10 Dropshipping Business Tips All Beginners Should Know

10 Dropshipping Business Tips for All Beginners Should Know

Many people shy away fromstarting an online storebecause of the startup costs and fulfillment hassles.

But imagine if someone offered to pay your upfront inventory costs on thousands of items and manage your fulfillment operations. It’d be much easier to get started, and you could run your business from anywhere in the world. Sound too good to be true? It’s not, if you knowhow to get started with dropshipping

In this chapter, I’ll remind you of the benefits of dropshipping, share two vital operating principles for a dropshipping business model, and give you in-depth dropshipping tips—ideal for beginners.

Template Icon

Free Webinar:

How to Get Started with Dropshipping in 2020

Learn how to find high-margin products, add them into your store, and start selling — fast.

The benefits of a dropshipping business model

There are a number of reasons you should consider dropshipping as an online business. Here are a few of the most compelling:

  1. You don’t need capital to get started.Dropshipping使它非常容易ted selling online. You don’t need to invest heavily in inventory, yet you can still offer thousands of items to your customers.
  2. Convenience and efficiency.Successfully launching and growing an ecommerce business takes a lot of work, especially if you have limited resources. Not having to worry about fulfillment is incredibly convenient and frees up your time to concentrate on your marketing plan, customer service, and operations.
  3. Mobility.With all the physical fulfillment issues handled, you’re free to operate your business anywhere you can get access to an internet connection.
  4. It’s a tested model.Plenty of online stores, even major retailers like Macy’s, use dropshipping to offer a wider selection of products to their customers without having to deal with increased inventory hassles.



Must-know dropshipping principles

If you’ve never run adropshipping business, the information in this chapter could save you weeks of wasted time and frustration. Many of these dropshipping tips are drawn from two basic principles about making a dropshipping business work efficiently:

  1. Accept that things can get messy.的便利dropshipping是要付出代价的,and having an invisible third party involved in each sale often complicates things. From botched orders to out-of-stock items, fulfillment problems will be something you’ll have to deal with. If you accept this ahead of time, you’re less likely to throw in the towel due to frustration.
  2. Adopt a KISS mentality.Having a KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) mentality will serve you well with the dropshipping model. Given the inherent complexity of dropshipping—multiple suppliers, shipments from various locations, etc.—it’s easy to think you need to set your system to perfectly track your costs and inventory at all times. But if you try to do this, you’ll likely go crazy, spend thousands on custom development and never launch a store. Focusing on the easiest-to-implement solutions, even if they're not “perfect,” is usually the better option, especially when you’re starting out.

Ask any dropshipping store owner and they will agree. With these two concepts in mind, let’s discuss dropshipping tips that will help you structure your business operationally and make things run as smoothly as possible.

Everything you need to know about running a dropshipping company

In this video, we'll show you how to dropship on a budget, how to identify winning products with Oberlo, how to find a dropshipping supplier, and how to market your products. By the end of this video, you'll understand dropshipping on Shopify and set your dropshipping business up for success in 2020 and beyond.

10 Dropshipping tips for new entrepreneurs

1. When suppliers botch an order

Even great suppliers make mistakes, and you’re guaranteed to have fulfillment errors from time to time. So what do you do when your supplier sends the wrong item or nothing at all? Here are three possible options:

  1. Own the mistake.Under no circumstances should you blame your dropshipper for the mistake. It will only cause confusion and make you look like an amateur. The customer has no idea the dropshipper even exists. Instead, you need to own the problem, apologize, and let the customer know what you're doing to fix it.
  2. Make it up to the customer.Depending on the level of the mistake, you may want to proactively offer the customer something for the error. This could mean refunding the shipping fee (a personal favorite of ours) or an upgrade if the customer needs a new item shipped out.
  3. Make the supplier pay to fix it.You may have to assume responsibility for the error, but that doesn't mean you need to cut into yourprofit margin.Any reputable supplier will pay to fix its own errors, including paying for shipping costs to return items. However, it probably won’t pay for any freebies or upgrades you gave the customer. You need to consider those public relations and brand-building expenses.

Again, even the bestdropshipping supplierswill occasionally make mistakes, but be extremely wary of a supplier that habitually botches your orders and fails to fulfill them properly. Unless you can get the supplier to change (unlikely), your business’s reputation will suffer. If this is the case, you should probably start looking for another supplier.

