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Dropshipping for Beginners: Q&A Series #3

By Olga L.

Dropshipping for beginners: making your first steps

Our readers greatly enjoy this format of our blog articles, and so do we! This is why it’s time for another Q&A session. This one is all about dropshipping for beginners who are absolute newcomers to ecommerce with no previous IT experience at all.

We’re really happy that our solutions are motivating and encouraging even for people who have no idea how it all works. This is why we will do our best to help you out!

1. What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a simple-to-follow online business model. Here’s how it works:

  1. You find a supplier who sells items online and can arrange shipping: you can find them on AliExpress or Sellvia, depending on the country you want to target
  2. To sell these items conveniently, you create or buy an online store
  3. You fill your store with images and descriptions of products available from this seller, and set higher prices on them
  4. When someone visits your store and places an order, you buy this item from the supplier, but ask him to deliver the product on your client’s address
  5. You get the profit from EVERY purchase – your profit is the difference between the seller’s price and your own price

As you can see, it’s not difficult at all. This business model has tons of benefits as you:

  • Don’t need to have anything ‘physical’ – products, office, warehouse, etc. All the deals happen in virtual sphere
  • Have no need to buy items in advance, and therefore, experience no risk of not selling them
  • Don’t need to rent an actual office and warehouse, or hire people to manage these facilities
  • Can start the business with the minimal financial investments, only spending money on the store development
  • Have an opportunity to run the business from any point of the globe as all you need is PC or laptop, and a stable Internet connection
  • Can increase the sellers’ prices any way you like, and have no one who would limit your profit
  • Are your own boss – the business fully belongs to you

2. How does the buying and selling process work?

So, you have a ready store with product images and descriptions.

A store visitor likes some of your offers, and places an order.

You accept the payment and ask for the client’s name and address.

As soon as you receive the money from the buyer, you transmit the same order to the original seller. AliDropship plugin does this automatically, so you won’t get confused with all the orders, sellers, items, countries, addresses, etc.

The seller gets money and customer details from you, makes the package, dispatches it to your buyer, and gives you the tracking code.

You, in turn, send this tracking code to the client, and keep an eye on this order to see how everything’s going.

Nothing extraordinary, in fact!

3. Can I do dropshipping without the AliDropship plugin?

Well, yes.

The reason why people all over the globe use this plugin for WordPress-based online stores is that the plugin does the biggest part of the job automatically. Still, the plugin is quite young, even though this business model exists for a long time already. So, several years ago people were just doing dropshipping without any technical help.

We were doing the same – as you know, we have a huge experience of running our own dropshipping stores.

And this is exactly the reason why we created the plugin!

You see, as your business grows bigger, you find it more and more difficult to manage all the processes. To save your time and nerves, and to deal with the most common dropshipping challenges, it is better to go for automatic solutions.

4. What is WordPress?

Speaking in VERY simple terms, it’s a piece of web publishing software.

It’s the most popular solution globally used for building websites and blogs – around 28% of ALL the existing websites are created and managed with the help of WordPress.

You download it from the official provider, install it on your site – and here it is! Now you can easily and conveniently manage your website.

It truly does a lot to simplify dropshipping for beginners and experienced entrepreneurs alike. WordPress is free, user-friendly, and super flexible. There exist thousands of plugins, extensions, and themes compatible with it. You can download (or buy) any of them to boost the functionality of your website and make it totally unique.

5. What is hosting?

Again, let’s talk in VERY simple terms.

Hosting is a service provided by experienced companies (you can try doing it yourself, but it will be really challenging to manage).

What do these providers do?

Basically, by giving you hosting, they help you upload all your website information to the Internet.

As soon as you get hosting, everything that you’ve added to your website (texts, pictures, videos, etc.) becomes accessible to Internet users. Therefore, people can find your website, browse it, and view it.

6. How can I make profit using AliDropship plugin?

Oh, that’s an essential part of explaining dropshipping for beginners! 😊

The plugin does the biggest part of your technical job.

This way, it gives you enough free time to experiment with marketing strategies and boost your store sales.

The more time and effort you devote to marketing, the more impressive is the result!

7. Does the AliDropship plugin have a trial period?

There’s no demo or trial period, but we provide 30 days money back guarantee on the plugin.

