For many, launching a Shopify store that is focused on dropshipping is a shortcut to eCommerce. The thing is, dropshipping allows you not to have any inventory, even when starting the business. With dropshipping, you will be able to focus on developing your website and building delivery networks. What’s for the customer here? Dropshippers are selling time to their customers, the time that is free from searching necessary items, i.e. with Shopify dropship integration, you’ll find everything you need. Selling time-saving is always a catch!
So what is dropshipping? It is a fulfillment method when the store does not keep the items in store but only gathers them from the supplier and sends them to the customer. As soon as dropshipping is relatively easy and very attractive to the newcomers, major eCommerce platforms offer customers to establish the opportunity of dropshipping. For example, Shopify offers a great opportunity to start dropshipping using the platform, thus paving the way for new businesses.
What Is Drop Shipping?
Dropshiping is a great option for those who want to manage orders rather than inventory. When it comes to dropshipping, it is a kind of eCommerce business based on selling the items in stock to a third party. At this point, a third party might be a manufacturer or a wholesaler, or even another retailer. Therefore, dropshipping is more about marketing than handling the items.
How can this work out as a business strategy? The best way to make it work is to use a speciation approach. Each company chooses the area to specialize in and sells the items of its speciation. For example, customers might come to the website that sells everything for pet care, and the website might be dropshipping the products from other retailers or wholesalers that sell cat/dog food, different cages for rats, handlers for dogs, and a variety of other stuff gathered from other manufacturers and retailers. The idea is that the drop shipper positions itself on the market as the main point for pet owners, promoting it has everything that pet owners might need, and no more search is needed.
What Is Shopify And How Does Shopify Work?
Shopify is a leading eCommerce platform that offers plenty of opportunities to grow your business. Practically, Shopify empowers people without a technical background to build their eCommerce websites. When launching a dropshipping business, it is a huge plus of not having the hustle-bustle of inventory and no headache of a poorly working or non-working website. Instead, you are just configuring your online store and you are good to go.
At this point, Shopify works like the basis for eCommerce. It is a software platform that entrepreneurs use as a foundation for their services. The backend of Shopify allows running a business without any hosting fees, which means you are getting the entire scope of eCommerce opportunities for a fair monthly price that Shopify charges, and nothing paid additionally. Thus, you have enough time to figure out if your business idea works out well. Shopify helps you to keep your online business running while you can focus on marketing and sales.
Why Choose Shopify For Your Dropshipping Business?
Truly, there is a variety of eCommerce platforms to choose from, when it comes to creating dropshipping business, but Shopify is one of the most popular ones because it is simple, rich in features, and preconfigured to fit the dropshipping business. More specifically:
- Shopify is simple to use because it is user friendly, and designed to be used out of the box
- Shopify is designed to help create eCommerce businesses, not just websites. At this point, Shopify offers not only tools for setting up a website but also features for sales, marketing, and accepting payments.
- Shopify is drop-shipper-friendly as soon as it offers the app named Oberlo to cover the needs of drop-shippers. Moreover, Oberlo is Shopify-exclusive, which means you must have Shopify as your platform to use Oberlo.
How To Start A Dropshipping Business On Shopify
So, first and foremost there is a need to have your idea, create your own niche or go into an existing one, and start an eCommerce business, using one of the most popular platforms. Having experience with the development of eCommerce business from scratch, the SOFTLOFT team recommends using Shopify as an eCommerce platform to start dropshipping. Practically, there are several approaches to figuring out the niche. The first one is to follow your passions while the second one is to research the market very well. Both might work out well, just make sure you like your choice. A combination of both approaches is fine too. You can start a dropshipping business on Shopify yourself, but there is also the option to hire a team of professionals.
Creating a Shopify Account
When you have already decided on your niche and your product, it is time to set up your store. To do that, you have to create a Shopify account first. Once you’ve decided on Shopify, go to the Shopify homepage, and enter your email address in the field at the top of the page.
When you enter an email address to the required field, be prepared to enter a password for your account and a name that you made for your dropshipping store. When done, you will be asked to answer some questions about your experience with eCommerce and some personal details.
Add products to your store
When you have already created your account, it is time to add products to your store. The simplest and fastest way to add products is to acquire an inventory for the store. To do that, you might use the Oberlo app, the Spocket, MXED, Modalyst, KITE, or any other app that would be helpful to obtain and add inventory to the website. Truly, Oberlo is the most popular because it is convenient to use. The biggest perk is that Oberlo is designed specifically for Shopify, and therefore the integration with the platform is seamless and real quick. When using Oberlo, the products might be sourced from AliExpress or Oberlo market in no time.
Though there are numerous other apps that might be helpful to establish dropshipping. For example, Spocket allows to select the products located in the US and the EU but the process of integration might not be the same seamless as soon as the platform works independently. In addition, the price of using its features might not be cheap too.
If you want to sell branded items, MXED is the best choice because it allows you to sell these items legally. With this app, you are going to have a chance to sell world-famous franchises and make money on branded items being totally compliant with the law. At the same time, Modalyst works great for all products but adding the items to your inventory is not going to be automated, you will have to add them by hand.
Set up and design your store
As soon as you have all the products added, it is time to switch to the design. The design features are located in the menu on the left that can be found in your Shopify account. When it comes to design, you can choose anything free from the Shopify selection or get a paid team. Potentially, you might have a theme designed for you individually, but that’s going to be longer and more expensive.
Add a domain
When done with adding products and designing your website, it is time to create and use a domain name. You might skip this step, but in this case, your domain is going to be nothing fancy but https://YOUR-STORE-NAME.myshopify.com/. While technically it is totally okay to go with that, having a specific domain name is going to help you look more appealing and professional to your customers. A domain name might be chosen in the left menu, the section Domains.
There are few options for adding a domain. If you have one, it’s better to transfer it because this way, you are keeping all your efforts and investment in SEO. You can also connect a third-party domain to Shopify and even purchase a new one, which is going to cost nearly $11 USD per year, which is not that much.
Set up payments
When you have a domain name, your products, and your design set, think about how your customers are going to pay for the product. To activate payment gateways, go to the section Payment Providers in the menu on the left. By default, Shopify payments and PayPal are already enabled, but for other payment systems, you need to add and activate them separately. The merchants will email you the instructions when connecting the payment system to your store.
Select a paid plan for your Shopify dropshipping store
At first, you are starting with a free trial, which is Shopify’s offer to engage you with the platform. When these 14 days of the free trial come to an end, you are going to have to select a paid plan for your store. Just click the Select Plan button at the bottom of your dashboard and select the option that fits you the best. You can find information about how much it cost to have a Shopify store in this article.
Making Your First Sale
Now good luck and start your business well! Most likely, you don’t have a lot of traffic right now to your store, but don’t fall into despair. Just launch a marketing campaign and engage potential customers to your store. Shopify offers a lot of marketing channels available in a few clicks. For example, Facebook and Instagram ads might be available just in a few minutes after your launch. Just go for it, and you’ll make it!
Conclusion
With Shopify and a bit of professional help, it is easy to succeed with dropshipping. Start small, be enthusiastic, use marketing tools, and you are going to have a great dropshipping business. If something goes not as expected, we are here to offer a professional boost. For professional help from SOFTLOFT, just contact us. We’ve helped to start a lot of businesses that make their owners happy, and we are here for you too.
