A Guide to WooCommerce Dropshipping

Dropshipping has become a popular strategy within ecommerce.

Why? There are plenty of reasons, from not having to hold inventory to providing a low cost, low risk environment to test ecommerce products. Dropshipping can cover a vast range of product categories and suppliers – if you can conceive of it, it’s probably out there.

The good news for WooCommerce store owners is that it’s relatively easy to get your store set up for dropshipping. There are many options available to help you create a smooth operation.

In this quick guide, we’re exploring the basics of dropshipping and how to get started on WooCommerce – check it out:

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is an ecommerce strategy where you, the store owner, take orders for products you aren’t physically holding in inventory. Instead, a supplier receives those orders and ships them out from their inventory.

Essentially, the retailer is acting as a “middleman,” but the customer doesn’t know any different. As far as their experience is concerned, they order from the retailer’s website and receive their package like any other ecommerce transaction. They don’t know that the order went somewhere else to be fulfilled.

Pros and cons of dropshipping

Dropshipping is one strategy out of a few options for ecommerce and as with anything, there are pros and cons. Here’s a quick rundown:

Pros of dropshipping for ecommerce

• It’s a low-cost option to set up because you don’t have to purchase a whole lot of inventory.
• It’s low-risk in that you won’t have inventory sitting on the shelf that you can’t move.
• You can easily pivot or introduce new products.
• Dropshipping can be a great way to test out products before deciding whether you want to switch to holding your own inventory.
• Dropshipping can offer a way to scale your business without having to take on extra work. For example, whether you have 100 orders or 1000, you’re not fulfilling them yourself – although you can expect to have a higher customer service request volume!
• You really can run your business from anywhere as your part is not location-dependent.

Cons of dropshipping

• One of the biggest cons is that your profits are a lot lower for sales. You make a portion of the sale, while the supplier makes the rest.
• Part of your customer service operation will always be outside of your control. This can be a pro or a con, depending on how reliable your supplier is!
• You can lose touch with the quality of your products, especially if you’re never actually seeing them.
• Sometimes you might find you’re out of the loop when it comes to inventory issues, such as low stock.
• You’re still the “face” of the products, so have to take responsibility for any issues, even if they originate with your supplier.

Dropshipping offers ecommerce retailers a lower-risk sales strategy. #WooCommerce is a great platform to try it out Click To Tweet

Steps to set up dropshipping

How can ecommerce retailers get started with dropshipping? Here are some steps:

1. Decide your product strategy. For example, will you specialize in a particular niche? Will you offer a broader range of products? How will you source those products?

There are typically two main ways that dropshipping retailers source products. One is to go through a marketplace where you can find merchants that dropship. The advantage of this is that it’s easy to find a wide range of products and willing merchants. A downside is that many dropshippers end up offering similar products.

The second way is to source merchants yourself, perhaps from within your geographic region. You can look for merchants with products you’d like to sell who offer wholesale services. Many of these are willing to dropship. It’s more work to find these suppliers, but you may be able to offer customers a more unique, memorable shopping experience.

2. Have a platform to sell from. If you’re reading this, you either already have or are thinking of building a WooCommerce store. You need a mechanism for selling, even if that’s just your social media channels.

3. Have an audience. You can’t sell without having an audience to sell to! You may be coming from a position where you already have an audience (such as a blog or popular social media channels). If you don’t, then you’ll need to build one. Start by defining who it is that you want to attract as your target audience, then find ways to bring them in. For example, this might include creating the types of content that they are interested in consuming.

4. Have a marketing strategy to consistently draw an audience. Even dropshippers who already have a large audience need to be consistent with marketing. Think about how you will differentiate from your competition, e.g. with your content and/or with your unique product catalog.

Dropshipping tools for WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a very flexible, scalable platform and ideally-placed to set up a dropshipping operation. The basic requirements are:

1. A WordPress website with quality hosting.
2. The WooCommerce plugin installed.
3. A dropshipping plugin that is compatible with WooCommerce.

There are three main kinds of plugin that facilitate dropshipping for WooCommerce, these are:

1. Plugins that connect store owners with a dropshipping marketplace from which you can source suppliers. AliExpress is a well-known example of such a marketplace.
2. Plugins that provide the connection between you as the seller, and the supplier. Basically you and your supplier set up the software, each on your own end, so that you’re able to automate the dropshipping process. You need this if you’re seeking partnerships outside of marketplaces. Mothership is one such software that facilitates this setup.
3. Plugins for on-demand designs. These connect you with manufacturers who will produce and send out your custom-designed goods on-demand. For example, Zazzle offers custom apparel and accessories.

We always suggest that you look for a solution that meets your desired product strategy, while having high standards for quality and reliability. The software should have excellent user support available so that you can keep your operations running smoothly. It should also be regularly updated to account for software and security changes.

Next, we’ll look at some examples of WooCommerce plugins that facilitate dropshipping.

WooCommerce plugins that connect you to marketplace suppliers

The following plugins will connect you with marketplaces where you can find dropshipping suppliers:

• Spocket – This plugin helps dropshippers find high-quality US and EU-based suppliers.
• AliDropShip – This connects you to AliExpress for dropshipping, with suppliers mostly in China.
• Dropified – This plugin presents curated products from suppliers, so you don’t spend a lot of time going through multiple suppliers.

WooCommerce plugins to connect with your own suppliers

These plugins allow you to set up custom connections with your own suppliers. Basically, both you and the supplier will need to set up so that your processes are automated:

• Mothership – Set up your own, unique dropshipping relationships and let the software handle the key details. Mothership is known as a well-supported, streamlined software.
• WooCommerce Dropshipping – This plugin allows you to set up with your own suppliers. It also includes AliExpress and Amazon Affiliate support.

WooCommerce plugins for on-demand design suppliers

These plugins connect you to suppliers who produce your product designs on-demand:

• Zazzle – Sell unique items, from cards, to gifts, to home decor.
• Printful – Sell custom-designed mugs, t-shirts, and more.
• Gooten – Another print on-demand solution with a wide range of products.

Conclusion

Dropshipping can be a great way for WooCommerce store owners to enter ecommerce, or to reduce inventory risk for their ecommerce store. It allows you to take orders which your suppliers fulfill, so you don’t have to hold inventory.

A trade-off of dropshipping is that your margins will be lower than if you held inventory and fulfilled orders yourself. Still, if you can attract customer volumes, you can turn a decent profit and offer a range of products.