How to Start a Dropshipping Business 2024

E-Commerce Setup Development

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When it comes to starting a business, the sheer number of options can make it hard to pick one method and stick to it. Today, though, one of the most effective methods of business development is known as dropshipping.

If you are looking to start a dropshipping business, you’ve come to the right place. This article breaks down the essentials about how to start a dropshipping business this 2024 so customers can start buying from you immediately.

What is dropshipping?

Before we go any further, let us answer one question: what is dropshipping?

So, the main challenge with starting a business comes down to initial start-up finances. If you want to sell products, you need stock so that you can sell them to your customers. Buying that stock, though, requires an upfront investment to buy the stock and then store that stock somewhere. This costs the kind of start-up capital that you either do not have or cannot risk. This is where dropshipping comes in.

Dropshipping works by essentially allowing you to buy from the supplier (or manufacturer directly) when you have a guaranteed sale. Instead of having to spend large sums of money on stock before knowing if anyone wants to buy your goods, dropshipping only costs you supplies when you have a sale.

OK, you will pay more for your supplies. But you know that you have already made a sale and can cover the sale. Best of all? The supplier/manufacturer will have the product shipped directly to your customer for you. This means that you then act as the middleman. The only costs you will incur to begin with are the cost of the e-commerce store and design, and then marketing.

You’ll keep the buyer updated on the progress of their shipment, and you’ll be able to resolve any issues if a problem arises. Now that you can see the basic purpose of dropshipping, how do you get started?

How to start a dropshipping business in the UK this 2024

You need to find your niche

The first thing you need to figure out is this: what is your industry or niche? Basically, what will you sell?

Three things determine the answer to this question:

1. What kind of market/industry do you know enough about to sell?
2. What kind of market interest is there in the industry you are considering?
3. What level of supply is available? Can you find a suitable partner to work with?

These three questions will be the deciding factor in your success and/or failure. You might find a dropshipping ally who can provide you with huge quantities of items…but nobody wants what they offer. Or, you might find a market gap that you could exploit…but nobody provides dropshipping.

The best way to get started is to run a Google Trends search for the items/niche you are interested in. Then, if you do find that there is sufficient interest, begin looking for suppliers. Use Google search terms to look for things like “Chinese suppliers for NICHE” and replace the word NICHE with your industry. This might help you quickly find manufacturers and suppliers.

If you are stuck finding a partner, look to platforms like Alibaba, AliExpress, and DHGate. These are all based in China, so you can get tremendous value for money on the items you will be dropshipping.

You need to build your storefront

The next step that you have to take into account when learning how to start a dropshipping business in the UK is to build an online e-commerce store. This will cost you thousands of pounds in website development costs, right? Wrong!

With Shopify, you have access to one of the most powerful shopping platforms in the world. This is our #1 platform of choice when learning how to start a dropshipping business. Why Shopify?

• The back-end interface is one of the easiest to use for any eCommerce platforms
• The easy use of third-party apps and plug-ins can help to make your store unique
• The level of design and layout variety helps you to create a striking brand image
• You can easily add new products and options to your store in a matter of minutes
• Adding manufacturers and their products to your website as it grows is very easy
• Tutorials are widespread, helping you to self-learn every aspect of Shopify itself
• The customer support standard is excellent, making it easy to get help when needed
• Shopify is a proven brand, so you do not have to worry about your storefront vanishing
• The plans are cost-effective and straightforward and include domain & hosting

These are just some of the reasons why we would always recommend Shopify to start your UK dropshipping business. It is easy to use, reliable, user-friendly, and simple to scale up as time goes on. Other platforms can feel very uncomfortable for beginners or be too limited in scope. With Shopify, you are using a platform that lets you start small and build up consistently over time.

You can even learn more about Shopify’s take on dropshipping here. This covers many of the basic questions you might have about Shopify and why it is perfect for starting a UK dropshipping business. You can also see some of our insights on using Shopify for dropshipping.

