Listen Instead:
There are many ways to make money online however the internet has become filled with so-called "gurus" offering "get rich quick" schemes.
This unfortunately has led people to believe that many online money making methods aren’t legitimate as many of the gurus present these methods as a way to instantly become a millionaire.
The reality is that you are able to make money using these methods however you should not expect to make money overnight. It takes a lot of planning, organisational skills, critical analysis, time and funds, in order to make some of these methods work. Unfortunately I think that's what these so-called gurus don't tell you. No matter how many courses you buy or how much you spend on training you will need to possess these core elements, the most important of which is self reflection and critical analysis.
You need to have the ability to self reflect and determine whether the venture you have undertaken is worthwhile. In order to do this you need the ability to analyse data and re-evaluate your business plan. Only you can make your online business venture work and I would be careful of any courses offering you a guaranteed way to make money especially if the cost of these courses are in the thousands of Dollars .
Dropshipping
Yes that's right drop shipping. There are many content creators on YouTube offering to teach you the fundamentals of starting a dropship business. Some are good, offering valuable information and content for free. It’s always best to gather as much free information as possible before you start spending cash on “guru” courses.
For those of you that don't know what drop shipping is, let's start from the beginning and explain some of the basic concepts.
Dropshipping Core Concept
Dropshipping at its core is basic commerce. You are buying an item for cheap and selling it at an inflated price to make a profit. Dropshipping differs from other e-commerce business models as you do not hold inventory.
When a customer buys a product from your store you will then buy that product from your supplier and input the customer's shipping details. Your supplier then ships that product directly to your customer. This is also known as shipping on your suppliers' account.
How Much Money Do I Need To Start Dropshipping
It’s hard to start a successful business with absolutely nothing. This is what people forget; dropshipping is a business not a get rich quick scheme, therefore it requires you to have funds to invest in it.
The amount you need depends on what you are planning to sell and the strategy you implement, but it is important to remember that you will need enough to cover your mistakes because you will make them.
Some of the most basic calculations you will need to understand are:
ROI (Return On Investment)
ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) (ROAS Calculator Here)
Profit Margin
What Are The Best Products To Dropship
Please be aware, dropshipping from China will require more product research, product testing, and logistics testing in order to secure the longevity of your dropshipping business, as well as a strong brand identity.
If you choose to dropship from a supplier outside your home country you must take into account customs charges, product returns and consumer rights regulations. For example, you may get some great profits dropshipping electric scooters from China, but what happens when a customer wants to return the item? That’s right they’re likely to return the item to your registered business address. You could ask the customer to return the item to your supplier, however, this would cost the customer a lot of money especially if you have chosen to dropship from China.
Higher ticket items are best sourced from domestic suppliers. Customers usually expect a higher level of customer service if they have paid over $200 for an item. This means it will require more time and effort from you to resolve customer issues. At least until you can hire a virtual assistant to handle customer queries for you.
You can use Google Trends for free in order to research popular terms people are searching for in order to find the best products to sell.
A lot of dropshipping “gurus” will tell you that you need to find a niche product or a product that will solve a problem. This isn’t always true. It’s all about your branding, marketing strategy, product descriptions (also known as copy), and the right retail price.
Best Dropshipping Platforms To Get Started.
Below is a list of platforms with the lowest barrier to entry to get started. You can make a decent profitable income out of dropshipping products from China or your domestic country (home country).
Sourcing Products
Aliexpress: Online Chinese marketplace offering a range of products from Chinese sellers.
Aliexpress Pros:
Huge catalogue of products making it easy to find profitable products to sell.
Direct contact to suppliers in order to ask questions and resolve issues.
Good resource for reviewing feedback on products and reviewing product images.
Great for product and market research.
Mobile App
Aliexpress Cons:
Not officially a dropshipping supply source meaning Aliexpress is a retail site open to the public, customers can easily view the cost of each item.
Long shipping times sometimes take up to 2 months for delivery.
