The world of eCommerce is an open market where anyone can sell something if they have a good enough idea to get the attention of consumers. In fact, the dropshipping model of e-commerce can make business environments even more diverse. This means that it can give entrepreneurs a chance who don’t have the money to start up but are eager to show off their skills and earn their way into the market. College students are one group that will be talked about in this article.
Dropshipping can be a very profitable business model for students today. It can also change the way students think about business and broaden the horizons of young entrepreneurs. But what is dropshipping, and how can students use it to their advantage?
What the word “dropshipping” means
The dropshipping business model is a type of retail method in which the business does not own the goods it sells. When a customer orders something from their online store, the store buys the item from a dropshipping supplier, which could be a wholesaler or a manufacturer. The dropshipping supplier then sends the item to the customer. With this model, the dropshipper doesn’t get the products in their hands; instead, they buy them from a third party.
In short, if you run a dropshipping business, the inventory shown on your website is actually owned by the dropshipping supplier. When a customer places an order, you just give the order to your supplier, who sends the product directly to the customer. This service is, of course, done for a fee on a monthly or yearly basis.
Another important point is that the customer pays for the products after placing the order. This is one reason why the dropshipping model might be perfect for young entrepreneurs who know what they’re doing but don’t have much money to start with. As a dropshipper, you can now focus on the important parts of growing your business instead of the expensive and complicated shipping process.
The dropshipping business model has a lot of pros.
Start with little money.
If you are in college and want to start a dropshipping business, the most important thing to know is that you do not need a lot of money to get started. In fact, the few steps you need to take to set up an online store don’t cost a lot of money and don’t take a lot of time. A dropshipper’s first costs would be to set up a website using one of the many eCommerce platforms, like Shopify, Shift4Shop, or WooCommerce, and to learn how to do business. There are, of course, other costs that come with starting a business, but other than that, it would be pretty easy to get started.
A dropshipping supplier takes care of both storage and shipping.
Dropshipping is great for college students because it’s easy to store products and ship them. In other words, dropshipping gives students the chance to run a business without having to deal with the hardest and most expensive parts, like shipping and storage. Third-party companies that offer their capacities and logistics networks are responsible for this. This service is definitely billable and will cost you money, but the fees are very small compared to what you would pay if you ran all these services yourself. All of this means you can put more effort into advertising and attracting customers.
After you make a sale, you buy the item from the third party.
After a customer buys something from your online store, you pay the dropshipping supplier, wholesaler, or manufacturer the retail price. This option is best for students who don’t have a lot of money or who can’t start from scratch with an inventory.
Access to a lot of dropshipping suppliers is easy.
There are now thousands of companies that store and ship products for dropshipping businesses. The only problem is that it can be hard to find dropshipping suppliers for your online store. Your business can do well in many different areas, such as Fashion and Apparel, Electronics, Home and Garden, etc. Profits are pretty good in the fashion business, so you might want to go that route. Statista says that the fashion segment’s sales will reach $759,466 million in 2023. Even more interesting is that online sales will make up 24% of the total market revenue by 2023. Sounds like a good time to start thinking about opening a web store for fashion. Dropship Corporation is a good place to look if you want to open a store that sells expensive clothes. This dropshipping company sells branded products from well-known fashion companies like Dolce & Gabbana, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Valentino, and many more. These products are sure to catch the eye of many fashionistas and influencers around the world.
It’s never been easier to run a business from afar.
As has been said, if you choose the dropshipping business model, you won’t have to worry about storage or shipping. The store just needs to be put together, which can be done anywhere in the world on a computer. In fact, all you need to start your own business is a laptop, a smartphone, and a reliable internet connection. From now on, you can run your business from your dorm room or even while lying on a sandy beach somewhere far away.
Dropshipping’s flaws
Even though dropshipping is a very useful way to run a business and has many benefits that other models don’t have, it’s fair to say that there are some bad things about it.
You can expect some problems with the shipping process.
Even though “passing the baton” for shipping and storage to a third-party company can be a big relief and save you a lot of money, not having full control over this process can sometimes cause problems. Some dropshipping businesses, for example, offer different kinds of products and work with different suppliers. These tasks can make it easy for everyone involved in the buying process to not talk to each other and cause problems. Of course, you can easily avoid this situation if your business only sells products from a single segment. You might get extra points if you choose one reliable supplier who will handle shipping and storage.
Customer service must be well-planned.
For the dropshipping model to work, there also needs to be a reliable customer service. In the end, writing customer support carefully is a very important task because your responsibilities in this section will grow as shipping and storage get more expensive. Also, when the dropshipping supplier or one of his vendor partners sends the product, your customer will get something with your company’s name on it. So, any problems that might come up there will be sent to your address. Customer service that is good will help a lot in these situations.
