E-commerce is not just about selling a product to a customer. It’s also about providing assistance to your customers in their purchasing decisions and resolving any issues and concerns.
Since e-commerce is not a face-to-face interaction between a customer, you need to develop a system that provides them with a seamless shopping experience. Customer service directly impacts brand loyalty. If you are not paying attention and properly engaging with your customers, you can lose potential sales and build a bad reputation.
Here are some effective ways to ensure superior customer service.
1. Get Organized
If you are just handling your online business alone, chances are you’ll get bombarded with a lot of tasks and inquiries. Organize the buyer’s journey and the processing of orders.
If you have a dedicated team, equip them with tools that will help them handle customer service efficiently. Communication and collaboration are important to solve customers’ requests and purchases.
2. Offer Live Chat Support
A typical website has a contact form but that can be boring. Instead, offer a more interactive option which is a live chat or a toll-free number to call. Live chat gives you a ton of advantages from proactive selling, answering inquiries, up to post-sales support. Create pre-written transcripts to handle common questions and timely responses.
3. Utilize FAQs
It can be tiring and time-consuming to answer the same question again and again. This is why it’s recommended to have an FAQ section on your e-commerce website. Put the frequently asked questions and the corresponding replies in them.
Through this, your customers can just hover to your webpage and get the information they need. This keeps them informed about your products and policies; helping them find quick answers and stay on your website longer.
4. Offer Phone Support
Offering messaging options to your customers enhances a shopping experience. While some can leave a message on the contact form, others prefer text messaging especially when they are shopping through their mobile phones.
You can send them a response to their order confirmation or requests via SMS. This makes customer service fast and convenient. You can easily connect with them about the product details they need, answer urgent questions, solve complaints, and increase shopping cart conversion.
5. Social Media Messaging
Social media enables your customers to get in touch with you without going to your website. Integrate social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter into your online store. Establish a strong social media presence and use these platforms to boost brand awareness and enhance customer support.
Social media can highlight your brand and reach a broader audience. It’s a great channel to start conversations and share customer reviews.
Final Thoughts
Customer service is a vital part of your e-commerce business. In the competitive e-commerce landscape, managing customers’ feedback and expectation is a deciding factor for success. Invest in tools and systems to improve your customers’ shopping experience. This will help your business retain and acquire more customers, and build long-term loyalty.
With growing competition in the e-commerce space, businesses need to focus on building customer loyalty. The cost of retaining a customer is lower than customer acquisition. This means that remarketing to your current and existing customers costs lower advertising spend than creating new Ads for potential customers.
Are your customers coming back to your store or are they just happy with their one-time purchase?
What is Customer Loyalty?
Customer loyalty means that your customers are willing to engage with your business and repeatedly purchase your products. These returning customers do not easily switch to your competitors and choose your business’ offerings based on certain positive factors.
How do you make your customers not switch from site to site and stick to your store?
By knowing how to create long-lasting relationships and implementing the right client retention approach, you can create lifetime value and generate more sales from your current customers.
1. Improve your customer experience
The way you treat your customers has a huge impact on your business. Customers who are treated poorly will likely leave your store and jump to your competitors. Customer service matters. Your business should invest in customer service to enhance customers’ experiences online.
Show patience, clear communication, and empathy to your customers. Pay attention to their inquiries and guide them through the buying journey. The last thing you want is to give them a bad experience. The negative encounter can be easily spread to a wider audience and can ruin your business reputation.
2. Offer multiple channels for communication
Customers have different preferences regarding communication channels. You need to adapt methods to reach your customers better. The easier for your customers to communicate with you, the better brand experience they’ll get.
The popular communication channels that e-commerce stores should utilise are email, social media, and phone. Customers who don’t spend much time on social media can be reached through email inboxes while social media users can be reached on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
Messaging apps like Webchat offer chatbot feature to provide helpful resources to help answer customers’ frequently asked questions. A phone call option is also a good way to reach customers directly whenever they feel stuck with automated prompts.
