Top Secret: 25 Dropshipping Tips And Tricks For Every Occasion

Dropshipping tips for beginners sound too obvious to you while dropshipping tips for experienced entrepreneurs seem to be too complex? Meet our all-inclusive list of the most valuable pieces of dropshipping advice ever – you’ll benefit from them regardless of your store’s stage of development!

It doesn’t matter whether you already own a highly profitable dropshipping store, or only consider the benefits of getting one.

At any stage of your business journey, you need a piece of advice or a handy life hack from time to time. Here, you can find the a number of dropshipping dos and don’ts that will definitely help you succeed with your venture!

Dropshipping tips and tricks related to your niche choice

Why do we start with these particular dropshipping tips? Because the niche choice is basically the first step you take before launching your own dropshipping venture!

Generally, at this point, people don’t have much background knowledge, which is why it might seem tricky for them to make up their mind on a certain niche.

But, of course, this issue is also highly relevant for the entrepreneurs who already have their own running stores. Thanks to the dropshipping business model principle, it’s not so difficult to change your store product offer if necessary. Still, the selection process itself might be slightly confusing.

So, what would we recommend on this stage?

1. Follow your heart

Write down all the activities, fields of knowledge, subjects and events you’re deeply interested in. Any of them might give you dozens of ideas for a profitable dropshipping niche.

Most importantly, this will be a niche you’re passionate about! When you are a fan of your own products, you are enthusiastic about your business even if it doesn’t go as planned. Plus, you surely know how to create the perfect visitor-engaging atmosphere in your store.

2. Educate yourself

Generally, these 2 aspects come together, but it’s still necessary to mention: you need to really know a lot about the specific features of the niche you’ve chosen.

Think of the following example: if you’re really passionate about children and the environment for their happy growth, but at the same time know nothing about child psychology and behavioral patterns on different development stages, it will be nearly impossible for you to launch a well-considered store with educational toys and games. In such case, you need to either study the topic and the market offers, or concentrate on related items that don’t require deep professional knowledge (cute and relaxing room decor, paintings, wall decals, textiles, etc.).

3. Meet the demand

One of the wisest ideas behind the dropshipping business model is the opportunity to benefit from the unmet demand that exists across the globe.

For a number of reasons, thousands of people worldwide can’t buy some of the desired goods in offline stores. For many of them, online shopping is also confusing. Sometimes, these people simply don’t know where to look for the necessary items and how to order them.

This is why it is crucial for you to research your potential customers’ needs and wants and understand how exactly you can help them get what they want! Isn’t it awesome to feel you’re really making a difference for these people?

4. Analyse

It’s not really enough to simply have a long list of store niches that are interesting to you personally and popular among your potential buyers. It’s vital to check which of these lovely niches is the best choice in business terms.

We have developed several algorithms that are specifically crafted to evaluate every niche from the point of view of its competitiveness, financial prospects, and marketing potential. Feel free to use these techniques in order to identify the most promising niche – or let us do this for you!

5. Keep an eye on trends

Technology and fashion never stay the same. New materials get tested, new manufacturing and informational techniques get invented, and new public obsessions emerge – as the result, new products enter the market.

It’s not always possible to predict or get ahead of these trends, but there’s one thing you can do for sure: monitor the hottest seasonal trends and pay attention to the global market sentiment as well.

6. Don’t be afraid to shift your niche focus

Discovered a trending product that doesn’t quite fit into your current niche? Noticed that your products are getting less interesting to customers? No worries!

It’s the dropshipping business model benefits that make your strategy flexible and riskless. At any moment, you can add any new niche items to your store and start promoting them to the relevant audience. It’s not uncommon for companies to develop their brands and expand their scope when necessary – you can easily do it, too!

Dropshipping tips related to your products choice

Basically, you will deal with various product-related issues throughout your whole dropshipping journey.

