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 basics
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.
There are platforms to help you easily build an ecommmerce website without any technical knowledge. Our dropshippers like to use these beginner-friendly options:
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.
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
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.
Invest in your visual content
Use high-quality photos on your e-commerce store
Create a professional logo
Use the same branding across your social media, website, and marketing
Decide on your tone
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
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
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.
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)
close
How to open a CSV feed?
1. In a new blank workbook, go to the 'Data' menu, then click on 'From Web' in the Get & Transform Data submenu.
2. A popup window will appear asking for a URL address.
Copy the URL that was sent to you via email and paste it into this field, then click on 'OK'.
3. You're almost there! After clicking 'OK' a series of windows will appear informing you of the connection status.
Once done, a preview window will appear, as seen below. Click on 'Load' to load the data onto your sheet.
4.All done! you should now see the whole inventory feed on your sheet.
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.
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