The use of the Internet as a tool for business has created numerous opportunities for everyone. It has not only become the best tool for businesses but also helped everyone grow in the competitive landscape. One of the best business ideas is starting a dropshipping business.
In this type of business, third-party suppliers work for a drop shipper and fulfil the order. It is a great business idea considering the fact that there is no active involvement in product delivery and warehousing. If you are thinking of starting a new dropshipping business and want to know how to start drop shipping UK, here is your comprehensive guide:
Dropshipping is a type of business where the owner just manages the online store and does marketing. When a user places an order on the drop shipper’s website, all the other processes are handled by the product supplier, which fulfils and delivers orders. As there is only a need of maintaining the website and run marketing campaigns, it is one of the cost-friendly business models.
There is no need to store products and manage inventory with dropshipping business. With low cost, it is also one of the profit-making businesses that have zero risk associated as there is no chance of overstocking and product damage.
A drop shipper needs to work on marketing and ensure it reaches potential customers. To run a dropshipping business, owners need to partner with third-party suppliers as orders will be handled by them. When a customer places an order on dropshipper’s website, they forward the order to the supplier using automation tools and manage the shipping and delivery. For this type of business, a customer pays the full price of the product. Dropshipper keeps the profit margin that is previously agreed upon between the supplier and the business owner.
If you are interested in starting a dropshipping business, you should get started with a strategy. You should follow a comprehensive guide on how to set up a dropshipping business UK to make effective growth. Here is our dropshipping guide with step-by-step instructions:
Choose an in-demand product for dropshipping
Find reliable third-party suppliers
Develop an eCommerce website
Register the business with local authorities
Manage financing and taxes
Expand the business with digital marketing
First, you need to find a niche and product you will sell for your dropshipping business. You should choose a product that you have knowledge about. Before choosing a product, you should ensure high profitability and consider top trends.
You should consider market size and trends. With this, targeting the relevant audience is also crucial for a dropshipping business. Moreover, you should start with competitor analysis and make a strategy based on potential customer preferences.
The competition in the dropshipping industry is high but choosing a relevant product can be very helpful for growth. Whether you want to start your dropshipping business with one product or multiple items, you should choose the product that gives you profit. Here are the top 10 products to consider for dropshipping business:
Fashion apparel and footwear
Beauty and personal care products
Baby care products
Kitchen and dining products
Mobile covers and accessories
Pet care products
Travel backpacks and accessories
Electronics products
Gift products
Furniture products
Once you have chosen the product, you need to find a reliable partner or supplier who will deliver the product to fulfil the order. There are many dropshipping suppliers but you need to choose the one that gives the best value to your customers and manage the order on time.
You should choose a supplier that offers quality services and fulfils the order effectively without any major delay. When searching for suppliers, you should look for reputation, reliability, and past engagement with the businesses. There are many suppliers who are looking to work with dropshipping businesses that come with a large order. You should check the minimum order quantity recruitment and choose a supplier that suits your needs. Customer service should be top-notch and you should choose one based on that factor.
There are many platforms where you can find dropshipping products for starting your online business. For this, here are the top names in the UK:
SaleHoo
Doba
Wholesale2B
Printful
Printify
Spocket
AliExpress
CJDropshipping
Shein
Dropified
Niche Dropshipping
Sunrise Wholesale
AW Dropship
Furniture to Go
Hill Interiors
Zuzu Jewellery
FragranceX
Once you finalised the product you will dropship and have the partner, you need a website to make your business presence. By creating an eStore, you can list the products and get started with your dropshipping business. You need to purchase the domain and build a website with a feature-rich eCommerce development platform. With this, you need to choose fast and secure hosting as well.
There are many platforms to develop a budget-friendly eCommerce website. Platforms like Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce are popular and being used by many businesses globally. You should consider interactive web design trends and the latest technology to deliver the best experience to your potential customers.
Want a fully functional website for your online business
Get a Free Consultation!The next step is to register your dropshipping business with the government as a legal entity. In the UK, you should consider factors like VAT issues, consumer protection rules, and GDPR compliance.
You can avoid legal trouble if you have registered your business or have a license to operate your business in the UK. You should also sign a contract with the suppliers so there is no conflict in the future. You should have terms and conditions and a privacy policy as a common business legal structure. You can manage return, and refund hassle with clear terms and conditions.
Dropshipping business is one of the best businesses to start with a small budget. With no need to manage order fulfilment and inventory, you can save a lot by operating this type of business. You should make a proper structure for managing expenses and taxes.
It can be started by opening a bank account under your dropshipping business name. You should use that account for business transactions, like payments from customers and paying suppliers.
Your business can not reach the potential customer without a marketing strategy. For your business to expand and grow on digital grounds, you need to market your website on social media platforms. To reach more users on the digital landscape, you can use marketing strategies like blogging, email marketing, referral marketing, affiliate marketing, etc.
With the help of a marketing strategy, you can get more orders and establish your business as a brand. You can also run paid campaigns and search engines and social platforms to reach more users. SEO is also a very effective strategy for organic reach in product listing on search engines.
With minimal investment and a huge return on investment, dropshipping is one of the best online business ideas in the UK. for starting this type of business, you need to find reliable suppliers and have a solid online presence. With our expertise in web development, we are here to elevate your idea by building a secure and scalable website. You can contact our team anytime and we will be ready to help you grow in a competitive industry with dropshipping business.
After going through all these points, if you still have questions about this growing business model, here are some FAQS for dropshipping in UK for your help. If you still have questions about how to get your drop shipping business website up and running in no time, you can contact our experts.
If you are wondering how to find suppliers for dropshipping, some of the top providers for dropshipping business are SaleHoo, Doba, Wholesale2B, Printful, Printfy, Spocket, AliExpress, CJDropshipping, Shein, Dropified, Sunrise Wholesale, AW Dropship, Furniture to Go, Hill Interiors, Zuzu Jewellery, FragranceX, etc.
The best dropship products UK are fashion apparel, footwear, beauty products, personal care products, baby care products, kitchen products, mobile accessories, pet care products, travel accessories, gift products, jewellery, furniture, etc.
The earning potential is immense with no limit on how much do dropshippers make but if we talk about an average, a drop shipper in the UK makes around £25000 every year. With increased sales, this figure can go up.
You can start your dropshipping business with a website development cost. There is no answer to how much money do you need to start dropshipping, but you can get started with around £500 that might cost you for any standard e-commerce development service.