3. Give exclusive perks and offers
To encourage repeat purchases, you need to make your customers excited about your brand. Offer customers with discount codes, free shipping vouchers, and other exciting perks. This encourages target customers to consider shopping in your store because of the value you provide.
However, don’t offer discounts often as this can hurt your branding. You want your customers to constantly check your products and get excited with your latest offerings.
4. Develop a customer loyalty program
One of the best ways to encourage your new customers to make their next purchase is to reward them with incentives. You can kickstart a customer loyalty program and offer interesting perks and irresistible gifts to your customers.
Many brands implement a point-system customer loyalty program where a customer earns points for every purchase they make. Then, they can use the accumulated points as credit for their next purchase or get an exclusive item as a reward when the target points are met.
5. Add more Payment Options
One reason why customer abandons their carts is due to your store not offering quick payment options. Add multiple payment methods to your Shopify store to accommodate customers’ different payment preferences. Allowing customers to conveniently purchase your products electronically will make them happy.
Putting limited and complicated payment options can be annoying to the customers as they have to sign up to a new payment platform and enter into a tiring process.
Wrapping Up
According to e-commerce studies, a repeat customer is 9 times more likely to convert than a first-time customer. This is why businesses should exert effort in customer retention. A 5-10% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25-30%. With a proper remarketing strategy and customer loyalty program, you can double and triple your sales and become a successful online entrepreneur.
“I want to start dropshipping but I have no idea how many products I need to put in my store”. That is the common question that people are asking. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur who wants to build a dropshipping store, you probably asked the same question.
Dropshipping is a business model which does not require you to have huge initial capital. This retail fulfillment method uses third-party suppliers to ship the products directly to your customers, without the need for you to stock inventory.
Start with 5-20 Items.
Even though you don’t need to spend much on operating costs, it is better to start slowly. Avoid being an aggressive seller who wants to sell every trending product. You can start with 5-20 items and focus on having a niche store. Selling too many items without a “focus niche” is a bad idea because you will have a broad audience. In dropshipping, it is vital to have a targeted audience.
Indeed, you don’t need any prior experience to start a dropshipping business but it is highly important to learn the basics. What products are you interested in selling? Who is your target audience? Are you passionate and knowledgeable about these products or are you selling them just because they are trendy?
Dropshipping is Easy to Setup and Scalable.
The statement above is true but without a proper marketing strategy, you won’t get any success. Start with a few items and test your products. Pick a niche that you can confidently sell.
For example, if you love cooking, you can sell kitchen items and accessories. If you love technology, you can sell gadgets like earphones, electronic items, and other tools. If you are a fitness guy, try dropshipping yoga and gym equipment or health products.
Of course, you can sell other items but selling products that you are knowledgeable of gives you an advantage.
Start little, then expand.
The problem with selling too many products at the start is you won’t know what to focus on. You will have to deal with multiple suppliers and go crazy with marketing your products.
Instead of bombarding yourself with many product categories, focus on your target niche. Don’t worry about other potential products to sell. You can always add them. The most important thing after setting up your store is to build credibility and customer reviews.
Once you got a few sales and good reviews, then you can start adding new products. When adding products, try to make them relevant or complementary to your existing products as much as possible. For example, if you have good sales on lipsticks and cosmetics, you can add fashion jewelry, bags, hairdryers, and other beauty products.
Now, if you want to add yoga mats, leggings, and fitness items, put that under a new product category. 2-3 product categories are good. Adding a ton of product niches will make your store a general niche store which can negatively affect your marketing strategy, advertising budget, and business operation.
Wrapping Up
In every business venture, it is a must to test the waters first. You don’t want to jump in there, build a store, and put a lot of products without an idea of what the market is. If you want to be successful in dropshipping, learn from the experts, study your competitors, do a ton of research, and start slow. Try selling a few products and grow from there.
Now that you know how many items you need to start your dropshipping store, it is time for you to learn about dropshipping mistakes and advertising tips. These are important so you know what pitfalls to avoid and absorb marketing tactics to increase sales.
Email marketing is one of the most underrated online marketing methods. In e-commerce businesses, it is not sustainable enough to just rely on your website and social media.
