between the original AliDropship plugin and the AliDropship Woo plugin versions.
A sceptical reader will say that an online store is not exactly a piece of drop shipping software Still, it’s a turnkey solution that we offer, so it would be unwise to stay silent about it!
In fact, ordering a custom store is the easiest way to receive a ready-to-operate business that is optimized to start bringing you profits from day 1.
When you buy a custom store from us, you receive a professionally developed niche store that has:
Catchy design elements created with your approval
A range of products that suit your niche and are carefully picked by the expert team
The already integrated and set up AliDropship plugin
All the technical elements that make it possible for your visitors to place orders and make purchases
And many, many more!
To get an idea of the amount of work that is required to set up a moneymaking drop shipping store, just watch this video!
And now, imagine that you don’t have to worry about any of these tasks. All of them are carefully done for you by our specialists!
Isn’t a custom AliDropship store, indeed, the best all-inclusive solution to get an independent self-owned business with no hassle?
Drop shipping software from AliDropship: supporting add-ons
Have you already built your awesome drop shipping store? Great! Now, it’s time to let everyone know that you have one!
Kate, one of our colleagues responsible for testing and improving our company’s self-owned drop shipping stores, says that she spends several hours every day to create perfect advertisements and decide where to place them. Thanks to her promotional efforts, the store that she runs has an average monthly income of $32,000!
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of marketing for the growth of a drop shipping business. This is why we have developed a number of additional tools that help you boost your sales, increase your profits, and save even more time that is typically spent on marketing tasks.
This add-on lets you create catchy notifications on your product pages. You can modify the settings and change the sale duration and the amount of products available to create a so-called ‘fear of missing out’.
Certainly, your guests won’t like to miss out an appealing offer! Therefore, they will be more likely to complete their purchase with no second thoughts – and bring you a bigger profit than usual!
Thanks to this add-on, your guests will see the bursting activity on your website. It will let them understand that lots of other people are safely buying products from you, and there’s no need to worry about the reliability of your store.
Besides, as they will see the exact products that have been purchased, it will give them even more ideas of the items they can safely buy from you.
Who knows – maybe, they will end up ordering something that they weren’t even expecting to buy?…
Our Social Rabbit plugin can automatically promote your store across 4 social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter. With its help, you can not only create engaging human-like posts, but also raise awareness about your store and attract new followers easily.
As for our estimates, this plugin saves you about 6 hours every day! How about dedicating this free time to more urgent tasks?
Create highly efficient Facebook ads in a blink of an eye!
If you have ever tried making Facebook ads, you know it’s really challenging and time-consuming to create the so-called product catalogues – the basis for the your product-related ads.
Nevertheless, these ads show incredible results! Our client Alan from China says that he spends about $2,000 on Facebook and Instagram advertising every month, and, as the result, he has an average monthly profit of $17,000!
It would be really sad to miss out such incredible opportunity to make money just because of the inconvenience of Facebook ads setup, right?
To solve this issue, we have created Facebook Business add-on: it organises the store products into a special logical system, and automatically creates a catalog that you can later use as the foundation for your Facebook ads.
Isn’t it a brilliant opportunity to cut down the time expenses and simply enjoy the financial effect of the ads?
Do you want to showcase your products on Google Shopping platform?
Martin from the Netherlands made over 4,100 Eur in 30 days of running his business, and, in his experience, AdWords text ads and Google Shopping promotion were the 2 most efficient ways to generate revenue.
To help you create winning Google Shopping ads and get your products featured on Google Search, Google Images and YouTube, we have developed the Google Merchant add-on – feel free to read more about it here!
Increase the average purchase volume in your store!
Are you happy when your store visitors purchase 1-2 items from you?
Would you become happier if your guests bought 4-5 products in a single order?
We know how to scale up your average check size!
Upsell add-on is specifically designed to inspire your potential customers on adding more items to their shopping carts.
Just attach 2-3 complementing items to your store products, and give your buyers more interesting ideas about the awesome things they can buy from you!
Learn which of your suppliers plays the most important role in your business growth!
Do you know which of your AliExpress sellers supply your store with the most demanded items? Have you any idea about the suppliers who are the most highly valued by buyers?
With our My Suppliers add-on, you can easily identify the best suppliers you currently have, and build even more efficient partnerships with the leading industry players!
Let your visitors know that your buyers are IN LOVE with their purchases!
Do you know how important it is for online shoppers to know that your business is trustworthy and your products have a perfect quality?
To help them make their purchasing decision and to stimulate them on impulse purchases, you can safely use our Customers Gallery add-on.
With its help, you can create a lovely gallery out of the happy buyers’ pictures. What is more, you can link each of these pictures to the the product this person is demonstrating. Certainly, it will give a major boost to your store reputation and your revenues!
Get in touch with the visitors who left your store without making a purchase!
