Now on the Internet you can find many ways to make money. Someone starts freelance and takes home orders, while others are engaged in their own business. Now opening a store for many is an unrealistic enterprise. It’s much easier to start selling online.
Direct delivery
Before you figure out how to start working with dropshipping, you need to figure out what it is.
Dropshipping is also called Drop Ship. Often this method is used for online trading. In this case, the intermediary implements the supply of products so that the goods are not stored in his warehouse. This method of supply chain management can significantly save time, space, and even money.
The buyer receives the goods directly from the warehouse of the manufacturer, dealer or wholesaler. Why then does dropshipper get profit? Often this is the difference between the wholesale and retail prices, commission payments can also affect, some receive income from the difference in the cost of delivery.
Suppliers
But the supplier himself often deals with dropshipping. In this case, this method of trading is very similar to outsourcing and franchising. In this case, the supplier is not distracted by various tasks, but is engaged only in the production of quality products.
That is why many suppliers outsource the search for products and other tasks. In this case, he gets acquainted with dropshipping.
Scheme
You need to understand by what principle the circuit works. And only then to figure out how to start working with dropshipping. So, a large company produces a certain product, but decides not to engage in retail sales. Thus, company partners appear who are responsible for a lot of tasks:
- providing a "showcase";
- marketing;
- promotion;
- work with clients;
- execution of transactions;
- receipt of payment.
Next, the partner generates reports and transfers everything to the manufacturer. That, in turn, begins to deal with packaging and shipping the goods to the address. By the way, the buyer will receive the purchase from a partner who did not put his hand to the shipment itself and does not even have a warehouse with goods. In this case, the profit consists of the difference in retail and purchase prices.
Start
So, now that you understand the essence of dropshipping, how to start working with it has become clearer. Nevertheless, there are still stages that everyone who is just starting to get acquainted with direct deliveries should go through.
So what is needed:
- At the first stage, you need to find suppliers who would be willing to work on such a scheme. You need to be prepared for the fact that all indiscriminately will not run to work with you right away. You have to spend a lot of time to find partners. This is due to the fact that such an enterprise has risks and difficulties, so not everyone wants to get involved with this.
- Work on the online store is the second stage. This is also a difficult process, because it requires knowledge, skills, and good friends. If you don’t have money to create a website, you can start working on social networks by creating thematic pages. Then it will be possible to begin the placement of product catalogs, indicating the cost with a mark-up.
- Work with advertising is an integral part of the formation of any online store. It is extremely important to talk about your products through all available channels: contextual advertising, on social networks, affiliate programs, search engine promotion, and much more.
- After the first people come to you, you can begin to place orders. After a couple of clearance, you can contact the supplier, transfer him the order and the address of the buyer. Then it remains to pay the wholesale cost, and leave a margin for yourself.
- Next, the supplier sends the order without your intervention.
- Be sure to track the receipt of the goods by the buyer. If possible, study the feedback.
Partner search
So, at the first stage, you need to find suppliers for the online store. Not all manufacturers like Dropshipping, so you have to look for reliable partners. Get ready for the fact that you will need to constantly look for suppliers. They will change for various reasons, so it is important to be prepared for such situations.
It is extremely important to constantly work and actively move forward. Do not stagnate. If you have already developed suppliers, still try to constantly look for more favorable conditions for cooperation.
Right choice
How to start working with dropshipping? We look narrowly at suppliers. They may differ from each other not only in the proposed conditions, but also in the goods. Therefore, you should immediately understand what you are going to trade: clothing, tools, stationery, household goods, etc.
If you still don’t know what you want to offer the buyer, you can pay attention to the supplier’s pricing policy, demand for a specific product and competitors' offers. Thus, you will notice that most of all on the market it is proposed clothing and household goods. Perhaps this is exactly your niche.
You can choose a provider using the Internet. Of course, you can immediately turn to the ratings of the best, but not always those who are in the top can really be useful to you. Also remember that suppliers may not have a quality product, but work with the best SEO specialist. That is why they will be in the top of search results.
Also, suppliers can go to specialized exhibitions. It is here that reliable suppliers advertise their production. Such organizations are confident in their products, which means they are not afraid to show it to the world. In addition, exhibitions are an excellent illustrative example where each dropshipper will be able to take a closer look at potential partners and their work.
Internet selection
So, it is worth considering separately how to find a supplier for an online store. Dropshipping is not always a reliable business, and searching for a partner on the Internet is not the best option. Nevertheless, you can try, besides, such searches take less time.
