As a complete beginner, dropshipping seems easy. You simply find a product from AliExpress that you believe people will love, add it to your Shopify store and advertise it on Facebook. It sounds like easy money! I have been dropshipping since 2016, here’s my opinion.
The concept of dropshipping is simple which gives a misleading perception to beginners that it is easy. The truth is dropshipping is difficult and requires knowledge in marketing, copywriting, branding, supplier negotiation, product research and much more to be successful.
I don’t think anybody knows the exact failure rate with dropshipping but I’ve read it’s around 90% of beginners fail in their first month. Don’t let this discourage you as even the most experienced dropshippers open new stores and fail regularly.
Reading this can make you wonder if dropshipping as a beginner is still worth it? Hopefully, this article will provide you with an alternative method of succeeding.
The Easy Way to Start Dropshipping!
For dropshippers to find a winning product, they need to test multiple ads, offers, content, images and angles to find the most profitable strategy.
For a full dropshipping tutorial, check out this article as it will provide a complete step-by-step guide for beginners.
As you can tell, it can be difficult to know which products are ideal for dropshipping, especially if you’re just starting out. You may not know where to start, only have a small budget initially and have a go at picking random products and running Facebook ads only to play the waiting game and see if you make a sale. Why make it so hard for yourself if it doesn’t have to be?
The easy way to start dropshipping is to find other profitable stores then simply change and improve on their store and make it your own. If another store is running ads they are most likely making sales which means they have laid out a blueprint for you and taken out much of the initial risk.
As a beginner, it may be worth reading my article on Is Dropshipping Hard to Learn?
Easy Way to Learn Dropshipping!
By modeling your dropshipping store after proven and established stores, you have the foundations already in place to succeed and is the easiest way to learn dropshipping as a beginner.
Below are some of the easiest ways you can make changes that will enable you to learn the basics of dropshipping much easier.
Product Variations
If you know there is a market for the product, the easiest change to make is to dropship a variation of the product. The variations can be design, features, quality or improved model.
Offer
Most online stores don’t split test offers enough. By simply providing a more compelling offer is an easy way to make more money dropshipping. This may be 50% off, buy 2 get 1 free, discount coupons, bundles, extended warranties, free shipping, free accessories, a free eBook and the list goes on.
Branding
I wouldn’t say branding is easy but it is definitely effective. If other stores have not focused on branding and are still making money, then you know this is a lucrative product. I suggest you read my article on branding a dropshipping store for more info.
Change the Angle
The sales angle is how you are going to sell to your target audience. Most products can have multiple ways of selling and multiple ways of evoking emotions to compel people to make a purchase. Think about your product and the different audiences who may be interested and how you can sell to them in a way that is not already being done.
Target Audience
Think about your product and the different audiences who may be interested and how you can sell to them in a way that is not already being done. Targeting an untapped audience on Facebook or TikTok is one of the easiest and most powerful methods of dropshipping for beginners.
Content
Google hates unoriginal content and most dropshipping stores simply copy and paste product descriptions, images and videos. It’s easy to take your own unique lifestyle videos and images of your product. If copywriting isn’t your thing, I suggest you read my article on creating a product page.
Traffic Source
Facebook is the go-to platform for most dropshippers. However, by changing the ad platform you often show your product to a new audience who has never seen your product before. Just to name a few:
- Instagram Advertising
- Instagram Influencers
- TikTok
- Google Ads
- Google Shopping
- SEO
Examples of Simple Changes
Going through changes you can make to an already profitable store will really get the creative juices flowing! It’s essentially a brainstorming exercise in which you can come up with simple ideas and easy improvements on something that’s already working.
Write down your own list of potential changes and improvements. I’ll give you an example of a list of potential changes you could make, let’s say for example, the store you’re looking at is a niche dropshipping store for dog beds. Your list of potential changes could look like this:
- Niche dropshipping store focusing on beds for large dogs.
- Build a brand around high quality dog beds.
- Give extra bed covers and a discount code as an extra.
- Only sell memory foam dog beds for dogs with arthritis and joint problems.
- Target a specific dog breed to make the customer feel like the store is designed for their specific breed.
- Indestructible dog beds for dogs with behavior problems and a free eBook on dog training.
- A dog bed designed with specific materials to assist dogs with allergies.
- Target audiences in colder climates to sell dog beds designed for maximum warmth.
- Sell using Google ads instead of Facebook ads.
How to Easily Improve your Dropshipping Store
After you have your list of changes, it’s really up to you which changes you think would be easy and effective as well as the number of changes you want to make. Remember, the store you are modeling from is already profitable so making too many large changes may work against you. They have pathed the route to success for you, so sometimes it’s easier to keep it simple and make slight modifications.
Your best option to find which changes are the most likely to work is seeing what people are actually saying about the products. To do this, go to online forums such as, Quora and Reddit and check out reviews of the products on Amazon. Read what people are saying about the products in terms of problems, benefits, quality and prices and you may find a gap in the market in which to target.
The Uncomplicated Way to Optimize your Dropshipping Store
Once you’ve decided on the changes you want to make, it’s time to build your Shopify store, run some ads and start testing! Testing involves running ads and seeing how they perform.
This is where many beginners are confused as they don’t know what to do with the results of their ads but it is easier than you think. You’ll need to do some testing and find the optimal method, however, dropshipping using Facebook ads requires ongoing optimization.
Once you have the results of your ads, it requires trial and error to find which method will prove to be the most successful. Analyzing Facebook ad results and what to do with the results is an article in itself and is different in every situation depending on a number of factors.
This is an extremely simplified and easy way of handling the results.
- If you’re running at a loss after several days of running ads, you’ll need to make some big changes that have the potential to completely change your results.
- If you’re running about even, you should either make a single large change or multiple small changes and test again.
- If you’re profitable, don’t make major changes, instead, just tweak and improve small aspects of your website.
You only want to copy the key components of the store that have made them successful but not every detail. Don’t build a replica of their website and plagiarize their content, it’s easy to make money dropshipping by implementing the changes I have listed above.
Don’t copy their exact theme and their store’s layout. If you’re unsure how to improve on their store, the easiest way is to use someone else’s store as inspiration and follow a similar layout. You can see what theme other Shopify stores are using by pasting their URL into Shopify Theme Detector.
Summary
Finding a winning product that nobody else has discovered and being the first to run ads for this product and make a killing is like searching for gold and finding a big juicy nugget! The only difference is, when you find that nugget it’s all yours, when you find a winning product, everyone knows about it, and they will start copying you and taking all your profits.
This is why it’s easier to be one of the copycats and let others hunt for gold for you. Don’t reinvent the wheel, use the wheel!
You want to gain advantages over your competition and the easiest way to do this is to improve on the key components of a dropshipping store. Learning each aspect in-depth and improving on already existing websites is the best way to do this. You can’t gain advantages by finding hot products because everyone else can sell the same product as you so that’s not an advantage.
I hope this article has been a help to you. Feel free to reach out and email me for any other dropshipping content you’d like me to write about. If your topic is trending, I’ll write an article on it. All the best with your dropshipping ventures!
