How to Launch a Profitable Dropshipping Business: Strategies and Expert Insights
World Wide Web offers multiple business opportunities for aspiring entrepreneurs, from affiliate marketing to selling directly through inventory, or dropshipping and print on demand. You can also get involved with ecommerce or online business through multiple methods, from using ecommerce platforms like eBay and Amazon, to selling through social platforms like Facebook and TikTok, or even creating your own store. If you want to sell from your own store, you can either launch your self hosted store or use ecommerce platforms to create your own store. Through your store you can not just sell the products you manufactured or acquired, but also use your website to sell products all the while your supplier works on the backend to fulfill the order. This method of selling is called Dropshipping.
Why Should Start a Dropshipping Business in 2025
Dropshipping is a unique business model where you sell products through your online storefront but you don’t manufacture or acquire products that you are selling, you don’t even fulfill the orders. You sell without maintaining your inventory or shipping products. What you basically do is display products on your website and when these products are purchased, your supplier will directly ship the product to the buyer.
For those who want to get into eCommerce, dropshipping is one of the best options. Dropshipping simplifies the complexity of online business. This is good not just for experienced entrepreneurs but also for the beginners as well. Dropshipping is an ideal starting point for online business as it eliminates manufacturing products, procuring products, managing inventory, and even shipping products. Some of the advantages of a dropshipping business are:
- Low Initial Investment: You are exempted from spending money to develop products, procure products and even maintain an inventory.
- Streamlined Shipping Process: Suppliers handle shipping, freeing you from logistical complexities.
- Passive Income: By bypassing product development, procurement, and storage, your primary task will be just SEO and digital marketing. You might have to forward the buyer’s shipping details to the supplier but you can automate this task
- Simple business model: After creating your dropshipping store, promotion through social media and search engines is all that remains, thus, simplifying the business model.
Step-by-Step Guide to Build a Profitable Dropshipping Venture
There are two steps involved in creating a dropshipping business, one, you build a store where you will be listing products to sell, two, you find a supplier that will ship products directly to the buyer. You can build dropshipping store in multiple ways and on multiple platforms. You can either create dropshipping store on ecommerce marketplace or on your own website. To create dropshipping store on your own website, you will have to choose ecommerce platforms, some popular options are are Shopify, BigCommerce WooCommerce, Magento, Drupal Commerce, etc.
Shopify is a premium e-commerce platform that is very popular among online entrepreneurs. You will have to pay around $29 monthly subscription fees but you get a 14 days free trial so that you can see if it is the right fit for you or not. Apart form subscripton fees, you might also have to pay for the things like adds, themes, etc. For instance, you need inventory management addon like Oberlo which costs money.
Big Commerce is also a premium ecommerce platforms and is similar to Shopify in pricing and features.
WooCommerce a free WordPress extension that builds an online store on websites powered by wordpress. You can use multiple free and premium adds and themes to build dropshipping store with Woocommerce. Since you don’t have to pay for woocommerce, by using wordoress and woocommerce for online store, you will save a lot of money on your online store. However, you might have to pay money to use various premium plugins and automate certain tasks, for instance adding product to your store.
Magento and Drupal Commerce are open source ecommerce management systems, however, these platforms are not beginner friendly, so if you are staring for the first time, you might find them difficult.
Once you create a store, you will have start listing products. To list your products, you will have to find supplier and then add products manually or use add on to import product on your store. Profiting from dropshipping business means you sell a lot of products. When you list products, you normally add 10-20 percent mark up price, which would be your product upon successful sales. For example, if the supplier is offering you a product for $10, you might have to list it for $15. When a buyer makes a purchase, they send you $15, and you keep $5 and send $10 to the supplier, after receiving payment, supplier packs and ships to the buyer.
How to Start Dropshipping Business for Free Using WordPress and Woocommerce
The most cost-effective method to create an online store is to register a domain, buy hosting, install open source content management system, and set up your store. However, this method can be complicated if you have never managed a website. Therefore, you can try hosted platform that offer you drag and drop elements to build a store. For instance, if you use Shopify, you get a free domain upon paying yearly subscription fees. You do not have to bother with hosting or installing software, you get a ready to use website that you can customize with drag and drop tools. For those who want to cut cost, Woocommerce, Magento, Drupa Commerce and other open source platforms exist.
Dropshipping with WordPress: Free and Easy Method to Strat Dropshipping
WordPress is well know for its versatility. You can build any kind of websites through wordpress, including but not limited to blogs, forums, company websites, business websites, and online stores. WordPress allows to create different kinds of online store, including multi vendor store. To create a store on WordPress, you will have to install WooCommerce. WordPress and woocommerce are very popular among online entrepreneurs. By activating WooCommerce, your ordinary website effectively transforms into a full-fledged online store.
Creating a dropshipping store on wordpress, starts by installing and activating the WooCommerce plugin and then customizing your store. You will have to add information such as store location, product types, and shipping methods. You will then have to find supplier for your store. Once you find supplier, you will have to either manually add products or use plugins for importing products automatically. You can find a lot of free and premium dropshipping plugins for WordPress that allow you to import product easily and forwards shipping details to supplier once product is purchased on your store. Premium plugins offer scalable options where as free plugins have limitations. Some common plugins that you can use on your WordPress powered dropshipping stores are Alidropship, WooDropship, Ali2Woo, Ezusy, etc. The dropshipping plugins are also specifically created for certain dropshipping suppliers. You can find multiple dropshipping supplier but Aliexpress is the most popular option.
Creating a Free Dropshipping Store Using WordPress, WooCommerce, and Ezusy
If you are looking for creating a free dropshipping business here is a step-by-step guide for developing a dropshipping store on a WordPress. This method uses Woocommerce plugin, Ezusy Chrome extension, and the Aliexpress store. Ezusy Chrome extension allows you to import products from Aliexpress to your store so you can use this extension only on Chrome browser. Here is a simple process:
- WooCommerce Installation: Initiate the process by installing WooCommerce. Create your store and input vital details, including location, shipping options, and payment methods.
- Ezusy Account Creation: Visit Ezusy.com to create your account. Four subscription options are available: Free ($0), Basic ($9.90/month), Pro ($19.90/month), and Unlimited ($29.90/month). Opt for the free plan for this guide. The free plan allows you to use only on three stores and you can only import 15o products for free.
- Link Ezusy to Your Store: After completing your Ezusy account setup, establish a connection between your Ezusy account and your store.
- Ezusy Chrome Extension: Install the Ezusy Chrome extension, a browser-based tool enabling the importation of products from the Aliexpress store to your website. Since this guide focuses on dropshipping via Aliexpress, this extension is essential.
- Product Importation from Aliexpress: Visit Aliexpress.com. With the Ezusy Chrome extension installed, you will notice the Ezusy logo when you hover over the listed product. When you click on this logo, that product will be automatically imported to your Ezusy dashboard. Once the desired quantity of products are in your Ezusy dashboard, proceed to push each product to your store. Before finalizing the push, you have the option to edit the product image, title, description, and pricing.
This is a free method to create a dropshipping business but you still have to buy a domain and hosting.
Conclusion
This guide only focuses on helping you understand how dropshipping works and how you can create a dropshipping business. This guide does not include how to sell products and make money from your dropshipping business. Creating a dropshipping store is just the beginning of the process, you will have to work on SEO and digital marketing to generate sales.