Most lucky for those who have a platform with a large turnover. In this case, you can directly contact the supplier and agree on individual deliveries. In this case, you will definitely succeed in attracting customers through a unique selling proposition.
You can leave an ad on the Internet on special sites in which to indicate all your terms of cooperation. As you look for partners, so they can search for you. It is only important to state this. The main thing is that the ad is literate and accurate.
If you know English well, you can go to dropshipping work with foreign clients. Thus, you can bring unique products to your country that will attract even more buyers.
Finally, on the Internet you can find databases of wholesale suppliers. There you can find all the necessary information about potential partners. On such sites, it is usually easy to filter out those that do not suit you thanks to a search by country, product offered and cost.
Search Rules
So, there are some rules that have been developed by other people who have been in this area. Some of them may not be useful at all, while others may provide a great service in finding partners.
So, it is extremely important to constantly negotiate with future partners. It is best to meet in person, and even better, in person with an official representative. Do not use phone calls or correspondence.
When communicating, specify as many details as possible. It is imperative that you know all the questions before the meeting and do not forget to ask them. Questions may be different, among the main ones it is worth mentioning the minimum order, the conditions for sending the goods, the capabilities of the distributor and much more. Don’t be afraid right away, this doesn’t mean at all that there are a lot of little things in business, there are just nuances that are best discussed right away.
Dropshipping will teach you the importance of constantly looking for suppliers. The market is very volatile, so you have to adapt to its activity.
It is also best to do business with local firms. First, it will be easier for you to meet with management and discuss the details. Secondly, the delivery of goods will be lightning fast, which means you can get ahead of all those sellers who have been waiting for deliveries from abroad for weeks.
Remember that a contract is an integral part of cooperation with suppliers. So it is extremely important for you to read it carefully, assure legally and generally have an assistant in this matter.
Finally, remember that this area is very demanding on any employees. No need to save time or labor in order to study the market and the offers of partners.
Partner Types
Of course, there is no established classification of suppliers. Perhaps with experience you will single out your groups, but, anyway, almost all partners are divided into:
- Those who will agree to send single items. In this case, working with them is perfect for beginner dropshippers who do not have large funds at the initial stage.
- Those who will be engaged in sending goods in small wholesale or starting with a certain number of orders. In this case, such a partner is more suitable for already experienced dropshippers who have financial independence.
Who to contact?
Dropshipping platforms are developing rapidly, so there are many suppliers now. Among them, you can find high-quality partners who can cooperate with you on terms favorable to you.
Among the Russian suppliers are popular: Dropo, Mega-M, MarketHot, Altermods, etc. About them you can find a large amount of information and reviews. These are large manufacturers that deal with different types of products, so you can choose the niche you need.
For example, Mega-M is engaged in office equipment, and also provides mobile phones and tablets. In MarketHot you can find products for children, houses, summer cottages, various gadgets, etc.
Ukrainian suppliers are also popular. For example, Vilomi provides conditions for dropshipping, as well as promoting their products themselves. The company is engaged in women's shoes made of leather.
Endorphone also operates on a profitable dropshipping scheme. This is the official distributor of Apple smartphone cases.
Online store
So, the first step was to find a supplier. After you actively began to engage in it, in parallel, you can begin to create a site. First you need to decide on product categories and check their availability with suppliers. Next, you can begin work on the online store, its optimization and promotion. Next will run the ad.
Creating an online store
How to open a dropshipping online store? If you don’t understand anything about this, it is best to turn to a specialist for help. At this stage, the first step is to purchase an engine for the online store. Of course, you can try to find a free option, but it is more suitable for a blog. But e-commerce is better to engage in a more reliable platform.
Next, you will need to register and buy a domain name, and then pay for hosting. All this will help your resource stay afloat. But this is only a third of the work at this stage.
If you want to establish a serious dropshipping platform, pay attention to paid SMS. You will have the opportunity to seek technical support and advice, get basic store optimization, save personal data, etc.
You can also work on the design yourself, if you have any ideas. True, in this case, you still have to contact the programmer who will make you a self-written site. Maintenance of such a resource will be expensive, so consider this right away. In addition, you will need the services of this programmer in the future.
You can buy a ready-made template and modify it a little. You can figure it out on your own, and this method seems much cheaper.
Online Store Optimization
To avoid problems with dropshipping, an online clothing store or any other goods should be optimized correctly. Usually SEO specialists who are trained in this business work on this. But you yourself can also try, though you will have to study a lot of literature, perhaps even sign up for courses.
This stage directly depends on the requirements of the search engine. After creating a site, it is important that it starts appearing in search results if, for example, a buyer enters the words “buy clothes” in the search box. The higher the position of your online store, the greater the success.
