Drop Shipping 101：2021 年建立 Drop Shipping 业务的权威指南

“代发货。” 任何曾经研究过在线业务如何运作的人都可能遇到过这个词。

然而，真正了解它是如何工作的人就更少了。

对于刚接触在线商业世界并希望进入电子商务领域的人来说，直销过程似乎有点令人生畏，因为很难找到一个可靠的来源来告诉您需要知道的一切。

所以这里是：直销的权威指南。 它涵盖了该术语的基本含义、这种特定商业模式的运作方式以及如何找到合适的产品和供应商以实际运营成功、蓬勃发展的电子商务直销业务的所有内容。 所以让我们直接进入它！

了解直销

什么是直销？

Dropshipping 是一种商业模式，它使公司无需维护库存、拥有仓库来存储产品，甚至不必自己将产品运送给客户即可运营。 它的工作原理是，零售商与代销商合作制造和/或仓储产品、包装产品并代表零售商将产品直接运送给零售商的客户。

简单来说，这就是直销的工作原理：

• 客户在零售商的在线商店上订购产品。
• 零售商自动或手动将订单和客户详细信息转发给直销供应商。
• 代发货供应商以零售商的名义将订单直接打包并运送给客户。

这种商业模式极具吸引力，因为它消除了店主拥有办公空间或仓库等实体营​​业地点的需要——相反，他们只需要一台笔记本电脑和互联网连接。

Drop Shipping 的视频概述

直销的优点

作为一种商业模式，直销有几个不同的方面被证明是有益的，例如：

• 设置简单：不需要整个村庄的设置，因为它基本上只涉及 3 个步骤 - 找到供应商，设置您的网站并开始销售商品！ 对于电子商务行业的新手来说，这种商业模式相对容易理解和实施。
• 建立 Dropship 业务的成本几乎为零：在传统的商业模式中，大部分成本与建立和运行零售业务有关，例如购买库存。 由于直销消除了这一步，因此消除了它的成本，您只需要支付运行您的网站（托管、主题、应用程序等）的相关成本。
• 您不必担心高昂的管理费​​用：如前所述，企业主无需购买库存，因此无需支付租赁或购买仓库/办公空间的成本以及与之相关的其他较小但相当大的成本（电/电话）账单、文具等）不是问题。 管理网站的固定成本是企业主唯一需要担心的。
• Dropshipping 作为一种商业模式的风险显着降低：如果企业不销售产品，它仍然不会损失任何东西，因此不得不出售库存几乎没有压力。
• 业务可以从任何地方运行且位置独立：没有办公室，没有仓库，没有员工，没有麻烦。 几乎没有对物理空间的承诺意味着您可以坐在海滩上，啜饮莫吉托，同时还能盈利。 您所需要的只是您的笔记本电脑和互联网。
• 您想出售的产品种类繁多：几乎所有您想出售的产品都有一个代发货供应商！ 您可以依靠一种出色的产品，同时销售多种产品或混合使用； 这一切都取决于你。 找到你的利基市场，一定会有一个供应商迎合它。
• 更多的时间和资源来扩展您的业务：在传统的零售业务模式中，如果您想要更多的利润，您必须做更多的工作并投资更多的资源池。 通过直销，您所要做的就是向您的直销供应商发送更多订单，然后让他们处理其他所有事情，同时您赚取利润，并有更多时间来制定您的业务计划和规模！
• 减少损坏货物的损失：由于货物直接从供应商运送到客户，因此涉及的运输步骤更少，这大大降低了从一个物理空间移动到另一个物理空间时损坏物品的风险。

直销的缺点

就像生活中的一切一样，直销的许多优点也伴随着一些缺点。 以下是直销业务模式的一些缺点：

• 与批发或制造相比，利润率略低：根据您的利基、位置或要求，供应商和供应商会向您收取更高的直销产品价格，这确实会侵蚀您的利润率。
• 出现问题时的完全责任：由于客户是从零售商的网站上购买产品，如果供应商出现问题，仍然是零售商的错，因为品牌是零售过程的门面。 这就是为什么选择合适的供应商非常重要的原因之一。
• 品牌的控制水平显着降低：客户满意度通常与细节相关——发货产品的个性化包装和品牌、赠品和订单随附的备注——它几乎总是重要的较小的事情。 不幸的是，直销模式很少让零售商有机会控制他们的品牌在交付和履行过程中的展示方式，因为供应商是运送产品的人。 但是，有些供应商可能愿意付出更多努力——但请注意，这可能会让您付出代价。
• 由于运输的复杂性，可能会出现某些问题：销售多种产品似乎是提高销售额和赚取可观利润的好方法，但如果零售商有多个供应商提供这些产品，这实际上可能与直觉相反。 不同的供应商会根据位置、产品类型等因素收取不同的运费。如果客户订购了从不同供应商处发货的多种产品，零售商将不得不单独计算并支付运费。 将这些不同的运输成本转移给客户可能会对转化率产生负面影响，从而影响利润率。
• 竞争水平相对较高：直销业务模式的吸引力和受欢迎程度意味着每个细分市场和利基市场都有越来越多的零售商。 除非零售商迎合一个非常特定的细分市场或利基市场，否则竞争可能是有害的。
• 库存管理可能很棘手：跟踪供应商的库存几乎是不可能的。 沟通不畅可能会导致诸如取消和不得不下订单缺货等问题。 当然，这方面现在可以通过软件进行管理，但这些也是有代价的，可能会增加您的管理费用和固定成本

