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The Psychology of Consumer Behavior in Dropshipping: Understanding Purchase Decisions

Amit Sher — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:26:40 +0000

Dropshipping has become a game-changer in the world of eСommerce. It is extremely popular because it allows entrepreneurs to sell products without worrying about inventory management. Being accessible to everyone, dropshipping allows individuals to join the market without needing a large initial investment.

In this article, we explore the fascinating connection between consumer psychology and dropshipping and the various sophisticated factors that shape consumers’ choices.

Introducing the Consumer Decision-Making Journey

The process of making decisions is a journey for consumers, from the initial realization that they need something to the act of actually buying it, and it goes even beyond that.

In the world of dropshipping, certain aspects make this journey unique. These aspects influence how customers view and engage with products and brands. Let’s explore the key stages, challenges, and opportunities they present in the context of dropshipping.

Problem Recognition

When people start their journey, they usually have certain needs or desires that drive their decision-making process.

From a psychological point of view, this phase is driven by the gap between the state of a client of “where am I now?” and “where I want to be,” which gives a client a feeling of motivation. Dropshipping businesses can take advantage of this by showing how special their products are and appealing to the emotions that come with meeting those needs.

Information Search

During the information search phase, potential customers will be researching different solutions that can address the needs they recognize. The current stage is subject to the impact of cognitive processes, namely selective attention and perception.

The anchoring effect is another psychological impact. This is when the first piece of information the customer sees becomes a point of reference for future choices. In the case of dropshipping, businesses can set up certain products to be the first thing customers see, which can change how customers see the value of other options.

When it comes to dropshipping, consumers come across different sourcing networks that provide a wide range of options. However, these networks can also bring about potential uncertainties. It is important to address these uncertainties by providing clear information about where the product comes from, its quality, and the details of its shipping details. During this stage, we have the opportunity to create trust and establish our brand as a reliable source of information.

Analyzing Options

During this phase, customers assess different solutions. Consumers, motivated by subconscious prejudices like fear of losing, attempt to minimize the likelihood of experiencing regret while making purchases.

To stand out from other dropshippers, it’s important to highlight not just the features of your products but also the trustworthiness of the suppliers you work with. This means addressing worries about quality, delivery times, and return policies and showing that your offer is a good option.

Deciding on Purchase

The purchase decision is the final outcome of the decision-making process. Here, you should provide comfort and full confidence to the customers. Once the confidence is provided, creating a feeling of shortage can make people want to buy something. The fear of losing out makes people act quickly because of the scarcity effect. Customers are more likely to buy right away if you use phrases like “limited stock” or “limited time offer” in your ads.

Dropshippers can help consumers feel more confident about making a purchase by offering secure payment options, being transparent about pricing, and providing a smooth checkout process. This way, any concerns or hesitations that consumers may have can be minimized.

Post-Purchase Behavior

The journey doesn’t end with the purchase; it continues with how people behave after purchasing. Dropshipping allows for continuous interaction by offering personalized recommendations and outstanding customer support. During this stage, dropshippers can demonstrate their commitment to customer satisfaction, which helps build loyalty and encourages customers to return for more.

Businesses can create effective strategies by recognizing and dealing with the difficulties and possibilities that arise at each stage. These strategies should connect with consumers, leading to increased sales, building trust, and cultivating strong relationships between the brand and the consumer. Consider it as your own roadmap on the customer’s journey.

But how exactly can you work through these stages? Below, we have a few examples of the most efficient psychological methods to interact with consumer behavior.

Improving the Attractiveness of a Product

The way something looks can have a big impact on online shopping. It can make us feel certain emotions, motivate us to want something and keep us interested. Visuals are a great way to convey information because our brain processes images faster than text.

In dropshipping, visuals become even more important since there is no physical contact involved. Images can communicate quality, usefulness, and beauty, all of which affect how consumers perceive a product and decide whether or not to buy it.

A few of the most popular techniques to reach this goal are:

Storytelling: Make a story about the object that goes from its creation to its delivery. This story gives the object a human touch and emotional connection, drawing people into its story and making them feel more connected to it.
Example: A traditional dropshipping store that sells handcrafted leather goods tells the story of how each item was made, from choosing the best leather to the complicated process of making it. This creates an emotional connection with customers who respect the artistry behind their purchases.
Use of Color Science: You can strategically use colors to evoke specific emotions and feelings that align with the intended message of your product. Colors may trigger a variety of feelings and impact how people perceive things, which can also align with their personal preferences
Example: A wellness-focused dropshipping startup employs soothing palettes of blue and green in their branding. This creates a sense of peacefulness and welfare that appeals to customers who are looking for wholesome goods to live a balanced life.
Embracing Minimalism: Use clean, clutter-free designs to draw attention to the product and boost its visual appeal. A minimalist design decreases cognitive strain, allowing users to explore the product’s features and benefits.
Example: A trendy dropshipping store that sells innovative tech gadgets uses simple design so that the products can stand out against a clean background. This lets shoppers solely concentrate on the characteristics and benefits of each item.
Comparative Imagery: Side-by-side images can be used to compare and contrast several versions of the product or to show how the product addresses particular issues. This method promotes decision-making by giving customers an easy way to visually compare and contrast their available choices and their associated costs and advantages.
Example: A dropshipping website for beauty products shows side-by-side pictures of skin care products from different brands. This lets customers analyze ingredients as well as effects visually, which makes it easier for them to choose.
Digital Try-Ons: For things like clothing and accessories, online try-on possibilities could help customers see themselves with the item. Customers’ confidence in their purchase decisions can be strengthened by online fittings because of the emotional connection they feel to the product when they see themselves using it.
Example: An online optical products store adds a virtual try-on option that customers can see themselves wearing multiple styles of glasses. This gives them more confidence when choosing frames that fit their face shape and own taste.
360-Degree Views: Include interactive features that allow users to fully explore products from all angles, giving them a virtual experience similar to being in a physical store. When we provide a complete understanding of the product, it satisfies consumers’ curiosity and desire to thoroughly evaluate the product. This helps to minimize any doubts they may have and establishes trust.
Example: This dropshipping business focuses on home decor and offers a unique feature: 360-degree views of furniture pieces. This allows customers to virtually explore every angle of the products, including the intricate details and textures.

Pricing Strategies and How Value Is Viewed

Price is more than just a number; it’s a psychological signal that affects how people think about the value of a thing. Price makes people feel and consider many different things, from how they feel about the quality to how much they can pay. Dropshippers can use these factors to their advantage by knowing what people think about prices.

What strategies can be used by the dropshipping business?

Behavioral pricing: it is a strategy that takes advantage of how our minds work, like our tendency to find prices that end in “9” more appealing. It tricks us into thinking something is more affordable and valuable than it actually is.
Example: A fashion accessory store sells bracelets for $29.99 instead of $30.

Package Pricing: means a strategy that involves offering several items jointly at a discounted rate. This approach aims to increase the perceived value for consumers by providing them with more products for their money.

Example: A dropshipping business that sells skin care items groups a cleanser, a moisturizer, and a serum and sells them for less than they would cost if they were sold separately. This makes it more likely for customers to buy the whole set instead of just one thing, which leads to more sales.

Free-Plus-Shipping Offer: This method, which highlights the appeal of “free,” reduces the cost through delivery charges for the consumers, boosting engagement and impulsive purchases.

Example: A store that sells fitness equipment through dropshipping is giving away resistance straps for free plus shipping. Customers get the bands for free and only have to pay an affordable cost for delivery.

Overcoming Purchasing Barriers

When it comes to dropshipping, it’s not just about ensuring successful transactions for customers. It’s also about overcoming obstacles that might prevent customers from making purchases.

Dropshippers can build trust and reliability by openly communicating and providing helpful support to overcome common challenges. Psychological strategies play a crucial role in developing strong, long-lasting relationships. These strategies help to enhance trust, fostering loyalty and advocacy. This positive cycle transforms obstacles into opportunities, ultimately leading to a brand’s growth and sustained success.

Challenge: Uncertainty about shipping prices, times, and reliability can make people less likely to buy.

Customers worry about hidden fees, delayed deliveries, and online purchase credibility. This lack of clarity can discourage buyers, resulting in abandoned carts. Dropshipping companies may solve this problem by providing clear and precise shipping information from the outset.

Shipping costs, expected delivery timeframes, and tracking options are prominently shown to give customers access to information and control throughout their purchasing experience. This solution directly addresses their worries and gives them the information they need to decide.

Effect: Significantly reduced cart abandonment rates. Customers like candid openness and are keener to buy when they know what to expect. This strategy boosts conversions and promotes trust in the brand’s smooth shopping experience.

Challenge: People who shop online may be hesitant to give out personal and financial information.

Customers are cautious of giving out personal and banking information online because of issues with privacy and security. This uncertainty can slow things down. Using trust badges, security certificates, and safe ways to pay can solve this situation. These things show customers that the business cares about their information and safety.

Effect: Showing trust markers in dropshipping companies makes online shopping safer. Customers are more willing to share their information, which increases conversion rates.

Challenge: People may be hesitant to buy something if they don’t know how good its quality is.

The absence of a physical connection with the product is one of the most common obstacles to online shopping. Customers cannot touch, feel, or investigate the object before purchasing, which may cause them to question its genuine value. Dropshipping companies can handle this issue by displaying products from numerous perspectives and writing informative product descriptions.

Effect: Customers obtain a complete awareness of the product’s characteristics and benefits, which reduces quality concerns. This, in turn, increases their confidence in making a purchase decision, resulting in improved conversion rates and fewer abandoned carts.

Challenge: Complicated return methods or worries about getting money back can stop people from buying.

Customers may avoid buying due to concerns about returning items or getting refunds. This uncertainty sometimes results from imprecise or complex return policies. Dropshipping companies can overcome this issue by simplifying their return policy. Refund and exchange procedures, eligibility requirements, and dates should be properly disclosed.

Effect: Clear and easy return policies remove a big barrier to purchasing for dropshipping companies. Customer confidence increases when they have an extra layer of security in case their requirements aren’t satisfied.

Challenge: When there are too many options, people can get stuck and give up on their carts.

The ambiguity of choice arises when clients have too many options. Variety is intriguing, but too many options can cause paralysis of decision-making. Dropshipping companies can offer customized product suggestions based on clients’ browsing and purchasing history to solve this problem.

Effect: Dropshipping companies reduce cognitive strain from too many choices by offering customized solutions. It provides direction and convenience, which can boost consumer loyalty and retention.

Conclusion

Consumer psychology serves as a guiding compass for dropshippers, helping them navigate through the intense competition of eCommerce. Recognizing how buyers make decisions and behave is not just an extra but a necessity. With this knowledge, companies can not only make their way through the competitive market, but they can also connect with their audience in a real way.

Dropshippers are able to thrive in the rapidly changing industry of dropshipping by understanding and utilizing consumer behavior psychology. Embrace its power!

Author:

Olena Zinkovska ~ Blog editor at Stripo

I strive to make my content engaging, relevant, and valuable for those who want to empower their marketing efforts with attention-grabbing and meaningful emails. Do you want your messages to get opened and read? You are in the right place to make it happen!

The post The Psychology of Consumer Behavior in Dropshipping: Understanding Purchase Decisions first appeared on Modalyst.

Optimization and Effectiveness in Dropshipping and E-Commerce: Strategies and Trends

Amit Sher — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 15:10:08 +0000

Over the last ten years, online shopping has experienced noticeable growth, driven by the rising dropshipping trend. When viewed as a business plan, dropshipping gives brave entrepreneurs a unique chance to carve out their own areas in the busy online shopping market.

The internet is an ever-changing entity, and the way we approach online shopping and dropshipping is ready for big changes as well, spurred on by constant technological advances and smart shoppers’ more complex demands. Businesses that can quickly adapt to these big changes by consistently improving their plans and focusing on offering real value to their customers find themselves primed to succeed in this competitive environment. This article will delve into the ups and downs of modern-day dropshipping and broader online shopping worlds, revealing the clever tactics businesses use to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

The Rise of E-Commerce and Dropshipping

The digital era has introduced remarkable new methods for conducting business. Online shopping is one such method that has gained rapid popularity and continues to expand. Similarly (and perhaps consequently), dropshipping has become a prevalent business model. The practice allows sellers to offer products without actually storing them; instead, they forward orders to a supplier, making dropshipping a key element in many online ventures.

This model is attractive, as it has low initial costs, it eliminates the need to handle stock, and it provides an opportunity to offer a very diverse product range. However, like every business strategy, dropshipping also has its unique hurdles. The primary difficulties involve overseeing the supply chain and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Understanding E-Commerce and Dropshipping Optimization

Dropshipping and Digital Security

In the dropshipping business model, in which transactions are conducted virtually and customer data passes through various channels, digital security plays a pivotal role. It’s essential to create secure pathways for all online interactions, from payments to personal data transfers, in order to ensure that customer trust and business reputation aren’t compromised.

Dropshipping businesses must employ robust cybersecurity measures, such as secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption, two-factor authentication, and secure file transfer protocol (SFTP). Furthermore, comprehensive digital security extends to secure supply chain communications, safeguarding supplier information and business-critical data from potential breaches. By prioritizing digital security, dropshipping businesses can significantly mitigate risks and foster customer confidence, which is vital for success in the competitive e-commerce landscape.

In the dropshipping world, efficient optimization can be a bit more complicated. Businesses have to balance supplier relationships, manage customer expectations, and deal with various operational details . . . without having direct contact with the products. Essential areas to concentrate on include finding suppliers, selecting products, managing order completion, delivering customer service, and improving website design and functionality.

Dropshipping and E-commerce Trends

In the fast-paced e-commerce and dropshipping world, certain trends are emerging. For instance, personalization is becoming key, as customers want tailored experiences. Additionally, sustainability is gaining importance, with more consumers valuing eco-friendly practices.

Also, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into e-commerce operations isn’t merely a trend anymore; it’s becoming a must. These tools provide deeper customer insights to improve businesses’ decision-making.

Impact of Consumer Behavior Shifts on Dropshipping and E-Commerce Efficiency

We can’t afford to ignore the significant impact consumer behavior changes have on e-commerce and dropshipping operations. A mix of factors—societal and economic conditions, technological advances, and market trends—often shape these changes and strongly affect how people make purchases and interact with online platforms.

For example, the increasing demand for sustainable and ethical products has led to a rise in conscious consumerism, forcing businesses to reevaluate their supply chains and product offerings to meet these evolving needs. Likewise, mobile commerce’s meteoric rise has prompted businesses to optimize their platforms for mobile users. To maintain or even improve their effectiveness, e-commerce and dropshipping businesses must stay agile, continually observe these behavior changes, and quickly adjust their strategies. Failure to do so could lead to decreased customer satisfaction, lower sales, and ultimately a drop in overall business efficiency.

Key Strategies to Optimize Dropshipping

While the specific strategies businesses use can vary widely, some key approaches are universally effective in optimizing dropshipping operations. Here are some strategies to optimize your dropshipping business.

Embrace automation: Automation can smooth out your operational wrinkles, reduce error probabilities, and give you the freedom to focus on other vital spheres like client relations and promotional activities.

Refine your web presence: An appealing, user-friendly online platform draws and keeps customers. Engage professional website designers and make sure your site caters to mobile users’ needs.

Enhance customer interaction: A sterling customer care ethos could distinguish your business from your rivals. Offer multiple communication channels, respond promptly, and always resolve customer complaints satisfactorily.

Choose suppliers carefully: Your suppliers play a crucial role in your dropshipping business. Only work with reliable suppliers who offer quality products, timely delivery, and good communication.

Adopt AI and ML tools: As previously mentioned, AI and ML are becoming integral to e-commerce and dropshipping operations. Use these technologies to gain insights into customer behavior, optimize your supply chain, and make data-driven decisions.