8. Can I use your standard free theme without AliDropship plugin?

No, the themes will only work if you have installed the plugin.

9. Do I need to register my business?

Neither Sellvia nor AliExpress suppliers will ask you for any official registration, which certainly is a blessing for dropshipping beginners. In fact, they will work with you even if you’re just an ordinary customer who buys their items for personal use.

Still, every country has its own legal rules. Check the relevant laws carefully!

10. Do I need to sign up dropshipping agreement to start business with you?

No, you don’t need to sign any papers.

11. What do I need to keep in mind when starting a dropshipping business? 

Even though dropshipping itself is a simple business model, it can certainly have its pitfalls that beginner entrepreneurs can stumble upon. Here’s a small list of things you need to be aware of when starting a dropshipping business.

Select the products that sell

This is probably one of the most common mistakes beginners make. Many dropshippers truly believe that product selection does not matter. When it’s actually quite the opposite. What they do is fill up their store with an array of products that they are unable to sell.

When selecting the product for your store you need to consider the following:

  • The product is something that people actually want and need
  • There is already some hype about the product (it has an interested audience)

Choose the niche wisely

Staying on the topic, you must choose not only a product that sells but also the right niche. What we mean by this is that you ideally want to choose the products that you’re somewhat familiar with, that also have a steady stream of sales, with a relatively low level of competition, and have a good profit margin.

To avoid this, we recommend you complete thorough market research of a niche you’re interested in. This way, you will have an understanding of what opportunities lie in front of you and the potential pitfalls a niche might have.

Don’t aim for lower product prices to get sales

Another common mistake beginner entrepreneurs tend to make is lower the price of the products to beat the competition. The result of these actions leads to getting no profit at all.

Make sure to devote some time to establishing a proper pricing strategy that will bring you not only sales but a huge profit.

Consider all parameters calculating your profit

During the process of profit calculation, you can’t simply consider one or two factors – there are several factors you’ll need to account for. Here are some of the factors beginner dropshipping entrepreneurs skip:

  • Shipping costs (if there are any)
  • Ad costs
  • Transaction fees
  • Refunds
  • Discounts

Make sure your website looks and works perfectly

Your website is up there with the most important factors of establishing a successful ecommerce business. It is the place where your customers will decide whether to purchase from you or not. For this reason, it is important to have a professionally designed, functional, and user-friendly website. And don’t forget that it has to work smoothly on mobile devices as well.

In short, don’t skimp on your website. Get a professional-looking website and it will pay off in the long run.

12. How can I maximize my chances of success?

So, if you’re ready to take on the incredible world of dropshipping, there are just a few things to look out for to fully maximize your chances of building a successful online business.

Most people who manage a dropshipping store find the most success when they find a specific niche and focus solely on it by ensuring that every product they sell is the perfect fit for their niche audience and brand.

Once you’ve found several potential dropshipping suppliers, try completing a test order. This way you’ll be able to see how the supplier operates for yourself. How long does it take for the order to arrive? What does the packaging look like? What is the quality of the product?

Develop a marketing plan by investing the time into every little detail, from discovering your target audience to cooperating with potential influencers in your specific niche. Also, targeted ads can be an excellent way to kick off your website and place it before your potential customers to see.

Finally, define your return policy, shipping communication, and customer service. When things go wrong, you want to be prepared to act quickly and regulate any issues that may occur between your customers and dropshipping suppliers.

13. Is dropshipping still profitable in 2022?

The short answer — yes, it is still profitable. 

dropshipping-google-trends-min.png

As you can see from this Google Trends image, in the last 5 years dropshipping has seen a significant increase in interest.

We live in a time where everything is going digital and ecommerce is becoming more and more popular. With that – more people are buying online than ever before. So, even in 2022, dropshipping is still going strong and is showing no signs of slowing down.

So, as you can see, there is nothing scary about dropshipping. You can easily handle it even if you have no previous experience at all, and if you use the right automated solutions, you will enjoy some truly awesome results.

