Have you ever wondered who is the richest dropshipper?
That would be Amazon.
How? By the definition Dropshipper is someone who doesn’t invest in inventory, just sells the product on their website and takes the commission. By this logic, Amazon is the largest dropshipper.
Joke aside, short answer is "Yes" dropshipping is still profitable and it will continue to be according to Statista.
It is estimated that global dropshipping market is worth 159 billion dollars in 2021, and it will hit record in 2026 with 476 billion dollars.
-Who are these dropshippers?
Most of the sources will tell you that everyone can start dropshipping, and they are not wrong. But to make money out of it in a long run you first need a strategy, and second - right business partners.
-So where do I find those partners?
In this article we will speak about if, why and how to successfully do dropshipping in 2022! We’ll explain to you where to find fast shipping and winning products from the best suppliers in US, Europe, Canada, Asia, Australia, Brazil and more, and add them to your Shopify store in a few clicks!
Ok, dropshipping sounds interesting, but is it better than traditional eCommerce? I'm glad you asked! In order to answer this question it's best to take a look at pros and cons of dropshipping.
Let's look at pros first:
1. Dropshipping saves time and reduces the risk:
You can open a dropshipping store really fast, in a couple of hours with Shopify, and you can quickly test products, until you find something that is working well with your audience. All this without buying in bulk. Yes, you can test hundreds of products at a time without having to spend time and money on actual products! This leads us to the second benefit
2. Dropshipping Saves money!
Dropshipping requires less startup costs in comparison to retail stores. If you are doing traditional commerce, you'll first need to invest in product development, inventory, warehouse, packaging, and much more. All of those costs are avoided with dropshipping.
Without having to worry about the product and shipping part, you can use that time to learn new skills.
3. Yes, dropshipping is a great way to learn useful skills and you can stop dropshipping whenever you are ready for transition
The key to be successful in any business is learning. You'll fail a couple of times but if you learn from those mistakes, knowledge will become your most valuable asset. And imagine being able to gain knowledge from all over the world?
4. You can literally sell to the whole world if you want to
If you are living in US or Canada for example, with the right partners you can ship under the same conditions to EU. There is no hidden cost of entering new markets.
These are just some of the most basic pros, but let's look at the cons:
1. Most dropshipping sources are presenting Dropshipping as a way to get rich overnight! It's not!
Huge number of people see dropshipping as Get rich fast scheme. True, some people did get rich overnight by doing dropshipping, but those are rare. In case you are serious about doing dropshipping you'll need to invest time and energy to build a brand. I hear you say how to build a brand when I don't have control over product?
2. Almost no control and sometimes you can’t combine products for an order
Building brand with dropshipping model is challenging - If you are not careful when choosing a partner. you won't be able to control packaging, invoicing, shipping, and there won't be an option for adding something extra like a thank you coupon with the order.
With some dropshipping services, like Aliexpress, you can't combine different products in an order. So imagine this scenario, customer orders 5 items and only 1 is delivered. Of course, they ask for a refund, and while you think about the ways to explain that 4 more packages are on it's way, you already have a chargeback dispute.
So you lose a customer even before they got the product.
3. Dropshipping model is famous for potential quality control issues and stock shortage
Unfortunately, most of the dropshipping services are not offering quality products and services. Customer retention is key to success of any eCommerce business. The best way to keep your customers coming back is to offer amazing products and services.
Dropshipping sounds less amazing now? Don't worry there are amazing dropshipping companies that are working hard to give you control over the whole process. Today we will be speaking about one of them - Spocket!
Spocket connects dropshipping merchants with dropshipping suppliers who are located in the EU and the US, as well as help merchants to build up an inventory of high-quality products for their eCommerce store.
Wait wait Why choose US/EU based suppliers instead of Aliexpress? Aliexpress is cheaper, right?
AliExpress is the most popular dropshipping platform for sourcing low-cost products from China-based suppliers. However, dropshipping from AliExpress includes all the disadvantages we mentioned including slow shipping times and import taxes.
So, how local dropshipping suppliers differs from Aliexpress?
With dropshipping supplier from United States, Canada and Europe, many of the troubles that can arise with a Chinese supplier can be avoided. Shipment will take less time, which usually means happier customers.
When an order is damaged, you will also be able to send your customers a replacement product quickly, not like with AliExpress where your customers can wait for months.
As a European business, you pay higher import costs for packages from outside of Europe. Another benefit is that products from European suppliers are obligated to meet the European safety requirements. So when you import products to Europe you are responsible for meeting those requirements.
In case of faulty products, you’ll be held accountable but with a local supplier, you can hold them accountable.
How Spocket can help me?
Spocket is a marketplace specially built for dropshipping, and it integrates with all major plaftorms. So in case you are using Magento for example, and you decide to migrate to Shopify, you won't need to change your supplier, and trust me there is a reason why you would stick with Spocket.
