3 Things to Keep in Mind Before Starting Dropshipping Outside the United States
Dropshipping in today’s scenario is not just limited to one particular kind of market. People are often confused if they should build their business outside in the smaller markets or just be concerned with the United States. A lot of people ask this question from us that whether they should focus on just the United States only.
People often come up with questions like “Should I focus on smaller markets?” or “Should we grow business outside the United States?” The answer simply is a “NO.”
It is true that the US has the most potential in terms of Dropshipping business model. It has a massive economy which includes huge number of shoppers. The growing online community makes it easy for Dropshippers to grow their business in the United States.
There are few things which you need to keep in mind when it comes to Dropshipping in the US:
1 – Extreme competition in the market
The US is the hub of e-commerce market. It has a lot of e-commerce companies that sell all kind of products. For example, e-commerce giants like Amazon, jet.com and Walmart sell all things. There are so many companies which are emerging all the time and increasing the competition. So much of challenge in the market makes Dropshipping more challenge and tough.
Walmart is not the only giant which is working as a competition in the market but there are a lot of smaller merchants which became a competition in large markets like the US. It has been reported that 500,000 stores were powered by Shopify in 2017 and the majority of these stores are the USA based. This is one of the major reasons why the United States has so much competition in e-commerce.
2 – High advertising costs
If you are dealing with the US market, you need a lot of investment to spend on advertising. You need good advertising to stand out among all the competition in the market. If you want to advertise your store in front of your potential customers, you need a lot of money in the US market. It relatively far more expensive in the US to advertise than other countries.
You know the fact that US has an extreme market competition so, you can very well realise the importance of ads for your store. If your ads are not better than other companies out there, people will not buy products from your store.
So, these were the main challenges that you have to face in the US market in terms of e-commerce. So, it is very obvious for you to think that where should you do Dropshipping if not in the United States.
However, before getting more into the Dropshipping outside the United States, we are assuming that you already have any idea about what to sell. Internet has a lot of information of the best products that you can sell on your store.
What are the Dropshipping options outside the US?
There are various opportunities in Dropshipping in countries outside the United States. However, there are few things that you need to keep in mind before getting into Dropshipping in countries other than the US.
1 – Size of English-Speaking Population.
First thing that you need to keep in mind is that you must chose a market which has enough English-speaking population. It takes a lot of money and time to translate your entire store into the local language of the country.
You should target the market which has a big English-speaking population. For example, the English-speaking population of Brazil is only 5 percent of the total population while the English-speaking population of Denmark, Sweden and Norway is 85 to 95 percent put of total population.
The customers will buy from e-commerce online stores no matter what their language is but considering English-speaking population before building your store in any region will be very beneficial for your in terms of traffic and sales. There are many online stores which run in English but they get orders from non-English speakers from around the world.
2 – The Purchasing power of citizens of the country.
You must consider the purchasing power of the region if you are going to build your store in any other country outside the US. Research properly about the cost of living of that area. For example, it is very normal for a Norwegian to spend $30 on a t-shirt but in other markets people buy high-end clothing for $30 dollars.
These differences are very much important for your store. Pay attention to these differences from country to country. These differences will impact your conversion rates. For instance, in markets like Norway and Finland the cost of ads is cheaper, competition is low and people who are living in these regions have higher purchasing power. So, considering the purchasing power of a region before setting up your store outside the US is very important.
3 – Get to know if that country has the sufficient delivery infrastructure.
Delivery infrastructure is one of the major factors which determines how your online store will work. Markets of developing countries can very valuable but your need to research about all the aspect before getting into these markets.
Some developing countries don’t have much reliable postal services. These countries mostly have strict custom policies along with flawed postal services. We are not pointing out these flaws because we want you to ignore these markets but because we need you to do proper homework before getting into these markets.
If you want to Dropship into Mexico, we suggest you to run limited number of ad set. Expect slow shipping time and run an order. If everything goes well then go ahead and spend more money on your store.
USA Market VS International Market
There is no denying to the fact that the United States has a giant e-commerce market and is undeniably a great spot for you to start Dropshipping there. It is only emerging and there is no chances of decline in near future which makes it even more favourable for e-commerce business.
Today, we wanted to put a point that the US is not the only option you have and it might not even be your best option. You must test your store outside the US even if your site is in another language or you don’t speak the local language of that region.
