TEEN VOGUE

2. Clip for hats attached to

bag accessories

INVENTIONS ALERT !!!

Scrunchies
Velvet
Organza
Satin
Silk
Fairy organza large chiffon

HOW TO PRICE A PRODUCT

1. Manufacturing / Unit price 2. Packaging

cost 3. Shipping-Cx orders, Bulk deliveries 4.
Paid Marketing 5. Influencer collabs (giving
away Products and shipment involved) 6.
Photoshoots (MOdels, Photography,
accessories, etc) 7. Flash sales will you make
a profit if you want to make sale? 8. Daily
Bills (Wages, rent, website, all management
bills)
***Scatch map philippines (like usa states)
Personalize thank you note card
LOGO sticker
Logo card
Individual wrap for chlothes
Big wrap for all
*Birthday card and birthday scrunchy
INSPIRATION:
Napoleon swimwear
Napoleon streetwear
 potential customers. If suppliers stock an item, you can Unlike custom-made products or print on demand,
list it for sale on your online store at no additional cost. dropshipping doesn’t give you a lot of control over the
product itself. Usually, the product dropshipped is
6. Easier to test designed and branded by the supplier.
Dropshipping is a useful fulfillment method for both
launching a new store and for business owners looking Some suppliers can accommodate your business’s
to test the appetite customers have for additional product product changes, but even then, the supplier has the most
categories, e.g., accessories or wholly new product control over the product itself. Any changes or additions to
lines. The main benefit of dropshipping is, again, the the product itself usually require a minimum order quantity
ability to list and potentially sell to make it viable and affordable for the manufacturer.
products before committing to buying a large amount of
inventory. Common questions about dropshipping
Throughout the rest of this book, we’ll cover all of the
7. Easier to scale necessary steps to start a profitable dropshipping
With a traditional retail business, if you receive three
business. But before we continue, it’s worth answering a
times the number of orders, you’ll usually need to do few common questions we receive about what
three times as much work. By leveraging dropshipping
dropshipping is and how it works.
suppliers, most of the work to process additional orders
How does dropshipping work on Shopify?
will be borne by the suppliers, allowing you to expand
How much do I need to invest to start dropshipping?
Two of the most common approaches for dropshipping with fewer growing pains and less incremental work.
Though it’s hard to predict the exact costs for any
on Shopify are to seek out a supplier located in North Sales growth will always bring additional work— individual business, there are a few items every
America, or anywhere else in the world, using supplier especially related to customer support—but businesses dropshipping business will need to spend money on in
databases or to seek out a Shopify app that connects that utilize dropshipping scale particularly well relative to order to get started. Here’s a quick summary of the
you and your store to thousands of suppliers. traditional ecommerce businesses. essential costs.
For the latter, we recommend Oberlo, a marketplace Disadvantages of dropshipping Online store
developed by Shopify that helps independent business
All the benefits we mentioned make dropshipping a very Estimated cost: ~$29/month
owners find products to sell. With Oberlo, you can
attractive model for anyone getting started with an online You’ll need to find an ecommerce platform or website
browse AliExpress and import the products that pique
store, or for those looking to expand their existing builder in order to create and host your online store. We
your interest directly to Oberlo—which is connected to
product offerings. But like all approaches, dropshipping obviously recommend starting a Shopify store. You’ll be
your Shopify store—with the click of a button.
has its downsides, too. Generally speaking, convenience able to effortlessly sync with the Oberlo marketplace to
Once a customer buys a product, you’ll be able to fulfill and flexibility come at a price. Here are a few source products, and you’ll get access to our full selection
their order in the Oberlo app. Fortunately, Oberlo shortcomings to consider. of themes and free branding tools so you can get your
automates this process. As the store owner, all you business up and running quickly.
have to do is check that the details are correct and click 1. Low margins
the “‘order”’ button. The product is then sent directly Low margins are the biggest disadvantage to operating Domain name
from the AliExpress supplier to the customer— in a highly competitive dropshipping vertical. Because Estimated cost: $5-20/year
wherever in the world they may be. it’s so easy to get started, and the overhead costs are so It’s hard to build trust with customers without your own
minimal, many competing stores will set up shop and sell domain name. While there are a number of top-level
Benefits of dropshipping items at rock-bottom prices in an attempt to grow domains available (e.g., example.shop, example.co), we
revenue. Since they’ve invested so little in getting the recommend looking for a .com that fits your brand, if one
Dropshipping is a great business model for aspiring
business started, they can afford to operate on is available. Use our domain name generator to get
entrepreneurs to start with because it’s accessible.
minuscule margins. started, or learn more about how to come up with a catchy
With dropshipping, you can quickly test
business name.
different business ideas with limited downside, which Typically, these sellers will have low-quality websites
lets you learn a lot about how to choose and market in- and poor (if any) customer service, which you can use to
Test orders
demand products. Here are a few other reasons why differentiate your business. But that won’t stop
Estimated cost: Varies
dropshipping is such a popular model. customers from comparing their prices to yours. This
Although dropshipping lets you have minimal involvement
increase in fierce competition will quickly hurt the
1. Less capital is required with handling your overall product catalog, you should set
potential profit margins in a niche. Fortunately, you can
aside money, as well as a little bit of time, to test out the
Probably the biggest advantage to dropshipping is that do a lot to mitigate this problem by selecting a
products you plan to sell. If you don’t, you risk listing a
it’s possible to launch an ecommerce store without niche/vertical that’s well suited for dropshipping. We’ll
product with too many shortcomings or defects, which will
having to invest thousands of dollars in inventory up discuss how to do exactly that in Chapter 4.
result in unhappy customers and a lot of time spent
front. Traditionally, retailers have had to tie up huge 2. Inventory issues dealing with returns.
amounts of capital purchasing inventory. If you stock all your own products, it’s relatively simple to
With the dropshipping model, you don’t have to keep track of which items are in and out of stock. But Online advertising
purchase a product unless you’ve already made the when you’re sourcing from multiple warehouses, which Estimated cost: Scales with your business; we
sale and have been paid by the customer. Without are also fulfilling orders for other merchants, inventory recommend budgeting at least $500 to get started
significant up-front inventory investments, it’s possible can change on a daily basis. Fortunately, these days, Every ecommerce business should look for ways to
to start sourcing products and launch a successful there are a handful of apps that let you sync with reduce their average cost to acquire a customer through
dropshipping business with very little money. And suppliers. So dropshippers can “pass along” orders to a organic channels like content marketing, SEO, and word
because you’re not committed to selling-through any supplier with a click or two and should be able to see in of mouth. But to get started, advertising is usually an
inventory purchased up front, like in a traditional retail real-time how much inventory the supplier has. essential channel for most product-based businesses.
business, there’s less risk involved in starting a Oberlo also lets merchants take automated actions when The most common channels include search engine
dropshipping store. a supplier’s stock hits zero. For example, when a marketing (SEM), display ads, social media ads, and
product is no longer available, you can automatically mobile ads.
2. Easy to get started
Running an ecommerce business is much easier when unpublish the product, or keep it published but
automatically set the quantity to zero. How do dropshippers make money?
you don’t have to deal with physical products. With Dropshipping businesses act as product curators,
dropshipping, you don’t have to worry about: selecting the right mix of products to market to customers.
