By Knowing the top dropshipping mistakes to avoid can determine how fast your business will grow. Dropshipping is one of the sure-fire ways to make money online in America as a beginner.
Most dropshipping failure rates are a result of the following mistakes:
1. Picking the Wrong Dropshipping Niche
Table of Contents
E-commerce dropshipping is profitable, no doubt. But focusing on the worst dropshipping niche can delay your financial progress to a large extent.
How do you pick a profitable dropshipping niche? There are a bunch of different ways to do it. One of them is by looking at what other top dropshippers are selling online. You can also find a profitable product to sell by finding out what people are searching for.
If there’s a popular search term like, “Are blue glasses good for your eyes??” It’s an indication that blue-light-blocking glasses are in high demand. And if you sell it in your Shopify store, you are going to make a lot of sales.
To help you get started, here are the top e-commerce niches:
- Men’s beauty products
- Home exercise equipment
- Books on politics
- Natural feminine care products
- Natural pet care
- Disinfectant products
- Boutique rugs.
2. Failing to Do Thorough Product Research Before Marketing a Dropshipping Product
The importance of product research can’t be overemphasized. No matter the hype around a product, don’t dropship it until you’ve done your own product research. An interesting way to validate an e-commerce product idea is to find out how much demand there is for it.
How do you find the perfect dropshipping product to sell? It’s simply by doing thorough product research. You can choose to spend hours combing through multiple Shopify or AliExpress stores or you can use this winning product research tool called, NicheScraper.
Niche Scraper helps you to find winning products to sell. That way, you can focus on what works in the e-commerce sector. Maybe, in a few months, you can start sharing your own e-commerce success story.
ALSO READ:
- 10 Best Dropshipping Products to Sell
- How to Find the Best Dropshipping Products to Sell Today
- 7 Reasons Why Your E-Commerce Website Should Have a Blog
Here are top reasons why product research is important when trying to avoid dropshipping mistakes:
- Doing thorough product research helps you to focus on what consumers really want to buy. That way, you can overcome the competitiveness in the online retail business.
- Thorough product research helps you avoid terrible dropshipping mistakes that leads to a waste of time.
- Without product research, you’ll just be taking shots in the dark and not properly connecting with potential customers.
- If you want to sell products that will give you the best ROI, you must focus on products that solve real-life problems.
3. Using Only One Marketing Channel to Promote Your Dropshipping Product
Some of the top marketing channels you can use to promote your dropshipping product are email marketing, content marketing, search engine optimization, display advertising and social media marketing.
All of these channels of marketing work very well when integrated. But a problem sets in when you decide to use only one marketing channel to promote your dropshipping product.
No matter how successful a particular marketing channel is, don’t rely on it alone. One of the common dropshipping mistakes to avoid is using just one marketing channel. To stop this, start using multichannel and omnichannel marketing.
What is omnichannel marketing? Omnichannel marketing is the integration and cooperation of the various channels organizations use to interact with consumers, with the goal of creating a consistent brand experience. This includes physical (e.g. stores) and digital channels (e.g. websites).
What is multichannel marketing? Multichannel marketing refers to the practice of interacting with customers using a combination of indirect and direct communication channels.
Using an integrated marketing strategy is not enough for you to run a successful dropshipping business. You also need to stop relying on one supplier.
4. Relying on One Dropshipping Supplier
This is a common mistake many beginners in the dropshipping sector make. You researched a product and saw a good supplier, made arrangements for a supply and then totally abandoned everything to them.
Have you asked yourself what will happen if your major dropshipping supplier has a problem? How will you handle it if they can’t meet up with a deadline? What happens if the company goes into merger and acquisition and they can’t continue serving you?
To what extent will your business be affected if the host country of your supplier is sanctioned? Take a look at the global crises in Europe right now. You will agree with us that having backup suppliers will be the best decision any dropshipping expert will make.
ALSO READ:
- How to Spy on Your Dropshipping Competitors
- Dropshipping vs Affiliate Marketing: What is the Difference?