Optimization requires knowledge of many technical aspects. It is also important that the site is attractive and stylish, while loading quickly and being easy to use. It is necessary that the client finds what he needs in just a couple of clicks.
Next, you will have to spend a lot of time filling the site. You should know all dropshipping products and place them logically. At the same time, content and the fullness of the resource play an equally important role. For example, if you are selling shoes, then try to provide more complete information about the models. At the same time, the texts should be not only simple and logical, but also filled with keywords so that customers find what they need.
Online Store Promotion
This stage is difficult and time-consuming. If you can still figure out the creation and filling of the site yourself, then this process will require knowledge and skills from you. It is extremely important to understand Internet marketing, to understand the principles of advertising, its types and capabilities. You will also need to understand web analytics in order to correctly understand the audience and contact with it.
During the promotion you need to raise your store as high as possible in the search results. To do this, you need to use advertising that will attract buyers, and those, respectively, will increase website traffic, and then increase orders and profits.
For promotion use:
- search engines and ad networks from Google and Yandex;
- social networks for working with groups or pages dedicated to the store;
- links to third-party resources, etc.
The preparatory phase of the promotion includes the definition of goals. Next, you need to decide what is profitable to sell with dropshipping. To do this, you will have to study the market, evaluate the starting budget, look at a competitor and learn all about marketing strategies.
It is imperative to use analytics and services to verify positions. You can choose between Yandex.Metrica, Yandex.Webmaster, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster. Thanks to these resources, you can collect all analytics from your website, monitor attendance, analyze the audience and mark goals.
Next, you will need to work with product advertising in dropshipping. You will have to use contextual in social networks. It’s much easier to work with the first one, since it’s enough to correctly configure it to display the target audience. But advertising on social networks is more difficult. You will have to spend time studying SMM or hire a specialist to write interesting and colorful posts.
For promotion, you can use e-mail marketing. But for this you need to acquire a customer base, which after the transaction with you will receive favorable offers and promotions.
What to sell?
Dropshipping clothing is considered perhaps the most popular. But this does not mean at all that this niche will suit you. The fact is that a lot depends on your region. If you live in the capital, then you have much more opportunities. You can find a variety of partners who offer the supply of any product. In addition, there are many buyers around you who almost always need something.
Practice shows that most online sites sell the same products. Often these are shoes, clothes, household and family goods, and appliances. You can meet dropshipping cosmetics less often, since there are more problems with it, and food.
Nevertheless, now everything is for sale, and there is always a demand for it. Therefore, further you will have to build on what potential partners offer you. There are a lot of suppliers of clothes, so you can always fall into this niche. But there is extremely great competition, so your margin may be so insignificant that it will not be worth it.
In this case, it’s best to pay attention to certain brands or groups. For example, you can try selling Nike sneakers or selling children's clothing. , - . , .
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- Independence and flexibility. You are not tied to a single production. There is an opportunity to constantly change areas, buy the desired assortment and find new suppliers.
- No inventory left. No warehouse - no inventory.
- Cost reduction. Many expenses pass you by - customs duties, storage of goods, relevance of contracts, etc.
Cons of dropshipping
It is difficult to imagine an ideal business, therefore, despite the many advantages of dropshipping shoes and other goods, there are also disadvantages:
- Difficulty with the entrance. Since starting this business is not difficult, thousands of people have definitely tried it before you. Therefore, the competition is great, which means that advertising costs will be high.
- A lot of work. Despite the fact that the front of work is being reduced due to shifting delivery to other shoulders, there will still be a lot of work. And it doesn’t matter at all whether you are engaged in dropshipping of underwear or children's toys.
- Special income. Dropshipping requires a special model of behavior, since income consists of the difference between the wholesale and retail prices. In order for the margin to be really profitable, it is important to choose products with good profitability.
- Reputational risks. It all depends on the reliability of the supplier. They are not always reliable, and a delay on their part will entail the anger of the buyer in your direction. Therefore, it is better that you have “Plan B” for such cases.
conclusions
Dropshipping shoes or any other product is not an easy task. At first glance it seems that you can quickly start in this business and get a lot of money. But newcomers forget that free cheese is only in the mousetrap, and online purchases, although already familiar, still raise suspicion among buyers.
Difficulties begin with the choice of supplier and niche. Selling shoes is not an easy task, because there can be many returns, and this is an extra mess and a waste of time. It is easier to deal with household and family goods, as well as children's toys. But it is worth remembering that checking the quality of the goods is your duty, because it is the dissatisfied buyer who will contact you, while the supplier will remain on the sidelines.