{"id":17040,"title":"How to start a dropshipping business successfully","description":"Dropshipping offers an opportunity for genuine people who are starting a business to surprise themselves with success. Having helped thousands of startup founders set up and grow, we're here to help you learn how to start dropshipping and succeed.","content":"

For a fulfilment method, #Dropshipping got so big, so fast, we probably should start by saying we\u2019re talking about building a real business, not just a hashtag. All the hype has some merit, though. Behind the \u2018get rich quick\u2019 clickbait, there really is an opportunity for genuine people who are starting a business to surprise themselves with success here. If you want to learn how to start a dropshipping business<\/a>, we\u2019re here to tell you that having helped thousands of founders set up and grow it is absolutely possible to be successful - provided you take a few important steps, and avoid a few common mistakes. That\u2019s what this article is about.<\/p>

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It\u2019s probably worth recapping the state of dropshipping today, as the technology has changed a lot recently.<\/p>

So what is dropshipping and how does it work?<\/h2>

To really understand dropshipping, let\u2019s compare it to how most old-fashioned businesses work and what that means, particularly for a startup:<\/p>

Traditionally, aspiring business owners pay for their own website, then make an investment in stock, store it, then try to sell it and ship it themselves. In between all that, they hopefully squeeze in some marketing. This model means risking your own money and if it's your first time starting a business, that means losing. When trying something new, failure is inevitable, it\u2019s how you learn and grow. But it's hard to embrace failure when it's tied to your finances. The cheaper - and faster - you can fail, the better.<\/p>

Dropshipping companies are different in that they don\u2019t hold any stock at all. When they get a sale, it\u2019s shipped by a third party - the dropshipping supplier<\/a> - direct to the customer. This unlocks multiple competitive advantages: it\u2019s fast, flexible, cheap, profitable, and you can invest more time in growing your brand compared to your competitors. You skip the boring, stressful stuff like manufacturing, storage, handling and shipping and focus on marketing and growing the business full time.<\/p>

Dropshipping is the kind of breakthrough startups need to unlock the 21st century digital dream: working from home, or from anywhere in the world, running your online business on a pickup\/put down basis.<\/p><\/blockquote>

The lean model is also what makes dropshipping stand out from other startup business ideas as a fast, easy and accessible opportunity - because you can start making money online today and there\u2019s no upfront investment. The cool part is that this enables new people to start businesses who might not otherwise have been able to. You can start a business with no money; you don\u2019t need to pay for a warehouse, inventory or staff to help with fulfilment. All you need is a phone and internet connection and you\u2019re in business.<\/p>

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-- We love seeing a broad range of people using our dropshipping supply in the UK to start businesses: from students, to startups, to charities and even bigger brands that want to modernise and become more streamlined.<\/em><\/p>

How to get started dropshipping<\/h2>

Starting is easy. But to actually do it well and make money from it, you have to treat it just like any other business and make solid, well-rounded decisions about who to work with, what to sell and how to sell it. When starting a business, there are three things that will drive and sustain your growth: Product, Quality, and Customer relationships. But first, an analogy.<\/p>

Your business is like a piece of string. You can try and push it your end but, like string, it will work much better if people pull on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>

That means more than anything - more than price, or vanity details - the best dropshipping products are those that people fundamentally are interested in and want. If you can find a product there is demand for, but where supply is lacking, you\u2019ve got yourself a gap in the market that will pull your business forward. If you don\u2019t get that right, you\u2019ll just be pushing string.<\/p>

96% of people say product quality is most important to them when choosing a company to buy from. Having a high quality product and a good customer experience is a great way to build a cohort of loyal customers. To put that into perspective, it\u2019s eight times easier to retain a customer than it is to convert a new one. So retaining and reactivating loyal customers is critical. The evidence? Looking at the data for the most successful businesses that use our tech, more than half their sales are to repeat customers. So when you\u2019re recruiting customers, you should be thinking not about how to make a one-off sale, but how to recruit them for life. If you want to build a sustainable business, picking a dropship supplier that won't let you down on speed, quality and service is more important than anything.<\/p>

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-- Half of online shoppers will abandon their order if shipping is slow. We ship 93% of our orders same-day - game changing for on-demand dropship fulfilment.<\/em><\/p>

So apart from reliability and investment in quality, how do you lock in those repeats? Loyalty to brands is about values - what your customers believe in, or aspire to be. We live in a time where these things have never been more clearly defined. Because with a 71% rise in online searches for sustainable products, and with more than half of all consumers saying they look into the sustainability<\/a> of a brand before committing to buy, the answer is simple: if you are starting today you simply MUST start on the right side of that conversation if you want to survive.<\/p>

Sustainability is increasingly important to customers. Yet big businesses, if they respond at all, are doing so very slowly. Some see this as consumer frustration, but startups should see this as an opportunity. If demand is growing for sustainable products and supply is not keeping up, there\u2019s a word for that: A Gap In The Market.<\/p>

Because that gap seems to be getting wider, and growing - and because the problem is not going away - this represents a compound opportunity for startups that are looking at sustainable drop shipping products and suppliers like Teemill because there\u2019s both a competitive advantage, a gap in the market and no barriers to entry, with a long term and growing market. We\u2019re excited about seeing startups make the most of this opportunity to become more environmentally and financially sustainable.<\/p>

What's the best sustainable dropshipping supplier in the UK?<\/h2>

The easiest way to make your dropshipping business sustainable is to find a supplier who already manufactures eco-friendly products - but in doing so, be very careful about greenwashing. Knowing how important it is, suppliers are trying to plug the hole with a couple of \u2018green\u2019 lines but there is more to it than that. Here\u2019s a checklist that will help you.<\/p>