Is Dropshipping Worth It? Is it too late to start it in 2021?
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Online marketing is one of the most profitable business today. It gives opportunities to people around the world to expand their stores and reach other countries. They can start dealing with an international currency and get a bigger audience for their products.
There are different strategies for beginners who want to get into e-Commerce. Dropshipping is in the top five of the best ways to start. You don’t need to have an inventory, with dropshipping, you only need to find a producer with an exciting product, and create an online store to sell it.
However, it could seem that dropshipping was so popular at the beginning of e-Commerce, that currently, it makes it a very competitive market. You can find many e-stores selling the same products and having to create discounts and half-prices to stand out of the rest. They think that most dropshipping stores can’t survive in the first months.
It is not entirely true. Dropshipping is still one excellent way to start an online business, and it needs little investment to start. It all depends on the way you focus your online store, on how you promote it, and how can you make it interesting for your usual customers and your potentially new leads.
Dropshipping: what is it?
Dropshipping is an online marketing model where you become the intermediate person between a producer and a customer. You offer the opportunity to a producer to expand its audience, creating an online store and promoting the product through different media. Customers buy the product through the various methods of payment you have, and you profit from the sale.
Creating a dropshipping online store doesn’t need a lot. You don’t have to be an expert on marketing or designing websites. You can find tutorials and e-Commerce platforms like Shopify that can help you start your online store.
You will never be in contact with the product you sell, and it is shipped directly from supplier to customer. It means that you won’t need to worry about checking how many products you have on stock in your inventory, or about shipping rates.
Most of the investment you will need to do is to create an online store, obtain the license to sell online, and pay for advertising. You won’t need to buy the product before you make a sale. This lowers the risk of having a full inventory in storage without knowing if the product is going to sell fast or good.
In the end, you’ll see that it is not very expensive to start an e-Commerce business with dropshipping. If it is successful, you will have gained back your investment in a short time, and will only be obtaining profits to improve your store.
The good and the bad
Advantages of Dropshipping: Starting an online store with dropshipping comes with many benefits.
For a start, you are free to manage it at your time, and you don’t need to spend hours doing it. You can work from your house, and you only need to have a computer or a mobile device with a broadband internet connection. You can be your boss, decide your work hours, and plan like it better suits you.
The money you must spend as capital to start your online store is low. You will never have to pay for inventory or shipping, and you benefit from the commission you get for allowing the customer to purchase the product using your store. That means that you pay the supplier with the money the customer is giving to you, without spending your capital.
The platforms for creating online stores are intuitive. Their interface is very easy to manage, and they come with handy tools and explanations on how to use them. You don’t need to be a professional in marketing or programming to start your business. You can start as soon as you create your online store, and make profits in days.
You can hire assistants and managers from other countries that can work on your page, giving you more free time and fewer worries. You can find many suppliers and producers who are eager to start expanding their business. That way, you have a variety in selecting what you want to sell on your store.
There are many video tutorials on Youtube and other paid courses that offer strategies and plans on how to start an online store using dropshipping. They provide new tips and tricks that will help you get started and select the best product to start selling.
Disadvantages of Dropshipping: On the other hand, there are a few things you must remember when starting a dropshipping online store.
As mentioned in the beginning, dropshipping can be very competitive, especially against already known brands. New products and new brands can have a difficult time attracting an audience without the correct strategy to promote it.
Although it is effortless to start, you should invest a little time on studying and planning how you are going to approach to possible customers and what can be the best product to start that relates to what you want. Poor planning will mean an early close of the online store.
Ads can be costly and a waste of time if they are not applied correctly. You can find advice on different tutorials on how to use advertisement to your favour, but without a thoughtful strategy, it may not attract the audience you are hoping.
Another factor that may make you lose customers is the time the shipping is made. This factor is related to the supplier you select, and the difficulties it could have in shipping overseas.
When selecting a supplier, you should confirm what shipping service they use. If it takes too long, the customer may decide that it is not worth it to buy the product from you.
