Dropshipping is a very profitable online business, and the increase in the number of social media users has only made the business more technical and strategy-driven. A typical dropshipper understands that the days of building general dropshipping stores are over, as customers are looking for stores that specialize in meeting their product needs. The same is true for electronic devices such as speakers. Let's take a look at how a successful dropshipper built and sold a portable speaker store.
Sharif Mohsin is a 6 figure dropshipper, an internet entrepreneur who is always trying out different ways of making online. He has documented on his YouTube channel his journey into the world of dropshipping which contains strategies and techniques he has deployed. In this article, we will be discussing how to make the most out of a dropshipping business. Also, we will examine Sharif's decision to start a brand store from the ground up. We'll look at how he does product research, how he sets up a shop, how he gets traffic, and how he makes money.
It should be noted that, while Sharif is successful, he does not use any of his previous business affiliations to start this store so we can see what you will experience if you are just starting today without a large following or prior experience in the business. Also, he did not promote the shop through his email list, he did not use his previous suppliers, and he did not rely on his social media influence. He only needs $100 to get started.
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Let's dive into this article...
How to Find a Winning Product for Free
Finding a product is simple, but finding a winning product takes some time and research. Sharif searches Tiktok for winning products, but how does he do it? Because his TikTok account is well-optimized and properly set up for researching winning products, it is easier to see the trending winning products by scrolling through his TikTok feeds.
How to Set Up and Optimize Your TikTok Account
Setting up and optimizing your Tiktok account for this purpose is simple; all you need to do is what most dropshipping stores do when they start their stores. You should "like" many dropshipping stores and various dropshipping products on Tiktok. Doing this will inform the algorithm that you are interested in this type of content, resulting in more of these trending products appearing in your feed.
Sharif conducted extensive research and discovered a potential winning product that he believes will generate significant revenue for him. The product is a portable Bluetooth speaker. According to Sharif:
"Buyers of this product connect their phones to these Bluetooth portable speakers, and once they place objects on any metal or glass surfaces near them, they pretty much amplify the sound".
After discovering the product, he made an additional investigation on the product page of the store he discovered it. He also went further to check the competitors of this product to know how to go about promoting it.
A glance at the speaker's Tiktok page reveals that the product is worth selling. The first thing is that they consistently post videos, which receive consistent likes, comments, and followers; additionally, they sell the speaker for $40. If this shop has 59 100 followers, that means thousands of people are interested in purchasing it. Furthermore, the number of likes in the videos shows that if one promotes it well, the chances of having a successful business are not remote.
The page features a clear product image and convincing reviews, indicating a well-organized and optimized store. All of this suggests that it could be a viable product if the shop is properly set up and optimized.
Sharif discovered this speaker on Amazon for $38, which is $2 less than the price charged by the TikTok shop. However, on AliExpress, the speaker costs $21, resulting in a $19 profit on each speaker sold. The profit margin is always higher when sourcing dropshipping products on Chinese websites like Aliexpress than when sourcing them in American stores. If Sharif had purchased the product from Amazon, the likelihood is that he would not be successful because the profit margin is too low, and he would have had to sell a large number of Bluetooth speakers to increase his revenue.
You must order a sample to create promotional videos and images. One would think he'd order it from Aliexpress, but he didn't. He instead ordered from Amazon for $38. This is very interesting to us because he could have saved more money if he had purchased on Aliexpress. After careful consideration, we believe he chose Amazon to save the time required for shipping from China to the United States. We believe he is rushing to complete this dropshipping test. We don't expect you to do the same because you're just getting started and need to cut your setup costs. Because you have no one to show this proof to, you can wait until your sample arrives before making your videos.
Some features distinguish this speaker from other portable speakers.
Battery Life of the Speaker
Nobody wants to purchase a speaker that must be recharged every hour; therefore, opt for one with a longer battery life. Small Bluetooth speakers typically have company batteries that do not last long, but a good portable speaker should be able to operate for four to ten hours, depending on how loud you play and use the speakers. The more power the speakers use, the more the battery is depleted.