Dropshipping 的可行性和盈利能力如何？

通常，直销的利润率可以在 15%-45% 之间。 但是，耐用消费品和奢侈品（例如电子产品、珠宝等）的利润率最高可达 100%。 这是关于在进入尚未过度饱和的市场时找到合适的利基市场和供应商。 确保更高利润的一个好方法是直接从制造商而不是供应商/供应商处采购，从而有效地减少中间商。

一旦业务起步并获得一点牵引力，它就可以迅速变成只需要最少投入的赚钱机器。 成功的直销业务，例如 Irwin Dominguez，一位会计师转为电子商务企业家，在推出在线业务的短短 8 个月内就实现了 100 万美元的销售额！ 并非每个直销业务都是这种情况，但潜力是存在的。

直运船制造商、批发商和聚合商不是一样的吗？

没有。 尽管这些术语在电子商务世界中经常互换使用，但它们并不相同。 让我们澄清一下困惑：

• 制造商是实际自己生产产品的人。 他们可能有也可能没有直销计划，但如果他们这样做，零售商很幸运，因为它消除了中间人的麻烦和膨胀的成本，为零售商提供了最优惠的价格。 这些降低的成本转化为更大的利润率。
• 直销批发商/供应商是指从制造商处批量购买一种产品并通过零售商的电子商务业务帮助将其打包并在线运送给买家的人。
• 另一方面，dropship 聚合器是从多个制造商处购买不同产品的人，为零售商提供各种产品以供销售。 使用聚合器可以解决直接运输的几个缺点——没有多个批发商的运输成本，向多个供应商发送多个订单的时间更少（因此防止订单和发货的混淆和延迟）——但是，请记住聚合商采取更高的削减，这可能会对您的利润率产生不利影响。

Dropshipping 适合谁？

对于刚刚涉足在线商业世界的初学者来说，Dropshipping 是一种非常棒的商业模式。 它对新手很有吸引力，因为它是一种低风险、低投资的创业方式，因此感觉不像是一场赌博。

由于需要投资于这种商业模式的资金量最少，因此对于已经是有库存的店主但希望在市场上试用特定产品以了解其之前表现如何的人来说，它也是理想的选择囤积它。 如果您有兴趣了解更多相关信息，请查看我们的如何在不使用 Dropship 时使用 Dropshipping 测试产品创意的帖子。

对于期待立即获得惊人利润的人来说，这种商业模式可能令人失望。 如果利润是您的主要兴趣，那么您最好直接寻找来源（例如制造商），但制造商并不总是促进直销。 由于与制造和批发等其他商业模式相比，直销的利润率也低得多，直销对于一个新创品牌来说可能不是好兆头，因为在涉及客户时，该企业没有最终控制权通过品牌推广和品牌体验获得满意度。

有几种类型的企业家可以很好地使用直销模式。 让我们来看看其中的一些：

• 验证企业家： Dropshipping 可以成为测试新产品甚至新创业公司的好方法，然后再对可能无法销售的库存进行大量投资，这使其成为需要高水平业务和产品验证的企业家的完美商业模式投资。
• Budget Entrepreneur：代发货绝对是最便宜的在线销售方式，因为您无需预先购买任何库存。 正因为如此，直接运输方法适用于预算有限或希望尽可能降低启动成本的企业家。
• 首次创业者：对于刚开始在线销售的人来说，在线销售的代发货模式也是一种很好的商业模式。 事实上，在线销售并不容易。 为普通营销人员驱动流量并转换流量可能需要很长时间才能弄清楚和优化。 由于与开展代销业务相关的成本较低，因此它允许新企业家在投资数千（或更多）可能会陷入困境的库存之前，开始学习开设商店、推动流量和转化优化的诀窍。
• 沃尔玛企业家：直接运输也适用于想要销售各种产品和型号的人。 根据您打算销售的产品的价格范围，或者如果您想销售成百上千种不同的产品，如果没有大量资金购买所有库存几乎是不可能的。 在这种情况下，dropshipping 将是合适的模型，因为同样，您不需要预先购买库存。
  

谁不适合直接送货？

还有几种类型的企业家不适合直销：

• 以品牌为中心的企业家：建立一个长期可持续的品牌很困难，但回报却是非常值得的。 然而，在利用一件代发业务模式的同时建立品牌的难度成倍增加，因为整个客户体验中有很多元素是您无法控制的。 例如，很多时候您可能会发现，在客户从您那里购买商品后，您的代销商会将其售罄。 这让您在尝试协调您的客户和您的托运人之间感到不舒服和令人沮丧，并且可能成为您的客户的一种非常糟糕的体验。 要记住的另一点是，因为您不是自己运送产品，所以您无法控制客户收到包裹的体验。 几乎 100% 的时间它都会是装在一个装有花生的大棕色盒子里的产品。 您需要问问自己，这是否是您希望客户拥有的体验。 最后，因为您自己不运送产品，所以您不拥有与运输公司的关系。 当出现问题并且您的客户没有收到包裹时，您不能简单地致电 UPS 并纠正问题。 您需要与忙碌的客户代表协调这件事，这可能需要几天时间才能解决，再次让您的客户口中苦涩。
• 以利润为中心的企业家：直销业务模式的最大问题可能是利润微薄。 通常，对于传统的一件代发产品和公司，您的毛利率（您的销售价格减去您支付给代销商的成本）约为 10-20%。 最终，当您支付信用卡交易费、送货车费、电子邮件服务费和其他应用程序费用时，您只会看到百分之几。 有相当一部分在线企业家每年收入 100 万美元的代运业务，最终赚取 40-50k 的利润。
• 非创意营销人员：大多数制造商（也可以是自己产品的代销商）的销售目标是，30% 的销售额需要来自直接面向消费者的销售，通常是通过他们自己的电子商务网站。 这意味着，如果您销售他们的产品，您将直接与您自己的供应商竞争，该供应商在相同产品上的利润率比您高得多。 任何与他们正面交锋的机会都是毫无意义的。 他们几乎总是会赢，因为他们负担得起。 如果您要击败自己的供应商，您需要发挥创造力，找到并利用他们不用于获取客户的渠道。 如果您唯一的想法是使用 Google Ads 和 Facebook Ads，那么您可能就不走运了。
  

