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Things you need to know before Starting a DropShipping Business

Many people have tried dropshipping. Has it all been successful? No. It’s amazing how much you learn from experience. It takes a while for it to happen, but you will look at your past mistakes one day and realize how you got to where you are today. As entrepreneurs, we find that mistakes are sometimes needed to produce breakthroughs. Those tiny little lessons you learn along the way give you hands-on experience that helps you know what works… and what doesn’t.

Although this “Dropshipping” business sounds all easy and doesn’t take much effort to make money online, it is actually not as easy as it looks. You have to know many elements and learn about them before diving into the world of Dropshipping.

Emphasize product quality

I know you are excited about this whole Dropshipping business after watching hours of it on youtube or from a seminar, and you want to dive straight into it. But you need to know that not all products are of good quality.

As a dropshipper, you have a responsibility to your customers to ensure that the products you sell them are of decent quality, safe for consumption, and are in acceptable condition. Should anything go wrong with the order, your customers will be looking to you for compensation or refunds.

Don’t trust everything you see online. Please don’t trust any product quality without seeing the product itself. You probably source for products through AliExpress or Alibaba, which are great platforms, by the way. However, don’t choose the supplier with the lowest price in other for you to make more profit or sell lesser price.

This will be your biggest mistake ever because suppliers will compromise product quality and packing quality to offer the most competitive prices. Also, know that you cannot check the samples because you are dropshipping, which will lead to customer complaints that the products sent were not the ones used in your advertisement.

Don’t always go for suppliers that offer the lowest prices without checking their products’ quality first. How do you do that by checking reviews left by past customers of that supplier? You can place a test order with your chosen suppliers so you can check product quality and see exactly what your customers will receive if you are focusing on a particular niche.

Proper due diligence right from the start will save you from making costly mistakes in the future or losing your customers due to bad product.

Using one supplier is Risky.

Do not rely on just one supplier for your products, especially if it’s a quick selling product. You will have many customer orders run out of stock, and your only supplier may be unable to meet up with your demands. This is a sign of a bad business brand for your customers; you will lose the income you would have made from the product request and may even get a chargeback from your customers.

If you have only one supplier, you become inevitably dependent on him. And this allows him to raise prices and impose such conditions that may be not only unprofitable for you but even onerous.  I advise you to look for three to five suppliers for every product that you sell. And even if you know that Supplier A can fulfill all of your orders, you can split your orders among other suppliers to serve as a backup.

You can use this formula:

50 percent goes to Supplier A

30 percent goes to Supplier B

20 percent goes to Supplier C

DropShipping
DropShipping

This way, you are still building up relationships with other suppliers you may rely on in the future should in case of Supplier A disappoint you.

For your Dropshipping business to succeed, you must rely on the relationship between you and your supplier. Taking the time to forge strong relationships with different suppliers will definitely pay off in the long run.

Provide great customer service

Reputation is important for any successful brand. For your dropshipping business, customer satisfaction is the foundation of reputation building. It’s also the most crucial factor in growing and sustaining a viable dropshipping business. The shopping and support experience you offer customers is something you have utter control over even when you don’t have control over product quality nonshipping time.

Customers will call, chat or mail you asking for updates regarding their shipments, so you need to invest significantly in customer service.

Keep in mind that the supplier doesn’t know your customers, so dealing with the customers’ queries and concerns is your job, which is why it’s important to address inquiries and complaints as soon as possible.

 Use content marketing and social media.

Content marketing is one of the most important channels you can use to reach the target audience interested in the products you sell. For example, if you sell children’s clothes, you are one step closer to attracting pregnant women and people with children. You should create a blog post or Instagram post about children’s clothes. Also, advertising to blogs and social media accounts that may be of interest to your target audience is another way you can follow to increase your sales.

No matter what you sell with dropshipping. If you use social media channels actively and correctly, you will attract customers. Social media applications, which offer you the opportunity to advertise for free, will keep the money you earn and reach massive audiences. If you are going to start dropshipping alone on Amazon, it doesn’t make sense to try to be active on all social media platforms. You can strengthen your relationship with your customers and be permanent in the market by producing content continuously through two or three frequently used applications.

Also, make sure your website traffic is coming from multiple sources. It is critical to have backup plans when running your business because they give you flexibility and options when there is a crisis.

 It will take longer than you expect to make a profit with dropshipping.

What you need to know is the Drop Shipping is extremely tough. The giant question of how long it will take to make money is something that most gurus online and in YouTube videos forget to stress; or just flat-out overlook because they want you to see the bigger money picture and the potential gains at the end of the road.

The fact of the matter is it will take a good chunk of time for you to see a profit with dropshipping.

Sell Globally immediately

Most people focus on selling to their country citizens. And when it comes to international, they expand to America, Uk, and Canada. But the truth is there are other countries you can sell to. If you have secretly always wanted to take over the world, dropshipping is the perfect business model to do that.

If you start marketing internationally early on, you can find countries that no one else is selling to. The truth is for most countries outside the big four, the numbers of sellers are not much, thereby making it the biggest opportunity for dropshippers.

To prepare for this, check if your payment gateway supports the different currencies used in other countries or if there are additional fees that will be incurred.

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