Dropshipping outside the US will be most beneficial in the case when your budget is low. If a market is small and cheap that doesn’t mean you will get small profits. You need to do proper homework and do complete research about all the above aspect before starting a Dropshipping journey. Research helps you take more data driven and informed decisions which will benefit your business all along.
If you have any doubts, questions and comments regarding the Dropshipping outside the United States, leave your comments down below. For more information on this topic watch the video given below:
3 Things to Avoid if You are Dropshipping Outside the USA
Dropshipping in today’s scenario is not just limited to one particular kind of market. People are often confused if they should build their business outside in the smaller markets or just be concerned with the United States. A lot of people ask this question from us whether they should focus on just the United States only.
It is true that the US has the most potential in terms of Dropshipping business model. It has a massive economy which includes a huge number of shoppers. The growing online community makes it easy for Dropshippers to grow their business in the United States.
Dropshipping outside business is very profitable but not a children’s play. You need to do a lot of homework before getting into it. So, we will talk about 3 mistakes or 3 things to avoid when you are Dropshipping outside the USA. We will talk about 3 mistakes Dropshippers who live outside the USA do. These mistakes are even done by very successful Dropshippers and these results in the loss of a lot of money. It is very important to know how to Dropship from outside the USA safely without losing any money.
The business model of Dropshipping is pretty much very same in all the countries whether it the USA or any other country. The fulfillment process is the same across the globe. The same process is followed everywhere which includes the supply of products to your customers by the suppliers after you pay them.
However, people who Dropship from outside the USA commit some mistakes. These are the 3 mistakes to avoid if you are Dropshipping outside the USA:
1 – Setting the store currency to the local currency
What these Dropshippers do is that they start a Dropshipping store in a country outside the USA for example, Australia, and then set their currency to the local currency i.e. Australian Dollar and advertise their products across the globe. So, the mistake here is that the currency is not very much known in other parts of the world. So, when you are advertising your products on your store, you must set the most known currency and the most known currency of this world is US Dollars.
Why you should select USD as your currency?
The reason behind this is because the US Dollar is the most commonly used currency across the globe. Also, USD is stronger than any other currency.
When you are advertising to markets outside your country, one of the potential markets is the US. So, if you set any currency which is lower than the USD, your conversion rates will be low. Whereas, if you set your currency to be USD, your conversion rates will be high due to its relevance.
So, if you want to change your currency into US Dollar, all you need to do is to go and select Shopify settings option, disable the checkout and then re-enable it again. Your currency will be configured as USD.
Make sure you avoid the above mistake when you are Dropshipping from outside the USA.
2 – Paying through the local debit card
Purchasing from a supplier in AliExpress and even when using a sourcing agent, paying through the local debit card
When you do the above thing and check your bank account statements, you will see that a conversion fee is also added to your bank account statements. So, basically, when you are making payments to for example AliExpress, you will also be charged the conversion fee which will be higher than the market rate. The conversion rate will always be applied if you are using a local debit card.
If you want to get rid of this conversion rate completely, you can adopt many ways but the best way to do it is by using a credit card that has zero percent currency conversion fees. By doing this you will not be charged for making payments to AliExpress or any other platform. However, we suggest you to do proper research about credit cards before buying one. So, to save yourself from unwanted money loss make sure you don’t use a debit card which applies conversion fees on payments.
3 – Return process
The third mistake that we will talk about is a very common mistake that a lot of Dropshippers do. Some Dropshippers open virtual addresses where their customers can ship their returns to. We highly suggest you not to do it because according to us it’s a total waste of time. Dealing with low ticket product returns is the last thing you want to deal with when it comes to Dropshipping. However, when you are dealing with high ticket products you need proper return policies and an address where your customers can ship your products to.
Here, we do not suggest you to open up a return sensor in haste. If your customers receive any defective products, you can offer race ship or a refund to them.
So, this was all about mistakes Drosphippers do when they are Dropshipping from outside the United States. To save yourself from unwanted loss make sure you take care of the above 3 mistakes.
To know more about this topic, watch the video given below:
Best Countries to Dropship International
Today, we will talk about something very useful for all the Dropshippers out there. By following these hacks anyone can reap huge profits in their online business. you can completely turn the game of your Dropshipping store with the help of this one hack we are going to talk about in today’s article. It has been tested by many Dropshippers and they all got positive results with its help. This trick allowed Dropshippers to scale a hundred thousand dollars in one month on their store.