寻找完美的直销产品来销售

选择最佳直销产品的标准

为了有一个成功的电子商务企业，你必须要找到合适的产品来卖，但是当涉及到直销业务寻找合适的产品可能是您的企业的最重要的方面。

几乎没有办法确定哪些产品对于直销业务模式来说是完全“完美的”，但是，拥有一份您确定会出售的产品创意的候选清单（基于确凿的事实、数据和研究）是一个很好的方法开始确定您最终将销售的产品。

以下是一组标准，可以帮助确定产品是否适合代发货：

• 零售价：说到直销，零售价和批发价至关重要。 这完全是关于通过为产品定价的方式达到最佳点：低价可能会鼓励更多的销售，但每个产品的利润率会更小，而高价商品可能会卖得更少，但您将能够使每件商品获得更多利润。 找到适合您和客户期望的平衡点。 正如我们之前提到的，dropshipping 的利润率可以在 15%-45% 之间，这就是您作为零售商应该瞄准的目标。 这通常意味着 50 美元到 100 美元之间的定价项目是最佳的，具体取决于产品。
• 尺寸和重量：不同产品的包装和运输成本因需要多少包装材料以及运输产品所需的工作量（人工或机器工作量）而异。 从这个意义上说，拥有更小、更轻的物品是最便宜的运输方式，并为您提供最大的利润率。 较大的产品也可以以相对较大的利润率直接发货，但从较小的开始是最好的方法。
• 交叉销售产品：销售成套相关产品是为您的客户提供更多价值并鼓励他们每次下订单时购买更多产品的好方法。 考虑可以一起销售哪些产品来服务于相关的利基市场。 例如，如果您放下画架，那么您也可以放下画布、画笔和其他艺术用品。 如果您选择走这条路线，请考虑如何对您的产品进行战略性定价，以使销售对您和您的客户而言都具有同等价值。 您可能会选择以较低的利润率（例如 10-15%）销售您的主要产品以鼓励您的客户购买它，然后通过交叉销售主要产品的其他配件和组件以较低的价格来弥补利润损失更大的标记（例如 100%）。
• 耐用性：如果您销售的产品和商品是一次性和/或可再生的，您的客户更有可能再次下订单，从而提高您的销售额。 许多零售商为其客户设置了订阅选项，以确保始终有重复购买。 您可以通过为订阅您的服务的用户提供折扣，使其成为对您的客户更具吸引力的优惠。
• 周转率：考虑您所销售产品的周转率（产品更改、更新、打折等的速率）。 作为拥有在线商店的零售商，您的很多业务将来自产品摄影和您发布的有关产品的副本/内容。 这些是耗时的，并且可能也会花费您。 因此，如果您销售的产品在短时间内不断变化，您将不得不不断切换内容，这将是对时间和金钱的持续再投资——同时增加了实际更新所有内容的压力。 详细了解如何拍摄出色的产品照片、创建精美的产品页面以及如何撰写出色的产品说明。

要避免的直销错误

选择代发货产品时应避免的常见错误：

• 不要根据您的喜好和不喜欢选择产品：始终根据事实、研究、尽职调查以及评估和验证市场需求来决定您的产品。
• 请勿出售仿冒品或“真实副本”：这不仅是一种廉价的噱头，不一定能让您与客户取得联系，而且在大多数国家/地区也是非法的！ 避免使用这些类型的产品，这样您就可以避免从可靠的官方销售商（例如 MXED（MXED Review））购买麻烦或代销产品。
• 不要随波逐流： “如果每个人都在销售它，我也应该”，这并不总是选择产品的正确理由。 趋势产品的市场通常非常饱和，因此竞争程度会很高。 如果趋势产品是你想要追求的东西，那么一定要对趋势的兴衰进行彻底的研究，这样你就知道对消费者的兴趣会有什么期望。 查看像 Google Trends 这样的工具来帮助评估趋势。

