Dropshipping Tools Your New Business Needs

If you have been thinking about breaking into the ecommerce market or have decided that you’re ready to expand your business but don’t want to invest too much money into the process, dropshipping may be one way for you explore opportunities and test markets without investing too much startup money or time. If you’re considering dropshipping as an option, we have some dropshipping advice and background information for you.

What is dropshipping?  

Many ecommerce entrepreneurs are finding that dropshipping is an excellent option for augmenting their cash flow with little to no hassle. Dropshipping is a fulfillment method in which an ecommerce business does not manufacture its product or keep it in stock. Instead, your online store decides what products it wishes to sell and purchases these items from a third party. This third party ships it directly to the customer, resulting in little to no startup cost or effort. Because there is a wide range of dropshipping wholesalers and suppliers who assume responsibility for warehousing the product and shipping it, you can leverage more time for running other aspects of your business and concentrating on scalability. The plethora of supplies also allows you to choose from thousands of products you can sell to established and new consumers.

What are the advantages of dropshipping?

The most obvious advantage to dropshipping is that it doesn’t require you to develop a product, manufacture it, or warehouse it, you eliminate much of the aggravation involved with dealing with the products you sell in the forefront. No raw materials to purchase, no inventory to manage, and no employees required to complete the labor, making initial startup fees and overhead expenses quite low.

The second advantage is that it allows you considerable freedom from the regular work schedule and routine of running a brick and mortar business. Instead, you can run your business from anywhere you have a computer and internet. No static location, no inflexible schedules, and no worrying about how to increase sales because you do not need to worry about production.  You can build, manage, and grow your business from the comfort of your own home, as quickly and efficiently as you choose.

How do I get started?

There are several things you need to know and do before you get started. First, you will need to invest some time and effort into developing your business website. You will also need to explore the many options available for dropshipping suppliers and choose from the many products you can sell. Learning about the many useful apps and tools that can be added is a significant part of maintaining your business website, developing new product lines, and managing the many aspects of ecommerce.

You will also need to take or find visual images of your products and develop interesting and well-written descriptions that will attract your consumers. You will want to be responsive to your consumers by choosing good payment platforms and developing good customer service practices. All of this means work for you, but if you’re willing to invest the time and effort, it can be a highly successful business proposition.

What are some apps or tools that I will need?

Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner is not just an advertising tool. It is also not just a blogging tool. Google Keyword Planner can be used to determine the demand for a particular product. This is important information if you want to provide items on your dropshipping business site that are in demand. Type in the name of the product you’re planning to sell and see how often it has been searched for in the past 30 days. Ideally, you will want to choose products that have a few thousand monthly searches.

Amazon Best Sellers. Even if you don’t plan to sell on Amazon, the Best Sellers section of the Amazon site is a useful way to find out how popular your targeted product is in other marketplaces; even if you don’t happen to use selling on amazon fba. You will need to look under its corresponding category and subcategories, and you can use even scroll down to the product details section to gain more insight into a product’s popularity. You might want to also check out the bad reviews. It will help you determine the demographics of consumers who do not like a particular product.

WatchCount. Watch Count is an ecommerce tool that published how many eBay users have added a particular item on the Watch List. This allows you to see what items users are watching to give you an idea of popular products. You can also use the tool to see what the products with higher Watch Counts have in common. Are their listing titles more interesting? Do they carry a wider range of colors or styles? Do they have better write-ups about features? This information will give you a better idea of whether the products you intend to sell can compete.

What are some other dropshipping tools you recommend?