Dropshipping for Beginners: Q&A Series #3

Our readers greatly enjoy this format of our blog articles, and so do we! This is why it’s time for another Q&A session. This one is all about dropshipping for beginners who are absolute newcomers to ecommerce with no previous IT experience at all.

We’re really happy that our solutions are motivating and encouraging even for people who have no idea how it all works. This is why we will do our best to help you out!

1. What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a simple-to-follow online business model. Here’s how it works:

1. You find a supplier who sells items online and can arrange shipping: you can find them on AliExpress or Sellvia, depending on the country you want to target
2. To sell these items conveniently, you create or buy an online store
3. You fill your store with images and descriptions of products available from this seller, and set higher prices on them
4. When someone visits your store and places an order, you buy this item from the supplier, but ask him to deliver the product on your client’s address
5. You get the profit from EVERY purchase – your profit is the difference between the seller’s price and your own price

As you can see, it’s not difficult at all. This business model has tons of benefits as you:

• Don’t need to have anything ‘physical’ – products, office, warehouse, etc. All the deals happen in virtual sphere
• Have no need to buy items in advance, and therefore, experience no risk of not selling them
• Don’t need to rent an actual office and warehouse, or hire people to manage these facilities
• Can start the business with the minimal financial investments, only spending money on the store development
• Have an opportunity to run the business from any point of the globe as all you need is PC or laptop, and a stable Internet connection
• Can increase the sellers’ prices any way you like, and have no one who would limit your profit
• Are your own boss – the business fully belongs to you

2. How does the buying and selling process work?

So, you have a ready store with product images and descriptions.

A store visitor likes some of your offers, and places an order.

You accept the payment and ask for the client’s name and address.

As soon as you receive the money from the buyer, you transmit the same order to the original seller. AliDropship plugin does this automatically, so you won’t get confused with all the orders, sellers, items, countries, addresses, etc.

The seller gets money and customer details from you, makes the package, dispatches it to your buyer, and gives you the tracking code.

You, in turn, send this tracking code to the client, and keep an eye on this order to see how everything’s going.

Nothing extraordinary, in fact!

3. Can I do dropshipping without the AliDropship plugin?

Well, yes.

The reason why people all over the globe use this plugin for WordPress-based online stores is that the plugin does the biggest part of the job automatically. Still, the plugin is quite young, even though this business model exists for a long time already. So, several years ago people were just doing dropshipping without any technical help.

We were doing the same – as you know, we have a huge experience of running our own dropshipping stores.

And this is exactly the reason why we created the plugin!

You see, as your business grows bigger, you find it more and more difficult to manage all the processes. To save your time and nerves, and to deal with the most common dropshipping challenges, it is better to go for automatic solutions.

4. What is WordPress?

Speaking in VERY simple terms, it’s a piece of web publishing software.

It’s the most popular solution globally used for building websites and blogs – around 28% of ALL the existing websites are created and managed with the help of WordPress.

You download it from the official provider, install it on your site – and here it is! Now you can easily and conveniently manage your website.

It truly does a lot to simplify dropshipping for beginners and experienced entrepreneurs alike. WordPress is free, user-friendly, and super flexible. There exist thousands of plugins, extensions, and themes compatible with it. You can download (or buy) any of them to boost the functionality of your website and make it totally unique.

5. What is hosting?

Again, let’s talk in VERY simple terms.

Hosting is a service provided by experienced companies (you can try doing it yourself, but it will be really challenging to manage).

What do these providers do?

Basically, by giving you hosting, they help you upload all your website information to the Internet.

As soon as you get hosting, everything that you’ve added to your website (texts, pictures, videos, etc.) becomes accessible to Internet users. Therefore, people can find your website, browse it, and view it.

6. How can I make profit using AliDropship plugin?

Oh, that’s an essential part of explaining dropshipping for beginners! 😊

The plugin does the biggest part of your technical job.

This way, it gives you enough free time to experiment with marketing strategies and boost your store sales.

The more time and effort you devote to marketing, the more impressive is the result!