了解您的目标市场和利基

确保您做好市场调查将为您的业务奠定坚实的基础。 以下是一些提示，可帮助您更好地了解目标市场和细分市场：

• 第一步：第一步也是最重要的一步是衡量您产品的当前需求。 使用 KWFinder 工具了解您的产品关键字每月排名情况——这将使您了解每月有多少人在 Google 等搜索引擎中搜索您的产品，并让您大致了解你的产品的需求是什么。 理想情况下，如果您打算围绕它开展业务，您希望找到每月搜索量数以千计的关键字，但如果您的产品服务于新兴市场，那么可能还没有人搜索它。 要了解有关关键字研究及其如何帮助您成功建立业务的更多信息，请查看我们的关键字研究终极指南，如果您想了解有关 KWFinder 工具的更多信息，请查看我们的 KWFinder 评论。
• 第二步：第二步是了解季节性如何影响客户的购买模式。 某些产品只是季节性商品，而其他产品则全年都很好，但您如何弄清楚两者之间的区别？ 当您可以只使用 Google 趋势时，猜测可能是徒劳且不必要的。 该工具为用户提供了大量时间内任何给定产品（或关键字）的搜索高峰期的图形分析。 预测趋势可以帮助您为全年销售的下降或高峰做好准备，并确保您不会措手不及。
• 第三步：第三步是确定你的竞争对手的范围并观察他们如何与市场互动。 搜索竞争对手的网站、社交媒体平台或他们在亚马逊和 eBay 等市场上的存在，并密切关注他们收到的评分、评论、评论和整体参与度以及他们的客户所说的话。 看看您是否能在竞争对手没有达到市场预期的情况下找到任何机会，以便您可以继续缩小差距。

关于您的目标市场需要考虑的事实

分析目标市场时应考虑的因素包括：

• 人口统计：人口统计数据，例如您的受众的物理/地理位置、收入范围等，对于了解您的受众有多大、他们中的大多数在哪里以及您如何为他们提供直销产品很重要.
• 性别：从统计数据来看，男性和女性的购物方式不同，在直销商品或一般产品方面有不同的支出和购买模式。 虽然您的潜在目标市场的性别可能不是最重要的方面，但仍然值得研究。 他们用于购物的设备类型、适合他们的内容类型（推荐、产品描述等）、促进客户转化的语言类型——所有这些因素也可能受到性别的影响。
• 年龄范围：能够了解不同年龄组的消费模式和购买模式非常有用。 千禧一代（出生于 1980 年至 2000 年之间的人）被证明属于较低的收入阶层，并且在统计上支出较少，因此，直接针对年轻人的年龄范围的昂贵产品直接发货可能并不完全可取。 60 岁以上的人群也是如此，因为他们通常不喜欢通过互联网购买产品，无论是否直接发货。
• 机构类型：您是否直接向客户、其他企业或政府组织销售您的产品？ 无论您是销售直接运输的商品，企业对消费者 (B2C)、企业对企业 (B2B) 还是企业对政府 (B2G) 都会影响您业务的许多方面，例如您的客户到底是谁，他们从你那里购买了多少产品，他们购买你产品的主要目标，你如何向他们推销你的产品等等。 通常，当您直接向消费​​者进行直销时，最常见的市场是直接销售给消费者，因此请考虑这将如何影响您的整体业务。

了解你的竞争对手

为了击败竞争对手，您需要了解竞争对手。 如果您要销售的产品已经建立了卖家，这实际上是一个好兆头。 但是，如果该领域的卖家过多，则您的企业在所有其他企业中脱颖而出可能会造成问题。

为了扩大竞争范围，您可以使用以下策略：

• 使用在线工具查看竞争对手的网站： SEMrush 等在线站点浏览器允许您仅使用 URL 来检查您选择的任何网站的排名和域权限。 这有助于您很好地了解他们的流量有多少来自关键字和其他链接，以及它们的确切来源。 这一点，连同亲自检查他们的网站，应该让你全面了解他们网站的运作，你可以根据事实和数据。 在我们的 SEMrush 评论中了解有关 SEMrush 的更多信息。
• 从竞争中订购产品以了解其流程是如何运作的：某些东西在网上出现的方式在现实生活中可能会很明显不同。 从竞争中订购可以让您了解使他们与众不同的怪癖，他们品牌体验的负面影响，甚至可能是您自己业务的想法和技巧。 话虽如此，不一定要复制他们的部分或全部购物和运输过程，只需观察他们的任何缺陷，以便您可以努力改进它们以获得您自己的客户体验。
• 分析他们的社交媒体渠道：您竞争对手的社交媒体渠道是获得客户对其业务的直接反馈的绝佳方式，也为您分析他们的营销策略提供了良好的基础。 检查他们品牌的参与程度以及您可能为您的品牌努力的缺陷。 当您知道他们制作的内容类型和规模时，将您自己的内容与他们的内容进行对比也会变得更容易。

寻找合适的产品进行直销

一旦你知道你对直销感兴趣的产品，你必须找出该产品的实际来源。

首先创建一个列表，最好是一个包含名称和来源的电子表格（使用 Google Sheets 或 AirTable），这样您就不会忘记找到产品的位置。 此电子表格/列表还可作为数据库以供日后参考。

不要低估一个简单的谷歌搜索的力量。 在 Google 中搜索您的潜在产品并观看自动完成功能。 大多数自动完成建议都是基于其他搜索引擎用户（例如您的潜在客户或供应商）正在寻找的热门关键字。 您甚至可以深入研究这些自动完成结果，为您的品牌战略指明方向，因为您可以找到相关术语等。此外，Google 搜索结果还将生成“相关搜索”列表，这些搜索结果本质上是相似的关键字，但批量搜索词组。

另一种根据消费者需求选择产品的独特方式是查看产品论坛和评论网站。 寻找正在寻找某些类型的产品或对其赞不绝口的评论，然后提供它们。 评论网站还可以作为排名参数，因为更受欢迎的产品排名更高，这意味着更有可能在该特定商品上获得更多销售。 查看这些与产品相关的 Reddit 帖子，以更好地了解消费者的想法和需求，并查看流行的产品评论博客，例如 Uncrate、AcquireMag 和 Bless This Stuff，或趋势出版物，例如 PSFK、Cool Hunting 和 The Cool Hunter。 在我们在线销售热门产品的权威指南中找到这些资源的更完整列表。

