How Does Dropshipping Work
I recently got an email from one of our readers, asking how does dropshipping work, and how can I make money with it ?
That’s a great question. Every question that ends with ” how can I make money with it” to me, is a great question.
So I decided to help those of you who are trying to start a dropshipping business.
In this post you’ll learn -
- What is dropshipping, and how does it work
- What are the benefits of dropshipping ?
- What is the best platform for your dropshipping website ?
- How I started my dropshipping business, and some general tips that will help you succeed.
What is Dropshipping, And How Does It Work ?
Dropshipping is a form of product fulfillment that goes like this :
You sell an item to a customer -> place an order with a supplier -> the supplier ships directly to the customer.
Basically, you don’t even touch the product you are selling.
Your job is to find a buyer(customer), and a seller (supplier) and connect between them.
Many companies are using this dropshipping model without you even being aware of it. For instance, if you buy a product lets say from amazon, and they don’t have it, they can place an order with Walmart and Walmart will ship the product to you (just an example).
What Are The Benefits Of Dropshipping ?
The advantages of dropshipping are :
- You don’t need to pay anything upfront
- You don’t do any shipping & handling
- You basically don’t take any risk
- You won’t have your house / warehouse full of stock and merchandise
Like we said earlier, you don’t physically “touch” the item / product, all you do is connect a buyer ( demand ) to the supplier ( supply).
Cool, isn’t it ?
I do both dropshipping and “formal” retail ( meaning I buy products and resell them) and dropshipping is way easier obviously. I don’t need to spend money upfront on items that I don’t know how long will take to sell. My risk when starting a new dropshipping business is within $20-$30.
Best Platform For A Dropshipping Website ?
You can start your own commerce using WordPress, but it’s messy, believe me.
I have been dealing with wordpress for years, im a huge wordpress fan, but when it comes to a store, Shopify is the best platform out there.
Why use Shopify ?
- Easy drag&drop platform - built your dropshipping website in minutes…
- Amazing addon apps - thousands of apps that will help you sell more …
- Great “back-end” screens - lets you analyze your csutomers data
- Recommended by top players, like Daymond John from shark tank and others…
Shopify makes it easy to upload products (if you’re dropshipping, you can upload them in bulk), manage your store, and receive payments from credit cards, paypal, even bank transfers, they just make everything easier.
Shopify costs around $20 a month, and that includes hosting, you can’t beat that.
Join shopify by clicking here!
How Can I Make Money Dropshipping ?
Ok. lets cut to the chase.
So you joined shopify, and built an ecommerece dropshipping website, now how do you make money?
Simple. Not easy, but simple.
- Find products / niche in demand
- Find a supplier
- Find customers
- Send your supplier your customers address - so they’ll ship their items
Simple, right ?
Well, its not easy.
First, you need to find products that are in demand and not extremely competitve. I recommend finding trends at google trends.
For instance, I know a couple guys who made over $20,000 within the last couple month dropshipping Pokemon items.
Don’t get me wrong, I won’t recommend selling these kind of items, because you might get sued for TM violation (they didn’t but I don’t think the risk is worth it).
What I do is simply open my eyes. Look around, what is trending ? what is selling ? what are people talking about offline ? what are people talking about in social media ? whats the hottest topics right now ? ( elections are coming, for instance, you can bank on that selling Trump dolls or something, you get the idea !)
I know people love alibaba, but I recommend finding a local supplier that you can trust, that others won’t have easy access to.
Not only you’ll get better prices, you also won’t have to deal with over-seas manufacturers that can mess up orders and cost you a ton of money ( been there, done that).
Use google, ask around, find those factories in your countries that can provide these products. Many of them would LOVE to dropship for you, they don’t mind. They just want to sell as much as they can.
Third, find costumers.
That’s maybe the hardest part. You will need to invest money in ADS, ppc, maybe even start a blog and write about your industry, anything you can do to get attention and traffic to your website.
Without traffic, you won’t make money. period.
Last, fulfill the order.
After your customer have purchased from you, you will neeed to get the item to him.
Simply, pay your supplier, and give him your customers address.
Let your supplier know you’re drop shipping, so he won’t add vouchers and coupons and what not.
Let’s Wrap It UP !
I hope you learned more on the subject of dropshipping, how it works, and how you can make money with it.
Dropshipping is an art, and you need to master it in order to get great in it. I can’t teach you everything on dropshipping within 1 blog post, but I tried to give you the main keys, now you have to go and do your own research.
The most important advice I can give you is this : TAKE ACTION !
Give it a try, it costs almost nothing !
Join shopify - go to alibaba, find cool items, post them in your store, try to get traffic and some sales.
Even if you “fail” - you at least learned what not to do. And who knows ? you might get “lucky” ( I dont believe in luck) and make some money on your first website.
But the most important thing is this : take action. don’t wait to the perfect moment to come, because it simply doesn’t exist.
Please share this post on social media if you gained anything from it !
Until next time,
The bigbucksblogger.
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