Dropshipping: Create Passive Income with E-commerce and Shopify Step by Step by Proven Strategies! New and Improved Ways for Busy Times of 2019 and 2020! Great to Listen in a Car!

By Mark Graham

Dropshipping is a current e-commerce trend gaining increasing popularity. Many individuals have attempted to start a dropshipping business, only to have it fail after a few months. Failing at running a dropshipping business is a result of improper planning and lack of awareness about current market trends. 

If it's your dream to run a successful dropshipping business, you need to read this book to avoid the common mistakes made by novices in the industry. You don't need to be a marketing genius or have 20 years experience as a business owner, you simply have to follow the guidelines laid out in this book and you will be well on your way to a thriving online business.

For the purposes of this book, Shopify is focused on as the main dropshipping platform due to its popularity and easy to use features. If you don't have a Shopify account yet, or you've never even heard of it before, don't worry, you will be guided through how to use the platform. 

Inside this book, the following topics will be discussed:

What it takes to be successful in e-commerce Current dropshipping market trendsHow to set up a Shopify account and start making salesCreating a consistent supply chainHaving a market planDifferentiating your brandBeating the competitionScaling your businessMarketing strategiesCustomer value

You shouldn't be afraid of starting a dropshipping website because you don't know where to start or how to maintain a successful business. With this book, you will have everything you need to make it as a successful dropshipper. Find your true potential and discover your success by putting the guidelines found within this book to work today!

Dropshipping is a current e-commerce trend gaining increasing popularity. Many individuals have attempted to start a dropshipping business, only to have it fail after a few months. Failing at running a dropshipping business is a result of improper planning and lack of awareness about current market trends. 

If it's your dream to run a successful dropshipping business, you need to read this book to avoid the common mistakes made by novices in the industry. You don't need to be a marketing genius or have 20 years experience as a business owner, you simply have to follow the guidelines laid out in this book and you will be well on your way to a thriving online business.

For the purposes of this book, Shopify is focused on as the main dropshipping platform due to its popularity and easy to use features. If you don't have a Shopify account yet, or you've never even heard of it before, don't worry, you will be guided through how to use the platform. 

Inside this book, the following topics will be discussed:

What it takes to be successful in e-commerce Current dropshipping market trendsHow to set up a Shopify account and start making salesCreating a consistent supply chainHaving a market planDifferentiating your brandBeating the competitionScaling your businessMarketing strategiesCustomer value

You shouldn't be afraid of starting a dropshipping website because you don't know where to start or how to maintain a successful business. With this book, you will have everything you need to make it as a successful dropshipper. Find your true potential and discover your success by putting the guidelines found within this book to work today!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tony Bennis
• Release date: Oct 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781922320476

Mark Graham

Mark Graham is a professor in the Art Department at Brigham Young University. Graham is an internationally known illustrator. His research interests include teacher education, place-based education, graphic novels, ecological/holistic education, secondary art education, design thinking, STEAM education, and Himalayan art and culture. Contact: 3116-B JKB, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.

Book preview

Plan

Introduction

E-commerce is indisputably one of the most significant phenomena of the internet besides social media. It is a major reason for the growth of internet users, and it is currently estimated that the internet audience is almost half of the world’s population.

More and more people prefer to shop online, mainly because of the convenience and comfort that comes with it. One can buy from the office, from the car, from the bed, and virtually anywhere they feel comfortable. Due to this growing popularity, e-commerce sales are expected to grow to four trillion dollars by 2020.

The evolving concept of consumer behavior suggests that marketers must be on the lookout. Consumers are now more demanding, and they want to have seamless services. They want to have something when they want it and how they want it. As a marketer, you have to stay on top of the trends to win the confidence of consumers.

Also, despite the growing prominence of online shopping, most consumers are reluctant in their purchase decision-making process. This is primarily because of privacy concerns, not having a chance to test the product, the shipping costs, and anticipating deliveries. They shift from channel to channel seeking what will satisfy their needs.

So, your role as a business person is to cultivate a sense of confidence in the consumer audience you target and serve them adequately. Your most significant task as a marketer is to attract customers and create a seamless omnichannel experience that matches the consumers’ expectations.

There are various modes of e-commerce, and these include the different social media platforms and marketplaces. All these mediums have one thing in common, and that is consumers. Consumers are the people who have a need and want to fulfil it. Undoubtedly, the next wave of e-commerce is achieved by business people who can connect the dots from all consumer touchpoints and provide a comprehensive customer experience. 

In this book, we focus on dropshipping as one of the most lucrative opportunities in the e-commerce sector today. It is a retailing method in which you do not have a store where you keep inventory. Instead, you connect producers and consumers. You purchase products from a third party, and have it shipped directly to the consumers. So, in this kind of business, your most significant task is to create a connection between both parties.