Our client Pirn from Estonia uses email marketing as one of the most efficient instrument to promote his drop shipping store. With a 90% open rate and a 85% open rate, there’s no wonder that he makes $10,000+ in monthly revenue even with a 0 previous experience!
If you want to use the power of email marketing as well, start with our free Abandoned Cart add-on. It lets you send appealing emails to the people who left their shopping carts without making a purchase. These clients already got interested in your offers – why not persuade them to finally order the things they liked?
Add only the greatest AliExpress items to your drop shipping store!
That’s probably one of the most time-consuming projects we ever did
As you can see, it’s a sort of a product database. As of today, it consists of over 50,000 items, and the list is growing daily. We’ve selected the most demanded and high-rated AliExpress items, and brought their descriptions to perfection.
It means that you don’t have to spend endless hours on browsing AliExpress, and you certainly don’t need to take any efforts to edit their picture galleries and descriptions. It has already been done by us for you! All you need to do now is click the ‘Import’ button and add these wonderful items directly to your store.
The best part? You can import up to 50 products for free!
Get the relevant data about your store performance and modify your business strategy in the best way possible!
If you want to know where your cash flow comes from, or what channels lead Internet users to your store, you can spend long hours setting up Google Analytics and modifying your tracking code.
Alternatively, if you don’t have the right background or the money to hire professional developers, you can use our Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce add-on. It collects the necessary data and makes it easily available in the Reports section within your store. This way, you don’t even need to use any external resources to get the priceless stats about your business!
What principles do we use to create our drop shipping software?
When you run your drop shipping business, obviously, you don’t need a ‘random’ piece of software. Instead, you want a handy solution that solves your issues.
But what should it be, exactly?
You can’t even imagine how important is the the answer to this question for us.
This is why we actively communicate with the global drop shipping community through our forum. There, we collect the suggestions and preferences from the entrepreneurs all over the world, and do everything possible to help people meet these needs through our products.
We even offer our readers to take part in beta testing! This way, we can test our new tools on their production stage, and listen to the audience’s opinion. It gives us the opportunity to tailor our solutions to the clients’ preferences. So, this is how we create the drop shipping software that meets the public’s expectations.
So, what are the defining features of our drop shipping software?
Low price
That’s a pretty much obvious point. For many people, drop shipping model is the only suitable option for starting an affordable eCommerce business. Naturally, they want to have the lowest startup costs possible. This is why they commonly prefer affordable solutions that don’t require massive investments.
Curious fact: for the affordable price of $89, we offer our customers the plugin that can turn a basic WordPress website into a fully functional drop shipping store. A number of FREE supporting promotion-oriented products is also available!
The range of these tasks is quite wide – actually, almost any procedure from niche research to social media promotion can be automated easily. It gives the entrepreneurs the opportunity to find more time for the work that includes the human factor – most importantly, the customer relations.
Did you know that? AliDropship plugin covers lots of drop shipping management issues, from searching & importing products to creating a unique and memorable in-store design. What is more, with the help of our add-ons, you can broaden the scale of your business operations even further.
Smooth operation
If a piece of drop shipping software slows your website down or works incorrectly, it’s obviously not a good choice. The same goes for tools that can only be installed on some specific types of websites. Surely, they limit you in your business choices.
Interesting fact: AliDropship plugin works on any WordPress-based website – even if it’s built with WooCommerce! There are differences between the original and the Woo-friendly versions of the plugin, but they are identical in their core. Both of them are aimed on turning your website into a user-friendly and moneymaking shopping destination, and they handle this job perfectly.
User-friendly interface
At the beginning of their drop shipping journeys, most of the newcomers don’t have the relevant experience, and aren’t well aware of the eCommerce world in general. Therefore, they need the intuitive solutions that are easy in daily use, and are understandable to the people of any professional background.
That’s curious: the already mentioned Pirn from Estonia, along with Alvaro from Chile and lots of our other clients, had a 0 experience in drop shipping at the moment of the AliDropship software purchase. Still, the lack of the knowledge hasn’t troubled these people’s user experience – they are happily working with AliDropship solutions and making pretty good money with them!
Easy to learn
When newcomers start to combine their 9 to 5 jobs with a drop shipping venture, they lack a vitally important resource: time. Typically, they can’t even find a couple of hours per day to learn more about the business they’re exploring. Surely, it slows down their progress and doesn’t really motivate them to keep going.
To solve this issue, we are offering a wide range of educational materials. They give some basic insights into the drop shipping business in general, and explain how to use our products.
Over to you: you can choose any type of our educational materials – just go with your personal preferences! If you don’t mind reading, explore our Guides and Knowledge base – you can find lots of priceless tips there. Alternatively, if you are a fan of videos, take a look at our YouTube channel. Or, if you prefer real-life communication with the field experts, you can hang out on our dedicated forum, and learn from the experience of skilled store owners.
That’s it! Now, you know much more about our current product offer and the strategies that we use to create our solutions.
Do you have an experience of working with our drop shipping software? Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section below!
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!
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