You need a branding presence

Before you design your Shopify website, though, you need to think about your brand. So, to get started, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are you going to stick to one particular niche or product style or go for a wider industry?
2. Will you look to sell a broad range of well-priced products or focus on smaller specialisation?
3. Can you see other products down the line that you could add to your list of commercial options?

The next step in deciding how to start a dropshipping business is to come up with a name and a brand identity. Since you should be sticking to one major theme – for example, yoga accessories – you should build the business around a particular kind of customer. So, try and sell yourself as the one-stop solution for a specific type of person. This will inform your business development. Ask yourself:

1. What kind of imagery and colour(s) would you associate with the industry you are based in?
2. Can you think of any catchy, witty, or ‘pun’ names for your store that might catch interest?
3. Where can you see a tie-in that makes your storefront different from the other vendors?

Having a colour scheme, a storefront name, and a unique sales proposition is very important. For example, you might sell yoga equipment – that is quite broad. What you could do, then, is aiming to sell yoga equipment to a specific kind of person: seniors, disabled people, beginners, etc.

This helps to inform your design, branding, and the product(s) you will have on offer down the line. It also allows you to determine the language that you will use. Selling yoga stuff to total beginners means moving away from yoga-specific jargon; selling to seniors means being very clear and to the point. The person you intend to sell to will determine, by a wide margin, your brand and your language choice.

All of this is so important to building a dropshipping business in the UK. If you want to stand out, you need to think about all of the above to avoid creating a generic, catch-all business. It is better to be a preferred vendor for a small group of regulars than one universal vendor, which is simply one of many options.

You need a quality storefront design

With the above in mind, you now need to start thinking about what kind of storefront design you want to build. Thankfully, there are many great Shopify themes you can install right to your storefront – free and paid. We recommend starting with something clean and free that you can modify in terms of the colour schemes. Pair this up with what we mentioned above.

If you do that, you are on your way to building a simple but effective store design. As time goes on, you can look at more advanced (paid) designs and create a unique look for your Shopify store. For now, though, starting with something clean and easy to navigate on desktop and mobile should suffice.

Could you make sure you at least invest in apps and add-ons that can add things like filters and search functions? The easier it is for people to search through your Shopify store, the better.

Invest time in understanding marketing

Nearly all businesses need a marketing plan and this is usually the hardest part of building out your eCommerce empire. This is not something that you can skip over or learn in five minutes, either. Marketing your website means:

1. Finding the right keywords to focus on when it comes to building the website content
2. Locating the best products that have a high level of interest without excessive competition
3. Understanding your audience so you can offer them solutions to the problems they are facing
4. Learning the basics of search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media marketing
5. Investing in long-term options such as pay-per-click (PPC) marketing and web development
6. See what is trending on social media, Tik Tok is currently a popular platform for dropshippers.

Over time, it is beneficial to hire a marketing professional. It might be wise to consider hiring someone who can help you to build up a profile of keywords and search terms to focus on. This is the most challenging part of your dropshipping business.

Unless you hit gold from day one, do not expect your Shopify dropshipping store to take off immediately: it will take time, patience, and some luck.

Look at promotional ideas and expansion concepts

Next, you need to do yourself a favour – you need to look closely at expansion opportunities. What kind of features might your users be looking for?

For example, you could bring in a calendar feature that helps you to create promotions based on industry-specific holidays. Going back to the yoga example, you could look for things like yoga history and culture to find celebrations, events, specific holidays, and even the birthdays of famous names within yoga. This helps you to integrate promotions into the website itself.

Over time, this helps you to make your website feel more specific to your audience. Through regular marketing, such as blog posts and mailing lists, you can keep in touch with those passionate shoppers and encourage them to come back for more purchases at the right time.

Ready to take your Shopify site to the next level this 2024? Contact Create Circus

Create Circus is a UK-based Shopify Expert & eCommerce agency. We specialize in all things eCommerce — from custom theme development and sales channel integrations to targeted Google ads campaigns — and dozens of international clients who are reaping the rewards.

Schedule your free call with us today and let’s supercharge your Shopify!