How To Start a Dropshipping Business in 2024 Using WordPress

If you want to build a new company or generate a new stream of income through a side hustle, starting an eCommerce business is a great idea. eMarketer projected worldwide retail eCommerce sales to reach $6.3 trillion in 2023 and $8.1 trillion in 2026.

That said, not everyone has the capital required to start a traditional eCommerce business. If you don’t have much cash to invest upfront, dropshipping might be a great option for you.

While the term might sound unfamiliar, you’ve most likely already purchased a product online via this popular business framework.

Dropshipping presents its fair share of challenges. However, it’s also a low-risk way to start a successful business without high startup costs. If you want to know how to start a dropshipping business, this step-by-step guide to doing it with WooCommerce is for you.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a method of fulfilling online orders in which an eCommerce store sells items to consumers by “forwarding” orders to a third-party supplier. The supplier then ships those items directly to buyers.

Dropshippers don’t stock any inventory themselves. Instead, they make purchases from their supplier each time buyers do, getting each order filled via the manufacturer.

Businesses may use this method for some products but adopt traditional production/shipping approaches for others.

Many entrepreneurs have used dropshipping to start their own online businesses or expand their current offers. But why exactly is it so popular?

Why dropshipping is popular

As a business owner, dropshipping allows you to avoid the hassles associated with manufacturing, inventory management and order fulfillment.

And many manufacturers are happy to work with a dropshipping business, as it allows them to avoid time-consuming eCommerce, marketing and branding responsibilities.

Advantages of dropshipping

There are many other upsides to this business model, including:

• No need to manage logistics:Your manufacturers will handle everything associated with designing products, producing items and fulfilling orders. You won’t need to worry about operating a supply chain, shipping or running warehouses.
• Low financial barriers to entry: You won’t need to produce anything. You also won’t need to hire production brick-and-mortar store employees. Plus, you won’t need to build a stockroom or warehouse. So, your startup costs will be low.
• Low overhead: Your operating costs will also be low, especially compared to those of traditional retailers.
• Scalability: You can work with a single supplier or 50. You can offer just a few products or sell a vast range of items. It’s simple to expand your offerings and reach as needed with dropshipping.
• Flexibility: You can sell almost anything you want — from anywhere to anywhere. You can adjust your offerings and capitalize on trends.
• Less financial risk: Since you don’t need to purchase in bulk or invest much capital, you won’t incur as much financial risk.
• Potential for profit: You’ll buy at wholesale prices — without having to buy wholesale volume — and sell at retail prices. If you manage your business well, the potential for profit is high.

Challenges of dropshipping

Dropshipping offers many benefits. But like with any business model, there are some challenges, including:

• Lack of control: You won’t have as many responsibilities as with traditional eCommerce models. However, you also won’t have control over shipping times, product quality, wholesale prices or anything else on the manufacturing side.
• High competition: Because of the low barriers to entry, many entrepreneurs start dropshipping businesses.
• Need to find reliable suppliers and manufacturers: This is absolutely essential, and it won’t be easy. We’ll go into more detail on this later.
• Relatively low profit margins: As a business that essentially purchases items from third-party providers and resells them, your margins will be much lower than traditional online retailers’.
• Customer service responsibilities: Offering a well-trained customer support team is essential. In fact, a 2022 Latana report found that 86% of American consumers said customer service was important or very important to them.
• Branding and marketing challenges: Products won’t be made by your business or associated with your brand. This makes establishing a brand identity tricky. You’ll also be responsible for marketing your eCommerce business.

Despite these difficulties, this eCommerce business model can be a streamlined path to success. Weigh the advantages and disadvantages to determine whether it’s right for you.

If it aligns with your unique goals, needs and processes, you’re ready to learn how to start a dropshipping business with WooCommerce.

Why use WordPress for dropshipping?

Ease of use: WordPress is known for its user-friendly interface. It’s easy to set up and manage, even for individuals with limited technical skills. This is crucial for entrepreneurs who want to focus on their business rather than spending extensive time on website development and maintenance.

