Course 1

Dropshipping

Your Project

So, you want to start your side hustle? Congratulations! Let's get you started with an ecommerce business project that will make you money.

The dropshippingXL Academy is here to help you step-by-step.

Anyone can begin dropshipping without creating a company or any other requirements. Simply set up an online store, use dropshippingXL as your supplier, and sell to your customers.

We also have blog articles that can expand your knowledge of the basic:

What is dropshipping?

Where to sell?

Choose how you will sell to your digital customers.

These are the most popular options:

Create a website
Use online marketplaces
Use social media

We recommend setting up your own website.

This is the most popular channel for selling your dropshipping products. Not only do you have more control over your own website, but you save money by not paying commissions as you would on other third-party selling platforms.

If you prefer to start by using an existing marketplace, these following blog articles will help you:

How to start dropshipping if you don't have a website

A brief guide to Amazon dropshipping

Create your online store

Module 1: Buy your domain name

Before you start building your website, you will need a domain name. This is the unique URL of your website. Normally, this is the name of your dropshipping store or your brand name. It's possible to have more than one domain name and connect them so that they all direct to the same website.

SEO keywords

Using SEO keywords in your domain name helps customers find your website. Think about which SEO phrases that your target audience would use to search for the products you sell. The more accurate your domain name is to these SEO keywords, the higher you will rank on Google's results pages.

For example, if you are dropshipping pet supplies in Australia with the brand name "Soft Paws & Co.," some or all of these would be domain name options:

www.softpawsco.au
www.softpawsco.com
www.softpawsco.shop
www.petsuppliesaustralia.com
www.petsupplies.shop
www.petsaccessories.au
www.petaccessoriesaustralia.com

Notice how a dropshipping store in the pet niche would use different phrases related to pet supplies and pet accessories. Including the country you sell from is also useful for online customers.

Where to buy your domain name

Once you have your list of domain names, it's time to purchase. These are some websites to use:

Go Daddy
Google Domains
1&1 IONOS
Name Cheap
Name Silo
Blue Host

You can use a search engine to find other domain name providers.

Do I need to buy a domain name?

For professionalism, it's better to buy a domain name. Website builders give you the option to use a free website URL, however, it will include the name of the website builder you are using. For example, the pet company mentioned above that decided to use Shopify, would have the option of using the URL, www.soft-paws-co.myshopify.com. To show your customers that you are an authentic and trustworthy online store, we recommend that you buy your custom domain name.

Other benefits of buying a domain name:

A custom domain name shows credibility
Part of your personal branding
Protect your brand's identity
·Buy your company name before your competitors
Reach your target market
Be memorable

Module 3: Build your webshop

You can create a dropshipping website in less than a day. To see how easy it is, follow our step by step tutorial.

Course 2

Find your niche

Module 1: Choosing your Niche

A niche market is a specialized and smaller segment of a market. When you begin your dropshipping business you will need to decide which products to sell and to which buyers.

If you decided to sell every type of toy to every adult buying for a child you would be competing with a huge number of other online companies. The cost to compete and to advertise to such a large number of buyers would be very expensive. It is more time and cost-effective to focus on a smaller number of products for a highly targeted group of buyers.

Examples of niche markets:

Eco-friendly toys for health-conscious and environmentally-aware parents
Adult and child bicycles and camping gear for families that take bicycle holidays.
Solid wood bedroom furniture for homeowners that prefer quality and long-lasting timeless pieces for their interiors.
Reclaimed and recycled furniture for homeowners that want to reduce their carbon footprint.
Gazebos and outdoor frames for large garden owners and event organizers.

You can find more than 90,000 products at vidaXL in 30 categories, such as:

Home furniture (50,000+ items)
Garden furniture (20,000+ items)
Hardware (6,000+ items)
Pet supplies (2,000+ items)
Sporting goods (1,500+ items)
As well as toys and games, vehicles and parts, business and industrial, baby and toddler, health and beauty, and luggage.

Check out our product categories

Go to our webshop

Research your Niche

Before choosing your niche, take some time to do some research to see the competition and if it will be profitable.

You can use online tools to help you:

Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool to see what people are searching for on the internet. Type in keywords related to the niche you are interested in to find how many people are searching those terms on Google. It also tells you how popular those search terms were over time.

Google Keyword Planner

Another free tool from Google, Keyword Planer gives you data on how competitive search terms are. This will help you see how much advertising will cost to pay for paid adverts on Google and get an idea of how popular these search terms are with online buyers.

Meta Business Insights

Use powerful data from Meta to find out shopping trends on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Search forecasts and reports to get an idea of how successful your niche might be based on the behaviours of users across three of the most-used social media platforms.

