📝 How to Start a Profitable Drop Shipping Store: A 5-Day Action Plan
Are you tired of outdated and saturated strategies that no longer work in 2023? Look no further! In this article, I will provide you with a 5-day action plan on how to start a profitable drop shipping store using the right strategy. With over 10 million dollars made through drop shipping in the last seven years, I have the resources you need to get your own business off the ground.
Day 1: Identify Your Niche and Products
To start off, we need to set up our foundation. This is what our entire business is going to be built on. The first thing I recommend deciding is whether you want to go with a niche store or a one-product store.
A niche store is a business that focuses on selling specific products to a demographic. An example of this is Alphalete, which sells workout clothes to people who work out. On the other hand, a one-product store is pretty self-explanatory. It means you're only selling one singular product.
The benefits of a niche store are that you might have a higher average order value and a longer lifetime customer value. However, one-product stores usually have a higher conversion rate, and it's usually easier for beginners to start out.
Even if you decide to use a niche store, we're going to need to find products to add on to that niche store that are going to be trending or what we call a winning product in drop shipping.
There are three main methods that I recommend for beginners getting started. The first method is a tool called Mania. They're able to pre-populate winning products daily that we can actually check out and see if they're viable products. The second method is Pippy Ads, which helps us find different viral and trending products that are already going on. The third method is to go on TikTok and look up hashtag "TikTok made me buy it." Here you're going to be able to spot products that are going viral on TikTok.
Create an Excel sheet, put 10 products on a list, and judge them with this very important criteria. Number one, you want to make sure that your product solves a big problem. Number two, it has a wow factor to a passionate audience. The second criteria that I recommend you look at is the markup of the product. I don't recommend you sell any products that have less than a three times product price markup.
Day 2: Supplier Selection and Getting Your Store Set Up
Our focus on day two is to lock in our supplier and to make sure our store gets prepared to advertise. The fastest and easiest way to get our store off the ground is using the artificial intelligence tool that I designed.
After you've signed up, it's time to choose the supplier that you want to work with. There are multiple options for suppliers, and it can be pretty daunting as a beginner to decide where we want to source this product. The most common methods right now are sourcing directly from AliExpress, which is a decent option. The alternative to this is a platform like Zendrop, which you can definitely use and I recommend for some beginners. By far the best method to go after is using a private agent.
The last thing we need to do for day two is to choose our store name. If you're doing a niche store, I recommend you come up with a name that relates to your target audience. If you come up with a one-product store, I recommend you come up with something super simple and something that describes what your product does and what problem it solves.
Day 3: Crafting Your Brand
Today is all about getting our brand foundation set up. This is a vital part to have longevity in our business, and if you do this right, it's going to help accentuate all of your marketing efforts.
The very first thing you're going to want to accomplish today is to design your store logo. By far the easiest way to design a logo for beginners is by using a tool like Canva. You want your brand colors to be congruent on your website and on your logo.
After you've done that, it's time to start adding products into our store. It's super simple to do this. Just go over to your Shopify account and click add product. Once you've added the product to your store, we need to talk about product page design. This is a vital component in order for our store being successful.
Day 4: Marketing Your Business
This is arguably the most vital step when it comes to creating your e-commerce business. The first thing I recommend you do is to come up with a marketing strategy. This is going to be highly dependent on multiple variables, the first one being the budget that you're starting out with.
If you have a relatively low budget right now, then I recommend you start out with an organic approach on TikTok and Instagram reels. While this is a good way to get started, it's very inconsistent, and you're definitely going to struggle on being able to get consistent and repeatable traffic.
My favorite approach is learning how to buy advertisements on paid media platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and Google ads. These are the most popular platforms that I recommend right now.
Creatives are the advertisement that's going to be shown to a consumer when they're browsing on the social media platforms. There are two ways I recommend for beginners to get a creative off the ground. Number one, you can order the product yourself and start filming some content with that product showcasing the benefits behind what you're selling. Number two, you can outsource this to UGC creators.
Day 5: Store Launch
Congratulations! You made it to your very last day, and you followed all the steps that are required to get a profitable drop shipping brand started. The first thing you're going to need to understand is the importance of analytics and some key metrics that you're going to be looking at.
Conversion rate is a vital part of your business, and this is a metric that identifies how many customers out of 100 end up buying from your website. The Shopify average conversion rate is about 1.7 percent.
Now that you have your marketing strategy and all the components you need to get your brand ready to launch, it's time to launch ads up. Launching ads is actually super simple. Your success of your ads is literally dependent on the creatives you're using.
Congratulations on starting your profitable drop shipping store! Remember, this is just the beginning of your journey. Continue to grow, continue to learn, and let me know if there's anything you want me to dive deeper on that I did not cover inside this article.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Easy to start
- Low overhead costs
- No need to hold inventory
- Wide range of products to choose from
- Can be highly profitable
Cons:
- High competition
- Shipping times can be long
- Quality control issues with suppliers
- Customer service can be challenging
- Requires constant optimization and evolution
Highlights
- Day 1: Identify Your Niche and Products
- Day 2: Supplier Selection and Getting Your Store Set Up
- Day 3: Crafting Your Brand
- Day 4: Marketing Your Business
- Day 5: Store Launch
FAQ
Q: What is drop shipping?
A: Drop shipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer.
Q: How much money can I make with drop shipping?
A: The amount of money you can make with drop shipping varies depending on the products you sell, your marketing strategy, and your target audience. Some drop shippers make a few hundred dollars a month, while others make millions of dollars a year.
Q: Do I need to hold inventory with drop shipping?
A: No, you don't need to hold inventory with drop shipping. The supplier holds the inventory and ships the products directly to the customer.
Q: How do I find a supplier for my drop shipping store?
A: There are multiple options for suppliers, including AliExpress, Zendrop, and private agents. It's important to do your research and choose a supplier that fits your needs.
Q: How do I market my drop shipping store?
A: There are multiple marketing strategies you can use, including paid advertising on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, and organic approaches like TikTok and Instagram reels. It's important to choose a strategy that fits your budget and target audience.