Sound Quality
The sound quality is by far the most important feature. After all, this is why you're buying a Bluetooth speaker; thus, ensure that the specifications are of high quality. He ordered a portable speaker with a total harmonic distortion of 0.8%, which is quite good. In general, the total harmonic distortion of a portable speaker should be less than 1%. As a general rule, the lower the total harmonic distortion, the better the sound.
Light-weight
The portable Bluetooth speaker is very easy to carry, and the design and size are very compact. It has a net weight of 0.8Kg
True Wireless Stereo
This portable speaker's TWS is ideal for listening to music or for a conference call.
Durability
Wireless Bluetooth speakers are used indoors and outdoors, so they should be weatherproof. Unfortunately, many manufacturers fail to ensure that their speakers are protected from particulate matter. Sharif ensured that his portable speakers were meticulously made and passed several quality tests with flying colors
How To Set up a portable speaker dropshipping store
Sharif chose the brand name "Porta Speakers" for the shop because it is brandable and, to some extent, relatable to the products for which the shop was established. Furthermore, the shop was built using Shopify's 30-day trial plan, so there is no need to purchase any Shopify plan at the start of a dropshipping store using Shopify. To save the cost of hiring a graphic designer to make the store's logo, Sharif designed it himself. In the same way, you too can use Canva to design your dropshipping store logo instead f outsourcing at the added cost of setting up your store.
Some of the things to note from the store Sharif built as shown below screenshots are:
- The store URL is portaspeaker.us. This was so because the store was targeting US audiences.
- The quality of the uploaded images is clean and clear.
- The product name is very visible
- Since the store is new, there is a 50% discount offer to entice buyers.
- The headline is concise and under it is a well-written product description with some gif images. According to Sharif:
"I'm going to be changing these gifs once I get the product and I'm going to record custom gifs so that they're a little more personalized. Visitors on our site will get a more personalized experience, but for now, I just have these temporary gifs that I have just as a placeholder".
- A frequently asked questions section for customers who have questions about the product. He conducted extensive research on his competitors' pages to determine the most frequently asked questions by buyers before purchasing speakers.
- He copied the review section from his supplier's page. The review is a clone from the shop where he purchased the sample for the sole purpose of increasing sales.
How to Get Traffic to Your Speaker Dropshipping Store
Now that a winning product has been identified and a shop has been established, the next step is to create video content to begin generating traffic. Because this store is operating on a $100 fixed budget, Sharif suggested that the Tiktok organic traffic method should be used, adding that since the product was obtained through Tiktok, it might as well be best to promote it through Tiktok.
Unfortunately, there is a disadvantage to using Tiktok organic traffic; you can't post a link in your bio until you have 1 000 followers, and all that is required to reach 1 000 followers is to post relevant and engaging video content, which Sharif did.
Even though most of his videos do not perform as well as he expected, they were able to get him the required minimum followers to embed his dropshipping shop address in the bio link. But he noticed that the best-performing video was the one that engaged the audience. He asked his audience to rate the surface on which the speaker sounded the best in the video. The video received a total of 16 000 views, 3 257 likes, and 591 comments, indicating that the style of this video is what most engages his audience.
The Results That the Store Yielded
Three people purchased the speaker after some time of posting videos on the speaker's Tiktok page, resulting in total revenue of $119.90. It's worth noting that one speaker costs $22 to ship, and three speakers were sold.
Income Analysis
- Capital for the store: $100
- Total revenue: $119.90
- Total shipping cost: $66
- Total income: $119.90-($66+$38)= $15.90
- Ad spend: $0
- Cost of the speaker: $38
Conclusion
Creating a dropshipping store is not as simple as it used to be when the industry was new. Nowadays, a thorough investigation is required just like how the product in our case study (a portable speaker) is researched. It is critical to obtain the product from a retail store where the product can be obtained at a low cost, which is usually a Chinese store such as Aliexpress.
It is possible to open a shop for $100 just as we have seen in this post. In our case study, a small portion of the start-up budget was used to purchase a product sample that was used to create promotional videos for TikTok's promotional page. Finding a way to get your audience to interact with your promotional videos is one of the recommended methods for increasing views. If your audience responds positively to the videos, the likelihood that they will be viewed by more people increases. Using TikTok is a smart way to promote your product because it is the same TikTok you will use to research the product in the first place.