2. Managing inventory and multiple suppliers

Most experienced dropshippers would agree that managing the status of inventory across multiple suppliers is the biggest challenge you’ll face running a dropshipping business. Do a poor job of this and you'll constantly be informing customers that their order is out of stock—not a great way to attract repeat business and loyal brand fans.

Learn more:Everything you need to know aboutePacketand dropshipping

Properly managing inventory across your suppliers and distributors—and limiting the number of out-of-stock items you sell—is a complex process. Shopify apps likeDuoPlaneandSynceeor a web-based service likeOrdorocan help you sync inventory. This is a great option when suppliers offer real-time data feeds, but suppliers don’t always have them.

Below are some best practices for inventory management that should help drastically reduce the number of out-of-stock items you sell:

Use multiple suppliers

Having access to multiple suppliers can be a huge advantage. Why? Because having multiple suppliers with overlapping inventory is the best way to improve your order fulfillment ratio. If Supplier A doesn’t have an item in stock, there’s a good chance Supplier B has it. Additionally, it’s risky to rely on one supplier as the only place to source your product. If they decide not to work with you, raise their prices, or go out of business, it jeopardizes the future of your business.

你永远无法找到两个ca的供应商rry all the same products, but if they operate in the same niche or industry, both will likely stock the bestselling items—and these are your biggest concern.

Pick your products wisely

Drawing on the last point, try to sell primarily items that you know are carried by both suppliers. This way, you have two potentialfulfillmentoptions.

Learn more:How to Find the Best Products to Dropship

Use generics to your advantage

Even if they don’t have exactly the same item, two suppliers might carry near-identical products that are interchangeable. This is particularly true for smaller accessories and product add-ons. If you can confirm that two products are nearly identical, write a generic product description that allows you to fulfill the order from either supplier. Also, list both suppliers’ model numbers in the model field. That way you can forward anorder invoiceto either supplier without having to make changes.

A word of warning: you need to exercise some judgment in this area. Each market will have well-known brands (e.g., Nike, Bose), and you should never substitute one for the other.

Learn more:How to safely source products from阿里巴巴全球速卖通andAliBaba

Check on item availability

Just because a dropshipper lists an item on its website doesn’t mean it carries that item consistently. It’s a good idea to chat with your sales representative about the availability of products you’re considering selling. Are these items in stock 90% of the time or more? Or does the dropshipper keep only a few on hand and often have trouble getting the product reordered from the manufacturer? You’ll want to avoid stocking the latter type of products.

Dealing with out-of-stock orders

尽管你最好的计划,你会不可避免的交易with customer orders you can’t fill. Instead of telling the customer the item is out of stock, offer a complementary upgrade to a similar—but better—product. Your customer will likely be thrilled, and you’ll be able to retain the customer relationship. You might not make any money on the order, and that’s OK. You wouldn’t have made any money had your customer canceled the order, either.

3. Order fulfillment for dropshipping

Using multiple suppliers has a number of benefits that we’ve discussed: it increases the likelihood that items will be in stock, offers geographical diversity for faster delivery times, and prevents you from being reliant on any one source for your products—a useful fallback plan if your go-to supplier runs out of stock on Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend. But with multiple options for filling an order, how do you know which is the right supplier to choose? There are a few different methods to consider:

Route all orders to a preferred supplier

If you have one supplier that’s best to work with (superior service, great selection, etc.), you can simply route all orders to that supplier by default. This is particularly easy to implement, as you can simply add your supplier’s email address as a recipient for all new order confirmations, automating the entire process. If you use this method, ideally your preferred supplier will stock most of the items you sell. Otherwise, you’ll frequently have to deal with re-routing orders that it couldn’t fill.

Route orders based on location

If you use multiple suppliers that each stock the majority of your products, you can simply route the order to the supplier closest to your customer. This not only expedites delivery to your customer, but also saves on shipping fees.

Route orders based on availability

If you stock a large catalog of products spread out over numerous suppliers, you’ll likely need to route each order based on which dropshipper has the item in stock. This option requires more work if you're doing it manually but can be automated with a service like eCommHub if your suppliers provide data feeds.

Route orders based on price

This sounds great in theory, but unless one supplier has significantly better pricing it can be difficult to automatically determine which supplier will be cheapest. Any automated solution will need to consider potential drop fees, real-time shipping rates, and real-time supplier pricing. So while not impossible, it can be difficult to implement an accurate automated system to accomplish this.

Note:Even if you don’t route all your orders on price, you should have your suppliers bid against each other to achieve the best pricing possible as your business grows. Just don’t try doing this too early—if you’re asking for pricing discounts as a newbie, you’ll likely only annoy your suppliers.