以下是一些过去非常受欢迎并且今年特别流行的产品：

• 笔记本、计划表和日记本
• 定制手机壳
• 定制 T 恤
• 手机配件
• 珠宝
• 露营装备
• 健康/超级食品
• 健身房和健身器材
• 婴儿用品
• 护肤品
• 定制马克杯

A lot of these products can be related to pop culture and trends in the media which influence buyers, so this is not a definitive list of what works and what doesn't—just the most popular selling items over the past year. Once you can understand trends in the media, it may benefit you as a business owner to forecast product trends, too.

Finding the Right Dropshipping Supplier

The entire drop shipping model is based on the supplier doing their job well and fulfilling orders punctually and efficiently. Therefore it goes without saying that choosing the right supplier is one of, if not the most important step towards setting up a successful brand. If your supplier/vendor messes up an order, you and your business are responsible, so the key is to find someone who sticks to the plan and is open with communicating any issues.

Here are a few factors to keep in mind when choosing a dropship supplier:

• Find an Experienced Dropshipper with Helpful Sales Representatives: Nothing beats experience. A drop shipper who knows the pitfalls of drop shipping and how to handle them efficiently, coupled with a sales rep who can answer any queries to put your mind at ease, will make a good team and definitely reflect positively on your business.
• Find a Dropshipper who Provides Top-Notch, High-Quality Products: High-quality products yield a higher level of customer satisfaction which means a lower rate of returned items and dissatisfied customers. Product reviews and testimonials can go a long way to boost business, therefore having a good quality product is imperative.
• Find a Dropshipper who has Technological Abilities: When choosing your drop shipper, make sure that they have the technological capabilities to keep up with the times. If you need to scale your business, it would be a shame if you had to break a great business partnership with your drop shipper just because they wouldn't be able to keep up with your growth.
• Find a Dropshipper who is Punctual & Efficient with the Shipping Process: Drop shippers who ship products within a 24-48 hour period are a great way to ensure happy customers. Due to the competitiveness of the market, long shipping times can be unattractive your customers. It would be advisable to place test orders with your supplier to see how the process works and get a better idea before you make an informed decision.

As simple as it may sound, Google is your best bet when looking for dropship suppliers. Several startup incubators and websites dedicated to ecommerce, that pop up as search results, will have complete directories of drop shippers and their contact information. Once you've obtained contact details for dropshipping suppliers who provide the products you're interested in selling, send them a short but polite email asking some relevant questions. This way you'll be able to gauge how quickly they respond and how helpful their sales reps are.

It's not always possible to know whether you and your suppliers will be a great fit right off the bat, however, it is possible to ask specific questions that will make the vetting process more efficient.

A few of the questions you ask in your first email could include some, but not all, of the following (try to stick to 3 questions in the first email so it's not too overwhelming for the supplier):

• Do you manufacture customized items if required?
• What are your pricing terms and are they negotiable?
• Are there any other additional costs besides the direct costs? (Always make sure there are no other hidden costs)
• Do you have a return policy?
• Are you also a retailer/direct seller?
• What kind of profit margin can I expect?
• Will the prices ever fluctuate?
• Do the products come with a warranty or guarantee?
• Do you have a dedicated rep that will answer any of my questions that may arise?
• Do you have and use a data feed?

The point is to make sure that the supplier doesn't take advantage of you because these questions prove that you have done your homework. The last thing you want is to not be taken seriously because you are considered a newbie. The retailer-supplier relation is a long term one, thus needs a certain amount of commitment to it.

That being said, there are many dropshipping scams out there, too. In order to safeguard yourself and your business from them, you need to keep an eye out for any red flags. For instance, if a dropshipper does not accept checks or credit and asks for only bank transfers, it may be a warning sign.

Scammers will also avoid using an address on their business correspondence, website, etc. Any supplier that is working legally is required to display an address. Furthermore, many scams also involve the age-old “membership fees” and while this may not always be a scam, it's advisable to conduct thorough research and do your own due diligence!

You can obviously take some measures to avoid being the victim of such scams and frauds:

• Use online tools to check the age of a domain: This will help you cross-check the facts with what the supplier claims. A newer domain could indicate a scam, especially if it doesn't match their answers. Besides, as discussed before, checking the domain age can also help establish how experienced the supplier is online.
• Check reviews about the particular supplier online: Chances are if someone has been scammed by the supplier before the victim might have put out a warning message/negative review.
• The supplier's business should be registered and the address of their warehouse/office should ideally be listed as a place of business or commercial space. Getting “residential” space results online may be a bad indicator.
• If you are still unsure, you could always contact the manufacturer directly to cross-check any facts. Just be wary about the fact that if it's a big scam, the supposed “manufacturer” might be in on it too.

Asking the right questions, taking the required precautions and doing your research should help you find the right supplier that fits your business! Once such major aspects are dealt with, you can focus on setting up a system for running your day to day operations as smoothly as possible.

Running Your Drop Shipping Business

So you've done your research, you've managed to settle on the perfect products to dropship and have roped in the best supplier possible. You're all set to start dropshipping goods and making that mullah! However, setting up the business is usually one thing, but running it on a day-to-day basis is a completely different ball game. There are various different aspects of running a business, even if it's a dropshipping business, that you as the retailer have to consider: Marketing, refunds, returns, replacements, inventory, fulfillment, customer support and more. So dive into these various aspects of running a dropshipping business.

