Build Your Online Business with Dropshipping

As A Dropshipper, You Don’t Have To Stock Or Handle The Products You Sell
6 Steps To A Successful Dropshipping Business
Checkout Champ Is Dropshipping on EASY Mode

Sell profitable products online without having to handle them yourself
No retail and storage space or inventory are needed to start
Almost all the operations can be outsourced at low cost

Dropshipping is an online business model that has grown in popularity non-stop since it was first popularized in 2007 by Tim Ferriss’ book, ‘The 4-Hour Workweek‘.

Dropshipping is a great entry point into business for newer entrepreneurs, and especially young entrepreneurs who lack work experience, connections or startup capital.

The best part is, that it’s possible to start a dropshipping business with very little startup capital, or even just a credit card!

At its core, dropshipping is a way to make the complex business of online retail for physical products simple enough for 1 person to run.

As A Dropshipper, You Don’t Have To Stock Or Handle
The Products You Sell

All the business functions that need capital and infrastructure – including product manufacturing, warehousing, order fulfillment, and distribution logistics – are outsourced to 3rd-party service providers.

dropshipping-with-checkout-champ diagram
How Dropshipping Works

With the heavy work taken care of, the real key to success for Dropshippers is to develop a high level of skill at product selection, marketing and sales.

Marketing and sales is where fast ‘hockey-stick’ exponential growth comes from in online ecommerce…

So understanding these parts of business is what will give you an edge in the market, and help you to generate your first million in sales!

Now, writing this at the end of 2022, dropshipping has come in for a lot of criticism as a business model after the past 18 months of supply chain issues.

But as an ecommerce software company, we see the real numbers behind hundreds of these businesses…

So we can say with 100% confidence that dropshipping is NOT Dead.

Actually, Dropshipping is bigger than ever before and continuing to grow.

All that happened during the Covid period was weaker players getting shaken out of the market, leaving tons of new opportunities for smart entrepreneurs like you to build new fortunes.

So, if you’re ready to start a business that can compete with retail giants, and do so on a limited budget, then follow the six steps below.

6 Steps To A Successful Dropshipping Business

1. Pick A Niche

Having a niche focused product range in 1 category is essential to be a successful dropshipper.

Amazon and eBay own the ‘general store’ category so there’s no point trying to compete there.

You can find your edge and build a profitable store by becoming the go-to expert for a particular category of product.

A focused product range will help you to build a clear customer avatar and create super specific messaging that speaks directly to them.

The easiest way to choose a niche is to start with your own knowledge and interests – but consider these key factors before you commit, and go all in:

Sell Profitable Products ONLY – Sounds obvious but you would be surprised how often people screw this up! It’s the same amount of work to sell a $20 item or a $1,500 item. Select a niche with higher-priced products that can make you more money.

Low shipping costs are very important. High shipping costs are a big turn-off for customers. Find something that is inexpensive to ship, as this also gives you the option of offering free shipping to your customers and absorbing that cost as a business expense to make your store more attractive than competitors.

Sell products that appeal to impulse buyers with disposable income. When you are focused on driving traffic to your website, you want to experience the highest conversion rate possible because most visitors will never return. Sell products that trigger impulse buys and appeal to people who can afford them without thinking too much about it.

Sell something people are actively searching for. Use Google’s Keyword Planner and Trends to check some common search terms related to your potential niche. Google is inside the head of pretty much every person in the developed world by now. Use their data to find a strong trend with longevity to build your business on top of.

Create your own brand. Your dropshipping business will have more value if you can rebrand whatever it is you are selling. Look for a product or line you can white label and sell as your own brand with custom packaging and branding.

Sell something that isn’t readily available locally. Pick something your ideal customer can’t find easily in their hometown.

2. Watch The Competition

A lot of potential drop shippers try to start with a ‘Unique’ product that has little to no competition.

Bad idea. No competition = no demand = not worth your time.

There are many reasons why a product might not have a lot of competition – high shipping costs, supplier and manufacturing issues, low profit margins.

Look for products that have competition – it’s a sign that there is high demand.

Then it’s your job to make the product unique through your offers and marketing.

3. Find Quality Suppliers

Getting the right suppliers is essential for success. These businesses are going to be your trusted partners, so don’t rush this step and take the time to do some due diligence.

Most dropshipping suppliers are located overseas, making communication extremely important, both in terms of response speed and the ability to understand each other.