We've tried all four methods and found there’s no “best” way to do it. It really depends on your store, your suppliers, and your personal preferences.

4. Security and fraud issues

Storing credit card numbers

Storing your customers’ credit card information can allow for convenient reordering and may increase sales. But if you’re hosting your own site, this typically isn’t worth the security issues and liability. To store credit card data you’ll need to abide by all sorts of PCI (payment card industry) compliance rules and security audits. This process is expensive and complex, especially for non-technical business owners. And if your server is hacked or breached, you might be liable for the stolen card information.

The best solution is to not store your customers’ credit card data. Consider offering payment options such asShop或贝宝,加快结账,可以减少cart abandonment. Implementing payment gateways frees you to focus your efforts on marketing and customer service instead of security audits. Fortunately, if you're using a hosted platform like Shopify you won’t need to worry about any of this. But if you’re using a self-hosted cart, make sure to disable the “store card information” feature in your configuration panel.

Dealing with fraudulent orders

欺诈性订单ca的可能性n be scary when you’re starting out, but with some common sense and a bit of caution you can prevent the vast majority of losses due to fraud.

The address verification system

The most common and widely used fraud prevention measure is the AVS, or address verification system. When the AVS feature is enabled, customers must enter the address on file with their credit card for the transaction to be approved. This helps prevent thieves with just the raw credit card number from successfully making purchases online. Fraud is rare for orders that pass the AVS check and are shipped to the customers’ billing addresses.

绝大多数的欺诈性电子商务订单啊ccur when the billing and shipping addresses are different. In these cases, a thief enters the card owner’s address as the billing address and enters a separate shipping address for the goods. Unfortunately, if you don’t allow customers to ship to addresses other than the billing address, you'll lose out on a lot of legitimate orders. But by allowing it, you’re at risk for fraudulent orders thatyouwill have to pay for. If you ship an order to an address other than the card holder’s, the credit card company will make you foot the bill in the event of fraud.

Fortunately, fraudsters tend to follow patterns that make it easier to spot illegitimate orders before they ship. Individually, these signs won’t help you flag a fraudulent order, but if you see two or three of them you should investigate:

  • Different billing and shipping addresses.Again, more than 95% of all fraudulent orders will have different billing and shipping addresses.
  • Different names.Different names on the billing and shipping addresses could be a red flag for fraudulent orders. That, or a gift purchase.
  • Unusual email addresses.Most people have email addresses incorporating some part of their name, allowing you to match part of an email address to a customer’s name. But if you see an address like dfssdfsdf@gmail.com, there’s a good chance it’s a made-up address and is one sign of fraud.
  • Expedited shipping.Since they’re charging everything to someone else’s card, fraudsters will often pick the fastest—and most expensive—delivery method. It also reduces the amount of time you have to catch them before the item is delivered.

If you spot an order you suspect is fraudulent, simply pick up the phone. Fraudsters almost never put their real number on an order. If the order is legitimate, you’ll likely have a 30-second discussion with someone that clears everything up. If not, you’ll get a dead number or someone who has no idea that she ordered a 25-foot boat scheduled for overnight delivery. At that point, you can cancel the order and issue a refund to avoid any chargebacks or problems.

5. Understanding chargebacks

When a customer calls his or her bank or credit card company to contest a charge made by you, you’ll receive what’s called a “chargeback.” Your payment processor will temporarily deduct the amount of the disputed charge from your account and ask you to prove that you delivered the goods or services to the customer. If you can’t provide proof, you’ll lose the amount in question and be slapped with a $25 chargeback processing fee. If you rack up too many chargebacks relative to the volume of orders you’re processing, you could even lose your merchant account.

The largest cause of chargebacks is usually fraud, but customers will also dispute a charge because they didn’t recognize your business, forgot about the transaction, or simply didn’t like the product they received. We’ve seen it all.

When you receive a chargeback, you often have just a few days to respond, so you need to act quickly! To have a shot at getting your money back, you’ll need to provide documentation of the original order, tracking information showing delivery, and likely a wholesale packing slip showing which items you purchased and shipped. If the contested charge was for a legitimate transaction, you’ll have a good chance of recovering the funds, as long as you didn’t make any untrue statements or promises in the course of the transaction.

Unfortunately, if the chargeback is related to an order with different billing and shipping addresses, you’re almost certainly not going to win. Most processors will only compensate you for fraudulent orders shipped to the billing address on the card. In our businesses, we don’t even bother responding to these kinds of chargebacks because we know it’s a waste of time.