Social media

Don't sleep on social media as a source of information. Search directly on each platform such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to find out what customers like, the most talked-about products, and topics they care about. For example #TikTokmademebuyit is a trending hashtag for shopping trends.

Emerald Insight

For paid data, try Emerald Insight. It is an academic database to access industry reports such as current online shopping preferences and channels being used.

BCC Research

A paid resource, BCC Research is incredible for up-to-date market analysis and industry reports. This market intelligence will help you identify the strengths and weaknesses, current key figures, and forecasts for global market segments

You can read more about competitive research in our blog article

Finding a gap in the market

Module 2: Build your brand

You have your website, your products, and your niche. Now it's time to refine your branding to stand out from your competitors and make sure you are memorable.

What is branding?

Your company's branding is not just your logo and business name. It is the look and feel that you present to your customers, it's your reputation in the eyes of the consumer, and how the consumer connects with you.

Why is branding important?

Investing time into your branding will help you build a better connection with your target audience. The more you appeal to your ideal buyer, the more trust they will have in you as a brand, leading to repeat sales, and recommendations of your store to their family and friends.

Invest in your visual content

In today's digital world, brands have learned that customers have high expectations when it comes to ecommerce websites. Online shoppers want an easy, seamless, and aesthetically-pleasing buying experience.

Impress buyers with your looks:

Use high-quality photos on your ecommerce store
Create a professional logo
Include videos to catch your visitor's attention
Use the same branding across your social media, website, and marketing

Decide your tone

The tone of your brand is the way you speak to your customers. Businesses that specialise in banking and finance, for example, usually have a formal tone with their customers. For dropshippers, this tone can be more casual and friendly. You can choose how humorous, informal, relatable or tongue-in-cheek you want to be.

How to talk to your audience:

Keep the tone of your content the same for all channels
Choose a tone that will appeal to your target buyers
Stay consistent with your brand voice to build familiarity

How do you want your customers to perceive you?

Think about the brands you know. What are the first words that come to mind when you think of them? Are they classy, luxurious, and elegant? Or are they affordable, reliable, and entertaining? Why did you think of each brand this way?

Consider how these brands look and feel, how they speak to their customers, and what methods they use to give their brand this unique personality.

Steps to establish your brand's essence:

Write a list of the words you want your customers to associate with your brand. This is your brand's personality.
Based on this, write down how your logo, website, customer service, and marketing should look to match these words.
What do you think your customers expect from your website and customer service to match the price of the products you offer?

Read more about how to improve your branding:

7 handy branding tips

Course 3

Let's XL

In this course we’ll be setting you up with a dropshippingXL account and preparing for your first sales!

Module 1: How to start?

First, let's set up a dropshippingXL account for your business.

1. Register on our dropshippingXL website

Enter your business details (+VAT number if your business has it)
Pay first monthly fee

Watch our tutorial video

Why do I pay a monthly fee?

The subscription to our dropshipping platform costs 30 euros/month. This includes business support and account management, access to attractive B2B prices on stock, and the cost of customer delivery and returns.

Concerned about commitment?

If you don't place orders within your first month and wish to cancel, your subscription will be refunded. You can close your account at any time after that.

2. We verify your account

Our support team will verify and approve your account within 2-5 business days.
You will receive an activation email with your login details and product feed.

What is a product feed?

We provide you with a data feed updated in real time (CSV and XML file):

New products (updated every week) with product description in your webshop language and images, prices (can vary every day depending on supply and demand) and stock (updated every 15 minutes).

3. Start selling!

Open our product feed and make a first selection of the products you would like to sell.
Integrate them to your webshop and set up your prices.

How do I integrate the products in my webshop?

Combine your own implementation system with ours to synchronize product updates and orders.

Skip ahead to Module 2 for instructions on how to do so

4. Get support

Our support team will help you with any technical or order requests.
Once you work with us long-term, an account manager will assist you with building a business strategy. You can expect to receive a monthly sales report, product suggestions for the next season, and data from our trend reports.

Download our full Registration manual

Module 2: Set up

How do I integrate vidaXL products into my webshop?

1. Real-time data feeds

We provide you with a data feed updated in real time (CSV or XML file):

New products (updated every week) with product descriptions in your preferred language, images, and number of product packages
Prices (can vary every day depending on supply and demand)
Stock (updated every 15 minutes)

2. API

Use API to connect your webshop to dropshippingXL for these benefits:

Automatically send your orders to dropshippingXL
Retrieve up-to-date stock prices
Receive tracking numbers and order invoices

What is API?

Here is a quick basic explanation:

Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of functions to connect separate software platforms. This makes it possible for the latest data such as stock levels and pricing to be sent from a supplier's database (ours) to your dropshipping store.

How can I use API?

Once you will have successfully created you dropshippingXL account, you will be able to request your API Token. We will give you access by enabling your API token directly in your account.

