How to Start a Dropshipping Business in a Few Minutes with Shopify

Danilo Faggiana

6 years ago

You’ve heard the buzz: Dropshipping is becoming The way to make money from home.

You don’t need to stock inventory, and you don’t have to arrange packing and delivery of products. You just sell an item and the wholesaler does the rest for you.

It’s easy money–if you know how to do it.

Here’s a quick guide to learn how to start a dropshipping business with Shopify so you can earn big bucks from home.

What Are the Benefits of Dropshipping?

Dropshipping has grown in popularity as a side hustle or full-time work from home business option for a few reasons.

Low Setup Costs

You only need to pay for your website hosting and any paid marketing you choose to do. You don’t need to raise capital to buy inventory, and you don’t need to provide storage for items either.

International Shipping

While you still need to set your own shipping rates (which the customer then pays), selling via a wholesaler allows you to send products across the world. If you were running your own eCommerce store without dropshipping, then some parts of the world might be out of your reach due to extensive shipping costs.

Wholesalers have systems already in place to send items internationally at low cost. So you can work with them to negotiate lower rates and broader geographic locations for delivery.

Flexible Working Hours

As long as you can respond to customer orders and queries within a reasonable time frame, such as 24 hours, you can choose when (and where) you want to work.

That means dropshipping is perfect for people who want a side hustle to boost their income or need to work their schedule around family commitments.

Choose Your Niche

You can sell whatever you want with a dropshipping business. That means you can run a general product store or scale down into a niche that interests you and delivers high returns.

Watch the video below

What Are the Risks of Dropshipping?

As with any business, there are some risks to consider before you set up your eCommerce site.

You Need Reliable Partners

A dropshipping partner needs to be able to deliver quality goods on time to your customer. If they don’t, you’re the one that has to deal with an unhappy customer.

You could end up losing money by providing returns for the supplier’s mistakes. So it’s worth digging deep with your partner research.

You Need Some Upfront Cash for Marketing

While dropshipping is great for a semi-automated income, it’s not entirely passive. You will need to develop a strong marketing strategy for your products and be prepared to pay for advertising.

This can be done with only a small amount of money. But it is a cost you should factor into your business plan.

You’ll find that eCommerce is a highly competitive sector. You won’t see big sales until you’ve invested some cash into a marketing strategy with social media and Google adverts.

You Need Time to Get Started

While dropshipping can replace a full-time income after the first year of trading, you will need to spend a lot of time to get there. It takes time to set up your website and then consistently promote it to gain traffic to build sales.

Most people who start an eCommerce website use it as a side hustle for the first year. This allows for a steady income to develop before they leave their day job. It’s worth keeping this in mind if you were planning on making dropshipping your main full-time income stream.

You will, however, be able to work far less than 40 hours a week once your dropshipping business is established.

How to Start a Dropshipping Business with Shopify

Now that you’ve balanced the pros and cons of setting up a dropshipping business, it’s time to get started.

Here’s how to use Shopify to create your dropshipping income.

1. Register on Shopify

Open an account on Shopify and choose between one of the three plans offered:

Basic Shopify account: it cost $29/months plus a 2% fee on each sale
Shopify account: it cost $79/months plus a 1% fee on each sale
Advanced Shopify account: it cost $299/months plus a 0,5% fee on each sale

Insert your credit card number and you will have a month trial for free, to start building your business.

2. Choose and Register Your Domain Name

What’s your business niche? What products do you want to sell, and who are your customers?

Choosing a domain name is an important part of creating your own brand. Your brand is what’s going to make your products sell, so spend time considering your domain name options.

When you’ve chosen your domain name it’s time to register it. You can do this on Shopify directly, and you’ll also be able to find out if your domain name is available or if you need to think of a new one.

3. Build Your Online Store

Now you have all you need to start designing your online store with Shopify. Choose a template that suits your needs, you will find free and paid template. All Shopify template are mobile-friendly, and this is very important because it means that your customer will have a nice website to look at both from Desktop that from Smartphone or Tablet.

Once you find your template and choose some nice pictures for your homepage, it’s the time to find your products.

4. Find Your Dropshipping Partners

Once you’ve got a store, you need to fill it with beautiful money-making products!

A traditional approach to dropshipping was to find a product you want to stock and negotiate with each supplier separately to get the best price. This takes a lot of time and means you might not always be getting the lowest price or best service.

Apps like Yakkyofy bring suppliers and dropshippers together, allowing you to easily select products that you want to sell at a guaranteed low price. This app allows you to find products, and to import them on your store with only one click, and also to manage all the orders with only one supplier.

5. Register for Taxes

Just because it’s a side hustle doesn’t mean you avoid taxes! Once your store is ready, it’s vital that you register your business with the IRS and complete your tax returns in good time.

Yes, it’s boring–but getting everything above board before you start trading is essential.