Welcome to Magoombi – a Shopify site using AliExpress and Oberlo to drop ship golfing attire and accessories. It is aimed at the club golfer who doesn’t take the sport (or themselves) too seriously.
For those new to Drop Ship – it is a system of selling product without holding any stock. Basically you buy from a wholesaler who picks, packs and sends you order to your customers on your behalf. The difference between what you sell to the customer and what you pay the wholesaler is your profit margin. Basically you run the sales and marketing, the wholesaler does the rest.
We normally build sites upon WordPress and Woocommerce – due to the flexible and myriad of solutions. However Drop Ship is something that the Shopify platform does extremely well. It directly links to Oberlo and AliExpress (both collections of wholesalers). Thus you just need to pick the products that you want to sell and add them to the store. You can have a drop shipping site set up relatively quickly with Shopify. In fact we were quite amazed with how simple the process was.
A common question that we are asked: “What product should I Drop Ship?” The answer is always the same: whatever you are passionate and/or knowledgable about. The reality is that due to the low barriers to entry for Drop Shipping – competition is fierce in most sectors. So you need to create a point of difference that is not solely price based. One of the best ways to do that is to become an expert in the field and develop a high degree of trust with your audience. That trust can be gained by Blog posting, Social media and just helping people out with their questions. Thus if you are already passionate and knowledgeable about a topic, you have a head start.
Do you due diligence. Look at competitors and what price they are selling their products at. Look at sectors of the market or geographic regions that they are not targeting so well. Keep up to date with all local tax laws.
Most importantly – just have a go. It coudl become a handy side earner for you. Shopify has plans starting at around US$30 per month + transaction fees. At the time of writing, this equates to just over AUD$50 per month inc GST. Shopify also has a free trial period if you want to “dip your toe in.”
If you want more advice or need help setting up or managing a Shopify Drop Ship site, feel free to Contact Us.