After that, you will be able to link our API with your webshop, using the API token provided.

3. Connectors

The easiest way to synchronize your ecommerce store with data from vidaXL is to use our recommended plugins. This saves you time as the product data feeds are sent directly to your store automatically.

The advantages of using vidaXL plugins

SHOPIFY:

Import the (full) assortment of vidaXL based on the selected category
Import product content including images, descriptions, and prices
Determine your own fixed or variable margin or use the vidaXL advice price
Synchronize stock amounts automatically and in real-time
Synchronize prices automatically and in real-time
Send orders automatically to vidaXL for shipment (coming soon)

WOOCOMMERCE:

Choose which product categories you want to import from vidaXL to WooCommerce.
Set your margin as a percentage or fixed amount or choose vidaXL's recommended price.
There's no need to worry about creating product categories as these are imported with the products.
Incoming orders will be transferred to vidaXL automatically. This means your entire vidaXL dropshipping process is automated.
Stock updates will be done in real-time, with a maximum delay of 5 minutes.
Product images are not uploaded into WooCommerce, to keep your webshop clean and fast.

Discover all our integrations partners

Go to integrations

Course 4

How to set price margins

Carefully choosing what price to sell your dropshipping products is key to making sure you attract sales while making a profit. To do this, you will need to consider your operating costs and external factors that will have an influence on your optimum price point.

Module 1: Factoring in business costs

As with any business, you will have ongoing costs to pay to keep your business up and running. Covering these costs comes from the revenue you make from your product sales. So, factoring in these expenses will allow you to make a profit. These include:

Cost of goods sold
Marketing and advertising costs
Website and hosting costs
Delivery costs (free with dropshippingXL)
Dropshipping supplier fees (€30pm with dropshippingXL)

1. Cost of goods sold

The cost of goods sold (COGS) is the B2B price of the product that you buy from your supplier. It is the direct costs required to produce a product. If you were to produce a product yourself, you would need to cover the cost of manufacturing. This would be the cost of machinery and equipment, materials, labour costs, packaging, and storage, for example.

2. Marketing and advertising costs

The largest part of your dropshipping business expenses will most likely be for your marketing and advertising campaigns. Search engine and social media paid ads are normally the biggest investment per month. Especially in the early days of your dropshipping store, you will notice higher costs per campaign as you begin to test which ads are the most effective.

Email marketing, influencer marketing, and paid content marketing are also costs to pay for if they are in your digital marketing plan.

3. Website and hosting costs

Building and hosting a dropshipping website will require part of your budget. Consider these fees:

Ecommerce website monthly subscription (e.g. Shopify, WooCommerce)
Annual domain name payment
Payment provider fees (e.g. PayPal, Shopify, Stripe)
Plugin subscriptions
Website store theme
Professional logo design

Some of these are one-off costs, for example, your logo design might not need to be updated for several years. Website builder fees have monthly or annual payment plans and your domain name will be paid for once every 1-2 years.

4. Delivery costs

Many dropshipping suppliers charge delivery costs to send products to your customers. However, the delivery costs for dropshippers with dropshippingXL is free. This covers all countries that are part of our program. Returns are also free for all countries with the exception of Australia and Norway.

Australia

If the customer gives the return reason as "Not As Expected," then the original shipping and return costs are deducted from the refund (with the exceptions for returns from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane metro areas).

Norway

If the customer gives the return reason as "Not As Expected," then a return fee of 300 NOK will be deducted from the refund.

For more information, please see our returns policy.

5. Dropshipping supplier fees

What are the fees associated with your dropshipping supplier? This will vary depending on the supplier you choose. With dropshippingXL, our dropshippers don't have to worry about any surprise costs. Simply pay a flat subscription fee of €30 per month. What's more, enjoy 0% commission regardless of your sales volume of vidaXL products.

Are there other factors that affect pricing?

Besides your operating costs, there are other external factors to consider. These will impact the best price point for your dropshipping products.

Demand fluctuations: the supply and demand of your products can be important when deciding a price point. If the demand is high, you can take advantage of this and price slightly higher. If the demand is low, you can entice sales by lowering your selling price.

Perceived value: how desirable do consumers see your products? The perceived value of your product can depend on whether it is affordable or luxury, the quality of materials used, and how original the product is. Perceived value is how much consumers are willing to pay for your goods.

The target buyer persona: think carefully about who you are targeting. How much money do your customers earn? How passionate are they about the type of product you are selling? Do they value higher quality goods or budget items?

The competition: don't forget to check what your competitors are offering. What prices are they selling their products? What offers and bundles are they advertising? How much are they charging for delivery? Consider whether you want to match their prices, lower yours or charge higher but offer value to your customers in another way (e.g. excellent customer service).

