When we talk about the hottest eCommerce mode in recent years, what will you think about? the rising markets, the profitable niches, or new business ideas? Now, we’re talking about dropshipping, and I believe it is a popular trend and will always be popular all over the world.
Even though a great number of businessmen are familiar with dropshipping and get started into this mode, I’d love to introduce it briefly by adopting the definition from Wikipedia: Drop shipping is a form of retail business wherein the seller accepts customer orders but does not keep goods sold in stock. Instead, a wholesaler, another retailer, or a fulfillment house, then ships the goods directly to the customer.
Dropshipping features lots of benefits and that’s why numerous entrepreneurs have been involved in this business. First of all, dropshipping provides a lower threshold for those who desire to start eCommerce. No need to prepare the inventory in advance also means extremely lower costs and risks. However, with the increasing people entering this industry, dropshippers will face more and more challenges.
Find a profitable product
What comes first is the product. What to sell is one of the most important questions when dropshippers start dropshipping. It may sound a little complicated to do product research since you need to make lots of surveys about the target market, target audience, and even your competitors. Once you have chosen the product, you need to promote it and drive traffic to your dropshipping store.
However, the truth is that many dropshippers find it rather hard to find a good product that will bring sustained profit, so they replace the products frequently according to the trends. Then the result is that after replacing new products, you need to invest in a new marketing fee to find new customers and attract new traffic. Now, dropshippers are distressed that advertising costs like Facebook ads, Google ads, Youtube ads have been rising all the time. In the long run, dropshipping profits are overstocked by huge marketing expenses. A good number of dropshippers just gave up at this stage.
Work with a reliable supplier
Suppose you have decided your niches, then the next step? Yes, find a reliable supplier!
For most dropshippers, finding a trustworthy supplier or manufacturer is time-consuming. They just keep trying, searching online for their niches and even looking for suppliers in Facebook groups and communities. When reaching out to a new supplier, you maybe be attracted by his commitment and decide to work with him. But at the same time, risks have come out. When you place the order to dropshipping agents, they promise to ship the item to your customer directly. However, you can’t feel the quality of the product just by the pictures sent to you. If the product is not delivered to your customer on time, it will not only cause the loss of customers but also damage the reputation of your dropshipping store. Therefore, it’s crucial to find a reliable supplier.
FillSell is such a platform that specializes in finding Chinese suppliers for any product. They have developed a professional sourcing team, who can help dropshippers find manufacturers, check their authenticity and qualifications before shipping the item. Thus, you need not worry about the product quality anymore. In FillSell, there’re all reliable suppliers, manufacturers, and China’s top shipping companies, including UBI, 4PX, CNE, Yanwen Express, DHL, PostNL, Singapore Post, etc. For dropshippers with more orders, FillSell will give more discounts. FillSell treats dropshippers as partners instead of customers, and FillSell is willing to give them more profits and let them have more advantages over price than their competitors.
Besides product sourcing service, FillSell will dropship for you from sourcing, packing, shipping, and even after-sale service. Connected with Shopify and PayPal, your store orders will be synced to FillSell sourcing platform in real-time and need no page switching. You can focus on store promotion.
More and more competitors
Another challenge is the fierce competition in dropshipping. If you have entered this stage, I believe you couldn’t agree more. Due to the low barrier to entry, great quantities of new entrepreneurs squeeze into it in recent years. It’s common that whatever products you sell, you’ll find there’re lots of dropshipping stores that sell the same products. Sounds upset, right? What’s worse is that your competitors could sell the same item at a lower price, which will definitely impact your sales.
COVID-19 Impact still exists
The last but not least, it’s obvious that the COVID-19 has a great impact on eCommerce, and it will continue to affect the economy in the near future. The lockdowns happen usually, and the per-capita income is reduced, which causes people to have a lower desire to shop than before. Global shipping is not as convenient as before the pandemic, and the freight rises from time to time. All those are undoubtedly worse for dropshipping. While there’re some new trending product categoties coming out during the post-pandemic. All in all, The epidemic has changed our living habits and working methods in all aspects.
It is no doubt that running a dropshipping store is still profitable, while the challenges in dropshipping come together. Be brave and careful, and just face these challenges and turn them into new chances!