Technology’s Role in Optimization

Technology plays a critical role in optimizing dropshipping and e-commerce operations. Automation tools elegantly simplify order execution, diminish potential blunders, and amplify proficiency. In a similar vein, sophisticated analytical instruments furnish vital revelations ventures can harness to hone their product ranges, pricing blueprints, and promotional endeavors.

In this scenario, artificial intelligence and machine learning escalate in significance, enabling organizations to anticipate consumer inclinations and perfect their supply chain mechanics. By foretelling trends and dissecting consumer actions, enterprises can sharpen their demand forecasts, adeptly supervise inventory, and craft potent marketing strategies.

The Future of Dropshipping and E-commerce

In the endlessly-shifting sphere of online trade and direct-to-consumer shipping, an upcoming transformation, fueled by technological progression and morphing consumer desires, is inevitable. Enterprises that mold themselves to these tectonic shifts by persistently refining their operational machinery and imparting value to their customers will flourish.

Attaining finesse and efficacy in direct-to-consumer shipping and the broader realm of online trade requires a multifaceted approach that integrates technological prowess, tactical planning, and a profound grasp of customer needs. Staying current with transient trends and incorporating appropriate techniques empowers businesses to steer through the intricacies and harvest this flourishing sector’s bountiful prospects.tra

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How to Make Sure Your Dropshipping Delivery Will Get to Your Buyer Safely

Sharon Greenfeld — Sun, 01 Jan 2023 13:38:31 +0000

If you’re in the online sales business, you probably know that the future of eCommerce is dropshipping. In fact, the dropshipping market is projected to reach a whopping $476 billion by the end of 2026!

While that’s good news for small businesses and eCommerce hopefuls, it also means competition will likely increase. In other words, customer satisfaction will have to be your priority if you hope to stand out among the dropshipping crowd.

Keep reading to learn more about increasing customer satisfaction by keeping your delivery promises as an eCommerce business.

Dropshipping as the online store solution

As an eCommerce seller, you’re responsible for completing a long list of tasks. But, as you know, the solution to allowing online stores to operate with fewer production costs has been dropshipping.

Some of the best examples of this business model include Amazon, eBay, and AliExpress. What’s more, the right dropshipping tools free you of the financial and time-consuming aspects of labeling, shipping, and stocking.

However, not everyone considers that with dropshipping, customer service is still squarely on the seller’s shoulders.

What makes good dropshipping customer service?

If you want your eCommerce business to thrive, customer service will need to be your top priority. As a dropshipping seller, you must maintain good relationships with customers by any means necessary while simultaneously managing suppliers.

Ways to improve your customer service:

Keep response times fast: Have you ever waited on a response from customer service reps? If so, you know the frustration can make someone second-guess their purchase. If you want return customers, having a quick response time will help.
Invest in a content platform: Juggling marketing, customer service, and an online store is hard. But investing in a content platform can help you stay organized. It also helps you limit the amount of time between orders.
Follow up with customers: Want to establish a trusting relationship with your customer base? The best way to entice people to keep buying from you is to reach out. Follow up when the order is being processed, when the order ships, and again after they’ve received their package.
Make sure packages get delivered safely: Believe it or not, you’re also responsible for ensuring that packages get delivered safely. Below, we’ll go into more detail about this aspect of dropshipping customer service.

Here are five things you can do to make sure the package delivery process is smoother:

Test shipping times
We know it’s exciting to start your eCommerce journey. But if you want your orders to arrive without incident, tests and experiments are well worth the opening delay. Testing the ordering, shipping, and delivery process of your own product gives you an inside look into what customers can expect. If one supplier doesn’t fulfill your order on time, keep trying until you find one that’s more reliable. You’ll thank yourself later when your customers aren’t complaining about faulty deliveries.Also, choosing a pre-qualified supplier can help reduce potential fulfillment complications.
Be transparent about shipping times
The worst thing you can do with your online store is hide expected shipping times. If you have a product that people want, you won’t need to rely on bad messaging. Being transparent about shipping times can help manage expectations. Moreover, when customers have a timeline for the fulfillment, they’ll know when to expect their order and can plan to intercept it.
Be thorough and organized
When it comes to fulfilling orders in a timely, organized manner, the best thing you can do is be thorough. Some of the biggest time-wasters in shipping are wrong addresses, misspellings, and half-filled forms.Make sure you double-check all information before finalizing orders. Second, don’t be afraid to reach out to customers if something doesn’t look right on their shipping form. They’ll thank you for following up if it means their order arrives safely.
Choose reliable shipping methods
Depending on which supplier and dropshipping company you partner with, choosing a shipping method may be the best way to control outcomes. If you can choose the final delivery expert, choose a well-known handler like UPS, USPS, or even FedEx. These handlers will know their neighborhood, access a customer’s package locker, and even have real-time delivery updates.While you can’t control all aspects of the final delivery, you can at least rest easier knowing you used a reliable handler.
Take responsibility
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, shipping delays and package loss happens. It’s not the end of the world, but as a top-notch seller, taking responsibility for these mishaps could make all the difference.

Some good ways to make up for unforeseen order issues:

– Be open to fixing the issue
– Keep communication lines open
– Issue refunds when needed
– Follow up after resolving an issue
– Offer to replace broken or lost itemsUltimately, you must decide what’s more important: saving money or saving your reputation as a dependable seller.

Takeaways

Dropshipping is quickly becoming the best way for eCommerce businesses to sell on a limited budget.
This type of online business is the solution to making it easier for sellers to focus on more critical aspects of selling.
Dropshipping customer services is what will set you apart from competitors.
Five ways to ensure packages arrive safely include testing shipping times, maintaining transparency with customers, keeping addresses organized, choosing a reliable package handler, and issuing refunds when necessary.

The post How to Make Sure Your Dropshipping Delivery Will Get to Your Buyer Safely first appeared on Modalyst.

20+ Tips to Find Trending Products to Sell Online in 2023

Alain Miguel — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 20:09:00 +0000

If it were easy to start a successful ecommerce store, everybody in the world would be millionaires

The ecommerce industry plays a role in this misconception. They make it sound like running an online store is a piece cake. Everywhere you turn you can find a YouTube ad in which a talking head tells you they made $100,000 in a single month with their Oberlo dropshipping store.

While they may be telling the truth about their success, these ads aren’t telling you all that goes into the process.

Namely, those dropshipping gurus are experts at finding great products to sell. They understand the value of a curated product selection and have a defined process that ensures they’re buying and selling at a reasonable profit.

As a new entrepreneur, you can’t create that process out of thin air.

You need a starting point, and that is what we’re offering below.

We’re going to start by outlining where you can find popular products to sell on your online store.

Trending Products to Sell Online

Before we dive into the nitty gritty, it’s important to discuss the importance of Google Trends in finding top trending products.

When it comes to starting your drop shipping business, the first step is usually the hardest. However, if you know how to use Google Trends, you will be able to be decisive about a plan and ultimately put your worries and fears to rest.

If you’re not selling products that are in high demand, any cumulative gains you realize may not be worth your while.

For one thing, trending products is actually a very competitive niche. There are lots of people jostling for ever-shrinking bits of the ecommerce market.

As players in this space continue to use advanced search engines and tools for an advantage over their rivals, they continue to drop their prices to new levels of low.

The suppliers aren’t doing any favors with their prices either. They are in business to make money, just like every business outfit.

Let’s put this plainly: there are opportunities with this business model, but they aren’t lying around for the average Joe. It’s up to you to find them wherever they might be hidden.

Google Trends to the Rescue

Thankfully, there is at least one easy way to uncover these opportunities. It’s Google Trends, a tool which lets you know what people in your locality or around the world are looking for with its search engines.

It displays the most popular search queries of the moment, as well as over different periods from the past. A lot of this information is depicted in charts that are easy to understand.

Here’s why this concerns you: when a lot of people are looking for particular products, their searches will turn up in Google Trends. And if you use it, you’ll be able to tell the most-searched-for merchandise within any given period.

If you know anything about SEO, you’ll probably realize straight away the potential gold mine this resource could be for you or for any other dropshipping venture, online website, or businesses in general.

How to Grow Your Business Using Google Trends

Sell Products That People Actually Want

With Google Trends, a drop ship business becomes about delivering stuff that people are looking for. When there is a large audience looking for a product via Google search, it’s a good indication that the product has a sizable pool of potential customers you can market to.

Make Relevant Content Marketing and Ad Campaigns

You already know that the demand for any given product varies over different regions.

What Google Trends does is to give you a glimpse into what those differences are. For instance, if you’re going to reach potential customers in two locales with ads, you’ll want to know how to allocate ad spend for the different campaigns.

While Google Trends won’t help you with exact sharing formulas, it will let you know the difference between the levels of interest in both towns for the product you intend to offer. This will, in turn, inform your decision on how effort you should expend in reaching target audiences in each locale.

Also, the tips gotten from this tool can be used to drive more targeted digital marketing initiatives. You can mine trending keywords from Google Trends and plug them into your online content. When combined with other SEO strategies, this could help your content get more clicks and score higher search result rankings.

Come Up with Deals and Promotions for Specific Locations

Google Trends deliver accurate insights that are integral to the success of your region-specific marketing campaigns.

Deals are usually designed to get more people interested in the things you’re selling from manufacturers, and ultimately, raise sales and revenues. But unless you’re offering deals for things that people in the areas you’re targeting actually want, you may not achieve the result you hope for.

Leveraging Google Trends can help bring you closer to your goal.

Gain Valuable insights Into Viable Markets and Target Audiences

The trend lines you see are not just summaries of droll statistics. They represent the stories of real people: their problems, hopes and dreams, expectations, their search for a solution, and their painstaking review of answers they think are viable.

These lines and charts deliver real-time insights into the major concerns and pain points of your target audience, as well as tidbits into the viability of a product and inside scoops about their preferences that you could exploit in your brand messaging to draw them to your products and services.

Tips on How to Find Trending Products

1. Look in the Mirror

You’re an entrepreneur, so you probably have some pretty great ideas for top trending products.

It’s always worth investigating something you’ve already thought of before desperately scouring the internet for that one magic product idea.

It’s wise to consider products, niches, and industries in which you and your friends are interested. After that, brainstorm any potential pain points or inconveniences you experience in your own life.

2. Look to the Local Trends

The answers you seek may lie in your local community.

Meaning, you don’t necessarily need to embark on an epic journey to Middle Earth or – even worse – the dark web to find trending products to sell.

You can visit local brick-and-mortar establishments and assess trends.

Therein might lie a ground-breaking product idea that you can take into the retail space. Take a few weekend afternoons to study the newest and most exciting retail concepts and products.

Alternatively, if you aren’t into galavanting around town searching for ideas, local newspapers feature innovative products being developed and sold in your community.

Decide if the local trends could sell in the digital sphere. Some products sell better in physical locations than they do in the digital space – and vice versa.

3. Adhere to the Experts

Online consumer trend publications will steer your online business in the right direction.

Within trends publications are experts whose job is to be accurate and discerning about the growing trends. By reading them, you’ll start getting a sense of consumer preferences – or in layman’s terms, what new trends online are shoppers flocking to.

You’ll also be privy to what other online stores are bringing to the consumer marketplace.

These publications will also bring to light new product ideas and industries you otherwise would have never known.

Trend Watching’s team of 30 professionals throughout London, Singapore, Sydney, and Largos report on a smorgasbord of worldwide trends.

Those seeking a more mainstream trend publication will enjoy Trend Hunter – the largest of its kind.

With a global network of 137,000 members and 3 million fans, Trend Hunter is brimming with inspirational product ideas that might help get your ecommerce website off the ground.

4. Turn to the Top Dogs

Reinventing the wheel is virtually impossible.

It always helps to look at the best sellers over the last couple of years and the new trends in the present, then use those examples as starting-off points.

Once you have an idea of your preferred market or industry, there are multitudes of online tools, such as Topsy and Followerwonk, that’ll aid in discovering social media influencers in those spheres.

Influencers can actually teach you a lot.

By using their example as a template for success, you’ll be in way less over your head than if you try conjuring up a business model from scratch.

5. From the Mouths of Critics

The truth lies in product reviews blogs.

You can find out the ins and outs of any product, market, or industry based on this valuable content.

Reviews will let you know about failures in products, gaps in the market that you could leverage, and the type of people to whom you’ll be selling.

These blogs will also offer a well-rounded look into the newest trends on the market and can provide another source of inspiration for finding popular products. Many of them also include long products lists and Google Trends data supporting how certain product categories are trending over time.

Product Review Blogs to Use

Uncrate, Outblush, Bless This Stuff, and Cool Material are fantastic sources for product review blogs.

Niche review sites are ideal if you’re considering a product that isn’t mainstream. It’s stellar practice to choose a trending niche product to sell that is a proven seller but doesn’t have much competition.

Niche blogs act as a conduit to finding those top trending products to sell online.

6. Social Curation is Your Key to Finding What to Sell Online

The following two social curation sites have built-in social signals that can offer an immediate sense of a product’s popularity:

Pinterest contains 100s of thousands of images that contain exciting new products. There are 50 million users and a dedicated ‘popular’ section that shows trending items.

Fancy is equal parts store, magazine, and wish list. It’ll offer you a strong sense of new product trends that’ll give you great ideas about which products to sell online in 2020.

7. Reddit is Your Realest Product Source

Other than being the largest social media news aggregator, Reddit is ostensibly the most powerful digital platform.

There’s a reason the online powerhouse is known as the front page of the internet.

Within Reddit, there are thousands of subreddits offering a window into virtually any niche topic you can imagine – making them one of the best places to find different types of products.

No matter the industry or product niche, it’ll be on a subreddit.

Don’t believe us? Just search, and we guarantee you’ll find a subreddit for the most obscure and niche products online you could imagine. Then, you’ll know if there could be a viable interest.

Since Reddit is interactive, you can engage directly with your target market to gain further market insights about the best products to sell online.

Evaluating the Best Products to Sell Online in 2023

When choosing top trending products to sell in 2023, you must evaluate the market as well as the product itself.

First, let’s look at what to consider when assessing the market:

8. The Size of Your Playing Field

You must initially hypothesize the market size for your product.

Start by using common sense.

Running shoes for males between 18-25 are going to have a large market with high demand. Whereas, a tracksuit catered to 40-50-year-old plumbers with an active lifestyle is too much of a niche for your business to make waves.

9. The Stiffness of Competition

Are you selling a product with no competition?

Well, that’s likely due to the product not being attractive to consumers.

Conversely, if the market is too saturated, despite the product probably being a great seller, the competition will make it difficult to get a strong foothold in the market. In this instance, you must find a way to set your product apart with creative branding to find any success.

The safest strategy is choosing a product that has a few successful competitors and is on the rise. Though, playing it safe doesn’t guarantee success.

10. The Shelf-Life for Selling

Under any circumstances, avoid getting caught up in a product fad.

The returns will be very short-term because the demand will die out quicker than you can say ‘why me?’

It’s possible to capitalize on a fad if you buy in and out at precisely the right times – but those are tricky waters to navigate since the lifespan of a fad is highly unpredictable.

A trend is akin to a fad’s more charming and reliable brother.

While trends do have a shelf-life, they grow and decline at a far steadier rate than fads and are, thereby, far more lucrative. Trends can develop into long-term stable markets, but much like fads, it’s tough to predict.

When looking to limit ups-and-downs, selling a product that exists in a stable market could work – which has undeniable lasting power and does not fluctuate. This fact does mean, however, that the market is unlikely to grow, so your success will hit a ceiling.

Lastly, there are growing markets that show steady improvement and an ability to cause a long-term market shift.

11. The Convenience Factor

How easy is it for your consumers to get the product you intend on selling?

