Dropshipping Tips: 15+ Proven Strategies to Skyrocket Your Sales

Welcome to the exciting world of dropshipping! Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a newbie just starting out, dropshipping can be a lucrative and rewarding business model. 

However, with great opportunity comes great competition. In order to succeed in this fast-paced industry, it's important to have a solid strategy in place. 

In this article, we'll be sharing 15+ valuable dropshipping tips to help you stay ahead of the game and take your business to the next level.

1. Choose the Right Products

Choosing the right dropshipping products can be one of the most complex parts. While the temptation may be there to sell a product you love, there may be better choices for a profitable dropshipping business. 

However, there are things that you should consider before you choose your niche:

• Do your research and find a profitable niche. Some products are single-time high ticket items but leave no room for return purchases. Instead, consider a product that will require refills or replacements or that you can pair with other products so that your customers will return.
• Is there high demand? Source a product that is in high demand and is unlikely to have a drop in demand, for example, clothing or grooming items. These are daily items that are in high demand by the regular person.
• Is there low competition? Once you think you have a niche, ensure it is not saturated with well-established businesses with loyal and robust fan bases. For example, yoga pants are everywhere, and there are some high-powered popular online shops you have to compete with. Unless you have a following, this will be a tough market.

So how do you pick a winning or trending dropshipping product? You should pick a unique product that will catch the target market's eye as different, unusual, and desirable. 

Knowing what your customers want and spend money on is the trick to success. This list of the best dropshipping products is a great place to start. 

Learn more: 150+ Trending Dropshipping Products in 2023

2. Partner with Multiple Reliable Suppliers

CJdropshipping is among the most popular dropshipping suppliers in the world

Having multiple suppliers may seem like more work, but with the long game in mind, it can be a winning choice. Multiple dropshipping suppliers allow you to expand your store's range and minimize the chances of putting items on backorder or running out of stock.

The question is how to find reliable suppliers?

The most reliable and professional dropshipping suppliers will likely have the following attributes:

• An address and contact details which mean they are verifiable and contactable by you at short notice if required.
• Lots of positive reviews from successful stores.
• Offer product samples to test their delivery time and product quality. 

Learn more: 10 Best Home Decor Dropshipping Suppliers for Your Online Store

3. Optimize Your Dropshipping Store

When it comes to running a successful dropshipping business, having a well-optimized store is essential. Not only does it improve the user experience for your customers, but it can also increase your conversion rates. And that's where a page builder like GemPages comes in.

GemPages is a powerful visual builder that allows you to create stunning, high-converting store pages without any coding knowledge. With a wide range of professional templates and customization options to choose from, you can easily create a unique and personalized dropshipping store that reflects your brand and appeals to your target audience.

But GemPages isn't just about aesthetics – it's also designed to help you optimize your store for sales. With features like countdown timers, social proof widgets, and sticky add to cart, you can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to make a purchase.

Customize your dropshipping store your way

The powerful page builder empowers you to create store pages that bring unique experiences and convert customers. No coding needed.

Start designing today

4. Price Your Product Right

To price your product right, balance profit and competitiveness in your niche. 

In general, you need to find your cost margin before you decide on a markup to make your profit. You need to consider the cost of the website, the cost of the product, the cost of shipping, and customized packaging.

Shopify has a profit calculator to help you find that sweet spot for you and your customer. Balancing profit with enticing customers with competitive prices without being stingy on quality can take time and effort.

5. Set Up Clear Policies and Simple Shipping Rules

While getting your customers to your website may seem easy, keeping them there and gaining their trust is the second most crucial step. Having clear policies and simple shipping rules means your customers can get a refund if they don't like the product or it is not up to expectations.

In these policies, you should be crystal clear about the following:

• Your shipping and return policies and how they are implemented.
• Your shipping rates and how they apply to all your products if they differ in weight and size.

If you are a beginner, we have your back with ready-to-use templates for these Shopify legal pages, including Terms of services, Privacy policy, and Refund policy.

With these templates provided by GemPages, you just need to make a few simple adjustments to match your business, such as plugging in your brand name, contact information, and other details. Then, your pages are ready to go live.

Remember that honesty, transparency, and a clear, concise outline of your eCommerce store being readily available to your customer is a positive and assists you to build trust and reduce card abandonment.

Learn more: 
How Does Shopify Shipping Work? Eligibility and Set-up Guide
How to Do Free Shipping on Shopify? (+Tips for 2023)

6. Always Get The Product Samples

It is a recommended best practice to be a customer yourself before you start selling a product to your customer.

By ordering from your supplier, you get the chance to be your own mystery shopper and test the delivery time, the presentation on delivery, and the product all in one. These three significant areas can make a one-time customer a repeat customer.

A second big bonus by ordering samples means you can create your own images, reel, and marketing for social media and have website images and videos of your product in action. If your image is part of your branding, you can create social proof for your customer by showing that you sell the product and use it yourself. 