Wide range of themes and plugins: WordPress provides a vast library of themes and plugins, including specialized ones for e-commerce and dropshipping. This allows users to customize their online stores easily, integrate essential functionalities, and enhance the overall user experience.

WooCommerce integration: WooCommerce is a powerful and widely used e-commerce plugin for WordPress. It seamlessly integrates with WordPress sites, enabling users to turn their websites into fully functional online stores. With WooCommerce, you can manage products, payments, and orders efficiently.

Flexibility and scalability: WordPress is highly flexible and scalable. As your dropshipping business grows, you can easily expand your website’s capabilities by adding new features, products, and functionalities. This scalability is crucial for businesses that anticipate growth.

Search engine optimization (SEO) friendly: WordPress is designed with SEO best practices in mind. It offers features and plugins that help improve the visibility of your dropshipping site on search engines. This is essential for attracting organic traffic and reaching a broader audience.

Cost-effective: WordPress itself is an open-source platform, and many of its plugins are free or have affordable pricing. This makes it a cost-effective choice for entrepreneurs, especially those starting small or with limited budgets.

How to start a dropshipping business

1. Research, research, research.
2. Find a profitable niche.
3. Choose the right products to sell.
4. Cover your legal bases.
5. Build your website with WordPress.
6. Develop your online store with WooCommerce.
7. Build your brand identity.
8. Find the right suppliers.
9. Negotiate your supply chain and terms.
10. Pinpoint your target customers.
11. Mark up products at optimal margins.
12. Promote your business and acquire customers.

Step 1. Research, research, research

Do a competitive analysis. Get business ideas from successful dropshippers. You can keep your finger on the pulse with useful systems like Google Trends.

By researching regularly, you’ll understand what’s going on in your industry. You can then adapt your business in response to trends and potential problems.

Step 2. Find a profitable niche

Your niche is key to forming a successful dropshipping business. But how can you find a profitable niche?

Ask yourself what your special place in the market will be, and consider what you can offer that your competition can’t. Brainstorm about industries you’re interested in or experienced with. Once you’ve determined a few potential niches, evaluate their profit potential.

Seek out market segments with high demand and low competition. If there’s low demand, you’ll probably have few competitors but also few customers. If there’s too much competition, you’ll probably see high demand but have trouble getting people to buy your products.

Make sure that the dropshipping niche you choose strikes a good balance. Consider how you can market your brand through the lens of that niche. Don’t pick something too trendy or specific.

If you’re thinking about starting a dropshipping business, consider these popular niches:

• Tech Gadgets and Accessories: With constant innovations in technology, there’s always a new gadget or accessory on the horizon. Think of items like smartwatches, drones, phone accessories, or camera equipment.
• Health and Wellness: This is a broad category. It includes fitness equipment, organic supplements, wellness gadgets, and even items that cater to specific diets or health concerns.
• Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Products: With increasing global attention on sustainability, products that are eco-friendly or help reduce waste are in demand. Examples are reusable shopping bags, bamboo toothbrushes, and biodegradable or compostable items.
• Home Decor and Furniture: Especially unique or trendy pieces can draw a lot of attention. The rise of home improvement during the pandemic also surged interest in home decor items.
• DIY and Crafting Supplies: With the rise of platforms like Etsy and the popularity of DIY projects, crafting supplies or kits have gained traction.
• Pet Products: Pet lovers are always on the lookout for new and innovative products for their furry friends. This can range from toys and apparel to health products.
• Niche Fashion and Apparel: Instead of general clothing, focus on specific niches, like activewear, swimwear, or even niche cultural apparel.
• Beauty and Personal Care: This can include skincare products, beauty gadgets, makeup, and more. K-beauty (Korean beauty) products, for instance, have been quite popular.
• Hobbies and Games: This could be products for hobbies like gardening, bird watching, painting, or niche board games and collectibles.
• Educational and Learning Tools: With the rise of homeschooling and online learning, tools and resources that help in education are in demand. This could be educational toys, books, or software.
• Specialized Kitchen and Cooking Tools: Think of unique gadgets that make cooking or baking easier, or niche products like coffee or tea accessories.
• Subscription Boxes: Curated boxes of items that cater to a particular theme or interest (e.g., snacks from around the world, monthly book picks, beauty samples) can be quite enticing for customers.