- The Definitive Guide to Running A Highly Successful Dropshipping Business
Some other interesting reasons why you shouldn’t depend on one dropshipping supplier (especially on AliExpress) are:
- Raising prices and cutting into your margin
- Not shipping things on time
- Backordered items
- Going out of business and not fulfilling orders
Statistics have it that almost 90% of dropshippers fail in their first month. This is mainly because they are either not making enough money or suppliers are cutting into their profit margin.
5. Not Optimizing Your Dropshipping Store
The design and functionality of your dropshipping store can determine how much sales you will generate. Failing to optimize your dropshipping store is one of the biggest mistakes you will make.
You can learn more about e-commerce product optimization if you are targeting customers in the United States, the UK, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, South Africa or China.
To effectively optimize your store, you will need quality images, copywriting, product descriptions, and a call-to-action button in the right places. The use of pop-ups, currency converters, customer reviews, and more will make the shopping experience easy and enjoyable for your customers.
You can hire an expert to help you in writing a better product description or you can take a dropshipping course to do it yourself.
Why You Need to Avoid These Common Dropshipping Mistakes
The primary reason why you need to avoid these dropshipping mistakes is to enable you to grow your business profitably.
According to the global dropshipping statistics, the market size of the dropshipping sector is about 128.6 billion USD as of 2020. This is estimated to hit 476.1 billion U.S. dollars by 2026. For you to share from this billion-dollar industry, you will need to avoid mistakes that could lead to dropshipping failure.
Failing to maximize organic traffic in selling your dropshipping products to Americans is a huge mistake. This is because organic traffic will flood your online store with a torrential flow of customers for free.
ALSO READ:
- 5 Proven Methods to Drive Traffic to Your E-Commerce Website
- 5 Rock-Solid Ways You Can Optimize Your Site for Mobile to Boost Traffic
- What Are the Different Types of Outdoor Advertising Used in the United States?
What is Reverse Dropshipping?
Reverse dropshipping can be defined as the process of sourcing high-quality products from countries that usually import products and sell them in countries that export them.
Reverse dropshipping means shipping products from India or the USA, China, or any other country. In the reverse dropshipping model, the high-quality products would be procured from outside of those countries and sold within them.
Pros of Reverse Dropshipping
Reverse dropshipping is a new niche in dropshipping that most people are yet to discover the benefits of. Today, we will show you the advantages of reverse dropshipping so you too will start maximizing it like most successful dropshippers.
Below are the pros of reverse dropshipping:
The Profit Margin of Reverse Dropshipping is Higher
One of the interesting benefits of reverse dropshipping is that the profit margin is relatively higher than the traditional model. Beyond that, you will also have the privilege of working with suppliers with a good return policy.
Since it’s easy to purchase low-quality goods in bulk, dropshippers maximize the opportunity to increase their margin. Another interesting benefit of reverse dropshipping is you will face lesser competition.
Less Competiton and an Opportunity to Target a Huge Market
Reverse dropshipping has made it extremely easy for dropshippers to target the world’s most populous country, China, and win. Statistics show that 52.1% of Chinese retail sales are e-commerce sales. This is an indication that people are buying in droves in China.
The amount of competition you will have to deal with is significantly lower because you are doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing. The best part is that most of your competitors are not even selling online. Imagine what will happen when you start using a dropshipping website builder to speed up your online sales.
Let’s take a quick look at the cons (disadvantages) of the reverse dropshipping model in America, Germany, Canada and the UK.
Cons of Reverse Dropshipping
Are there some disadvantages of doing reverse dropshipping? Yes, and we will tell you what they are.
Most Reverse Dropshipping Products Can Be Extremely Tough to Market
One of the biggest challenges of the reverse dropshipping model is that you might encounter a lot of tough times trying to market even the best dropshipping products abroad. A product that is selling well in China may flop in the United States, Canada or Europe.
When expanding your business abroad, you need to know the kind of products you will sell to them. Take the Arab market as an example, it is not every product that flies there. You will also discover how language is a huge barrier to this dropshipping model.
Language Difference Could Be a Barrier
You will encounter a lot of challenges trying to penetrate a new country with your product. This barrier to entry that could stem from cultural differences and unfavorable government regulations can become worst if their basic language of communication differs.
Research shows that less than 1% of Chinese people master English enough to communicate with it. Beyond the restriction the language barrier will place on reverse dropshipping, you will also struggle with finding a good platform to market your product.