3. Shipping complexities
Remember, marketing is a cost you incur, in both time
 Managing or paying for a warehouse If you work with multiple suppliers—as most
and money, helping potential customers find, evaluate,
 Packing and shipping your orders dropshippers do—the products on your online store will
and buy the right product. You’ll also have to include the
 Tracking inventory for accounting reasons be sourced through a number of different dropshippers.
cost of providing customer support whenever there’s a
This complicates your shipping costs.
 Handling returns and inbound shipments product or shipping issue. Last but certainly not least is
 Continually ordering products and Let’s say a customer places an order for three items, all the original price that your supplier sells the product for.
managing stock level of which are available only from separate suppliers.
You’ll incur three separate shipping charges for sending With all of these costs to account for, dropshipping
3. Low overhead each item to the customer, but it’s probably not wise to businesses mark up individual products in exchange for
Because you don’t have to deal with purchasing pass this charge along to the customer. And even when distribution. This is why suppliers are OK having
inventory or managing a warehouse, your overhead it does make sense to include these charges, dropshippers market their products for them—
expenses are quite low. In fact, many successful automating these calculations can be difficult. dropshipping stores drive additional sales that the
dropshipping stores are run as home-based supplier would have otherwise missed out on. In order to
businesses, requiring little more than a laptop and a 4. Supplier errors make a profit with your dropshipping business, it’s a good
few recurring expenses to operate. As you grow, these Have you ever been blamed for something that wasn’t idea to find out how much it costs for you to “acquire” a
costs will likely increase but will still be low compared to your fault, but you had to accept responsibility for the customer, and price your products with that in mind.
those of traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. mistake anyway?
Is dropshipping a legitimate business?
Even the best dropshipping suppliers make mistakes Dropshipping is merely a fulfillment model, one used by
4. Flexible location fulfilling orders—mistakes for which you have to take
A dropshipping business can be run from just about many global retailers, and is perfectly legal. Like with any
responsibility and apologize. And mediocre and low- business, satisfying customer expectations and building a
anywhere with an internet connection. As long as you quality suppliers will cause endless frustration with
can communicate with suppliers and customers easily, brand that resonates with the right audience is still key to
missing items, botched shipments, and low-quality long-term success.
you can run and manage your business. packing, which can damage your business’s reputation.
This question usually comes up due to a
misunderstanding of how dropshipping works. Most retail
stores you shop in are likely not selling products they
5. Wide selection of products to sell 5. Limited customization and branding personally manufacture. Dropshipping takes this curated
Since you don’t have to pre-purchase the items you approach and turns it into a fulfillment model fit for an
sell, you can offer an array of trending products to your online business.
 There are, of course, the more fundamental things you Mr. Allen's payment is captured during the
need to do in order to run your business legally. Per-order fees
checkout process and will be automatically deposited
Consult a lawyer who specializes in these matters to Many dropshippers will charge a per-order drop shipping
into Phone Outlet's bank account.
ensure you’re conducting business legally in your fee that can range from $2 to $5 or more, depending on
region. Step 2: Phone Accessory Outlet Places the Order the size and complexity of the items being shipped. This
is standard in the industry, as the costs of packing and
With Its Supplier shipping individual orders are much higher than shipping
So, is dropshipping worth it in 2020?
 This step is usually as simple as Phone Outlet a bulk order.
As we’ve mentioned, dropshipping isn’t a perfect,
forwarding the email order confirmation to a sales
stress-free way to build a successful online business— Minimum order sizes
hard work is always required to start a dropshipping representative at Wholesale Accessories. Wholesale
Accessories has Phone Outlet's credit card on file and Some wholesalers will have a minimum initial order size,
business. The model has some definite advantages, which is the lowest amount you have to purchase for your
but comes with a number of built-in complexities you’ll will bill it for the wholesale price of the goods, including
any shipping or processing fees. first order. They do this in order to filter out window-
need to address. shopping merchants that will waste their time with
Note: Some sophisticated dropshippers will support questions and small orders but won't translate into
We’ll be examining these challenges, and how to best automatic XML (a common format for inventory files) meaningful business.
address them, in future chapters. The good news is order uploading or the ability to place the order manually
that with some careful planning and consideration, online, but email is the most common way to place If you're dropshipping, this could cause some
most of these hurdles can be resolved and need not orders with dropshipping suppliers because it's universal complications. For example, what do you do if a supplier
prevent you from building a thriving, profitable and easy to use. has a $500 minimum order, but your average order size is
dropshipping business. around $100? You don't want to pre-order $500 of
Step 3: Wholesale accessories ships the order product just for the privilege of opening a dropshipping
Supply chain is a fancy term describing the path a  Assuming the item is in stock and the wholesaler was account.
product takes to go from conception through able to successfully charge Phone Outlet's card, In this situation, it's best to offer to pre-pay the supplier
manufacturing and finally into the hands of a customer. Wholesale Accessories will box up the order and ship it $500 to build a credit with them to apply against your drop
If we were talking with hard-core supplier chain gurus, directly to the customer. Though the shipment comes shipping orders. This allows you to meet the supplier's
they'd insist a product's supply chain reaches all the from Wholesale Accessories, Phone Outlet's name and minimum purchase requirement (as you're committing to
way to the mining of the materials (like oil and rubber) address will appear on the return address label and its buy at least $500 in product) without having to place a
used to manufacture an item. But that’s a little intense. logo will appear on the invoice and packing slip. Once single large order without any corresponding customer
For the purposes of this guide, we don't need to get the shipment has been finalized, Wholesale Accessories orders.
quite that detailed. You simply need to understand the will email an invoice and a tracking number to Phone
Outlet. Finding wholesale suppliers
three most applicable players that make up the Now that you can spot a fraud from the real deal, it's time
dropshipping supply chain: manufacturers, wholesalers Note: The turnaround time on dropshipped orders is to start searching for suppliers! You can use a number of
and retailers. often faster than you'd think. Most quality suppliers will different strategies, some more effective than others. The
Manufacturers. Manufacturers create the product and be able to get an order out the door in a few hours, methods below are listed in order of effectiveness and
most do not sell directly to the public. Instead, they sell allowing merchants to advertise same-day shipping even preference, with our favorite methods listed first:
in bulk to wholesalers and retailers. Buying directly when they are using a dropshipping supplier.
Contact the manufacturer
from the manufacturer is the cheapest way to purchase Step 4: Phone outlet alerts the customer of shipment This is our favorite way to easily locate legitimate
products for resale, but most have minimum purchase
 Once the tracking number is received, Phone Outlet will wholesale suppliers. If you know the product(s) you want
requirements you'll need to meet. You'll also need to
send the tracking information to the customer, likely to dropship, call the manufacturer and ask for a list of its
stock and then re-ship the products when selling them
using an email interface that's built in to the online store wholesale distributors. You can then contact these
