Do you have an interest in opening an eCommerce shop? However, you may not be keen to manage the logistics of an online store, including inventory, staff and shipping logistics. Dropshipping might be the perfect solution.
Dropshipping allows you to set up your WooCommerce store without worrying about stock. Dropshippers source and deliver the items. This leaves you free to promote your business.
Dropshipping is an online business model that has shown no signs of slowing down. According to reports, the global dropshipping market is valued at $102.2 billion in 2018. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.8% between 2019 and 2025.
Dropshipping has gained popularity due to its simplicity, lack of stock requirements, low upfront investment and more hands-off approach. Dropshipping can be set up in as little as an hour. It’s so easy!
This comprehensive guide will teach you everything you need about dropshipping. This guide will cover how to find vendors, procure products, and promote WooCommerce store.
Let’s now dive in to learn more about dropshipping and how it works.
These quick links will allow you to jump right in if you are already familiar with dropshipping and want to find out more:
Dropshipping: What is it and how does it work?
Dropshipping allows you to sell and promote your business by delegating stock and order fulfillment to a dropshipper. Dropshipping takes care of all aspects of the product, including packaging and shipping.
You can create an online shop in WooCommerce and have your products listed online. Then promote the store. You would place an order at wholesale price with the vendor once you have received the order and payment. The vendor will then ship the product directly to you.
Let’s take a look at this.
A typical eCommerce model requires that you first identify a niche and then invest in the product and purchase it. A product photoshoot may be an option to promote your products and get them listed on your website.
You will also need to order a courier, purchase all packaging materials and wait for your orders.
After receiving an order, you need to pack it, arrange for a courier pickup, and then ship it to the customer.
What happens if there are no orders? What happens to your inventory It’s all money gone!
Dropshipping removes all of these concerns. Dropshipping handles all aspects of stock, order fulfillment, and delivery.
You just need to make sure that they get paid.
You need to find vendors that are trustworthy and have a high rating based on your niche. A vendor will share images of the product, which reduces the cost and time needed to shoot it.
The next step is to create an online store. You’ll set up the payment gateway using providers like PayPal, Stripe and others.
Your online store is visited by the customer who places an order. The full amount for the product is paid to you. The vendor will then take your order and charge you wholesale prices. The vendor will ship the product directly to you, taking care of packaging and shipping.
Only promote your online store. You can place an order with the vendor after you have received an order. There are also apps and WordPress plugins, such as AliDropship and WooDropship. These help you place an order and fulfill it with your vendor.
Start a WooCommerce Dropshipping Shop
Step 1: Purchase Domain and Hosting
You want to start an online shop? You will need to first invest in a domain and hosting. When you create your WooCommerce dropshipping shop, the only investments that you need to make are your domain name and hosting.
A domain name can be purchased for $10-20 per year. A domain name can be purchased from any domain name registrar.
These are some of the most loved.
It is a good idea to buy your domain and hosting simultaneously, as the host will often set it up for you.
These are some of the most popular hosting service providers:
We recommend SiteGround.
SiteGround is our number one recommendation. Their outstanding customer service is the reason. Their WordPress support is a highlight. They are available 24/7 to assist you with any issues that may arise on your website, no matter how small. For newbies to WordPress or WooCommerce, good support is essential.Go to SiteGround, and click on “Get Started” under “WordPress Hosting.”You can choose the plan that best suits your needs. You can choose between the GrowBig and GoGeek plans if you want to host multiple websites. You can also choose the StartUp plan if you only plan to host one website.
Next, you need to choose a domain name.Select the “I already own a Domain” option. Enter the name in the provided field.
You can purchase a new domain by retaining the default choice of ‘Register a New Domain.’ Then, enter the domain name that you wish to purchase.
We’ll search for the domain name “mywpastrasite.com” in this article.
If your domain name has been registered, you will see the success message shown in this image.Complete Step 3.
Although most fields are obvious, we would like to call your attention to Data Center or Extra Services.
Data Center gives you the ability to select where your data will be kept. It depends on where you live and what your primary traffic comes from. There are several options available: You can choose from the USA, Asia or Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, or Europe.