Is purchasing a simple matter of heading down to the local strip mall? Then it might not be the best product choice. On the other hand, if a product isn’t easy to find, people are far more likely to search for it online.

12. The Customer Psyche

Get a good feel for the type of customer that your product appeals to, including knowing their online shopping proclivities.

For instance, selling to teens comes with the obstacle of your target not having a credit card to make an online purchase. Whereas, selling to baby boomers means your target customer will be technology-averse and generally won’t purchase online.

In the case of catering to teenagers, you may benefit from directing your marketing efforts towards their parents, as they’ll make the purchasing decisions. With baby boomers, positioning your product as a gift might work.

This way, your advertising would appeal to the children of boomers, who’d purchase your product for their parents.

Now, we’ll take a look at product evaluation:

13. Markup Can Make You Crazy

You’ll be amazed at the mountainous list of fees that render each sale bereft of profit.

As such, sufficiently marking up your product is a must before trying to sell, especially right off the bat. You’ll need to offset those selling fees on top of the other costs associated with getting your business off the ground.

Click here for an example of the fees you might be stuck with when selling a product. It’ll give you a good idea of why some eCommerce businesses mark products up nearly 1,200% to generate a reasonable profit.

14. The Selling Price Sweet Spot

The sweet spot for eCommerce pricing is estimated to be around $75-$150.

You won’t need to move tons of product to generate a return, nor will you be stuck with hefty marketing and operation costs.

When a product is too inexpensive, you’ll have to sell an enormous number of units to turn a profit. Then, there’ll be mix-ups and issues with customer service due to the volume of sales.

On the other side of the spectrum, expensive products come with extended sales cycles and pickier customers.

Finding the perfect product for the ideal price is vital in being efficient as a dropshipper, where you’re already wearing many hats and need to streamline operations as much as possible.

15. Subscribing to Success

Turning customers into subscribers is the best way to get continued business.

It also automates the selling process which requires less effort and decreases operating costs.

Even if your product isn’t traditionally subscription-based, try to do what Dollar Shave Club did with razors. It could turn into one of the most profitable decisions you make for your business.

16. Size Does Count

The size and weight of a product can eat directly into your profit margins.

Customers won’t settle for anything less than free shipping, and you may have to eat the costs associated with more substantial items.

Decide whether the market demand can offset the size and weight-related costs of your product.

17. Durable Products Could Mean Enduring Success

Fragile products will cost more in replacements, exchanges, and protective packaging.

While it’s possible to be effective at shipping fragile products, it requires considerable strategy so that it doesn’t devour your profits.

18. Is Your Product a One Season Quitter?

Seasonal products won’t necessarily sink your business, but they come with more challenges than products that sell year-round.

Ensuring consistent cash flow with seasonal products requires marketing to different countries at different times of the year. This tactic works very well with winter and summer clothing, as opposed to holiday-based products.

Seasons happen differently all over the world, whereas most holidays happen on the same day, regardless of country or continent.

19. Product Turnover Could Mean Profit Turnover

There are products, like smartphone cases and running shoes, that regularly need new designs to meet the latest demands of the market.

Meaning, the older models need to sell before the newer ones hit the market. Otherwise, there’ll be a massive stockpile of outdated product.

Selling items that need to be refreshed and updated continually is risky, so planning and adhering to a turnover schedule is a must.

20. Can the Product Grow with Your Business?

Okay, so your business is in its infancy.

Amid all the initial hiccups, planning to scale your business is a tall task.

Regardless, accounting for scalability from the building-block phase of your business will equip you for long-term success.

If you’re selling spices from a local butcher, will the butcher be able to get you enough product to meet an increasingly growing demand? Will you need more employees to handle the increase in sales?

Those are just a couple of questions you’ll need to consider when evaluating your ideal product.

Validation

Validating your idea requires getting a clear idea of real buyer interest in your product.

Here are some methods you can use to validate your product:

21. Want Answers? Then Ask the Right Questions.

You can peruse all the Google reviews you want, but there’s nothing quite like first-hand research to paint a truly accurate picture of your product’s selling potential.

There is plenty of survey software, such as Survey Gizmo, that’ll help you create valuable surveys.

To execute a useful survey, you’ll first need to verify your target audience, which entails asking key questions to validate them being the potential consumers most interested in your product. Reaching the right people ensures the survey won’t be superfluous.

From there, determine whether people genuinely like your product idea. Then, even if they are a fan of the concept, figure out if there are aspects they don’t like.

The last element of a useful product validation survey is gauging purchase intent. Seek random survey subjects instead of people you know, as they’ll provide you with more honest answers

Products like Survata help distribute surveys to your target audience.

22. Let the Crowd Fund Your Dream

Crowdfunding is a real proof-in-the-pudding way to validate your product.

When people are willing to shell out their money for your Indigogo or Kickstarter campaign, it means your product idea is – at the very least – exciting.

Then there’s the benefit of collecting money upfront to fund initial operations costs and inventory. It’s worth noting that for a successful crowdfunding campaign, you’ll need an innovative product that piques your audience’s curiosity. Generic or rebranded products won’t fit the crowdfunding bill.

You will likely require a prototype before making a campaign and setting up crowdfunding is a taxingly comprehensive process that’s a job unto itself.

23. Landing on Product Validation

All a landing page requires (other than very well-written copy and a strong brand narrative) is your value proposition and an email collection box.

Collecting email helps you gauge if there’s any real interest in your product. Plus, you can establish goodwill relationships with potential customers.

One way to execute a landing page is by using Shopify’s pre-launch page. From there, embed an email sign up form from an email provider like Klaviyo.

24. Testing the Waters

Setting up a test store is going to provide the most stone-cold proof on whether you have a profitable product.

It involves driving traffic to a temporary store and selling your product for a brief time to test consumer interest and demand.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve equipped you with some basics on how to find, evaluate, and validate your products, it’s time to take your eCommerce or dropshipping business plan to the next level!

The post 20+ Tips to Find Trending Products to Sell Online in 2023 first appeared on Modalyst.

5 Ways to Start a Profitable Dropshipping Business Before the Holidays

Alain Miguel — Mon, 14 Nov 2022 12:33:00 +0000

Learning how to start a dropshipping business has become an earnest pursuit for many entrepreneurs. This pursuit should be even more attractive during the holiday season.

The holiday season is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to take advantage of increased web traffic to online stores. Consumers also have an elevated intent to purchase, so conversions on websites increase dramatically.

With several big shopping occasions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your chance to successfully launch a dropshipping business is finally here!

Starting a dropshipping business during the holidays

According to a report on Holiday Shopping Predictions by Salesforce, overall online sales are expected to grow in 2019 by 13 percent to $136 billion. That report is based on a survey of more than 10,000 consumers and major e-commerce sites.

If you’re looking to start your own online store and want to take advantage of the holiday boom in eCommerce, look no further.

There is no better time to start an ecommerce website and jump on one of the fastest-growing trends in 2019 called dropshipping.

If done right, starting a successful drop ship business can be very lucrative and scalable.

It is no surprise, then, that new entrepreneurs are starting online businesses as a way to make money online in 2019.

What is the dropshipping business model?

The dropshipping model is a fulfillment strategy where an online website can sell products without owning the inventory or shipping orders themselves.

Instead, when a customer purchases the item on your store, you place the order directly with the original wholesaler. The wholesale supplier owns the inventory and will send the order directly to your customer.

The main difference between a drop ship business and a traditional eCommerce operation is that drop shipping doesn’t require you to stock or own any inventory in advance. You also don’t have to deal with shipping or handling logistics.

When a product is sold through your storefront, you simply forward the purchase order to a wholesaler or manufacturer who fulfills it.

Due to the low operating cost and relatively out of the box setup, dropshipping has become a global trend across the ecommerce landscape.

This business model has a few pros and cons that you need to keep in mind before getting started.

How does dropshipping work?

There are three primary components:

Dropshipping Companies
Online Business Owners
Online Shoppers

What is the role of drop ship suppliers?

Suppliers are responsible for the following:

creating products
warehousing inventory
shipping products to your customers
accepting returns and replacing defective products
selling items to you at a discount or wholesale price

What is your role as a business owner?

As an ecommerce operator, your first job is to find the right suppliers and items to sell.

Once you do, you list and sell these products on your retail storefront. Depending on your agreement with the wholesaler, you may be able to white label the products and list them under your brand.

Additionally, you’ll also be tasked with delivering customer service, including answering customer questions and collecting feedback.

What is the role of your customer?

Your customer buys the new products directly from your storefront. If questions or issues arise, your customer contacts you. During the entire relatioship, the dropshippig provider you work with is usually invisible to your customer.

What is the difference between starting a dropshipping business and selling your own inventory?

Understanding the difference between how to start an online business and how to manage your own inventory is paramount.

It’s especially important if you plan to start an online store during the holiday season.

While the holiday season presents many opportunities to tap into increased online traffic, it is a relatively short window of time and the competition is fierce. With that in mind, it is critical to learn the key differences between these inventory models.

Let’s start with the zero-inventory model, also known as dropshipping.

Some of the key features of how to start a dropshipping business include:

Vast Inventory Selection

Select from thousands of products to stock in your drop ship store.

Seek out trendy and popular products based on trends and sell-through research to keep your online store stocked and thriving at all times.

No Warehousing Required

No need to store your selected inventory in a physical warehouse or storage facility when operating your own dropshipping business.

Outsourced Order Fulfillment

Making sales is the fun part. Fulfilling orders to your customers is not nearly as energizing.

As a storeowner, you can avoid the fulfillment process and have all of your orders fulfilled and shipped by a wholesale supplier.

Low Start-Up Cost

When you start an online business, you can usually do so with a low upfront investment and minimal overhead and operating costs.

Typically, you can get around investing in purchasing inventory upfront before you understand the demand. When you avoid buying inventory upfront, you also avoid having to warehouse that inventory. Instead, a dropshipping business will warehouse those products until you make a sale.

No Inventory Tracking

While working with a dropshipping wholesaler, you can circumvent the laborious task of tracking inventory through manual systems and processes.

Inventory tracking can be done by the wholesaler you work with.

Returns and Shipments

You can outsource the headache of managing returns and inbound shipments.

Just hire a third-party provider to manage any returns to your online store as well as any inbound inventory shipments.

No Restocking Inventory

One of the biggest advantages of running a successful drop shipping business is the ability to sell great products without the hassle of placing reorders for the inventory that stocks out.

Just enlist a third-party vendor to fulfill the responsibility of reordering products and keeping track of stock levels.

While running an ecommerce website offers myriad benefits, selling your own inventory also has its advantages:

Creativity

When you develop your own products, you will be able to exercise more creativity and control over the creative process.

Generally speaking, it’s much easier to set your business and brand apart when you have more oversight and control over product creation and development.

Specificity and Selectivity

When you create your own products, you can be very specific and selective about quality and design of the products you want to sell.

The freedom to be specific and selective in the product design and creation processes can be a pivotal factor in your success.

When the design and quality are under your purvue, you can better communicate the value of the product to your target audience.

Markup Flexibility

When you run a dropshipping business, you may not have the latitude to dictate the pricing that is best for your business and customer. Working with dropshipping suppliers can limit your ability to set certain profit margins, as well as provide your customers with incentives or discounts.

Furthermore, the revenue split you set with your dropshipping supplier will have many more constraints. Typically, dropshipping business owners receive 20-40% of each sale they make, while the dropshipper gets the remaining percentage.

When you own your inventory, you have much more flexibility to determine the markup as well as the profit margins you earn on each sale. To be on the safe side, you can try our Profit margin calculator to help you determine the right price.

Needless to say, choosing the markup of your products is much easier to do when you own the inventory.

Return on Investment

Entities who sell their own products and manage their own inventory may find they have a higher ROI.

Using a third-party service to manage the inventory, ordering, shipping, and fulfillment of owning an eCommerce store can cut into profits while providing a stress-free dropshipping business solution.

Disadvantages of Selling Your Own Inventory

Owning your own online store and selling handmade or individual items you have created is extremely tempting when launching a business or brand for the first time.

However, it is important to keep in mind that managing your own inventory and selling merchandise without a dropshipping solution can become laborious and overwhelming.

This is especially true if you are not fully prepared to take on the task.

Some of the disadvantages of selling your own inventory include:

Upfront Capital Requirements

The capital needed to launch your very own online business with unique inventory and products is high. You will find this to be especially true if you plan to create custom or bespoke product lines.

Inventory Risk

It is quite risky to launch an online store while purchasing all your inventory in advance. If the inventory you buy upfront does not sell, you will lose out on the money you invested in the products.

Managing Inventory and Stock

When you choose to own and sell all of your promoted merchandise, you are fully responsible at all times for managing the inventory of your online store.

Keeping track of sales, inventory, and products that are in high demand can quickly become an exhausting exercise.

Doing your own Accounting and Finances

When you own your inventory, there is even more emphasis put on you to keep track of cash flow, revenues, losses, product sales, and overall earnings. These line items will become your full responsibility in addition to doing other activities that keep the business afloat.

Some of those other activities include building and cultivating relationships with manufacturers, negotiating wholesale pricing, and hiring additional staff to monitor trends and keywords. Each of these is core to running a successful online business.

Manually Adding New Product Information

With a dropshipping business, you are often provided with a complete overview and description of the products you stock.

When you are the owner and operator of your own online store and stock individual items, you are responsible for inputting proper copy and messaging for each new product you plan to merchandise.

Dropshipping works especially well for solopreneurs with limited time and capital.

If you have both, then you already have an edge, but you don’t require either to launch a successful dropshipping company.

This post sheds light on everything that goes into starting a dropshipping business, from finding trendy suppliers to choosing an eCommerce platform to sell on.

To make the process easier to follow, I’ve broken it down into 5 super-simple steps.

1. Find Dropshipping Suppliers

You need to explore multiple avenues to find the best dropshippers for your needs.

A good place to start is the Modalyst website which connects you with reliable suppliers, including USA dropshippers, stocking a wide range of items from designer handbags to kitchen appliances.

Modalyst drop ship suppliers and wholesale distributors offer millions of profitable products, all of which can easily be found on our platform.

Also, you get to see the potential profit for each dropship item, which can be factored into your product selection.

In addition, Modalyst users enjoy the following benefits for online stores:

In addition to researching Modalyst, you should spend some time on the below steps when looking for drop ship suppliers:

Research and plan your ecommerce goals

You need to spend time doing your research.

You need to understand your own business, establish goals and objectives, as well as evaluate the needs of your customers, and the types of products that you would like to sell.

This can help you narrow down your options when it comes to finding the best suppliers and dropshipping companies.

There are dropshippers for pretty much anything you can think of, no matter how niche it may seem.

Understanding the particular niche or market that your business fits into can make it easier to find a dropshipper that you can rely on.

Finding American dropship suppliers

There is a strong likelihood that your initial research on drop shipping suppliers will yield a long list of Chinese wholesalers.

The conventional formula most online entrepreneurs use looks like this: find cheap products from Chinese dropshippers and sell the products for massive profits.

This formula still works today. However, it’s becoming less effective and profitable as more and more online stores use the same product sourcing strategy. While more Chinese products flood the market, the more competitive pricing becomes, making it more difficult to reap a profit on the sale of an item and differentiate your business from others.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. It has helped create interest in a new market: USA dropshipping suppliers.

One way that you can differentiate is by working with suppliers who are based in the United States.

You don’t have to be located in the US for this to be a viable option.

So long as you have a strong customer base in the USA, or you’re looking to break into the American market, then using US dropshippers makes a lot of sense.

Why dropship from the US?

There are thousands of wholesalers and manufacturers in the United States.

The good news is that many of them are starting to offer dropship products and services. If you’re selling.