Unlike social media in which you are presenting your message to a broad audience, email marketing offers you one-on-one communication with your audience. Email messaging, when done right, will help you retain existing customers, and generate new ones.
Important Tip:
Before crafting your email marketing campaign, you need to have a thorough understanding of what a sales funnel is. A sales funnel is your lead magnet where you capture customer info to build your email list.
It can be in a form of sign-ups, free gifts, discounts, contact form submission, abandoned carts, purchases, and more.
TYPES OF EMAILS
Welcome Emails
Keeping your online visitors engaged with your brand is vital for e-commerce success. Welcome emails provide the first impression that you care for your customers.
Once someone signs up or agrees to be part of your mailing list or newsletter, you should send out a welcome email thanking them for taking action. Make your first email memorable.
Instead of bombarding them about your products and services, try to keep the message more personalized. Focus on giving value so that the recipients will not lose interest. Offer a freebie, discount code, or some extra incentive whenever possible.
Abandoned Cart Emails
Every abandoned cart is a potential loss in sales. If you don’t have an email strategy for it, you cannot expect to recover sales from your potential shoppers.
Shoot them an email within the first hour of cart abandonment. Set up a campaign trigger that re-engages your shoppers who do not complete the checkout. Time is the essence here. The slower you send the email, the lesser chance for lead recovery.
You can offer free shipping, discount codes, or any promotional offer in the email. Depending on the number of clicks and results, you can determine the reason for cart abandonment. This data will help you strategize better and create offers more aligned to your customer’s purchasing behavior.
Post-Purchase Emails
Marketing does not stop after a customer makes a purchase. The goal is to make them repeat buyers. With this, you craft a post-purchase email thanking them for the products they bought.
Saying “thank you for your purchase” can increase your customer’s trust. By nurturing your new customers, you are giving them lifetime value. Acquiring new customers is less expensive than retaining existing customers. Never forget to thank your customers for every made purchase.
Engagement Emails
Engagement emails are important to keep in touch with your customers. The idea is to make customers love your brand without being too pushy.
You can also send email updates about your new product offerings or a link to a blog post. This will help build traffic to your website and re-engage your customers with your content and products.
Promotional Emails
This is a type of email where you grab the customer’s attention by announcing new products, events, or special sales. According to statistics, sending “price decrease” leads to a higher click-to-conversion rate when doing promotional emails.
Send out emails for new products, sales, discounts, and holiday promotions. Spread the word to all your customers and let them know about your promotions and offers.
Product descriptions. What are they? Product descriptions are one of the most important elements of a product page. However, most online store owners do not put the effort into writing product descriptions. We get it. It’s time-consuming and tiring to write product descriptions particularly if you have thousands of products.
This is why the majority of store owners skipped this part. What are they doing is just copying the description provided by the supplier. If you aim for higher conversions and sales, you should not copy and paste from your supplier or Aliexpress. A lot of dropshippers do that, expecting they will get rich the next day. The result? Low traffic and little to no sales.
Things to Consider when Writing a Product Description
1. Define your Target Buyers
Your buyer persona dictates your writing tone. What is your niche and who are your ideal buyers? If you are selling to professional people, it is better to have an authoritative writing voice. If your audience is teens and average people, you can consider writing informal and adding a bit of humor to spark interest and attention.
2. Be Informative
Don’t make potential buyers crave more info. Consumers need to know important information about the product they want to purchase. If you are not providing that, you are leaving them with tons of unanswered questions in mind.
Include all the specifications and features of the product you are selling. There is nothing wrong with writing a detailed product description. What are the dimensions and measurements of the products? What problems does it fix? What are the benefits that it provides to the buyers? Make sure you outline this information in your product description.
3. Make it Easy to Read
Choose a writing format that is scannable. Divide paragraphs into small chunks for easier readability. Instead of writing long paragraphs, you can use bullet points when explaining product features and benefits. Make proper use of sentence breaks and spacing.
When possible, keep your product description format consistent. Avoid long sentences and always check grammar and spelling. Run some advertisement tests and see how your product description performs. You can always tweak and change it based on the conversion rates.