6. Dealing with returns in dropshipping

Before writing your ownreturn policy, you’ll want to make sure you know and understand how all your suppliers deal with returns. If they have a lax 45-day return window, you can afford to be generous with your terms. A strict return policy from just one supplier can cause you to re-evaluate the terms you can afford to have in place.

When a customer needs to return an item, the process will look like this:

  1. A customer contacts you to request a return.
  2. You request an RMA (return merchandise authorization) number from your supplier.
  3. The customer mails back the merchandise to your supplier, noting the RMA # on the address.
  4. The supplier refunds your account for the wholesale price of the merchandise.
  5. You refund the customer for the full price of the merchandise.

It’s not always this straightforward, however. The following can complicate returns:

Restocking fees

Some suppliers will charge a restocking fee, which is essentially a surcharge for having to return an item. Even if your supplier charges these fees, we strongly recommend not having them be a part of your return policy. They seem outdated and unfriendly toward your customer base. Although you may have to eat a fee here and there, you’ll likely recoup that expense in more customers who decide to do business with you.

Defective items

The only thing worse than receiving a defective item is having to pay additional postage to return it. Most dropshipping suppliers won’t cover return postage for defective items. In their minds, they didn’t manufacture the item so they aren’t liable for defects. They simply view it as a risk of selling poor-quality products to a retail market.

You, however, should always compensate your customers for the return shipping fees for defective items if you’re interested in building a reputable business. Again, this is a fee you won’t be able to pass along to anyone, but it’s part of the cost of running a quality dropshipping business. Unless you have your own UPS or FedEx account, it can be difficult to print a prepaid shipping label for customers, so you may need to issue a return shipping refund to compensate them for their out-of-pocket expense. However you do it, make sure you compensate them somehow.

If the defective item is relatively inexpensive, it often makes sense to just ship the customer a new product without requiring them to return the old one. This has a number of advantages compared to making them return the old item, including:

  • It can be cost effective.It doesn't make sense to pay $10 to return an item that only costs you $12 from your wholesaler. You’ll get a $2 net credit, but it’s not worth it for the hassle to your customer, supplier, and staff.
  • The customer is blown away.How often do companies simply ship out a new product without needing an old one back? Almost never! You’ll score major points and may land a customer for life. Also, the customer will get the new product much faster than if the old one had to be returned to the warehouse before the new item could be shipped.
  • Your supplier may pay for shipping.Suppliers won’t pay for return shipping on a defective product, but most will pay to have a replacement sent to the customer. Because they’ll be paying for return shipping anyway, most suppliers can be talked into covering the shipping on a replacement product that you simply purchase separately. Plus, many are glad to duck the hassle of processing the return.

If a customer wants to return a non-defective product for a refund, most companies will expect the buyer to pay for the return freight. This is a fairly reasonable policy. If you’re willing to offer free returns on everything, you’ll definitely stand out (and companies like Zappos have made this part of their unique business model). But it can get expensive, and most customers will understand that you shouldn’t have to cough up return shipping fees simply because they ordered a product they ultimately didn’t want.

Note:If you’re aneBay or Amazon dropshipper, your returns policy is subject to that marketplace. What you state in your return policy may not apply if using these sites.

7. Shipping issues

Calculating shipping rates can be a big mess for dropshipping business owners. With so many different products shipping from multiple locations, it’s difficult to accurately calculate shipping rates for orders.

There are three types of shipping rates you can use:

  • Real-time rates.With this method, your shopping cart will use the collective weight of all items purchased and the shipping destination to get an actual real-time quote. This is very accurate but can be difficult to compute for shipments from multiple warehouses.
  • Per-type rates.Using a per-type method, you’ll set flat shipping rates based on the types of products ordered. So all small widgets would ship for a flat $5 rate, while all large widgets would be $10 to ship.
  • Flat-rate shipping.As the name implies, you’d charge one flat rate for all shipments, regardless of type. You could even offer free shipping on all orders. This method is the easiest to implement but is the least accurate in reflecting actual shipping costs.

When it comes to shipping, it’s important to refer to the overarching principles about dropshipping that we listed at the outset of this chapter. Specifically, we want to find a solution that emphasizes simplicity over perfection, especially if we’re juststarting dropshipping

Some business owners will spend days—or weeks—struggling with shipping rules for an ecommerce store that has yet to generate a sale. Instead, they should focus optimization efforts on search engine marketing, social media, and customer service and quickly implement ashipping policythat makes sense from an overall level. Then, once they start to grow, they can invest in a more exact system. With this philosophy, it’s often best to estimate an average shipping fee and set that as your overall flat rate. You’ll probably lose money on some orders but make it back on others.

