Shopify Dropshipping: A Comprehensive Overview

It’s one of the popular ways to run a drop shipping business, as you can sell products without actually holding a stock. For those of you that know, since the inception of eCommerce, it’s been super simple to start and run a dropshipping store online with the likes of Shopify. In this in depth guide, we’ll look at how you can use Shopify dropshipping to practice real entrepreneurship.

What is Shopify Dropshipping?

Shopify Dropshipping is where you have an online store and sell products that aren’t shipped or handled by yourself. What happens is, you buy the product yourself (from a third party supplier) and the thing no longer goes through you, it goes straight to your customer. This takes off the warehouse, stock management and other logistics issues of the regular retail.

Why Choose Shopify for Dropshipping?

The reason why Shopify is one of the most preferred dropshipping platforms is that it is heavily designed with various features to equip entrepreneurs kickstart their eCommerce business and then grow it larger. Here are some of the top reasons why you should consider Shopify for your dropshipping business:

1. User-Friendly Interface: It’s easy to use, even for beginners. It has drag and drop design and simple setup then anyone can make an online store without anything technical.

2. Customization Options: With Shopify, you use enough themes and templates so you can set up your store based on your vision. Apps and plugins are the ways to add functionality to your store.

3. Integrated Payment Solutions: Shopify has a lot of payment gateways that integrate, to be able to receive payments for your business, to your customer wherever in the world.

4. Marketing and SEO Tools: In addition to providing built in marketing tools, they do offer email campaign, discount tools and its own SEO features to help your visitors reach to your store and increase your sales.

5. Support for Third-Party Integrations: If you are utilizing a dropshipping company for your products, Shopify makes it simple to combine with dropshipping providers such as Oberlo, Spocket and AliExpress. This makes getting and sourcing those products that you offer much simpler.

How Does Shopify Dropshipping Work?

Starting a Shopify dropshipping business involves several steps:

Step 1: Choose Your Niche

Before you even start, it’s also important that you choose a niche you are passionate about or which is also in high demand. The common areas that dropshipping is found are electronics, fashion, health supplements and beauty products.

Step 2: Find Reliable Suppliers

After this, you’ll have to look for a reliable supplier. Shopify works with platforms such as these where you find products to sell; just like Oberlo and Spocket. Make sure the supplier supplies the good quality product, good shipping and good customer service.

Step 3: Set Up Your Shopify Store

After you’ve chosen which niche and supply to sell you can now open your own Shopify store. As these companies offer customizable templates, and handy tools to design a store which looks professional. It will help you to optimize your store for user experience as well (mobile responsive, easy navigation and secure checkout).

Step 4: Market Your Products

Next, you can start displaying your products, after having your store set up. Promising traffic to your store is not impossible, most of all if you have a cocktail of SEO strategies, paid ads, social media marketing and influencer partnerships. On top of this, shopify also has tools to help you track the efficacy of your marketing efforts.

Step 5: Fulfill Orders

When the customer places the order, you send all the details to your supplier and you (or the supplier) sends (ships) the product directly to the customer. That's why Shopify is great because they have order fulfillment down pat, you partner with dropshipping apps that will manage inventory, go ahead and process the order, and ship them right off for you.

Benefits of Shopify Dropshipping

1. Low Startup Costs: With Shopify dropshipping you don’t have to buy inventory or rent warehouse space, so it’s more affordable to get started. It’s cash on delivery; you don’t get the money until after the customer has purchased, and you don’t get the products until after.

2. Scalability: Shopify’s platform allows you to dropship. This means you can get about the business of adding new products, doubling down on marketing and entering new markets without the trouble of logistics.

3. Global Reach: The good news though is that because Shopify supports multiple currencies and languages, you can sell to your clients across the world. It brings you new growths for your business.

4. Automation Tools: Shopify provides automation tools that can aid in the simplifying your company process as well as income processing, e mail advertising and marketing, and buyer conversation.

Challenges of Shopify Dropshipping

While Shopify dropshipping has many benefits, there are also some challenges you may face:

1. Competition: Due to it being fairly simple to start with Drop Shipping, it is also ever so competitive. To stand out however, you have to have unique products, superior customer service, and a superior marketing strategy.

2. Lower Profit Margins: The profits in a dropshipping business model can be much lower than other business models due to third–party supplier. The solution to this is to focus on volume and optimize your marketing efforts.

3. Supplier Reliability: Your supplies are critical to your dropshipping business. Whether a supplier is shipping a defective product or doesn’t deliver on time, your store gets blamed for it.

Tips for Success in Shopify Dropshipping

1. Choose a Niche with High Demand: Therefore, pick a niche with a great need for customers (as we've seen above) and low competition to improve your odds of success. The products you choose should solve a problem, fulfill a need or both.

2. Optimize Your Store for Conversions: Encourage customers to buy using high quality images, good product descriptions and clear call to actions. Well designed user experience can increase your conversion rates massively.

3. Focus on Customer Service: Great customer service is important because you’re not handling the shipping. Answer queries quickly, provide painless returns, and keep delivery times and dates transparent.

4. Leverage Social Media: Learning how to drive traffic to your Shopify store can be a real boon, as social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are strong avenues for attracting potential audiences. Share interesting content, run promotions, and join the dots with your audience to build sales.

Conclusion

Starting an eCommerce business with Shopify is the easiest and least risky way to learn to dropship. If you are hellbent on starting with dropshipping, then it is a good idea to go for Shopify since it has an innate user friendly interface and they already have some integrated payment solutions and the capability of partnering with 3rd party suppliers. But with a proper niche, great supplier, and effective optimized marketing strategies, your dropshipping business will make it.

If you’re ready to start, learn about Shopify Dropshipping from Shopify consultants.