4. Remember SEO
Take note that when writing product descriptions, you are writing both for the customers and search engines. Optimize your product page and include target keywords that your customers are searching for.
This will help your products increase online visibility and appear high on search results pages. By understanding Google’s algorithm and optimizing both content and product images, there’s a huge potential that you will get high traffic to your dropshipping store.
5. Use Social Proof
If you have social proof or a product review to share, be proud to include it on your product page. 89% of consumers worldwide are reading product reviews before making a product purchase. By sharing social proof, you are building more trust and credibility with your store visitors. This also leads to an increase in sales and customer base. With thousands of competitors today, having customer reviews on your product page can make you stand out against the competition.
If you are running an online store, a website will keep it open 24/7. An e-commerce store without a website is like a brick-and-mortar store without signage and billboard. Your customers will not know that your business exists.
A business website is vital for your online success. Thus, you must put effort and proper planning to use its advantage to the maximum. If you already have a website for your e-commerce store, track your traffic and conversion rates.
If you think your website is not performing well, then you should check if you have done website design mistakes. A poorly-built website that does not provide you enough sales might consider a revamp.
Here are the web design mistakes you should avoid:
1. Lack of responsive design
A responsive website means that it is adaptable to multiple devices. If your website is designed for desktops only, you are missing a lot of potential customers. Did you know that internet search queries are dominated by mobile phones?
Ensure that your website’s user experience is consistent across mobile phones, tablets, and other devices. 60% of online shoppers use their smartphones when looking for a product. If your website is not responsive, you are not expanding your audience reach.
2. Poor Design Elements
The first impression lasts. If you want to capture the attention of your visitors, you need to create a recognizable brand image. Choose a clean and professional-looking theme and be consistent with the look and style.
Avoid using too many colors and choose fonts that are easy to read. Playing with complicated and mismatched designs will confuse your web visitors and give them reasons to not come back.
3. Complicated Navigation
Navigation means giving convenience to your visitors when surfing your website. If a customer lands on your website and has a hard time finding your product pages, clicking several buttons, and going to the wrong places, it will build a bad user experience.
As much as possible, reduce your user’s scrolling and clicks just to find your product and read information. Do you have product categories and advanced search options? Not anticipating your visitor’s expectations can divert them from shopping and purchasing.
4. Boring Images
Images speak a lot about your product. If you are using low-quality and boring images, your customer will feel that your product is not worth giving attention to.
Bear in mind that when shopping online, your customers cannot physically touch the product. They rely on pictures and videos. It may seem okay to use the product images provided by the manufacturer but if you can photograph the products and optimize them yourself, that could be better.
Bad images allow your customers to think twice, making them leave your website – a loss on your potential sale.
5. Not Enough Customer Support
In this digital world, people demand an immediate response. We do not want to wait for hours just to get information or assistance about a product. It is not enough to post your email address on the website and have customers email you if they have a question or problem.
An FAQ section answering the most common questions is helpful. You can also integrate a chatbot to handle specific queries or even have a live chat to support your customers in their purchasing journey. Customer convenience is critical. Providing them with the help and assistance they need improve the credibility of your business.
6. Inefficient Shopping Cart Design
One of the primary reasons why online shoppers abandoned their carts is becuase of the complicated checkout process. The shopping cart design should allow your customers to easily add/remove products, change quantities and variations.
An effective checkout process should include:
1. Checkout
2. Delivery Details
3. Payment Details
4. Confirmation
7. Lack of Payment Options
Offer multiple payment options to your diversified customers. Shoppers dislike too many steps and screen pop-ups at checkout. This is annoying and uncomfortable. If possible, do not redirect the payment option to a third-party site. Customers feel more secure making payments on your site.
Provide payment solutions that give flexibility to the users – whether they want to pay via PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, and other options. Catering to your customers’ different preferences leads to a hassle-free checkout.