The main reason why Spocket is one of the best dropshipping services you can use is their product base.
Most products on Spocket are at the high end of the quality spectrum.
There are many types of suppliers on Spocket, from local artisans, small wholesalers to mass manufacturers, so the price ranges on Spocket are various. There are premium products from established brand names, and there are also discounted products from smaller suppliers.
The punchline is if you’re looking to build a long-term business in the field of dropshipping, Spocket is one of the best options to check out for sourcing products.
It comes with a price tag tho, the level of prices is relatively higher on Spocket than on other dropshipping marketplaces. For this reason, Spocket is suitable for dropshipping merchants who are planning to sell high-quality products on their online store.
On Spocket, there is a huge number of products that you can choose from and Merchants can check out up to 25 orders at once. So how do Spocket keeps track of quality of all the products they are offering?
Well, they ensures their product quality by inspecting their suppliers very carefully to make sure that they are manufacturing great products that both merchants and consumers can trust.
They also let only established reliable suppliers into their marketplace and do not hesitate to let bad suppliers go.
Speaking of supplier, as a dropshipping merchant, you don’t know your suppliers’ inventory levels, so you can’t update inventory yourself. This can seriously damage your brand.
Spocket find a way to overcome this issue. Whenever a product is out of stock from your supplier, Spocket will automatically update that piece of information in your data.
OK now that you know how Spocket can help you with Con #3 let's speak about control.
Let's say you do not want your customers to know that they are buying from a dropshipping business. You are selling high-end products, and it is logical that you want it to represent your brand.
To help you make your customers’ shopping experience as authentic as possible, Spocket provides you with the option to create your own branded invoices.
For instance, when you use the cheaper plan, you can insert your store’s URL, currency and a personal message to your invoice, but when you sign up for higher plans, you will be able to add your store’s logo, use your brand’s font, or organize the invoice in a way that it feels personal and unique to your brand.
You can test how it all looks by ordering product samples.
Having a sample is a must when it comes to dropshipping because that’s how you can experience the product quality first before selling any items to your customers.
Once you are satisfied with the product, you can take pictures and start selling.
As we mentioned, Spocket suppliers are based in US and EU, so shipping time is much quicker, around 60%, than let's say AliExpress.
Although, merchants can’t get to decide the shipping carriers that Spocket suppliers use, Spocket does state that their suppliers mostly ship with reputable carriers, including DHL, USPS, FedEx, and ePacket.
The shipping rates of products on Spocket vary based on the location of the supplier and your customer, so you’ll need to set up shipping costs separately. There are three shipping rate options that you can choose: Free, Flat rate and price based shipping.
You can expect a margin of from 30%-60% with Spocket while it’s often 15%-45% with other dropshipping marketplaces.
It’s worth remembering that the cost of sales and marketing can get really high (20%-30% of your revenue in some cases), so with this level of profit margins that Spocket offers, you will get to retain a substantial portion of net profit from the sales that you make.
So now that you know how Spocket can help you in your dropshipping journey, let's see how you can use it.
It’s quite simple to use Spocket on Shopify.
You can integrate Spocket directly with Shopify. If you have not had a Shopify store, go to Shopify and click on the Start a Free Trial button. Shopify will guide you through the steps to create a store. It will take only a few minutes.
Next, go to the Shopify App Store and search for the Spocket Shopify App. Click the Add App button and complete the pop-up dialog to connect the app with your store. Remember that you need to be logged in to the App Store before you can add the app.
Once you finish that, your Shopify store is now connected with the Spocket app, and you can start browsing its marketplace.
Enter a keyword to find specific products. You can search by product category, sort by price, search by location, select a supplier, or check the Premium Products box to see Spocket’s premium product offerings.
When you find a product that you want to sell, move your mouse over the picture and click on the Add to Import List green bar that shows up. The product will be saved to your import list where you can review all of your chosen products before you import them to your store.
When you have added enough products to your import list, go to the Import List section and review all of them again. In the Import List section, you can customize the product details, and then you can import the products to your store with the Push to store button. Once the products are imported to your store, your customers can shop them.
Pricing
1) FREE - You can browse Spocket catalog and services without signing up for any of their paid plans. But once you decide on the product that you would like to sell, you will need to choose one of the 3 paid plans.
2) the most basic one is Starter - $24.99/month. The starter plan has 14 days trial, and with it you can import up to 25 unique products, and you'll get access to email support. With this plan you won't be able to personalize your invoices.
3) If you need more unique products and you would like to get access to premium products, you'll need to choose between two options Pro for 49.99 and Empire 99.99!
Both Pro and Empire include chat support and branded invoices. The only difference is the number of products you want to import to your store.
With pro, you can import up to 250 unique, and 25 premium product, in comparison to Empire, where you can import up to 10 000 unique and 10 000 premium products!