In our latest TruevoTalks podcast, we explore the wonderful new world of business in the form of dropshipping and speak to Martin Stoimenov, founder of dropshipping.com, a media company with a difference.
First-things-first. What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a fulfilment concept that allows entrepreneurs to outsource handling and shipping products to a third party. The drop shipper typically handles customer care and marketing.
Picture yourself in Bali, computer in hand, sipping your late in a coworking space filled by digital nomads. The sound of humming keyboards is disturbed only by the coffee machine as it prepares another flat white. Everybody is connecting with their ‘suppliers’ on Alibaba or drawing up their latest social media campaigns on Facebook. The only interruption is a brief dig into their poke bowls as they break their intermittent fasts. Twenty years ago, it could have been the scene of a cigarette ad. Today it heralds the latest and greatest trends in entrepreneurship and getting rich. Welcome to the world of dropshipping.
Martin explains that he has been part of the dropshipping landscape for more than ten years. “We were covering the same ecommerce ecosystem until we realised there is a gap in the market for a media company that covers everything relating to drop. We started dropshipping.com to create a space that takes young entrepreneurs through all the stages and provides them with all the tools to learn everything they need to know to build a successful dropshipping business. We aggregate content in blog articles, provide links to ecommerce tools, supplier and product directories, and we provide insight into trending products. Our users can become part of a premium community where they can discuss and exchange ideas, knowledge and experience.” Basically, everything but the coffee machine and the poke bowls, although they could probably make a plan around that if such a need should trend.
Don’t be so latté
One of the characteristics of dropshipping is that customers typically wait three to four weeks for their orders to arrive. It’s because the drop shipper only places an order once you’ve paid, and it usually has to be shipped from China. Another reason people have lost trust in this form of ecommerce is that the quality of the product does not necessarily live up to expectations. You might order a latté but find a flat white arriving on your doorstep. Martin explains how they address these challenges to turn drop shippers into ecommerce businesses that deliver fantastic customer service, fast delivery and quality products.
More than meets the eye
There’s more to dropshipping than merely seeing a trending product, building a couple of funnels and letting everybody do the rest. Martin talks about the different dropshipping models: product reselling, business extensions, product creation and print-on-demand models. Each has its challenges and required skill sets to make them work.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. The traditional challenges around product selection and price points still apply. “If you don’t know how to calculate the margins, you won’t make money. You don’t just add a profit margin on top of the product you buy from your supplier. You must consider what customer care, hosting your website, prompting the products, payment gateways, and other unexpected things will cost. These are just some of the considerations we talk about on dropshipping.com.”
Drop it like it’s hot
Dropshipping appears to be easy. New players in the market don’t experience massive barriers to entry. Anybody with a laptop and Internet connection can start one. Oh yes, and a latté. 😀 The converse is also true. It’s just as easy to fail and drop out as well. It’s the few people that realise you need to build a solid foundation to survive in this space. You need to build trust, source quality products, provide customer service along the customer journey and deliver nearly as fast as other ecommerce stores do. You also need to provide payment options that people trust. Otherwise, they won’t share their card details and complete the purchase.
Listen to this episode of TruevoTalks to delve deeper into the fascinating world of dropshipping. You’ll know if it’s a world you want to wander into before your coffee gets cold.
Whether you’re running an ecommerce business or dropping it like it’s hot, Truevo provides flexible payment solutions, for multiple channels, in over 150 currencies. Even in Bali. Get started with faster payments, easy set-up and complete security. We can’t wait to mix it up with you.
