Dropshipping: a low-barrier way to start your own business
Do you dream of having your own business? Does traveling the world while earning money from your laptop sound amazing? Then dropshipping might be the perfect move! It seems easy: all you need to do is build a webshop and run some ads. Once the orders start coming in, the supplier will take care of them, and you won't have to worry about a thing! Well, maybe just a little bit of customer service.
How does dropshipping work?
The big advantage of dropshipping is that, if everything goes well, you can earn a lot of money from the comfort of your own laptop. You don't have to deal with the hassle of storage, packaging, and shipping. That's all taken care of by the supplier. There are even specialized dropship suppliers who handle this. The supplier offers a range of products, and you decide which ones to sell (often by testing a few products first and researching which ones sell well).
Next, you build a webshop around the product or products you're going to sell. Then, you start running ads on social media and/or Google. If you're just starting out with dropshipping, it'll take some time and money to learn the ropes. A successful ad strategy requires knowledge and experience. But once you've got it down, dropshipping can be a goldmine!
3 things you need to know about dropshipping
#1 Dropshipping isn't always appreciated by customers
Dropshipping isn't new. It's a business model that many entrepreneurs have been experimenting with for years. A lot of online entrepreneurs start with dropshipping and then switch to a different model later on.
One downside of dropshipping is that it's often been in the news for the wrong reasons. Many dropshippers source their products from China (which can mean poor quality and long delivery times), and a lot of these entrepreneurs also neglect the importance of customer service, including handling returns and refunds when customers aren't satisfied.
Due to the bad experiences with dropship webshops that have been shared in the media, many customers are extra cautious and even avoid dropship webshops altogether. So, if you choose to go with dropshipping, it's essential that you take 100% responsibility for providing good customer service.
#2 Making a profit with dropshipping can be a challenge
These days, you can also dropship from the Netherlands. In many cases, this means better product quality and shorter delivery times. However, the purchase costs are higher than for products sourced from China. The question is, are you willing to invest, and will it pay off?
One of the biggest expenses in dropshipping is advertising costs. There are stories of dropshippers who turn over thousands of euros but don't make a single euro in profit because their costs are equal to or even higher than their revenue. If you want to try dropshipping, make sure you educate yourself about advertising or work with an ad expert.
#3 The alternative to dropshipping: thousands of entrepreneurs are successful
Thinking of starting with dropshipping? But wait, are you aware that there's another smart way to earn money? Thousands of entrepreneurs run a successful online business by selling on bol.com.
If you choose to sell via bol.com, you'll enjoy many benefits, just like with dropshipping, compared to running your own webshop with purchased stock. For example, you can outsource packaging and shipping to bol.com.
However, there's another major advantage of bol.com: no advertising costs. If you choose to sell products via bol.com, you benefit from the brand recognition and the thousands of daily visitors bol.com already has. What do you need to do? Ensure you're selling a in-demand product, with a clear product description and strong product photos.
So, what do you say.. do you still want to dive deeper into dropshipping? Or join the Boloo community, where we help you with thousands of like-minded entrepreneurs and courses to set up a killer business!
