The Year 2020 has rather proven to be a year full of uncertainty until it’s winding up in a mere couple of weeks. During such times of the global pandemic, it is more difficult for the businesses to plan their next strategies. With the limited resources though, having a dropshipping budget remains pivotal for any business to grow without facing the predicted doldrums.
A large chunk of people still ask- is dropshipping still profitable in 2020? Profitability depends on the dynamics of a business in operation. Online businesses may have to make revisions in their existing business models to cater to the complexities of the dynamic environment.
Investing in a dropshipping business model is one such avenue for the entrepreneurs to budget their limited resources. An important question is still there: how can you start dropshipping with no money? Well, dropshipping does require a small amount of investment.
However, this investment will prove to be a minuscule sum once you start reaping the benefits through dropshipping. Your rescue is Shop1 in the United States as one of the unique dropshipping platforms that will greatly help you increase your ROI with minimal investment.
Dropshipping on Shop1
A question comes to mind: can you dropship on Shop1? Of course! Shop1 is the world’s first all-in-one dropshipping platform which has been designed specifically for the online businesses opting for the USA-based dropship suppliers. The flexibility of plans make it easier for the new business owners to focus on more significant strategies to scale their businesses.
Potential entrepreneurs often raise the question of how much money do you need to start dropshipping on Shop1? Small businesses with their limited dropshipping startup costs can avail our ‘Starter’ plan to begin with. With a monthly investment of as low as $39.99, businesses can avail numerous benefits, from building a website to order fulfilment. The next option is an ‘Entrepreneur’ plan that comes with the additional analytical tools and discounted shipping options to explore. This $59.99 plan aims to provide the businesses with more comprehensive tools to analyse the respective business.
Our 3rd plan is the ‘Business’ plan that will cost you $149.99 per month. It focuses on the businesses which are looking for an end-to-end solution for their business and drop shipping needs, it is certainly an incredible option. While dropshipping on Shop1, businesses can always upgrade or downgrade their plans based on their changing business requirements. However, the excitement of possessing your website with the secure payment processing gateway and zero processing fee is an unmatched experience for you.
How to Start a Dropshipping Business With a Budget?
1. Marketing and Advertising:
Marketing in the digital era opens numerous avenues for online businesses to market and advertise their products to a larger extent and the global marketplace. Businesses can always advertise through Facebook and Instagram marketing, Google Ads, Twitter and numerous other social platforms.
However, before determining to promote your products through digital marketing, you must ensure that you have a well-built website and a strong Social Media presence. This is because websites with a strong online presence will give you more credibility thus help increase the chances of conversions.
If you are not a marketing expert, you may attempt to outsource the freelance marketing experts. Websites like Fiverr, Behance, Upwork, etc., comprise a pool of talented individuals that can assist you in your marketing goals. Initially, you can opt for a small marketing budget and then gradually increase it based on your post-campaign analysis. If you’re a beginner, the dropshipping budget you set should be something you can afford to lose.
2. Time:
Businesses should view the challenging phases as an opportunity for research, analysis and strategic decision making. With Covid-19 impacting the businesses to a greater extent, here are some ways online businesses can invest their time:
- Researching Advertising Methods: Before allocating your ad budget to the specific marketing campaigns, spend time on researching them. Conduct a detailed analysis of what is hot and what is not. Analyze the performance of your current marketing campaigns and also compare that with your marketing goals. Reddit provides many related and useful insights for the drop shippers.
- Researching Marketing Trends: Social media has given rise to several evolving trends. While a trend may have a low life span, the marketing implication could last a lifetime. Associating your brand with a trend can attract a huge audience that follows it. It will help you in boosting more traffic towards your website. Ensure that you keep a track of evolving the marketing trends and incorporate them in your campaigns.
- Keeping Track of Current Events: It is important to study our surrounding environments. Social, cultural, economic, political etc., changes in our environment can directly or indirectly affect the business. Hence, you must invest time in tracking the current events. Businesses can also use current events to design new marketing campaigns and to create brand awareness.
- Free Social Media Marketing: You may not always require to invest large sums in paid advertising. You can also generate substantial traffic through organic content. Monitor popular trends around you and use them as hashtags in your social media posts. It will facilitate in increasing the reach to your targeted audience. Generate content that increases your customer engagement. It will help in instilling brand loyalty in the customers.
- Work Time vs Personal Time: As an entrepreneur, you will often have to trade-off between your work time and personal time. Ask yourself whether you are willing to do what it takes to run a successful online dropshipping business. When creating a dropshipping budget plan, consider and plan the amount of time you need to allocate to your business to bring it to its destination. No amount of money can replace your business leadership.
3. Product Pricing:
Product pricing plays a pivotal role while making financial forecasts and estimating the spending budgets. The pricing of your product drives your purchase activity. If your potential customers are price-sensitive, having a high price will increase your bounce rate, thus leaving you with a lesser customer base.
Competitively align your product pricing. Make sure you are conducting in-depth pricing research in terms of price sensitivity, demand elasticity, customer responsiveness, etc. Don’t try to match your price with the eCommerce stores like Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, etc. During the initial stages of business, be conservative about pricing. Ensure that your price covers all your expenses and leaves you with enough profit margins.
4. Dropshipping Platforms:
On dropshipping platforms, businesses put forward numerous concerns like, how much does it cost to start a dropshipping company; is Shopify still profitable in 2020 and your other questions that are rather caveats- how do I start a 2020 dropshipping business? With diverse platforms available, it’s difficult to gauge which dropshipping platform is the best investment. As mentioned above, investing in a dropshipping platform could be as low as $39.99 a month.
Solution to Limited Dropshipping Budget
Here’s an outline of benefits which you can avail on Shop1. We offer three comprehensive plans namely, ‘Starter’, ‘Entrepreneur’ and ‘Business’. With the ‘Starter’ plan costing mere $39.99 per month, businesses can avail the features like automatic inventory updates and automatic order fulfilment, etc. Websites can also avail order tracking and abandoned cart recovery. Think about the cost you would incur if you had to set up these processes individually.
The ‘Entrepreneur’ plan provides you with the sales reports, live training, coupons, discounted shipping, etc., in addition to the Starter plan’s benefits. All of this can just be done at $59.99 per month. This plan provides you with a diverse set of analytical tools to facilitate enhanced decision making.
The ‘Business’ plan offers you with more premium features such as free shipping, one-on-one training, etc., which benefit an overall business from a long-term perspective. Businesses can set up their personalized stores with a click of a button. Our fully automated system breaks down the complex processes by providing you with a seamless experience to enjoy. From setting up your store to paying your suppliers for you, we manage it all in one go.
Conclusion
Having a dropshipping startup budget may not necessarily mean having limited resources. It means to constrain your resources and to allocate them most cost-effectively. Once you know how to start a dropshipping business in the USA, you need to prepare a financial plan for budgeting. Allocate enough time for researching marketing strategies, pricing, trends, dropshipping platforms, etc., before you make strategic decisions.
Remember, you are expected to lose money in the beginning. Learn from your mistakes and view them as an opportunity to thrive. Shop1 enables you to save a huge portion of your overall cost and time by creating a fully automated platform that suits your dropshipping budget.