Alibaba is one of the largest online resources to identify and communicate with potential manufacturers and suppliers.

Make sure to ask a lot of questions and learn what their production capabilities are.

You want to be certain they have the ability to increase supply as your business grows.

If you are not 100 percent confident in the fulfillment capability or communication abilities of a potential supplier, move on and continue your search.

Try to learn from other entrepreneurs who have walked this path in the past. There are plenty of information sources available, from business and tech blogs to this subreddit about dropshipping. It’s a popular topic that can help you avoid costly supplier mistakes.

4. Build Your Ecommerce Store

The fastest way to launch a dropshipping website is to use a popular ecommerce storefront like Shopify or BigCommerce coupled with a marketing and fulfillment platform like Checkout Champ.

You don’t need a technical background to get up and running, and Checkout Champ has everything you need for professional ecommerce marketing, fulfillment and payments at any scale.

Even if you have a big budget that would allow you to hire a web design and development company to create a custom solution, it’s a much wiser move to use one of the plug-and-play options, especially in the beginning.

Once you are established and the revenue is coming in, then you can explore additional website customization.

5. Have A Customer Acquisition Plan

Having a great product and a website is great, but it’s not a real business until customers show up to buy.

You need traffic!

There are many ways to attract potential customers, but the most effective way for a new business is to start a Facebook ad campaign.

In the long term, SEO is just as important as ads for getting customers, but the beauty of Facebook ads is getting your offer directly in front of a highly targeted audience.

This gives you the ability to compete with the largest brands and retailers immediately, even if nobody knows who you are yet.

Collect emails from the start and set up automated email sequences that offer discounts and special offers to bring customers back for repeat purchases.

Focus your marketing efforts on increasing Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and Average Order Value (AOV) and you won’t go far wrong.

6. Test, Test, And Test Again

Ecommerce businesses have a massive advantage over traditional retail because of all the data we can collect from our stores.

The flipside of that advantage is that e-commerce is a dynamic business which is always changing at a fast pace…

So You will never have a set-and-forget advertising or marketing solution.

To win you must always be testing and adjusting your marketing and offers to keep up with trends and market changes.

Use Google Analytics and the Facebook Pixel to track how people get to your site, how long they spend there, what they buy, and when they come back.

This data helps you make smart decisions about what’s working in your marketing, what to do more of, and what to cut.

Finding customers and figuring out how to encourage them to spend more is the #1 job of a dropshipping business owner.

It’s a massive challenge, but can be incredibly rewarding and lucrative for entrepreneurs who master the game.

Checkout Champ Is Dropshipping on EASY Mode

Getting started with Checkout Champ and Shopify is super easy.

You can set up automated fulfillment setup from your suppliers so each new customer order is processed in the background without you having to do anything!

Here’s how it works:

Set Up a Shopify store, select your products from AliExpress, CJ Dropshipping or FlxPoint then sync to Checkout Champ with a single click.

Customers come to your store and place an order with a credit card or paypal, and you collect the money!

The system sends the order to AliExpress, CJ Dropshipping or FlxPoint to be shipped to the customer, you pay AliExpress the cost, and YOU KEEP THE PROFIT!

AliExpress ships the product and the system sends your customers updates and tracking numbers.

You can then put your customers into your email marketing lists and you can sell products to those customers over and over again.

And that’s just for starters.

Checkout Champ is custom-built to enhance Shopify stores with powerful features nobody else has:

- Increase cart load speed 5-10x – Checkout Champ conversion rates are 2-3x higher than the Shopify checkout just because it’s so much faster to load
- Take Payments In Any Country – Checkout Champ supports over 180 payment platforms and 100+ currencies, for a truly global solution

Visual Funnel Builder – A boring ecommerce storefront is just not good enough in 2023. Stories sell products, and creating rich funnels with text descriptions, images, and video is a must.

Upsell Like A Pro – “Would you like fries with that?” Start asking your customers what else they’d like right at the moment when they’re paying for a purchase. Checkout Champ lets you create custom upsells for your Shopify store, something you can’t do out of the box

Save time and money on shipping – for both you AND your customers, by using intelligent automation to select the fastest and most economical options for buyers in every country you sell to

And we’ve made sure the setup process for Checkout Champ is as easy and pain-free as possible.

Every new user is assigned a personal Client Success Representative who is your single point of contact for all your questions and will do everything it takes to get you up and running fast.

To get Checkout Champ free for 30 days and take your e-commerce store to the next level – book a demo call today.