Although dropshipping is one of the simplest business models to follow, the path to success is not always easy. Everyone makes mistakes along the way and they are not inevitable. Thankfully, you can reflect on the experiences of others and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Many online entrepreneurs assume that dropshipping business is a low-risk business. However, like any other business, one poor decision can be costly. To minimize risk and avoid suffering pitfalls, below is a list of common dropshipping mistakes to learn from.
1. Picking the Wrong Niche
A niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. Several dropshippers made this mistake early on as they thought that it was best to sell trending items. They sell hot products from different categories which ended up marketing to a broad audience. You can’t be selling electronics and baby’s clothing at the same time (unless it’s a general store).
Pick a niche, stick to it, and test it. If you are selling kitchen accessories, sell complementary items such as baking tools rather than adding women’s jewelry to the mix.
2. Spending too much time choosing a product
You have to keep up with the market trend and use time wisely. A certain product may be selling now but in a few months, not. Spending too much time choosing the best product can put you in a state of analysis paralysis.
By being too indecisive and seeking more information, you are letting go of the days that you could have made a sale. Once you’ve done enough product research, it’s time to take action and commit to the product.
3. Relying on one Supplier
So you’ve found a great product in Aliexpress and contacted the supplier. Then you both agreed to the dropshipping agreement and then you leave your entire business to them. That can spell a lot of issues.
There’s a high tendency that suppliers can run out of stock, go out of business, or have some difficulties. This can lead to a loss of sales on your part. You will be dealing with a lot of cancelled orders and fulfilment issues and left scrambling to find a replacement supplier. To avoid this scenario, partner with multiple suppliers for your products when possible.
4. Bad Website Design
Think of a website as your primary salesperson online. What do your customers see when they visit your website? Since your website is your storefront on the internet, it should be properly structured to attract customers.
Shopify is one of the best e-commerce platforms that dropshippers use to create an online store. Imagine your customers landing on your website only to be annoyed by pop-ups, complicated design, and incomplete information. A simple and professional-looking website gives credibility and a good shopping experience.
5. No Marketing Plan
Don’t assume that once you have built your website, customers will come instantly. With hundreds and thousands of stores out there, you need to create ways to stand out from the competition. Social media is a powerful channel to reach a target audience.
You can set up Facebook and Instagram pages for your online store. Set up a budget for paid ads and run promotions and advertisements for your business. Make sure that your audience can find you not just on your website but other channels as well.
6. Pricing Problems
It is a bad idea to underprice and overprice your products. It is important to keep an eye on your competitor’s prices and keep your pricing competitive. Determine the right mark-up and profit margin. The pricing should be comfortable for the seller and the buyer. In this way, you won’t push customers away while ensuring you have enough profit.
7. Not caring about SEO.
There are no shortcuts to online success. Many dropshippers invest little time to optimize their stores. SEO may require massive time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run. The information you put on your website must be unique and relevant.
When writing product descriptions, try not to copy them from the manufacturer’s provided data. Instead, spend time writing engaging descriptions and include keywords that your customers are searching for.
8. Poor Customer Service
You may have a winning product but if your customer service is poor, your sales will go down. Are you responsive to your customer’s queries? In a saturated e-commerce market, providing good customer service can give you an edge.
Providing necessary information about a customer’s needs on time makes them feel that you care about them. That experience will keep your customers to keep coming to your store and patronizing your products. Customer referrals work better than paid ads.
9. Poor Branding
Branding your store is crucial to getting people to trust your brand and buy your products. Since you have competitors who are selling the same product as yours, adding branding to your packaging and labels can make a big difference.
This makes your customer remember your brand. They recognize you as a reputable seller who handles their products with care and attention. You can contact your supplier to arrange a private label and create your own brand that people will not forget.
10. Having Unrealistic Expectation
Dropshipping is not a “get rich quick” scheme. If you are not patient, it is not for you. Understand that dropshipping is a long game and it requires a lot of learning experience. Some people who failed are the ones who just set up their website and wait for something to happen. They made a few sales and then quit the next month.
Dropshipping from a single supplier may seem good for beginners but if you want to expand your products, you might need multiple suppliers. However, the more suppliers you have, the more logistics problems you can encounter. It has its pros and cons but with a proper understanding of the dropshipping process, you can eliminate potential risks and headaches.
