Since the pandemic, dropship has become one of the internet’s favorite “get rich quick” schemes. All you need is a store and some products and you’re on your way to making thousands of dollars. However, more and more stores have seen that instant success is difficult to come by. While dropshipping is often easier than wholesale to get an online store off the ground, there are a lot of factors that can impact your success. This doesn’t mean that a dropship store is bound to fail, but that real effort has to be put in to make your store a success. We’ve compiled a list of our top three tips for operating a successful dropship business by working smarter and harder.
1. Stock unique and fresh products
One of the major downfalls of many dropship stores is that their products are not special. When you’re only selling products found on Aliexpress it’s really difficult to differentiate your store from the others that stock the exact same or similar goods. Consumers want something special, and they’ll support your store if you can offer them that. It’s important to find unique brands that your consumers will not be able to find elsewhere. A brand can be unique because of its particular design, individual products, or value-system. For instance, more and more consumers today want to support eco-friendly and sustainable businesses. If you stock sustainable brands in your store, consumers who value sustainability will have a good reason for choosing your products over others. Unique products are the key to getting new customers to your store.
Another consequence of the pandemic is a loss in customer loyalty. People have become used to convenience and almost instant trend cycles. They want the best and the newest products, and they want them now. In order to keep up, a successful store has to not only stock unique products, but maintain a constantly evolving product assortment. This means staying up-to-date with social media trends and applying those trends to your store. Luckily, dropship is perfectly suited to this kind of trend cycle. While wholesale requires large purchases in advance, with dropship you can have a new product up in your store within minutes. The key is making sure the products you choose are fresh and relevant for your consumers.
2. Quick onboarding
It’s all well and good to say you need to have new and fresh products in your store on a regular basis, but if you’re forced to spend hours doing it, keeping up to date with trends may be more of a time drain than an advantage. To make the most of all the new trends and products you can, it’s essential that you have the ability to onboard new brands and sync new products within minutes. Currently, the process of adding new products and all their information to your Shopify store can take hours. Each product needs photos, descriptions, stock units, price, etc. The time you spend inputting this information is time you could spend doing other things for your business, such as searching for new products, marketing your store on social media or providing customer support. These other tasks are also incredibly important to the success of a dropship store, so pushing them aside just to get new products in your store is not necessarily a good use of time.
To ensure new products are added to your store in minutes rather than hours, you should use a service that automates the onboarding process. Matagora offers instant brand onboarding and product syncing so you’re able to regain that extra time in your day. Once you have your products uploaded, you can just focus on all the other things that go into making your store a success.
3. Close connection with your brand partners
In a dropship relationship, brands are often referred to as “suppliers.” While it’s true that they are supplying the goods for you to sell, we don’t think this is an accurate way of looking at the brands who keep your store going. Brand partners should be more than just the suppliers of your products. Rather, they should be partners who are as invested in your success as you are in theirs. With a close brand partnership your store can have an effective win-win relationship. If your store is selling well, your brand partner’s profits are higher, and if their brand is popular, you have more customers coming to your store to buy their products.
For brands, a close partnership with their store partners allows them to expand their reach significantly, getting in front of more consumers and driving up more brand awareness. It also means that their brand story is represented in the most accurate way, so that their messaging and values aren’t being ignored by the stores selling their products. For stores, a close connection with a brand partner could lead to exclusive products and collections which can significantly increase customer attention and resulting sales. There’s also the possibility of moving certain brands and products into wholesale fulfillment if you know that there is a sufficient market for them, which can increase your margins down the line.
A dropship store is a fantastic way to enter the retail business, and it is easier than ever before to get off the ground. By following our tips, you will have a much better chance of success against your competitors and even bigger box retailers.
For more information on how to make your dropship store a success, or for access to tools to make that success a reality, book a chat below.