Depending on the niche, profit margins could be low.
High competition makes it hard to get into the e-commerce market, but it’s easy to start a dropshipping business. At first, your profits might be low, though, because high competition makes profit margins smaller. But you can avoid this by choosing and opening a store that stands out from the crowd, like a store that sells high-end fashion items.
As you can see, starting and running a dropshipping business could be a great way for young people, especially students, to make money. Even though the market is important when starting a business, we also need to pay attention to something else. Who will run this business so that it does well? Or, more specifically, what qualities students need to have in order to start their own businesses and run them successfully.
What is a business owner?
Some people might say that the word “entrepreneur” only applies to a certain group of people who follow a path full of grant applications, sponsorships, and long business meetings. But this is a very common misunderstanding, and this term can’t be used only for the above profiles. To put it another way, entrepreneurs are people who can make money by making something on their own, not for a business or company. Yes, you have the entrepreneurial spirit if you have ever made money using your own skills and intelligence. In fact, as a student, you have the entrepreneurial spirit to start a dropshipping business, which is a great way to satisfy your business hunger.
Now that we’ve said all this, let’s look at some numbers to get a better idea.
Students who want to start a dropshipping business can do so safely at universities.
Even if you are a student who wants to try out e-markets, setting up a dropshipping business could be the best way to do it. A report from Santander University says that college students have a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and that more than 450,000 of them are either running a business or are in the process of setting one up. To give you an idea of how big that number is, it’s about 26% of all the college students. Most people start a business because they want to make money, which is 60% of the time. With 59%, the desire to have a hobby or personal interest is right behind the desire to make money. Also shown are 32% and 23% for getting work experience and paying off student loans, respectively.
People who started their businesses in college
Bill Gates and Paul Allen are two of the richest people in the world.
Students who want to start a business while they are in college or even high school can learn a lot from Microsoft’s story. That’s exactly what Bill Gates and Paul Allen did. In high school, these two smart people came up with their idea. During their first few years, they had ups and downs, but they were able to keep up with the market pressure. Later, in 1981, they were able to get their product, the MS-DOS, licensed with the help of IBM.
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, who owns the social media giant Facebook, also got his start in business while he was in college. Zuckerberg started making the platform when he was a student at Harvard. He did this with the idea that it would help students on campus connect online. But this simple idea grew into the biggest social media site in the world today, with more than 2.85 billion users.
Matt Mullenweg
Matt Mullenweg, Mike Little, and Michel Valdrigh came up with the idea for WordPress at Houston University. It is now the most well-known CMS (content management system). In 2023, WordPress is still the most popular platform for building websites. About 35% of the most popular 1 million web pages in the world are built on WordPress. About 455 million web pages use WordPress as their content management system (CMS). It’s pretty helpful that it’s an open-source platform, so you can change it to fit your needs. In fact, WordPress can help you build your dropshipping website and give you the freedom you need to make a webshop that is uniquely yours.
Making a career out of your student business
According to the study from Santander University mentioned above, 33% of college students polled said that they plan to make their businesses their full-time jobs after they graduate. About 52% of those who answered said they would keep running their business as a hobby or a second job, and 9% said they would still do so if they had more help. Only 4% of the students polled said they would stop their business they started in college.
College knowledge can help young people who want to start their own businesses do well.
It is well known that the knowledge you learn in college is good for your mind. This information will actually help you start something on your own. In order for students to become full-fledged business owners, they need to be in a tough environment where they can learn about the big struggles of the business world. Also, problems are an important part of the lifecycle of a business, and young entrepreneurs should learn how to deal with them by taking the lead. So, dropshipping could be the best way for students to get their business deals off the ground.
Advice to help you along the way
Investopedia says that after the first five years, a shocking 45% of businesses that are just starting out will fail. But another study done by the Federation of Small Businesses shows that about 70% of businesses that are guided by a mentor will stay in business for at least 5 years. Many entrepreneurs and business people who are now well-known and well-known around the world would not have made it without help.
Conclusion
Dropshipping for students might be the best way for all the young, smart, and soon-to-be-sharp-minded people out there who want to try their hand at eCommerce business. Starting something on your own, whether you’re in high school or college, can give you a boost and set you up for a long journey of learning and making money using only your skills. It’s safe to say that dropshipping is worth it since this business model can give you everything you need for a successful business. As long as you know that, you can go ahead and open your store and start making money or learning from your successful business. We hope that this guide will be like a lighthouse for your business as you sail through the rough sea of eCommerce.
