According to research data, the global dropshipping had a valuation of $196 billion in 2022, with expectations indicating the market will continue growing rapidly and be worth more than $476 billion by 2026.
The main factors contributing to the bullish growth of the dropshipping market include low start-up costs, hands-free inventory handling, and management ease, among many other features.
If you are curious about whether you can dropship from your phone, this post will answer this question and show you how to get started with dropshipping from your phone.
Let’s start at the very beginning:
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Can You Dropship From Your Phone?
Yes, it is possible to dropship from your phone. Or rather, it is possible to use a smartphone to create a thriving dropshipping business that you can manage on your phone, even on the go.
To drop ship from your phone, you only need to create a dropshipping store, connect it to your AliExpress account, find suppliers, create listings, and market your products and store using social media ads.
So YES, you can dropship on your phone. Here is how.
How to Dropship on Your Phone: A 4-Step Process
If you’ve ever wondered whether it is possible to create a dropshipping business from your phone, the answer is that it is possible using the following steps:
Step 1: Conduct product research or work with a reliable drop shipping suppliers
If you’re wondering why product research is the first step, here’s why:
The easiest way to dropship on your phone is by creating a Shopify dropshipping store. The Shopify App makes it to start a dropshipping business/store from a modern smartphone.
You should conduct product research before creating your Shopify store. Doing this first ensures that when you start customizing your store, you can easily match it to your niche –Shopify will ask you to choose an industry (and other “getting to know you” questions.
Conducting product research first will also make it incredibly easy to feel more confident as you embark on creating a dropshipping business from your phone. Product research is also one of the most important parts of starting an online business.
How to conduct product research for a dropship-on-your-phone Shopify store
Product research involves generating product ideas –based on interest or niche– then testing these ideas to determine if they’ll work with your target audience or market.
The product research process helps you identify the best way to customize and market your store to ensure it resonates well with the target audience. It helps you answer questions like which other competitors are in the market, the products they have to over, etc.
There’re tons of different ways to conduct product research for a Shopify store –or any eCommerce store.
Here are the best practices to keep in mind when conducting product research for your Shopify store.
- Pay attention to all the main product research criteria
The main product research criteria fall into two categories:
- Market-based research: This involves researching the market to determine its size, the type of market–growth, evergreen, or trend market?–, the competitive landscapes, and the target audience.
- Product-based research: This part of the product research process reveals fundamental aspects of the business, such as the product size, markup, best pricing, the product’s hardiness, matters to do with inventory management, etc.
Each of these criteria is important in its own right, and due diligence –through research– is necessary.
For market-based research, you can use tools such as Google trends to evaluate the size of the market. For example, if the target market is jewelry, say women’s necklaces, we can use Google Trends to check the trends.
You can also use other tools –like a premium keyword research tool– to do a competitive analysis that will help you learn more about the market, including the competition within that market, market saturation, etc.
The most important thing to keep in mind when determining which market to enter and which product to go with is that evergreen, stable markets and products are better long-term. However, short-term trends can also be very lucrative.
Market-based research also involves narrowing down to a target audience to ensure you understand your audience’s demographics, geolocation, products they like, their pain points, etc.
For product-based research, you’ll want to consider your markup. Ideally, you want as high a markup as possible, but always remember to account for costs and fees such as packaging, duties, payment processing fees, etc.
When considering your pricing strategy, consider things like price per unit, all the costs involved, and only go with a product that gives you the best margins possible for that market. Sometimes, a higher-priced product –say $75-$150–can give better margins than a lower-priced product.
- Use Amazon to find bestselling products
Beyond being one of the largest marketplaces, Amazon is another great place to conduct product research and find great products you can dropship on your phone.
The Amazon bestseller list is a great place and way to generate product ideas you can test out to determine profitability based on the two main criteria: market and product-based research.