Your website will load faster if you choose a local data centre. We recommend that you choose a data center close to where your store is located.Would you like your contact information to be made public? If you answered no, then you might consider the Domain Privacy option in Extra Services.Your contact information may be displayed on your website’s contact page. This is different than the Domain Privacy option.
Each domain has a WHOIS record. The WHOIS record contains the information about the registrant, which can be accessed easily by anyone. You can purchase the Domain Privacy service if you wish to hide this record.
This is just a personal preference.
After you have completed the above steps click on Pay Now. After successful payment, you’ll receive confirmation mail.
Congratulations! Congratulations! You have just purchased your domain name.
Step 2: Install WordPress & WooCommerce
Many hosting service providers make it simple to install WordPress via their control panel. SiteGround makes it easier by providing a simple control panel and a WordPress auto-installer.
After logging into SiteGround, click Install & Manage.Choose WordPress and follow the simple step-by-step instructions to install it.
When prompted, you will need to enter a username or password. These will be required to log in to your WordPress dashboard after everything is set up.
Once your installation is complete, you can access your WordPress dashboard through yourdomain.com/wp-admin, where yourdomain.com is the domain name you just purchased.To log in to your WordPress dashboard, use the credentials you created during WordPress installation.
Your dashboard might vary depending on which hosting provider you have chosen. You will usually see the following screen once you log in.We recommend that you install certain plugins. You can read our article about the Must-Have Plugins for Every Successful WordPress Website.
After you have installed WordPress, let’s install WooCommerce.
Go to Plugins > Add New. Search for WooCommerce. It is easy to install and activate.After WooCommerce is installed, you will see a new set of links left-hand side to your WordPress dashboard.Bravo! Step 2 is complete. Now it’s time to choose a theme from our Astra starter templates.
Step 3: Choose a starter template
Your website’s theme determines its appearance. The theme defines the fonts, colors, layout, and other details. Your website will look better and load faster if you use the right theme.
We will need to install Astra in order to make use of the Astra starter templates .
Here’s how it works:
Go to Appearance > Topics. Click on Add New.
Twenty Twenty-One will be the default theme.Find Astra and install it. After the Astra theme has been activated, go to Appearance > Astra Options. On the right, click on activate Starter Templates.
Alternate methods to activate starter templates include going to Plugins > Create New and looking for Starter Templates.After activating, go to Appearance > Starter templates.Now, you should choose a starter template that suits your needs. It should reflect your niche. Select a template from the dropdown.
These templates are both premium and free. Our Growth Bundle includes the Premium tab and the Astra Essential templates.
Setting up a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store. Let’s start by searching for the keyword “Store”. We’ll use a filter to narrow down the results from the Free templates.
As you can see, the default page builder on the right hand side is Ellementor.Elementor makes it easy to create WordPress pages. Beaver Builder and Gutenberg are also popular page builders. You can choose a page builder you feel comfortable with or leave it at Elementor.
We’ll select the Custom Printing template from the list of starter templates.You can choose to preview the template or import the entire site. Or, just import one template.
Click on Import Complete Website and we’ll proceed.When prompted, click on Import.
You can choose to delete an existing site or template that you have previously installed. We are going to install the template on a new WordPress installation so we can uncheck the Delete Previously Imported Site checkbox.
The import of your website has begun.Your website will be ready in a matter of minutes!Click on View Site.You are now ready to launch your WooCommerce store. Your WooCommerce store is ready to go.
You deserve a pat on the back if you have reached this point. This is a lot. Great work!
Step 4: Establish Payment Methods
How likely is it that you will find an online store offering free products? It is very unlikely, I think. Legally at least!
An online shop needs a payment method. To accept payments online, we need to connect a payment method. The most popular payment gateways are PayPal, Stripe and Amazon Pay.
When choosing a payment gateway provider make sure that your customers have a pleasant and secure payment experience. This builds trust and encourages repeat business.
As a store owner, you should also consider the payout timeframes and ease of integration with your online shop.
