Dropshipping: Instructions, Dealers & Experiences

introduction

Everyone is talking about dropshipping at the moment because there are already numerous online marketers who have been using the business model for years and have made millions. Meanwhile, more and more people are interested in this supposedly profitable business model.
Dropshipping with Chinese retailers such as Aliexpress, in particular, has made the business model extremely popular. With numerous apps and software, the technical implementation is really a child's play.
But how realistic is it really to make money with dropshipping in Germany or Austria? We have been operating the business model ourselves for 2 years and give an open and transparent insight into the topic.

What is dropshipping?

Short description of what dropshipping actually is. Dropshipping is the English term for short-haul business. You shorten the route of the product and simply have it sent directly to the customer. Basically, you are only a digital middleman and connects customers with production. The following graphic illustrates the whole thing visually.

The idea behind it is accordingly simple. Instead of building an entire production, intermediate storage, and shipping chain, you choose the short-haul business. In this case, you only have to set up an online shop and bring customers to this shop through online marketing.

The bottom line is saving time, costs and effort. You only process the payment and order data and forward it to the manufacturer.

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In addition to integrations such as Dropified, it is also necessary to install Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics. Tracking is the A&O in e-commerce and should be done right from the start so that you can achieve optimal results. best dropshipping tools

Dropshipping with Wocommerce / WordPress

Woocommerce is the e-commerce solution for WordPress and the most popular solution in the general e-commerce area. The majority of all online shops worldwide use WordPress with Woocommerce. In the past, this was not suitable for dropshipping, but there are now more plugins and integrations that make the process easier. Shopify has plugins like Dropified which make importing products particularly easy. The equivalent for Woocomerce is Alidropship. It simplifies the whole process and enables easy dropshipping via WordPress with Woocommerce.

Dropshipping Amazon

In principle, the classic Amazon FBA program is also a type of dropshipping. After all, the product is shipped directly from the warehouse to the customer. However, there are decisive differences between this, which have their own advantages and disadvantages. You should be aware of these or weigh them up.

eBay dropshipping

Basically, you can use eBay for dropshipping in addition to Amazon. Alongside Amazon, eBay is one of the largest e-commerce platforms in the world and offers countless products. Amazon now has more volume than eBay and is usually the better solution. However, eBay can also make sense as a second platform. 

Find, import & list products

After the shop has been built and the tracking codes have been successfully installed, it is necessary to import products into the shop. In most cases, the products are purchased from wholesalers in China. Below is a list of the most popular dealers and providers. These offer millions of products ranging from electronics to furniture to clothing and jewelry at a manufacturer's price.

AliExpress dropshipping

The most popular platform is AliExpress, also called the Chinese Amazon. Most products can be found here. The selection is huge and the possibilities are endless. However, you should pay attention to certain things when choosing the products. Not all products meet the quality standards of the western population. Products often feel cheap and are poorly made. It is therefore recommended to either pay attention to the reviews or to order the product as a test.
With the help of applications such as Dropified, the products can be integrated directly into the respective Shopify store with little effort. This is easy to implement even with little technical

there is also the option of dropshipping with Print On Demand items. Specifically, these are products that are printed on order and shipped directly. The previously created designs and print samples are simply uploaded to certain platforms such as Printful. Then you use the application to re-establish a connection between the Shopify shop and the POD provider (e.g. Printful).

SECRET TIP: The best mockups for POD products can be made with PlaceIt. The software enables the raw PNG files of the designs to be calculated on lifestyle photos & videos of models. The results are so professional that as a customer you cannot differentiate between mockup or real photo/video. Incredibly practical for all kinds of POD drop shippers.

Other providers

There are of course numerous other suppliers from which you can get products, but more on that later. AliExpress and Printful are among the most popular solutions and are very good to start with. However, other providers sometimes lack ready-made integration solutions, which makes dropshipping with Shopify difficult. dropshipping

TIP: Dropified is extremely suitable for importing products quickly and easily. It is even better than Oberlo and allows you to easily import products from Aliexpress to the shop with a click of the mouse and much more. For everyone who does ambitious dropshipping, actively tests products and has to fulfill them, this saves a lot of time, nerves and ultimately money.

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SECRET TIP: Use Dropshipspy to find and copy successful products from other manufacturers or drop shippers. Because most drop shippers are CopyCats themselves and if the product works for someone else and you find out early on you can also get something from the cake.

Step 4: marketing

After he is in the shop and all products have been successfully imported and listed, only the customers are missing. Skills in online marketing are required for this. There are numerous tutorials and instructions on YouTube on how best to advertise your dropshipping store.

Here is an overview of the most popular variants:

Facebook's paid ads
Facebook is one of the largest advertising platforms in the world and it is ideal for selling products and services. Facebook Paid to allow advertisers (drop shippers) to position ads in the feed, messenger or market place. But feed placements are best suited.
The advantage: Facebook has built up a huge database over the years and knows more about you than your mother. No joke.
Accordingly, advertisements can be placed precisely. You can select specific interests such as fitness, yoga, fashion and travel and place targeted advertisements.