For example, at the time of writing this, crocks –and slip-on types of shoes–were doing progressively well on the platform:
A pair of medium-sized crocs were going for $49 + shipping:
On AliExpress, a similar or even better-looking pair was going for $5.23, plus shipping:
Another way to use Amazon for product research is to check other lists like “the most wished-for items,” “movers & shakers,” “gift ideas,” etc. The great thing about using Amazon for product research is that its niche segmentation strategy is very good. No matter which market you want to get into, you can find product ideas on Amazon.
- Conduct social media research
Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and other social media channels are among the best ways to find great products you can dropship on your phone.
For example, because Facebook advertising is one of the most common and effective forms of marketing in the dropshipping business, you can use tools like Turbo Ad Finder to filter down your Facebook experience and show dropshipping ads.
Besides being a social media platform, Facebook is also a search engine that you can use for keyword research as you conduct product research. For example:
To see ads often run by other Shopify dropshippers, you can use common keywords like “buy now, 50% off, free shipping, Shop now,” etc.
- Find products and suppliers on AliExpress
AliExpress is one of the best places to conduct product research and find dropshipping suppliers for your dropshipping store.
For example, you can use the Dropshipping center to find a winning product based on your chosen category. The best way to find winning products on AliExpress is to change the sort order for your chosen category based on “orders.”
For example, if you want to go into the jewelry industry, you can narrow it down to your specific niche, then use the sort order method to find the most ordered products.
One of the best things about finding winning products on Alibaba is that besides being a great product research tool, it is also a great place to find dropshipping suppliers who can fulfill your orders.
AliExpress also offers API integration with the Shopify app, making it easy to import AliExpress products from the DSers into your Shopify store at a click. The integration allows you to add other functionalities like an Amazon sales channel and Amazon listings.
The other advantage of using AliExpress for product research and sourcing relates to instances where you cannot physically access your products. In that case, you can work with a professional dropshipping and fulfillment agent capable of inspecting, warehousing, packaging, and shipping the products to meet demand.
After finding a product, you can then move on to creating your store:
Step 2: Create a Shopify dropshipping store
A dropshipping business started on a phone is still a business. Therefore, because dropshipping is all about eCommerce, your will need to design and build your store. This will be the most intensive and time-consuming part of the process, but you will have created the best foundation once you set it right.
Here, worth noting is that modern-day smartphones are very capable–computing power-wise–and today, you can use your Android or iOS device to create a self-hosted eCommerce store or website. All there is to it is purchasing a domain, choosing a web hosting package, and creating your WordPress website using the WordPress app.
However, instead of spending hours creating a website from scratch, you can choose to create a Shopify store. Shopify is one of the best platforms for dropshipping from your phone because the Shopify dropshipping App has some core features that make drop shipping easier.
For example:
After creating a Shopify account, you can use one-click API integration to integrate your Shopify store with AliExpress and other dropshipping platforms and sources that support API integration.
As some guides on the internet show, it is possible to create a Shopify dropshipping store in under 15 minutes because all you need to do is:
- First, download the Shopify App, create an account, and sign up for the 14-day Shopify free trial. The free trial is the best way to get started with dropshipping from your phone without using any money. The trial allows you to “try” Shopify without committing to a monthly plan. Shopify monthly plans start at $29 for the basic plan to $299 for the advanced plan.
2. After installing the app and signing up for the free trial, the next step is to launch your Shopify App and create your store. One of the great things about setting up a Shopify store is that the app allows you to manage multiple stores –all you have to do is add them. If you’re creating a Shopify store for the first time, logging into the app for the first time will land on a page that allows you to create your first store or learn more.
3. Here on, you only need to follow the prompts, the first of which is about naming your store. Choose a store name that represents your brand or business. Additionally, it’s best to customize your Shopify store even further by buying a domain name, which you can do directly from the Shopify app:
4. From here, Shopify will ask for a few personal details, like whether you’re selling or just playing around, and where else you envision selling your products –great if you’re considering multi-channel marketing–etc. Ensure that when you get to the industry selection se
You’ll eventually get to the industry selection part of the store creation process. Once there, choose a niche that will be as close to your industry as possible. If you don’t have an idea of products to sell, you may want to do step 1 first –product research–then, once you have a viable product(s), you can create your Shopify store.