Go to WooCommerce > Settings, and click on the Payments tab.Set up your WooCommerce store by activating the payment method that you prefer and then complete the setup process.
Click on Set up against PayPal Standard to set up PayPal Standard as your preferred method of payment.If you have an existing PayPal business account, simply enter your PayPal email address as shown below.
You can enable the PayPal Sandbox option for testing purposes. When you take your store live, make sure to uncheck this option. Many times, store owners forget to check this option and receive orders but no payment for them!
After you have entered all details, click on Enable PayPal Standard to save your changes. Now you can add PayPal to your payment method.
We have a step-by-step guide How To Set Up Stripe In WordPress.
Step 5: Create a shipping method
Shipping is an integral part of any online store.
Dropshipping is possible, but you still need to set up shipping with WooCommerce.
Offer free shipping is a workaround. This would reduce your profits or add a blanket shipment charge regardless of actual cost.
Many online stores offer free shipping to customers who purchase from their site.
Did you know that cart abandonment rates average just under 70%? Guess what is the most common reason cart abandonment? Extra costs like shipping, taxes and fees are the main reason for cart abandonment.
Our Cartflows can help you create seamless checkout pages for your online store, and integrate upsells or downsells. This plugin is a great tool for maximising profits!
Cartflows can transform a website into an online sales machine with one-click sales funnels and order bumps.
Go to WooCommerce > Settings, then click on the Shipping tab.Click on Add shipping zone.Multiple zones should be added based on where you cater to. For your reference, the Zone name should be used. After you have entered the Zone name, you can select the regions that you would like to be included in this particular Zone.
Click in the Zone region field to see a drop-down with all the locations.As an example, the US is our designated zone. We’ve chosen the United States (US) under Zone regions. You can be very specific by entering the postcodes that you care about in the text box.After you have identified the regions, we will need to determine a shipping method for them. Click on Add shipping method to do this.There are three options: Flat rate, Local pickup and Free shipping. You can add a shipping method to the zone you have created.
We are going with Flat rate. Click on Add shipping method.Your shipping method will be added to your area. Click on Edit and hover on Flat rate.
As shown below, this will open a new window.Your location and the service area will affect how much tax you pay. For details in your area, we recommend that you contact your local tax office. Add the cost to the relevant field.
After you have completed the process, click on Save Changes.
You could also create multiple zones and adjust shipping costs accordingly.
It is much easier to offer free shipping to all customers, as we have already mentioned. You can save money on taxes based on where you live and make your purchases seamless by offering free shipping.
This completes the 5th step in setting up a shipping option!
WooCommerce Overview
We have already covered the core elements of WooCommerce in previous sections. However, we will now go over some key WooCommerce options to help us become more familiar.
WooCommerce > Settings
WooCommerce > Settings: The General tab contains some basic information about your store.You can, for example, add the store location details and the shipping addresses. The Currency options are the most important part of the General tab.The currency can be set on the front of your store. You can also customize the currency’s position, among other options. After you have completed the settings click Save Changes.
WooCommerce > Home
After you have completed the store setup, go to WooCommerce > Homepage. You’ll receive a welcome message if this is your first time visiting WooCommerce > Home.You have the option to scroll through the welcome messages, or close the window.
Now you are on the dashboard for your WooCommerce store.
This dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your online store. Your dashboard gives you an overview of all that is happening, from stock management to traffic reports and reviews.You can also customize the appearance of your dashboard. Click on the Display icon at the top right to choose between a single column view or two columns.Your dashboard will change when you select the view with two columns.You can customize the fields displayed by clicking on the three dots in the Stats overview.You can choose to hide or display the fields, as shown in the above illustration.
WooCommerce > Orders
We haven’t received any orders yet so the WooCommerce > Orders section won’t be visible.You can add an offline order to your WooCommerce shop if you have received it. This allows you to track your orders and manage your inventory. Click on Add order to add an order.After you have entered details about the purchase, customer details and billing address click on Create.
