Wholesale is an old way of doing business because it requires a lot of overhead costs and a lot of storage space. While dropshipping, which is a relatively new business model with no risks, continues to grow in popularity.
Dropshipping is popular because it is easy to do. Millions of print-on-demand businesses in Canada have been very successful by using dropshipping to make their own online stores. So, how do you get started with dropshipping in Canada? Let’s talk about this in the post:
With dropshipping, vendors don’t have to keep any inventory on hand in order to make money. Dropshipping, in a nutshell, aims to solve all of these problems with the traditional business model by reducing waste and increasing profits.
Here are some of the great things about dropshipping:
- Less spending on overhead
- Easy ways to test a business idea
- Scaling up fast
- Easy to get started because you don’t need a storefront.
Now, let’s start your dropshipping journey in Canada by answering these questions: Does dropshipping work, and is it legal in Canada?
Does dropshipping work? Is it legal in Canada?
Yes is the quick answer to both questions. Dropshipping is a way for online store owners to sell items without having to keep any of the items they sell in stock.
But you have to follow all of an online marketplace’s rules about import restrictions, taxation, and declarations, and you can only sell Canadian products that are allowed to dropship in Canada. So, the owners of e-commerce websites need to write Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policies. Dropshipper should also avoid giving misleading or false information about the products they sell on their website or online store.
Why Ship to Canada?
Why do dropshipping in Canada? Let’s see:
First of all, people in Canada are expected to spend $49.7 billion on e-commerce in 2023, which shows how popular it is. Also, most Canadians prefer to buy international products over domestic ones. Dropshipping lets you sell products from foreign suppliers like dropshipping suppliers UK to people all over the world. In other words, if you start a dropshipping Canada business, you can sell your goods all over the world.
Also, dropshipping lets you sell goods that the manufacturer makes and ships for you. This is a great way to get rid of the cost of inventory and keep shipping costs low.
Most importantly, dropshipping software like Dropship Corporation makes it easy to add products to your store that have low shipping costs or are even free. You will get a lot out of it. So, dropshipping is a great way to run a business because it lets you grow your store quickly without having to pay more.
How to Start Drop Shipping in Canada
Now you know that dropshipping in Canada is possible and a good idea. Read on to find out how to start one in 5 easy steps.
Set up an online store or a selling account
To start, you need a selling account or an online store. Once you’ve decided where to sell, you’ll need to choose a platform that lets you build your stores, list your products, get paid, and talk to your customers.
The accounts may be different on each platform. For example, to start dropshipping on eBay in Canada, you need a selling account on eBay Canada and a business account on PayPal to receive payments. If you want to set up an online store on Shopify for Canada dropshipping, you need a Shopify account.
But if you use a payment gateway from a third party, you have to pay extra transaction fees. Here, I have to tell you that Shopify Payment owned by itself is a good way to save money.
TIP: It’s important to build a brand and raise brand awareness by giving your store a name that is both interesting and unique.
Pick a product that will sell well and is in demand.
The next thing you need to do before starting a dropshipping business and making your first sale is to choose the right niche for your business. Even if you really care about a product, you still need to learn more about it. If dropshipping in Canada is too competitive or not a good idea, you probably won’t make money.
By looking at the Canadian e-commerce market and how Canadians shop, you can learn a lot about these popular niches (all of the information comes from Statista):
- 46% of Canadians buy clothes and other items of clothing online.
- 35% buy movies, music, books, and games.
- 30% of people shop for consumer electronics online.
- People in Canada buy shoes online 29% of the time.
- 26% of people who buy things online buy cosmetics and body care items.
- 21% of people find food and drink online.
- 19% of people who shop online buy health care products.
- About 17% of Canadians who buy things online do so for their hobbies.
- 16% of Canadians use online stores to buy bags and other items.
- 15% of Canadian buyers buy DIY, garden, pet, furniture, household goods, baby products, and so on online.
- 13% of people prefer buying household items online.
- Twelve percent of Canadians buy sports and outdoor gear online.
- Only 5% buy things online that aren’t in their niche.
- As you can see, clothing, shoes, books, games, cosmetics, body care, and health care items are all popular niches for dropshipping in Canada. So, if you want to dropship in Canada, you might want to think about these niches.
Find a supplier you can trust
A key part of your dropshipping business is your supplier. Whether you find suppliers who ship items from within the country or from outside the country, you should always try to work with reliable suppliers. Dropshipping suppliers keep the products you sell in stock and ship them to your customers. So, having a supplier you can trust can help your dropshipping business do well.
