Before diving into the process of setting up your dropshipping business, take some time to learn what the dropshipping business is all about. Know what the advantages are, the disadvantages, if it's worth it, and so on.
Available for download is The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping which covers everything you need to know about starting a dropshipping business.
You'll learn how to find and work with suppliers, pick products to dropship, evaluate sales channels, set up and run your dropshipping business, and much more.
After reading this guide, you'll have enough of a foundation to confidently get started researching and launching your own dropshipping business!
The most important step – the one that most people never take – is to actually get started building your business! This is the hardest thing for most people and it's usually a result of fear and uncertainty.
It's a common misconception that successful entrepreneurs have a rock-solid certainty about their business at the outset. When you dig a little deeper, you'll find that most had fears and reservations about how things would turn out. Yet they moved forward with their plan despite these doubts.
If you're serious about building your own dropshipping business, you'll need to do the same. Do your research, evaluate your options and then move forward with that information in spite of your fears and reservations. It's what entrepreneurs do. Start now.
Picking a name is important but don’t spend too much time on it. Think of something random and simple. For my women’s jewelry shop I came up with: Catherine Hill Jewelry, Sparkle Glam Jewellery, Sparkle Jewelry Online.
You’ll find plenty of stories about fake AliExpress suppliers circulating around the web. Recently, AliExpress.com have spent a lot of resources into combatting this, so it’s quite rare that you would find an stories about dropshipping suppliers who scam.
Although the platform is taking care of fraudulent dropshipping suppliers itself, we still suggest that you perform a background check on your drop shipping suppliers. Not only will this help you to ensure that your customers will receive a high-quality service, but also to ensure that they will enjoy product satisfaction.
We’ve put this article together to show you how to find dropshippers on AliExpress, and show you the types of dropshipping suppliers you should avoid.
Don’t get overly excited when you find the same product at a fraction of the price. Typically, the price of a product on AliExpress.com is comparative with the product’s quality. If you’re looking for dropshipping suppliers who offer high-quality goods for your store, you may need to spend a little more money when you’re sourcing products.
When you’re sourcing products, you’ll find that there are a lot of AliExpress suppliers offering similar products. It’s a great idea to compare the prices which various different dropshipping suppliers have set. If a number of sellers have similar prices for the same product, but you find that one supplier has a drastically lower price, this could indicate that the product is of a lower quality. Another key point is to check out the AliExpress supplier’s reviews to determine if there has been any negative reviews about their quality — this will help you to find the best dropshipping suppliers for your store.
Although a lower price does not necessarily mean that the dropshipping supplier’s products are of a lower quality and vice versa, we highly recommend that you avoid the following situation:
Remember that drop shipping suppliers on AliExpress.com have very tight margins and understand them well, which is why a higher price normally means a better quality product.
When you’re running your ecommerce business you’ll need to build up a foundation of reliable dropshipping suppliers. Take note that this doesn’t automatically mean that dropshipping suppliers with a lower feedback score can’t be trusted, but it’s a good general measure to go by.
Next, you should consider their individual product feedback and their order counts. It’s much safer to buy a product that has been ordered a few thousand times with a 90% positive feedback score, than a product that has only been sold twice but has a 100% positive feedback score. Look for any unhappy customers. Usually, the unhappy customers help identify possible products defects and issues. You’ll also be able to view customer reviews for individual products, which will likely include images for said item — it’s another great way to validate a dropshipping supplier.
However, if a certain product doesn’t yet have any feedback, look up the other products that the dropshipping supplier carries and check the feedback. If you notice that the other products which the drop shipping supplier is selling have good feedback then you’re good to go, it not then you may want to stay away from that supplier.
As a dropshipper, it’s imperative that you avoid dropshipping suppliers on AliExpress who are selling counterfeit or knockoff goods. Genuine designer products are rarely found on AliExpress.com — it’s always best to avoid popular brand name products in your store, as they’re likely fake.