to customers. For these reasons, it's often easier to buy
interface. With the order shipped, the payment collected wholesalers to see if they dropship and inquire about
directly from a wholesaler.
and the customer notified, the order and fulfillment setting up an account.
Wholesalers. Wholesalers buy products in bulk from process is complete. Phone Outlet's profit (or loss) is the Since most wholesalers carry products from a variety of
manufacturers, mark them up slightly and then sell difference between what it charged Mr. Allen and what it manufacturers, this strategy will allow you to quickly
them to retailers for resale to the public. If they do have paid Wholesale Accessories. source a selection of products within the niche you're
purchasing minimums, they're generally much lower
exploring. After making a couple of calls to the leading
than those required by a manufacturer. Wholesalers Dropshippers are invisible 
manufacturers in a niche, you'll quickly be able to identify
will usually stock products from dozens—if not Despite its critical role in the ordering and fulfillment
the leading wholesalers in that market.
hundreds—of manufacturers and tend to operate in a process, the dropshipper is completely invisible to the
specific industry or niche. Most are strictly wholesaler end customer. When the package is received, only
operators, meaning they sell only to retailers and not Phone Outlet's return address and logo will be on the Use Oberlo
directly to the general public. shipment. If Mr. Allen's receives the wrong case, he Oberlo allows you to easily import products from suppliers
would contact Phone Outlet, which would then directly into your Shopify store, and ship directly to your
Retailers. A retailer is anyone who sells products customers—all in just a few clicks.
coordinate behind the scenes with Wholesale
directly to the public at a markup. If you run a business
Accessories to get the right item sent out. Features:
that fulfills your orders via dropshipping suppliers,
Import products from suppliers
you're a retailer. The dropshipping wholesaler doesn't exist to the end
Fulfil orders automatically 
customer. Its sole responsibility is to stock and
Dropshipping is a service, not a role Inventory and price auto updates
ship products. Everything else—marketing, website
You'll notice that “dropshipper” isn't one of the players Product customization
development, customer service—is the responsibility of
listed in the supply chain. Why? Because any of the Pricing automations
the merchant.
three—manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer—can act Learn more about Oberlo’s dropshipping features.
as a drop shipper! How to spot fake dropshipping wholesalers
Depending on where you're searching, you'll likely come Search using Google
If a manufacturer is willing to ship its products directly
across a large number of “fake” wholesalers. Using Google to find high-quality suppliers may seem
to your customer, it is “dropshipping” on your behalf.
Unfortunately legitimate wholesalers are traditionally obvious, but there are a few rules to keep in mind:
Similarly, a retail merchant can offer to dropship,
poor at marketing and tend to be harder to find. This You have to search
although its pricing won't be as competitive as a
results in the non-genuine wholesalers—usually just extensively. Wholesalers are terrible at marketing and
wholesaler's because it isn't buying directly from the
middle men—appearing more frequently in your promotion, and they're definitely not going to top the
manufacturer.
searches, so you'll want to be cautious. search results for “wholesale suppliers for product X.”
Just because someone claims to be a “dropshipper” This means you'll likely have to dig through lots of search
does not mean you're getting wholesale pricing. It The following tactics will help you discern whether a results—possibly hundreds—to find the wholesaler's
simply means the company will ship products on your wholesale supplier is legitimate. website listed way down at #65.
behalf. To get the best pricing, you want to make sure They want ongoing fees Don't judge by their website. Wholesalers
you're working directly with a legitimate wholesaler or Real wholesalers don't charge their customers a monthly are also notorious for having poorly designed '90s-style
manufacturer, a topic we'll be covering in-depth in the fee for the privilege of doing business and ordering from websites. So while a quality site may indicate a good
next chapter. them. If a supplier asks for a monthly membership or supplier in some cases, many legitimate wholesalers
Dropshipping in action: The order process service fee, it's likely not legitimate. have cringe-worthy homepages. Don't let the poor design
Now that you understand the players involved, let's scare you off.
It's important to differentiate here between suppliers and
take a look at how a drop shipped order gets Use lots of keyword modifiers. Wholesalers
supplier directories. Supplier directories (which we'll
processed. To illustrate, we'll follow an order placed aren't doing extensive SEO to ensure you find their
discuss shortly) are directories of wholesale suppliers
with our theoretical store, Phone Outlet, an online websites, so you might need to try various search queries.
organized by product types or market and screened to
merchant that specializes in accessories for Don't stop at just “[product] wholesaler.” Try using
ensure the suppliers are legitimate. Most directories will
smartphones. Phone Outlet dropships all of its products modifiers such as “distributor,” “reseller,” “bulk,”
charge a fee, either one time or ongoing, so you
directly from a wholesaler we'll call Wholesale “warehouse” and “supplier.”
shouldn't take this as a sign the directory itself is
Accessories.  illegitimate. Order from the competition
Here's a sample of how the entire ordering process If you're having a hard time locating a supplier, you can
They sell to the public
might look: always use the old order-from-the-competition trick.
To get genuine wholesale pricing you'll need to apply for
Here's how it works: Find a competitor you think is
Step 1: Customer Places Order With Phone Outlet  a wholesale account, prove you're a legitimate business
dropshipping and place a small order with that company.
Mr. Allen needs a case for his new smartphone and and be approved before placing your first order. Any
When you receive the package, Google the return
places an order via Phone Outlet's online store. Once wholesale supplier that offers products to the general
address to find out who the original shipper was. In some
the order is approved, a few things happen: public at “wholesale prices” is just a retailer offering
cases, it will be a supplier you can contact.
items at inflated prices.
 Phone Outlet and Mr. Allen will get an email
confirmation (likely identical) of the new order that is But here are some legitimate dropshipping fees you’ll This is a tactic we've heard discussed by others but
automatically generated by the store software. likely encounter:  haven't used ourselves. And if you haven't been able to
find a supplier using the other techniques discussed
above, there might be a good reason (for example, the
 market is too small, there's not enough demand to Doba's centralized system offers more convenience than simply write out your questions ahead of time. It's
justify a supplier, etc.). So keep this technique in mind, the other directories which is why we imagine the $60 / amazing how much easier it is to make the call when
but don't rely too heavily on it. month fee is significantly higher than other prices. If you you've got a list of pre-written questions to ask.
place a high value on convenience and can find the
Attend a trade show products you want among their suppliers, Doba's How to find good dropshipping suppliers
A trade show allows you to connect with all the major interface may be worth the cost. Like most things in life, suppliers are not all created
manufacturers and wholesalers in a niche. It's a great equally. In the world of dropshipping, where the supplier
way to make contacts and research your products and However, if you can identify quality suppliers on your is such a critical part of your fulfillment process, it's even
suppliers all in one spot. This only works if you've own and don't mind working with them directly, you'll be more important to make sure you're working with top-
already selected your niche and/or product, and it isn't able to save around $700 / year. If there are only a few notch players.
feasible for everyone. But if you have the time and key suppliers in your niche – reducing the number of
money to attend, it's a great way to get to know the parties you have to coordinate with – this may be the Great dropshipping suppliers tend to have many of the
manufactures and suppliers in a market. way to go. following six attributes:

Directories Wholesale Central 1. Expert staff and industry focus

One of the most common questions aspiring Quick stats: Top-notch suppliers have knowledgeable sales
ecommerce entrepreneurs ask is: Should I pay for a Established 1996 representatives who really know the industry and their
supplier directory? 1,400 suppliers  product lines. Being able to call a representative with
740,000 products questions is invaluable, especially if you're launching a
A supplier directory is a database of suppliers that's store in a niche you're not overly familiar with.
Price: free
organized by market, niche or product. Many
Unlike many other directories, there's no charge to 2. Dedicated support representatives
directories employ some sort of screening process to
search Wholesale Central for suppliers because it Quality dropshippers should assign you an individual
ensure the suppliers listed are genuine wholesalers.
charges suppliers a fee to be listed and also displays sales representative responsible for taking care of you
Most are run by for-profit companies who charge a fee
ads on their site. They also claim to review and screen and any issues you have. We've dealt with wholesalers
for access to their directory.
all suppliers to ensure they are legitimate and that don't assign specific representatives and we hate it.
While membership directories can be helpful, especially trustworthy. Problems take a lot longer to resolve, and we usually
for brainstorming ideas, they are by no means have to nag people to take care of an issue. Having a
It's difficult to argue with free, and there's no harm in
necessary. If you already know the product or niche single supplier contact who's responsible for solving your
browsing the listings at Wholesale Central, but you'll
you want to sell, you should be able to find the major issues is really important.
need to be a bit more discriminating. A number of the
suppliers in your market with a bit of digging and the suppliers we found appeared to be retailers selling to the
techniques discussed above. Plus, once you start your 3. Invested in technology
public at “wholesale” prices—not something a supplier
dropshipping business you likely won't need to revisit While there are plenty of good suppliers with outdated
would do when offering real wholesale pricing. So while
the directory unless you need to find suppliers for other websites, a supplier that understands the benefits of—and
we're sure there are genuine wholesale opportunities
products. invests heavily in—technology is usually a pleasure to
listed, you may want to be a little more thorough with work with. Features such as real-time inventory, a
That said, supplier directories are a convenient way to your due diligence. comprehensive online catalog, customizable data feeds
quickly search for and/or browse a large number of
and an online searchable order history are pure luxury for
suppliers in one place and are great for brainstorming Before you contact suppliers online merchants and can help you streamline your
ideas for products to sell or niches to enter. If you're Alright, so you've found a number of solid suppliers and operations.
short on time and are willing to spend the money, they are ready to move forward—great! But before you start
can be a helpful tool. contacting companies, you'll want to have all your ducks 4. Can take orders via email
There are a number of different supplier directories, in a row. This may sound like a minor issue, but having to call
and a comprehensive review of all of them is beyond every order in, or manually place it on the website, makes
You need to be legal processing orders significantly more time-intensive.
the scope of this guide. Instead, we've highlighted
As we mentioned earlier, most legitimate wholesalers
some of the most well-known supplier directories 5. Centrally located
will require proof that you're a legal business before
online. Please note we are not endorsing any of these
allowing you to apply for an account. Most wholesalers If you're in a large country like the United States, it's
directories, we’re simply providing you with some beneficial to use a centrally located dropshipper, as
only reveal their pricing to approved customers, so you'll
options.
need to be legally incorporated before you'll get to see packages can reach more than 90% of the country within
Worldwide Brands the kind of pricing you'll receive. 2 to 3 business days. When a supplier is located on one
Quick stats: of the coasts, it can take more than a week for orders to
Bottom line? Make sure you're legally incorporated be shipped across the country. Centrally located suppliers
 Established 1999 before contacting suppliers! If you're only looking to ask
 Thousands of wholesalers allow you to consistently promise faster delivery times,
a few basic questions (“Do you drop ship?” “Do you potentially saving you money on shipping fees.
 Over 10 million products carry brand X?”), you won't need to provide any
 Price: $299 for a lifetime membership documentation. But don't expect to launch without 6. Organized and efficient
Worldwide Brands is one of the oldest and best-known having your business properly set up. We'll talk more Some suppliers have competent staff and great systems
supplier directories. It advertises that it only includes about setting up your business in Chapter 5. that result in efficient and mostly error-free fulfillment.
suppliers that meet a set of guidelines to ensure Others will botch every fourth order and make you want to
legitimate, quality wholesalers.  Understand how you appear tear your hair out. The trouble is, it's difficult to know how
Wholesalers are constantly bombarded by people with competent a supplier is without actually using it.
We've used the directory in the past to find legitimate
wholesalers and to brainstorm niche ideas – and found “great business plans” who pepper them with questions, Although it won't give you a complete picture, placing a
it useful. Though the directory is missing some take up a lot of time and then never order anything. So if few small test orders can give you a great sense of how a
