How to Stand Out When Dropshipping?
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The key to standout when dropshipping is knowing your market and specializing in a specific product niche, creating the best user experience by good SEO practices and non-generic images, and showing value and care in your services. Standing out is a tall order to fill, and when in the dropshipping business, it determines the level of success a certain website achieves.
Dropshipping is on the rise and isn’t slowing down any time soon. Considering the sheer number of businesses that often opted to adopt these business models it comes as no surprise that the competition is tough. The only way to solidify your stance and gain traction and sales in the dropshipping business is by standing out.
There are several reasons why you may not be seeing much sales- the audience may not be visiting your site, if they are they may not be shopping from your platform, etc. Various motives push customers away from clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button on your site. Here are a few pointers to help stand out when dropshipping-
Specialized Product Niche
Most successful dropshipping e-commerce retailers have one aspect in common- they have a narrowed down product niche. The more specific and specialized the inventory, the more successful the dropshipping platform tends to be.
Say, if you decide to sell candy. You want to sell candy sold all over the country to satisfy all types of sweet teeth- rock candy, sour candy, taffy, licorice, etc. The problem here is that even something as small and common as candy has a lot of variety, sellers, types, and in general varying logistics to consider. On the other hand, if you decide to not just sell candy but a particular category, let’s say sour candy, you will be able to pool all your resources and focus on one niche product.
A common assumption among businesses is that narrowing their focus limits their consumer base and that will cost them sales and customers. When in fact the opposite is true. Specializing allows effective communication with customers and increases the chances of traffic that comes to your website turn into customers. Focusing on a narrowed product-specific niche helps stand out from the competition and compete in a smaller pool.
If you’re just starting in a dropshipping venture you are probably unaware of your customer base’s preferences, and that’s okay. Once you start gaining experience you will be able to identify the segment of products your customers like to focus on or what brings in the most profit to your business. The next step is to position your business to focus exclusively on those set customer needs and add value to that segment. You will be amazed to see how high the conversion rates will start to skyrocket even at premium prices.
The key here is- if you take everyone to be your customer, then no one is. Specialization makes it easier to stand out and differentiate yourself from your competition. It also lets you prioritize customers and their needs making them feel valued.
Marketing and SEO
The next key to success and to stand out while drop shipping is being able to attract traffic to your website. The amount of traffic a website receives determines the visibility level, the number of potential customers, and how distinctly your business stands out in the god light. This is done through marketing and SEO.
Marketing and SEO let your consumer base know that your store is out there and makes an overall better user experience for your visitors. This can be done by looking into paid advertisement, diversifying outreach through multiple forms of a platform like different social media applications, email marketing, guest blogging, sponsorships, etc.
This step is especially crucial in the starting few months to a year after the launch of a new website when your business is unknown to most. It can also help to stand out if you feel that you are not getting the traffic your site deserves.
SEO has become the norm for all websites, not just e-commerce ones, for generating relevant traffic. Without practicing optimization strategies you most likely will not be able to rank well in search engine result pages and the users will find it harder to see the links to your site.
There are several DIY SEO resources and guides available online. Moz’s ‘Beginner’s Guide to SEO’ is particularly handy. SEOBook is another great resource that posts detailed blogs and is home to a paid private community for SEO professionals.
Using these tools you can easily optimize your website by practicing linking, cross-linking, off-page SEO, on-page SEO, blogging, and guest blogging among various other proven tactics to generate more organic traffic. Optimization of the website design itself is equally important as the optimization of the content to improve the user experience.
Combined with SEO, employing marketing strategies is also essential to drive sales and clicks to your website. Along with online marketing tools, many blogs provide useful marketing tips like HubSpot Blog, QuickSprout, and Copyblogger.
Another aspect of marketing and SEO that relates directly to the success of a dropshipping website is the product images that are displayed. When it comes to e-commerce outlets images matter more than any other website. The visitors inspect all visuals very keenly before deciding to purchase products online. Naturally, posting generic product images isn’t going to help sales or the customers.
In dropshipping, the products along with their details, description, and image are supplied to distributors (that’s you). The problem with this is that the same image is circulated to your competitors as well. As a customer, it becomes tricky to differentiate and compare between two dropshipping vendors and decide where to buy it from.
A drop shipper that puts in a little more work by taking their own photographs, or giving products a sense of scale by adding objects, or customizing the products so they stand out from the test of the generic images is bound to perform better than its competition.
Offer Exceptional Service
In the end, retail business- done either in a physical store or through a virtual dropshipping site- boils down to the service provided to its customers. The Internet has been transparent for the most part, but the rise in social media and virtual stores and the trend of posting reviews has taken customer care and customer service to the next level. If you don’t treat your visitors well, word gets out and word gets out fast.
Having satisfied and happy customers is the best form of marketing. As is true for all businesses, making a sale to a satisfied customer is much easier than convincing a new prospect to buy something. Thus, to stand out make providing exceptional service and prioritizing customer service your main concern.
Connect through social media or post-sale email follow-ups. Take feedback, address criticisms and fallbacks, provide assistance wherever necessary, etc.
Final Word
Success in dropshipping does not come overnight. It takes time, effort, and patience. With a global market in the billions, dropshipping provides a ton of opportunities for business owners, when done right. It is important to follow the keys and stand out from the rest of the competition to see real conversion rates bloom. Remember to know your business, practice good marketing, and prioritizing customers.
In a nutshell, you must find a product that your targeted audience really needs in their lives. Something that makes things easier for them. Sell The Trend comes with an AI-Based Nexus Research Machine that identifies hot and trending products before they hit the market. Dropshipping business has become quite saturated and your success largely depends on the type of product you choose to sell.
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