What is Dropshipping? Hey, what’s up world, I’m Tommy Walker
with Oberlo, and today, we’re going to talk about Dropshipping, what it is, and how you
can get started. I’ll also give you four actionable steps
to start your own dropshipping business today. And stick around until the end of the video,
because I’ll give you a few personal suggestions and things to keep in mind as you’re getting
started. Alright, welcome to the Oberlo Youtube channel where every week, we’ll be discussing the
various elements of what goes into starting, operating, and growing your own dropshipping
business. If you have any questions, or want to share
your experiences with dropshipping, drop them in the comments below, and I'll be sure to answer them. Like I said before, I’m Tommy Walker, and
if you like what we’re talking about here, consider subscribing, so you can get new videos
every week. Let’s say you’ve been thinking of opening
up your own online business, but you don’t know where to start. You don’t know what you should sell, you
don’t have the money to invest in products, and looking around, you don’t have any place
to store inventory. That’s what dropshipping is all about. You see, with dropshipping, you can sell stuff
online without the products ever being in your hands. All you need is a computer, an online store,
and a basic understanding on how to market and sell online. Here’s how it works. First, you find what you want to sell from
a supplier then list that product on your own website at a price you set. Next, when someone places an order for that
product, your customer pays you the retail price you’ve set, and you make a profit. Then you’ll place the order with your supplier
at their wholesale price and have it shipped directly to the customer. So, let’s say you’ve found this watch
on a supplier’s website for $10 You would then list it on your own website
for $30 When the order comes in through your website,
you then place your order with your supplier using your customer’s shipping information,
keep the $20 profit, and have the product shipped directly to your customer. That’s it! Now, I know what you’re thinking, why wouldn’t
somebody just order the watch directly from the supplier’s website? Well, a couple of reasons. First, it’s a very big internet and customers
may not know about the supplier to buy from them directly. Second, when people buy things, they’re
not just buying products. They’re buying into the marketing, positioning,
trust, brand and lifestyle those products represent. With dropshipping, you can focus on marketing
your products and saying the right things, at the right time, and on providing real value
to the right people because you’re not warehousing any inventory, or dealing with most of the
other challenges that come with running an ecommerce business, Now, a couple of big challenges that need
to be considered with dropshipping are finding credible suppliers with good quality products,
and making sure you have visibility into your customer’s fulfillment process. Honestly, you can find suppliers on your own
-. However, when you’re dropshipping completely on your own, you can end up spending a lot
of time researching and negotiating with suppliers to guarantee your customers’ satisfaction. Another option is a tool like Oberlo, which
with a few clicks gives you access to millions of products to sell, and has dozens of other
features to make your life easier... like monitoring inventory levels, automatically
calculating profit margins, fulfilling and tracking orders, monitoring shipping status,
measuring delivery performance and more. Oberlo Supply is also a part ofthe product,
which helps you partner with vetted, trustworthy suppliers of great quality products, faster
shipping times and awesome customer service with thousands of different products available
for you to choose from. Want to get started? All you have to do is start a Shopify store,
install the Oberlo app, find products and start selling online. So why do people get into dropshipping? First off, it’s really fast and easy to
get started and you can dropship with incredibly low investment costs. You also don’t need to have an established
business entity when you start, though it’s smart to have one once you grow. You don’t have to worry about managing inventory,
packing or tracking, which means you can focus almost exclusively on marketing, promotion
and merchandising. You have access to millions of products instantly
that suppliers are constantly researching to determine what’s trendy and what will
sell. You set the retail price, so you control the
margins. And dropshipping is really easy to scale because
you can hire virtual assistants as your order volume increases. Of course, there can be some challenges with
dropshipping too: First off, because it’s really easy to get
started, there’s a higher potential for competition. That is why you’ll find a lot of advice
out there recommends you start off finding a niche audience - like cat lovers, or gamers
- so you can operate with less competition. Next, there are supplier errors. Though uncommon, it is inevitable that a supplier
will mistakenly ship the wrong item to your customer. If this happens, don’t take it personally
and handle the return like a professional - either order a brand new product from the
supplier or offer a complete refund. Also, since many dropshipping suppliers are
based on China, shipping times are generally longer, turning some consumers off. ePacket makes it easier, delivering some orders
in as little as two weeks, but generally speaking, if you make your shipping times clear throughout
the buying process, many visitors appreciate the clarity - especially if you’re selling
an item or in a niche where delivery times are less crucial. Ok, so how do I get started? Step 1. Start a free 14 day trial on Shopify.com
Step 2. Go to Shopify.com/app-store and install the
oberlo app Step 3. Find products from the app you’d like to
sell and add them to your store. Step 4. Enable a payment gateway so you can start
accepting money. Shopify Payments is a great default option
if you’re in one of the supported countries though you
may want to enable a few other gateways like Paypal, Apple Pay, Amazon Payments or any
of the 100+ payment gateways that Shopify is integrated with. Once you have all that, you’ll need to create
a plan for sending traffic to your store. I won’t go into great detail about that
here, but you can find a great resource for building traffic by clicking on the card above,
or in the description down below. Finally, try to produce quality content for
your store. From eye-catching photography to engaging
product videos to great posts for your blog, your audience loves to know more about your
products, how they can be used, and the story behind them. Now that we’ve covered all of the things
you need to get started, here are a few additional things to keep in mind:. Dropshipping is pretty easy to learn, but
there is a learning curve, and you will experience challenges along the way. However, mistakes can become learning opportunities,
and if you can develop resilience along the way, there are plenty of people out there
finding a lot of success dropshipping products. While there is a significant advantage in
terms of capital investment over traditional ecommerce, dropshipping isn’t free. You’ll likely have to spend money to drive
traffic, market your products, and handle returns. There is no overnight success, and this isn’t
a get rich quick scheme. Dropshipping still requires you to work consistently
for your store. True, you will need to dedicate less time
compared to a traditional ecommerce businesses, but it’s not going to succeed without your
hard work. You’ll always need to invest time improving
your business. Don’t source copyrighted items. This is illegal all around the world and can
cause you some serious trouble. My advice: choose products from Oberlo Supply
- a network of trusted suppliers who make it a priority to avoid copyright infringements. This way, you can rest assured that you won’t
infringe any copyright laws If you’re completely new to dropshipping,
start small with a single product or a small handful of complementary items from a single
supplier. You can always add more inventory as you become
comfortable, but it’s better to start small and build than to start big and become overwhelmed. And my final tip for once you’re feeling
comfortable with dropshipping - diversify. Many dropshippers don’t rely on a single
store for their entire income stream, but operate a series of stores targeting various
niches to build multiple sources of income. Alright, that’s all I’ve got! If you’re looking to learn more about drop
shipping - check out our “Ultimate Guide to Drop shipping” ebook, a free comprehensive
guide that covers everything you need to know about building and running a successful drop
shipping business, you’ll find it in the description below
If you liked this video, be sure to like, comment and of course subscribe and hit that
bell. We’ll be adding new dropshipping videos
every week where we’ll be sharing some of our best secrets! Thanks a lot for watching and, until next
time, learn often, market better, sell more.