As we already mentioned it before, the flexible nature of dropshipping business model means that you can easily switch to a different set of products if you want. Plus, it is generally recommended to update your store offer from time to time in order to both keep it relevant to the cutting edge trends and encourage potential buyers’ interest.

This is why each of the tips below is highly valuable for any dropshipping store owner!

7. Consider the seasonality

Some types of products are actively bought only during some specific time of the year. If you decide to build your store offer around this type of items, you won’t have a stable source of income throughout the calendar year.

It’s obvious that ‘Merry Christmas’ bunting, for example, won’t be actively ordered in June. Still, an almost identical ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Just Married’ bunting will be equally demanded regardless of the time of the year.

8. Use various inspirational sources

If you want to identify the most demanded and money-making products, it’s a good idea to research several reputable sources.

Your personal preferences and experience certainly matter, but it’s also important to check some relevant platforms that provide you with true-to-life data on customers’ preferences and wishes.

9. Be picky

Not all the products can be beneficial for a dropshipping store owner.

Before importing any item to your store, go through this list of the most important product criteria and make sure you’re making the right decision. The more boxes this item ticks, the better!

10. Make test purchases

It’s always a good idea to buy a sample item before you add this specific product to your store offer. This way, you will be able to see if the original seller is a reputable person – double checks are never irrelevant! Plus, you’ll take a look at the actual item quality and decide whether you really want to sell it to your target audience.

Oh, and there’s one more thing: if you have this exact item at your disposal, you can use it for various marketing purposes! Shoot real-life videos with it, take close-up pictures of high quality, write super-detailed product descriptions, post item-specific blog articles, boast on social media, and even send emails notifying about your store offer updates – there are plenty of ways to benefit from physically having one item sample in your house.

11. Import wisely

When it comes to importing products to the dropshipping store, some people get super excited with the opportunity to import items in bulk. So, they literally overload their newly made store with hundreds of items, and expect the business to flourish instantly.

They only forget about one tiny detail: each and every product page should be edited. It is vital for the store image and credibility, and it really, really, really needs to be done.

So, please, don’t add too many products to your store in a single take! You’ll get irritated and bored really quickly after trying to edit all the pages at once. Start with 6-8 items per a category, and do your best to provide a brilliant presentation for every product.

Dropshipping tips related to your store credibility

Your first priority is to convert your website visitors into actual buyers, right?

It is widely known that a thoughtfully made dropshipping store can successfully compete even with huge online platforms like AliExpress. As you can guess, in order to achieve it, you need to make sure your store doesn’t look like a spammy scam site.

This detailed guide contains all the possible reasons why people might leave your store without making a purchase, and explains how to fix it. Here, we will just go over the most important aspects of this task.

12. Think of the first impression

What will your store guest see upon the very first visit?

First impression matters, which is why a highly appealing store design heavily boosts the number of orders placed through your store.

The success of a dropshipping venture depends on the number of impulse purchases, which is why your goal is to charm your visitors and win over their hearts in the flicker of a second.

13. Take care of the layout

If your store is beautiful but totally inconvenient in use, the visitors will be likely to leave it without making a purchase.

This is why it is generally recommended to build a store on the basis of a carefully designed theme that was specifically developed and optimised to bring the highest returns possible.

Millions of online stores across the globe use the same layout patterns with the proven efficiency, and still look unique in their own way. This is the perfect reason to follow the example of successful business owners and build your own venture with the use of the previously tested solutions.

14. Write the FAQs

Your store should answer all the possible questions related to online purchases.

Naturally, people might feel insecure and suspicious about giving their money to an unfamiliar online store. This is why you need to patiently and professionally sort out all their queries.

Still, it’s really time-consuming to write all the same answers over and over again. So, why not dedicate a special store section to it? It really boosts your credibility, plus, you won’t waste any more time on explaining your returns & refunds policy, payment options, delivery times, etc. From now on, you simply need to send this page link to everyone who asks a related question.