What to look for in American dropshipping suppliers

While partnering with American vendors is compelling, you still have to do your due diligence.

A dropshipping company in the US isn’t automatically qualified just because they are based in the United States. These dropshipping companies need to be vetted, just like any other supplier you want to work with.

You should follow the same process that you would when vetting any supplier. After all, your supplier is one of your most important business partners. You want to choose the best one.

The best ways to vet potential dropshippers is to do the following:

Review suppliers’ business practices

While you may be the one advertising and selling products to your customers, your supplier can still affect your business and how its viewed by the general public.

You need to figure out as much about a potential supplier as possible before you decide to work with them. Figure out how they do business and see if it works with your company’s needs.

A dropshipping supplier might look good on paper. However, digging a bit deeper into the fine print of their service may show that the company has less-than-ideal ways of handling things like refunds or shipping disputes.

Understand suppliers’ fees and minimum order policies

Drop shipping providers make their money a couple of different ways.

It’s important that you understand how suppliers’ fees work so that you can rest easy knowing that you’re getting a fair deal.

Some dropshipping companies charge a monthly fee.

This usually means that they are a directory that can connect you to hundreds of suppliers at once.

Examples include Doba, Oberlo, and SaleHoo. In addition to the monthly fee, you may have to pay a service fee to each individual supplier. It’s something you should clarify before making a commitment.

Another thing to consider is the minimum order size.

One of the most attractive reasons to work with a dropshipper is to avoid investing in a warehouse.

Unfortunately, minimum orders may prevent you from taking advantage of such a benefit.

If the dropshipper has minimum order requirements or fees, you should make sure that they will still hold onto your product. This is a very popular way of doing business.

You would pay the minimum order fee and the manufacturer will simply fulfill orders as they come in until the minimum is met.

Reach out to drop shippers and get references

Once you identify some solid candidates to be your dropshipping suppliers, you should reach out to them.

Use your first contact to establish a good working relationship. Be friendly and ask all the questions that come to mind. You should also be clear about your business goals and objectives. Starting a relationship with a supplier should be about the mutual benefits of working together.

Also, if you have time, you should ask for some references.

Many dropshipping suppliers are happy to give you contact information for current or former retailers. You can then give these references a call and learn more about how working with the supplier really is.

Place sample orders with suppliers

The most realistic way to understand how a dropshipping company performs is to simulate the buying experience yourself.

By placing an order with the vendor, you’ll be putting yourself in your customer’s shoes.

Make a few of sample orders.

Not just from the suppliers you’re thinking of partnering with, but also from their competitors. This will give you the opportunity to compare and contrast service quality firsthand.

Pay close attention to every detail. Make note of delivery times and scrutinize the packaging. Remember, this is the same experience your customers will have when they order something. So, if there are any big red flags, don’t ignore them.

Consider working with multiple dropshipping wholesalers

Even after you have found one or two suppliers that you want to work with, you should continue to search for additional suppliers.

Diversifying your supply is always a good idea.

Working with multiple dropshippers gives you the opportunity to expand your product categories significantly.

You may also be able to take advantage of additional services, such as private labeling. Not all dropshippers will sell you private label products. Private label is a unique opportunity to sell the suppliers’ products with your own branding and labeling.

Another reason to work with multiple suppliers is to get peace of mind.

While most dropshipping providers in the USA are reliable, dynamics can change in an instant, forcing you to find a new supplier with very little lead time.

What would you do if your only dropshipping company decided to shutter their business?

Your dropshipping business would likely be in a pinch overnight. Having multiple dropshippers ensures that your entire business is not instantly in a crunch and customers always have something to buy.

Online sources of dropship wholesale suppliers

One of the largest barriers new dropshipping business owners face is finding suppliers.

These companies are not easy to discover, especially if you’re a new online store.

Here are a few providers to get you started on your search. These sources connect you with thousands of different suppliers and millions of products.

AliExpress: AliExpress is one of the most popular websites to find individual dropshipping suppliers. It’s an international marketplace that offers access to millions of products. You can find suppliers based on the particular product you’re after. Simply perform a search and you can connect with the supplier from there. The best part of AliExpress is that there is no monthly membership fee. It’s free to sign up and get started.

Inventory Source: The site connects you with 150+ suppliers and even offers an option to add your own private supplier. Its features include optimized inventory sync, full product data integration and worry-free order automation.

Worldwide Brands: This is one of the oldest and most popular supplier directories with over 10 million products. It says it only includes suppliers that adhere to a set of guidelines to ensure quality wholesalers.

Doba: Doba boasts a selection of over 2 million items ranging from books to apparel. The site also lets retailers export products into their stores and ensures that the products are shipped in a timely manner.

If you’re on the lookout for local dropshipping suppliers, go through the Suppliers section in your Yellow pages.

Consider ones who have prior experience in dropshipping and understand the importance of delivering products to your customers on time.

You might also want to inquire about their quality control system i.e. how they deal with sub-standard products and return requests.

This will help prevent headaches down the road.

2. Take a Cue from Amazon Best Sellers

We recommend browsing top-selling items across other marketplaces, especially Amazon best sellers.

Browsing popular items in online marketplaces

You can search online marketplaces to discover which of your selected items have the potential to become top sellers.

Check out sites like Amazon, eBay and Alibaba to gauge the demand of your product mix.

If you find the products you want to sell (or similar ones) in one of the lists, you’re on the right path.

However, you’ll have to spend some time looking around as there’s currently no option that allows you to search for specific items.

Use Google trends to speed things up

If your product selection doesn’t match any of the best selling items, you’ll likely start questioning its viability.

However, a product not making Amazon’s best sellers list doesn’t mean it’s not in demand. You can study the popularity and trendiness of any product by typing its name in Google Trends.

Using this tool, you can easily and quickly see search volume trends over a period of time to know whether or not your selected item is in demand. For instance, let’s say you want to sell drones.

To get started, go to Google Trends and type in “drones” to see what the search volume looks like. At this time of writing, here’s what I see:

As you can see here, there is an upward trajectory for the month of December, which possibly implies that this is a viable product to sell during the holidays.

It’s also worth mentioning that its demand has been somewhat stagnant during the second and third quarter of 2017, which isn’t a good sign. Hence, the search volume trend can also be an indicator that it’s time to modify your product selection.

3. Choose the Best Ecommerce Platforms to Dropship Products Online

There are hundreds of ecommerce platforms and shopping cart solutions to sell products online.

As such, we encourage you to do your research in advance. There is a good deal of overlap in the use of platforms, so you should also think about how you plan to differentiate your brand and online store.

Creating a branded store is one of the best ways to present yourself to prospective customers.

It is a tangible extension of your business that defines the purpose of your existence, what you like and don’t like, what makes you stand out, and if customers are able to resonate with your brand, they’ll buy your products with confidence.

Shopify and Wix are the most recommended eCommerce solutions for dropshipping.

They are inexpensive, easy to understand, and intuitive for the services they provide. On top of that, they’re very scalable platforms.

Note: If you’re using Modalyst to source products, you’d be glad to know that it automatically integrates with Shopify and Wix and has .csv files for you to easily import items to stores hosted on other ecommerce platforms.

The other option is to sell via a marketplace.

The most obvious choice is Amazon but there are plenty of other online platforms out there which get a lot of traffic.

Check out sites like Etsy.com and Bonanza.com and find if there is a market there for your product selection. It’s smart to diversify when it comes to online selling platforms as each one has its own unique audience.

4. Create Beautiful Product Pages

Your product pages are your opportunity to impress prospective buyers.

If you want them to choose you over your competitor, you need to build compelling product pages.

Here’s what goes into an amazing product page:

Original product image
Enticing product description
Easy access to shipping details and return policy
Transparent pricing

A lot of suppliers will provide you with product images, which should be integrated into your listings in their original state. Consumers will appreciate the fact that they’re getting exactly what they saw in your product listing (edited images often raise expectations and result in disappointment later on).

In addition, several suppliers will give you pre-made product descriptions. Awesome, right? No, not in this case. I don’t recommend using pre-made descriptions because everyone else is using them. How can your products stand out when everyone else has described them in the same way?

That’s where your copywriting prowess comes into play. Carefully construct copy for your products to resonate with your audiences’ personalities/interests/demographics, and you’ll be in the driving seat.

5. Get Rest of the Things in Order & Launch

The last step pertains to adding the final touches to your store and then experiencing that big moment: the launch!

Some of the things you need to set up at this stage are social media accounts and any third-party applications that will add to the experience of shopping from your store.

Most online store owners should focus on important social media platforms, namely:

You can reach the audiences on these platforms by posting about your store in general as well as by promoting your product listings.

As for the applications, only install the ones that’ll really make a difference for your prospective buyers. Install too many and you can face problems like slow-loading product pages. I suggest installing a couple, and once you know how to use them well, you can consider installing new ones.

Some apps I recommend:

Abandonment Protector: This Shopify app retrieves those who abandon your cart and encourages them to come back via email. Similar apps are available for BigCommerce and other ecommerce platforms.

FOMO: This Shopify app creates urgency and social proof by showing how many products other people are buying (makes a great add-on for hot selling items). Orders are displayed in real time via a small popup.

Boost Sales: This app does a great job at lifting up sales by increasing order value per customer. It does that by collecting sales data and creating offers that will make people more likely to buy.

Finally, once you get these things in order, you can launch your dropshipping business.

Conclusion

We’ve reached the end and, by now, you should be well on your way to starting a dropshipping business in just 5 easy steps.

Once you do, continue to update your product listings, learn how to make them more beautiful, continually post on social media and maintain a good relationship with your suppliers. With persistence and hard work, you’ll craft your way to dropshipping success!

Additional Resources

Below are additional resources which can help you build and launch your online store.

These will help you choose a website builder, find eCommerce design inspiration and discover ideas for trending products to sell.

The post 5 Ways to Start a Profitable Dropshipping Business Before the Holidays first appeared on Modalyst.

Your Dropshipping Business Plan: 11 Steps to eCommerce Success

Alain Miguel — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 05:04:00 +0000

Creating a dropshipping business continues to be a hot topic in e-commerce circles.

I’m sure you’ve already heard through the blogosphere the story of Justin Wong. He is an internet entrepreneur who made $12,000 within a month of launching his online store. He started his drop shipping business with zero investment and hit the proverbial jackpot in less than 30 days.

The remarkable thing is that Justin’s story is not unique. There are literally millions of other entrepreneurs who have started eCommerce stores without any upfront investment. In fact, at Modalyst, tens of thousands of new online stores come to market every month, each emboldened by the dream to build a legitimate and lucrative dropshipping business.

The question is how do you join this party? First, you need to understand what is involved in launching a dropship store and how it works.

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a retail method for online stores to sell products and have the suppliers ship the items directly to their customers.

This eliminates the challenges of holding inventory and allows you to focus on things like marketing and sales. The key difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t warehouse or own any inventory.

Instead, the merchant purchases inventory as needed from a third-party — usually a brand, supplier, or wholesaler — to fulfill orders. So, the online seller never actually sees, holds or ships the item, they are effectively advertising it for the supplier and marketing up the price of the product so they can make a profit.

Not sure about your profit margin percentage? try out our Profit Margin Calculator

How does the Dropship Model Work?

In simpler terms, this is how dropshipping model works:

The eCommerce merchant “stocks” products on their website or marketplace.
The eCommerce merchant doesn’t actually hold these products. The products are warehoused by the supplier or wholesaler (who could be anywhere in the world). These products may cost $1 per unit from the supplier, while the eCommerce merchant lists them at $3 each (making a profit of $2 from the sale).
When a customer orders a product from the eCommerce merchant’s website, the merchant receives a notification. The merchant then forwards that order to the supplier, either manually or automatically.
The supplier fulfills the order and ships it directly to the customer under the drop shipper’s name.

Understand the Pros and Cons of the Dropshipping Business

Dropshipping offers the ability to start an eCommerce store without the inherent risks of owning inventory.

This is incredibly appealing to entrepreneurs who want to quickly launch a business without the hassle of overhead cost and shipping logistics. That being said, the drop shipping business comes with its own challenges that are often overlooked.

Every business model has its challenges and drop shipping is no different. In order to be successful, you should prepare yourself for some of the challenges you will likely be facing.

Customer Support

You are the one dealing with the customers. That means any issues that your suppliers have with shipping on time or delivery, in general, will fall on you. Make sure you are prepared for many hours of customer service. This is not necessarily a bad thing as any time you have direct communication with a user is an opportunity to retain or upsell.

Shipping

With shipping costs, you win some, you lose some.

Deciding on your shipping policy can be daunting since your suppliers will all be charging you different rates based on their location. While your inclination may be to focus on covering your costs, instead focus on your customer’s experience. If they are about to check out and find the shipping cost overwhelming, they will more than likely abandon the purchase.

Try offering flat rate shipping with a threshold for free (for example, after reaching $49, free shipping).

Check out: Shipping 101: Finding the Model to Match your Business

In general, approach shipping as “you win some, you lose some” mentality knowing that if you do your calculations properly, you are likely to even out at the end of the day suppliers may be a pain.

Remember you are relinquishing your control over inventory so you can only hope the suppliers have the same standard of customer service and professionalism that your store promises its customers.

This may not always be true so prepare yourself for constantly updating your product selection until you find the most consistent and reliable suppliers.

Modalyst, however, has implemented a vetting process for suppliers so the network is composed of reliable, high-quality brands.

Find the Best Shopping Cart Technology for You

Once you are committed to all the challenges (and excitements!) that come with drop shipping, it’s time to find a platform to start your e-Commerce store. There are a lot of options out there, so find the one that best meets your needs.

Do you have experience in designing and want something very customizable? Is this your first business and need something not too expensive?

First, decide on your priorities and use a version of the checklist below to evaluate the different options.

Cost
Website Hosting
Website design
Customization options
Payment gateways offered
Marketing tools
Access to additional integrations/apps
Analytics and Reporting
Customer Service

Create an excel sheet or a simple list to help you compare and contrast the options.

Decide on your Intended Customers

If you haven’t already, now is the time to decide on your audience. As much as you would like to target users on a universal scale, the best place to start is with a niche user segment so you can focus your marketing efforts effectively. Once you know who you want to visit your store, you can apply better branding, messaging and find the best products for those particular customers.

Find Dropshipping Suppliers

Time to fill your store with products from the best dropshipping suppliers.

The times of Googling cool new wholesalers and brands are over thanks to the many dropshipping marketplaces out there that will provide lists of suppliers for you to choose from.

Depending on what you are looking to sell, there are dropshipping platforms offering mass-produced products at lower prices and some that are more curated with independents.

Modalyst, for example, offers fashion accessories, apparel, and home goods from a selected group of suppliers interested in building relationships with e-boutiques all over the world.

Our dropshipping app makes it easy for retailers to click to add products to their stores. Where it used to take an average of 38 days to develop a dropshipping relationship, with new technology like what Modalyst offers, it literally takes seconds.

Online stores can sign up for their free forever plan for full access to the dropshipping marketplace and experience the app that automates not only sourcing but also order fulfillment and inventory levels as well.

As a new eCommerce entrepreneur with several overlapping tasks to conduct, tools like the ones mentioned above can assist you to manage hundreds of suppliers and vendors in one centralized place.

Set up Social Media Accounts For Your Online Store

I should not need to convince you about the benefit of social media when developing a brand image for your dropshipping and eCommerce business.

You want your customers to understand your personality and feel like you are a friend they can trust, therefore making them more inclined to purchase from you.

Social media is a crucial asset for this not only as a way of communicating your brand’s message through graphic aesthetics but also as a channel for customer service.

Try not to be daunted by which channel to use.

Find the one that you are most comfortable with and give it a try. You can expand and branch out to multiple channels later on, but it is important to first experiment with the platform you believe is going to be most profitable for your specific clientele, hence the most worthwhile to spend a considerable amount of time on.

