People often think that dropshipping is a hard business to run because you have to build a store, add products, find products, advertise, and do a lot more. In reality, it’s both easy and hard at the same time.
It’s easy because you don’t have to build a store from scratch. Instead, you can use one of many platforms. You don’t have to learn how to code in order to use a computer. It is hard because, like any business, it requires a lot of work.
Here, we’ll talk about a few ways to start a dropshipping business, such as building your own store.
Amazon
Amazon is the biggest online store in the world. Once upon a time, you could only sell here if you were in the U.S. But now, even if you don’t live in the US, you can sell on Amazon.
Becoming a member is what you need to do. Sign up for a seller’s account online, and then pick your Selling Plan. This is what will decide how much you have to pay. If you choose the Professional plan, you can sell as many items as you want for only $39.99 per month.
For the Individual plan, you can only sell less than 40 items per month, after which each item you sell will cost you $0.99. Amazon will also charge referral fees and variable closing fees on top of these fees.
Once you’ve signed up, just post the items for sale. When someone buys, buy the product from your supplier and have it sent to your customer.
eBay
eBay is a site for auctions, but you can also choose to “Buy It Now.” It started out as a place where people could sell used or pre-loved things. Now, most of the things for sale here are brand new.
After making an eBay account, you have to add a way to pay. Either a credit card or a PayPal account can be added. This is the account where eBay will charge fees automatically.
If you want to drop ship on eBay, you have to put the location of the item on your listing. If the location is not in a country that eBay allows, you can’t sell that item on that site.
The product is now live once it has been approved. And if someone places an order, you can just get it from your supplier. Costs to sell on eBay vary from country to country, but you can expect to pay insertion, auction, and fixed price fees.
Your Own Shop
Dropshipping is most often done this way. You can use your own name, logos, and brands to sell things, and you can also design your own store.
You can build your own online store in a number of ways. Today, Shopify is the most popular, but you can also use Magento, Woocommerce, and others. The thing is, if you build a store, you will spend more money because you have to pay a monthly fee for hosting your site.
Having your own online store costs about $15 per month on average.
You also have to pay the payment processor you chose a transaction fee. Most of the time, 2% of the cost of the transaction will be added to your bill.
If you use your store to dropship, you will also have to spend money on advertising.
Facebook is no longer just a social media site. You can set up a shop on Facebook where you can sell things. Your customers can look at your products through Messenger or look at the menu of your shop.
On Facebook Marketplace, you can also sell things. Just click on Marketplace on the left side of your Facebook profile page. Once you’re there, you can post the item just like you would your own photos. But here you can put a price and a description of the item.
The second way to do this is to find specific groups and post your products there. To find groups, click on your newsfeed, then on groups, and then look for one that fits your niche. You can also type the keyword for your line of work into the search bar to find groups.
If you use these ways to sell on Facebook, you won’t have a way to take payments. This means that you and the buyer will have to talk about how he is going to pay you.
Blog
On your blog site, you can also do dropshipping. This may sound like affiliate marketing, but it’s not. If you already have a WordPress account, you can turn your blog into a store by using different plug-ins.
With these plug-ins, you can add products that, when a customer clicks on them, take them to a page where they can check out. Woocommerce is the best plug-in or solution for doing this.
You can also put the products you are selling right in the blog post. This is great if you’re writing a review of a product. You can also post “blogs” that are really sales pages and not blogs. Add the description and price, and then if a customer orders it, buy it for your supplier.
WordPress is the best way to start a blog. You can also use Wix and Weebly, which are also popular.
Etsy
Etsy is a place where you can buy and sell handmade goods and art. When you use Etsy, you will set up a store in the Etsy marketplace.
Start by signing up, and then start building your shop. You also need to give your Etsy shop a name. After that, you can start listing your items.
There are fees like listing fees and transaction fees that you need to think about. The fee is $0.20 per item.
If the item sells and you want to put it back on the market, you will have to pay again. The transaction fee is 5% of the total amount you charged your customer, including shipping and gift wrapping.
A subscription fee is another type of payment. This costs $10 per month, but you’ll only pay that if you sign up for an Etsy Plus account. This account has more tools and is best for businesses that are growing.
Pinterest is kind of like Instagram. You need to “pin” your posts, and other people can “re-pin” them. Basically, you are showing pictures of a lot of things that other people might find interesting.
Make a business account. This is the best way to do this. With this kind of account, you can make Buyable Pins. People can click on these posts and buy things. You can link your Buyable Pins to your Shopify store if you want to.
Pinterest won’t charge you if you make a sale, but if you advertise on the site, you will have to pay. Promoted Pins are the name for these ads. Cost-per-click means that you only have to pay if someone clicks on your ad, even if they don’t buy anything.
The problem with Pinterest ads is that they can’t be used to sell things. Information like prices, calls to action, and sales pitches are not allowed.
Instagram is a great place to sell things you can hold in your hands. Technically, you can’t sell here, but you can post your products, add hashtags, and then write a description and price for each one.
If someone gets in touch with you or says something, you can go from there. Instagram is free, and you don’t have to pay anything for the things you sell through it. Like Pinterest, you will only have to pay if you want to put up ads.
You can’t post links on Instagram, which is a problem. The only thing in the post will be text. This is fine, since all you really want is for people to see the picture of your product.
Make sure you only use the best photos when you sell something on Instagram. Instagram is a place where the pictures that look the best get the most attention.
You can’t use any payment method here, so you have to persuade your buyer to pay you through PayPal or Western Union instead.
Walmart
Walmart isn’t just a group of stores anymore. It is now also a market place online. It’s a bit hard to get in, but it’s worth a try.
You have to fill out an application for a seller’s account first, and then you have to wait two to three weeks to find out if you are approved. Walmart would like it if you had sold things online before, and they will check your history on Amazon and eBay.
Once you’re approved, you have to build your Walmart store according to all the rules, such as the return and shipping policies.
Next, you’ll need to add a bank account, and Walmart will need to verify it. Here’s how Walmart will pay you if you made sales through the site.
Walmart, unlike Amazon, does not charge a monthly fee, but it does get a fee from people who send them business. The referral fee costs between 6% and 20% of the price of the item being sold.
Zibbet
Since 2009, Zibbet has been a place where people can buy and sell things. Like Etsy, Zibbet lets you set up your own shop and sell things. If you pay for the subscription yearly, it costs at least $5 per month, and you can use many tools to increase your sales.
If you pay for it every month, it will cost you $6 per month.
It also has Etsy as a sales channel, so the things you sell on Zibbet will also be sold on Etsy. You can also choose to only sell on the Zibbet marketplace, or you can use Stitch to build a separate website.
The arts are the main focus of Zibbet. People who come here are looking for crafts. You have to give your store a name and add a PayPal email address when you sign up. This PayPal account will get the money from all sales.
Bonanza
Like eBay, Bonanza is an online marketplace. You can list your items here and wait for someone to buy them. You’ll only have to pay fees if you make a sale.
In Bonanza, there is something called FOV, which stands for “Final Offer Value.” This is how much the customer has to pay in total, and this is how much you will get paid. The site takes 3.5% of the total cost of the sale as a fee.
Bonanza is known for selling unusual things like antiques and collectibles. People who come here are looking for old things or things that look like old things. People are willing to pay for collectible toys, DVDs, memorabilia art, and garden goods and equipment if you dropship them in Bonanza.
Bonanza protects both buyers and sellers, which is why more than 50,000 sellers have signed up to sell on the site.
Jet
Walmart bought Jet in 2016, which is an online marketplace. Before you can sell here, you have to sign up as a member, which the Jet team has to approve.
After that, you can decide to add Jet to your existing store or leave it alone if you don’t have any other ways to sell your products. But if you do, you can connect Jet with Zentail, Solide Commerce, and GeekSeller.
The thing about Jet is that buyers can’t pick who they want to buy from. On Amazon, you can compare two different sellers’ versions of the same product. A customer at Jet can’t do this. A single product listing is used by the system.
Who makes the sale depends on the Jet system. Also, Jet is the one who posts the item. For example, Seller A will provide the product title, and Seller B will provide the product description. Jet will check everything and then make a final page with just one product.
If your price is competitive, Jet will choose you if a sale is made for that product.
OfferUp
OfferUp is the last one on this list. It is an online marketplace where people can buy and sell things. It works the same way as eBay, where you list an item with a price and wait until someone buys it.
Best Offer is a thing on this website. This is a set of rules that helps sellers decide whether or not to ship the item. For instance, if a buyer makes an offer but doesn’t have a profile or feedback, OfferUp won’t mark it as “Best Offer” because it’s risky.
You don’t have to pay anything to post or buy items. But sellers will have to pay if they want to use the site’s premium features or sell expensive items like cars.
Summary
All of the 13 ways to make money with dropshipping are now gone. Now, you need to choose the site that makes the most sense or that you like because it sells the kind of product you want to buy.
As you make your decision, look over the terms and conditions, especially the fees you have to pay, and then set the prices of your products so that you still make a profit after paying all your bills.
Check out the articles below to learn more about how to make money with dropshipping.
