Dropshipping is a low-risk business model that enables you to sell products to your customers without investing in product manufacturing, trading, or procurement.
Dropshipping is your solution if you want to set up and run an e-commerce store but don’t want to procure products. You don’t need to spend a penny on the products before receiving an order.
You only have to hire a website developer to build an e-commerce store.
How does a dropshipping store work?
- You create an e-commerce store.
- You upload products from different e-commerce platforms, such as AliExpress, eBay, etc., and add a margin to each product as your profit.
- You sell the products & receive payments online.
- You buy the products from AliExpress and provide your customer’s shipping details so they can dispatch them.
What are the advantages of a dropshipping business?
Below are some of the advantages that you get with a dropshipping e-commerce store:
- You don’t need any investment in product procurement.
- You can easily set up a store and start selling in just a few days.
- You don’t need to worry about the products; you can focus on marketing.
Dropshipping is an excellent option for starting your e-commerce business without worrying about the products and their deliveries.
However, you must ensure that your dropshipping store has all the essential features to run a successful online business.
In this blog post, I have shared five basic yet essential features your dropshipping store must have.
Let’s dive in.
#1 Guest checkout
The guest checkout system allows your online shoppers to purchase the products from your dropshipping store without creating an account with our website.
Let’s face it. Not everybody is willing to spend time creating an account with any e-commerce website unless they get some unique benefits.
Below are some of the significant benefits that you get with guest checkout:
- First-time users are not hesitant to checkout and place their orders.
- The guest checkout option increases your website’s conversion rate.
- Using guest checkout, your online shoppers can make their buying decisions quickly.
- A guest checkout form takes less time for the users to fill out.
- Guest checkout can help to lower the abandonment rate of your online store.
- Limited information and a lower level of commitment.
With so many benefits of a guest checkout system, you can’t afford to miss out on this feature. Therefore, you must ask your website developer to incorporate a guest checkout feature in your dropshipping store.
#2 Live chat
I rarely see a live chat feature on a dropshipping website.
Most dropshipping business owners think they have to upload hundreds or thousands of products, and the users will start buying them. No, that’s not the case at all.
You need to engage your customers with your brand to get business from them.
Before purchasing the products from your store, potential buyers may likely have some queries to resolve.
A live chat feature is perhaps one of the most effective yet affordable ways to provide excellent support to your online shoppers and customers.
Here are some of the great benefits of using a live chat feature with your dropshipping store:
- A live chat enables your potential buyers to resolve their queries before they decide to buy from you.
- A live chat option shows that you care for your customers.
- You can up-sell your products using live chat as a direct communication medium with your users.
- A live chat feature enhances the user experience on your website.
- It helps your business gain a competitive advantage because not everyone does it.
- Live chat helps you to reduce your support costs.
- Live chat gives you valuable insights into your customers’ behaviors.
- You can get in touch with your potential buyers.
With so many benefits of using a live chat feature on your dropshipping website, I am sure you won’t want to take this advice lightly. Therefore, you can request that your web developer integrate a live chat option with your website.
#3 Social media
Another essential thing that most dropshipping businesses lack is their social media presence.
A dropshipping business model empowers you to build & run an e-commerce store cost-effectively, but you still need to create a buzz among the targeted audience.
Social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram can create brand awareness and encourage your targeted customers to buy from you.
Sharing your web pages on social media platforms also helps to enhance your search engine rankings. All major search engines, such as Google, consider social signals essential in ranking a website.
How can your web developer help you to integrate social media with your online store?
- Linking to Facebook Messenger from your website.
- Including social media sharing buttons for each product.
- Integrating social media with analytics to monitor the performance.
- Displaying social proof from your social media websites.
#4 Multi-currency
One major benefit of running a dropshipping business is that you can sell your products worldwide. Most AliExpress sellers provide free shipping to all countries.
Now, since you can cater to customers from different countries, you can leverage a multi-currency feature on your e-commerce website so that your online shoppers can choose their preferred currency and view all the products’ prices in that currency.
Additionally, you can ask your web developer to configure the IP-detection feature so your website’s e-commerce store shows the default currency according to your users’ IPs.
Integrating a multi-currency feature is inexpensive if you have developed your website using WordPress. Several multi-currency plugins can be installed and configured at an affordable cost.
Similarly, you can integrate a multi-lingual plugin with your dropshipping store so your online shoppers can choose their preferred language.
#5 First order discount
In a dropshipping business, you don’t have to spend money on product procurement because you are selling the products of other suppliers. Therefore, you can give your customers some of your profit margins through discounts.
A first-order discount is a great way to offer discounts to online shoppers who will place their orders with your website for the first time.
Below are some of the great benefits of a ‘First Order Discount’:
- You get more sales & new customers.
- Your potential buyers get a reason to buy from you.
- You get a competitive advantage.
- It makes it easier for your new customers to make a buying decision quickly.