Advice & Tips for successful drop-shipping

Drop-shipping is not altogether as easy as people imagine. Like anything in life you get out of it what you put in. But with Ancient Wisdom as your business partner and some enthusiasm, study and application you can be a success. Our best drop-shippers are making substantial sales (and profits).

Here are our 6 steps to creating a successful drop-shipping business.

1. Specialise: Pick a particular market you are actually interested in. Your enthusiasm will communicate to your customers and this is your ultimate marketing tool. So start by making a list of possible area's you would like to be the master of. Maybe it is eco-friendly products, maybe aromatherapy, perhaps artisan hand made items. Perhaps you can see yourself selling exotic Indian imports, or vegan only item. You get the idea there is a myriad of ways to focus your specialism, and reach a particular pool of potential customers. At AW you have access to vast selection of (ever growing) products. AW imports direct from India, Indonesia, China & Nepal (and more). Ancient Wisdom manufacture aromatherapy, home fragrance and bathroom products from a factory in Yorkshire. And so you can be sure of having all the latest fast selling gift-ware items available to you at competitive prices.

2. Do your research and try to be a big fish in a small pond. Actually you need to know your competition. It is great if you can find a niche product that no-one online has, or at least that you can be cheaper or offer a better deal on. It's hard to do that, because online marketing is a cut throat world. So by doing research first you will minimise wasted time working in area's that are just too competitive. But take heart.. at AW you have a big advantage in that we offer a pledge never to compete with you as a retailer. Most large wholesalers also have an online (or high st) presence, often under a different brand, many list on amazon or ebay directly - and so can compete with you unfairly. At AW we never compete with our customers, our job is to find and supply the best in wholesale giftware, the retailing part is your job. Find a niche that no-one is exploiting and the rewards can be huge.

3. Become a marketing expert. There are many marketing blogs where you can get ideas, lots of books you can read. it's endless how you can market products, from the pictures to the text to the context. Many things influence your customers buying process. For example if you try to sell a 10ml bottle of lavender oil, you will need to compete with an impossible amount of people. But if you sell a starter pack of essential oils for (let's say) for young mothers.. that includes 1 x Lavender + 1 x Tea Tree + 1 x Rosemary oil. You can target a particular market and get a higher sales value. There are actually many ways you can frame products to offer added value to your customers (and not compete like for like) you just need to discover them. Trawl our website maybe you can find groupings of products that are undiscovered, reach new markets. tip: Not all AW products are listed automatically on the DS website, if you find something at AncientWisdom.biz that you would like listed just drop us a line and we will be glad to add.

4. Pick the pools you swim in carefully. Where are you going to sell your products? You can list on Amazon, or ebay or many more market places but you should create your own online store. Maybe you can sell on your Facebook page or Instagram account, there are many places you can lay out your wares, but ultimately the most efficient sales will be via your own online store - cheaper processing and no immediate visual competition. One of the best is Shopify but there are many. The thing is getting your customers there (to your store) is not easy - you will need to have good SEO - where your customers can find you by searching on google. This will work better if you are specialising in an niche (see point 2). You can splash cash on Google adwords, but unless you are getting really high ticket value sales, or good repeat sales the cost of acquiring a customer for retail purposes via Adwords is likely to be too high to make profitable sales. One strategy most retailers adopt is to list on many platforms (there are new ones all the time eg eBUYgumm ) and then persuade regular customers to use your own webstore over time.

5. Build a database of customers / fans. Your database is like gold, it's the list of people that love your products. You can do this again within Shopify or most good online store systems. But your Facebook friends list or your Instagram followers for example are examples of your database. An email list and emailed newsletters / updates is one of the most cost effective marketing methods. As you become a trusted and recognised brand to the folk within your database you will build real value and natural repeat sales.

6. Finally - Don't give up. This advice on this page is just a tiny window on a massive world. There are many ways to win big, but only the ones who stick at it will reap the reward. Some final snippets of advice: Remember the two most powerful words in the English language are "Free" followed closely by "New" - Free shipping (or buy one get one FREE) always help sell something, if you can calculate the price including shipping it helps to land those orders. Sell NEW items.. be first in the pond with something new and you face no competition. So it's important to sign up for AW newsletters and be the first to know about anything new.

It is kind of self evident but don't set out in Drop-shipping unless you have a moderate level of technical ability, you don't need to be a high level computer programmer but you do need to be able to understand some technical things and be able to use a spreadsheet and do a bit of number crunching.

It's even more self evident but worth saying - to win at this is only possible if you don't quit. Don't give up. At AW there are thousands of great products, out there are millions of customers, you are the magic link that can make it happen big.

Wishing you Good Luck & Good Fortune :)