Dropshipping is a legitimate business model.
One of our loyal customers wrote the quote in this title. If you read our forum, you certainly know him – he writes a lot under the user name Kingpin.
Kingpin from India is happy to comment on AliDropship plugin developments, ask questions about the software, and even make suggestions for future features. Kingpin doesn’t hide his success story. He freely shares everything he knows about dropshipping. We were so excited to interview him!
Thank you, Hi Kingpin! Please tell us about your business.
Hey! In the summer 2017, I had 7 dropshipping shops. They all relate to different niches and I use different business models.
My stores are B2C which means my target audience is people who are not wealthy. Some of my stores, however, are B2C which means my customers are small businesses.
Now, I make about 500+ sales per hour.
Here is the screenshot of my best dropshipping store taken on July 4, 2017. This will hopefully motivate you
That’s quite impressive. What experience did you have when you started your dropshipping company?
NO! NO! My dropshipping journey started just after the AliDropship plugin came and changed the game.
Dropshipping is a risky business model. Many people say that it is scary to start a dropshipping shop. Tell us about your story.
It took me only 2 hours to set up my first store and import 100+ products. Yes, I spend almost 15 days later to edit the descriptions and other info to make product pages look good, but setup itself was really quick.
Similar was true for my second store. I spent only 2 hours setting it up.
We would love to hear more about your store.
Ok, I’ll tell you about the newest store.
Mitte Februar 2017 opened a general store that sold some unique items. It is not a niche store, I am selling higher class products not cheaper than 10 dollars. I combine several items into one offer and sell them in small quantities.
Targeting the USA and Australia, my target market is retail shopkeepers. These are people who own brick-and mortar stores. This is a B2B venture, as you can see.
Free shipping is available for orders over $100 I use the WooCommerce version of AliDropship plugin, and in WooCommerce you have an option to apply a coupon code above any price range, like I do. Shipping is free if the total cart is $100 or more
To promote my store, I use Facebook ads – I started with a budget of $5 per day. Facebook now brings me 80%-85% of my traffic. While I can do any type of ad, I mainly focus on video ads. Funny videos and compilations of multiple video clips that appeal to my niche or product category are what I promote. The description of my store is included in the slide at the end.
In just 30 first days the results were awesome. In the first month, I made $28,000 in sales. After I calculated everything and paid out all sourcing costs, I made $14.5k in profit.
How does it all work? How do you launch a dropshipping business?
These are the three basic steps.
I always start with the niche research. It’s easy to do: Go to Amazon best sellers and look at which products are most popular and which niches/categories perform well.
Then, go to AliExpress and see how many products are available in this niche. Check if they have ePacket shipping method. Start by choosing a niche that has at least 20 products.
You should choose niches that are related to hobbies like swimming, fishing, and camping. Pet-related niches will also be popular as people have high demand for these items. Products should not be identical.
Avoid trademark-copyrighted products
Setup a store. I use AliDropship WooCommerce plugin as it allows me to choose a theme according to my niche. Only use plugins that are necessary for site speed or performance.
To set up a product, I create landing pages and add pre-sale information with an email form. The landing page redirects to the actual product page or checkout. On checkout page, I show upsell and offer discounts for sharing on social media.
Promotion. Promotion. I use Facebook ads to promote viral content and articles that are relevant to my niche. My ad posts are viralized.
Images and links to my product are placed on my article page. I also have an opt-in form for their emails. I added FB retargeting pixels to my site. Next, I created another ad that showed an amazing ad to people who visited my article page. This time, I sent them directly to my product page. They buy almost all the time.
One of my products, for example, is in the dog niche. To promote it I used Buzzsumo to search for the most popular post on Facebook about dogs. It was viral and shared over 2.4 million times.
Then I used my web tool to create an overtake copy from the original link.
I posted MY URL on my Facebook Dog Page, and created a FB Ad with a budget of $5. I targeted people in New York who liked pitbulls, and that was all I did. I made 22 sales, and I’m still counting.
I also do email marketing. If a customer has abandoned their shopping cart or didn’t purchase, I send them an email. These people are the ones I target with heavy discount deals and new ads. To encourage repeat business, I send product suggestions to my customers via email.
What do you think about dropshipping?
Since the beginning of WordPress, I have used it for 9 years.
Aside from the 7 stores that I own and make profit from, I also have a beta store where I stage and test new features of AliDropship and WooCommerce.
All dropshippers should create a staging website where they can test plugins. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can then make the necessary updates to the plugins on your actual site. Always wait a few days before you update a core plugin.
Do you have any recommendations for our readers?
Dropshipping is a great way to make a living. Be ethical and follow legal procedures. Focus more on the strategy of marketing your products.
If you’re starting up with ecommerce biz, just go with PayPal and make some money and then with that apply for a US based LLC and use Stripe or any other method.