7. Does the AliDropship plugin have a trial period?

There’s no demo or trial period, but we provide 30 days money back guarantee on the plugin.

8. Can I use your standard free theme without AliDropship plugin?

No, the themes will only work if you have installed the plugin.

9. Do I need to register my business?

Neither Sellvia nor AliExpress suppliers will ask you for any official registration, which certainly is a blessing for dropshipping beginners. In fact, they will work with you even if you’re just an ordinary customer who buys their items for personal use.

Still, every country has its own legal rules. Check the relevant laws carefully!

10. Do I need to sign up dropshipping agreement to start business with you?

No, you don’t need to sign any papers.

11. What do I need to keep in mind when starting a dropshipping business? 

Even though dropshipping itself is a simple business model, it can certainly have its pitfalls that beginner entrepreneurs can stumble upon. Here’s a small list of things you need to be aware of when starting a dropshipping business.

Select the products that sell

This is probably one of the most common mistakes beginners make. Many dropshippers truly believe that product selection does not matter. When it’s actually quite the opposite. What they do is fill up their store with an array of products that they are unable to sell.

When selecting the product for your store you need to consider the following:

• The product is something that people actually want and need
• There is already some hype about the product (it has an interested audience)

Choose the niche wisely

Staying on the topic, you must choose not only a product that sells but also the right niche. What we mean by this is that you ideally want to choose the products that you’re somewhat familiar with, that also have a steady stream of sales, with a relatively low level of competition, and have a good profit margin.

To avoid this, we recommend you complete thorough market research of a niche you’re interested in. This way, you will have an understanding of what opportunities lie in front of you and the potential pitfalls a niche might have.

Don’t aim for lower product prices to get sales

Another common mistake beginner entrepreneurs tend to make is lower the price of the products to beat the competition. The result of these actions leads to getting no profit at all.

Make sure to devote some time to establishing a proper pricing strategy that will bring you not only sales but a huge profit.

Consider all parameters calculating your profit

During the process of profit calculation, you can’t simply consider one or two factors – there are several factors you’ll need to account for. Here are some of the factors beginner dropshipping entrepreneurs skip:

• Shipping costs (if there are any)
• Ad costs
• Transaction fees
• Refunds
• Discounts

Make sure your website looks and works perfectly

Your website is up there with the most important factors of establishing a successful ecommerce business. It is the place where your customers will decide whether to purchase from you or not. For this reason, it is important to have a professionally designed, functional, and user-friendly website. And don’t forget that it has to work smoothly on mobile devices as well.

In short, don’t skimp on your website. Get a professional-looking website and it will pay off in the long run.

12. How can I maximize my chances of success?

So, if you’re ready to take on the incredible world of dropshipping, there are just a few things to look out for to fully maximize your chances of building a successful online business.

Most people who manage a dropshipping store find the most success when they find a specific niche and focus solely on it by ensuring that every product they sell is the perfect fit for their niche audience and brand.

Once you’ve found several potential dropshipping suppliers, try completing a test order. This way you’ll be able to see how the supplier operates for yourself. How long does it take for the order to arrive? What does the packaging look like? What is the quality of the product?

Develop a marketing plan by investing the time into every little detail, from discovering your target audience to cooperating with potential influencers in your specific niche. Also, targeted ads can be an excellent way to kick off your website and place it before your potential customers to see.

Finally, define your return policy, shipping communication, and customer service. When things go wrong, you want to be prepared to act quickly and regulate any issues that may occur between your customers and dropshipping suppliers.

13. Is dropshipping still profitable in 2022?

The short answer — yes, it is still profitable. 

As you can see from this Google Trends image, in the last 5 years dropshipping has seen a significant increase in interest.

We live in a time where everything is going digital and ecommerce is becoming more and more popular. With that – more people are buying online than ever before. So, even in 2022, dropshipping is still going strong and is showing no signs of slowing down.

So, as you can see, there is nothing scary about dropshipping. You can easily handle it even if you have no previous experience at all, and if you use the right automated solutions, you will enjoy some truly awesome results.

We will be happy to see you joining our dropshipping community!