Starting an online store can be one of the most profitable businesses for you, especially if you’re taking the dropshipping business pathway. In a dropshipping business model, you can sell all the products without having to maintain an inventory. You can partner with third-party wholesalers and suppliers to handle the inventories as well as the supply of the products you’re selling. All you have to do is set up an online store where your customers can place orders for the products you offer. You can then pass on the orders to your third-party wholesalers or suppliers along with the details of your customers.
Dropshipping business requires no inventory management
If you want to start a new online store with a minimum cash investment, then going for a dropshipping business is your best bet! You only need to find wholesalers that supply products you want to offer. Apart from this, there are various other benefits that come with starting an online dropshipping business. Let’s have a look!
Benefits Of Dropshipping Businesses
- One of the biggest advantages is that it’s cost-effective. Unlike typical brick and mortar-based online businesses, you don’t need to make such huge investments as you can partner with third-party suppliers and wholesalers for stocking products as well as delivering them.
- You can have a wide range of products without having to spend too much money to maintain an inventory. You can bring different wholesalers on-board and showcase their products on your online store.
- Since handling the stocks is not your concern, you can focus on other important issues. You can work on building a better online store experience for your customers by concentrating on operations, marketing, and customer services.
- A drop-shipping business helps you run your business without restrictions on mobility. On the other hand, a brick-and-mortar based online store would limit your mobility to some extent.
Starting An Online Dropshipping Business With No Cash Investment
With the drop shipping business model, you can start an online business store with no cash investments. You can start off with an investment as low as $0 and aim at earning as much as $65 from your business in a matter of 14 days. There are many tools that help facilitate the smooth operation of your business online. Most of these tools come with a 14-day free trial option. You can use this free trial period to check which of these tools best suit your business needs. Depending on which, you can then invest in them.
One of the best things about a dropshipping business is that you can try and experiment with different products. You can try selling a large variety of products on the platform without having to invest too much. You can set up an account on social e-commerce websites including Pinterest, Polyvore, and Fancy. This gives you the added benefit of being seen all over the internet. Further, you can follow Google Trends to stay on top of all the trends in the industry.
You can use a medium such as Shopify to set up your online store based on a drop shipping model.
Using Shopify For Your Online Dropshipping Store
Shopify is the perfect platform for entrepreneurs willing to start up an online dropshipping store. Shopify allows you to run your online business without having to spend an excessive amount of money on your inventory. With Shopify, you have the convenience of sourcing the merchandise from your supplier as and when you receive a purchase order.
You can set up your own Shopify dropshipping website by following these steps:
- Create a Shopify account to be able to start your own dropshipping store and pick a name for your store. Oberlo, an integration offered by Shopify has a name generator that you can use for finding a creative, catchy name for your online store.
- After this, you can head to the Shopify homepage and follow the instructions for building your store.
- You can then customize your account with respect to your payment information, shipping rates, store policies etc.
- Design your Shopify store by adding your logo and a theme for your store.
- Find suppliers and wholesalers from whom you can source your merchandise.
- Add the Oberlo app to import all the dropshipped products to your Shopify store.
- Once you’ve added all your information on the platform, you can proceed to take your store live. All you have to do next is to connect your store with social media apps to enhance your marketing efforts.