Multiple suppliers: Your customers may buy multiple items from your store, which means they will come from multiple suppliers on Aliexpress possibly leading to customer confusion.
Customer details will need to be filled in manually unless you have an API (Application Programme Interface) that is linked to your sales platform.
Aliexpress suppliers may include their own custom packaging or promotional items with the product, again leading to customers being confused as to where the item has come from.
Tracking numbers are not always reliable.
Hard to prove that your customer did not receive their item.
CJ dropshipping: Free dropshipping agent based in China offering faster shipping times and an option to send products in your own customised packaging.
CJ Dropshipping Pros:
Ability to source products at a lower factory price than Aliexpress.
Faster shipping times (7-15 days)
Easily syncs products to Ebay and Shopify (CJ Shopify Ap Link).
Autofills customer details for shipping.
Personalised Packaging (enforcing brand identity).
Option to buy and store inventory in China, USA, and Germany.
Assigned dropshipping agent who you can email directly to resolve problems.
Option to dropship from USA, Germany and other countries
Mobile App
CJ Dropshipping Cons:
CJ Dropshipping cannot always source the products you want.
Higher shipping costs (however this is offset by the lower item price).
Processing can sometimes take longer than advertised as CJ’s quality control is more detailed. I.e. they may source a product from the factory, but they may not ship it out if they feel the quality standards aren’t acceptable. This can also be seen as a positive, however something that should take 7-15 days to get to the customer may in fact take 20-25 days, therefore I would account for this in your estimated delivery time section on your website or Ebay.
Shipping costs are constantly changing leading to items costing more to ship due to the weight and size.
Selling Products:
Shopify: E-commerce platform enabling you to build your online store and sell products online and offline.
Shopify Pros:
14 day free trial
100s of integrated apps allowing you to easily customise and enhance your store.
Professional looking website themes included.
Option to upload a customised theme from theme forest or Shopify’s theme marketplace.
Easy to use backend system (adding products etc).
Control marketing campaigns through Shopify (Google shopping ads, Facebook ads, email marketing etc).
Google product sync integration
Full control over your delivery and returns rules and customer complaint management process.
Paypal, Stripe Payments (Shopify’s default payment option), Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Coinbase integration.
Mobile App
Shopify Cons:
Monthly subscription fee
App add-ons can be expensive, increasing your monthly subscription.
You are fully responsible for marketing your store resulting in funds being spent on Google Ad Campaigns, Facebook ads, Microsoft ads etc.
Ebay: Online marketplace allowing independent users to buy and sell products to each other.
Ebay Seller Pros:
Set up an account for free or choose to pay monthly for a business account.
Gives the option to choose if you want to pay a percentage to boost your product and at what margin you want Ebay to take from the sale.
Ebay have one of the biggest marketing campaigns online therefore not much effort is needed to drive traffic to your product if it is in demand.
Easily set up offers within Ebay such as “buy 3 for $20”
Monitor your sales and inventory easily.
Mobile App
Ebay Seller Cons:
Ebay does not always favour dropshipping businesses and may cancel your account unexpectedly if it feels you have breached its terms.
Ebay is in control of the customer complaints process and most often than not will side with the customer leaving you out of pocket.
Ebay now controls all seller payments meaning it has the ability to withhold payments to you if it feels you have breached its terms making it harder for dropshippers who need the revenue to buy the product to be dropshipped.
Hard to reverse negative feedback : Negative feedback is kryptonite to an Ebay seller, it can be hard to reverse the feedback even if you feel the negative feedback is unjustified.
Amazon: Online Marketplace, selling its own branded items, items stored in their warehouses from 3rd party manufacturers/ sellers, as well as items shipped from 3rd party sellers.
Amazon Seller Pros:
Widely known platform many people exclusively search for products on Amazon by-passing search engines like Google.
A good tool for product research
Mobile App
Amazon Seller Cons:
Amazon have to approve you as a seller.
You may be restricted on the products you can sell on Amazon (some categories are only for approved sellers).
