Dropshipping is a business model in which ecommerce entrepreneurs sell products without having to carry any inventory. When a store owner receives an order from a customer, they simply contact the supplier, who will then ship the products directly to the customer’s door. Dropshipping apps like Oberlo let you add products from various suppliers into your shop to fuel your product offering.
If you’re thinking about starting a dropshipping business, then Shopify is the perfect platform for you. It’s quick and easy to set up, and you can start accepting orders as soon as you add your first products. Plus, there are plenty of Shopify themes and apps that are specifically designed for dropshipping stores.
In this article, we’re going to show you how to create a dropshipping store on Shopify in just a few minutes. We’ll also share some expert tips on choosing products, building your brand, and marketing your store.
Creating Your Shopify Store
The first step to starting your own dropshipping business is to create a Shopify store. If you don’t already have a Shopify account, then you can sign up for a free 14-day trial here.
Once you’ve registered for a Shopify account, you’ll be able to choose from one of their many professional themes.
You can either browse through the free themes or pay for a premium theme. For this example, we’re going to use the free theme Boundless.
Installing a theme is quick and easy. Simply click on the “Add theme” button and then select the “Upload theme” option.
Next, locate the zipped file of your theme (which will be in your “Downloads” folder) and select it. Once it has been uploaded, click on the “Activate theme” button.
Now that you have a basic understanding of how Shopify works, it’s time to start adding products to your store!
Adding Products
Before we start adding products, we need to install the Oberlo app from the Shopify App Store. Oberlo lets you add products from various suppliers into your shop to fuel your product offering.
Oberlo is free to install – all you need is a Shopify account. Just click here and then hit the “Get started with Oberlo now” button to add it to your shop.
Note: If you plan on running your dropshipping business long-term, then we recommend upgrading to Oberlo Supply (Oberlo’s premium product sourcing app) as soon as possible.
Now that Oberlo is installed, let’s take a look at how it works:
Step #1: Find Products: The first step is to find some products that you want to sell in your shop. You can either browse through Oberlo Supply or use the search bar if you have something specific in mind.
Once you find a product that interests you, click on it and then hit the “Add product at once” button. This will add all of the variants of that product (e.g., different sizes and colors) into your import list. If there are any variants that you don’t want to sell in your shop, then simply click on the “x” next to them. Once you have finished adding products to your import list, hit the “Finish importing [number] items now” button.
Step #2: Customize Products: The next step is to customize each of the products that you just added.
For each product in your import list, you need to edit the title, description, and images. You can also change the price, but we recommend keeping it the same as the supplier’s price.
To edit each product, simply click on it and make the necessary changes. When you’re finished, hit the “Save” button.
You may also want to add some “tags” to each product. Tags are keywords that help shoppers find your products when they use the search bar in your shop. To add tags, simply scroll down to the “Tags” section and enter some relevant keywords (e.g., women’s shoes, men’s shoes, sandals). Hit “enter” after each keyword so you can add more than one tag per product. When you’re finished adding tags, hit “Save” again.
Oberlo also gives you the option to edit each product’s URL. The URL is the web address where customers can find that specific product page in your shop. For example: www.example-shop.com/products/product-name/