If you find that a drop shipping supplier which you’re sourcing products from is selling counterfeit goods then you should avoid using them and report that seller to AliExpress. You could end up in legal trouble if you’re found to be selling copyrighted products, so it’s always best to avoid anything that looks suspicious.
Let’s say you have an emergency situation — a customer files a dispute on your PayPal account and insists on a reshipment for their order. In this situation, you’d want your drop shipping supplier to respond to you immediately, right?
In order to protect yourself against such situations, always check the responsiveness of AliExpress suppliers before importing any of their products to your ecommerce store. You can simply write them a message via AliExpress.com and see how quickly you receive an appropriate response. You can even create a fictional scenario where you say you haven’t received your order. Note how long it takes for your seller to reply and how they handle the situation.
A great dropshipping supplier will respond to you quickly, be understanding of your problem, and act fast to rectify it. Thankfully, you’ll be able to find lots of great dropshipping suppliers on AliExpress.
When you’re asking the question: ‘how to find dropshippers on AliExpress?’, it’s imperative that you keep the responsiveness of your drop shipping suppliers in mind. Combine their responsiveness with the quality and price of the products that they’re selling, and you’ll have a strong idea about the type of drop shipping supplier that you’re dealing with.
When the primary due diligence of the drop shipping supplier is over and you’ve imported their products to your store you should place a couple of test orders to determine their quality. If your funds allow it, we suggest that you order 3–5 samples from different sellers.
Product samples are a great tool when you’re determining how to find dropshippers on AliExpress. Review your product samples and check which items have the highest quality — this will allow you to understand how reliable the dropshipping supplier is. You’ll also be putting yourself in the customers shoes, which will further help you to understand which are the best dropshipping suppliers.
It’s likely that you won’t be able to order samples of all the products which you’re planning to sell, but try ordering from as many sellers in your store as possible to see how long the delivery actually takes, the quality of the product, and the packaging which they use for shipping.
While it makes perfect sense to order samples before selling them in your store, it may also be useful to wait until you have already imported their products. If you’ve researched the dropshipping supplier carefully before you decided to import any of their products into your store, your first sale could be the final step for validating them as a supplier for your ecommerce business. There are plenty of drop shipping suppliers on AliExpress which you can test products from, so don’t be discouraged if your first drop shipping supplier doesn’t work out perfectly.
AliExpress.com guarantees a full refund if a customer doesn’t receive the order and a partial refund if the item which you receive is not as described. So, if the order hasn’t arrived within the promised time, or if the product differs from what was described, simply contact the seller or submit a refund request by clicking ‘Open Dispute’ on AliExpress. From this page you can formally discuss possible solutions with the dropshipping supplier. If you’re not satisfied with the seller’s suggestions, you can escalate the dispute to AliExpress.com. They will then mediate between both you and the seller to resolve the issue.
For more information on this, go to the AliExpress Buyer Protection page.
Now that you’re armed with plenty of top tips for finding the best drop shipping suppliers on AliExpress, it’s time to start sourcing great products for your own ecommerce store. Here’s a quick recap just before you start sourcing your own products:
Thankfully, Shopify and other alternative software have simplified the process. You can create your eCommerce store in just a few clicks and all of the server setup and maintenance is taken care of for you. You can create your eCommerce store in just a few clicks and all of the server setup and maintenance is taken care of for you.
Go to Shopify.com, click 'start your free 14-day trial', enter your store name, and create your shop.
Your store is now ready!
Next you’ll need to fill out a couple of details about your store, your experience with ecommerce, and your personal details.
4.1. Add Your Store Payment Option
Add your PayPal email address under Shopify Settings > Payments Section. Later, you can change, remove, or add additional payment options.
If you don’t have a PayPal account, register at PayPal.com. It will take about 5 minutes.
4.2. Generate Required Policies
Shopify offers a handy tool for generating terms and conditions, standard privacy, and return policies. Just go to Shopify Settings > Checkout > scroll down to Refund > Privacy > TOS statements section to generate each policy sample.