Step 3. Choose the right products to sell

The next step in starting a dropshipping business is deciding which specific products to offer. A few examples were provided above, and can be used as a good starting point to get your mind thinking.

Ask yourself how wide you’d like your range of products to be and curate your product mix. Choose your products based on your market research and niche, looking for items with a high demand/low competition balance.

It’s a great idea to select products that you have personal experience with. However, you can sell anything from baby clothes to car parts.

Just don’t choose items that you can’t advertise through major channels, like weapons, surveillance equipment or tobacco products. It’s also a good idea to avoid items that are heavy, fragile or difficult to ship.

If you’re struggling to come up with product ideas, you can also check out Salehoo, Oberlo, Dropship Spy, or Niche Scraper.

Step 4. Cover your legal bases

Expensive fines are the last thing you want, especially when you’re just starting out. So, make sure you fulfill all the legal requirements when you start your dropshipping business.

The requirements will vary based on your state’s laws, specific products and business structure.

You’ll need an employer identification number (EIN) and sales tax ID. In addition, you’ll have to adhere to all compliance regulations for your state. You’ll also need insurance and other protections depending on your selected legal structure.

Step 5. Build your website with WordPress

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to build a WordPress website. If you build it yourself, you may want to use a WordPress website builder. You also could hire website-building experts to build your website for you.

Creating a website also involves choosing the perfect domain name. Use a reliable service like Bluehost’s domain name registration to get yours.

This step also entails selecting a reliable WordPress hosting provider. You can choose shared hosting, VPS hosting or dedicated hosting, depending on your needs. And depending on which hosting package you select, you may be eligible for a free domain name for an entire year.

Step 6. Develop your online store with WooCommerce

Once you have your website, you can build your online store with WooCommerce. You should cultivate a user-friendly online marketplace with an effective design and essential elements like checkout sequences, transaction tools and product pages.

Use WooCommerce strategically, taking advantage of practical themes like Divi to make managing your store easier.

Step 7. Build your brand identity

Your brand identity is how customers see you and what makes them want to buy from you rather than another seller. So, building your brand identity is one of the most critical steps in starting a dropshipping business.

According to Semrush’s 2023 State of Content Marketing report, 45% of marketers said increasing brand awareness was their top priority. Don’t fall behind your competitors. Stand out with a personalized brand identity to help customers remember your business.

To start, choose a unique business name. Then, determine your mission and vision statements and add them to your “About Us” page.

Next, decide on your brand colors, and develop a great logo. Then, you can build your brand voice and personality.

Step 8. Find the right suppliers

Choosing the right dropshipping suppliers is critical, as they’ll be responsible for fulfilling your customers’ orders in a timely manner. They’ll determine the quality of your products, the prices you’ll pay and the support you’ll receive.

This will probably be the most difficult part of starting a dropshipping business. But if you use a supplier marketplace or directory — such as DSers, Alibaba or AliExpress — you can find connections to suppliers and automated supplier-sourcing tools in one place.

Once you’ve expanded your business, you can form more direct partnerships with vendors. Look for experienced, reliable suppliers that offer fast shipping and high-quality products.

Consider these elements when evaluating potential suppliers:

• Location.
• Return policy.
• Pricing.
• Production practices: Are the manufacturing practices ethical and consistent?
• Integration options: Can the supplier’s data and product listings easily integrate with your WooCommerce store?
• Shipping options: Does the supplier offer multiple shipping methods?

Ask any potential suppliers for test orders. Reputable manufacturers likely will oblige.

