Want to start your own online business?, Here’s how. Today we are going to show you How to Start a Dropshipping Business in eight easy steps. This is the ultimate guide to How to start a dropshipping store.

In this dropshipping guide we will cover:

Select a niche
Do competition research.
Choose a product
Secure a supplier
Choose a platform for your eCommerce Website
Build your dream eCommerce website.
Analyze your results and optimize them.
Learn how to improve your online business

Lots more…

So if you are starting a dropshipping business, you’ll love this guide. Let’s get started.

When starting a dropshipping business, you will need to invest time or money. Building a successful eCommerce business takes a long-term perspective.

If you’re hoping for a handsome income in overnight or from part-time work, you’re going to be sadly disappointed.

Dropshipping has quickly become one of the most popular online business models for new entrepreneurs. It is the solution to building a flexible business.

This business lets entrepreneur manage physical businesses without having a full-time employees or warehouse.

What is Dropshipping?

An online portal that manages a dropshipping model purchases the products it sells from a third-party supplier, who then fulfills the order.

You can skip the upfront investment of freight charges and shipping products as a drop shipper.

To start a dropshipping business, all you need is a way to reach your customers, a buyer, and a market.

If you are ready to start your own dropshipping business then follow the below steps below.

While it does not take a lot of startup investment to start a dropshipping business, it will require an immense amount of hard work, persistence and determination.

How to Start a Dropshipping Business?

With determination and persistence, you can start your own eCommerce business within a few days. Starting a dropshipping business doesn’t need to take weeks of business planning.

1. Select a niche.

First, you’ll want to select a niche or type of business. The niche you select needs to be something you are interested in.

Examples of niches include electronics, health and beauty, children and toys, fashion, outdoor living, or household products.

As a beginner in dropshipping business, it’s important to test new lines before expanding your niche.

For instance, if you choose to enter the fashion industry, decide if you’re going to sell women’s, men’s, and children’s items.

Choosing a niche will help you focus on the right customer as you build your brand. Here are some points to consider when selecting your niche for your dropshipping business:

Sell something that isn’t available locally
Low shipping costs
Seek attractive profits
Make sure your potential customer is actively searching for your product
Create your own brand

2. Do competition research.

Remember, you will be competing with other retail giants such as Amazon, Walmart, Myntra, Snapdeal and many more.

This is where, many potential entrepreneurs go wrong, because they look for a particular product that has little competition.

There are many reasons why a product might not have a healthy competition, including manufacturing issues, supplier issues, low profit margins, or high shipping costs.

Search products that have healthy competition, as it’s a sign that the business model is sustainable and there is a high demand for your product.

3. Choose a product.

Once you’ve selected your niche, it’s time to list your items and pick the specific products you want to sell.

Are you going to sell electronics items, wedding dresses, household products, sunglasses, health and beauty products, toddler toys, or outdoor living?

You might be able to list a whole line of items within your niche depending on your dropshipping suppliers.

Remember, the goal is to start small, so don’t get too carried away at first. In time, you can expand your products lines to fill in the gaps within a broader niche.

4. Secure a supplier.

Once you’ve selected your product, it’s important that you don’t rush this step. Choosing the wrong supplier can ruin your business.

Making communication extremely important, most dropshipping suppliers are located overseas.

If you are not 100% confident about a potential supplier, move on and continue your search.

There are hundreds of dropshipping suppliers available on the internet. Ali Express, Alibaba, Amazon has become one of the largest online resources.

Make sure to know what their production capabilities. Ask a lot of questions about products, delivery, return policies, and other terms and conditions.

5. Choose a platform for your eCommerce Website.

Now that you’ve done all the completion research, product selection, and suppliers, it’s time to choose your eCommerce platform, build your online store, and launch your dropshipping business.

Selecting an eCommerce platform would be the first step in this entrepreneurial journey, and you will need a perfect platform and online store builder to put up your dream storefront.

There are numbers of online store solutions available in the market. You can list products to dropship on Etsy, Amazon, eBay or your own eCommerce website. List the same items on multiple sites to expand your reach.

