Many of our readers might have had various experiences with dropshipping business model and some of you may be asking yourself a question – is dropshipping still profitable, even in the year 2021?
The answer is very simple. It IS profitable, it WAS profitable, and it WILL BE profitable in the future. It is similar to any other business – the only reason for it not to be profitable if you don’t know how to operate a dropshipping business or if you don’t know the ins and outs of this type of business very well. In the following article, we will be discussing the UK dropshipping in particular.
To illustrate the profitability of dropshipping, I will use a simple mathematical example. Let’s say, for example, you buy a product from a wholesaler for £50. This wholesale price includes shipping cost within the UK. Then you are adding your own margin and selling the same product for £80-£120. In this case, your gross profit comes to £30-£70 per product and your net profit could be £21-£49 (this is considering that 30% will be spent for transition costs, marketing and other costs). So, if within a month you can make 50-100 sales, your total profit can be from £1050 to £4900. So, from a purely mathematical perspective, it is clear that you absolutely can make a profit and good living with dropshipping business.
But earlier in this article, we mentioned that you can only get profit from drop shipping if you know how to do it properly. To do dropshipping business properly, you need to overcome the 2 biggest hurdles:
The solution to the first hurdle is quite simple and we are giving you this solution here immediately. To find reliable UK dropshipping suppliers visit this UK dropshipping supplier network. Here you will find suppliers 100% of which are based in the UK and their delivery times are 3-5 working days which means these suppliers are truly dropshipping friendly.
Secondly, here I am discussing the 2nd biggest hurdle related to dropshipping business which is the marketing. How to do marketing for UK dropshipping products properly?
Marketing has never been easy, and it will never be easy. It is a very competitive endeavour as every business has the same goal – to spend a small amount of money as possible, but to get the best possible return on the marketing budget spent. Some businesses obviously have more money for marketing than others and it makes the environment complex and competitive. For a new business owner, it can be hard to operate in such conditions. But there is a way, and, in this article, we would like to share this method which can help young dropshipping businesses to compete with more established companies even without large marketing budgets.
Let’s suppose you are getting your products from UK dropshipping suppliers and you have an eBay selling account, as well as Amazon selling account. Using Getshop Today technology, you can easily (using an automated process) list those products on eBay. This will help you to sell your products without spending any money on marketing (as eBay only charges after-sales). You can also list these products on Amazon, which has a better profit margin. It must be said though that for the time being Getshop Today does not support automated listings from Getshop Today to Amazon, but you can still manually list items from their UK dropshipping suppliers.
But this is only the beginning. Selling on eBay and Amazon is not without challenges. But these challenges are possible to overcome. Only things needed are patience and perseverance.
To become a successful seller of dropshipping products in eBay and Amazon, you need to do the following.
If you, for example, create an eBay or Amazon account, don’t expect that these platforms will promote your shop straight away. eBay and Amazon need some dependable and reliable sellers; therefore, both these platforms will look at your activities – how dependable you are and how good service you are providing and are you consistent in doing so. To boost your credibility, when you make your first sales (which usually will happen within 1-4 weeks), make sure you are keeping in touch with your customers after delivering the goods. Also, make sure to get a good review which will increase your credibility on eBay and Amazon.
When you are optimising a listing there are several matters to concentrate on. Firstly, make sure your listing titles are very good. Listing titles must include your focus keywords and the title length has to be 60-80 characters. Use the keywords at the beginning of your listing title. Some studies say that when a title begins with a number, there is 6 times higher chance to get a higher click-through rate.
Secondly, add beautiful images. Make sure your products have at least 3 images for eBay. For Amazon, we recommend at least 9 images. It is best to provide images of high quality. Try to include at least 1 or more infographics-based images that combine images and text to explain your product better – what it does, how to use it etc. You may think that if you are doing dropshipping your supplier may sometimes not provide a required number of images or high enough quality images. It can be the case. In this situation, try to avoid those products at all (choose to sell only those products which have good images supplied by the dropshipping supplier). On the other hand, if you see that some products have a good selling rate, but images are not there, you may consider ordering one test item from the supplier and doing the photography yourself (or hiring an eCommerce photographer). It seems a bit of extra work to do, but it pays off in the long run.
Thirdly, optimise product description. When you are writing a description before you go into product details add a heading. The heading has to contain the same keywords as your product title (the title of the listing). Next, write a thorough product description that explains everything in detail about your product. Make sure your product description is more than 300 words. You can also include images in the description, especially if you have any infographics.
Last but not least, the way your product will appear on eBay and Amazon search results depends not only on good listings but also your pricing. Therefore, as a new eBay and Amazon seller, you may benefit from keeping an eye on the way your competitors price the same product. Try to provide a price that is at least one pens lower than your competitors’. For example, if you see on Amazon product listings where the seller has a buy box, that seller often is offering a cheaper price. But bear in mind that competition regarding pricing cannot bring true success in business. Still, we advise this, as this method can be helpful in the beginning stages until your account gets your first sales.
After all, as I mentioned in the very beginning of this article, you can and will get success in dropshipping business, but only if you overcome two hurdles: get reliable and local dropshipping suppliers with good shipping times and also if you learn how to do proper marketing for your products.
We hope that in this article we gave you good solutions to both of these problems. But at the end of the day, success will only come if you are patient and perseverant. And that is exactly what we wish for you – patience and perseverance in 2021 and beyond in all your UK dropshipping endeavours!