We will be happy to see you joining our dropshipping community!

avatar
By Olga L.
Olga is a Copywriting Director at AliDropship. Having graduated from the Faculty of International Business’ as an Advertising specialist, she puts years of her copywriting experience into making clear and informative guides, tutorials, and other educational materials for dropshipping newcomers worldwide.
35 Comments
Thor Willy Bjerke 7 years ago

I have a web-shop and have bought the Alidropship plugin. Do I have to establish a web payment with my local bank? This for my clients kan pay with MasterCard og Visa. ?

yaros 7 years ago

You need to established web payment with the help of payment gateways integrated in the plugin – PayPal, Stripe, etc. https://help.aliexpress-na-russkom.ru/payment-gateways/available-payment-gateways

Gina 7 years ago

what is the assurance that the order will be delivered or fulfilled by the supplier? what if the buyer complains about the quality of the product purchased? Is there a money back guarantee?

yaros 7 years ago

Hi, if you client faces such issues you need to solve them with your AliExpress supplier. AliExpress has a good protection system with full money back guarantee. So, if your customer is not satisfied with a product and asking for refund you should dispute the purchase with AliExpress seller. If you are selling not expensive products your AliExpress suppliers usually refund you quickly without having to return the items because they don’t want the headache of disputes and receiving returns for relatively low value items. This enables you to give a full or partial refund to your customer through PayPal without them having returns either. The reputation of the wholesaler is rather exposed and they are willing to do anything to maintain their feedback rating.

nuttacha 6 years ago

Can we edit product description to be my lang,Thai?

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

Yes of course, you can edit any product details including description.

Tunthip Winyoovisitirak 5 years ago

Where is Alidropship market place?

Harry Aloof 6 years ago

Does AliDropship have the ability to do Free Plus Shipping?

Ena 6 years ago

A lot of these websites and plugin companies always say it’s easy but it’s not! If you’re new to this, this is very challenging and very frustrating. I purchased this plugin hoping it would be easy to find out I couldn’t put it on my WordPress dashboard and I purchased a professional theme and purchased WordPress live pro to help me build my website through WordPress and they couldn’t help me because they couldn’t figure out my website theme. Unless you know coding and you’re some what a website developer than going this way will leave you frustrating and want to give up. When I purchased Alidropship plugin I had so many questions as to why this plugin wasn’t working on my wordpress dashboard like it says it would and I never got a reply back and It was hard contacting them. I hope everyone doesn’t have an experience like I had. I wish everyone good luck!

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

Hello Ena, I am sorry to hear about your frustrating experience. Purchasing a so called ‘professional’ theme does not guarantee that it will work smoothly with importing modules.

Asking Alidropship team about problems with other themes is itself an incorrect approach.

A non coder or a non aware person just sees a good looking theme and tries to use it. Many themes have its own functionality, are poorly coded and have compatibility issues with plugins. So in most cases, issues are related to a theme, but not the AliDropship plugin.

If you are a beginner I strongly recommend using original AliDropship plugin and themes that developed specially for this tool or if you are an experienced WooCommerce user, you can go with AliDropship Woo version and recommended themes: /themes/

Def 6 years ago

@ Ena “It was hard contacting them. I never got a reply back”

Find this very very strange considering their contact email, phone number, LiveChat is on the plugin sales page and your order page – not forgetting your delivery page.

Look again and double check. Was it definitely that support email address that you sent your query?

If your first, second and third email went unanswered + telephone calls, I’d still find that strange.

Cant speak for everyone however my aftercare from Yaroslav and his team are 10/10.

Even before ordering ALL my pre-order questions were answered

Thought they’d get ‘fed up of me and my questions’ – even with my impatiencewith ‘taking too long to respond’

Boy was I proved wrong!

They do not stop until your satisfied. So I’d suggest following Yaroslav’s suggestions and start slowly with the AliDropship plugin and pick a choice from the 3 accompanying WP themes that came with your plugin purchase before looking at a WooCommerce style theme website

Say this because, I (like yourself) thought WooCommerce themes are the only way as alternative to Shopify.

Quickly realised not as easy (like yourself discovered if not a coder or dont know WP very well) and yet didnt give up. Instead, sought assistance from the AliDropship plugin support team and now have a dropship site with one of the 3 accompanying FREE themes that came with my purchase.

Dont give up – give in instead to trying again!

@ Ena “I wish everyone good luck!”
Perhaps time to sprinkle some on yourself and start again?

Lotus 6 years ago

Is there anyone whom we can contact with in case we can’t sync the items to the ecommerce platform?

