How I earned 200,000 dollars in three months by dropshipping US/EU products

I had done exactly what thousands of people in 9–5 jobs only dreamt of. I had quit my full-time job, and was on the nitty-gritty path to my own entrepreneurial venture. I admit, it was freeing. I knew I was going to make it. The question I did not know the answer to was ‘When?’

In the December of 2017, Marc Chapon started building his Shopify store, just as hundreds of new retailers do every day. He had studied Hospitality/Restaurant management in Paris and Switzerland, and the maximum he knew about marketing and business was what limited knowledge his course had taught him.

But by the end of 6 months, he was making over $10,000 every day in sales:

We decided to get behind this success story, and find out how Marc navigated the dropshipping business to such phenomenal results: a peek into the how he started dropshipping and the marketing strategies employed.

This article will cover Marc, walking us through the 10 steps to dropshipping success:

Step 1: Setting a budget

Step 2: Selecting a niche

Step 3: Building a customer base

Step 4: Choosing the right products

Step 5: Building the dropshipping store on Shopify

Step 6: Payment Gateways and essentials for an online business

Step 7: Creating a Marketing plan

Step 8: Dealing with abandoned carts

Step 9: Other tactics and Tools

Step 10: The Final Result

Step 1: How I set a budget for my online store:

Making money online is lot about learning and testing: while building strategies and plans is important, I am all about action. The best part is- everything you need to know is present on the internet.

The first step of starting a business was setting a budget.

I chose to drop ship as it was the easiest, least expensive way of starting a business. It is the only business model that requires less than 2000 dollars. But often, self- proclaimed ‘dropshipping gurus’ will tell you that you do not need a single dollar to start a store online. As much as I wish it were true, without my savings, I would not have been able to succeed.

You need at least 1000 dollars to start a store. You will need funds to buy a Shopify plan, to set up email marketing using an app, and to run Facebook ads at the very least. You can start off with a free theme and buy a domain later- I saved up in all the places I could, but I did require about $1000 to kickstart my shop.

Step 2: Selecting a niche:

Every store-owner is confronted with this conundrum- the niche you choose can effectively make or break your fortune. However, one thing I knew was that there was no bad niche, objectively.

I had to choose a niche I knew a little about- that was common sense- choosing a niche I knew nothing about was a recipe for disaster, as I would have to learn the ABCs all over again to understand the market and what made a good product.

I narrowed my interests down: I was interested in art, enjoyed coffee greatly and loved animals. Then, I proceeded to the market research: this involved figuring out the major keywords each niche’s products, checking the amount of traffic they generated, reviewing the revenue the niche produced and lastly, the profitability of it.

Once I had done the adequate research, I landed on pet products as the theme of my store. I had a cat and a dog, and thus, was well-versed with the needs of pet-owners.

My experience with my pets was a strong head start in the industry. It also helped me make the right decisions regarding the products I would sell.

Google Trends showed that the niche garnered a fair amount of searches, and was a relatively steady niche. Often, retailers give in to trending niches that die out after a while: I remember the number of retailers trying to get onboard with the fidget spinner trend- but the truth is, if you wish to build a sustainable, long-term business, a stable niche is what you want to go for.

Dog products showed consistent popularity over the years:

Once I had decided the niche, I had to hunt for ‘selling products’- products that were popular with the target audiences. But before that, I had to define a target audience.

Step 3: Honing in on a target audience:

I found that a number of retailers were entirely skipping this very crucial step.

I wanted to build a brand that stood out, and the first step to building a brand is knowing the target market. If you are randomly targeting audiences, the chances of a sale are 1 to 1000 or more. Defining an audience is fairly easy:

Simple google searches led me to my competitors, and to reviews. I analyzed a number of reviews with regards to the gender, interests, age and demographics to figure out the right audience.

With free tools on the internet, it is fairly simple to form a basic idea about who to target. I didn’t need tonnes of data- people who were likely to shop with me often followed dog accounts on instagram, shopped at PetSmart, were based in the US and were aged 21–65. This was great for a start- I kept testing and diving deeper as time went on.

To learn more about how I leveraged social media and content marketing to create a store that allowed me to live my life as an entrepreneur and work for myself, continue reading here:

How I made $178,492 in three months by dropshipping US/EU products