4.3. Add Free Shipping Rate
The sourcing tool I recommend will offer most of the products with a free delivery option. I suggest adding a free shipping rate for all of your orders, as well.
Go to Shopify Settings > Shipping and delete all shipping zones that are “Domestic,” and under the “Rest of World’ select ‘Free International Shipping’ under ‘Price based rates.’ Don’t forget to check off “Rate: Free shipping rate.”
Shopify allows you to sell your products across multiple channels like Online Store, Facebook Store, Brick & Mortar store, etc.
Right now, we want to create an Online store. Go to Shopify Settings > Sales Channels and add Online Store as your sales channel if it hasn’t been added automatically.
Buying a domain is optional but recommended. Currently, your URL looks like this: [storename].myshopify.com. You might want to change it to look more like a standard website: [storename].com.
You don’t have to do this right away, though. Note that there will be a cost for changing the name (usually about $13 per year). You can set this up later once you decide if you want to invest further money into your eCommerce business.
It is important to note, however, that a custom internet address provides social accountability when you start advertising your site, which can increase your sales significantly. Also, the sooner you purchase the domain for the store, the less likely it is for someone else to buy it later on.
To buy a domain, go to Shopify Online Store > Domains Section > Buy New Domain.
P.S. You’ll need to confirm the domain before it starts working. The confirmation email is in your email inbox.
A traditional eCommerce model works like this: First you buy several hundred products, then you wait for them to be delivered, stock them in your garage or a small warehouse, and when someone places an order you ship them to your customer.
This model works well for bigger companies, but for new companies, it can have extra costs (storage space), risks (unsold stock), and annoyances (not having a popular item in stock and ready to ship).
Luckily, today there is an alternative to this model: dropshipping. Dropshipping allows people who are just figuring out how to start ecommerce store to get started quickly so that they can spend more time and energy on generating sales. With dropshipping, you aren’t required to hold any inventory and don’t need to ship, which also saves you time and money.
Simply add products to your eCommerce store, and when an item sells, pay the supplier who then ships it directly to your customer. There is no need to pay for extra storage space and no need to worry about what to do with unsold stock.
From here onward, we’ll focus solely on dropshipping because the alternative requires extra capital, time and risk. There are two ways to obtain dropshipped products for your eCommerce store:
There are several dropshipping apps, but I would suggest using the free app from Oberlo. Oberlo is an app that allows you to import dropshipped products from AliExpress to your eCommerce store within minutes. Items sold in your store will be shipped directly to your customers in just a few clicks. AliExpress offers a wide variety of products at very low prices, which is why it is an ideal partner in the beginning when you launch your store.
Here’s how we’ll use it:
1) Create categories
Product categories are called collections on Shopify. If you’re selling women’s jewelry your collections will be (from top to the bottom): Earrings, Rings, Necklaces, Watches, Bracelets, etc. Just go to Products > Collections > Add New Collection > enter your collection name and select your collection conditions.
2) Install Oberlo app and add products
Adding products with Oberlo is simple. The video below shows me installing the Oberlo application from Shopify App Store and importing a products to my store.
When it comes to selecting products for your store, choose products based on high order volume, high star rating and shipping costs. For order volume, anything over 30 orders with a high star rating is fine. You just want to ensure that other people have been happy with their purchases. When it comes to star rating, 4+ only. You want to ensure that people are happy with the quality and manufacturer. When it comes to shipping costs, if free shipping is offered great but if ePacket is offered you can provide your customers with faster delivery times.
Content is extremely important. This is an area where you should devote your focus on and spend more time on in the future. For now, the following sections should be enough to start with: About Us, Terms and Conditions, Privacy and Returns Policy, Shipping & Delivery Information, Track Your Order link, Contact Us.
1) About Us
When you write an About Us page, make it personal. Tell a story about why you started the brand. Show pictures of yourself to show that there’s a human behind your eCommerce business.