Having multiple suppliers can be challenging. You have to build relationships with many people, coordinate with inventory, order data, and navigate tracking to ensure a successful online store.
Here are the best ways to manage your online store when dealing with multiple suppliers.
1. Choose the Right Supplier
This initial step is the most crucial if you want to manage your online store seamlessly. Before you decide to stock the item, vet your suppliers based on their credibility and reputation.
There are two ideal scenarios here:
1. You already have a main supplier but need a plan B or backup suppliers in case there are availability issues.
2. You are connecting with other suppliers that complement your products.
Do your homework and check the reviews about the supplier. Speak to them or the sales representative about their availability and fulfilment deadlines. Make sure that your suppliers have at least a 95% positive feedback rating. They should also be responsive and have excellent customer service.
Bonus tip:
Try to pick a supplier that offers a wide range of products that you want to sell instead of finding suppliers to each of your problems. This will minimize your headaches in the future.
Drophippo works directly with manufacturers so you can save more money and focus on the important part of your business. You don’t have to worry about sourcing from China because they already did the heavy lifting for you – reliable suppliers, best prices, and excellent customer service.
2. Streamlining Communication Process
Once you have picked the right suppliers, it’s time to arrange a communication process with them. What communication channels will work best for both of you? Do you need 24/7 support if you have some questions and concerns?
With strong customer service from the supplier, you can feel confident about your orders and with handling any situation that may arise.
Drophippo, a leading product sourcing company offers multi-lingual support and fantastic customer service. They use an AI tracking system that monitors your order 24/7 and provides you with transparent updates.
3. SKU Differentiation
One common mistake that online sellers make is poor SKU management. Though your multiple suppliers are supplying you with the same products, it is vital to have a unique SKU.
This will allow you accurately track your orders, and not wonder which supplier delivered the product. With SKU differentiation, you can easily identify which suppliers hold the inventory and which supplier have you sent the product order to.
Tip:
Let’s assume that you are selling air humidifiers and you have two suppliers: Kevin and Stef. You can simply add the supplier’s name as a prefix to differentiate the two and avoid confusion.
Kevin’s air humidifier: KSKU456
Stef’s air humidifier: SSKU456
Create an excel sheet for each of your suppliers and import product data. Unique SKUs will also allow you to see what product from a specific supplier sells the most.
4. Data Synchronization
In addition to SKU management, you also need to deal with inventory, prices, availability, and order status. With a growing number of dropship suppliers, expect that your product orders and product lists will also grow.
Without the right tools and apps, it will be difficult to manage it all. This is why it’s essential to synchronize the data from multiple suppliers instead of dealing with them manually one by one. Data management platforms and automation are the best ways to go.
Drophippo has an app that provides you with a detailed dashboard that allows you to see orders, prices, tracking, profits, and all sorts of important data. The data connects to your store automatically; enabling order processing, fulfillment, billing, checkout, and payment without a sweat.
If you are an entrepreneur who wants to venture into an online business, you probably thought of dropshipping. As you try to weigh the pros and cons, you may ask yourself, “Is dropshipping worth it this year 2022?” Well, the short answer is YES. Dropshipping is not dead – it is continuously growing!
Dropshipping is a business model that suits small entrepreneurs who do not have enough finances to invest. This allows their store to thrive without spending money on inventories. All they need is a functional website, a partnership with a reliable supplier, and a marketing strategy.
The Future is Online
Nowadays, people can shop online from the comfort of their sofa. Thanks to technology and e-commerce platforms, consumers can buy and sell products without the commute and hassles.
According to Statista, 87% of UK consumers make purchases online and 34.5% of total retail sales are accounted for internet sales. This means that the online shopping trend is going up. Consumers find it more convenient to shop online because it can save time and effort and ensure their health and safety (especially in times of pandemic).
Is Dropshipping Saturated?
“I want to start dropshipping but many are now doing it.” Well, almost all businesses have competition. The recipe for success is not just about being unique but being able to manage and grow your business the right way.
