Secret Selling Techniques: 15 Dropshipping Dos And Don’ts

Hi! My name is Diana, and it’s my job to help dropshipping business owners promote their stores – so exciting! So, I see really lots of dropshipping stores on a daily basis, notice some things that would make them more money-making, and you know what? I can’t keep it all to myself anymore! I’m ready to share our little secrets: selling techniques that will help you get the most out of your business, make fewer mistakes, and get tangible results faster (money, yay!).

Below, you’ll find 15 dropshipping dos and don’ts. If you recognize any don’ts as the actions you once took, don’t get mad or sad! You didn’t have such an article to learn from before, you know. 🙂 So, get ready to remedy the situation and follow these selling techniques to run your business more effectively.

#1 Don’t rely on email marketing or SEO only – run ads!

You won’t even believe how many dropshipping beginners get surprised when they find out that having a store is not enough to make sales. There’s nothing surprising about it: this is a truly comfortable thing to believe in that takes no effort.

But, in real life, things are not that airy and magical.

To make sales, you need to get people to your site. Almost force them to come! How? Target your prospective customers on Facebook and Instagram, offer them a cool deal and they won’t be able to resist!

Sorry if this advice seemed obvious. But I’ve seen so many business owners who underestimated the power of ads so I kinda feel obliged to remind you: RUN ADS. Please!

#2 Don’t abandon the social media pages of your store. Publish posts regularly

When I come across an ad, sometimes I go straight to the site, and sometimes – I visit the page of this store on Facebook/Instagram.

Why do I do that? Because usually online shops have nice, visually pleasing accounts where I can see the whole product range at once, prices, and even reviews of customers without leaving the app. So, store pages on social media are kinda prototypes of the store itself, just on different social media platforms.

I strongly believe that your prospective customers are no different from me. So make sure your store’s pages on FB and Instagram look great and present your brand and products properly – they are good assistants on your way to sales.

An empty account is a no go. Publish some posts telling about your products & their benefits and some entertaining posts. Yes, don’t forget about the latter! Having the “selling” posts only can make an impression that you push people to buy. While they need some kind of a relaxing vibe, be in a good mood and trust you to buy from you. So some nice entertaining posts will make them more loyal and ready for purchases.

#3 Create educational content

In addition to entertaining and purely promotional content, you can also create educational articles, videos, and blog posts. Some niches are especially good for these sales and marketing techniques.

For example, if you dropship apparel, there’s plenty to tell your customers about fashion. If you are going to sell pet supplies, educate potential buyers on how to take proper care of different animals.

On the one hand, this tactic will teach your customers how to use your products and stimulate them to make purchases. On the other hand, it’s also a good way to establish trusting relationships with buyers by showing them your professional expertise and caring attitude.

#4 Don’t let your prospective customers slip away. Do some chasing!

“I run an ad, nobody bought from me, I’m giving up”. Come on! You got into ecommerce to win, not to lose! Moreover, there are so many selling techniques leading to victory – you just need to find out what tools work for you.

There are really many ways to chase people who have all the chances to buy from you!

1) Reach out to those who visited your store but didn’t buy – run remarketing campaigns. How? Read here.

2) Send those people some promotional emails. But how to get their email addresses? Set up a pop-up on your site offering a discount that works for only 24 hours. What’s so good about a discount you say? Well, it’s a great way to inspire people to buy from you – they have to pay less (admit, you like doing it too) and they have to do it fast. Cool scheme. 😉

3) Find your prospective customers using detailed targeting Facebook offers. And try different combinations of interests and locations. Do some research, and find out what offline shops your customers may visit, what they read, where they live, what they’re interested in and use all that info to reach them with ads.

There are many more selling techniques allowing you to attract people to your store – e.g. ads on different social media, targeting competitors’ subscribers, etc. You can learn some from our special blog section.

#5 Don’t keep the same product range forever. Be in constant search

Let’s look at the usual clothing stores you buy stuff from. Do they sell the same things all the time? No. Trends, seasons, even different situations in the world have an impact on stores’ product range. So, your dropshipping store has to conform to all that too! Moreover, trendy items sell better than basic ones.

What to do? Do constant research, upload different items that you see as very promising ones, be swift when it comes to trends or new customers’ needs (for example, people prefer buying eco-friendly and sustainable stuff these days).

To move is to live!

#6 Don’t neglect video format. Create video content

Speaking about trends: nowadays, people are more prone to consume video format rather than usual images.