Even if you could implement a system that passed along extra shipping fees based on supplier location, would you really want to? Most customers balk at excessive shipping fees, especially when they assume their order is originating from one location. Instead, try to limit multiple shipments by using suppliers with overlapping inventory and by being selective about the items you sell. This is a much more practical and simple long-term solution.

International shipments

International shipping has become easier, but it’s still not as straightforward as domestic shipping. When you ship internationally, you’ll need to consider and/or deal with:

  • Different weight and length limitations for different countries
  • Additional charges from suppliers for processing international orders
  • The added expense of resolving problematic orders due to higher shipping fees
  • Excessive costs for shipping large and/or heavy items

Is the hassle worth it? It depends on the market you’re in and the margins you earn. If you sell small items with higher margins, the increased market reach may make it worthwhile to deal with the hassle and expense of offering international shipments. For others, especially small business owners that sell larger or heavier items, the added benefit won’t be worth the expense and inconvenience.

Picking a carrier

Selecting the right carrier is important, as it can save you a significant amount of money. In the US, the largest decision you’ll need to make is between UPS/FedEx and the US Postal Service.

  • UPS/FedEx.These privately run giants are great for shipping large, heavy packages domestically. Their rates for big shipments will be significantly lower than those charged by the USPS.
  • US Postal Service.If you’re shipping small, lightweight items, you can’t beat the rates offered by the USPS. After dropshipping fees, the cheapest UPS shipping fee you’re likely to see is around $10, while you can often ship items for $5 or less through the post office. The post office tends to be a better choice for sending international shipments, especially smaller ones.

When setting up your shipping options, consider categorizing them by shipping time (“Within 5 Days” or “Within 3 Days”), as this gives you the flexibility to pick the carrier that’s the most economical for each order and delivery time.

8. Provide customer support

Take it from us: managing all your customer emails, requests,and returns in an Excel spreadsheet is not ideal. As excellent as Excel is, it’s not built to handle customer support. Similarly, as your business and team grow, managing support with a single email inbox also quickly breaks down and leads to problems and service lapses.

Implementing a help desk andwriting a series of FAQ articlesis one of the best things you can do to ensure quality service for your customers. Help desk software comes in a number of different forms, but all provide a centralized location to manage your customer support correspondence and issues. Most desks make it easy to assign issues to team members and maintain communication history among all related parties.

A few popular options to choose from include:

  • Help ScoutLess cluttered than other desks, Help Scout treats each issue as an email and removes all the traditionally appended ticket information that customers see with support requests. Instead, support tickets appear like standard emails to customers, creating a more personalized experience. Plans start at $15/month.
  • Zendesk高度可定制的和强大的,例如Zendesk提供了variety of tools and integrations and is one of the most popular help desks available. It takes some customization but is very powerful once it’s tailored to your company. While the app is free to use, it does require a subscription to the Zendesk Support Team Plan, starting at $19/month.
  • Gorgias.Built specifically for Shopify stores, Gorgias manages all of your support queries in one place, helping you reduce response time and increase the efficiency of your customer support. Gorgias has automation tools to personalize responses to your most frequent questions. Plans start at $60/month.
  • HelpCenter.Access all customer inquiries from email, Live Chat, and FB Messenger in a single platform and save time. It’s easy to create FAQ pages from scratch to help customers self-serve and find answers to their issues. A free plan is available.
  • Richpanel.See order data next to each ticket. Send tracking info, edit orders, and issue refunds without leaving the help desk. Create self-service scenarios in the help center and instantly answer common repeat questions. A free plan is available.

9. Offer phone support

Deciding whether to offer phone support can be a tricky decision. It’s obviously a great way to provide real-time support but is one of the most expensive support methods. If you’re bootstrapping a business while working your 9 to 5, you won’t be able to handle calls. But if you’re working full-time on your business—or have a staff member who can—it might be a feasible option. If you’re unable to staff a phone throughout the day, you can always have your phone number ring through to voicemail and return customer calls later. This isn’t a perfect solution but can be a good compromise.