Dropshipping is an easy business model that one can easily start with. But here is the truth – not because it is easy, success is also easy. 80% of dropshippers fail. The reason is not about dropshipping being saturated but lazy entrepreneurs who don’t put any effort into their dropshipping store.
Is Dropshipping worth it?
The richest man in the world is from online shopping, Jeff Bezos – founder of Amazon. Dropshipping will remain popular and profitable in 2022 and onwards. The e-commerce market is growing and there is no sign of it slowing down.
Physical stores and small retailers are seeing a 30% increase in sales through smartphones. People are becoming comfortable making purchases online and this growth is a good indicator for entrepreneurs to start an online shop.
A dropshipping business offers you a ton of benefits. You can do it full-time or as a side hustle. With low investment and nothing to worry about inventory, you can easily adapt to the market trend. All you need is to research winning products and keep an eye on what is trending in your chosen niche.
Another advantage of dropshipping is you can manage your online store anywhere in the world. It gives you full control in running your business. You can also reach a wider audience through social media and interact with your customers. With solid marketing and creative advertising, you can increase sales and bring in more profits.
Is Dropshipping Scalable?
Like any other business, dropshipping demands patience, planning, and determination. Once you successfully build your online reputation and get consistent traffic and sales, you can expand your product and customer service.
Dropshipping is scalable. Unlike traditional business models where you have to buy more stocks and hire more people for the increased workload, dropshipping can be automated. With the use of CRM integrations and apps, you can streamline the work process smoothly.
You can just hire a virtual assistant who will help you with administrative support and customer service as well as a social media person to help with advertising.
Conclusion
Dropshipping will continue to rise in the next 5-10 years. It is easy to set up, low risk, and profitable. As most businesses are shifting to the digital platform, it’s time to make a jump to e-commerce. Do your research, study the market, find the right supplier, choose the best e-commerce platform, and set up your store! If you want a business with low capital, dropshipping is the perfect option.
The times where you have to drive to your local convenience store or to a city mall to buy products you need are declining. As technology advances, online shopping is on the rise.
Many entrepreneurs are taking advantage of this market trend. With most products and services available in just a click of a button, it makes the buying and selling process easier and more convenient.
While physical stores expand their business online and other business owners create their own products, some entrepreneurs are riding the dropshipping model in the e-commerce business.
Because dropshipping is easy to start and requires less capital, millions of people are interested to try it. But even though you can sell items without dealing with products stock, it is not as easy as you think.
To make the most profit, you have to learn how to operate a dropshipping online store properly.
Below are ten essential tips that you should know:
1. Find the Right Supplier.
All successful dropshipping businesses start with a reliable supplier. No matter how good your marketing is, if the quality of your product is poor, you will not get any customers and sales.
The problem is there are thousands of supplier options on the internet. Finding the right one can be a daunting task. It is crucial to find the right supplier who will help build your brand image by delivering high-quality products with good packaging and shipping time.
Drophippo is a reliable supplier which deals directly with manufacturers and takes the pain out of sourcing products from China. Their quality control and customer support are top-notch, leaving you without worries about your orders.
2. Avoid selling the same product.
Not because a certain product is trending, you will immediately want to sell it too. It’s a simple law of supply and demand. If many businesses and online sellers are selling the same “hot product”, the prices will go down because of the growing competition.
As a result, your profit margin will become slim; and you waste valuable time and energy. Instead of jumping to the hype, pick a more sustainable strategy like a niche item with low competition and a decent profit margin.
3. Price wisely.
Not because your products are lower in price than your competitors, customers will flood you. Underpricing your products will lead you nowhere in the long run. Consider your profit margin when pricing your products.
Calculate marketing expense, staff, overhead, and other relevant factors. If your competitors are lowering their prices, don’t try to imitate them however tempting it might be. Also, don’t price ridiculously high as it will turn away your store visitors.
Pricing your products fairly by keeping them within the market value is the right way to go. Providing an excellent customer experience is also crucial to increasing sales. Factors such as swift customer support, hassle-free returns and refund policies, and personalized packaging lead to an enhanced customer journey.
