How and why did I begin dropshipping?

My name is Lucas, and I want to share my success story with you. I’m 42 years old, originally from a small town called Michelstadt, Germany. Now I’m living as a resident of the world.

I worked as a supermarket manager a year ago, working ten hours a day with weekends off. Working in retail for so many years became unbearable. Overall dissatisfaction made me look for another job.

Sometime later, I came across dropshipping. It always sounded tempting, but I didn’t have the guts to try it. As dissatisfaction grew, I knew it was time for a new job. It was now or never.

And now you may wonder, why would someone quit a steady job to become a dropshipper?!

Do you know that feeling when you want to leave the city for a while, but you can’t. You want to spend quality time with family, but you must work to provide for them. When you aren’t feeling like working, but hey, nobody cares. Well, I was sick of that.

I wanted freedom and to spend more time with friends and family. Dropshipping enabled me all this while earning numbers I could only imagine. All this from beautiful beaches in Bali to the snowy Alps. Finally, I was free to do what I love.

My dropshipping plan

I did a lot of research before starting my dropshipping business. I read many forums and Reddit conversations. After researching, I realized that the key to dropshipping is finding a reliable supplier.

Customer satisfaction depends on many factors. Factors such as quality of products, shipping time, and payment options depend on the supplier.

Many would say a Chinese supplier is the most logical choice for dropshipping. But I didn’t choose a Chinese supplier, and here is why:

• Many products are generic and lack guarantees or quality certifications. Sending a product that doesn’t match the description is a bad reputation. Poor quality products increase the number of returns and bad reviews.
• Shipping taking longer than two weeks rejects many customers. Chinese suppliers have delivery time frames of more than 20 days. Current world events affect shipping from China as well.
• Products sent from China are regularly lost and damaged in transit. Additionally, many products are already defective.
• Inadequate paying options, which in return affect buying decisions.

After I decided not to work with Chinese suppliers, I needed to find a supplier based in Europe. As a newbie, I came across many websites that are intermediaries.

I googled suppliers, browsed Facebook and Instagram, and read reviews and comments.

Finding a European-based supplier

After thorough research, the decision was to go with Eurowholesale.

The most significant impact on this decision was the cash-on-delivery option they offer.

Now, if you want to dropship, this is one of the essential features.

One of the basics in online sales is trust. Customers can’t try or touch the product they’re buying. So, you must earn their trust that the purchase is safe and easy.

Paying upon delivery creates a sense of control. And for sure, it’s easier to decide to purchase a product if you’re paying upon delivery.

Starting a dropshipping business is a lot easier than opening a store. You don’t need space, employees, and a warehouse to start dropshipping. All you need is a good plan and a reliable supplier.

To get started, I only invested 500€, and the main points of my plan were:

1. Deciding where and how I would sell my products. I choose social media. And later, I found a freelancer to build my website for 75€.
2. Testing products to see which works. I’ve tested multiple pages with just a few products targeted to specific groups until I found a page that converted the best.
3. After the testing period, I choose kitchen products from Eurowholesale. At the start, I chose a few products. Once I hit sales, I included more products in my offer.
4. The next thing was advertising and promoting my products. Building a social following and engaging with customers.

To make sales, you have to stand out and give value to the customers. And in my opinion, a reliable supplier is the key. Until you have a good supplier, all marketing tactics aren’t enough.

That’s the most significant part of the puzzle of customer satisfaction. With the supplier handling everything, I had enough time to focus on advertisement and promotion. Reliable cooperation enabled me to dedicate most of my time to advertising, thus generating maximum profit.

My results and what led me to success

After two months into the dropshipping business, I made good results, had consistent sales, and grew my business. In the following three months, I made 56,867 €.

The base of my starting success was product quality, expedited shipping time, and cash-on-delivery payment. These factors are the ones that I haven’t and will not ever compromise, and this is why. Satisfied customers do not hesitate to give great reviews or share them on social media. And that was and still is my prime advertisement fuel.

Choosing a supplier was the most challenging, time-consuming, and important task. But, in the end, spending days researching and evaluating paid off because

1. SALES INCREASED - I only paid for the wholesale price, not a euro more. And let me tell you, prices are competitive, and I was able to have large profit margins. High-quality products affected the number of returned orders which was low.
2. SAVED MONEY - I didn’t have a warehouse and didn’t have to worry about stocks. I only paid for things I sold on my platforms, and this option saved me some euros.
3. SAVED TIME - Whether importing a catalog or adding products manually, it was an easy and fast process. I didn’t have an IT expert by my side, and I did everything alone.
4. OPTIMIZED MY BUSINESS - By having tracking links, and automatically generated invoices enabled me to track progress and spending.
5. DECREASED AD SPEND - A lot of good reviews on social media because of fast shipping. Because of good reviews, I was able to decrease ad spend.
6. IMPACTED BUYING DECISION - Everybody loved the cash-on-delivery option, including me. This payment option impacted potential customers to order from me instead of my competition. People are generally skeptical when it comes to paying something upfront. And I love Eurowholesale because it was the only supplier that offered the cash-on-delivery option to all EU countries.

The numbers speak for themselves, and these are mine from the start till June.

Plans and goals

Dropshipping is the fastest and easiest scalable business venture in the world at the moment. It took me only two months to get started. And an additional three to make 56,867 €.

My focus was on promoting and advertising products. Everything else, from when the customer orders the product until it’s delivered, Eurowholesale took care of.

When I summarize efforts, having a good supplier helped me:

• Quit my 9-5 job and work flexibly;
• Go from 3000€ to 8000€ in less than three months;
• Build an excellent relationship with customers because of fast and reliable delivery, and good payment options;
• Build loyalty due to quality products;
• Save time due to easy and fast ordering process;
• Decrease ad spend;
• Scale business faster with zero fees to the supplier.

A reliable supplier made engaging with customers, increasing visibility and reach, and boosting sales much easier for me.

By continuing to work with the same supplier, I plan to expand my business. I will automate using the XML feed offered by the partner and outsource most of the work. Outsourcing will enable me to reach my goal, which is passive income.