2) Shipping and Delivery Information
Most of the sellers on Oberlo have very similar delivery prices and timeframes, so it is best to copy and paste this standardized shipping & delivery page
3) Terms and Conditions
You may remember that these pages were generated during the first step of this tutorial. Simply copy them from your settings page and paste into separate articles.
4) Contact Us
Mastering design is an important part in the process of creating an ecommerce store. How you present your eCommerce business helps build trust with customers. Thankfully, Shopify automatically assigns a default theme to your eCommerce store and it already looks great, so you do not need to change this unless you want to spend the time to customize it. A customized site can help enhance your brand, but it is not necessary to do that when first launching the store.
Don’t buy a new theme until you’ve generated enough sales for it to be paid for through your eCommerce business. There’s no need to make big purchases in the beginning. You can still create a beautiful website through your banner graphic, color scheme and other visual elements.
1) Create Menu/Navigation
Go to the Shopify Online Store > Navigation section > select edit ‘Main Menu’ card and list all your collections there.
2) Upload Main Banner
You can create a cool looking banner in just a few minutes. Use Google ‘banner editing tools’ or click here: Canva.com. Select banner dimensions (1200x360px), upload an image of one of your products, select background, insert a few lines of text, add a ‘Buy Now’ button, and you’re finished.
You can also use Canva’s templates to design something visually appealing. They have shapes you can incorporate into your design to make things pop. Don’t be afraid to look through Canva’s templates for inspiration to design a banner that wows. Their website is user-friendly and allows even someone with little design experience to create a unique banner.
3) Editing Featured Products
4) Setting up your Footer
You can find Footer Settings in Online Store, Themes Section, Customize Theme page, and Footer Settings. There you can decide what you want to see in your footer menu.
You’re ready to get in the game! So let’s go through Shopify’s plans so you can find the one that best suits your needs.
The Shopify team offers four plans to choose from: Lite, Basic Shopify, Shopify and Advanced Shopify. It's often tough to see which one you should choose, considering you don't want to needlessly spend money for features you don't require.
Although Shopify provides domains for a mere $9 per year, I would also recommend checking out places like GoDaddy and NameCheap to shop around and see if any other pricing options are available.
Shopify presents you with monthly and yearly payment options, and although you can upgrade or downgrade your account at any time for no charge, I would consider going with the monthly plans to start out. This way, you don't get stuck in a yearly cycle if you need to modify the plan or completely stop using Shopify. The yearly plan might be better if you already have an established business and you're just migrating over to Shopify, or if you've had a successful first year with Shopify. However, startups and inventors should probably go with the monthly plan in case something happens where you need to shut down.
You can cancel your plan at any point without being charged any fees, but yearly payment is not reimbursed, so that's another reason to stick with a monthly plan to start. Now, let's take a look at the four Shopify payment plans to see which is ideal for you.
Here's a breakdown of the pricing for each plan:
There's also an Enterprise plan that gives you all the tools needed for a large operation. You'll have to contact Shopify in order to establish a custom rate along with whatever features you need. Needless to say, this is a highly customized plan so there's no need to cover it. You'll simply have to talk to Shopify if your store demands this type of support.
The Lite plan goes for $9 per month and gives you tools for selling on Facebook, accepting credit card payments and using Buy buttons. It's not exactly a real online store with a shopping cart, but it does the trick for smaller companies. I also like it if you're trying to install a few basic Buy buttons on an existing website, like for your blog or podcast website.
A new addition involves the Facebook Messenger app, which is included with Shopify Lite and allows you to chat with customers through the Facebook Messenger. This is perfect for customer support.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
Shopify Lite won’t work just by purchasing a hosting plan – the intent with Shopify Lite is to add ecommerce functionality to something you already have like a blog or information site. Therefore, you need a full website already configured with hosting, a domain and everything. For example, you could install Shopify Lite on a WordPress site.
The Basic Shopify Plan takes it up a notch since you receive a discount code engine, fraud analysis tools and the ability to upload an unlimited number of products to your store. The primary step up is the fact that you gain a fully functional website and blog through Shopify. Therefore, all of your products and orders are managed through Shopify, and you won't need a separate website to make it work.