Instagram is known as a platform that has worked well for advancing various eCommerce stores due to its vast variety of visual templates and displays for business profiles, so you may want to start there. However, something crucial to note about Instagram as a platform is the matter of timing – If you can present a product to your potential customers through a dedicated Instagram post and follow up with a seamless user experience and product flow, you will likely capture that sale.

Make sure that you know the best time to post on Instagram as this will be the key to targeting the right audience for your product which will eventually lead to your followers and customers as well. Try to publish an Instagram post at a time in which you predict that most of your user segment is already scrolling and browsing on this social media platform.

Find Helpful Apps

In this day and age, you don’t have to hire a team of people to customize your store. There are third-party developers, as well as website builders and apps, that will help you for that!

Take advantage of all the eCommerce apps out there that you can use to create things like better user flow, email capture, rewards programs, etc.

All these things can greatly increase your chances of sales and are typically relatively easy to set up.

The Wix App Market in particular could be a highly beneficial place to explore for starters. The apps you want to focus on to start with are those that help you retain customers.

This can include things like pop-up boxes to learn more about the customer browsing your site so you can reach out with specific suggestions; discount offers after certain user behavior like adding an item to the cart and then abandoning; adding product reviews to encourage sales.

Create an eCommerce Marketing Strategy

Every online store must have a marketing strategy. And it cannot be that you will offer better pricing. Almost everything can be found on Amazon or eBay these days so that is a battle you will likely lose since they will always be able to offer lower prices. Instead, try reaching your customers before others do.

If you can present a product to them through a marketing email or Instagram post and follow up correctly, you will likely capture their attention and trust.

Focus on an audience that might not be looking for better pricing but more novelty, niche products, and personalized shopping experience. This is where you can win their trust, and complete the sale.

Lastly, be aware that retaining a customer is more cost-effective than finding new users. Once you capture a sale, spend time on nurturing that relationship because in the end, it is better for your bottom line.

Deploy Marketing Strategy
(Learn and Adjust)

The best lessons can be learned from the mistakes you make so don’t be afraid to try different tactics. There are so many things to choose from like Pinterest boards, Facebook ads, SEO, Snapchat etc.

Interestingly, studies show that email marketing is still the top way to drive traffic to your site. I would start there and slowly add on different channels.

The most important thing is to study the results so you don’t keep wasting time on something that isn’t working. For example, if you post a product on Instagram, make sure you have a link to the product in your bio so that people can easily click through to your site. You can then look at Google Analytics to see how much traffic originated from Instagram.

This is very valuable data for your business. If there are a lot of clicks and no sales, or if the bounce rate is too high, maybe this product is not right for your intended audience.

Make your First Sale

Once you can get people to your site, it’s time to focus on how to encourage sales to your online store. This is when website design, particularly the checkout experience, can greatly influence a purchase. Try studying other sites where you like to shop and take screenshots of each step in the check out process.

The key is to eliminate friction points so one doesn’t feel distracted or worse, frustrated when trying to buy something.
For first time buyers, this is an opportunity to capture their preferences.
For example, if the customer is buying a swimsuit, you may want to offer a discount on a beach towel in a few days since you can assume they are in the market for summer gear.

This doesn’t require anything high tech. Simply review your purchases every few weeks and look for ways to re-engage your customers in a personal way.

Retain Customers

As long as you provide a favorable experience for a customer’s first purchase, you should spend more time on ways to get them to come back to your site than finding new customers.

The reality is that returning customers are likely to spend more money than a new user, since you’ve retained customer satisfaction in their first purchase.

If you can build up a loyal customer base you can use them to help gain new users. For example, provide discounts to your customers that invite their friends to shop. Think of your best customers as your sales force. This could serve as an effective and efficient approach to finding new shoppers.

5 Best Ways to Retain your Customers Online

Analyze and Adjust

Running a business is a great and crucial learning opportunity. Consider the first few months a discovery phase when you are constantly trying new tactics, analyzing the results, and re-adjusting. While you might start with a specific vision for your store, always be prepared to pivot based on customer feedback. Early on illicit feedback from the users that successfully purchase but also those that abandon during checkout.

Don’t be afraid to ask why they left the site, you may be surprised to hear their answer.

Most importantly, embrace that learning how to start a dropshipping business is a tricky and competitive field. If you focus on measurable tactics, you’ll be able to hone in on what really works for your customer base and drive sales. If you would like to start a drop shipping business, sign up for Modalyst here or read more about eCommerce and starting a dropshipping store on our blog.

The post Your Dropshipping Business Plan: 11 Steps to eCommerce Success first appeared on Modalyst.

What Is Dropshipping: Your Most Important Questions Answered

Alain Miguel — Sun, 21 Aug 2022 18:07:00 +0000

Starting a dropshipping business is one of the first steps for budding entrepreneurs because it’s an easy way to enter the online commerce sector.

While the principle of dropshipping is simple — you don’t need to pay for inventory before selling it — many people are confused about many aspects of starting an online dropshipping store.

If you’re interested in the dropshipping business model and are tinkering with the idea of running your eCommerce business without any significant startup capital, this dropshipping FAQ will answer all the questions you might have about this popular business model.

Dropshipping for Beginners FAQs

1. What is dropshipping and how does it work?

2. What are the benefits of dropshipping?

3. Is dropshipping legal?

4. Is dropshipping a profitable business model?

5. Is it necessary to have a registered business for dropshipping?

6. How much money can you make dropshipping?

7. What are some common issues with dropshipping?

8. Is fraud something to worry about with dropshipping?

9. How to make sure the dropshipping products customers order are in stock?

10. How to find dropshipping suppliers?

11. Why start dropshipping with Modalyst?

12. What kind of products are available through Modalyst?

13. What are the main benefits of using Modalyst for dropshipping?

14. What platforms does Modalyst integrate with?

15. How much does it cost to start dropshipping with Modalyst?

16. Is Modalyst customer support good?

1. What is Dropshipping and how does it Work?

To put it simply, dropshipping is a business model that doesn’t require a store to keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, the online retailer purchases the products from a third party supplier and has it shipped to the customer, but only after the customer has made a purchase. This means that the store owner never handles the actual product.

The dropshipping business model works based on having a low start-up cost, and it eliminates the risks and costs of holding inventory completely. This doesn’t mean that it’s an easy business to succeed in, as it still requires day-to-day management. It is definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it can be quite profitable with hard work.

Drop shipping comes with lots of challenges as well, ranging from dealing with stocks to screening orders to avoid credit card fraud, but overall, it’s one of the easiest ways to launch an ecommerce store that can become profitable over time.

2. What are the Benefits of Dropshipping?

One of the key benefits of drop shipping is that the store owner doesn’t have to pay for the product until the customer pays, which means that they don’t risk buying products that won’t sell. Because of the low investment required to start a dropshipping business, this is a business model suitable for novices who want to run their own online store.

Another benefit of drop shipping is that the seller doesn’t get involved with the physical process of packaging and shipping products. That is one of the most tedious parts of selling products online, but sellers essentially outsource it to someone else. Dropshipping companies are more often than not large companies that deal with thousands of orders a day, which means they have negotiated shipping rates that are much lower than a small seller can get.

3. Is Dropshipping Legal?

Yes, dropshipping is a completely legal business, but there are, of course several elements you need to take account before starting. It’s crucial to pick a reliable supplier, as you would be liable for sales if the supplier sells a counterfeit product. Those who are dropshipping on Amazon or eBay risk having their accounts banned for selling counterfeit products, and it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to recover from that.

Many people ask if they need to inform the buyers that they are doing dropshipping. The answer is no — there is no legal requirement to do so, as long as the customer receives the product as described. Dropshipping is perfectly legal, and by choosing to work only with reputable suppliers, sellers can avoid possibly emerging issues.

4. Is Dropshipping a Profitable Business Model?

Digital entrepreneurs often ask whether dropshipping is still a profitable business in 2020. It is still possible to earn a decent income from dropshipping, but sellers should keep in mind that it’s not generally possible to make lots of money in a short period. For dropshipping to be profitable, sellers need to invest time, money, and effort. As a rule of thumb, focusing on a profitable niche can make a new dropshipping store successful quicker.

5. Is it Necessary to Have a Registered Business for Dropshipping?

This depends on the country where you live, but generally, you do need to register your business once you start making sales. Most payment providers, including PayPal, require proof of a registered company once you start making consistent sales. The rules for obtaining business licenses vary from one country to another. In the U.S., for example, the process is rather straightforward, and you can do everything online.

6. How Much Money Can You Make Dropshipping?

This is not a question with a straightforward answer, as it all depends on the niche you pick, the number of visitors you can drive to your website, and your profit margin. The good news is that there are no limits on profits when dropshipping, with some sellers making full-time incomes and others managing to earn six-figure incomes from dropshipping.

7. What Are Some Common Issues with Dropshipping?

Since retailers have no control over stocks and shipments, problems are bound to arise with the dropshipping process. Some of the most common issues are related to items being out of stock, delays with the processing of orders, wrong item or quantity sent to the customer, and items arriving damaged.

Most of these issues are the same regular online stores with their own stocks have, but when you’re dropshipping, handling them is often more difficult. To protect your business and solve any issues for your customers in a timely manner, it’s essential to keep good records of all orders, shipping addresses, and learn everything there is to know about your dropshipper’s return policies. It’s also a good idea to offer customers discounts for future orders when a mistake occurred with their order.

8. Is Fraud Something to Worry About with Dropshipping?

As with any online business, credit card fraud is just part of life, and the dropshipping business is not different. The good news is that there are lots of ways to protect a business with basic security measures and, as such, reduce the risk of fraud considerably. Using a gateway service for card processing is always recommended, as this allows the verification of the billing address of the customer so it matches the one on file with the bank. Screening orders with different billing and shipping addresses is another important step to protect against fraud, especially in the case of very large orders.

9. How to Make Sure the Products Customers Order are in Stock?

Stocks are one of the major challenges of dropshipping, as it is rather difficult to determine if a product is available without actually having access to stock information in a warehouse. Ordering a product only to find out later it is not actually available makes for a very poor customer experience, and it’s not something that bodes well for any business.

The good news is that sellers who choose to work with reputable dropshippers often have access to real-time inventory feeds. These make it easy to sync the products on the website with the actual stocks available in the warehouses of the dropshipper. If that is not possible, the second-best strategy is to work with multiple suppliers who can provide the same products. As such, if a product is not available in the warehouse of one supplier, chances are the second one will have it. This is not a fail-proof method, but it reduces the chances of having disappointed customers.

10. How to Find Dropshipping Suppliers?

One of the most important steps to growing a successful dropshipping business is finding reputable drop ship suppliers. While there are thousands of drop shipping suppliers out there, it’s actually not that easy to find certified ones that are not going to cause too much trouble when it comes to fulfilling orders and accepting returns.

To find the right supplier for a business, it’s essential to understand the distribution channels for the particular dropshipping industry you’re interested in. The main types of wholesalers used for dropshipping include manufacturers, importers and exclusive distributors, and regional wholesalers.

Those who are just starting may want to look at smaller retailers. Still, it’s also possible to make a good profit by using a bigger wholesaler such as AliExpress from the beginning. No matter which route you choose, it’s always a good idea to get in touch with manufacturers directly for a list of distributors they prefer to work with.

11. Why Start a Dropshipping Business with Modalyst?

Modalyst is a classic dropshipping service that both beginners and seasoned sellers can use to connect with verified suppliers. The role of the platform is to route orders automatically and notify suppliers about incoming orders. This means that the process is automated as much as possible, and Modalyst also facilitates the communication between the seller and the supplier.

12. What Kinds of Products are Available Through Modalyst?

The product choice is one of the main strengths of Modalyst, and some of the products available through the platform include shoes, apparel, bags, furniture, electronics, and many others. The platform has a focus on U.S. and European-based suppliers, but also connects business owners to millions of dropship products on AliExpress through its official partnership with Alibaba. No matter what your dropshipping business idea, Modalyst has a wide range of products to make it a reality.

Modalyst is also a goldmine for retailers looking for on-trend products and the best dropshipping products for their store. The platform features a catalog of tens of thousands of trendy fashion products that are guaranteed to reach customers in the U.S. within a week. Products in this section are stored in warehouses in the U.S. and Europe, and they are ready for immediate shipping.

A wide selection of luxury products is also available at wholesale pricing, so ecommerce businesses in this niche can benefit from fast shipping of up to four business to the U.S. and quick worldwide shipping as well.

13. What Are the Main Benefits of Using Modalyst for Dropshipping?

Besides the wide range of products available via Modalyst, there are several other benefits of using this platform. Modalyst is the perfect choice for online retailers who want to target European and American clients because of the quick delivery times.

Dropshipping platforms that work with Chinese suppliers may have shipping times of up to eight weeks, and sometimes they use non-trackable shipments. As such, it’s difficult for store owners to know if the client has actually received the products. With Modalyst, the fast shipping times and tracked shipments mean that if something goes wrong, the clients don’t have to wait for another month for their returns to be processed.

14. What Platforms Does Modalyst Integrate With?

Modalyst integrates with all major e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce. Users automate most aspects of the business, from inventory data and orders to customer notifications about the status of their order. Modalyst connects directly to the user’s store, and with the dedicated Shopify App, Wix App and BigCommerce App, it allows users to add products to the store with just one click. This makes it easy for anyone with an ecommerce business to start dropshipping.

15. How Much Does It Cost to Start Dropshipping With Modalyst?

There are three different pricing plans available, and each of them has both monthly and yearly options. Users can easily start their dropshipping adventure for free by opting for the Hobby Plan, which is $0/month, and allows users to add 25 products to their store. There is a 5% transaction fee in place on the value of the orders.

Sellers who need to add more products may opt for the Start-up Plan, which has the same 5% transaction fee but allows users to add 250 products to their store. The price of this intermediate plan is $35/month.

Finally, sellers who want to go all-in may opt for the Pro Plan, which costs $90/month and lets users add unlimited products from all marketplaces to their stores.

16. Is Modalyst Customer Support Good?

Modalyst offers users a comprehensive FAQ section, and users can easily find answers to most of their questions about the platform via the help center. All the help sections on the website are easy to understand, and it only takes a couple of clicks to find the answer to most questions.

If the question is more specific and not addressed in the help center, users can get live chat support, which is available seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST, or send an email. Most emails get an answer within 24 hours.

If you’re planning a dropshipping store, you need to be as informed as possible to succeed. The answers to the most asked dropshipping questions above can help you get started with your dropshipping business. Avoiding dropshipping problems is not always easy, particularly as a beginner, but being well-informed is the first step to success.

The post What Is Dropshipping: Your Most Important Questions Answered first appeared on Modalyst.

The Ultimate Dropshipping Business Guide for Beginners

Alain Miguel — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 15:02:00 +0000

Running a lucrative online business doesn’t have to be complicated.

If you’ve been mulling over the idea of launching a dropshipping business, then you’ve come to the right place.

Whether you’re just starting out with your online store, or you’re a 10-year veteran looking to add to your current business model, we’ve created the ultimate dropshipping resource for online stores and dropship businesses alike.

In this guide, we’re going to show you absolutely everything you need to start and successfully run a dropshipping business.

From finding dropship suppliers and picking the perfect platform to delivering customer support and marketing, here’s what you need to know!

What Is Dropshipping?

With a plethora of voices piping in to define dropshipping, understanding what it actually is can be a bit complicated.

Here’s the truth, and nothing but the truth:

The Definition of Dropshipping

According to the definition, dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method.

The online retailer in no moment fulfills the orders themselves. Online stores with a dropshipping model hold no stock of their own.

The online stores collect customer orders and transfer the order and shipping details to manufacturers who then directly send the products to customers.