WooCommerce > Customers
There will not be any data available yet if you’re opening a new store.Slowly, but surely, as more orders come in, you will have information about your customers such as email addresses and total spend.
WooCommerce > Reports
WooCommerce > Reports is the best place to go if you need detailed reports for your online shop.Reports can be made on net sales, orders, items bought, refunds, and the value of coupons for a specific period.
You can create reports based upon sales. However, you can also create reports based upon the product, category and coupons.
WooCommerce > Cart Abandonment
Want to see a list of customers who have abandoned their shopping carts? You can find out more at WooCommerce > Cart Abandonment.You can also set up follow-up emails that will be automatically sent to to recover an abandoned sale.You can find a number of ready-made templates under the Follow Up Emails tab.
You can set preferences under the Settings tab to control when follow-up emails will be sent.You could, for example, not send follow-up emails to orders that are in processing or those that have been completed.
Products
All product-related information will now be accessible under Products. All your products can be viewed under Products > All Products.So far, we haven’t added any new products. However, you’ll notice several products displayed. These are the products we added to your shop when we imported the starter template.
PRO TIP: It’s a good idea, especially when using WooCommerce, for default products to be visible. This gives you an idea of what information you will need when adding a product.
Products > Add New
Go to Products > Add New to add a product.In the above fields, enter the product name as well as the product description.
Scroll down to see the Product data section.This section contains details about your product. It includes the regular price, sales price, stock status, shipping details, attributes, color, size, and other details. There are many other options.
We recommend that you look at the many options available here. Scroll down to add a brief product description.
Products > Categories
It is important to properly categorize products. It is a good idea and helps customers navigate your store and find what they need.
You can also check out popular online eCommerce sites like Amazon to see how they categorize products. You’ll notice that they have multiple sub-categories and categories before you find a product. It’s easy to browse their extensive range.Categorization is not only helpful for customers to navigate your store but it also allows you to promote a particular category, if necessary.
As an example, look at Products > Categories as shown in this above image. You’ll see the two categories Mugs & T-shirts.
Let’s suppose we want to promote only T-shirts and only Mugs. One promotion could be run with the target URL being one the category landing pages.
Simply enter the name of the category into the appropriate field to create a new category. You can leave the Slug empty. A Thumbnail picture can be added. After you are done click on Add new Category.
Products > Attributes
Additional data that you add to your products are called attributes. Variable products require product attributes to be considered.
Go to “Products > Attributes” to create an attribute.Let’s take the example of creating an attribute Colour. Click Add attribute and enter Colour in the name field.Click on “Configure terms for the Colour attribute”.Under our Colour attribute, we will add Black, Blue and Red as well as White.Once you are done, the different colors will be displayed against the Color attribute.You could also add the attribute Size to your text and include S,M,L for small, medium, and large.
This section is essential if you own a clothing shop. Every stock item will offer different options, and each option will need to be listed on the product pages.
Analytics
Analytics is a reporting tool that helps you manage your WooCommerce store. You can generate reports based upon the product, revenue, orders and many other factors.You can download the data to a CSV file, and then customize the dashboard to track key metrics in your store.
Marketing
Marketing is the next tab. This section focuses on how to promote your online shop. Marketing is more important than managing your store. Dropshipping is a great option. This section is also important!You can also create coupons using Marketing > Coupons.
In this article, we will discuss several marketing strategies for your WooCommerce dropshipping shop and the benefits of marketing.
We hope you found this section helpful in understanding WooCommerce’s capabilities. WooCommerce can be used to create an eCommerce store or dropshipping shop.
We’ll be covering how to add the most important products to your WooCommerce dropshipping shop in our next section.
WooCommerce: How to Add Products
We’re assuming you feel confident enough to create your own products.
We’ll be covering how to add products to WooCommerce dropshipping stores, both manually or using a plugin.
Option 1: Manually add products to WooCommerce
You can add any product you like, but we chose to include our Astra growth bundle.
For more information, go to Products > Add New.