suppliers we've worked with, it does include a large you're launching a new business, be aware that many supplier operates. You can see:
collection of legitimate wholesalers. If you want lifetime suppliers aren't going to go out of their way to help you
get started. How they handle the order process
access to a quality directory and are comfortable with a
How quickly the items ship out
larger one-time payment, Worldwide Brands is a safe Most will be happy to set you up with a dropshipping How rapidly they follow up with tracking
bet. account if they offer it. But don't ask for discount pricing information and an invoice
or spend hours tying up their sales representatives on The quality of the pack job when the item
SaleHoo the phone before you've made a single sale. It will arrives
Quick stats: quickly earn you a bad reputation and hurt your
 Established 2005 relationship with the supplier. Ways to pay dropshipping suppliers
 Over 8,000 suppliers The vast majority of suppliers will accept payment in one
If you do need to make special requests (say, trying to of two ways:
 Price: $67 per year convince a supplier to dropship when it normally
The SaleHoo supplier directory lists more than 8,000 doesn't), you need to build credibility. Be definitive about Credit card
bulk-purchase and dropshipping suppliers, and seems your business plans (“We are launching this site on When you're starting out, most suppliers will require you
to cater heavily to merchants on eBay, and Amazon. January 20) instead of using flaky rhetoric (“I'm thinking to pay by credit card. Once you've established a thriving
Although we've never used SaleHoo to source about maybe launching a business sometime soon”). business, paying with credit cards is often still the best
products, its $67 annual price is one of the most And be sure to communicate any professional option. They're not only convenient (no need to write
compelling values among supplier directories and successes you've had in the past – especially with sales checks regularly), but you can rack up a LOT of rewards
includes a 60-day money-back guarantee. If you're and marketing – that will help you with your new venture. points/frequent flier miles. Because you're buying a
comfortable paying an annual membership – or only product for a customer who has already paid for it on your
You need to convince suppliers that the inconvenience
need to use a directory temporarily - SaleHoo might be website, you can rack up a high volume of purchases
of accommodating your special request(s) will pay off
worth a look. through your credit card without having to incur any actual
down the road when you become a
out-of-pocket expenses.
Doba successful dropshipping company and start bringing
Quick stats: them a ton of business. Net terms
 Established 2002 Don't be afraid of the phone
The other common way to pay suppliers is with “net
 165 suppliers terms” on invoice. This simply means that you have a
One of the biggest fears people have when it comes to
 Over 1.5 million products certain number of days to pay the supplier for the goods
suppliers is simply picking up the phone and making the
 Price: $60 per month you've purchased. So if you're on “net 30” terms, you
call. For many, this is a paralyzing prospect. You might
Instead of simply listing suppliers, Doba's service have 30 days from the date of purchase to pay your
be able to send emails for some issues, but more often
integrates with dropshippers (hence why they only have supplier—by check or bank draw—for the goods you
than not you'll need to pick up the phone to get the
165 suppliers) allowing you to place orders with bought.
information you need.
multiple warehouses using its centralized interface. Usually, a supplier will make you provide credit
Membership also includes a Push-to-Marketplace tool The good news is that it's not as scary as you might
references before offering net payment terms because it's
that automates the process of listing items on eBay. think. Suppliers are accustomed to having people call
effectively lending you money. This is a common practice,
them, including newbie entrepreneurs. You're likely to
so don't be alarmed if you have to provide some
get someone who's friendly and more than happy to
documentation when paying on net terms.
answer your questions. Here’s a tip that will help you,
 Demand for matcha is relatively stable
Broadening our product supplier search terms
throughout all seasons.
How We Built an Ecommerce Business from Scratch
Matcha is consumable which can be great
and Generated $922.16 in Revenue in 3 Days for customer loyalty and generating repeat sales.
The new search terms were "tea and coffee
Matcha serves a passion for tea lovers.
It all started with a challenge – build an ecommerce dropshippers", "tea suppliers", "white label tea", "private
business from scratch and see how many sales we There were also some potential issues and drawbacks rights tea", "tea wholesalers" – and the results were all
could generate in three days. with the idea which we quickly noted: over the place.

For many entrepreneurs, building their first business Matcha (in the quantities an average person It isn’t easy finding a supplier. Emails back and forth with
can be intimidating. There’s seemingly hundreds of would buy) is a fairly low cost product ($20-$30). multiple suppliers showed that in most cases—nobody
steps, choices and paths to get to the finish line of just If we chose to dropship, our margins would was willing to work with us unless we had weekly
launching your business, let alone generating traffic be smaller which could be particularly challenging with a minimum order quantities.
and sales. lower cost product.
With these pros and cons in mind, we decided that We couldn’t guarantee a minimum order because we
Most of the time though, the whole process of building matcha would still make for a great product to sell online. were just getting started.
and launching an online store gets overthought and
leads to paralysis by analysis. The truth is, building an
ecommerce business can be simple—if you want it to It was time to get down to business. That’s when we went deeper.
be.