According to Statista, 54% of users expect video content from a brand or a business. 85% of Internet users in the US watch videos online from their devices. So, if video marketing is the future, then the future is here!

Let’s check if you are reading this article thoroughly: what do we do with trends? Right, we accept them and get the most out of them! So try adding more video content to your store and ads.

However, these were just general words that you can read all over the Internet. So where exactly you can use videos when it comes to your dropshipping store?

• On your product pages: publish the video reviews of your products on YouTube and embed them into product descriptions. People really view those before buying, so we’d recommend to not only show the product, but to show it in use and to mention its benefits;
• In your video ads;
• On the homepage of your store (if your theme is designed with a place for it);
• In your social media accounts.

#7 Don’t look at your store from a store owner’s perspective only. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes

It’s a common situation when you try to sell a product, have lots of traffic, but nobody buys. One of the reasons can be a too high price. So put yourself in your customers’ shoes and make sure that your product is what they can afford.

Imagine you’re a usual customer and you want to buy some new mugs in your kitchen-themed store. Will it be easy to find this product in the menu? Is it convenient to navigate through your store?

All in all, try to take an unbiased look at your store and make sure it’s the place where people will be eager to buy.

Some more questions you might ask yourself:

• Are my store theme colors pleasant to look at?
• Is the product assortment wide and well-organized?
• Do the product pages look appealing? Do they tell enough about the product’s benefits?
• Are there any customer reviews? Are they positive?
• Is there all the necessary contact info, info about shipping?

Be unbiased about ads as well. Facebook always lets you preview the ad – so take a proper look and decide if you’d click on this ad. If yes, run the ad. If not, improve it or ask for help from specialists.

#8 Understand your customers and competitors

Let me develop this theme further.

A product or service is consumed only because it solves someone’s problem. It doesn’t have to be a big problem like a disaster or something. For example, when a person purchases a movie ticket, he/she solves an issue – boredom or drive for an interesting story. Simply put, we buy something because we need it to satisfy a want.

And your job as an entrepreneur is to understand what it is that people need to solve, to understand their pain points!

It’s not just about understanding your target audience and their demographics. You may know very well their age, gender, education or income level, place of residence, language, and hobbies. But what do they really want?

What kind of little challenges do they face every day when they commute to work or drive back home? I’m talking about deeper understanding of your potential buyers. This is the only way to understand how to make their lives easier. This, in turn, lets you understand what products they want and how to reach them, which will lead you to much more effective selling techniques.

But that’s not all! Pay attention to other businesses working in the same niche. What products do they offer? What customers do they target? How do they advertise the goods and what selling strategies do they use?

This way, you can not only copy some of their most successful selling techniques and practices but also come up with new ideas that will make your offer different from theirs.

#9 Sell benefits instead of features

This is one of the most important selling tips to master!

When we think about an object, we usually think about its features – its size, color, computing power, maximum speed, capacity, etc. This way of thinking is natural but will hardly help you achieve effective sales skills.

When you advertise a product, instead of talking about its features, focus on the benefits of using it.

Here’s an example. Let’s suppose I’m advertising a thermos. I could tell my customers about how many layers its insulating wall has, what material it’s made of, or how much beverage it can hold. But these are just features.

Instead, I can say that the thermos can hold the amount of coffee that will last till at least 10 a.m. and it’ll still be hot. You can pour your beverage in it, drive to work, turn on the computer, wash your hand, talk to colleagues, have a smoke, and your coffee will still be hot as hell!

These are the benefits of purchasing the thermos. I’m telling the customer exactly how his/her life will become easier or more comfortable with this product. That’s why it’s one of the most effective techniques to sell a product.

#10 Don’t let your customers know that you dropship. Present your own brand

Yes, the majority of dropshipping entrepreneurs do know this “rule” but I’ve seen some cases when store owners call their store Super Dropship Store or even leave AliExpress sellers’ logos unedited in their product pictures. Once again, I do not laugh at those entrepreneurs and I always do my best to point out things they can improve. But I’ve seen what I’ve seen, and I really want you to avoid making the same mistakes while you’re figuring out the best selling techniques.

Why telling people that you dropship is bad after all? Well, this way you reveal that you’re a reseller, and people hate to pay more. So present the products that you sell as of your own brand if possible and properly edit product pages to eliminate all signs of AliExpress.