Will it still yield profits in the future?
The arrival of the internet and the possibility of making commerce through it has changed the game entirely from what it used to be before it. Currently, e-Commerce can be considered one of the most important and stable markets in the global economy. The local stores are spreading through the world, creating online stores that can help them reach far and wide. The internet has become an essential tool for every ambitious person that wish to have a successful business.
Dropshipping is not falling behind. It is hard to move between the seas of dropshipping stores and avoid the sharks that rule over them. If you manage to stand out, you can easily benefit from it, making fast money in a short time. At this rate, it is a sure thing that e-Commerce and dropshipping will continue to make profits for many years to come. It is not a fashion thing that may disappear once it stops being popular, because it does have an impact on the modern economy.
Take, for example, Amazon.com. It started many years ago as a dropshipping online store, and over the years it became a renowned dropshipping company. There are few products that you can’t find on Amazon, and it offers secure transactions between customers and suppliers. Many other dropshipping companies have followed its steps, becoming also successful business in a few years.
e-Commerce is the future, and that means that dropshipping is it also. As long as you find a needed product that has a big audience and offer it to them at attractive prices, you can rest assured that your store will rise. You have to remember to make a good plan and use the right strategies correctly, and by doing so, you will become a successful entrepreneur in the e-Commerce panorama.
Is it worth your time?
After reading this article, you may still wonder if it is enough to catch your attention and try it out. Will dropshipping make you rich in only a few weeks? Is it a marvelous formula for successfulness? It can be. But it is not magic or luck; it is about strategy and planning.
Most of the people that may have tried and failed to have a successful dropshipping business will tell you otherwise. Before you start doubting about the possibilities of owning an online store, you should verify why their stores were unsuccessful. It won’t be surprising to find that all of them jumped on the dropshipping train without taking it seriously.
The misconception of dropshipping being a magical strategy to become rich in a few steps without planning may come from different tutorials made as scams or by people that became successful by other means and a bit of luck. It is not impossible to get lucky when starting an online store and become an instant success, but it is as possible as winning the lottery.
Real success comes from planning and hard working. You must investigate the audience you wish to reach, the impact that it will have on them by creating a new online store about a product. You must know the needs that are willing to be fulfilled and take advantage of them. It means thinking hard, studying the market. It involves spending time on making things right.
It helps to have ambition and to understand the possibilities a product can have on the market. You will also need to be able to promote it correctly, use the advertisings in a way that can capture the attention of the potential customers. If done correctly, you will see how success is reachable.
There is a reason why dropshipping is so popular. If it were so hard to make money with it, people wouldn’t keep trying to do it. There are millions of people in the world, and their needs are different. You can be the one to find the correct investment to do, and offer the right product at the best time.
Closing thoughts
With dropshipping, success is at hand if you are willing to work for it. It is a market model that works; otherwise, it wouldn’t be so popular today. It needs a few capital to get started, and you don’t have to be an expert on programming and installing the software. You can find platforms like Shopify that are ready to help you create your online store and start your business the same day.
Although the process to create an e-Commerce store is frankly easy, you will need to make preparations to make it a successful business. You must study the market and select the best supplier and product for what you have in mind. If you plan and use the different strategies correctly to promote the product, you will see your business proliferate.
You have to be prepared to adapt and evolve as the market does. It is a competitive world, but you have the tools to make it, as long as you keep improving to provide what the customer needs.
If your brand new to dropshipping, I’d highly suggest a good course because if you don’t know what your doing you could definately lose A LOT of money. Now, there are TONS of Shopify courses and frankly a lot of them are poorly made, lack in depth information and cost a fortune. I have reviewed over 50+ ecommerce courses and by far I’d recommend eCom Elites for beginners to advanced dropshippers. It’s a course by Franklin Hatchett who has multiple businesses online and he has been doing ecommerce for years. Quite Frankly his course is one of the cheapest and most affordable in the market so, you can afford purchasing ads. You can check out my eCom Elites Review here to see if it’s right for you or not.
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