Module 2: Creating a pricing strategy

Can I just estimate a price for my products without a strategy?

In theory, yes, you can make a vague guess at how much to price your products. But, it's a very big risk. If you get it wrong and make few sales, you might not break even. To prevent your dropshipping business from failing, we recommend that you take some time to consider various pricing strategies. Don't base your retail price on your competitors price alone!

How do I choose the right pricing strategy?

There's no perfect pricing strategy for dropshipping. Instead, you will need to make a decision based on the type of products you are selling and reviewing the factors mentioned above. Whether you are offering low-ticket, medium-ticket, and high-ticket items will also affect your pricing formula. Then, once you see how your products are selling in the market, you can make adjustments. See below for our explanation of low, medium, and high-ticket items.

What types of pricing strategies are there?

You might be surprised to know there are many pricing strategies to choose from. We will talk you through the relevant ones for dropshipping, which include:

Fixed markup on cost
Tiered markup on cost
High-low pricing
Bundle offers
Psychological pricing

It's possible to combine some of these pricing models together, so don't feel obliged to strictly stick to only one.

1. Fixed markup on cost

Also known as cost-based pricing or cost-plus pricing. A fixed markup means that you add a specific amount to each product at the price you pay your supplier (B2B price). This will give you a fixed profit margin. There is no set average markup price to go by, since this figure depends on the type of product you are selling.

For example, imagine that the average B2B price of your products is €15. You might decide that you want to add a fixed markup of €15 to cover the costs of your business expenses and a small profit margin. You would then sell these products at a retail price of €30.

Likewise, you can add the fixed markup as a percentage. Taking a look at your operating and marketing costs, you may decide that you need to markup your products by 80% to make a profit. A product with a B2B price of €15 would then be sold to consumers for €27.

2. Tiered markup cost

This is the same as the fixed markup pricing strategy, except that you vary the markup percentage depending on whether it is a low-ticket, medium-ticket, or high-ticket item.

A low-ticket item usually has a retail price of €50 or less. Consumers spend less time considering whether to purchase and often impulse buy. A high margin is applied, which might be around 80-150%.

A medium-ticket item may have a retail price of €60-180. A price markup is typically around 40-80%.

A high-ticket item is the most expensive retail product to sell, at least €200. Consumers spend more time weighing the pros and cons of buying a product in this price range. The price markup is smaller at around 20-40%.

3. High-low pricing

High-low pricing defines the retail price with the intention of offering it at a sale price after some time. This is suitable for dropshipping products such as seasonal goods, for example, swimming pools and garden firepits.

So, a product will initially be sold at a higher price and then as demand decreases, the price will be reduced. If you were to sell garden swimming pools just before summer, the retail price would start high to meet high demand. At the end of the summer season, this item would be discounted to increase sales as demand drops.

4. Bundle offers

If you want to boost interest in your products and get your customers to spend more, try bundle pricing. You have likely seen it in shops online and offline, where several products are sold together as a pack at a reduced price. The retail price for the bundle is a great deal for consumers as they save money on what they would have spent if they bought the items separately.

Bundle offers work for many types of product categories including furniture, decor, children's toys, pet supplies, and sports equipment. Not only does it help you to sell quickly, but you also save on marketing costs.

If you were to sell the products on their own, you would need to factor in a marketing budget for each. However, in a bundle, you are able to make the sale without paying for extra Facebook or Google ads.

With this strategy, you can sell multi-packs of the same product or put matching items together. For example, you might decide to sell a garden table, sofa, and chairs as a bundle.

5. Psychological pricing

Finally, there is psychological pricing, which is a technique used almost everywhere. The idea is to lure buyers into a sale by using retail prices that end in odd numbers. The most famous, and arguably the most effective, is a number ending in 99. For example, €15.99 instead of €16.

Consumers feel like they are getting a better price but, in reality, it's only a saving of a few cents. You can experiment with how you round your retail prices. By testing €15.95, €15.99, €15.97 or €16 for items on your dropshipping store, you can see at which price your customers respond the best.

Another tactic is to include the delivery costs into the product price. Many consumers will abandon their baskets if they feel the delivery cost is too much on top of their purchase. Thankfully with dropshippingXL, delivery is free of charge to our dropshippers. This makes it easy for you to pass on this saving to your customers.

Dropshipping

Your Project

Where to sell? ​

Create your online store

Module 1: Buy your domain name

Module 2: Choose your website builder

Module 3: Build your webshop

Module 4: Tips for your dropshipping website

Find your niche

Module 1: Choosing your Niche​​

Examples of niche markets:​​

Research your Niche​​

Google Trends​

Google Keyword Planner​

Meta Business Insights​

Social media​​

Emerald Insight​

BCC Research​

Module 2: Build your brand​