How To Start A DropShipping Business 2016
If you were trying to make money online, I bet you have heard of the term “dropshipping”.
Dropshipping has become extremely popular in 2016, as more and more people get better in marketing and getting traffic, while they don’t want to deal with ordering and managing goods.
I have been in the making money dropshipping for a while now, and had a great time with it. If you want to learn how to start a dropshipping business, this post is for you.
Here’s what we’ll discuss in this :
What is dropshipping ?
Is dropshipping still profitable in 2016 ?
Where to find reliable dropshippers ?
How to pick products to dropship and do a product research ?
What is Dropshipping & Why It’s So Popular ?
Dropshipping is a business method many use nowadays online. What it basically means, is that you won’t have to buy or store any of the products you sell on your store.
You will have a 3rd party (wholesaler usually) that will handle all the shipping, packaging, and handling of the goods, and will ship them directly to your costumers for you.
The benefits of dropshipping are obvious :
- You don’t have to keep any stock or physicall products
- You don’t need to pack or ship anything
- You don’t need to manage the inventory
- You can run this model from anywhere in the world with an internet connection
In the bottom line, you sell the products and collect the payment and address from the customer, send the address to the dropshipper, and he will do the rest for you.
With that being said, there are some disadvantages in dropshipping. I believe they are not critical, but its important that you understand them.
Disadvantages in dropshipping :
- You don’t control the stock
- You don’t control shipping time
- You might have to pay for returns, if they happen
Some dropshippers will charge you for returns, it depends on their policy, and you might have to take the hit, because you will want to keep the costumer happy. It happened to me a few times.
You won’t have full control of whats in stock and whats not and it might create some confusion, and of course you don’t control the shipping time.
With that being said, I believe you should defenetly start a dropshipping business if you’re trying to make money online.
Online shopping is booming and many believe (me included) the trend will just get stronger.
Is dropshipping still profitable in 2016 ?
The short answer is of course. I have read in many forums and got some emails from my readers, questioning the profitable of dropshipping.
I believe these questions come because you dont have the right strategy and the right tools in order to dropship the right way.
The truth is, the whole process needs to be very accurate if you want to make serious money dropshipping.
The reason is your room for mistakes is very small, and the profit margins are low.
The reason for the low profit margins is that you’re basically buying individuall items and not in bulk ( don’t get confused with buying wholesale).
Let me give you an example.
Lets say I list on ebay an iphone 6s for $650.
You buy the item.
I go to the wholesaler and buy the item from him, then give him YOUR (you are the customer) address.
I pay the dropshipper $630 including the shipping & handling cost.
My part is done, now the dropshipper will have to handle the shipping, inventory managment and so on…
As you can see from the example, my part in the proccess was minor. I didn’t have to buy a container full of iphone 6s, I didn’t have to find where to get the bulk products from, I didn’t get a warehouse nor I had to deal with shipping to costumers. I just clicked a few buttons, send the dropshipper the address, and made $20 on the transaction.
By now, you proabably understand the secret of success in dropshipping : if you want to make a lot of money dropshipping, you will need to sell in very high volumes.
Unlike buying in bulk and getting cheap wholesale prices, dropship prices are very close to the consumers, retail price.
Where Can I Find Reliable Dropshippers ?
If you want to start a dropshipping business, you will need a reliable dropshipper that will ship the items for you.
Good dropshippers, with great prices, are very hard to find. Thats the just cold hard truth.
But I have the solution for you. After switching a ton of dropshippers, some from China, some from USA, and some from Singapore, I have found the best place to find dropshippers at.
It is called SaleHoo, a huge dropshipping directory of verified dropshippers.
What I love about their directory is that you can search for any product you would like to dropship, and they already did the due-delligence, meaning they actually verify their dropshippers to avoid scams and they will not approve bad dropshippers.
It will save you a lot of time and money.
It will cost you a one time fee to join, but believe me, its worth it.
You can always do a google search to find a dropshippers but what people don’t understand is that you will need SEVERAL DROPSHIPPERS in reach, just in case one of them runs out of product.
If you’re starting out, you will also want to get the best price for the product, and if you just find 1 dropshipper on google, it will be hard, believe me, I tried.
Whats so awesome about Salehoos dropshipping & wholesalers directory :
- They only list VERIFIED, RELIABLE dropshippers.
- They have dropshippers for almost every product you can think about
- They offer awesome training and advice
- They have a cheap sign-up fee, compared to other directories
I currently work with 4 dropshippers, I have found 3 of them on salehoo, and 1 is a friend of mine.
So don’t worry about the extra few bucks, if you’re serious about dropshipping, you need to join salehoo.
Click here to join salehoo and get access to thousands of dropshippers !
What products should I dropship ?
Choosing the right product can be a headache, I have been there.
You want to consider a few things before you decide to dropship anything :
- Does the product have high demand ? ( use google trends to check the trend on it)
- Can I get a good price from the dropshipper, that will leave me some profit ?
- Are there a lot of sellers that sell the same product for the same price ?
You will need to invest a lot of time in product research and finding the right product to dropship, but you will find it eventually.
Try to stick to products & areas you know and are familiar with, the knowledge will come in handy and will give you more confidence. I won’t start dropshipping make-up when I know absolutely nothing about makeup, it just adds hustle to my process, because I will need to know a little bit about the product in order to know the market, the prices, whats a good price from a dropshipper, and so on…
Lets Wrap It UP !
I hope this post helped you get a better understanding on how to start a dropshipping business and how it all works.
If you got a little confused with all the info I dropped on you, let me make it clear :
- The first thing you need to do is decide which products you are going to dropship
- Then join Salehoos directory, and find someone that will dropship for you
- Last, list your items on ebay / amazon / even your own website, get some traffic and make sales !
Its very SIMPLE, yet, its not EASY.
Good luck with your dropshipping journey, if you have any questions post them below, and please share this post with your friends on social media!
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