TIP: Before you start selling on an e-commerce platform, you should read its policies and choose the right dropshipping supplier. They make sure that everything you do is legal.
When looking for suppliers, you need to think about a lot of things, like price, quality, and other costs like the shipping fee. AliExpress was started in 2010, and it is now one of the biggest Chinese online stores. AliExpress is a great place to go if you want to do dropshipping in Canada. Here are a few of them:
- People trust AliExpress enough to buy from it, and the prices on it don’t change, so you don’t have to worry about the price rules changing.
- With AliExpress, you can connect with millions of sellers who are willing to work with dropshipping store owners because they can make money together.
- AliExpress has more than 100 million products in every possible category, and most of them are cheaper than, say, those on Amazon, which is a huge company.
- With Dropship Corporation, an official AliExpress partner, you can send orders to your AliExpress suppliers in a few seconds. Then, you can spend more time on marketing to bring in more customers and make more money.
- AliExpress is easy to use, and you don’t have to pay any fees or costs up front. This means you can try out products without having to spend a lot of money.
- On top of that, most AliExpress sellers already have photos and descriptions of their products that you can use on your store.
- AliExpress dropshipping has more benefits, which you can read about here.
Order Samples
When you decide to work with a supplier, I suggest you order some samples of the product(s) you plan to sell from them.
This is done in order to:
To check the shipping time and write it down
Check out how the product is packaged.
Use the actual product yourself to see how well it works.
To make sure the product does what it’s supposed to do, or to meet the needs of your potential customers.
You should be sure that the things you sell are good. Customers who buy low-quality goods will be unhappy and ask for a lot of returns and refunds. So, testing the products ahead of time can help your business run better. Even though most suppliers will ask you to pay for samples, don’t let that stop you from moving forward.
Use a programme for drop shipping
Last but not least, you should find a dropshipping solution to boost your business and increase your income. You can choose from a variety of dropshipping software to automate many of your daily tasks and save time on mundane tasks.
Here, I suggest Dropship Corporation, a simple but powerful tool for AliExpress dropshipping. Let’s look at what Dropship Corporation can do for you:
- As I said above, the supplier is one of the most important parts of the success of your dropshipping business. The Supplier finder on Dropship Corporation makes it easy to choose the right seller. You can choose the right seller for one purchase with the most noticeable feature. So, you won’t have to do research by hand any more.
- The next thing I’d like to say about e-commerce is that Dropship Corporation can make bulk orders. As your business grows, big orders will come in. You can put all of them in one click with Dropship Corporation. They won’t bring you down anymore.
- With Dropship Corporation, you can run stores from different sales channels. You won’t have to go to different platforms to check on orders. With a account, you can see them all in one place. You can connect Dropship Corporation to platforms like Wix, Shopify, and WooCommerce, for example.
- The tracking numbers for your orders will be added to the dashboard by Dropship Corporation. You can quickly and easily find out the status of an order and get other information.
What This Means for Taxes and Shipping
After you know how to start a dropshipping business in Canada, there is one more thing to keep in mind: the tax and shipping issues. If you want to sell your goods to people in Canada, you might have to charge taxes based on which province the goods are going to.
In short, Canada has three sales taxes: GST (Federal system of taxation for goods and services), PST (Provincial system of taxation for provincial sales tax), and HST (Harmonized sales tax), which combines GST and PST into one tax. Go to The Retail Council of Canada’s website to find out what the current tax rates are in each province and territory.
Even though many e-commerce platforms let you customise your website and add taxes to the final price when a customer checks out, there may be other costs, like shipping and customs, that should be added to your sales prices. So, before you start selling, you need to find out what customs taxes will be put on your product.
Here, I’d like to point out that your supplier will send the product directly to the customer, so when figuring out shipping costs, you should take the location of the supplier into account.
Last Word
In a word, Canada’s online business is getting bigger. There are a lot of ways to grow an online business or start dropshipping thanks to the market. There are only 5 easy steps to start dropshipping in Canada. Canada is also one of the top countries with a high standard of living, which means that if you dropship the right products there, you could increase your store’s profits.
In Canada, clothing, shoes, books, games, cosmetics, body care, and health care products are some of the most popular niches for dropshipping. So, you can try them out if you don’t have a great business idea for yourself right now. But you can also sell products in other niches, so don’t limit yourself to these.
After reading this post, I hope you can have a good time dropshipping in Canada.
