Are you thinking about launching a dropshipping business? You’ve weighed the pros and cons, looked at success and horror stories, but have decided that it’s something that, yes, you want to pursue. For whatever reason, however, you are putting it off—you have time, right? You don’t need to hold inventory, which means that you can get started whenever you feel like it. While opening an online ecommerce business with the dropshipping method is indeed more straightforward than other kinds of digital retail, you aren’t making money while you are procrastinating and compose infographics. Here are a few reasons to get started with your store as soon as possible:
It allows unprecedented flexibility
Dropshipping enables a healthy amount of work/life balance. Because all you need is your laptop and a phone, you can work from wherever you want—even if it’s at home in your pajamas. Dropshipping is an increasingly popular profession for digital nomads, who travel the world while working remotely. You could work from a beach as long as you have WiFi.
You can also work when you want. You can work a few hours here, a few hours there, when the kids aren’t home, late at night, early in the morning—dropshipping allows you the freedom to make your own schedule (much of the work is marketing, and you can schedule your social media posts ahead of time).
It’s what you make of it
You are probably asking this question: is dropshipping lucrative? Honestly, it depends on what you make of it. People who think that its flexible nature means that it will be easy are less likely to generate high profits because they aren’t prepared to handle the challenging aspects. When things go wrong—even if they are on your suppliers’ end and you have no hand in manufacturing and shipping—your customers will contact you to remedy the situation. Not everyone realizes how marketing-intense dropshipping is, either.
If you are committed to your store, though, you can become a thriving online retail outlet. Making a profit entails more than posting products online and posting about them on Instagram or Facebook—like any good business, you need to put your customers first. Consumers who enjoy positive and welcoming purchasing experiences are more likely to tell their peers about you and return with their business.
You can scale efficiently
Dropshipping also allows you to scale your business up or down depending on your available time and performance. In November 2017, Forrester Research predicted that online retail sales would total $370 billion by the end of the year—and $85.1 billion, or 23 percent, would be from dropshipping. Not needing to hold inventory or create your own products means that you can sell as many products as you want or are capable of, so you can add more as business rolls in.
It still takes work
Dropshipping, of course, still takes work—which is a significant reason why you shouldn’t procrastinate. While it’s true that the upfront stuff does not take very long—such as opening a Shopify store and deciding what products to sell—you still need to cultivate a distinct brand image, which requires considerable thought. There are numerous ecommerce businesses online, so you need to spend time researching trademarked names, logos, slogans, niches, competitors, and more. You most likely won’t make a sale as soon as your store opens its digital doors if you do it without any fanfare, so direct some energy toward getting people excited about your launch on social media.
You should also conduct thorough research into which vendors to ally yourself with. Some manufacturers might be chronically late with shipping orders or use poor-quality materials. Their locations matter, too, so look into whether they are based in the United States another country. Be strategic about who you use as suppliers, or else you might end up with unhappy and confused customers.
You can be creative
Because success in dropshipping heavily relies on marketing, you get to exercise your creativity and generate enticing social media posts. Maybe you can create an instructional video, post compelling images, compose infographics, host interviews, or something else. You can buy Instagram followers and leverage other social media analytics and automation tools to help with executing the more tedious parts of your campaign, but ultimately what you publish is up to you. Why are you putting off the chance to connect with your future customers through creative posts?
Dropshipping is a convenient way to earn money, but just because you don’t need to rent a building or start producing goods doesn’t mean you can keep putting it off. If you are considering opening a dropshipping business, how soon will you start?