4. Focus on Niche Products.
One common reason why online business owners fail is they sell a wide variety of products. To be successful at dropshipping, it is important to research and study your niche. Instead of selling many products, try narrowing them down to the products that you are interested in.
Sell products that you are knowledgeable of. Let’s say you’re a mom who loves cooking. You can pick home and kitchen appliances as your niche. Since you understand your products, you can market them well.
Then, conduct market research on your niche and find products that have a good profit margin. A focused niche can give you an edge instead of products in random categories.
5. Use an e-commerce platform for your Dropshipping Store.
If a physical store is made up of brick and mortar, an online store is built on an e-commerce platform. Some of the popular options are Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Wix, and Squarespace. Each of them differs in pricing, features, and capabilities so make sure to do your research before deciding on one.
When choosing an e-commerce platform, keep these factors in mind:
Integration with distributor’s product feed: It allows you to automatically import products from your distributor to your store.
CRM Integration: It allows you to connect important software to ensure a seamless workflow and process.
Freight and Taxes Automation: It allows you to automate order checkout and guarantees trust and transparency to your customers.
Support: Whenever you encounter a problem or issue, the platform should be accessible for support 24/7 and be contacted through phone, email, or webchat.
Scalability: As your business grows, the e-commerce platform you choose should also grow. Does the platform charge more fees and additional costs as you expand? If so, consider other options.
Mobile-friendliness: Your e-commerce platform should be responsive to multiple devices as mobile shopping is on the rise.
Security: Data security is one of the biggest concerns in online shopping these days. Make sure that your e-commerce provider has strong data security to safeguard customers’ data and information.
6. Optimize Product Descriptions.
A good product description makes use of high-quality images and detailed information about the product. To make your listing effective, use clear photos with a clean background.
When putting product descriptions, avoid copying the text provided by the manufacturer. Duplicating content affects SEO so if you want your website to rank higher in search engines, creating unique and relevant content is advisable.
7. Create an amazing Offer.
Offers and deals can help your store stand out from the crowd. Special deals and bundles affect consumers’ buying behaviour. Saving motivates them to buy and the price advantage makes you shine out from the competition.
This fundamental marketing strategy makes your customer see that you’re offering a great bargain and they’re getting more value from it. Utilize promotions and deals as well as upsells and cross-sells – anything that can persuade people to pull their credit cards out.
8. Create a Marketing Plan.
Most dropshipping business owners fail in this part. They found a reliable supplier, set up their online store, and just left it there – assuming that customers will magically come and buy their products.
Magic doesn’t happen in any business. You need to have a solid marketing plan to get your first order. Advertising drives your customers to your store so it’s vital to promote effectively.
In this digital age, you can take advantage of social media and online directories. Successful dropship merchants do not stick to one selling platform but utilize all resources available.
You can market directly through your website or other channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, eBay, and other marketplaces. Create strategies on how you will reach your potential customers. You can try organic SEO and paid advertising to spread the message and let the world know that you exist.
9. Provide Excellent Customer Service.
Bear in mind that people buy online for the convenience it offers. This means that they expect a satisfying shopping experience from you. The best way to retain and attract customers is by providing customer interaction.
Offer tracking information and be clear about the delivery times. Not being transparent to your customers and not addressing their concerns can lead to negative feedback and bad reviews.
Always meet your customer’s expectations. Keep them up to date with what’s going on with their order, confirm shipping dates, receipts, etc., and build trust. Excellent customer service reflects your brand image, encourages repeat business and puts you on top over your competitor.
10. Don’t give up too early.
Dropshipping is not a sprint but a marathon. Starting an online business requires patience, dedication, and hard work. Many entrepreneurs enter the e-commerce business thinking that it is the easiest road to wealth yet most of them quit when bombarded with challenges.
If you want to succeed as an online entrepreneur, you must learn how to face failures and disappointments. Dropshipping involves a lot of trial and error and only the brave ones with realistic goals succeed.
When facing adversity, figure out the solution, learn new skills, and understand how the business works. Don’t throw in the towel early – all big businesses start small.