Marketing Your Drop Shipping Business

How will you sell your products if no one knows about them or your brand? Why should anyone online trust you—a stranger? That's the magic of marketing; it can make even strangers trust you enough to hand over their hard-earned money to you, willingly.

Marketing is a subjective field and there are a billion tactics that can be used to effectively position your brand while driving your brand's awareness and sales up. If your strategy is well planned, it can help you weed out the rest of the competition too.

Social Media for Your Drop Shipping Business

One of the most effective ways to promote, advertise, acquire customers and distribute content is through social media, so it comes as no surprise when social platforms are also used for digital marketing. Facebook, for example, has over 1.7 billion active users from different walks of life and it is this variety that makes it so attractive to digital marketers.

One thing to remember is that content is key. No matter how big a platform is or how amazing the product that you are selling is, it means nothing without great content backing it up.

Customer Ratings and Reviews of Your Dropshipping Business

In the dropshipping business model, a few bad customer reviews can literally ruin a business. Think about it: When you shop online from websites such as Amazon and eBay, one of the deciding purchasing factors can be the product rating and what other customers have to say about it—it's the same case with drop shipping too. A few great reviews can also give you that edge over the competition and that's what's going to help you successfully convert visitors to your website.

A surefire way to get great customer reviews is by following through on amazing customer experience: Short shipping times, high-quality products, excellent customer service and asking for feedback to improve in the future. You can also use customer feedback as testimonials for your website and social media, which can also help you successfully convert more customers.

Email Marketing for Your Dropshipping Business

This is one of the most underrated tools in a digital marketer's kit. Email marketing can be used to keep your customers in the loop about any major changes in the company: Price changes, sales, discounts, product-related content, and industry-specific content are just some ways that email marketing can be used.

These days, software such as Klaviyo and CM Commerce take the hassle out of sending out emails to your audience by automating some of the processes, creating and saving templates, and producing reports and analytics.

PPC Advertising (Pay Per Click Ads) for Your Dropshipping Business

As mentioned earlier, several social media channels allow pay per click advertising, for example, Facebook Ads. This is a typical digital marketing move that trades money for traffic to the ad buyer's website. Google Ads is another very popular platform for digital advertising and is attractive due to the Google Analytics tool that can help marketers create reports with facts and figures with ease.

Growth Hacking for Your Dropshipping Business

Growth hacking is an inexpensive, yet highly effective way of getting creative marketing campaigns online. A few examples of growth hacking include retargeting old campaigns and appearing as a guest blogger for a popular website in your particular niche. Essentially most of this involves content marketing.

Refunds, Returns & Replacements for Dropshipped Products

As an online business owner, dealing with refunds, returns and replacements is inevitable. Initially, this may seem discouraging however it's just part and parcel of running an online store. 100% customer satisfaction is a myth no matter how hard you try.

The process for refunding dropshipped products is as follows:

• The customer will place an order for the refund with your business, either through email or over the phone.
• You are then required to ask the supplier for a return merchandise authorization number.
• Once the customer mails the product back to the supplier the supplier will refund the wholesale amount to your account, after which you can initiate the refund of the retail price for the product to the customer.

Even though this process may seem tedious, if the customer is returning a product within the time period stated in the supplier's return policy, there should not be a problem. The only minor inconvenience that you may face is if the supplier charges a restocking fee, which you as the retailer will have to bear the cost of. In actuality, this should not be a major loss but rather just a minor inconvenience that comes as a side effect of owning an online business.

Defective Dropshipping Products

Defective items can be slightly trickier: Even if the customer is returning a defective product, someone will still have to incur the cost of returning the product. However, if the cost does land upon you, it would be unwise to transfer the cost onto the customer at the risk of losing or alienating them. It's not your customer's fault if you sold them a defective product, so it seems unfair to expect them to incur the cost of returning the product.

What Do You Do When it's the Supplier's Fault?

If the supplier messes up the order, they are usually willing to either reimburse the customer or replace the product for free. Most of the time it comes down to communicating what you expect from the supplier if they do mess up an order. In most cases, it is best to communicate over email as it also serves as a written record of conversations.

In cases where a mix-up has caused your company a large loss and the supplier refuses to pay you back taking legal action is always a viable option—this should only be kept as the last resort in extreme cases.

Handling Dropshipping Inventory

With the dropshipping business model, even though you don't personally maintain any inventory, as a retailer you may still be required to manage inventory orders if your orders are not forwarded automatically to your dropshipping supplier. This process can be time-consuming and tedious, but there is now inventory management software available online and many drop shippers will have an app you can connect directly to your Shopify store so you can automatically forward your orders.

What to Do When Dropshipping Products are Out of Stock

If a customer has placed an order and the product is out of stock simply put the product on backorder in the supplier's inventory and communicate to the customer that you will not be able to fulfill the order right away. Give them the option of waiting until the product is in stock again or for a full refund. The key is to communicate with your customers clearly on whether the product will be available anytime soon. If you aren't absolutely sure, take a calculated guess and let them know the same. Honesty and communication with your customer is the best policy in this situation.

Drop Shipping & Fulfillment

The dropship fulfillment process is heavily dependent on your level of involvement: Do you want to automate it or not? Certain aspects will be automated such as the receipt of purchase, shipping information, etc.

