How to Increase Your Chances of Being Successful at Dropshipping

It’s easy to think that success is all about luck. This is the wrong approach to take if you want to become a successful dropshipper. In reality, you can make your own luck. Success doesn’t happen by accident. If you work on your dropshipping business and put in the time and effort, you can expect to see a return on your work. It’s easy to say that the market is overcrowded or that it’s ‘too difficult to become a dropshipper in 2021.

Some people approach dropshipping as an easy way to make money. Like any business, it takes time, effort, and patience. It’s estimated that between 10% to 20% of dropshipping businesses are successful. While success is what you make it, this number is a stark reminder that success takes work.

At Doba, we’re a leading dropshipping website with almost two decades of experience in the industry. We help dropshippers become successful and build their business by providing them with high-quality suppliers and products online. We know what it takes to make a dropshipping business successful and we’re here to share our knowledge with the next generation of industry leaders.

This article takes you through the tips that every entrepreneur that is starting in dropshipping needs to know. If you follow these tips, you’ll be increasing your chance of being successful at dropshipping.

1.       Choose a trending niche

Some of the most successful dropshipping websites are ones that have chosen a niche. When you have a niche, everything else can easily fall into place. Shopify recently shared the success story of Tze Hing Chan and his dropshipping store that focused on bubble tea-inspired products.

When you choose a trending niche, you can build a community and market demographic to then expand your product range and build your business as you start to re-invest your profits back into your company. You want to choose a niche that you’re passionate about, see a gap in the market for and know that you can market to a target demographic.

2.      Create a professional and sleek-looking website

The number one mistake that dropshippers make is when they don’t invest time and effort into their website. It’s the first impression that your customers get on your business. The way your website looks is just as important as how a brick-and-mortar store looks. Consumers are able to spot a bad dropshipping business from a mile away.

Instead of viewing your website as a dropshipping site, think of it as a brand and a full-formed business. You want to have a colour scheme, incorporate your logo, upload professional photos, and add compelling product descriptions. One of the worst things you can do is choose a basic website layout and copy and paste the product listing from the supplier.

If you want to increase your chances of being successful, you need to create trust between you and your audience. A customer is more likely to hit ‘add to cart’ if they’re impressed by your website. Your website visitors will make a snap judgment about what they think of your website. It takes as little as 0.05 seconds for a visitor to form their opinion on your website.

First impressions matter – and they’re the secret to success.

3.      Interact with your audience

Take the time to look at what other brands in your niche are doing online. How do they communicate and interact with their audience? What kind of social media content are they creating? You want to be as transparent as possible with your audience, whether that’s answering DMs on Instagram, or including clear shipping times and product origin information.

The most successful dropshipping websites are ones that can build a community around their brand. When you have an engaged community, you’ll have an in-built customer base who will be there to help you promote and scale your business.

Engaging and interacting with your customers can give them the peace of mind that they’re not dealing with a scam website. For every entrepreneur looking to build a legitimate dropshipping business, there are dozens of people who aren’t following the rules. You can set yourself apart from other dropshipping websites by giving your visitors a customer service experience that they would expect from a mainstream brand.

4.     Build your brand identity

When a customer is scrolling through your website, they shouldn’t feel like they’re looking at AliExpress or Amazon. Your brand identity is something you want to be working on from day one to create a successful dropshipping website. Every website needs to have a unique selling point (USP) and develop a brand identity that allows it to form a relationship with its customers.

Building a brand identity can help make your website feel more like a business and less like a dropshipping website. Customers are instantly more likely to trust you if you have a brand identity. Instead of rushing into opening a dropshipping store, take the time to plan and build a strategy around your brand identity.

Dropshipping isn’t a ‘get rich quick scheme’. People who have been successful at dropshipping have got their success because of the strategies and plans that they put in place to scale and grow their business. 

5.      Understand that it takes time

If you want to be successful at dropshipping, you need to go into the industry with your eyes wide open. You shouldn’t expect to be making money from day one. It takes time, strategy, and patience to scale a business. No one builds a $10 million dropshipping business overnight.

You want to consider your dropshipping website as a real business. It’s about more than just setting up a website and choosing products. Dropshipping websites fail because people expect an instant return and lose interest in their business when it’s not giving them instant gratification. Keep planning and working on your strategy, success takes time.

At Doba, we’re here to increase your chances of being successful at dropshipping by helping you find high-quality suppliers and products. Our platform offers integration with all the top marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, allowing you to instantly sync orders and add products. Are you ready to kickstart your dropshipping business? You can find out more about Doba here.