Start Your Dropshipping Business In Just 7 Steps

Dropshipping, Dropshipping, sounds everywhere! It is the easiest way to enter the e-commerce world without stocking inventory or managing warehouses. This business model is a popular way to make money online because of its low startup cost. Plus, it is a flexible and low-risk business model. 

But doing so requires a knowledgeable understanding of how to set up a new business. From creating a dropshipping business plan to building an e-commerce model, there’s strategic work involved in starting a business. 

Read on learn to how to start your dropshipping business in just 7 steps, which will guide you through everything you need to know to start in the right way.

How Does A Dropshipping Business Work?

In a dropshipping model, the supplier handles inventory and shipping, and you just handle marketing. This means that the customer has to pay the retail price that you’ve set. You then sent the order to the supplier at wholesale price, and the profit is clearly visible. For instance, if you sell an item for 200 and a supplier charges you 150, you earn 50 rupees. 

Additionally, this dropshipping model is next-level: it makes a sale, passes the order along to its supplier, and collects its own payment for the item. The supplier then picks, packs, and delivers the item to the customer.

Advantages of Dropshipping

Dropshipping offers many advantages, particularly regarding costs associated with warehousing and inventory carrying costs. 

Let’s explore a few things that need to be considered:

• No Upfront Inventory Cost: Can buy the product in bulk without making a major upfront investment.
• Reduced Financial Risk: It automatically reduces the risk of stock out that might not sell; this way, you don’t end up with a garage full of unsold items.
• Positive Cash Flow: Before you pay the supplier, the money is already in your bank account, before you incur the cost of goods sold.
• Pricing Control: You don’t have to pay for a warehouse to pick and pack your orders with dropshipping.
• Brand Building: Since you are sourcing from a dropshipper, it involves spending a low cost, which provides a separate room for brand building.

How to Start Your Dropshipping Business

Launching the dropshipping business is straightforward, from selecting the niche to marketing. However, this can be a challenging and confusing task, particularly if you’ hav’nt any dropshipping idea. Here are the 7 steps that you can take when starting a dropshipping business:

• 1. Pick a Niche

Before doing anything, the first and foremost thing is to do research on the niche; you need to look at the industry and market that you’re going to serve. This determines the product you’ll sell, your target customer your brand position.  

By focusing on a specific dropshipping niche, you can also simplify the product sourcing and marketing. These niches affect many aspects of your website, including the markup and margin, the e-commerce shipping cost, and the impact of your website’s SEO. For example, trending categories like fitness gear, home improvement tools, phone accessories, and pet supplies will perform well in the dropshipping market.

Tips For Choosing the Niche:

• Select the Problem-Solving Product: Go for the product that solves a problem or makes life easier.
• Check the Product Demand: Use the tool like Google Trends to see if people is interested in your niche.
• Analyse the Competitor: Select the niche that has some demand but isn’t completely swamped by a big player.    

• Research Competitor

Before you start selling, firstly, know about who you’re up against. Because when you start an e-commerce business, you’re competing with thousands of competitors. No doubt! It is the savior tip that helps in understanding the market demand, pricing range, and customer preferences.

So, start searching the competition by identifying top-performing dropshipping stores in your niche. Study the website design, pricing, marketing tactics, and customer reviews to gain more traffic and planning strategies.

1. Find A Supplier

This is the trickiest and most crucial step; without doing this, you can even put your business at risk. Such as a supplier’s ability not only impacts the customers’ demand, but also the website. Furthermore, their delivery service and order fulfillment need to be done on time. 

Keep this in your mind: your supplier is the backbone of your dropshipping business, since you won’t handle the inventory directly, which is why it is vital to partner with a supplier who ensures quality products, timely delivery, and reasonable pricing.

If you are struggling to find the write distributor in Pakistan? Who doesn’t bring the strict policy or provide the high-quality and even trending products at affordable rates, then must visit the Alahdeen B2B Marketplace.

• Create Platform

Next, build your eCommerce platform, which is your online store. You can use Shopify, WooCommerce, or more to make a website. There should be clear descriptions, high-quality product photographs, and an easy way to check out on your website. 

Since most people shop on their phones, you should focus on making it mobile optimised. A website that looks professional raises your credibility, helps you sell more, and helps you compete well in the dropshipping industry in Pakistan.

• Select Product and Set Prices

Always go for tending and competitive products. Don’t pick things at random; instead, test things that are relevant to your niche and audience. Once you’re done, make sure you set your prices carefully. 

Think about the cost of the product, the fees charged by the supplier, the shipping costs, and the profit margin. If your cost is Rs. 1,000, set the price you want to sell it for at Rs. 1,800 to make a good profit. Offer discounts and bundles to get people to buy from you. Prices that stay the same develop trust and make people buy from you again.

• Plan the Fastest Customer Acquisition Strategy

Now it’s time to follow the steps to get customers in quickly. Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are all good places to run targeted ads. Work with micro-influencers who can honestly talk about your products. Put money into SEO so that people can find your site naturally when they search for phrases like “how to start dropshipping” or “best dropshipping products.” Email marketing and retargeting ads also assist in turning visitors into customers more quickly. 

• Start Marketing

Well, there are many ways of marketing. But if we talk about the most effective, then it is the digital ads, although they are comparatively affordable than PPC or any other marketing strategy. With this, you just have to make the UCG content and market it with a good budget.

Although in this case, influencer marketing rocks the stage. Initially, you start with the micro-tier or mid-tier influencer, then, after getting the sale, shift toward the mega influencer. This way, you can boost your sales more 

However, SEO, Email marketing, referral marketing, and affiliate marketing are other ways, but they give slow and steady results. And in Pakistan, there is a huge trend of TikTok and Instagram, so by doing so, you can easily scale your business.

To end this blog, surely the above-mentioned points are fair enough to help you in starting the dropshipping business in Pakistan!