How to Find the Perfect Dropshipping Products for Your Online Store
Finding products to sell in your online store can be a difficult process, especially if you’re new to ecommerce.
After all, it’s critical that you fill your store’s inventory with high-quality merchandise which you can sell at an affordable price point for your customers.
One of the easiest ways you can achieve this is by running your business with the dropshipping method. When you’ve added great products to your dropshipping store, there’s no limit to the amount of profit which you can generate.
We’ve created this article to help you find the perfect dropshipping products for your store. At the end of this article, you’ll be armed with all the necessary information you need to start sourcing great dropshipping products and get started with your store today.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an ecommerce business model which enables entrepreneurs to find and sell products without ever having to carry any inventory.
When you run your business with dropshipping you’ll only ever order products from your suppliers when a customer places an order. You’ll simply get in contact with the supplier, who will then ship the product directly from their warehouse to your customer’s door. It’s a hassle-free way to manage your store’s inventory.
This method of running a business requires much less investment than the typical ecommerce businesses, which involves sourcing products in bulk, and then spending valuable resources storing them until a customer places an order.
Dropshipping is opening up ecommerce and online entrepreneurialism to the world. It’s a simple way to get started on your entrepreneurial journey, and it allows you to start your own business with little financial risk.
👉 Want to hear how others have done it? Check out Oberlo’s Success Stories for inspiration.
Why Does Dropshipping Work?
For many entrepreneurs who are thinking about starting their own ecommerce business, the need to spend valuable resources and time to manage inventory is off-putting. If you run your business using the dropshipping method you’ll never have to worry about managing your store’s inventory. You can focus on making sales and generating traffic to your store.
It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting your journey as an entrepreneur or if you’re an ecommerce veteran, dropshipping is a simple and effective method for running your business.
The amount of time that you spend running your store will be totally up to you. You don’t even need to quit your job to start your own store, you can balance it around your life.
How to Find the Perfect Dropshipping Products
Dropshipping businesses offer ecommerce entrepreneurs a lot of freedom, but there are some key points which you’ll need to take into consideration when you’re sourcing products for your store’s inventory. Once you understand the types of products which are perfect for a dropshipping store you’ll be ahead of your competition, and you’ll be ready to start making sales.
We believe in making life easier for entrepreneurs, so we’ve broken down the main things which you’ll need to consider when you’re searching for dropshipping products to add to your store.
Find Trending Products
Products which are currently trending are great options for your dropshipping business’ inventory. When you can’t decide what the best dropshipping products are, try to look into which products are trending. If you manage to source trending products for your store before they hit the commercial masses, you’ll be able to take advantage of low marketing fees and establish your brand as a leader in that field.
If you’re interested in finding products which are currently trending, or products which are likely to be popular in the future, you can check out the following resources:
Take a look through these resources and make a note if you find any trending products which would be suitable for your store’s inventory. If you do decide on a trending product for your dropshipping store’s inventory, take some time to think about how you’re going to market these products to your audience. We’ve compiled a list of the top trending products for you to take a look at.
Find a Niche Dropshipping Product
Targeting a specific niche with your dropshipping store can be a great way to help your dropshipping store grow and generate revenue. Take a look on Google Trends and do some research into the niches which have high potential — these could be good niches for your dropshipping products.
You’ll have less competition if you’re running a niche dropshipping store, as you’ll be targeting a smaller audience. This means that your marketing efforts will be much cheaper, especially if you’re thinking of using Facebook advertising, or Google Adwords. It’ll also be easier to rank your store on search engines when you run a niche dropshipping store, which is good for your business’ long-term growth.
It’s critical to note that starting off your store in a specific dropshipping niche doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to expand into different areas later on. When you’ve cemented your store as a leader in that dropshipping niche you can try adding related products which you believe your current customers will be interested in. This will allow you to branch out and target new customers.
👉 If you’re looking for more reasons to start with a dropshipping niche, we’ve got you covered.
Competitor Product Research
Look at possible competitors and research their products and how they source and sell them. Can you decipher their pricing strategy or possibly forecast potential new products that they will sell? By being one step ahead of them you can remain competitive. If they are selling a product you are considering but you cannot source this product at a similar price, problems could arise. It would be a good idea to cross this product off your list at this moment. Once you build a strong brand and customer loyalty you can come back to this product option.
Competitor product research shouldn’t last all day. Doing a quick Google search for a product can highlight a range of competitors in a matter of seconds. From there a swift scan of the websites will provide you with enough information to decide to sell a product or not.