Some other perks include a free SSL certificate, manual order creation, shipping labels, unlimited file storage and 24/7 support.
The pricing structure is set at $29 per month + 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction, which is a bit higher than the Lite Plan, but it gives you the freedom to expand your store with tons of products.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
If your business plans on selling more than 25 products, but you don't want to pay for the features in the Professional Plan, this is the sweet spot for you. It's also the plan you go with if you don't already have a website that you can pair with the Lite plan.
As the most popular Shopify solution, the Shopify Plan goes for $79 per month + 2.6% and 30¢ per transaction, which is quite the jump up from the Basic Shopify Plan, yet you receive pretty much every feature Shopify has to offer.
Create an unlimited amount of products, and take advantage of everything you would get with the Basic Shopify Plan. In addition, you gain access to gift cards, professional reports and abandoned cart recovery. This abandoned cart recovery tool is one of the main reasons people tend to opt for the Professional Plan since it's one of the best ways to grab contact information from people who don't finish their orders.
This obviously shows that the person was somewhat interested, so you can contact them later to prompt a purchase. The coolest part is that the abandoned cart tool sends out automated emails based on your own preferences. For example, if user abandons a cart in your shop, you can choose to send them a promo or reminder message within six hours.
This feature is a huge deal, since on average 67.89% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts, but these abandoners spend 55% more when they are remarketed to. It's imperative to reach out to these customers and figure out why they are leaving early.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
The Professional Plan works nicely for companies that plan on scaling up quick, since the unlimited products and 5 GB of data ensure that all of your items fit well into the site. If your site brings in more than $5,000 per month, the Professional Plan is a good idea, since the transaction fees drop due to the volume. You also get that coveted abandoned cart recovery tool, which is known to improve sales without much work on your end.
The Advanced Shopify Plan is priced at $299 per month + 2.4% and 30¢ per transaction, which gives you all the features from the previous plans along with an advanced report builder and third-party calculated shipping rates. Unlimited product uploads are still available, and your transaction percentage fees go down a bit.
The best part of the Advanced Shopify pricing plan is that everything is absolutely unlimited, so your storage capabilities are never ending. Feel free to upload as many products as you want, post as many videos and images as needed and bring in all the traffic you require. Abandoned cart recovery also comes with the Unlimited package, which ensures that you can reach those sales numbers that make the increased plan pricing worthwhile.
The abandoned cart feature includes a handy area for managing all customers who have left their carts early to see if an email has been sent, and to figure out the reasons for their early departures. Finally, you can give dashboard access to 15 users, and the Shopify shipping discount is the best you can find compared to the other plans.
Who is this Shopify Pricing plan best for?
The Advanced Shopify Plan serves companies that would rather have their shipping handled by a third party. It's also nice for high-revenue companies that crave advanced reports, which allow for testing and projecting. You save a bit of money with the decreased transaction fees and Shopify shipping discounts, making it ideal for companies bringing in over $10,000 per month.
If you utilize the Shopify Payments processor, you don't have to worry about processing fees. However, if you choose an option like PayPal or Authorize.net, you can expect to pay somewhere around 3% + 30¢ per transaction. Not only that, but Shopify charges on your turnover, and this ranges from 0.5% to 2%. However, some require payments. For example, S Loyalty runs at $19.99 – $119.19 per month depending on your plan.
Although it didn’t take a long time, it is still an excellent achievement. You are now running your own store as an entrepreneur.
You should also remember that you’ve only figured out how to start an ecommerce store, now you need to figure out how to take it to the next level. Owning an eCommerce business is about trying to improve your sales, customer service, customer experience, and most importantly, yourself.