This means that you can avoid overhead costs like storage.

However, eCommerce stores do display products in some way to allow customers to pick which products they want to buy.

In today’s eCommerce world, online stores have replaced brick and mortar storefronts.

Online business owners don’t have to have a single physical product.They just have to display it and its characteristics online, which also allows them to reach more people across the world, which would’ve been impossible with a brick and mortar store.

And when customers buy the products, only then do the online stores order them from the wholesaler (suppliers) and ask for it to be shipped to the customer’s location.

So how do you make money with dropshipping? By finding the profit margin in the difference between the wholesale and retail price.

You buy a product for $5 from the dropshipping supplier (since the majority of them offer quantity discounts) and sell it at a market price.

Some eCommerce stores also agree on being paid a commission percentage from the wholesaler for each product sold, in which case it’s a dropshipping-affiliate marketing fusion.

The Pros of Dropshipping

Reduced Overhead and Startup Costs

If you don’t have to buy hundreds or thousands of products to sell upfront, you don’t need big startup capital. You only pay for products to sell when the customers have ordered them.

And since you don’t have to warehouse those products either, you’re avoiding warehouse costs.

Finally, it’s much easier to have a digital storefront than renting out a brick and mortar store.

You can run your entire drop ship business from home.

Flexibility

If you decide overnight that you no longer want to stock one product but opt for another, you can do it.

If you decide to move across the world, you can. Your business won’t suffer for it.

You can choose your own hours, strategies, and plans. And with today’s automation technology, you can almost passively run your dropshipping business.

Scalability

If you want to scale your business, all you need to do is invest in marketing and sales.

And because you can do the majority of work on your own, you don’t have to hire people, rent a bigger store, or pay for more warehouse room.

You just need to set up an ad or two.

Simplicity

You don’t have to have an MBA to start or run a dropshipping business.

You can find everything you need online and get started in a few days.

After all, you don’t have to worry about anything except for selling your products. Stocking, shipping… All of that is someone else’s worry.

You just process the payments and take your cut.

The Cons of Dropshipping

Now, dropshipping has plenty of advantages but there are a few disadvantages:

Low margins

Depending on which products you sell online, your margins could be slim.

However, dropshipping is a game of quantity. If you take $1 from every sale, you’ll have $100 if 100 people buy a product.

It’s the compound effect.

Additionally, you can stock a variety of products and items to sell. You don’t have to stick to one niche or one type of inventory for dropshipping.

For example, if you sell dog grooming kits, you could also sell leashes, dog toys, and much more.

Hidden costs

You could face a few problems with shipping if a customer orders two products from two different wholesalers or dropshippers. You’ll need to calculate the shipping costs for each.

Inventory management

Inventory management can get complicated if you’re working with multiple dropshippers, as their inventory changes often.

A good workaround is getting a tool that integrates the suppliers’ quantity information with your sales systems so you can automatically mark which products are out of stock.

Finally, you’ll be responsible for any supplier errors, which is why it’s always good to work with reputable suppliers.

We’ll show you how to find them later on in the guide.

Key Terms

When you start your eCommerce business with a dropship inventory model, you’ll often encounter some of these terms:

Address verification system – ATS is used to verify that the address buyer provided matches the address of the card to prevent fraud.
Chargeback – Forcibly issued refund from your customer’s bank. If you have a high volume of chargebacks, it can increase your operating costs.
Distributor/supplier – Middlemen businesses who stock certain manufacturers’ products. They’re typically faster to work with than actual manufacturers.
Gross profit – Product sold – Cost of product = Gross profit
Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) – The price at which the manufacturer thinks a product should be sold. It’s not obligatory to sell it at that price.
Minimum advertised price (MAP) – The lowest price at which a retailer can advertise the product.
Minimum order size – The lowest number of products you have to order for the distributor or manufacturer to ship them.
Multi-channel eCommerce – An eCommerce business that uses multiple sales channels (e.g. Shopify store and Amazon listings).
Net profit – Product sold – Cost of product – Operating costs = Net profit
Per-order fee – Some manufacturers and distributors charge a fee for handling and shipping the order for the retailer.
Restocking fee – The fee charged to customers when they return a product.
Wholesaler – Distributor or manufacturer who offers bulk discounts for ordering large quantities of product.

How to Start a Dropshipping Business

Even though it isn’t hard to start a dropshipping business, there are a few things you should pay particular attention to:

Business Structure of Your Dropshipping Store

Every professional manufacturer or distributor will ask you for proof that you’re a real retailer before they consider doing business with you.

They’ve spent a lot of time negotiating with people who ultimately decided that dropshipping isn’t for them, so nowadays you won’t get further than a quick reply unless you can prove you’ve established a business.

Additionally, once you get the ball rolling, you won’t have the time to think about defining your legal structure.

When you’ve committed to starting a dropshipping business, the first thing you need to do is set up a business entity.

The majority of dropshipping entrepreneurs and internet business owners in the US use one of the following two business structures:

Sole proprietorship – The simplest business structure with a minimal amount of paperwork. However, when you set up a sole proprietorship, you are your business. You only file your own taxes. The main downside of this is that you guarantee for your business with your personal assets.

Limited Liability Company (LLC) – A LLC is the best way to protect your assets. For all intents and purposes, a LLC is treated as a separate entity, which means you get a lot more liability protection. You will have to pay additional taxes and fees, and the LLC will be subject to different filing requirements.

The Costs of Starting a Dropshipping Business

Even though dropshipping is one of the most affordable, cost-effective ways to start a profitable internet business, that doesn’t mean it comes without costs.

Startup costs for Dropshipping Business

The first thing you’re going to need to start a dropshipping business is an online store.

Now, you could opt for a platform like Shopify or Wix, but you’ll still face some costs.

Some platforms charge per sale, while others charge a flat fee.

If you want a separate website, you’ll also have to handle hosting costs. You’ll need a domain in any case. Fortunately, the whole store setup won’t cost you more than $100-200.

Finally, depending on the type of legal structure you choose, you may have to pay set-up fees and/or any business licenses you may need.

It’s best to consult a lawyer for a detailed breakdown.

Marketing

The majority of your investments will go toward marketing your dropshipping business.

You can create estimates of the costs, although you will only know the real figure once you start selling.

Product samples

Even though you can absolutely run a profitable dropshipping store without ever touching the products you sell, that doesn’t mean you should.

It’s always a good idea to order product samples so you know what kind of quality your customers can expect from your products.

This can also greatly inform your pricing structure.

Upgrades

As you scale your online business, you’re going to need bigger plans for eCommerce and wholesale platforms, as well as a few enhancements of your store.

Of course, that depends on the platform you choose so keep reading to find out what the best ones are.

Top eCommerce Platforms for Dropshipping Websites

Software has come very far.

And instead of having to spend hours upon hours on manually setting up your dropshipping website, you can do everything with a few clicks if you opt for one of the most popular ecommerce platforms today.

We’ll show you a quick breakdown of each, as well as their pricing structure.

Shopify for Dropshipping

Shopify is one of the most widely used platforms for dropshipping and eCommerce.

It’s simple, and it’s affordable.

It has integrations for most major dropshipping integrations (including Modalyst) so you can automate the majority of tasks.

You don’t have to manually send orders to your manufacturer as the integration takes care of that.

And you’re only a few clicks away from importing products from the dropshippers’ profiles.

Shopify as an eCommerce Platform

Additionally, Shopify also has features for:

Payments
Sales
Marketing

Some add-ons aren’t free (for example, bulk sale processing), but they’re well worth the money ($10-$50).

You can also set up manual or automatic collections, which is a good idea if you’re selling different products.

Finally, Shopify also has handy SEO features (e.g. meta descriptions) to help you reach more people with your store and Shopify Lite which lets you sell through Facebook Messenger.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify comes with a 14-day free trial, after which you can choose one of the following plans:

1. $29/month plan – This plan comes with an additional 2.9% + 30¢ online credit card fee per each sale, which is something you may want to calculate into your net profit calculations.

2. $79/month plan – This plan comes with gift cards enabled, as well as professional reports. The online credit card fee is lower – 2.6% + 30¢.

3. $299/month plan – Finally, Shopify’s most expensive plan comes with a great dropshipping features: third-party calculated shipping rates. Additionally, this plan includes only 2.4% + 30¢ online credit card fees.

Wix for Dropshipping

Millions of people around the world use Wix to power their websites and eCommerce stores.

Wix is used by over 180 million people across 190 different countries.

It’s an affordable, easy and hassle-free way of creating your own website in a matter of minutes.

Wix and Modalyst just launched an dropshipping app on Wix. It is available in the Wix App Market or directly on Modalyst. Even though the dropshipping app is still relatively new to the market, it already has some positive reviews. We encourage you to check it out!

Wix as an eCommerce Solution

Wix is super easy to customize.

Just have a look at these top Wix websites. They’re simply beautiful and optimized for eCommerce to jumpstart your Wix dropshipping experience.

You can do pretty much everything just by dragging and dropping features and widgets you want to see. If you want to manually add code, that’s possible, as well.

You can choose between a few product listing templates, as well as:

Track your orders
Process payments
Promote sales
Manage tax (and shipping)

Wix Pricing

Wix does come with a free plan but if you really want to accept payments, you’re going to need one of the following premium plans:

1. $17/month plan – You’ll be able to accept payments, and Wix won’t charge a commission other platforms typically charge.

2. $25/month plan – You get up to 35GB of storage, as well as a logo.

3. $35/month plan – 50GB storage, and priority support.

BigCommerce for Dropshipping

Even though it’s not mentioned as often as Shopify or Wix, BigCommerce is a pretty powerful ecommerce platform for dropshipping websites. It supports integrations for dropshipping companies. Modalyst was actually one of their first integrations for dropshipping.

Learn more about the dropshipping with Modalyst and BigCommerce here.

BigCommerce as an eCommerce platform

It’s a full-fledged content management system, created specifically for eCommerce.

And while dropshipping technically falls under that domain, it’s not always easy to find a platform that’s going to allow you to automate 99% of your dropshipping work.

Fortunately, BigCommerce has great features.

It offers app integrations with major dropshipping companies, as well as other apps that simplify order fulfillment and inventory management.

BigCommerce also supports multi-channel retailing.

And because of their partnerships with Facebook, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Square, BigCommerce users get to experience new sales features first.

And if you want to convert visitors without giving them huge discounts, BigCommerce has features for that!

All in all, it’s a powerful platform to fuel your drop shipping business. Especially if you plan on growing it.

BigCommerce Pricing

BigCommerce comes with a 15-day free trial.

1. $30/month plan – Unlimited storage, but few marketing features. You can also have only $50k in annual sales before you have to upgrade. No transaction fees if you use payment gateways. If you process credit card payments, the fee is 2.9% + $0.30¢ per transaction.

2. $72/month plan – Marketing features like customer groups and abandoned cart saver are available with this plan. You can process up to $150k annually before you need to upgrade and the transaction fee for credit card payments is 2.5% + $0.30¢.

3. $225/month plan – Google review integration, custom SSL certificate, up to $400k in annual sales, and a 2.2% + $0.30¢ credit card fee.

Other Options for Setting up a Dropshipping Website

If you don’t want to set up your dropshipping store on any of the major platforms, you could always get a custom website and then add payment and marketing integrations.

For example, if you have a WordPress website, you can get a WooCommerce plugin that will allow you to process payments without switching to an entirely different eCommerce platform.

It’s all a matter of what you need. However, going with an out of the box solution or cloud hosted platform is usually simpler and more affordable.

How to Find the Best Dropshippers

When you’ve decided on a dropshipping platform, you’re going to need the main thing: products to sell online.

Now, as an online store, you’re not going to have or store any dropship products on your own.

And that’s exactly why you need to make sure you’re working with reliable dropshippers who aren’t going to botch up orders and ruin your business’ reputation.

Methods of Finding Dropshipping Suppliers

As a rule of thumb, manufacturers don’t know the first thing about marketing.

Let’s be real: if they’re still in business without marketing knowledge, that means their products are definitely something special.

However, that means it may be harder to find them.

It’s usually easier to find wholesale distributors but as always, be careful. There are plenty of middlemen presenting themselves as dropshippers so you could lose out on profits by accepting their price.

In addition to directly getting in touch with manufacturers and asking them about distributors, you can also find suppliers by:

Using dropshipping platforms

Dropshipping platforms like Modalyst, Oberlo and AliExpress are a treasure trove of all kinds of dropshipping suppliers (manufacturers, distributors, middlemen).

If you want to sell imported products, you can also find exporters and importers.

The majority of dropshipping solutions offer integrations with eCommerce platforms, as well, so you can fully automate your operations.

Googling your way to success

Some dropship manufacturers are extremely hard to find.

They’re usually buried on the twentieth page of Google so you’re going to need patience and the right keywords to find them.

If you’re looking to import a product, try using Google Translate and searching with native language keywords.

Trade shows, directories, and competition

You’ll usually have to pay for access to directories and going to trade shows, but ordering from the competition can be a good trick if your competition has a significantly lower price.

Find Top Dropshipping Suppliers on Modalyst

Modalyst is one of the most powerful dropshipping platforms.

If you sign up for it, you won’t just get access to millions of trending products to sell online. You’ll also be able to integrate the products with your store, syncing all product data and orders.

Everything is streamlined so you can focus on the important things – marketing and selling the best products.

Product sourcing is fast and easy on Modalyst.

It only takes one-click to add a product to your store, and Modalyst takes care of everything else.

Dropshippers in the USA

Modalyst handpicks the dropshippers on their platform, and these dropshippers are primarily from the USA. Having US dropshipping suppliers is especially important since these vendors offer so many benefits that Chinese wholesalers or foreign dropshippers do not.

Modalyst products are different from what you can find on AliExpress and Oberlo. The focus is placed on the quality of the product and how fast it ships. Modalyst believes that these attributes will keep your customers coming back from more.

You can also find plenty of niche products to sell online in the Modalyst marketplace. Access to these niche items means you don’t have to struggle for profits in a highly-saturated industry.

Other Modalyst features for dropshipping that will help you earn more:

It’s free to add 25 products to sell to your site
Product detail customization
You can set pricing and shipping rules to profit no matter what
Shipping status updates
Order management
Shopify, Wix, and BigCommerce APIs
Inventory level notifications
Set-up services

Why Dropship From the US?

The conventional formula most online entrepreneurs use to find suppliers is as follows: find cheap products from Chinese dropshippers and sell the products for massive profits.

This formula still works today. However, it’s becoming less effective and less profitable as more and more online shops use the same product sourcing strategy.

While more Chinese products flood the market, the more competitive pricing becomes, making it more difficult to reap a profit on the sale of an item and differentiate your business from others.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, though. It has helped create interest in a new market: USA dropshipping suppliers.

One way that you can differentiate your online shop is by working with suppliers who are based in the United States.

You don’t have to be located in the US for this to be a viable option.

So long as you have a strong customer base in the USA, or you’re looking to break into the American market, then using US dropshippers makes a lot of sense.

What to Look for in USA Dropshipping Suppliers

There are thousands of wholesalers and manufacturers in the United States.

While partnering with American dropshippers is compelling, you still have to do your due diligence.

A dropshipping company in the USA isn’t automatically qualified just because they are based in the United States. These dropshipping companies need to be vetted, just like any other supplier you want to work with.

You should follow the same process that you would when vetting any supplier. After all, your supplier is one of your most important business partners. You want to choose the best one.

Modalyst Pricing for Access to US Suppliers

1. Hobby Plan – Free – Up to 25 products, 5% transaction fee

2. Start-Up Plan – $35/month – 250 product limit, 5% transaction fee

3. Pro Plan – $90/month – Unlimited product limit, 5% transaction fee

Choosing the Best Dropship Suppliers

In addition to finding the best dropship wholesale suppliers in the first place, you also have to be careful when choosing them.