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

Sure thing, support@aliexpress-na-russkom.ru, Skype: alidropship.support

Lavina 6 years ago

What will happen if customer returns the product…. who will take that the webstore or the supplier

John 6 years ago

Is the alidropship plugin compatible with other themes?

I already have a domain name, hosting and https as well as a theme and woocommerce. Can I simply install your plugin?

Thanks for your time.

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

Yes, you can just install the plugin.

sharon 6 years ago

I had the notion until last week that I could buy a customers product at AliExpress with the money they paid for it on the website, that way I don’t have to pay out of my own pocket. But, I overheard AliExpress, Paypal & Stripe hold on to the customer’s money. If this is true then for how long? Also, if they hold onto it, then why? Do you have an article on this please?

jeromie tomeldan 6 years ago

hello do i need to buy the items in aliexpress first before shipping? what if i don’t have enough money to buy the items being ordered?

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

If you get an order on your store, you receive a payment instantly and then use this money to place an order on AliExpress. Here you can learn more about the process: https://help.aliexpress-na-russkom.ru/getting-started/what-is-dropshipping-business-and-how-to-start-it

Au 4 years ago

Hi! I read the article and it says:
“In dropshipping model although you don’t need to stock the goods you will still need some money at the very start. The reason is when you receive the order from the customer the money he pays won’t transfer to your account immediately but will be frozen for the safety reasons. At the same time you will have to pay for the order to the supplier which will require your own money.”
Also the video explains that you will first need to pay the supplier using Paypal or your own credit card.

So, please clarify if I really need to have money upfront to order from suppliers (selling expensive items like electronics sounds scary now), or if I can already use the buyer’s payment to order from the supplier.

Also, how long will the buyer’s money be frozen for? Can I wait until it’s transferred to my bank account before placing the order with the supplier?

Thanks in advance!

Olga L. 4 years ago

Hi, thank you for your question!

Yes, indeed, it’s a good idea to have some money upfront. It may take the payment provider up to 24 hours to process the payment, especially if the order seems like a fraud attempt. You can read more about such cases here: /e-commerce-fraud-some-thoughts-on-protecting-your-dropshipping-store/

Aduragbemi 6 years ago

My question is on web payment integrated: my local banks in Nigeria don’t integrate with PayPal even PayPal don’t accept Nigeria.pls what is the way out.thanks

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

You can try 2Checkout payment gateway, it works in Nigeria.

Isaac 5 years ago

use rave payment gateway, it works in Nigeria too

ahsan 6 years ago

what are the payment gateway which works in Pakistan. like paypal does not allow accounts from Pakistan.

Yaroslav Nevsky 6 years ago

You can apply for 2checkout gateway, open a PayPal in neighbour country or establish LLC in US.

Jewan Nadiim 5 years ago

Why would someone buy from me at a higher price when they can go on to Ali Express and buy it at a cheaper price there ?

Kobla Edem 5 years ago

I shall get a custom webstore created for me at end of this month
Thanks for the update

jason 5 years ago

Nice post

Vlad 4 years ago

Good point! I suppose dropshippers used to be able to pull this off when AliExpress was unknown to the masses; but now, people can just go on AliExpress and buy directly… This breaks the whole dropshipping system…

Olga L. 4 years ago

Hi, thank you for your insights!

For multiple reasons, buyers can choose dropshipping stores over AliExpress! Please, watch this video to see why /niche-store-vs-aliexpress/

Kekeli 4 years ago

Hello everyone am new here, I bought Alidropshipping plugin 2 days ago and I hired a web developer to create my general web store for me.
Talking about the upfront deposit into my account, how much do I need to deposit as minimum?

Olga L. 4 years ago

Hi, thank you for your question!

In dropshipping, there is no “account” that requires you to make any upfront payments. Please contact our support at support@aliexpress-na-russkom.ru if you need any assistance.

Sandeep shetty 4 years ago

I want to do dropship in india

Olga L. 4 years ago

Hi, thank you for the interest!

Please, watch these videos:
/alidropship-plugin-review-video/ – it explains how to make a dropshipping store yourself with the help of our plugin
/buy-dropshipping-store/ – it explains how to get a fully ready dropshipping store individually prepared by our team

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