15. Provide social proof

Use every possible way to convince your potential buyer that a) your store is not a fraud, b) lots of people are happy with the products they got from you.

For this purpose, you need these awesome tools – the more you try at once, the better!

Dropshipping tips related to your store management

16. Learn what to expect

If you don’t have the background knowledge about running an online store yet, make a little research to learn what will your average daily routine will look like. This way, you’ll be able to prepare yourself in advance, and plan your daily schedule in a way that is both pleasant for you and beneficial for your business.

If you already have some history of managing an online business, it still might be useful to learn from someone else’s experience, especially if this ‘someone’ enjoys a multi-billion dollar annual turnover.

17. Monitor your competitors

Proficient dropshipping store owners admit that competitors commonly copy their marketing strategies and promotional techniques, as well as design and layout patterns.

What stops you from doing the same?

Obviously, it doesn’t mean that you should follow every step of your competitors and steal their store ideas. Instead, it might be really useful to learn another person’s view on the market development, and understand what direction they are taking their business.

At the same time, it lets you quickly learn about someone stealing YOUR job; the sooner you find the way to outsmart them, the better.

18. Use automated solutions

The reason why people prefer dropshipping business to their 9 to 5 jobs is the business flexibility.

The correctly chosen automated or semi-automated solutions make it possible for you to make maximum profit while spending minimum time on the managerial tasks. Of course, you might need to spend some time choosing the most suitable dropshipping platform and try several options before finding the greatest one, but the result will be totally worth it.

19. Stay safe

That’s the thing that always gets ignored!

Please don’t do this.

There are 2 possible dangers that can pose a threat to an online store: fraudsters who pretend to be buyers, and tech glitches (hacks, viruses, software issues, etc.).

None of them is scary, actually: just take the precautions we’ve described in the linked articles, and everything will be fine.

Dropshipping tips related to ads & marketing

There are thousands and thousands of them, you know?

Let’s just quickly go through the little hacks that are a must-have for any dropshipping store owner!

20. Use the power of Facebook

Facebook was voted to be the best platform for dropshipping business promotion. Store owners gladly share their secrets of using this social media for their own benefit, and you can definitely follow their example.

All you need to do is learn how to manage your ads wisely, understand how to deal with ads targeting in the most efficient way, and read our awesome case on FB Ads remarketing. It will give you a general idea of arranging and crafting promotions that work best for your type of business.

21. Go for free promotions

It’s not always strictly necessary to stick to the paid promotions.

If you can’t afford any marketing expenses now, or if you’re not sure what exactly will work for your business, start with the activities that don’t require any fees: it can successfully be done both on Facebook and on Instagram.

22. Learn SEO basics

With the help of search engine optimisation, you make your website more visible on Google search result page.

You can’t just expect a random person to occasionally stumble across your webstore because of a lucky chance, right? It’s your task to make it easy for people to find your store, which is why SEO should be one of your first priorities on the stage of a niche choice.

Even the domain name of your website should be optimised!

Use these guidelines to create an SEO-friendly store, and the long-term results will be more that satisfying.

23. Reconnect with the store visitors

Not every visit to an online store ends with a purchase.

Still, there is a chance for you to get in touch with people who added something to their shopping cart and left without placing an order!

This strategy is proven to increase the overall number of sales in your store, so we highly recommend trying it.

24. Mind holidays

Holiday season can be a blessing for your store…if you do some preparations in advance.

Go through this checklist to find out how to benefit during the holidays time.

25. Learn from mistakes

Good news: these don’t have to be your personal mistakes.

We have collected the most crucial and impactful mistakes that can seriously hurt dropshipping business. Look at them carefully, make sure there are not involved in your business, and get happy you’ve gained valuable knowledge without learning these errors the hard way!

This dropshipping tips selection can go on and on, surely, but these particular pieces of knowledge are the cornerstones of a profitable and enjoyable business. Accumulate them, research them, and put them into foundation of your own successful venture!