7. Leverage Social Media

Social media is where you can utilize some organic traffic. Creating reels for Instagram, UGC content for Tik Tok, Facebook, and Twitter, and having your raving fans create photos and videos for others is where you can create a community and free interest in your products.

By featuring UGC videos on its website, Fresh Juice Blender is effectively utilizing social proof to demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of its product.

Social media is called social media because it is social, giving you the ability to create a bond with your customers, be a real person and brand and create trust. Having a community and encouraging customers to share their experiences with your products on social media creates more social proof. 

When looking for a product, customers are much more likely to invest in a product that has community proof, a community to validate and support them in use, and allows them to be a part of something. Customers also feel they will be safe purchasing a product from a brand like this rather than one without social media.

8. Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing, with the new and emerging User Generated Content (UGC), is creating organic content made by everyday people at home to create social proof that you have some control over. UGC creators are usually people at home that create the content around your product, showing them using it in their own homes for everyday purposes. Although they are paid, they use the product, and you can give them a script or ask them to give an honest review.

The days of polished and professional standard advertising on social media are limited. Customers want to see their own peers using the products in average homes. Choosing an influencer or UGC creator in your niche means they already have followers in your niche, and you don't have to run targeted ads.

Instead, just find targeting influencers, and once again, Shopify is onto it with Shopify Collabs, explained in our tutorial, making it simpler than ever to find an influencer on a platform you want to work with you. 

9. Use Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the top dropselling tips and tricks, and a reliable and effective way to contact customers and skyrocket sales.

It is well known that many customers, especially in troublesome economies (like our current situation), will need more than one contact before purchasing, especially if your item is a luxury or convenience item.

Really Good Emails is where you can get some inspiration for your email marketing

By using catchy emails with the personality of your brand in mind, you can achieve constant contact with your potential clients by:

• Offering free advice and value in emails if they subscribe to learn more before purchasing.
• Sending catchy emails to potential clients inviting them to your social media channels to witness the community and support provided to customers.
• Sending tips and ideas on using the product they have just purchased to ensure satisfaction and create raving fans that recommend you to others.
• Creating excitement for sales and new releases with potential and current clients.
• Encouraging return purchases and upsell of accessories.

Emails designed for certain times of year to your potential and current clients mean that they are encouraged to return again and again. Growth and increased profit can be doubled or tripled by email to encourage site visits and purchases.

Learn more: 50+ Best Black Friday Cyber Monday Email Subject Line Examples

10. Offer Discounts and Promotions

Holidays, special occasions, and recognized sales dates are a great way to connect and offer specials to your customers. Keep track of dates such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Black Friday, Boxing Day, International Women’s Day, and other dates such as this to offer special promotions. 

Adding the name of the sale when your potential customers are searching for “Mothers Days gifts” will optimize your Shopify store to capture some extra or new customers on these sales. It also allows you to utilize your email list further and suggest the perfect gifts to cover these special occasions. 

11. Provide Excellent Customer Service

Your customer experience is almost as important as the product itself and is one of the main tips for a successful dropselling company. Some say even more important.

However, there are ways that you can create a supportive and excellent customer service experience for eCommerce customers.

Customers with a negative online experience will look for a website that makes it quick and easy to contact customer service - you - quickly and easily.

Only some people are happy with emails, as it can take a few hours to days to get a reply. Providing a phone number is not always ideal either, especially if you are a new seller without a dedicated phone for your business or the customer is overseas.

However, with today's technology, there are several ways that you can create a superb customer experience without needing to have a phone line.

Offer a variety of ways to contact you, such as:

• Social media channels through messenger and direct messages.
• Set up chatbots on your Shopify so you can assist your customer 24/7. Chatbots may be programmed to answer frequently asked questions and direct users to pages with the answers they seek.
• Once you scale from beginner to advanced, you may choose to have a customer service center.
• Having a blog on your dropshipping store with questions, tips, and free value education on your products and other areas that will help your customer make the most of your product will show that you value your customers. They can access help, support, and ideas any time they like.

Caring about your customer's experience creates a bond of trust and loyalty which will not only see the customer return to you time after time but create free advertising through word of mouth and raving fans. 

12. Offer Multiple Payment Options

Offering multiple payment options is another key element in optimizing your dropshipping store. Providing a variety of payment methods can improve the overall user experience and make it easier for customers to purchase from your store. Not everyone has the same payment preferences, so by offering multiple options, you can accommodate a wider range of customers and increase the chances of completing a sale.

Meowingtons offers its customers multiple payment methods, either Paypal or Amazon Pay. 

One popular payment option to consider is PayPal, which is widely recognized and trusted by customers worldwide. It offers a secure payment process and allows customers to use various payment methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and bank accounts. 

Additionally, other payment gateways such as Shopify Payments, Stripe, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay can be added to your store to provide more flexibility and convenience for customers.