You should consider the type ofdropshipping productsyou’ll be selling when thinking about how to offer phone support. If you’re a diamond boutique selling jewelry in the $1,000 to $5,000 range, many customers won’t be comfortable placing an order that large without talking to a real person. However, if you're selling products in the $25 to $50 range, most people will feel comfortable buying without phone support, assuming you’ve built a professional, information-rich website.

If you do decide to offer phone support, think through strategic ways to do so. Slapping a large 800 number on the top of every page can lead to a surfeit of low-value phone calls that cost more to support than they’re worth. Instead, consider adding your number in more strategic places, like the Contact Us and shopping cart pages, where you know the visitor has a high probability of purchasing.

Regardless of how you decide to handle sales requests, you should always be willing to call customers after the sale to resolve any issues that arise. There’s nothing wrong with carefully evaluating the best ways to offer pre-sale support, but when it comes to taking care of people who have purchased from you, you should never refuse to help them on the phone.

The following services can help you set up a toll-free number and sales line:

  • GrasshopperGrasshopper offers phone services and is geared toward smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. You can get a toll-free number, three extensions, call forwarding, and voicemail for a reasonable monthly fee (around $26).
  • Aircall.Aircall offers an essential plan that gives you phone, email, and help center, effectively making it basic help desk software. It allows you to have a toll free number and unlimited calling in the US and Canada (international rates apply). It also integrates with other popular help desk software, like Zendesk.

10. Focus on marketing

Making sales ultimately depends on customers finding your store. To do that you need to create a steady stream of traffic. Toincrease website trafficas a new dropshipper, generally the best marketing channels to focus on are search engine optimization (SEO), Facebook ads, and Google Ads.

SEO

SEO is the process of fine-tuning your website to increase its chances of ranking highly in search results for relevant keywords.

Ideally, you want your product pages to rank for keywords so people can naturally discover them through search engines. While most keyword searches are short-tail queries, two to three words in length, they are more competitive and crowded, making them hard to rank for. Instead, try focusing on long-tail keywords, which are three+ words in length. While long-tail keywords are lower in search volume, they are much easier to rank for because of lack of competition.

You can discover these using tools like Google Ads orkeyword.io.Plug the name of your product into the tool and you’ll see a list of related queries you can shoehorn into the copy on your product pages.

Free Download: SEO Checklist

Want to rank higher in search results? Get access to our free, checklist on search engine optimization.

Facebook ads

Facebook is a platform used by many ecommerce entrepreneurs, especially those just starting out who don’t have much advertising experience or a big ad budget. It’s filled with opportunities for you to reach new customers and drive them to your online store, as it has over 2.6 billion monthly active users. CreatingFacebooks adsallows you to directly access an active and engaged user base.

The perk of advertising on Facebook is you can target customers based on demographics, interests, and behaviors. Facebook is designed as a place for people to share personal updates, vacation photos, new songs they’ve discovered, and relationship statuses. All the likes and connections made on Facebook create detailed user profiles that advertisers can tap into through targeted ads.

You can use Facebook ads to match your products against a long list of users’ interests, traits, and behaviors, resulting in a higher likelihood of reaching your ideal customer. From there you can bid to put your product in front of a user. Try out different ad types Facebook offers (image, video, carousel, or collection), and see which one converts best at the lowest price.

Google Ads

Google Ads lets you advertise directly to your ideal customer on the two largest search engines: Google and YouTube. Google Ads has features like most other ad platforms, which let you set both a budget and max daily spend, as well as pay-per-click ads, so you’re only charged when someone visits your site. These features make it a great entry-level ads platform, despite the interface feeling somewhat complicated.

What makes Google Ads uniquely attractive is its ability to reach consumers in three distinct ways: search ads, Google Display Network, and YouTube ads. The real lure of Google Ads is you can target a specific audience based on specific behaviors, how they’ve interacted with your site or brand before (from visiting a certain page to abandoning their cart), demographics, interests, and other traits. With a budget in mind as a new dropshipper, this can help you target new or retarget previous visitors and win sales.

Combining some of these features, you could try using Google Display Network to retarget people who viewed certain products. This means that as they explore the web and where websites have display ads set up, they will see the product they were just viewing on your online store. Or, earlier in the SEO section we covered how to find and use long-tail keywords. If the price is right, why not try bidding on those before the page is ranking?

Are you ready to run your dropshipping business?

While starting a dropshipping business is one of the fastest ways to get a business up and running, remember it’s not a fast track to passive income. A successful dropshipping business takes active work to grow so customers are happy and return.

Next chapter:How to Make Dropshipping a Success


Topics: