Dropshipping, tips and advice to create your ecommerce website without stock

In very simple terms, “Dropshipping” is a business strategy in which an online store owner does not keep goods in stock but helps retailers or customers to access goods directly from the manufacturer (or another retailer) via direct delivery.

This way, the drop shipper gets a commission for helping initiate and close sales deals for the manufacturer or another retailer who has goods in stock, while the customer gets his/her order.

Dropshipping is a great option to consider for your PrestaShop e-shop. Without mincing words, it’s a legitimate win-win solution for everyone who wants to try out a different business model or start with small investments.

With that in mind, it's understandable that your PrestaShop store might already be operating on this dropshipping model or that you are probably thinking of creating an additional store to dropship.

Here are some proven dropshipping tips to help you totally transform your e-shop while helping you realize high sales rates and positive returns on investment.

 

1. Know your product

First things first: you should have decided your niche before ever opening an e-shop. This entails specializing in a particular type of goods and/or services. For instance, you could choose to be a dealer in women footwears and have an online store dedicated to selling only stilettos.

Starting this way helps you concentrate your energy and resources to building a brand and helps potential customers know you as a reliable provider of that particular product you have chosen to deal in. E-shops that are able to establish themselves this way and as brands, usually thrive better than random online shoppers who simply want to make money.

Treat your e-shop as if it is an actual business if you want to achieve maximum results. With time, you can add other types of products but that should be based on whether those products have high demand rates.

Additional tip:  Tip: avoid fake brands and knockoffs. You will be better-off with investing a little and making your product stand out from competition (be it your imprinted logo or small tweak of the product itself).

 

2. Get your e-shop website design right

We all know how quality always wins over quantity and so, you would want to make sure that you have a great online store that people would love to interact with.

How do you make this possible? Your e-shop design quality is how.

Go for a shop look which is attractive and functional. Nobody stays on or returns to a website that looks poor or bland. Ensure that your e-shop website’s colors, fonts, copy, and all the other elements blend into a great design that can allure and captivate your potential users. Do not forget that less is more and so you do not want to overdo your “design”, else you would overwhelm your potential visitors and eventually drive them away.

Same thing goes for user experience – your website has to be easily navigable, with well-blended design elements, as well as a lot of white spaces for your potential users. An easy-to-access shopping cart can be a good start.

If this sounds like a lot, then you might want to consider picking a PrestaShop theme. PrestaShop themes are unique, customizable and designed to ensure the best user experience for your site’s visitors and to support your niche/business model. You can choose a template from the wide variety of custom templates that suits and can communicate your brand’s identity and business goals.

The product images and descriptions on your e-shop are the second most important thing, if not the first, for a reliable and good business. This is because it is ultimately what drives customer engagement and transactional business for your brand. As much as possible, create your products images and descriptions yourself to avoid copyright lawsuits and unnecessary drama.

One common mistake most dropshippers make is that they use low quality or even stolen images and videos. Do not go this way. Source for (and buy if you have to) HD images of the products you want to sell.

 

3. Build social credibility

Customers want to see the human side of your online business and so, your best bet as a drop shipper is to find a way to continually engage your potential and existing customers. This is because your competitive advantage lies in reaching your customers first and attracting, engaging and delighting them. After all, there are might be tens of other drop-shippers who provide the same or similar products as you do.

With social credibility, you can make your dropshipping brand to make it more visible and “relevant” to your prospective customers. Always remember that choosing the right niche and design are important, however, social credibility is also a very strong competitive advantage over your competitors.

The paragraphs below will guide you on how you can build social credibility for brand reputation, increase traffic to your website, predict and consistently generate leads, which will  ultimately increase your sales and ROI.

How do you build social credibility?

You can build social credibility for your dropshipping brand using either or all of the following methods.

I.                 Providing value: by creating content around your customers’ interests, you can easily provide value to them and standout as a relevant brand. This will help more people find you and remember you first anytime they need the kind of goods you provide.

Do this by creating a blog where you can provide blog posts, articles or social media accounts for real-time client engagement. A customer will be more willing to transact business with a drop shipper who is readily available to answer all of their questions or inquiries.

Another way to do this is to offer free shipping. Everybody likes free things and would be glad to buy from you if they do not have to pay more for your goods.

II.               Keeping your customers in the know: there is nothing more frustrating than having to wait too long for a product bought online. There is also the fear of being cheated on and so, you would want to ensure that your customers are at peace and trust you:

·       Start by clearly making your shipping/delivery times known.

·       Have your return policy spelled out in detail. The customer should know what would happen if another thing happens, and this information should easily be found on your website.

·       Do not forget to assure your customers of your reliability by using trust badges, privacy policies, and terms and conditions sections on your website.

·       Invest in an Order Tracking App to keep customers up-to-date with the status of their purchase. An easily affordable method to also do this is to thoroughly research your wholesalers’ integrity and reliability, for the assurance that the customer will definitely get their order delivered to them and in good time.

·       And lastly, do not forget to provide a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to increase your chances of selling while lowering bounce rates and/or abandoned carts.

III.            Incorporating testimonials and reviews: this might not seem like a big deal, but trust me, it can work wonders. People are easily moved by other people’s stories or experiences. Having good reviews and testimonials can ultimately convince your potential customer to do business with you even without you uttering the word “please”.

 

Conclusion

So, there you have it. Powerful dropshipping tips to keep you on top of your online shopping game.

Hopefully this article has provided some insight into what steps can help you sell more online. Be assured – even if you don’t dropship, these actions are beneficial, if not necessary, for any type of online business.

 

This article is a guest post from Invertus Agency