Determining an ecommerce business model On the 10th or so page of Google, we started to get a bit
Not only were we excited about our self-issued discouraged. But one thing that we found was that the
challenge, but we saw it as a great opportunity to show The next step was to determine our ecommerce best way for someone to take you seriously is to actually
others that starting a business doesn’t have to be business model. pick up the phone and speak to someone.
overly complicated, cost a lot of money, carry a lot of
financial risk, or take a lot of time.
There were a few things we knew right from the start that It’s a bit daunting to have to speak to someone and to
made these choices easier. We knew that because we essentially pitch your (non-existent) business to them over
In this case study you’ll learn step-by-step, exactly how only had a few days to build the business and make the phone - but it’s usually what works best and in our
we decided on a product to sell, sourced a supplier, sales, we had to sell direct to consumers rather than case did the trick.
and sold nearly a thousand dollars worth of product in wholesaling to other businesses.
just a few short days.
After all the searching we ended up finding a dropshipper
We also made the decision to dropship matcha instead who offered everything we were looking for.
Getting started of making or manufacturing the tea
ourselves. Although making or manufacturing our own
In most cases, it takes some money to make product would likely provide better margins, we decided They offered:
money. We decided to allocate our small investment to go the dropshipping route because it allowed us to get
business $500 in startup capital to help launch. set up quickly, without having to manage and ship
inventory ourselves. Low cost per unit pricing
Private labelling (letting us use our own brand
Before getting started, we sat down to decide the tasks name and labels on their product)
that needed to be completed to launch the business. It Finding a high quality dropshipper Packaging
was our lightweight version of a business plan, since Low shipping rates within the United States
we didn't need to formalize anything beyond a quick When setting out to find a dropshipper, we were looking
understanding for our team. One of the greatest things about the dropshipper we
to find a supplier who could offer their services at a low chose is that they’re clearly run by people who truly care
cost, who was able to give us private label rights, and about the product.
someone who was reliable with low shipping rates.
After a quick brainstorming session, we settled on the
following action items:
They were willing to speak to us over the phone and
The first place we started looking was locally. By simply email and were on-the-ball when it came to answering all
doing a Google search for various terms like of our questions.
 Determine what to sell “dropshipping tea toronto”, “wholesale tea supplier
 Select an appropriate business model toronto” and “wholesale tea toronto” – we came across a
 Source a supplier few results:
 Order samples Ordering a sample product to verify product quality
 Determine pricing
 Create the brand Before we could move forward, we needed to get in some
 Set up the online store sample product to test and inspect. Obviously we had to
 Take product photos try the tea before we could sell it, plus we needed it for
product photography, so we had one tin overnighted to
 Create blog content
us.
 Set up social accounts
 Launch
 Test multiple marketing channels
Unfortunately shipping to Canada was $30 due to the
 Drive targeted traffic shipping restrictions of the dropshipper. The high cost of
 Make sales shipping to Canada and other countries outside of the
USA made us realize that we would be limited to selling to
just the United States.
What should we sell?

Because we only had three days to make everything Upon receiving the sample, we tested it in the office with
happen, we decided to focus on current trending several heavy tea and matcha drinkers to get their
products. We emailed some of the first results to see if they’d be opinion. The reaction from everyone was overwhelmingly
interested in working with us—unfortunately, we hit a bit positive.
of a roadblock.
We looked at and discussed each of ten products we
identified as trending at the time we started the It was time to move forward.
business. We found that the majority of wholesalers or suppliers
who are selling tea wanted to keep their personal
branding, and didn’t want to offer private labelling. Determining product pricing 
After a bit of discussion, we decided that we all liked
the idea of selling matcha tea—a finely ground green We wanted to create a somewhat premium brand and
tea powder, predominantly grown in Japan. The local suppliers were aiming more towards working therefore had to price it accordingly. We did some
with a reseller who’d stock their teas at a tea shop, or searches to see what similar products were selling for.
cafe. That’s not what we wanted. They ranged from $15-$30 per 30g of matcha.
We chose matcha tea for a few reasons:

The search continued by broadening the scope of what We ended up settling on $24.99 as our selling price. Our
. It’s trending. we were looking for. cost was $10.25 per tin, so we were looking at nearly a
. It’s fairly small and easy to ship. 60% profit margin on each tin that was sold. In the world
. It usually comes in a tin or sealable bag, of dropshipping, a 60% margin is considered quite high.
making it durable for transit.
 Keeping in mind different psychological pricing tactics, the labels were the right measurements, color profile and We wanted to create something that anyone could do, too
we knew that most consumers associate price with as high quality as possible without getting too expensive. —so we avoided adding additional custom code
quality. That worked in our favor. whenever we could.

After speaking to the dropshipper, we got the exact label

Creating and designing a brand dimensions so we could get to work.  We put together a The major assets we needed to make the store look great
few different designs in Photoshop that were fairly were:
simple, but effective.
Keeping in mind our higher end price point and
knowing that there’s a movement right now towards
organic, pure, healthy lifestyles - we knew that we A hero image for the homepage
wanted our store and branding to reflect that. Some highlights that we wanted to include on the label Great product photography
were: About page copy
Home page copy and unique value
We looked at a few different brands and lifestyle proposition (USP)
companies that were in the space - like SkinnyMe Tea, Logo
Instructions After a few hours of work, Hello Matcha Tea was born:
Lululemon and a few lifestyle-focused Instagram
accounts. Our social accounts
A quote about healthy living and tea
After about 30 minutes, we came up with several
There were a few commonalities in terms of design and iterations. Here they are printed out on regular computer
color. A lot of white space, clean type, as well as paper:
different copywriting techniques that encompass the
idea of “a better you”.
We ended up ordering some sample stickers versions of
the label at a cost of $16.95 from a local printer around
That’s what we ended up focusing on—and as you’ll the corner from our office. This was just so we could see
see a little further down, it’s conveyed through the how it looked in real life.
messaging and branding on our storefront.

It was a fantastic feeling to feel the stickers and see the

After a bit of brainstorming and searching on the product start coming together.
various services, we narrowed it down to a list of 12:

Once we picked up the local samples and were happy

 Pure Matcha with them, we submitted the print file to the online sticker
 Matcha Love printer StickerGiant at a total cost of $85.56 for 250
 Zen Matcha sticker labels.
 Official Matcha
 Touch of Matcha
 Taste of Matcha We had the actual stickers shipped directly to the
 Hello Matcha dropshipper who would be applying them to the actual
 Daily Matcha tins of matcha to save time and money.
 Inspire Matcha
 Matcha Lux
 Dreaming Tea Taking the product photography with our
 Dreaming Matcha smartphones
In the end, we settled on Hello Matcha. Hello Matcha
was simple, friendly, easy to remember and reflected Keeping in line with the bootstrapped nature of this
the brand we wanted to build—plus the “.com” was project as well as time constraints, we knew that we
available. couldn’t use professional photography services. While
that would have been ideal, it wasn’t a viable option for
us.
Designing a logo that was simple and effective
The good news is that from past experience, we knew
When it came to the logo, we wanted something that that we could use our smartphone and a bit of magic to
communicated the “clean”, “fresh”, and “pure” brand we get great product photos.
were trying to create.