You’ll usually spot a scam if:

They want monthly fees – Dropship wholesalers don’t charge subscriptions just so you could do business with them. They charge per product. Anyone else who wants to charge ongoing fees is a con artist.
They sell to everyone – If these dropship companies sell to private individuals, they’re not wholesalers and you won’t be able to profit off their products.

However, legit suppliers do work on certain principles:

Per-order fees – These fees usually cover the costs of packaging and shipping which are different when you order a single product (as opposed to multiple products).
Minimum order size – This is completely legitimate. Some drop ship companies just don’t think it’s profitable to ship below a certain order size so make sure it fits your needs. If you really love their products, get in touch with them and see if you can negotiate special treatment.

And when it comes to dropshipping, the reliability of your suppliers is everything.

That’s why you should make sure that your suppliers are:

Organized – If it takes a dropship wholesaler ages to respond to your query, they probably don’t even know their inventory
Capable of receiving and processing orders through email or platform
Efficient
Professional

Errors can always happen and in a business where so much of your revenue depends on the suppliers, you want professionals capable of resolving problems. Not amateurs who will say they can’t help you.

Communicating with Drop ship Suppliers

As with anything related to your business: be professional and clear about what you want.

This is especially important if you have a special request that they don’t normally fulfill.

Keep in mind that many suppliers will ask you for proof of business, as they’ve communicated with a lot of reluctant online stores who ended up forgoing the idea.

While you will often communicate with dropshipping wholesale suppliers through platforms (especially if you use Modalyst) and email, don’t be afraid to get in touch with them by phone. Especially if they’re smaller suppliers of niche products.

It always pays to be polite and undemanding. Don’t ask for discounts from the get-go as the dropshipper has no idea if you’re serious at the moment.

However, as you build your relationship with the suppliers, they’ll be more likely to grant your requests and help you out in any way they can.

Additionally, double-check the shipping time. It should be like the dropshipping company claims.

If they claim that the product will be with you within a week and it arrives a month later, steer clear. Speed is a priority.

Payment

Your first option is paying suppliers by credit card. Some wholesale platforms also offer options of processing payments for you.

The other, different type of payment is net terms.

This is a form of delayed payment. For example, you purchase a product and the supplier gives you a certain timeframe in which you have to pay them for that product.

If the supplier offers this option, they may ask you for credit references because they’re essentially trusting your word that you’ll pay them.

How to Pick the Best Dropshipping Products

Your dropshipping products are, quite literally, your bread and butter.

And if you’re not going into business with a clear, validated idea of what you want to sell online, you’re going to need to conduct extensive research.

Fortunately, even if a product doesn’t sell, you won’t be losing much but time. That’s the charm of starting a dropshipping business!

However, selecting a good product is the best way to start earning as soon as possible.

Market Research

Market research is a must before you start any kind of business, but even more so when you start a website for dropshipping.

If a product isn’t in demand, you’ll have a very hard time selling it. You’ll incur marketing costs without ever getting your return on investment.

Now, the trick is in actually performing market research.

First comes ideation.

In order to get inspired, you can turn to social media and sites like Wish and Amazon. If you already have a product idea, it’s time to validate it.

The simplest way to do it is with Google.

You can use the oldest trick in the SEO book, the Google Keyword Planner.

It’ll show you the monthly search volume and competition for a certain keyword. Just make sure you focus on the right location, and don’t forget about long-tail keywords and synonyms.

You can also use Google Trends to evaluate interest over time and the seasonality of a product.

For example, a new product might have appeared on the market two months ago, and now the demand for it is steadily growing. It could be a great opportunity for your dropshipping business.

At this point, you should also stake out the competition.

First, you should define the volume of the competition.

How big is the market? Plenty of competitors could undercut your ability to run a profitable business. Too few competitors may mean a niche that looks profitable but isn’t.

At the same time, evaluate your competitors’ pricing.

As a rule of thumb, the best way to start a dropship business is by offering something at a reduced price.However, it can be a race to the bottom if you can’t get decent margins.

Markup Opportunities and Sales Potential

Here’s the thing – running a successful eCommerce store for dropshipping isn’t nuclear physics. There are a few formulas that always work:

Reduced price

If you can offer people something at a reduced price (while still getting decent profit margins), they will buy.

However, the scenarios in which this doesn’t mean a race to the bottom is very rare. You’re competing with small businesses and huge corporations alike. Amazon carries pretty much every product. Plus, once you start lowering the price, so will everyone else.

Even if they’re not making money.

Exclusive access

This is where it really pays off to dig deep, all the way to page 57 of Google.

If you can find a manufacturer you can strike an exclusive deal with, a manufacturer who produces something customers sorely need but can’t get, you’ll be golden.

The most realistic scenario is to drop ship a product that’s not easily available in a certain area or country.

Better quality

Offering high-quality products is one of the most long-term sustainable ways to run a profitable online business.

The quality of your products will be there for you even when you can’t reduce the price to match your competitors.

And it will make people refer their friends to you, giving you more customers and profits.

Offering value with your service

Information is the key to success.

Plenty of businesses sell products, but only some of them are able to inform their customers about which products are best suited to their needs.

This is especially true for complicated products. For example, products with a lot of components or products that aren’t universal fit.

Low competition

If you don’t have competition but there is a demand in the market, you can swoop in and satisfy it. However, keep in mind that this is only short-term success. As soon as potential competitors see you’re running a profitable business, they’ll do the same thing, too.

Niche Products for Dropship Businesses

The money is in the niche – or so they say.

Generally, the narrower you can go with your target audience, the better. This is as true in sales as it is in marketing.

When you run a generalized dropshipping store, you’ll be able to serve all kinds of people. However, ultimately you may serve no one.

Conversely, if you run a dropshipping website that offers products specific to a niche, you’ll be able to personalize more and target people more accurately.

For example, when you sell generic clothes, you’ll be targeting humans. That’s all you know about them.

But if you sell baby-proofing systems, you’ll know exactly who you’re targeting: new parents. You’ll know what they’re motivated by, and you can easily understand why and when they’ll buy your products.

If you are also interested in your niche, that’s even better!

In the beginning, it’s much easier to stick by what you know. You’ll know how to serve your customers better.

Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing Products

To sum it all up, the ideal dropship product is a product that’s in high demand, but there’s not a lot of competition (or there is competition but there’s not enough supply). And its wholesale price (pre-order fees and operating costs included) is low enough to give you a decent profit margin.

As a rule of thumb, try to price your product at or below $200.

This is especially beneficial if you’re starting out.

You’ll need time to build your credibility, and people are more willing to make spur-of-the-moment purchases of products that are not more expensive than $200. Everything above that will require some convincing (and time).

You should also keep an eye on MAP (minimum advertised price). If the manufacturer doesn’t let you set a price that’s lower than their limit, you should factor that into your calculations.

Finally, be aware of how the size of the product can affect delivery to the locations you’re targeting.

Pricing changes depending on the size, so factor that into your margin calculations to know exactly how much revenue you can expect per product.

How to Run a Dropshipping Website

Once you’ve set everything up, it’s time to actually run the business and make it as lucrative as possible.

The Dropshipping Order Process

So, what can you expect to happen once a customer clicks on “Order”?

The customer places an order on your site.

The main prerequisite for this is to know (or automatically update) if the products you’re advertising are available at the moment.

The majority of dropshipping platforms integrate with wholesale platforms like Modalyst to make sure all of your listings are up to date.

If they’re not, your system will process an invalid order for the customer. You’ll need to either notify them that the product is not in stock, or issue them a refund.

You want to avoid that at all costs.

Your store places an order with the supplier.

If you’re doing it manually, it’s going to get tedious and nerve-wracking soon. However, you can use integrations with dropship platforms like Modalyst to streamline the process.

As soon as the customer places an order and pays for it, your system will “ping” the supplier’s system and the order will be processed on their end, as well.

Supplier ships the order to the customer.

Once they receive the order, the suppliers will ship the product to the customer.

Again, it’s good to know how much time it’ll take them to process the order. If it’s shipped within one day, that’s perfect. But if your customers have to wait a week for the order to ship in the first place (and the supplier is thousands of miles away from them), it could become a nightmare.

The customer is notified by the online store.

It’s important for you to know that your business will be handling all customer communication.

Essentially, they shouldn’t be aware that you’re a dropshipping business at all. Your process shouldn’t show it.

You’ll notify them about the processing of their order, about the shipment, and about tracking codes and everything else.

Similarly, if something goes wrong, you’ll be the one who has to handle it so make sure you have reliable suppliers.

Inventory Management

Even though you don’t have physical inventory, you have digital inventory.

And when it comes to any kind of sales, the most important rule is: never go out of stock.

You should always have backup dropship wholesale suppliers in case your main suppliers go out of stock.

And in order to stay updated on their inventory levels, you can use Modalyst and integrate it with your drop shipping website.

You should also understand the dropshippers’ stock rates for the products you want to sell online. Do they carry it consistently, or do they only carry it periodically?

And if you ever get into an “out of stock” situation: don’t panic. Instead, get in touch with the customer and offer them something in return.

Try to preserve the relationship as much as possible.

In most cases, customers won’t mind if you offer them a better substitute, and you’ll save your face.

Be Smart about Routing Orders

Now, you definitely want to have multiple dropshipping suppliers – even if they’re just backup ones.

But as you scale, you’ll need multiple suppliers because of a variety of reasons:

Different locations
Different price
Different availability

And so on.

And in order to avoid having to manually route orders or risk routing orders to the wrong supplier, you can automate the process.

For example, if you’re selling to customers in both Canada and Belgium, and you have suppliers from the US and the Netherlands, you’ll want to route Canadian orders to the US supplier, and Belgian orders to the supplier from the Netherlands.

You can execute the same method for other types of orders, as well.

And it’s completely fine to play favorites – route the majority of your orders to your preferred supplier and keep everyone else on the back burner.

Marketing Your Dropshipping Business

Since running a store with dropship products doesn’t cost a lot in overhead and operating costs, marketing is where you should focus the majority of your investment.

First, know (and understand) your target audience.

This is much simpler if you’re selling niche dropshipping products.

You can create buyer personas for your customers and define what drives them to buy, and which channels they use to get informed.

You should never go in blind.

Second, choose your methods wisely.

The majority of people with the intent to buy will Google what they’re interested in. And since more people click on organic results than paid ads, you should really focus on improving your SEO.

You can use paid social media advertising, but know that you may not always reach the people who are ready to buy.

It’s a long-term advertising strategy.

For immediate results, go with Google Ads.

Third, don’t just attract customers – retain them.

While we all talk about ads the most, you can get plenty of business from referrals of satisfied customers.

Your goal should be to retain customers and maximize their value. The majority of eCommerce platforms offer up-sell and cross-sell add-ons that will help you sell more products to the same people, or sell complementary products.

You should also invest in email marketing to reactivate the people who have already bought from you.

After all, 40% of a store’s revenue comes from repeat customers.

Customer Support

Finally, just because you’re drop shipping doesn’t mean you don’t have to handle customer support.

You’re marketing your online shop like a business, and you should communicate with your customers just like a business does.

Now, when everything’s going great, you can focus on improving the customer experience.

However, when things go wrong, you may wonder if it’s worth it.

It is.

The trick is in staying cool and handling the situation wisely.

First of all, you need customer support tools.

You can use ZenDesk, Help Scout or any of the other tools that allow you to help your customers by phone, email or live chat.

If you’re processing returns, be aware of the process.

Every dropshipping supplier has a different way of processing returns and as an online store, you have to keep both them and the end customer happy.

Make sure you’ve defined the process with the dropship wholesaler so you know what to expect.

For example, some vendors charge a restocking fee.

In some cases, it may not even be profitable to return a product for a few dollars in credit (or no one at all) + shipping fees. It’s much better to send the customer a new product if their previous one wasn’t functioning properly.

If you get a chargeback, respond to it as soon as possible with original documentation.

Sometimes, a customer may just forget that they ordered something. However, chargebacks are typically caused by fraudulent situations.

This is why it’s good to have an ATS (Address Tracking System) that verifies that the address provided is the address on the payment file.

Dropshipping Best Practices

If you’re wondering how to get your eCommerce website off the ground as soon as possible (and make it profitable even sooner), here’s what the majority of successful ecommerce businesses recommend:

Find your niche and build your credibility

If you’re in it for the long run, it pays to specialize and build your credibility.

Things can always happen. You can run out of stock, someone may leave a negative review, and it’s all completely natural. However, once you’ve built up a reputation, you and your customers won’t even notice it.

Now, this is easiest to do if you’re operating within a niche. When you’re a generalist, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd.

Focus on cost-effective marketing

Paid ads can be great, but they’re not sustainable in the long term.

If you’re getting a spike of traffic when you’re advertising your products, and then nothing when you stop running the ads, it’s a problem.

This is why it’s much better to invest in SEO for the long run, as well as email marketing, and use paid ads as a “booster” to your standard methods.

Offer Excellent Customer Service

People buy for the products, yes. But they also buy for the experience.

Even if you have a lot of competition and a higher price, people won’t mind as long as they love the journey.

If you draw them in with useful resources, encourage them to communicate with you, and invite them to recommend your business to their friends, you won’t just be a business to them.

You’ll be someone they can rely on.

And that’s the best way to build a profitable e-Commerce business with dropshipping.

Additional Resources

How to Start Selling Online by Salehoo

The Best Web Hosting Providers by Quicksprout

The post The Ultimate Dropshipping Business Guide for Beginners first appeared on Modalyst.

Setting up your Dropshipping Store in 7 Steps on a Budget

Alain Miguel — Tue, 17 May 2022 20:53:00 +0000

Setting up a dropshipping store is a great way to earn money as an eCommerce business. The most compelling feature of a dropshipping store is managing a store without the hassle of inventory and shipping logistics.

You’ve likely heard stories from entrepreneurs about how expensive starting a business is. These include tales of hopelessly seeking investors, or businesses struggling to stay afloat due to bleak financials. Don’t let this scare you out of starting a drop shipping store because this model allows you to sell products with little risk.

All you need to do is receive the orders and get in touch with your supplier – the rest is up to them.

When it comes to funding your business, there are very few financial obstacles associated with setting up a dropshipping store. In fact, you can get started with an online store with almost zero initial investment.

Here’s a 7-step foolproof plan on how to start a dropshipping store on a shoestring budget.

Setting Up Your Dropshipping Store on a Budget

1. Research Your Options

Before starting any type of business, you’ll need to do some homework.

This involves getting online and checking out your competitors who are selling similar products. You’ll also want to spend some time researching your potential suppliers and distributors to see what each has to offer.

Each shipping partner will have a unique way of doing things and pricing models, so pay close attention to those details so you can make sure you’re pairing up with the right group for your drop shipping store.

2. Create a Plan and Stick To It

Before you can start your business operations, you’ll need to have a solid plan in place. This includes a budget. Whether you have $50 or $500 to get started, it’s important to identify what your budget is and make sure that you stick to it. The best way to do that is to keep careful records of all of your expenses to make sure that you don’t go over your budget when you’re setting up your store.

3. Find Your Niche

It can be very difficult to appeal to everyone, in fact, many say that this is an impossible task. Instead, pick your products based on a specific niche rather than trying to sell every product under the sun.

If you know you want to sell animal related products, pick a specific area of that industry, such as vegan pet food or clothing for dogs.

You’ll have a much better success rate when you can narrow your focus down because you’re more likely to be found when people are searching for a certain type of product. If your focus is too broad, your small shop will get lost in a sea of competitors.

4. Set Up Your eCommerce Site

Once you have a good shop name and logo its time to start creating your dropship store.