Start by adding a product title, which is in this case the Astra Growth Bundle.In the appropriate field, add the product description. Scroll down to find Product data.Select Simple product from the Product Type dropdown. You can choose to have a single product, a set of products or an affiliate/external product.We are running a special on our Astra Growth Package at the time of writing this article.
Annual offer priced at $199 with a 20% discount Our lifetime deal is available at a $559 one-time investment. You can find more information on our New Years sale page.
As you can see, the sale price ($) is $199, and the regular price ($) is $249.
You can also add a brief description to the text field as shown below.It is a good idea to categorize products, as we have already mentioned. We will add the Astra Growth Bundle to a category called WordPress Themes.
Click on +Add New Category if you don’t have the category.Click on Add New Category and enter WordPress Themes as your parent category.Don’t forget to include a product picture.
You have probably seen product listings on Amazon or eBay that only contain product descriptions. You have probably purchased a product online without looking at the image, or on a blurry image. We are sure you have not!
Images of your products are essential if you plan to sell online. You don’t need any images, but high-quality images. Multiple images taken from different angles are a bonus.
You can choose to add one image to your product gallery or multiple images.After you have completed the steps above, click on Publish.You’re done! It wasn’t so easy!
Option 2: Use a plugin to add products to WooCommerce
A plugin is another way to add products to your WooCommerce dropshipping shop. With a single click, plugins make it easy to import products from vendors.
Although it is a personal choice, you might consider investing in one these plugins.
These plugins save you a lot of time when it comes to importing products, images and product descriptions into your store.
These are the top 3 WooCommerce dropshipping plug-ins:
AliDropship
The AliDropship WordPress plugin and, in particular, their one-click import feature allows you to import products directly from AliExpress into a store with just one click. All variants, images, descriptions, and variants of the product will be imported into your store.
WooDropship
Another WordPress plugin allows you to import AliExpress products into your WooCommerce dropshipping shop.
WooCommerce Dropshipping
WooCommerce Dropshipping allows you to manage dropshipping shops. One notable feature is the ability to notify suppliers automatically when products are purchased through your shop.
Promote Your Online Store
Okay! Now we have our products listed. We’ve set up our payment gateways and even established our shipping details. It’s now time for the cash registers to ring. Show me the cash!
We need sales. This is the bottom line.
Online shopping has many advantages. You can reach a wider audience right from your own home. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that customers will find you online.
We need traffic to WooCommerce dropshipping shop.
Your customers are usually people who have previously shopped with your store and know your products, people who are looking for your products, or who simply want to buy the product. If they were aware of your store.
Marketing is a key component of this.
You should have established a direct communication channel with the first type of audience. You can communicate with them via email, WhatsApp or SMS. You should consider platforms that allow you to communicate directly with them for free.
You will need to find channels to allow them to find your products and store. This could include content creation (such as blogging), SEO (SEO), and search engine marketing (SEM/PPC).
For the third audience, brand awareness is key. Is your solution solving a problem that they don’t yet know about? These questions will impact how you approach marketing.
This section will discuss the best ways to get your WooCommerce dropshipping shop in front of people who are interested.
Create an email list
HubSpot reports that email marketing generates a return on investment of $38 per $1. This is an incredible 3,800% ROI. Email marketing is one of the most efficient options.
It takes time to build an email list. It takes time to build an email list. Users will be more engaged if they opt for your mailing lists than if they are customers from a purchased database. If a customer opts in to your mailing list, they are more likely than others to be interested in your product or service.
You can use a variety of tools to create opt-in forms or generate leads.
Our Convert Pro plugin is one such plugin we recommend. The all-new drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create high-converting opt-in forms or lead magnets.Other popular opt-in tools and forms include ConvertKit (AWeber), ConvertKit, GetResponse. WP Email Capture. Benchmark Email.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is essential for any online business. SEO refers to the process of placing your website in search engines like Google for relevant keywords.
Search engines have a higher quality than social media and paid ads. This is because the leads and customers that come in through search engines are more qualified. Why? Because of genuine search intent.
Search engines are used by customers to help them find the solution to their problems. Their search is clearly motivated by an intent. You can fulfill their intent.