Once we had a dozen or so photos, we exported them to

If we had time we would have looked at and considered the computer and did some basic edits in Adobe
hiring a designer to help us create a logo that reflects Photoshop just to boost the brightness.
the brand we were looking to create, unfortunately, our
schedule didn't permit this. 
To get a nice clean image of the tin isolated on a white
background, we used the manual background removing
None of us on the team are designers, but we do have service Clipping Magic. This left us with a beautiful
a basic understanding of Adobe Photoshop—so we product, isolated on a white background.
went with a logo that relied mostly on the use of a Setting up the Product Page
single typeface rather than lots of graphic design.
Product pages are important and setting them up well is
Below you can see some of our photos, both before and
vital to conversions. This is the page where people make
after.
After a few iterations and back and forth on the font we their buying decision after all. There were several things
were going to use - our logo was complete. we wanted to highlight on this page:

Setting Up Our Shopify Store

We used a simple san-serif font, and one of the default Product title
custom shapes available in Adobe Photoshop for the Now it was time to set up our Shopify store. Since we Price
tea leaf. were only selling one product without any variations, we High quality product photos
needed a theme that was good at showcasing a single Quantity (30g)
product. Description
The final result: Instructions for how to use the product
General info about matcha
While we could have easily used a free theme from Key benefits of matcha
Nothing too complicated—but gets the point across and the Shopify theme store, we decided to spend some of
our budget on the Startup Theme ($180) to launch with. We landed on this:
also looks great in a variety of sizes. It was perfect for
us.

It’s beautiful, easy to customize, and offers a lot of

additional functionality in terms of content layout that
Creating product labels otherwise would require a relatively extensive knowledge
of coding. The team at Pixel Union really did a great job
The next step was creating product labels. It ended up developing this theme—we highly recommend it for any
taking a few iterations. Because we weren’t actually new storeowners.
shipping the product ourselves—we had to make sure
 Product Hunt” but rather to know who in your network Next, we took the photos, aggregated them and
has access to more people or can help you in some way. repackaged them into a blog post:

Of course, Product Hunt is just one of the many Instagram

platforms that curates new products. Be sure to do some
research to find out other blogs or platforms that work in
We’ve discussed Instagram marketing before and know
the same way.
that it can be a powerful marketing channel and, if used
correctly, can drive highly targeted traffic and sales to
your online store.
Reddit

Reddit is a massive entertainment, social networking, We immediately began our search for popular Instagram
and news website which spans all sorts of topics, and is influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers that
home to much of the internet’s most interesting content, would be a good bridge between our product and their
images, videos and everyday comical online audience.
occurrences.

We spent a few hours and accumulated a list of potential

Most importantly, however, Reddit is also home to accounts to reach out to in hopes that they would let us
“subreddits”—categories dedicated to certain topics and purchase a sponsored post on their account. That means
interests which can be a really valuable source of paying them a fee to post an image of our choosing, with
qualified traffic. We’ve seen this first hand in our own a potential @hellomatchatea shoutout as well.
businesses and documented it from others like
Beardbrand. Reddit requires a calculated and careful
approach as its users are smart and protective of the Some of the different categories of accounts we initially
community there. targeted were:

In other words, in most cases they don’t want to be Health & Fitness
Sales channels and marketing strategies: full speed pitched to and sold to directly. Yoga
ahead Tea
Weight Loss
Marketing is all about finding the right channels for your Our Reddit approach was to create something Workout Apparel
particular business and getting in front of as many informative and entertaining for tea enthusiasts that
qualified buyers as possible. We utilized several sales would live on the Hello Matcha blog, and that we could We found these accounts through the following hashtags
channels in an attempt to get as much traction for the link to from relevant subreddits. on Iconosquare:
business as possible in three days.

When searching for ideas for a piece of content that #tea #teaaddict #teagram #tealovers #teatime #teacup
Some worked better than others and some flat out would resonate with our target audience, the first thing #teaoftheday #healthy #tealover #matcha #matchatea
failed. But we wanted to include everything below to we did was head over to BuzzSumo – a site that enables #followyourdreams #afternoontea #instatea #like4like
show you our thought process and demonstrate that you to search for relevant content using keywords, and #fitness #teatox #detox
you need to test and experiment to figure out what will then presents you with the most popular content based
work for your business.  on social shares.
Unfortunately, a lot of the accounts we found weren’t
willing to work with us on such a small budget ($30-$60),
With all hands on deck and the clock ticking, we began We searched for popular content containing the word or, in such a short period of time. In fact, many of the
our marketing efforts, one channel at a time. “tea” from the last six months. Our goal was to find accounts we contacted didn’t email us back until a few
something that was already popular, but that we could days after our challenge.
repackage, reframe and publish in a new way.  
Personal outreach to friends and family
We ended up simply commenting, liking, and following
One result that looked interesting was a click bait-style accounts that might share the interest of healthy living
Because our supplier could only ship to USA cost article on Diply that currently has over 91k shares. The and tea.
effectively, there was only one person on the team that article contains a video about handy uses and
could personally reach out to friends and family as the applications for used tea bags:
rest of us are based in Canada and have mostly
Canadian friends/family and contacts. Because Instagram only allows links in bio's and not on
posts themselves, and because it's a mobile app, it's a
While the folks at Diply decided to focus on one tip from pretty high friction experience to go from Instagram to
the video in their headline, the video actually contained checkout on an online store. 
Using a combination of Skype, emails, Facebook, five additional tips that we thought readers would find
Twitter and Google Chat, Tommy reached out to interesting.
everyone in his personal and professional network that
he thought would be interested in trying our matcha Because of this, we believe sales coming from 'Direct' -
tea. people typing the website directly into their browser -
So, we took screenshots of each tip in the video and would have come from people who saw Hello Matcha on
packaged them into a list post with the full video at the Instagram. 
bottom of the post - an approach Buzzfeed frequently
Here’s what his screen looked like in the midst of his uses.
outreach:
If we were to do this again, we would most likely provide a
specific discount code to Instagram followers so we have
With our post published, it was time to share it on a relatively simple way of tracking any customers. 
This proved to be very effective on day one as several Reddit. Even though this post was related to tea, we
sales came in through this one-on-one outreach. realized after-the-fact that it was really more about useful
life hacks and money saving tips than tea, so we Result: 12 (unconfirmed) sales.
decided to share it on Today I Learned (TIL) – a
Not everyone that was contacted bought, however, of subreddit dedicated to surfacing interesting facts and
those who didn’t buy, nobody acted like they were tidbits of information.
horribly inconvenienced either.