At some point in the Shopify store creation process, you will have to enter your address as part of the payment verification process:
5. After completing the store creation process, you’ll eventually land on the Apps user interface from where you can customize your store or add new products to your store.
You can design your store first or add new products. It’s best to design and brand your store before adding products. You can then add products, test the payment processing system, then start marketing.
This brings us to the third step: customizing your Shopify store.
Step 3: Customize your Shopify Store and add products
Customizing your Shopify store is an important, foundational step that you cannot overlook. Fundamentally, to create a great-looking Shopify store using the Shopify app, you only need to tinker with the visual store creator to customize your Shopify store based on the product research.
Remember that Shopify has a free themes store where you can download free themes and use them to customize your store accordingly. When customizing your Shopify store, remember to choose a consistent color scheme, fonts, logos, branding, etc.
Use readable fonts for higher conversions, make your shop design mobile and user-friendly, fix load times, and use product descriptions, social proof, and images.
When customizing your Shopify store, an important thing you should also consider doing is setting up a personalized domain for your store. A custom domain makes your shop more brandable. Fortunately, you can easily buy and set up a new domain on the Shopify app.
After customizing your Shopify store, you can turn your attention to creating product listings from your product research process in step 1.
The great thing is that once you have a customized Shopify store, the Shopify app makes it relatively easy to create product listings at the click of a button.
Key things to keep in mind when adding products to your Shopify dropshipping store include:
- Great product descriptions: Create compelling product descriptions that highlight your brand’s uniqueness and relate to the target audience.
- Include key details: Key information you should include on your listing is a size chart, delivery guidelines, timelines, rules about duties, etc.
- Your pricing strategy: Your pricing strategy is a key consideration to keep in mind, especially because it determines if you’ll operate a profitable Shopifydropshipping store. Ideally, favor products that give you a 50% or more profit margin –the higher, the better. Where it makes sense, offer free or competitively priced shipping prices. It can make all the difference.
- Use DSER: The DSer system eliminates the need to manually add AliExpress products to your Shopify store, saving time.
Once your store is ready, test and activate your payment system of choice to ensure people can make purchases from your dropshipping store. Shopify has an in-built payment processing system, but it also integrates with Stripe, Authorize.net, etc. The app may also ask you to verify a payment gateway. When deciding which payment processing option to use, consider transactional fees, supported card types, security, etc.
With your store ready, you can now focus on the fourth and final step of creating a dropshipping business from a phone: marketing:
Step 4: Create and execute your marketing strategy
The great thing about dropshipping from your phone is that you can easily advertise from your phone too. For example, you can use various apps like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., to create marketing ads for your products.
Some important things to keep in mind when creating and executing your marketing strategy to start generating money from your Shopify dropshipping store include:
- Mind your pricing strategy: Fundamentally, remember that pricing boils down to going with products that give you the best markup percentage. It is better to price based on competitiveness instead of incurred cost and demand.
- Use content and SEO marketing to your advantage: The Shopify App allows you to create and publish blogs; use this to your best ability to ensure you can take advantage of content and SEO marketing.
- Use influencer marketing and run paid ads: If you’re in a niche that can benefit from it, influencer marketing can be one of the best ways to market dropshipping products. Options like shoutouts, sponsored listings, collaborations, and “features” can make all the difference for your store. Additionally, run cost-effective PPC ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Pinterest, etc. When running PPC ads on social media platforms and Google, optimize your ad copy for the best, most emotive marketing impact on the target audience. Do not forget to integrate video into your ads for the most impact.
Conclusion
Is it possible to dropship on your phone? Yes, it is possible!
As this guide has shown you, all it takes to dropship on your phone is a bit of product and market research, tinkering–customizing your store and optimizing your product listings–and marketing to create a thriving dropshipping business on your phone.
The reality is that if you have a capable-enough smartphone, you can use it to create a dropshipping business.