Learn more:
Shopify Payments vs Paypal: Which is Best for You in 2023?
Shop Pay vs PayPal: What are The Key Differences?
Shop Pay vs Afterpay: A Side-by-side Comparison of Features and Functionality

13. Offer Product Bundles

Depending on your product, you can offer product bundles for multiple family members or bundles of accessories so that they get all the items they want at a reduced price, encouraging them to spend more and save money doing it.

It creates a win for the customer and a win for you.

How this can work is with skin care, offer all the products alone, for example, a face wash, or offer a bundle with face wash, toner, and moisturizer so that they can get more. By buying together, they can save money, for example, 10% less than buying separately. Sweeten the deal with box packaging.

This upsell is one of the best dropselling tips that allow you to offer great value, increase revenue and give the customer a discount on multiple purchases, making them feel unique and valued.

14. Provide Product Reviews

Product reviews are the gold you get for free when you have done your product research and sold a high-quality, reliable product that your customers love.

The dropshipping store Sage Sill displays product reviews on its product page

Encouraging your customers to leave reviews on your website and on other review sites assists you in building trust with new customers and provides social proof, which is the word of mouth that only a great product and high-level customer service can provide. 

This can be done by using the following:

• Follow up email campaigns.
• Social media competitions.
• Simply asking, the worst they can say is no.

Incentivize reviews by encouraging customers to share their product and provide a review and share on your social media - make your customers feel valued and important (because, let's face it, they are !) by featuring them on your social media and raving about them too. Share the love and hype up your customers, so they hype you up in return. 

15. Focus on High-Quality Product Images and Descriptions

Dull and dark photos that look like they are boring standard images made by the manufacturer will not captivate and create excitement for your customers.

Showcasing the product in bright and various image settings from several angles is one of the essential marketing tips you should not ignore. You want to capture attention and make your product look impressive and attractive, so your customers can't wait to get them.

With the help of GemPages, you can easily adjust image resolution, customize spacing, corners, opacity, animations, flow actions, insert image links, add alt text, etcetera. Just another way we’re making it simpler to enhance your product image quality while optimizing them for search engines.

Take your product visuals up a notch

Elevate your product images with GemPages page builder, image editing and essential optimization tools packed in.

Start designing today

More images and greater visual representation of your products allow the customer to view all angles of your product and give them the ability to make an informed decision. Not only does this assist your customer, but it reduces the chances of disappointment and the return of items or refunds.

Give your customer the complete picture and as much information as possible so that they buy the product they need; they will use and will rave about creating word-of-mouth advertising for you. 

The dropshipping store Fresh Juice Blender, takes its product image to another level 

16. Continuously Test and Optimize

To stay on top of the market and ahead of the pack, you need to stay progressive and on top of trends and maintenance of your website. So to keep things rolling beautifully, pay attention to the maintenance of your Shopify store.

Ensure you have a routine of testing, maintaining, and optimizing your website.

Keep looking at the competition and keep your offerings, sales, and marketing strategies fresh and new to create high conversion rates and keep sales growing. 

Learn more: How to Run A Proper Shopify A/B Testing on Your Store?

The Bottom Line

When starting your own dropshipping business, it can be tempting to cut some corners in the enthusiasm to get your shop up and running quickly, but this is a beginner's mistake.

Implement these 15+ best dropshipping tips and tricks for a profitable and successful Shopify store that are proven and ready for you to implement.

Build your dropshipping store the easy way

Use GemPages to build a dazzling dropshipping store that gets purchases. No coding needed.

Start creating for free

FAQs about Dropshipping Tips

How Do I Smooth Out The Shipping Process as a Dropshipper?

1. Test the shipping time yourself so you confidently know the delivery experience.
2. Do free shipping - customers will be happy to wait a week or two if their shipping is free.
3. Clearly state the shipping times on the description and order pages and include them in frequently asked questions and shipping pages.

How Can I Stay Up To Date With The Latest Trends and Market Shifts In The World Of Dropshipping?

1. Search on social media for market trends and search trends in Google.
2. Watch your competition and see what they offer and what is selling well.
3. What is the current problem people face - search for products that provide solutions to time-poor or stressed people.

What Should I Keep In Mind When Selecting Suppliers and Products For My Dropshipping Business?

1. Ensure that if you are buying from an overseas supplier, they are bilingual, have a physical address, and have an easy, quick way to contact them with issues.
2. Do they require minimum orders? The whole idea of dropshipping is that you don't hold stock. So if they insist on minimum orders delivered to you, they are not dropshipping suppliers.
4. Read the reviews and even contact previous customers to verify reviews.
5. Order samples to know the quality your customers can expect to receive.

How Can I Leverage Automation Tools and Software To Streamline Dropshipping Operations and Improve Efficiency?

1. Shopify offers plugins that can automate the order-to-delivery service for you
2. Use chatbots for customer service and advice on tracking for the customers.
3. Implement global pricing rather than pricing each item individually.