As technology revolutionizes the world around us, concepts such as dropshipping continue to take form. Technology has given us the necessary tools and resources to help us soar to great heights. It has put the information at our fingertips. What remains is for us to compile this information and come up with great strategies for doing business.

If you can grasp what it takes to be successful in dropshipping, you will experience benefits such as low overheads, less capital outlay, the flexibility of location, and a wide selection of products. However, for you to enjoy these benefits, you have to minimize the challenges that come with dropshipping, like low margins of scale, complexities in shipping, inventory tracking issues, as well as supplier errors.

Most importantly, you have to win the confidence of your customers and turn them into advocates for your brand. Consequently, you need to have a well-thought-out plan for conducting your business to minimize the challenges as much as possible.

One of the best modes of carrying out a dropshipping business is through Shopify. Although you might have already heard of the word Shopify and dropshipping, you have to understand the core elements of these concepts for you to succeed. As always, excellent background information improves your expertise in doing something. Therefore, it is important to understand exactly what dropshipping and Shopify mean. 

Shopify is a Canadian based e-commerce platform that allows you to start and run a dropshipping business. Shopify allows you to customize your store online, sell in various regions, and manage business functions such as inventory, payments, and product delivery online. All information is cloud-based, and you don’t have to worry about software. 

This book will guide you in establishing the best actions to take for a successful Shopify dropshipping business. It shows you how to begin on the right foot, attract consumers, provide them with value, grow your audience, and make it in business. It also offers you the latest trends and advanced techniques, as well as how to implement them best in your store.

The book is targeted at people who have a basic understanding of Shopify and are ready to create their stores. It is easy and straightforward to follow. If you had tried before and failed at running a Shopify business, then this book shows you how to do it right this time around.

Chapter 1: Requisites for a Successful Online Venture

As mentioned earlier , proper background information for any venture in life makes your journey easy and increases your chances of achieving your goal.  It puts the problem you are trying to solve into proper context.

At any point in your life, deciding to start up something that is new to you can make you feel an enormous amount of pressure. It is never an easy task for anyone, despite your willingness to create a positive impact on your life and those around you. But, you will realize that the key to success entails a single piece of information, a unique idea at the right time.

So, let’s start by walking through the essential elements you need to know to get started online with Shopify successfully.

You Need an Online Store, that’s a Given

ALTHOUGH DROPSHIPPING is one of the most accessible money-making business plans today, you must have access to an online audience. Further, to be able to connect buyers and producers, you must create an online store. This is the central point of all your communications from the supply side and the consumer side.

An online store is known as the website or application over which goods and services are exchanged (Kremez, et al., 2019). Consumers visit a site and identify the products of their choice. The website shows consumers the range of products alongside their images and specifications. This is where you help consumers shop by enabling a good display and user-friendly interface where consumers have an easy time in their purchasing process.

A Shopify store is known as a business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce market because you serve consumers from businesses. These businesses include other manufacturers and wholesalers. Consumers are strategic when making these purchases, so you have to have an online strategy that reflects value for consumers.

You Need a Marketing Plan, That’s How You Grow Your Business

OBVIOUSLY, WITHOUT customers, your business will not survive. They are the ones who demand goods and services that your business is striving to fulfil. When you identify a niche in the dropshipping business and start your online store, you will seek to fulfil a particular need of a particular consumer or audience.

To attract customers and turn them into brand advocates, your business needs to know how to market properly. Marketing is the critical function of a company as it helps you inform your audience about your products and services in an appealing way. It is the force that compels them to consider buying from you amidst a market full of competition.

Brands that make marketing a top priority always succeed in growing their business. It is the heart of business because with it you gain an edge over your competitors. You can’t just open an online store and assume that consumers will learn about you by their own means. Instead, you must take deliberate actions to come up with a way of presenting your products to your targeted audience.

Marketing does not just happen. A marketing plan makes you understand the different aspects that may influence the performance of your brand. Since consumer, products, and business trends are constantly changing, having a firm business plan makes it easy for you to maximize on new trends. Without a plan, it will be difficult for you to incorporate the latest trends into your business.

Ideally, a marketing plan is a footprint for your business. It is a strategic document with specific and measurable goals for positioning your brand in a way that your target market perceives you as better than your competitors. Instead of worrying about what may happen in the future, with a marketing plan, you can adequately predict and prepare for the future.

You Need Reliable Suppliers, That’s How You Satisfy Your Customers

IN DROPSHIPPING, YOU are more or less at the mercy of suppliers. They determine how a product is delivered to consumers. Should they delivery faulty or substandard products, it is your business that suffers. Also, should they fail to perform quickly and efficiently, it is your business and not the suppliers’ reputation that gets tainted.

In fact, one of the significant reasons for dropshipping failure is the lack of reliable suppliers.