There are two types of eCommerce platforms/solutions availabe where your online store can be hosted. It could be a cloud hosting or a self-hosted.

Open-source eCommerce platforms:

Here you are offered ready-made eCommerce store builders with open-source code access that you can install and set up your entire online store in a few hours.

Benefits of an open-source eCommerce platform:

It gives you the ability and freedom to create, edit, and build exactly what you want for your dropshipping solution.

These types of platforms are becoming more and more popular. If you like custom, think of it like this… then you like open source.

This reason alone is why most dropshoppers would rather work with an open source eCommerce platform.

Easy to use
Ready-made solutions
Customizability on the website
Higher scalability
SaaS-based solutions
No recurring charges
Control over your online store
No technical skills required

You can consider these platforms as a modular approach to build something big. You can select every feature to add as a module and micro-personalize your online store. Many developers have developed some premium open-source platforms as well.

Top 5 free open-source eCommerce platforms of your online store:

WordPress WooCommerce Plugin
Drupal Commerce plugin
Magento Community edition
Open-cart
PrestaShop

SaaS-based eCommerce platforms:

Such solutions are best suited to entrepreneurs or drop shippers who just want to focus on their business development and do not want to deal with the complications of eCommerce store development.

This type of platforms provides ready-made eCommerce solutions, which are delivered through cloud as hosted service.

SaaS-based eCommerce platforms are well known for their swiftness of building online stores and simplicity of management.

Top 5 SaaS-based eCommerce platforms:

Listed below SaaS-based eCommerce platforms vary in price. Do significant research to determine which eCommerce platform will provide the most value for your online business.

Squarespace – Commerce plans to start at $26/month
Shopify – Business plans starting at $29/month (free 14-day trial)
Big Cartel – 25 products: $9.99/month
BigCommerce – Business plans starting at $29.95/month (free 14-day trial)
Volusion – Business plans starting at $269

In SaaS-based eCommerce platforms, you can simply sign-up and setup your eCommerce store in just a few hours using an easy user interface.

You do not require a technical team
No web hosting required
No coding knowledge required

6. Build your dream eCommerce website.

The fastest way to start an eCommerce store that supports a drop shipping business model is to use a simple eCommerce platform such as Squarespace, Shopify, BigCommerce, Big Cartel or Volusion.

You don’t need a coding knowledge, web hosting, technical team or tech background to get up and running, and it has plenty of apps to help increase your online sales.

Even if you have a limited budget that would allow you to hire a web developer to create a custom eCommerce solution. Once a sale is coming in, then you can explore additional store customization.

7. Analyze your results and optimize them.

You need to track and analyze all of the metrics and data available to grow your online business. This includes Facebook conversion pixel data and Google Analytics traffic if that is your main customer acquisition channel.

You will never have a set-and-forget online marketing and advertising solution. You need to fine-tune current campaigns and constantly test new opportunities, which allow you to know when to optimize or shift campaign spend.

8. Learn how to improve your online business.

Just because your products listed on your eCommerce store for sale does not mean the hard work is over.

In dropshipping, the product offerings, product demand, competitors, trends, customer’s choices are always changing. That’s why it’s so important in online business to learn what works and what doesn’t.

You can continuously watch your results and improve your dropshipping business to cater to your target audience.

If you don’t know what your potential customer want, take a pole on your social media channels or email marketing. It may help you think of new products to fulfill your buyer’s everyday needs.

Providing what they need and listening to your audience is the best way to grow a successful dropshipping business.

Best drop shipping companies for your eCommerce store

So, being a veteran in the industry, we have put together a list of best dropshipping companies for your eCommerce store to find products to drop ship and sell!

Doba
Oberlo
Dropified
Salehoo
Wholesale Central
Inventory Source
Sunrise Wholesale
Spocket
AliExpress

So, we’ve covered the top e-commerce marketplace and the best drop shipping companies that you need to know about if you want to start a dropshipping business.

Pick one according to their features in their integration, support, and products. Surely, one or two must work for you!

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