To create a successful eCommerce store, you’ll need to focus your energy on marketing your store via ads, content creation and building an audience on social media. When combined, those three things can have a powerful impact on your brand in the long-term. Right now, you need to put your brand out there for everyone to see as people won’t just magically find you. Just as Shopify and apps like Oberlo make running your eCommerce business easier than ever before, there are plenty of accessible marketing tools and tutorials available online. We recommend using Facebook Ads to boost your sales. Remember, that it’s best to jump right in to this aspect of your eCommerce business because learning by doing will be more effective than coming up with a complex marketing plan right from the onset.
Write down a list of things you want to achieve with your eCommerce business, and begin the learning process. Begin by committing one hour every day to improving your eCommerce store so that you can further edit your website, find new ways to boost sales, and continue learning how to grow your eCommerce business. With hard work and a sales push on your side, the possibilities are endless. Focus on why you started this eCommerce business in the first place and let that drive your determination to succeed. No matter where your eCommerce adventure takes you, rest assured that you’ll learn so much more about yourself and witness your levels of creativity, determination, and perseverance reach new heights.
Hopefully you have read The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping located in the Start Here step in this how to guide. Coming in a close second to adding value as a key success factor is being able to drive traffic to your new site. The #1 problem and frustration new ecommerce merchants face is a lack of traffic to their websites. Too many merchants slave away for months on the perfect site only to launch it to a world that has no idea it exists.
Marketing and driving traffic is absolutely essential to the success of your business and is difficult to outsource well, especially if you have a small budget and are bootstrapping your business. You need to take the personal initiative to develop your own SEO, marketing, outreach and guest posting skills.
This is particularly crucial during the first 6 to 12 months, when no one knows who you are. Following your site launch, you need to dedicate at least 75% of your time on marketing, SEO and traffic generation for at least 4 to 6 months – that's right, 4 to 6 months! Once you've established a solid marketing foundation, you can scale back and coast a bit on the work you put in. But early on, it's impossible to place too much emphasis on marketing.
If you're not a marketing or SEO expert yet, the following resources and blogs are a great way to get started:
SEOmoz – One of the most popular SEO communities online. Their beginners guide to SEO is a particularly great resource for those starting out.
SeachEngineLand – Extremely prolific SEO blog, with dozens of new posts each day.
SEOBook – A popular SEO blog and the home of a paid private community for SEO professionals.
Distilled – This marketing and SEO agency has a top-notch blog and a number of quality training courses and guides, many of which are free.
Hubspot Blog – Advice on everything inbound marketing related, from driving traffic with email to social media tips.
Seth Godin's Blog – Solid high-level advice on marketing and building an audience.
Burst Free Product Photos - High-quality product images for popular dropshipping products.
QuickSprout – A blog by well-known entrepreneur Neil Patel dedicated largely to marketing, SEO and traffic generation.
KissMetrics Blog – In-depth marketing posts with a slant toward analytics, usability and conversion.
SparringMind – How to use behavioral psychology to help influence customers and market your business.
CopyBlogger – Content marketing tips with an emphasis on writing effective, compelling copywriting.
Mixergy – Interviews with successful entrepreneurs in the technology and online fields. Not focused exclusively on marketing, but lots of applicable information for aspiring entrepreneurs including marketing and early-stage advice.
Shopify Blog – A comprehensive ecommerce blog with frequent posts on how to effectively promote and market your online store.
ecommerceFuel – Tips from an active ecommerce entrepreneur on how to found, grow and market online stores. Written specifically for individual store owners and smaller stores.
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Although it didn’t take a long time, it is still an excellent achievement. You are now running your own store as an entrepreneur.
Write down a list of things you want to achieve with your eCommerce business, and begin the learning process. Begin by committing one hour every day to improving your eCommerce store so that you can further edit your website, find new ways to boost sales, and continue learning how to grow your eCommerce business.
With hard work and a sales push on your side, the possibilities are endless. Focus on why you started this eCommerce business in the first place and let that drive your determination to succeed. No matter where your eCommerce adventure takes you, rest assured that you’ll learn so much more about yourself and witness your levels of creativity, determination, and perseverance reach new heights.
We wish you all the best! And remember, we are here to help.