If you have multiple suppliers, the fulfillment process will include sending all your orders to the appropriate supplier via email. The best supplier for each product and customer will rely on the location, cost of shipping, and availability. These processes can be automated at varying degrees.

Dropshipping Problems to Avoid

Even though we discussed scams on the dropshipping supplier's end, fraudulent activities are not just limited to them. While running an online store, it may be common to come across fraudulent dropship orders from fraudulent customers.

One way of telling these fraudulent orders apart from the genuine ones is when the shipping address and billing address are different. Sometimes even the name on one either address will differ. These could be clear indicators of credit card fraud.

Customer Support for Your Dropshipping Business

Providing good customer support can determine how well your dropshipping business does. Due to how competitive the drop shipping industry is, if a brand has a good customer support system it can do wonders for the company.

Here are the most widely used and popular types of customer support in the ecommerce industry:

• Phone Support: Having a phone customer support system is one of the quickest and most efficient ways of connecting directly with the customer. Not only is it easier to defuse tricky situations, but it is also the fastest way to get feedback from the customer. Google offers tools like Google Voice which lets you set up a free number that routes calls to any number specified by you. A similar alternative is OpenPhone, which is specifically made for ecommerce businesses.
• Email Support: While the telephone is a popular method of customer support, email is more likely to be your primary method of providing support. It is advisable to set up domain emails for your website (example: [email protected]). Not only is this professional but this also establishes your brand as a legitimate entity in the mind of your customers. Help Scout is an excellent email support software as is Gorgias if you're using the Shopify ecommerce platform.
• Social Media Support: Customers turn to social media pages of brands sometimes even before contacting the brand itself. This is because social media is a public forum and more often than not customers will already find the answers to their questions there. A good customer support representative on social media will be sure to engage with the audience even if the feedback is negative. This can help establish good faith between a customer and the brand.
• Live Chat Support: Several brands are incorporating live chats on their websites as part of their customer service and support systems. This method is gaining popularity because it is as quick as a phone call, yet less intimidating then posting queries on a public forum. If you don't want to invest in this yet, you can just use social media such as Facebook Messenger, or the direct message services on platforms such as Instagram and Twitter. Live chat customer support may not be the best way to go if your business is still limited to one person and can be worth exploring when your business scales. Check out Gorgias as well to launch live chat on your Shopify store.

Growing Your Dropshipping Business

Once you have running a business down to a science it's only a matter of time until your company really starts to take off. Scaling your online store can be exciting, but there are a few things that you should keep in mind. The key point to remember is that scaling does not mean double the hours of work for more profits, but on the contrary, it implies being able to drive the sales number up even more with lesser time invested—through efficiency and allocating resources smartly.

While scaling the business does not necessarily mean to bring on more employees or contractors, it does seem like the most natural progression. It can be a challenging experience to trust others with your brand but once you do find the right people who match your own wavelength, it can be a rewarding step too.

Firstly, draw up a list of tasks that you can probably outsource and another that needs a more specific approach to them. This list will help you identify the tasks that are monotonous and do not necessarily require your direct input. You can redirect your resources to working out better business strategies, creating and strengthen your relationship with your suppliers and work towards making better marketing decisions.

Hire an Assistant

There are two ways you could go about this, depending on how location dependent you want or need to be. You could either hire someone you know and work together with every day at a small office/coworking space or maybe even from home. The alternative to that is to hire a VA, commonly known as a Virtual Assistant.

The most attractive quality of hiring a VA is that the person does not even need to be on the same continent to be able to successfully do the job—as long as they have access to a laptop, phone, and the internet, while speaking at least one of the languages that you conduct business in, you are good to go.

This means if you find that assistants/VAs in your vicinity are charging extortionist rates, you could outsource the work to someone else who is location independent, perhaps somewhere in Asia or Eastern Europe, who will do the same job at a much more reasonable price. A few responsibilities that can be given to the assistant, are:

• Social Media Marketing and Management
• Customer Support and Services
• Graphic Design and Content Writing/Copywriting
• 搜索引擎优化/搜索引擎优化
• Maintaining the Website
• Managing the Inventory Orders

Create a process flow and outline of each job to ensure that anyone you hire can understand how your particular system works for your dropshipping business.

You can list potential openings for VAs on several different remote job sites and on groups for digital nomads. There is almost always someone who knows someone who might be perfect for the job. Most remote working/digital nomad communities are very helpful and often collaborate with each other. Just make sure that the job description is well written so that the person applying can have a comprehensive understanding of what the job entails—use the process flow you created for this part.

Check out these resources to hire virtual assistants:

• 加班
• 五福
• 写手

There are several templates for job descriptions online but here is one that can be altered per your requirements:

“Hey there,

We're looking for a proactive virtual assistant to help run and manage [insert what you need help with here] at [insert your dropshipping business name here].

Your weekly tasks will include:

– [Task one]
– [Task two]
– [Task three]

You should have in-depth knowledge of [enter skills here], be comfortable using software/s such as [insert tools here] and be fluent in English (verbal and written) [+ any other languages if required].

In the first line of your application, please tell us what your favorite hobby is. If you don't respond to this request, we'll assume that you haven't read the job description and won't consider you.

Looking forward to hearing from you!”

Such templates can be used for job listing websites, forums, social media, and even for print.