Search Social Shopping Sites for Products That Sell
Another great way to generate ideas of dropshipping products to sell in your online store is by looking at social shopping platforms. Social shopping sites are ecommerce enabled websites where the shopping experience is shared with a social network of people. Sharing can include liking, commenting, recommending or sharing products with others. The main premise for sellers on these sites is using others recommendations and influence to gain more sales.
Social shopping sites include:
Look around these websites and discover how people use them. Notice how each store’s customer reviews are prominent and feedback is important to the UI. This makes it easy for you to research potential dropshipping products to sell in your store as you can quickly identify products that people love and are raving about.
Join Online Communities to Find Products to Dropship
There are tonnes of online communities and forum that you can join and begin to do research through. Facebook has hundreds of open and close communities that can help you understand the needs and wants for people in certain areas of the world. If you want to limit your dropshipping business to a country or region you can restrict your research to groups in these areas. Alternatively, you can open your search to many different areas or just search for niche groups that have people from around the world in them. There are many worldwide groups and forums around areas like veganism, gardening, fitness, and so many other subjects the list is too long to note. Check these groups out and notice if products or problems are mentioned. If problems are discussed find a product you could sell to overcome this.
Next, Determine Your Price Range
Like with all businesses, you need to make a profit with dropshipping for it to be a good decision. After doing your product research and noting the prices that competitors charge, you then need to look at supplier pricing and other business costs to decide if this business model is for you and your online store.
Reasonable Markup Opportunities
The cornerstone of any successful ecommerce business is the ability to generate profit, and your products should be sourced with this in mind.
Try to find dropshipping products which you can sell for at least $10 more than the price which you sourced them for. For example, if you’re sourcing a baseball hat for $5, then try to sell it in your store for $15.
In this case, your sale will cover the price which it cost you to source the product, the cost of your marketing efforts, and will still leave you with a nice profit margin at the end of the transaction.
If you’re struggling to set the price for your dropshipping products, we’ve got a tonne of useful pricing tips and tactics.
Selecting a Supplier for Your Dropshipping Products
A successful dropshipping business will have strong relationships with suppliers who can provide them with high-quality products at an affordable price point.
There are a wide variety of great suppliers available to ecommerce entrepreneurs across the world. Platforms like Oberlo make it even easier to find great products, especially with Oberlo Verified. When you’re searching for products from Oberlo Verified suppliers, you can rest assured that you’re dealing with reliable suppliers. We’ve handpicked them to ensure the best quality service for our merchants.
Dropshipping suppliers which have a high feedback score and have been operating for a lengthy amount of time are legitimate suppliers who provide entrepreneurs with good service. When you’re sourcing products for your store stick to these suppliers–reliable suppliers are ideal for a dropshipping business.
We even talk about how to select the best dropshipping suppliers so all your questions are answered.
Dealing With Delivery Times
When you’re running your store with a dropshipping model you’ll need to be prepared to deal with longer delivery times. Your products may be shipped from suppliers in China, which means that the delivery times can be slightly longer than usual. You can remedy this issue by sourcing products which have the ePacket delivery option.
This delivery method allows for faster delivery of lightweight products from Chinese suppliers. Products which weigh up to 2kg (4.4lbs) are eligible for ePacket delivery–this is something which you’ll need to consider when you’re sourcing products for your dropshipping store’s inventory. ePacket delivery is essential when you’re looking to provide a high-quality service to your customers.
There are a wide variety of countries which can benefit from ePacket delivery, including United States, Canada, Australia, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil, France, and Germany. You can check out the full list of countries which can take advantage of ePacket delivery.
Start Dropshipping Today
Once you’ve decided on the perfect dropshipping products you’ll need to add them to your store. If you haven’t created a store yet you can check out our guide to starting your own ecommerce store in less than 30 minutes. Don’t worry–it’s simple to get started. We’ll help you find the product that meets your dropshipping needs, guide you to locate the best dropshipping suppliers, assist you with setting the right price and give you all the information you need to decide which dropshipping niche to tap into.
When your store is up and running you can install the Oberlo app–it’s the leading platform for finding and selling ecommerce products without stocking any inventory. You can use Oberlo to run your dropshipping business with ease. Dropshipping is changing the ecommerce industry, and you can be a part of it. As part of the app, Oberlo allows you to review products based on their previous performance. So if you were unsure about selling a particular product you can check the number of times if has been sold in the past 30 days to make a final decision.
If you’re still looking for ideas for the perfect dropshipping products our website has tonnes more resources for you to learn with.
That’s it– now you’ve got all the information you need to start sourcing great dropshipping products today. I know you’ll nail it.
If you’ve got any other questions in the meantime about dropshipping products, or ecommerce in general, let me know in the comments section. We’re happy to help!
Originally published at www.oberlo.com on January 15, 2019.
