March 12, 2020 eCommerce Tips
A business where you sell products to customers without having to touch or do any inventory, shipment, or delivery of orders. If you’re a newbie to the world of dropshipping, then you might be thinking of ways to go about this business. One of the things on your mind would be the question of how to build a website for the dropshipping business.
Luckily, this article will do justice to this question. We’ll be talking about the necessary steps for building a dropshipping website, popular templates, and plugin tools you’ll need to download.
Select A Niche
It might not seem directly related to website building, but this stage is vital before you even start your website building. You need to know and understand what you’re getting into. If you don’t, chances are you’re going to miss it later.
The advice is to select a niche you’re genuinely interested in. A niche with products that you’re passionate about, and know almost all there is to know about them. When selecting a niche, it is essential to make sure people are actively searching for the product and make sure the products appeal to impulse buyers.
Determine Your Ecommerce Website Builder/Platform
E-commerce website building has been made easy these days with several online platforms/companies ready to give you a ready-made template that will only need small tweaking on your end. Different companies have different features for you.
The one you’ll choose may depend on your budget, or the features you need on your website. Some of these e-commerce platforms/companies are Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, WordPress, Magento, Weebly, and few others.
Get A Domain Name and Hosting
Simply put, a domain name is your website name. It is the address where Internet users can access your website, and it appears on the address bar of their browsers when searching for your business online. Therefore, you’ll need to get a name related to the type of services you’re rendering.
When registering for a domain name, it is important to keep it short and simple. Hosting comes after getting a domain name; it guarantees the visibility of your website on the www (world wide web). GoDaddy and BlueHost are examples of and the most popular hosting providers.
Building the Website
After choosing the Ecommerce platform of your choice, and registering for a domain name and host, the next line of action is the building process. No matter the platforms, they will all require you to open an account with them and choose the desired pricing plan. After which a store will be built for you automatically. Which you can then edit to your taste.
Below are some of the processes involved in the building of website/customization.
- Theme Selection: Most of these platforms have loads of themes (free and paid version) for you to choose from. You can choose any and start editing.
- Structure: Yes, the platform you choose will likely provide a layout for you. However, you will still need to build and restructure in a way that suits you, putting your customers in mind. You don’t want them to find it hard navigating. You can also research the competitors in your niche, to see how exactly their websites are structured.
- Logo: The placing of your website logo.
- Content: What will be placed on the website in terms of text and images.
- Pages and Categories: This will most likely be done for you by the platform you’re using. However, you can add more pages if you need be. Most ecommerce sites have categories and subcategories for different product variations. Your structure should be in a way that every category has its page.
Some other essential things to be added to the website are additional widgets, security details, blog pages, plugins, return and refund policies.
Finding a Reliable Supplier
In dropshipping, suppliers are the one to store the products and ship directly to your customers. If you’ve got no supplier, or an unreliable one, your website is as useless as a trombone in a gunfight. To avoid this, ensure you get a good one. AliExpress, SaleHoo, Doba are some of the best.
Adding Products to Your Website
Now, to the main attractions of your website. After finding a reliable supplier, there is a need to add their products you would like to sell in your store. Luckily, most of these platforms have functions or plugins that allow you to do a direct product import to your website.
Editing Product Descriptions and Images
After adding these products, you might want to edit the descriptions and images to the ones that set your website apart. Remember, the same product description given to you will be given to another store owner selling the same product (if you’re using the same supplier).
Therefore, there’s a need to edit these product descriptions to your own words. Also, you can edit the images, and add the ones that you snap by yourself, and the ones that depict the product well.
Dropshipping Website Templates/Designs
You can get your website templates or designs from:
- Shopify theme store
- Theme forest
- Colorlib
- TemplateMonster
- Magento/Weebly
Dropshipping Plugins
Below are examples of dropshipping plugins:
- Alidropship
- Oberlo
- Mailchimp
- Plugin SEO
- Social rabbit
- Dropshix
- Alidropship Woo
There you go! Building your dropshipping website is easy, only if you know how to go about it. Above are the points you need to know for creating your website. Also included are where to get dropshipping website templates and some of the popular plugins available.
Contact Us today at Fulfillman in case you will like to know more about our business. Our services are affordable, reliable, and highly professional. Our dedicated team will be available to speak with you. We will provide suitable answers to your questions and concerns. With us, you are guaranteed to get quality and excellent dropshipping services.