Wix dropshiping website builder is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms available to sellers today. It’s easy to get started and its user-friendly interface makes setup and maintenance easy, even for sellers who aren’t particularly tech-savvy.

Shopify and Wix are both affordable option, with monthly rates at less than $40, making it a great way to get started in the world of eCommerce on a budget. You can also start a Modalyst store, which helps you to increase your distribution and streamline your distribution process

After you get set up with a basic online storefront and have your products selected, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

5. Make Arrangements With Your Drop shipping Suppliers

There are plenty of choices out there when it comes to deciding which supplier to use for your drop shipping store. Since you’ve already done your research in step one, this is the time where you formalize your choice. You can do so by entering into a deal with the product distributor(s) of your choice. Each of the most popular shipping partners makes it easy to get started and you can be on your way in no time, without having to pay any upfront costs.

The most important questions that you ask of your potential suppliers are:

Do you keep products in stock?
How do you handle returns?
What is your average processing time?
What areas do you ship to? Do you ship internationally?
What type of support do you offer?
Is there a minimum order quantity?

Once you find a supplier who answers those questions to your satisfaction, you’ll have a solid understanding of how your suppliers run their business. Furthermore, you’ll know what you need to do as a seller working with them. At this point, you’re on your way to a successful working relationship.

6. Start Selling

Congratulations! This is one of the most exciting steps in starting your online store. Once you have all your plans and agreements in place, it’s time to upload your product information to your site and start selling.

You might not see many sales to start out if people aren’t aware of your products. If this is the case, you’ll want to spend some time and resources on advertising. You can keep advertising costs fairly minimal by starting with low-cost ads on Facebook and Instagram, or advertising on blogs and other websites that have a similar audience.

7. Optimize Your Site

Once you have some sales and experience under your belt, you can take some time to customize your site. You can do this earlier on in the process, but it’s often a good idea to wait to see what’s working before you start making changes.

Platforms like Shopify and Modalyst have a wide range of customizable options, including themes to enhance the way your site looks, and plugins that help optimize how your website functions. The main goal here is to tweak your site in ways that make things easier and more streamlined for your customers.

As you can see, all it takes is a few steps to set up an online store, and most of them don’t require any money. If you’re passionate about becoming an eCommerce business owner but don’t have a lot of capital to start with, you’re not alone. This is why there are so many platforms that make it easy to get started without spending a fortune in the process.

Make sure you do your homework and formulate a plan that you can use to guide you through setting up your dropshipping store while staying within your budget, no matter how limited it may be.

The post Setting up your Dropshipping Store in 7 Steps on a Budget first appeared on Modalyst.

Oberlo vs Modalyst: Which is the Best Dropshipping App?

Alain Miguel — Thu, 12 May 2022 20:07:00 +0000

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If you have a Shopify store, you have most likely heard of both of these apps that help improve the product sourcing process for retailers. Both offer the right tools to automate your dropship store. Spocket, Importify, and MXED are other highly recommended Shopify apps for merchants, but today we’re going to focus our attention on Modalyst and Oberlo app.

Overall, when you take a close look at these Shopify apps, they both do an excellent job of simplifying dropshipping and making products available for an ecommerce business.

When it comes to running an ecommerce store, there are a few things that every person is always looking for to make their life easier:

Automation tools
One-click product sourcing
Automatic order fulfillment
A large inventory of drop shipping vendors

Let’s take a look at how these two apps compare when it comes to starting your dropshipping business.

Modalyst vs Oberlo

What is Modalyst?

First, we’ll look at the Modalyst app. This is a dropshipping marketplace that connects store owners to different suppliers and premium products.

Most of the sellers you find on this platform are bona fide brands or experienced dropshippers, so they are invested in their product listings and offer only quality products.

Many of the issues that Shopify store owners face have to do with the quality of the products they source and the length delivery times from overseas wholesalers. The Modalyst app provides solutions to these problems by aggregating products from top suppliers in the United States and Europe. Their supplier network is one of the most unique and complete.

Additionally, since the products are supplied by brands they’ve individually vetted, Modalyst is able to establish standardized shipping procedures and policies. This results in faster and more reliable shipping practices, which ultimately makes online shoppers happy.

The Modalyst app offers a curated selection of fashion and non-fashion suppliers with product catalogs that you can add to your store with a single click. These vendors have detailed product pages that allow Shopify stores to import images, descriptions, inventory levels and prices to their own dropship store. When new products become available, retailers can easily import those items to their online businesses as well.

The app is designed so you can smoothly go down a list of options and quickly add the products you want without needing to fill out any information by hand; this makes product sourcing fast and simple.

Using the Modalyst platform

The platform offers millions of products through their product catalog that you can easily add to your Shopify store with a single click. Something unique about Modalyst is that a lot of their sellers only offer their products through this specific platform. That is what makes it one of the best Shopify apps. This is different from Spocket, for example, which works in conjunction with Etsy to add new products to the Spocket app. This type of exclusivity results in a dropshipping business full of great products that shoppers may not have seen before.

When you start using Modalyst as a new store, you must integrate the platform with your online business. If you are using Shopify, they have a free Shopify app that allows you to connect the two platforms and start selling up to 25 products for free. If you use Wix or BigCommerce, they also have apps that sync with the Modalyst platform.

When you follow this strategy, you can upload all the products you choose to your own store, and the app will help import all the pictures, prices, and descriptions. There is literally no manual work in this part of the process, unless you want to make price changes or remove variants.

Every time shoppers make a purchase on your store, you will receive a notification, and you’ll have to confirm and pay the seller directly on Modalyst. At that point, the supplier will prepare the item for shipment and then ship the product to your happy customer with no receipts or invoice. The packaging is also unbranded.

Everything from product sourcing to payments is managed through the Modalyst platform, so it’s well organized and easy to use. You can keep all your information in one place, so you don’t lose track of orders or shipping information.

As with most dropshipping apps, you do not have to purchase anything or pay upfront to list their products on your store. You can list as many items up to 25 products for free without having to worry about holding any inventory.

What is Oberlo?

Now that you understand how to use Modalyst, let’s take a look at the drop shipping plugin Oberlo. Oberlo is one of the most successful Shopify apps in the Shopify app store. It works the same as the Modalyst plugin by allowing you to easily upload and manage products on your ecommerce store through the Oberlo app.

Oberlo is a Shopify app and is available for use only on that platform. It does not integrate with Bigcommerce, Woocommerce, or Wix like Spocket and Modalyst do. Once you have your account set up, you can browse the Oberlo marketplace for the best products and quickly add them to your store with a single click. The Oberlo app will send over all the product details and inventory data from the listing such as images, product descriptions, wholesale prices and variants, so you don’t have to edit anything unless you want to.

Oberlo uses Aliexpress as its supplier network. This is done through a Chrome Extension for ecommerce merchants. If you’re at all familiar with Importify, the Chrome Extension for Oberlo works similiarly. The extension allows you to import products from the Aliexpress product catalog. Aliexpress.com has thousands of manufacturers and wholesalers. Oberlo doesn’t vet these dropshipping suppliers before offering them on the Oberlo Marketplace. However, they can be sorted and filtered to find the best products across different categories.

Oberlo only offers wholesalers from China which results, generally, in low reliability and extremely long shipping times. By contrast, Modalyst specializes in fast shipping times from independent brands.

Using Oberlo

The Oberlo app is simple to use, and its platform is user-friendly. Directly from the Oberlo dashboard, you can search for Aliexpress products, find featured products, import, and view products. All your items that are available for sale are listed on the dashboard with information like sales and earnings.

When an order comes through your online store, you’ll receive that notification on the Oberlo platform, and you’ll then locate the product and click the order button. Once you press that button, you’ll then purchase from Aliexpress (or wherever), and they’ll handle entire process, including the packaging and shipping. Make sure you include a note to your Aliexpress vendor asking them not to include any promotions in the package.

One of the nice features on Oberlo is their automatic update notifications. For example, prices are continually fluctuating based on supply and demand, and if you have 1000 products on your Shopify store, you’ll never be able to keep up with all the price changes. It’s important to keep an eye on this as these fluctuations can affect your margins. The Oberlo app will notify you anytime a supplier changes their price, removes a variant or runs out of inventory. If your supplier runs out of the product, they will immediately let you know so you can take that product down or list it as out of stock.

Modalyst vs Oberlo: Pricing Tiers

One of the most important factors to consider is how much you have to pay for the benefits of these services. Neither app offers a free trial. Instead, they have a free plan for merchants which is unlimited in duration. That is why they are both considered some of the best free Shopify apps. The Printful app and Productpro are also in this category.

Overall, I think the price of each of these is incredibly affordable for a Shopify site. The access to great products plus all the advanced features make these plugins some of the best apps to boost sales. Let’s take a look at the breakdown.

Modalyst Monthly Plans

Hobby – Free, non-premium suppliers only, 5% transaction fee, 25 product limit, unlimited orders
Start-Up – $35 a month, non-premium supplier only, 5% transaction fee, 250 product limit, unlimited orders,
Pro – $90 a month, all suppliers, 5% transaction fee, unlimited products, unlimited orders

Oberlo Monthly Plans

Starter plan – Free, 500 products, 50 orders per month
Basic plan – $29.90 a month, 10,000 products, 500 orders per month
Pro plan – $79.90 a month, 30,000 products, unlimited orders

Let’s give this a more in-depth look. If we compare the free plan between the two, the Modalyst app allows only 25 products, but they don’t have an order limit. That is a huge advantage especially for entrepreneurs focusing on a niche. If those 25 items sell well, you may never need to upgrade because you can fulfill as many orders as you want.

While Modalyst has pricing automation, real time inventory updates, and dedicated Modalyst suppot on the weekends, they are the only app that advertises a transaction fee. That said, you should note that you incur a transaction fee on Oberlo through Shopify payments. Nonetheless, transaction fees are a pain point to any business model where margins are already thin.

How the Two Dropshipping Apps Stack Up

In the end, you’re comparing two of the best apps that do the same thing, but they each have their own little quirks and downsides.

Modalyst is great for any Shopify user looking for a marketplace of unique products. You can also sell products with your own branding and labeling by using the Modalyst Private Label program. As we mentioned, Modalyst has a 5% transaction fee; when you think about ecommerce at scale, if you do $500,000 a year in sales that accounts for $25,000 of your revenue.

The primary advantage that Modalyst offers is the different products of independent brands and premium suppliers. if you are willing to pay for the the Pro plan, then the entire marketplace becomes available to you.

These suppliers offer items that you won’t find anywhere else, and this package comes with shorter shipping times. Also, with Modalyst you can sync with multiple ecommerce platforms, including Shopify, Wix, and Bigcommerce. If you use the Oberlo app, you are limited to using only the Shopify platform.

Modalyst Pros

High-quality products
A marketplace of unique suppliers
Private label dropshipping program
Higher profit margins
Fast Shipping
Products shipping from the United States
Mostly US/EU Suppliers, some with free shipping
Automatic tracking info at the lowest tier pricing plan
Integrate with Shopify, Wix & BigCommerce
Inventory level notifications
Directly communicate with suppliers

Modalyst Cons

5% transaction fee on all pricing tiers
No access to premium brands on bottom two pricing plans
Limited selection of low-cost products
No free trial

Oberlo Pros

Easy to use interface
Product reviews on Aliexpress products
Strong reputation as one of the best Shopify plugins
Integrates with Shopify dropshippers
Automatic order fulfillment
Strong customer support network
More economical long-term with no transaction fees
Oberlo suppliers offer faster shipping times and more reliable products

Oberlo Cons

Only available on Shopify
Can only source products from Oberlo and Aliexpress dropshipping platform
Aliexpress products have long shipping times
Generally, Aliexpress dropshipping sellers are not as reputable
No free trial

The Final Verdict

We’re comparing apples to oranges here, but Modalyst offers higher quality suppliers for ecommerce store owners who are willing to pay a higher monthly fee. Oberlo is a product created by dropshippers for dropshippers and they understand the difficulties and struggles you face.

Oberlo’s partnership with Aliexpress also simplifies the ordering process, but their low-tier pricing structure is almost obsolete being that they don’t offer order tracking in their free plan. That said, they also don’t have a 5% transaction fee which makes a tremendous difference when sales start picking up, and you see how much money you’re throwing away.

Each app offers its own unique twist with advantages and disadvantages. They both have a free plan, so try them out and see what works best for your needs.

The post Oberlo vs Modalyst: Which is the Best Dropshipping App? first appeared on Modalyst.

Start a Dropshipping Store | Modalyst

The Psychology of Consumer Behavior in Dropshipping: Understanding Purchase Decisions

Introducing the Consumer Decision-Making Journey

Problem Recognition

Information Search

Analyzing Options

Deciding on Purchase

Post-Purchase Behavior

Improving the Attractiveness of a Product

Pricing Strategies and How Value Is Viewed

What strategies can be used by the dropshipping business?

Overcoming Purchasing Barriers

Challenge: Uncertainty about shipping prices, times, and reliability can make people less likely to buy.

Challenge: People who shop online may be hesitant to give out personal and financial information.

Challenge: People may be hesitant to buy something if they don’t know how good its quality is.

Challenge: Complicated return methods or worries about getting money back can stop people from buying.

Challenge: When there are too many options, people can get stuck and give up on their carts.

Conclusion

Optimization and Effectiveness in Dropshipping and E-Commerce: Strategies and Trends

The Rise of E-Commerce and Dropshipping

Understanding E-Commerce and Dropshipping Optimization

Dropshipping and Digital Security

Dropshipping and E-commerce Trends

Impact of Consumer Behavior Shifts on Dropshipping and E-Commerce Efficiency

Key Strategies to Optimize Dropshipping

Technology’s Role in Optimization

The Future of Dropshipping and E-commerce

How to Make Sure Your Dropshipping Delivery Will Get to Your Buyer Safely

Dropshipping as the online store solution

What makes good dropshipping customer service?

Ways to improve your customer service:

Here are five things you can do to make sure the package delivery process is smoother:

Test shipping times

Be transparent about shipping times

Be thorough and organized

Choose reliable shipping methods

Take responsibility

Some good ways to make up for unforeseen order issues:

Takeaways

20+ Tips to Find Trending Products to Sell Online in 2023

Trending Products to Sell Online

Google Trends to the Rescue

How to Grow Your Business Using Google Trends

Sell Products That People Actually Want

Make Relevant Content Marketing and Ad Campaigns

Come Up with Deals and Promotions for Specific Locations

Gain Valuable insights Into Viable Markets and Target Audiences

Tips on How to Find Trending Products

1. Look in the Mirror

2. Look to the Local Trends

3. Adhere to the Experts

4. Turn to the Top Dogs

5. From the Mouths of Critics

Product Review Blogs to Use

6. Social Curation is Your Key to Finding What to Sell Online

7. Reddit is Your Realest Product Source

Evaluating the Best Products to Sell Online in 2023

8. The Size of Your Playing Field

9. The Stiffness of Competition

10. The Shelf-Life for Selling

11. The Convenience Factor

12. The Customer Psyche

13. Markup Can Make You Crazy

14. The Selling Price Sweet Spot

15. Subscribing to Success

16. Size Does Count

17. Durable Products Could Mean Enduring Success

18. Is Your Product a One Season Quitter?

19. Product Turnover Could Mean Profit Turnover

20. Can the Product Grow with Your Business?

Validation

21. Want Answers? Then Ask the Right Questions.

22. Let the Crowd Fund Your Dream

23. Landing on Product Validation

24. Testing the Waters

Conclusion

5 Ways to Start a Profitable Dropshipping Business Before the Holidays

Starting a dropshipping business during the holidays

What is the dropshipping business model?

How does dropshipping work?

Deploy Marketing Strategy
(Learn and Adjust)