What we will talk about today is not opted by many people in the beginning as they don’t realize its importance. This hack basically deals with the kind of regions you test your products at. This one trick can totally change your Facebook ad game.
People who are into Dropshipping business are used to of dealing with Facebook ads. A lot of Dropshippers have an opinion that we should test only in English speaking countries or you may have come across statements like “Top 5 English-speaking countries for testing.”
Some of the major and potential English-speaking countries are the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. These are great when it comes to testing your products. You can blindly spend your money on these countries for testing. You can scale your winning product numerous times if you get any winning product in any of these countries.
However, one of the major con when it comes to testing in these countries is that it is really expensive to test in these countries. The way ads work in these countries is on the basis of cost per add placement. It will cost you way too much when you scale your ads in these countries as you will have to pay for clicks and conversion. So, the big your ad circulation is the more you have to spend.
Also, apart from thousands of Dropshippers marketing in these countries, there is a large number of big box stores and big brands which are marketing in these regions as well.
So, in order to make your testing more efficient what you can do is to scale your products in less known countries. You have to choose countries where not many people run their ads.
Why you should go for testing in other countries?
Testing in other countries is more effective due to the lower testing cost. Another reason why we suggest you test in other countries because in well-known countries like the United States or Australia there are so many people who are already scaling their products on AliExpress which makes the market totally saturated to Dropship products from AliExpress.
We are not saying that you should completely abandon the above markets and not scale your products there. You can definitely go for Dropshipping in these countries and get extreme success in Dropshipping. However, there are a few different strategies which you can opt to stand out among all the Dropshippers. A lot of effort will be involved in these strategies but it will be a game changer for your business.
We suggest you test two to three ad sets per product You can 20 dollars per ad set. Start with scaling with 10 dollars a day and if it doesn’t hit 20 dollars, kill that add and move on to another ad. You must choose two to three regions for each ad set.
We are here to help you in the Dropshipping business and make your Dropshipping journey easy. So, here are the countries where you can test your products apart from all the well-known English-speaking countries:
The United Kingdom, Spain, and France
We know that U.K already comes in the top 5 well-known English-speaking countries, but it’s an exception when it comes to scaling your ads. The cost of running ads in the United Kingdom is quite lower than other well-known countries. The plus point of scaling your ads in the United Kingdom is that it nearby the United States demographically. Also, if you get a winning product in the United Kingdom, there are 99 percent chances that the same winning product will be a winning product in Canada, the United States and also many other countries.
What we suggest you do is to make an ad set with the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. Reason being that these countries are very much close to the United States demographically and also nearby each other in proximity. We highly recommend you not to scale in different countries that are far away from each other. Make sure you scale in regions that are close in proximity.
Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark
These countries are also very much close to each in proximity. Also, they will be a budget-friendly country when it comes to the cost of scaling. The Netherlands especially proves to be great no matter what kind of product you are testing. Whether it is apparel or electronics, you will know if it is a winning product only by testing them in the Netherlands.
The United Arab Emirates and Qatar
These countries are also very close to each other distance vice. These countries are also very wealthy making it easy for you to sell your products. You will have many upsells and cross-sells and once you get enough of upsells and cross-sells, there will be one product among all the products that will emerge as the winning product. All you have to do now is to go ahead and test that product. So, here you are basically getting your winning product without actually testing all the products.
South Africa
It is also one of the great countries to test in. Go ahead and test in this country instead of being stuck in traditional countries.
Tips and Tricks
Here, we want to make an important point which you need to remember while testing. The thing that you need to remember is that never get stuck on a product. No matter if you think that product is doing very well. For example, if you get two ad sets with two to three regions each after spending 40 dollars on a product. Spending 40 dollars on a product is enough. If that product is not getting enough sales, go and test another product. This strategy will help you in many ways. For example, you can test your products in fewer days without killing your budget. People often do the mistake of getting stuck on one product and spending 80 to 100 dollars on it. You must go ahead on other product if one product doesn’t work effectively.
The main point of this article was to encourage you, to go ahead and test in countries apart from traditional ones. Once you find winning products in these countries, you can increase your add budget day by day. When you get a winning product in one of the European countries, you can go ahead and test in other countries as well. You will get more than 20 add sets when you get a winning product. You must open your ads to several countries. So, in order to stand out among all the Dropshippers out there, you can go ahead and make use of hacks given above.
