Want to quickly expand your ecommerce business? It’s time to talk about what dropshipping can do for you. Let’s take a closer look at the possibilities.
22-33% of ecommerce businesses are using drop shipping as their main method of fulfilling orders for customers.
If used correctly, ecommerce drop shipping is an excellent way to grow your business. Not only can you offer your customers a wide variety, but you get to take a hands-off approach.
Read on to learn why you should be thinking about adding drop shipping to your ecommerce business.
What is Drop Shipping?
More than 3.2 billion people use the internet every day. That means that you have a huge opportunity to make money online.
It’s no wonder why so many people are building websites instead of brick-and-mortar stores and warehouses. This digital environment has made it much easier for business owners to make a healthy living online.
The first step of drop shipping? Creating an ecommerce website. Your customers then choose the products they would like. Instead of purchasing inventory in bulk and letting it sit in a warehouse, you partner with a wholesaler. The wholesaler then can send items directly to your customers once they place an order.
The Benefits of Ecommerce Drop Shipping
There are many reasons why you may want to use ecommerce drop shipping to expand your business. Here are just a few:
Grow With Less Capital
One of the biggest advantages of drop shipping is you can launch your own ecommerce store without needing to first invest in thousands of dollars worth of inventory.
Traditionally, any business owner wanting to sell products online would first have to purchase that inventory. With drop shipping, you don’t purchase a product until the sale has been made and the customer has paid for it.
This removes the financial barrier to entry and allows business owners to start a business with very little capital.
Get Started Easily
It’s much easier to run your ecommerce business when you’re not dealing with physical products. When you use drop shipping, you remove issues like:
- Paying for or managing a warehouse
- Packing or shipping orders
- Accounting and tracking of inventory
- Dealing with inbound shipments and returns
- Managing stock levels and ordering products
Enjoy Lower Overhead
Since you don’t need to deal with managing your own warehouse or continually purchasing inventory, you’ll have low overhead expenses. While your expenses will grow as your business grows, they’re still much lower than if you had a traditional business with a brick-and-mortar store.
Work From Anywhere
One of the best things about drop shipping? All you need is a laptop and an internet connection. You can then easily communicate with customers and suppliers to manage and run your business.
Want to take a year to go live in Chiang Mai, Thailand? Love the idea of working from Central America? You can be completely location independent with drop shipping.
Offer a Wide Selection
Since you don’t need to first purchase the products you’re selling, you can offer a much larger range. As long as your suppliers stock an item, you can then list it on your website.
Scale Quickly and Easily
One of the biggest benefits of ecommerce drop shipping? You can easily and quickly scale. With a traditional business, the more business you have, the more work you need to do. But with dropshipping, most of this work is done by your suppliers.
This means you can expand easily, without pulling all-nighters and hiring more employees.
Getting Started With Drop Shipping
The low barrier to entry makes it easy for ecommerce business owners to get started with drop shipping.
If you like the idea of using drop shipping to expand your business, here are some ways you can get started:
Choose a Large Product Range
From glow-in-the-dark toys and mouse pads to fashionable clothing and the latest electronics, almost any type of product can work for drop shipping. When you first get started, it’s best to choose a type of product that’s easily identifiable and broad.
Instead of bouncing from product to product, put in the work to discover an idea that will take off. Once you find your niche, stick with it and own it.
Build Your Store
While it will be great if your site becomes the next Amazon, it’s likely to be small when you first get started. At this stage of your business, aim to make things as straightforward and simple as you can.
The first thing you’ll need to do is build your online store. You’ll need your own branded website with a custom design so you can offer your customers the best user experience.
Take a peek at what others in the industry are doing, and see how you can do it better.
Market Effectively
The next step is marketing. The aim is to keep it both effective and low-cost. That means using Search Engine Optimization, Google Ads, and Social Media to find new customers and build rapport with your audience.
One of the best ways to show off your products is to show them off on visually-driven channels like Pinterest and Instagram. You can also use Facebooks’s Custom Audiences to target your ads to your ideal customers and get the best ROI.
You should also consider content marketing. This remains one of the best ways to build up trust in your brand and rise in the search rankings. Building a blog can help you answer customers’ questions, demonstrate new products, and become well-known within your industry.
Ready to Get Started?
As you can see, ecommerce drop shipping is a great way to grow your business. While it will take some time and research to find the best products and wholesalers, once your business is set up you can make money in your sleep.
With benefits like location independence and a low overhead, it’s easy to see why so many business owners are turning to drop shipping.
If you’re planning to get started, you’ll need a well-designed website. We can help you build your drop shipping business on a branded website. A custom build is the best way to make your brand unique and recognizable. Get in touch today to learn more.
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