Why start dropshipping with Shopify? Well, if you are on a tight budget, and you don’t have the right amount of resources, and you want to start your own business – then dropshipping is for you. We made a complete guide to dropshipping with Shopify, which should help you create a profitable online store using this e-commerce platform.
First things first. Free of stock managing, dropshipping should lead you into fulfillment as an entrepreneur. You create an eCommerce store, and when a product is sold, the order is sent to your supplier, for example, some Ali Express merchant. You don’t have to worry about the product because you won’t even see it. The third-party ships the product to the customer who ordered it.
Sounds great, right?
In this article, we will guide you through the process of starting a dropshipping business. Have you heard about Shopify? It’s one of the most successful platforms for resellers globally. You will learn everything about dropshipping with Shopify. From creating a website, finding a source for your product, to creating a good looking store.
Read more below.
What is Shopify?
As we’ve said above, Shopify is a commerce platform, one of the most successful ones actually. You can set up a store easily, and sell your products, or products from another supplier – dropshipping.
You can start for free. Shopify offers a 14-day free trial period. It offers you all kind of services that one business needs. Thousands of features are added in order to please everyone’s needs, from beginners to experts.
Actually, Shopify isn’t expensive at all. Even after the 14-day trial period, you can start using Shopify Lite for $9, although most of the users that are creating their store for the first time are using the $29 Basic plan. There are different levels of Shopify stores, so you can choose between Basic Shopify, or if you are in the business for some period you can try the Advanced version, or even the Plus version – it all depends on your needs.
Why choose dropshipping with Shopify?
There are a couple of options when you are starting your dropshipping business. And every option has its benefits. We think that Shopify is the option that suits you because it offers packages for everyone’s needs. Actually, we singled out three benefits that entrepreneurs get when they choose Shopify:
User-friendly platform
You don’t like tech so much, and you are overwhelmed when you see many options, features, and functionalities? Well, that may be the case with some other platforms. Shopify is easy to use because of the user-friendly software that guides you through the whole process.
Shopify Integrations
It’s perfectly tailored for drop shippers. It is created to please the needs of every drop shipper out there. Oberlo is one of the great apps that work with Shopify. There are many other apps left, that may be a solution to your problem, for example, Order Printer.
Great plugins
Other departments, such as marketing, sales, or payments aren’t left off. Shopify offers you great plugins that can help you out with the whole eCommerce business. It also has great solutions for your designs, an excellent store builder.
How to open a Shopify store?
Before you start selling or building your business on Shopify, you must find your products. So, figure out what you are going to sell, and segment your audience. Create buyer personas, and find your niche.
There are a couple of rules when you are looking for a niche. Know your market, know your product, and have a passion for it. It is much smarter than going after the trends, stand out from the group, and make sure you are unique.
Keyword research
The first thing to do after you have decided what you are going to sell. Think about your product, and how would you search for it if you were going to buy it. Search for the most commonly used keywords, and then do deeper research on them.
Determine product trends
You need to check your data carefully. Check your keywords on Google Trends, and see how they are doing. According to the results, you will set up your next steps.
Profitability
Your niche may receive a high volume search, but what does that worth if you are not getting profits? Run the numbers, do some math. You are looking for a low-cost product that you can sell as a premium product and get bigger profits. Actually, Shopify has its own profit margin calculator for all products, which is a great feature!
Try to follow these rules when you are thinking about opening a store on Shopify. And most importantly – do research on everything.
Now when you found your product, your next step should be creating a Shopify account and building a store. In the next paragraphs, we will teach you how to open a Shopify store, a step-by-step guide.
Register an account on Shopify
Let’s start dropshipping with Shopify. The first step is creating your account on the platform. You should head to their website and look for a CTA button on their home page. Before clicking the button, please think about the name of your future store. And yes, you should keep it simple.
The process continues by answering some questions. Are you already selling a product, or where do you live? Answer the questions and continue to the store’s backend.
Shopify automatically configures your store’s URL, according to the name. You’ll get an email with the URL, and please save the URL to your browser bookmarks for easy access.
Attach products to your Shopify store
You’ll be redirected to your dashboard. You will most likely be confused about your next steps because you could do everything at that moment. That is why we are advising you to add your products as your next step.
It’s easier to add the products in this stage because you’ve just done the research, so you’ll know which product is best to add at the moment. It’s simple and it could take only a couple of minutes.
Also, when you have your products added, the design is much simpler. You’ll already have the boxes with the products and you’ll just go with the flow.
If you don’t have a dropshipping solution – use Oberlo. It’s the default option, but you can choose another of course.
You can find the Products button left on your dashboard, and after that, you click More Actions -> Find more products to sell.
There you go. If you are looking for a specific supplier or product, you can find it there. Shopify has many options for filtering while looking for a specific product or a supplier.
We believe you’ll get it from here, there is only the Add Product button left.
Editing the product details is one of the most important stuff to do in your store. This is your chance to persuade customers. Also, this is the place where you should use some tags, or stuff your keywords.
Setting up a collection is one way to single out your products. Add them into different collections, and then make them more appealing. Also, if you used tags you can create a custom collection that for example are tagged as “summer” or “winter”.
Design – Shopify Free & Paid Themes
You can start getting creative now. You can choose free themes or paid ones. Depends on your budget.
You can edit the store and its look with the theme designer. The Left-hand toolbar should help you out, let’s start from there.
Don’t forget about the basic pages: About Us, Contact, Shipping & Returns, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). These should always be included, on any site.
When you are done with those pages, you will be ready to navigate your site. That means – configure your menus. There is the main menu, which is usually in the header section, and I recommend you – put the basic pages I mentioned above in the footer, or most usually the “second menu”.
If you want to use the potential of Facebook and Google Ads, you should add their codes to the Shopify’s backend. You can find that in the preferences section in the left-hand menu.
There are a couple of steps left:
- Add a Domain – actually, your store can run with the custom URL, which includes your store name, and Shopify add-on. I recommend you to try adding your domain, just to make it more appealing.
- Set up payments – the default payment methods that are enabled are Shopify Payments or PayPal. You can add different payment methods though.
- Find your favorite dropshipping app – don’t just get satisfied easily. Try searching for other solutions, even more profitable.
- Which plan you are going to choose? – After the 14-day trial period, you must choose a paid plan. The basic prices are in the $29 to $299 range.
Conclusion
Simple as that, Shopify enables entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams. You don’t need to have a large budget, start small, and then grow. You should be a great marketer though. With this guide to dropshipping with Shopify, you can create your own store, and become profitable via dropshipping. In case you’re still unsure of which e-commerce platform to choose, feel free to read our article about comparing the three largest e-commerce platforms for dropshipping on the Internet – Shopify vs WooCommerce vs BigCommerce.