Despite the pandemic, online shopping has expanded around the world. Consequently, many business owners are considering adopting the dropshipping strategy. However, the idea is still relatively novel in India. So, if you’re interested in learning about Indian dropshipping, read on!
Dropshipping’s Pros and Cons
Let’s start by looking at what dropshipping is in India.
Dropshipping is a business model that lets you buy products from a marketplace and sell them online under your brand name. In an ideal situation, you’re making an online store for specific products that you get from an online marketplace. When a customer buys something from your store, you put the order on a marketplace and send the product straight to the customer.
In this case, the customer doesn’t really need to know that you are a dropshipping business. You can just use your brand name to market your business, where you sell products from different sellers.
Here are some of the benefits of dropshipping in India:
You don’t have to make and keep track of a whole inventory for this. You can just put the order on a marketplace and see what the supplier has in stock.
Dropshipping requires a very small amount of money up front. You can start with a simple, neat website and change it as your business grows.
How to Get Started Dropshipping in India
So, what do you need to do to start dropshipping in India?
We haven’t heard much about this business model in the area, but that could be a good thing, right? Get in while it’s still true and do well as the trend grows.
So, here are some important things you need to think about if you want to dropship in India. Have a look:
Supplier
Your dropshipping store’s most important job is to find a supplier. Most business owners give up at this point because they can’t find reliable suppliers who can ship products straight to customers. Many times, you may also find fake suppliers who say they will ship products but never do. This hurts your reputation with the customer and hurts your business.
Tips for finding the right supplier:
- You should do your homework and make sure the seller is who they say they are. Check out their products, read reviews of them online, and look at how they are rated on relevant websites. Talk to the team of sellers as well and agree on a deal that seems better to you.
- Check to see if the company being sold is registered. This will help you make sure that the seller is real.
- Always check how long each supplier says it will take to deliver. You need to get products to customers by the time shown on your site. Customers won’t be happy if you make them wait for their orders.
- Talk about the way the supplier wants to be paid. This can be a fixed monthly fee or a fee based on how much you order at once. For feasibility, the charge-as-you-go model works best. If you have a choice, don’t agree to pay a subscription fee. This will limit you in some ways.
- Always think about the GST models that different sellers use so you don’t pay too much for something that isn’t worth it.
- A market is the best place to find the right seller. You can easily look at reviews, find out what services they offer, and get a guarantee that the product will be delivered.
Find products on AliExpress, talk to the seller, and order products as your customers place orders on your store.
Products
After you’ve chosen your sellers, it’s easy to move on to finding the products. You need to focus on products that fill a niche.
You might wonder, “Why?”
This is because most of the products that dropshipping businesses in India sell come from a market. Why wouldn’t a user buy straight from the marketplace if you added different types of products?
Make your store stand out by adding popular product categories and giving marketing your full attention.
So, first find the niche and then choose a product.
You want to sell pillows, for example. Once you know you need to make a dropshipping store for different kinds of pillows, you can add categories and find products on a marketplace like AliExpress.
Here are some tips you can use for categories and products:
- Look for the category by chance on the marketplace. Make a list of the best products and put them on your website.
- Check out the websites of your competitors and learn how they group things. This will help you narrow down your choices.
- Last, go to Twitter, type in a related keyword, and check out what’s popular. This will help you add products that are popular right now to your website.
- Choose an item for your dropshipping business.
Website
After you’ve made categories and chosen a few suppliers from sites like AliExpress, you should make your website.
How do you get there?
Making a Shopify store is the easiest way to do this. For a small fee, you can make a clean and easy-to-use website. You don’t even have to buy the template or theme at first.
You could also use Wix or WooCommerce to make a website.
Things to keep in mind:
- Your website should do what it’s supposed to.
- Your users should be able to find the things they want.
- The speed of loading should be just right.
- The website should be easy to use, clean, and look good.
- Don’t add anything extra or distracting.
- Include information about your business that is important.
Marketing
Marketing is the key to success in dropshipping, no matter what you are selling on your store. Your marketing efforts make the biggest difference in your dropshipping store.
Marketing on Facebook is very important. Most of the people in the audience look at Facebook more than once a day. So, you need to have a Facebook page. You can even open a store on Facebook and sell things.
Instagram is popular, so you should pay attention to it. Make an account for your business, link it to your website, and draw people to it. Here, the key is to post on the page regularly.
It’s also important to have a presence on LinkedIn, since many professionals use LinkedIn instead of other social media. Here, you can use content marketing to sell your goods.
Lastly, put tweets on Twitter. This will help make your website and business more known.
Besides all this, you should remember the following:
Your SEO plan needs to be strong. This is what makes people pay attention. You should pay attention to the website, social media, and SEO-friendly content.
Use Google Adwords to show up at the top of searches when customers use the right keywords.
Tools
How do you dropship in India? What tools do you use?
You can use an automation tool to keep track of your orders and supply chain in the long run. You can also streamline your marketing with an email marketing tool and a Google Ads app.
For example, Dropship Corporation is an AliExpress dropshipping tool that can help you manage your supply chain. Here is a quick list of what Dropship Corporation can do:
- You can find the right seller for an order by using the AI-powered engine. You can find the right seller based on what you’ve bought from them before and what they’ve sold.
- You can buy things from Dropship Corporation directly on AliExpress. The tool already has the ability to do this.
- All the orders can be placed at once without having to do any work by hand. Also, these orders are added to your dashboard so you can keep track of them.
- You can check out many more features of Dropship Corporation on their website.
User Queries
It is very important to give correct answers to user questions.
Now, you can use a tool to keep track of all your orders in one place. This will make it easy to send updates and talk to your customers.
But if you don’t have the tool at first, you can use Excel to keep track of your orders and know when they ship. This will let you answer questions from users.
Don’t forget:
- Customers should always be able to reach you. Even if you made a mistake, say sorry and give the customer something in return to keep them as a customer.
- Don’t delay responses. Try to answer as soon as you can.
- Never be rude to a customer, because they might write a review that hurts your rating.
Payments
Payments are a touchy subject in India. Most people like to pay in cash, so you should offer this option.
But if your shipping time is longer and you can’t offer cash on delivery, you still need to add other reliable ways to pay.
For example, you could use the Razorpay portal to pay, add Paytm and UPI as payment options, and so on.
Make a payment page that looks good and works well so that people don’t leave the cart.
Shipping
AliExpress dropshipping has been talked about for a long time, but how do you ship items from the marketplace? It won’t let you send things to India.
But luckily, there is a choice.
You can get a mailbox in China, where your packages can be sent. From here, your orders can get to the country where they are going. This may take longer, but you can keep some stock on hand to see if it’s possible.
Conclusion
These are some of the basics of dropshipping in India that you should know. Read each section thoroughly and make notes on the information that seems pertinent to you. Be sure to think about the aforementioned considerations as you begin your product sourcing. Over time, this will contribute to the growth of your passive income. When done right, a dropshipping business can provide a steady stream of income after only a few years of effort.
