How many times have you thought about starting your own drop shipping business? Does it feel a bit daunting? Starting a drop ship store definitely isn’t a walk in the park, it’s constant work. It requires a good understanding of several things but focusing on these elements before you even get started won’t get you anywhere.
It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important when you’re so bent on avoiding mistakes. We’ve been there, we’ve done it all. So if you were to ask us which of the ways of marketing should a drop shipping business use for the best effect, we’d say you should employ several strategies. That’s why we’ve compiled here what you should definitely try for your drop ship business.
1. Humane Values
You’ll be wondering what it means whenever people ask ‘What’s the value of your product?’. You’ll be tempted to answer the price tag of your product but we assure you they are not trying to find out what they can easily check from your catalog. It’s a universal truth that people don’t buy from companies; people buy from people.
Personalisation or perhaps better named as positioning yourself like a real person in relationships with other real people helps push the tide of favors in your direction in the case of customer decision making. You may think you’re just selling products but as a matter of fact you’re also selling pieces of emotions.
Think of the last time you bought something because you think someone will definitely love it. ‘Mom will love these new cooking pots!’ or ‘Dad would definitely appreciate a new coffee mug!’. These emotions are what you want your customers to feel.
What you want to do is to make your customers feel like buying your products give them insights, information and solutions. You want them to feel that by having what you are offering makes them that much better than they are before.
2. Outstanding Niche
You can’t expect to start a successful drop shipping business by competing with huge successful sites like Gemfive or Lazada, so your best chance for success is to focus on providing to a niche market. Offer what other companies can’t be bothered to cater to.
You don’t want to just sell mugs. You want to sell mugs printed with your customers’ happy memories. You don’t want to just sell cushions. You want to focus on cushions for personalised interior decoration purposes. You can start with vendor-provided data and then significantly enhance it. There’s a huge difference between a list of product features and a unique, custom description a product’s benefits.
It’s much easier to start and attract customers to your new business by catering to a smaller subset of people like mothers looking to convert their pictures into mugs or puzzles, children looking to give their father a new coffee mug made with their own picture, or novelty shirt wearers because you can tailor your drop ship style to meet their specific needs, unlike larger companies.
3. Selective Selling
No, we’re not asking you to entertain one customer and totally ignore the other. One of the most important roles you should provide is curation. Your customers will look to you to be selective. Tell them what to buy by choosing the product you decide not to sell. Just because the product is available, doesn’t mean it makes sense for you to make it part of your selection.
Even though you aren’t personally in charge of handling all the inventory yourself, which means you won’t have to deal with inventory management headaches, lost and damaged products, the more products you offer, the harder it is to differentiate yourself from other brands.
There’s no magic formula for choosing the perfect products to sell online, it’s mix of strategy and intuition. Take these factors into consideration to make more informed choices. Remember: never try to please everyone, no one is ever satisfied.
So are your customers. Never offer everything that the supplier has in store in one shot. Pre-selecting makes it easier for your customer to make the final decision, for you to charge a better price and to concentrate your marketing efforts more effectively.
4. Happy Customers
We’ve heard it before: customer is always right. Now we’re neither going to refute it nor boost the belief. As a business, always find that sweet spot where all parties will receive benefits from the settlement. However, whenever it doesn’t cost you any financial lost or lives lost, try bending your back to please your customers.
Pleasing your customers does not always mean promising them the moon and the sun. What most customers are looking for can sometimes simply be an understanding smile. This is where customer service becomes a crucial aspect of any business.
Thanks to the internet and the power of viral communication, a problem as simple as misunderstanding your tone of voice can stir an issue for your budding business. As is true in all businesses, it’s much easier to make a sale to a satisfied customer than to try to convince a new prospect to buy.
Your current customers can either come back to you for more purchases or run off and tell their friends, families, coworkers and the whole internet about how bad your service is and to never go to you. Making customer service a priority set your drop shipping business up for success, so ensure it’s a priority from the outset.
Conclusion
So there you have them, four key elements in generating success for your drop shipping business which are humane values, outstanding niche, selective selling, and happy customers. Couple these four keys with the correct & efficient implementation can see you expanding and growing further than just merely being a drop shipper.
The most important step – the one that most people never take – is to actually get started building your business! This is the hardest thing for most people and it’s usually a result of fear and uncertainty. Not sure where to start your drop shipping business venture? Printcious Dealer Program provides the best deal for customised gifts with no minimum order quantity (MOQ) yet high return of investment (ROI)!