Pinterest
Here's our post on Reddit:
Product Hunt is a community website that surfaces the
best new products, every day. Typically people share Pinterest was another sales channel we were eager to
the latest mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, explore and test. A quick search for ‘matcha’ on Pinterest
We quickly realized that even though we were able to
and tech creations. It can be an effective channel for revealed hundreds of pins for matcha recipes that were
generate some visitors, they weren’t targeted visitors.
launching new products and ideas however, every post getting thousands of repins:
We needed to get our content in front of actual tea
submitted needs to be approved by a moderator. lovers.
While this was promising, we knew we didn’t have time to
This proved to be extremely impactful as Product Hunt grow an organic following on Pinterest in just three days.
So we headed over to /r/tea and noticed that people
drove over 900 visitors to Hello Matcha. So instead of building our own audience we decided to try
liked to post interesting tea sets and mugs and that
and tap into someone else’s. That meant finding an
those posts frequently got a lot of upvotes. We decided
account that would accept a sponsored post/pin.
to filter the subreddit by top posts in the last year and
These 900 visitors ended up converting into 12 sales. collect photo’s of the most upvoted tea sets.
While this turned out to be great source of traffic and
revenue, the lesson here isn’t necessarily “get listed on
 While searching pins with matcha in them, we noticed a Some of the sales were hard to attribute to the various
few recipes for healthy green tea lattes that were channels, however, based on our analysis of all of our Now, adding more niche specific products to the above
particularly popular. After some research online, we data, here’s where we believe all the sales came from.
came up with a recipe to create a version of Starbuck’s outline, is the obvious next step.
green tea latte and posted it to our blog with a photo
that could be pinned. 6 Direct Sales (Friends & Family)
12 Product Hunt Adding some traditional stoneware cups, a matcha
0 Reddit
To place our post/pin, we searched for healthy living 0 Pinterest whisk... a beginners tea kit, etc, all these things and
and fitness accounts that posted healthy recipes. Then, 1 Twitter
for accounts that also had websites with contact info, 1 Facebook peripheral items would make it much easier to increase
we reached out with a simple email:
12 Instagram/Direct*
the average cart value. You NEED to find ways to
*Because Instagram only allows links in bio's and not on
posts themselves, and because it's a mobile app, it's a increase cart value in order to create a profitable
pretty high friction experience to go from Instagram to
checkout on an online store. Therefore, we believe sales business.
coming from 'Direct' - people typing the website directly
into their browser - would have come from people who
saw Hello Matcha on Instagram, however, we can't be One product = "One Hit Wonder" e commerce is tough to
100% certain.
The pin generated 50 repins, 7 likes and 17 pageviews: make work. It can be done... but requires something

special with BIG margins

Overall setup and marketing expenses
In the end, no sales could ultimately be
attributed to this campaign. While this was We gave ourselves a budget of $500 in the beginning
somewhat disappointing, it wasn’t all that Remember, most of the costs are one-time set-up costs
but ended up spending a little over that. The biggest or recurring monthly costs, so in 3 days making revenue
surprising either. Given more time we all agreed upfront expenses were the premium Shopify Theme
that, done right, Pinterest has the potential to be an that high is pretty good, it's just that what they did is not
which was not needed for this business, but we loved so repeatable, and they used different methods, so in the
important sales channel for this business – the design so much we couldn’t resist.
especially if we focused on creating and curating future they probably would not have had as much
great matcha recipes for sharing. revenue unless it gained traction. Of course, they have
some data now, so they could have chosen which
The rest of the costs were minimal, and included things methods to use more of now and gotten even more
like custom sticker labels and sample label stickers. We revenue and profit.
Facebook paid advertising would have loved to been able to purchase these in a
smaller quantity, but unfortunately that was not an
Of course we were interested in also trying Facebook option.
ads to drive traffic and sales so we set up a very small
Facebook ad campaign that directed users to the Hello
Matcha homepage. All other costs were minimal. Let’s take a look at the total
breakdown:

Here was the ad we set up:

Premium Shopify Theme (Startup by Pixel
Union) - $180
For this ad we targeted users in the United States Domain Name - $10.17
between the ages of 18-50 who were interested in Sample Product - $41.25
"green tea", "matcha", "Gyokuro and Sencha" (types of 250 Product Labels - $85.56
green tea), and "David's Tea" – a major tea company.  Matcha Labels (Local Samples) - $16.95
Facebook Ads - $24.11
Pinterest Sponsored Post - $20.00
We ended up spending a total of $24.11 on Facebook’s 32 Tins of Matcha @ $10.25 each - $328
ad platform which resulted in: $5 Shipping x 32 tins - $160

 34 Likes
Total Cost: $866.04
 1 Comment
 2 Shares
 45 visitors to Hello Matcha 32 Tins of Matcha + Shipping Revenue
 1 Sale Collected - $922.16

Twitter Total Revenue: $922.16

We didn’t focus on Twitter as a marketing channel,

however, each of us did tweet out our new store and Profit: $56.12
received some retweets. In total, Twitter brought in 184
visitors, and one sale which came from this following
While we "only" made $56.12 in profit, many of the costs
Tweet: 
outlined above were one-time startup costs and
experimental marketing expenses. Over time we believe
that we could optimize and refine our approach to reach
Marketing Channel Results - Overview increased profitability.

At the end of the 3 day hustle, we were exhausted but

felt a great sense of achievement. Here's a final Start your own store
breakdown of the results:
Now that we’ve shown you the entire process of building
an ecommerce store – what’s stopping you from doing
Total traffic: 2,414 the same? The key takeaway is just start.

Added to Cart: 101 (4.18%) We hope that you found inspiration in our mini challenge
and that you learned something along the way.

Reached Checkout: 97 (4.02%)

For a start you get 14 days free BEFORE you pay for a
plan. Considering this is a breakdown of
Purchased: 32 (1.33%) revenue/expenses over their first three days, the cost of
the Shopify plan is irrelevant. Three days to set up the
store, get over 2,000 views and make $900 revenue is
Total Revenue: $922.16 more than most will do in their entire Shopify career.
Notice that Hello Matcha is still selling product. So
something must have worked.