Running and growing a business is challenging if you do not have the money to manufacture products. This is where dropshipping on Shopify comes into play. This is a retail practice where sellers accept orders from customers without having the ordered goods in stock. Instead, the seller transfers the orders and their shipment details to a manufacturer, retailer, or fulfilment house, which ships the goods directly to the customer.
Shopify is an incredible platform for running an eCommerce dropshipping business. It is a subscription-based eCommerce website builder that lets you launch a fully-functional store in a few minutes. The platform also allows you to fulfil orders, track shipments, and accept payments, among other metrics and elements.
Below is a guide for both platforms.
Create an account and build your store on Shopify
The first step is creating a free account on Shopify. All you need is to provide your email address, password, and store name. However, you only have fourteen days of a free trial. Afterwards, it would help to choose a Shopify plan, depending on your budget and needs.
The next step is building your store. You can build an online store via the Shopify platform. With this platform, you can easily build and launch a website. You can also find a domain name, add marketing and sales plug-ins, manage your products, and accept payments.
With Shopify, you do not need a developer or designer to start your store. The platform also allows you to change the look and feel of your store through the various Shopify themes. You can use apps to research various products then add them to your store. It would be wise to consider their demand and profitability when choosing the products. In addition, the ease of finding a supplier for such products is also worth looking into. Most people choose products in a specific niche when starting their business. This way, they can branch out and incorporate more items as they gain more experience and grow.
Find and choose a supplier
Once you have your store running and have listed all your products, the next critical step is choosing a supplier. For a Dropshipping business model, finding a supplier is critical for success. Without a supplier, you will not have goods to ship to clients, meaning you cannot complete orders.
Your choice of supplier will be determined by the type of products you want to sell. Shopify features a plug-and-play-style option for finding potential suppliers by connecting Dsers to your store. Dsers is a marketplace that makes finding products for online stores easy. It uses AliExpress to help retailers find and add products to their online stores. Therefore, when you click on a supplier, it will send you directly to AliExpress.
Set up your payment gateways and market your business
Next, you have to set up your payment gateways. You can choose from various payment methods. However, it would be wise to remember that the payment methods will either encourage or discourage clients from completing their orders at the checkout phase. Setting up your payment gateway on Shopify is as easy as clicking on settings, then payments and selecting a method from the available options. With that, you can start running and growing your business. Marketing is the key to growth, especially in the eCommerce market. Therefore, it would help market your eCommerce dropshipping business using various approaches.