In order to pick the right person as your VA, conduct a thorough interview over Skype and in person, if possible. Make sure that you have gone through their application and ensure that they have all the attributes required. Based on how much time you would have to train them, you can tell how well they would fit with your business. Shortlist at least 2-5 people so that you have some reliable backups if your original candidate doesn't cut it.

Training your chosen VA can be a two-way knowledge highway. Not only are you teaching them, but can also stand to learn from their previous experiences, inside and outside the industry.

Supply tools to them (such as this guide) and other video material that is easily available, and then discuss how they can implement what they've learned. This material can also double as a refresher course in case they forget certain aspects of the job. Give constructive feedback on their work and praise them when they do a good job! It's about creating lasting work relationships.

Scaling Through Multi-Channels

As your business grows, it would make sense that you would want to sell through multiple channels, namely Amazon, eBay, Shopify, etc. so that you can access a larger market. The problem with this is that you may list the same product from the same supplier on two different sites and get two different customer orders. It's well and fine if the product is in stock, however, it may be problematic if that isn't the case. Once backorders start piling up and shipments start getting delayed, customers often become unhappy.

This is in no way supposed to discourage anyone who wants to scale their online business through multiple channels, but rather serve as a reminder that it is important to strategically plan these things beforehand. A good way to handle this issue could be to get a virtual assistant as mentioned before and have an inventory management software at hand.

Building Your Own Online Dropshipping Store

While using other online marketplaces can only get you so far, the key to truly growing and scaling your business is to have your own online store. Having your own store ensures but you have the most control over your customer experience and brand positioning. This also means that you will incur lower fees but gain higher profits.

There are several online store builders, such as Shopify, that can help create your web store—it comes with various different templates to choose from and all you have to do is add your products. To learn more about Shopify and the features and services they offer ecommerce entrepreneurs, check out our Shopify Review.

Utilizing Your Email List to the Maximum

Building a good email list is all about having recipients who are highly targeted and constantly engaged. When you do have a strong email list it can end up being one of the single most important marketing assets that you own. Strong email lists are closely related to owning your own store (Shopify) instead of using a marketplace (Amazon, eBay, or Etsy). With an email list, you have direct access to your customers—you don't have to hope that they're online and scrolling down their newsfeeds to see your posts, you don't have to pay to get your emails into their inboxes, and you don't have to compete with other sellers in your emails. Emails are one of the most direct ways to engage with your audience.

Building an email list isn't too complicated. All you have to do is get your site visitors to give their email to you (try tools like Sumo or Privy that offer many different email capture strategies) and then send out email newsletters through a service such as Klaviyo or CM Commerce.

Marketing and Advertising

Merely increasing your marketing spend is not the best way to scale your dropshipping business. It's not how much money you spend but how you spend your money that matters.

Allocating resources to pay per click advertising is a smarter move for the dropshipping business model. You can buy PPC ads on almost every social media platform possible from Facebook to Instagram to Twitter and Pinterest.

While PPC ads might seem straightforward, it can be tricky to know where to invest your money. You don't want to be investing in the wrong kind of ads only to realize that they aren't bringing in the traffic that you need or want. Like with everything else: Do your research, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising online.

Example of a Successful Drop Shipping Business

As mentioned earlier in this guide, Irwin Dominguez, an accountant turned ecommerce entrepreneur, has been one of the greatest success stories for dropshipping in recent times. Within just 8 months of establishing his drop shipping business, Irwin was already earning over 1 million US dollars in sales. Reaching a sales record of up to $30,000, he says, was his goal, and he wasn't aiming to live luxuriously, just to be able to provide for his family.

Here is an excerpt from his interview with Oberlo:

When asked about how he got started and what his top recommendations are for anybody who is interested in drop shipping, he said:

“I literally just opened a Shopify account, created my store, added a few drop shipped products with Oberlo, and that's it. I didn't do a lot of reading or researching because I always try to learn by doing. Dropshipping ecommerce success requires very little capital and allows you to experiment a lot. This is what I love about it the most.

I do have to admit, though, that I Google a lot of questions that come up as I'm learning by doing….
…If I started ecommerce all over again, I would start sooner. I waited a full month-and-a-half after my good friend told me about his ecommerce success. It costs no money to launch a store and it's so “simple” to get started with all the technology available right now — just get started, you literally have nothing to lose.

Opportunity, yes — I wish I started this sooner because if I were doing this even just one year earlier, there would've been a lot less competition; I would've made a lot more money; and I could have established myself in other niches. But overall, there are still plenty of opportunities — you just have to be a little more creative with marketing.”

Additional Drop Shipping Resources

How To Start A Drop Ship Business Video

结论

So this concludes our definitive guide to dropshipping. If you have made it here, you now know how to set up and kick start your own dropshipping business. Just like with any other endeavor in life, setting up your own business also requires a certain degree of commitment, effort, and passion to make it work. It's not just about creating the business but also following through and learning how to run it on a day-to-day basis.

The best part about dropshipping is that you can learn through testing your products and ideas, in real-time and if something doesn't work all you have to do is remove it from your store. This business model is also a great way of testing out product ideas for traditional business models. Dropshipping provides a safe space to experiment and see what works without incurring any major losses which can definitely give business owners the confidence to say that they have a working knowledge of how the industry functions. No upfront cost and very little risk make the dropshipping business model an exciting business model to venture into.

So experiment with dropshipping your way and let us know how it works out! Share this guide with someone who would find it useful. Do you have any tips and tricks or general advice that could help the ecommerce community? Let us know in the comments down below!