Step 9. Negotiate your supply chain and terms

Once you’ve chosen your supplier(s), collaborate to make sure your dropshipping process, model, order fulfillment framework, and shipping costs and times work for everyone. Negotiate on the unit prices, cancellation policies and shipping terms.

Be professional and firm, but not aggressive. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you need. Showcase your strengths — like high website traffic, marketing experience or a well-developed business plan — to get more from suppliers.

Step 10. Pinpoint your target customers

Make sure you know which type of potential buyers you’re marketing to. Understanding your target audience makes advertising more effective and increases your chance of developing a high-quality customer base.

Forming a buyer persona can help you here.

Step 11. Mark up products at optimal margins

If you don’t mark your products up enough, your profit margins will be too tiny. If you mark them up too much, customers will never buy them.

Look at your competitors’ pricing to see what you can reasonably charge. Leverage your unique brand identity and niche to demonstrate added value.

You can also implement strategies like odd-even pricing, free shipping, bundles or regular discounts to bring in more sales and offset low margins.

Step 12. Promote your business and acquire customers

Make a marketing plan for your small business. Consider paid direct-advertising efforts, like Facebook Ads or Google Ads campaigns. You can also use longer-term approaches like search engine optimization (SEO) and content marketing.

Be creative with your marketing strategy and mix. Make your brand more visible online by using a variety of lead generation approaches. Try different customer-acquisition strategies to see what works best for your business.

Your efforts don’t end here. Running your business strategically is key to building a business that will truly last.

Strategies for successfully running a dropshipping business

• Provide reliable customer service.
• Scale up when the time is right.
• Prioritize product reviews.
• Don’t stop marketing.
• Continuously optimize your website.

Provide reliable customer service

Consider having your customer support team available 24/7. Train your technicians to be positive and attentive to enhance customer retention. If you focus on improving the overall customer experience, you’ll have a much greater chance of success.

Scale up when the time is right

As your business grows, you can offer new products or expand your target audience. If you’ve chosen a content management system (CMS) with scalability options, like WordPress, this process will be simpler.

Prioritize product reviews

According to Brightlocal’s 2023 Consumer Review Survey, almost half of all consumers feel that online business reviews are just as trustworthy as personal recommendations from friends or family.

This illustrates the importance of cultivating a positive customer experience and asking buyers for reviews. Direct your efforts primarily toward Google, which the same survey confirmed is the most trusted product review platform across all industries.

Don’t stop marketing

You shouldn’t stop promoting your business once your dropshipping business starts to succeed. Revisit your marketing plan regularly and update it according to trends.

Here are some tips for marketing your business:

• Showcase your offerings in innovative ways.
• Keep using strategies like email marketing and social media marketing to bring in traffic.
• Write compelling blog posts to educate and entertain potential customers.
• Take advantage of influencer marketing to boost brand awareness.
• Try new media platforms, like TikTok.

Continuously optimize your website

For the best results, you’ll need to optimize your WordPress website regularly. You can outsource this task to professionals, if you’d prefer.

Install useful eCommerce plugins and automation-driven systems to streamline website management tasks. Pay close attention to Google’s updates and adjust your website’s SEO as needed. You also can take advantage of the many monitoring features some hosting providers offer.

Final thoughts: How to start a dropshipping business with WooCommerce

The dropshipping business model is a great way for entrepreneurs to enter the eCommerce industry or offer more products. Starting a dropshipping business is possible even if you don’t have much capital to invest.

If you follow these processes and tried-and-true strategies, you can build a sustainably successful dropshipping company.

Are you interested in starting a dropshipping business with WooCommerce? Or do you want to add a new stream of income to your current business?

Bluehost’s WooCommerce + WordPress packages offer everything you need to start selling products online. Enjoy easy setup, a dedicated team of customer support experts and a secure payment system.

We also offer WooCommerce hosting services that will make starting your new business easier.

Choose the perfect plan for your needs and get started today.

Dropshipping FAQs