Constantly competing with Amazon's Prime shipping service. Customers will only wait longer for your item if it is a niche product that Amazon does not offer, or if you are offering it significantly cheaper.
Using Amazon As a Supplier Source.
Amazon is sometimes used by dropshippers as a supply source. The issue with this is that products usually get delivered to customers in Amazon branded packaging, leading to customer confusion and possible loss of repeat business.
Amazon FBA:
In my opinion, the best way to utilise Amazon is via their FBA service (fulfilment by Amazon). This is where you send products to an Amazon warehouse and they will ship the products out for you. This method is not a dropshipping business model as it requires you to buy inventory in bulk.
Domestic Dropshipping:
Arguably the most stress free way to dropship is to use domestic suppliers, however the barrier to entry is usually higher as you will have to display a certain level of professionalism. This includes things like a professional email address for example, contact@dropshippingwebsite.com.This would require you to buy a domain, however it looks more professional than for example dropshippingwebsite@gmail.com.
You will also need time to either meet with or speak to these suppliers over the phone and possibly present some sort of strategy or presentation as to why the domestic supplier should work with you.
Print On Demand (POD):
Print on demand is essentially a dropshipping business model as you are relying on a third party to ship your product to your customer. However you will need to possess some creative design and thinking skills.
The good thing about POD is that you can usually source a domestic service resulting in faster shipping times and happier customers.
Print On Demand Basic Concept.
Advertise your product on a retail platform (e.g a popular design on a t-shirt).
Your customer will buy your product
Your POD supplier will fulfil that order (print the design onto a t-shirt and send to the customer).
Platforms to get started:
Marketing Your Products
There's no point in spending time researching and selecting the best products and making your online store look pretty if no one’s going to see it.
This section applies more to people who have chosen to create their own store under their own domain name instead of using platforms like Ebay and Amazon.
Once you generate traffic to your store you need to get customers to buy from you, which means you need to write good copy (information about the product that would make a customer want to buy it).
Marketing Platforms:
Google Ads (including google shopping campaigns).
Microsoft Ads (Formerly known As Bing Ads).
Facebook Ads.
Instagram Ads (integrated with Facebook).
Snapchat Ads.
TikTok Ads.
Pinterest.
As stated above remember to calculate your ROAS to ensure that you will eventually become profitable.
Learning Resources I Have Used.
This is no way an exhaustive list, however I have included YouTube Content creators and Udemy courses that have helped me along my dropshipping journey.
Remember to be a critical thinker as you may decide that some of the information isn’t relevant or may not work for you depending on the product you decide to sell.
Udemy Courses:
Udemy is a great source for learning materials if you get to the stage where you want to pay for courses. I have used Udemy in order to increase my knowledge on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and general SEO (search engine optimisation).
Free YouTube Content:
Beast Of Ecom : Information on Aliexpress to Shopify dropshipping
The Ecom king : Information on CJ Dropshipping to Shopify
The Financial Freedom Network : Information on CJ Dropshipping to Ebay.
Wholesale Ted : Information on Print On Demand via Printful and Shopify
Oberlo: Integrated dropshipping Shopify app that also contains information on how to start your dropshipping business
Anton Kraly: Dropship Lifestyle: Information on how to dropship from domestic suppliers.
Of course these channels offer more than what I have described, however this is what I mostly use these channels for.
Some of the above creators offer their own courses and it is completely up to you whether or not you decide to pay for any. I personally haven't bought any of their courses therefore I cannot comment.
Conclusion : Does Dropshipping Work?
Dropshipping is a viable business model for anyone to make money, however there are so many factors and variables that could render your venture unsuccessful.
The key is to have realistic goals when it comes to profit, it is possible you may make a loss in your first, second or even third year in the dropshipping business as you will have to account for your set up costs.
If you do not possess organisational skills, critical thinking and analysis skills or the ability to self reflect you should look at how to increase those skills before you embark on any business venture.
I hope you have found this post useful. Please share, like and comment. I will be researching other “make money online” options and writing my reviews shortly.
Thank you.