#11 Don’t avoid automation. Use smart solutions to save enough time to experiment with multiple selling techniques

Your money and nerves will definitely benefit from it, too. 🙂

Want to motivate your site visitors to buy from you by giving them a discount coupon? Don’t send it out manually – again, use a pop-up on your site that sends out the coupon to every subscriber automatically. Or compile a mailing list and send out the coupon to your clients in one click. Mailchimp is the platform that we can recommend for that. If you need a hand, we’ll be glad to help you out with the pop-up or email marketing.

Prepared some posts for social media pages of your store? Skip placing those manually, just put them into Social Rabbit’s Planner and let the plugin do the work. Social Rabbit has so many cool automation features! Check them all here.

Want to sparkle more sales by offering a gift for purchases over $XX? Dump adding that gift to every order by hand and use the Gift Box add-on which will automatically put the gift to the cart.

We can go on and on with the list of useful add-ons and their features that can save your time but we really have more stuff to tell in this article, so…

Check out the whole list of handy add-ons here and use them to get more money in less time (you’ll be surprised what wonders Facebook Business add-on can do).

All in all, why incorporate automated solutions in your selling techniques? Well, because the less time you spend on some boring work that machines can do for you, the more time you have to come up with promotional ideas, run and test more ads, find some cool new products and invest your effort into your business.

Plus, you can have more time to spend with your dearest and nearest or just to do what you love.

P.S. Don’t forget about automation features Facebook offers to advertisers – e.g. automatic placements, CBO, automated responses and others.

#12 Don’t skip seasonal sales. Seize the opportunity

When it comes to holidays and sales in their honor, people are ready to spend money online as never. So don’t miss the opportunity to get that money and sell the hell out of your store! All you need to do is just not miss certain dates.

You see, sale offers look much more attractive when offered on some holidays. People often need to buy tons of gifts at that time, they suppose you offer the best, sale price and, you know, are all merry and under some sale fever.

What to do? Make plans according to the ecommerce marketing calendar, and always start preparing your store and promotional campaigns in advance to make it on time. Remember that you should take into account not only the holidays of your own country, but the holidays of your target countries. Did you know that people give gifts on Ramadan?

#13 Don’t ignore complaints

Before we invented the Internet, it wasn’t so easy to understand why a product wouldn’t sell well. But today it’s a matter of minutes to send an email to a company. Social media made it even easier to complain about something.

Although it’s difficult to take criticism, think about it as an opportunity to improve the customer experience and your offer. Being able to hear complaints almost in real time is a huge advantage. And it would be a big mistake to ignore them.

#14 Always have cross-sell products to offer

As I mentioned earlier, running ads is one of the most effective selling techniques. But paid advertising can be really expensive while its selling effectiveness isn’t always as great as you expect. A lot depends on your experience, understanding your target audience, the benefits of your products, etc. Besides, you can’t advertise each and every product in your inventory.

As a result, one has to focus on one or two best-selling products. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to sell other items.

When a buyer visits your store and puts something in the shopping cart, make sure to offer him/her related products. First of all, it’ll raise the profit you get from this particular buyer as he/she purchases more items. Second, with this selling technique, you are able to sell these goods with no additional expenses on advertising. You get a more generous client for the same money!

AliDropship’s Upsell and Purchase Upsell add-ons will help you with this task by letting you offer additional products during the purchase process and after the client completes the purchase.

#15 Don’t say “I don’t know” and “I can’t”. Be ready to learn

It’s motivation time!

All the successes of ecommerce entrepreneurs and huge numbers on their bank accounts are not pure luck – it’s the result of the hard work. So do you really think everybody knew how to run ads when they got their first online store? I sincerely doubt it. Did they know where to start? Don’t think so. But they believed in themselves, were always open to new knowledge and new experience and were not afraid to leave their comfort zone. And so can you!

So, what to do when you’re afraid to do something (start advertising, try new ad objectives, strategy, products, etc)? Do this exact thing.

Don’t know how to do that? Read our blog, watch our video course about advertising or YouTube channel, or at least consult the Internet. Yes, the latter is really full of sh*t on some level, but still, it is a huge resource of educational materials that will answer your questions and will help you move forward to get profit at your dropshipping store. 🙂

That’s it about selling techniques. Hope you liked the article! And you know what? I believe in you, and I’m sure you and your dropshipping store will be so successful! All you need to do now is to act, learn and put some effort which will definitely pay off. Happy dropshipping, everyone!