What is dropshipping

It is a form of online retailing that is characterized by the fact that you as a seller do not have stock . In reality, what you do is operate as an intermediary between a customer who wants to purchase a product and a supplier who wants to market their products. 

For the public, your online store is exactly the same as the others. However, management is different. The consumer comes to your ecommerce, chooses the product they are interested in and purchases it. That purchase order reaches directly to the supplier you work with, who is in charge of shipping the merchandise.  

In exchange, what you receive as profit is a percentage of the amount of the purchase made . 

The great advantage of all this is that you can set up an online store with very little money, because you don’t have to invest in buying goods. You also don’t have to worry about management tasks such as controlling goods or making shipments.

How to do dropshipping

Create a website

The first thing you have to do is create your own online store. To do this, you can use specialized CMS such as WooCommerce or PrestaShop, among others, because with these tools you can create the entire structure of your ecommerce in a very short time even if you do not have programming knowledge.  

Find a supplier

This is one of the most important steps, because to do dropshipping you need to have a supplier that produces quality items and also perfectly complies with the order shipping procedures.    

There are websites specialized in dropshipping suppliers of all types of products. The best thing we can recommend in this case is that you inform yourself well about the reputation of the person with whom you are interested in signing a contract, thus avoiding possible disagreements.    

Attract traffic to the website

Publicizing your page and attracting traffic to the store is your main responsibility  when you practice this form of sales.

The supplier will pay you a commission for each sale. They are not very high commissions, so you should try to attract the highest volume of traffic possible to increase the chances of conversion. To do this, you can use techniques such as SEO positioning , email marketing , Social Media Marketing or paid advertising . 

Customer Support

The supplier is in charge of shipping the products, but customer service is your responsibility. Customers have purchased from your store and, therefore, any questions or complaints will come to you . Try to provide good service to improve your reputation. 

If you have knowledge about different forms of online marketing or are willing to learn, then dropshipping can be a viable alternative to earn extra income or even to be your main livelihood.