If you have optimized your website and content to appear at the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), you could receive up to 32% in total search volume for this keyword.
This is easy to understand if you consider the US search volume of the keyword “WordPress Themes”.
This keyword has a monthly average search volume of 33,000 according to UberSuggest. It is a popular tool for keyword research.You will get 33% of search traffic if your page ranks number one for this keyword. That’s 10,923 users per month. All this for nothing! Isn’t that cool?
SEM Rush is another useful tool for keyword research.
Optimizing your website and content requires you to consider both the Off-Page and On-Page SEO factors. Popular WordPress plugins include Yoast and rankMath. Install one of these plugins on your WooCommerce dropshipping shop and optimize your content to meet On-Page or Off-Page SEO criteria.
FAQ Pages and SEO
A FAQ page is a great way to rank higher in search engines. Install any schema plugin to create an FAQ schema. It will be amazing how quickly your page appears in search engines.
Keep that in mind. Google and the other search engines love to answer users’ questions. If your FAQ page contains valuable information, you might get a boost in search results.
While there are many schema plugins available in WordPress’ repository, we recommend the SchemaPro plugin.For more information about our Schema Pro plug, please visit our video on Schema Pro setup wizard tutorial (Complete Tutorial
Start Blogging
Although blogging won’t bring you immediate results but it can help you establish yourself as an expert in your field. This blog can be used to promote your online shop indirectly.
Blogs are becoming a part of businesses’ marketing strategies. Businesses are producing more content than ever before. Although you can market your blog, the main purpose of a blog is education.
Businesses can use blogs to educate, nurture, and grow their audience. Yes, blogging does take time. You are creating authority in your niche, improving your website SEO, answering customers’ questions and building a long-term relationship.
PRO TIP: Don’t blog for the sake. You must be passionate about your content. Your content must be valuable and solve a problem that your audience faces.
High-quality blogs can also be used to increase social shares and engagement. We’ll discuss this in the next section.
Are you looking for a way to create a blog? You can find our step-by-step article How to Build a Beautiful Blog with Astra and Elementor in Less Than an Hour.
Promote on Social Media
Focusing on your social media channels is the best and easiest way to increase engagement. Stories, contests, giveaways, contests, partnerships with other bloggers in your niche and the use of appropriate hashtags are all great ways to leverage social media.
Social media marketing can help you increase brand awareness, tap into a large audience on different platforms, improve search engine ranking, engage with your audience, and start a conversation. Brand loyalty can be improved by social media marketing.
This is the right time to capitalize on your existing social media presence with a core audience. You can increase your frequency on social media and spend time creating engaging videos, product shots and images of high quality.
Engage with your followers. This will increase brand awareness among your followers.
Make coupons
Another great way to increase sales in your online store is with coupons
Everyone loves a great deal. You can save money or discover new products. Coupons can be an effective incentive. We recommend that you use them!
Coupons work because they create urgency and fear.
WooCommerce allows you to create many types of coupons. You can create many coupons for your online shop, from a blanket discount on all products to BOGO (Buy One get One) deals and gift vouchers.
Paid Ads (SEM, SMM)
Although the promotional techniques we have mentioned are free, it can take some time to drive traffic. You can run paid ads on Google or social media to drive immediate traffic to your online shop.
Search engine marketing (SEM), is a great tool to drive traffic to your website and promote it. You can get the desired results immediately and adjust your marketing campaigns based on performance.
Paid ads are a cost-effective way to get a store started while you work on organic SEO.
Social media marketing (SMM) is a great way to target your advertising spending. Because your audience is on these social platforms.
Consider the channels that you want to target. If your target audience is younger and spends more time on Instagram than you do, then your advertising spending should be directed there.
Influencer Marketing
Individuals who have a large following online are called influencers. They can influence the audience to buy a product or service.
A huge influencer can make a big impact on sales if they have millions of followers. You could be announcing your brand to thousands of people in no time.
Influencer marketing strategies include posting a blog about your product, reviewing your product on social media and demonstrating your product. To gauge interest, tag or contact the influencer.
