The 3 Easiest Dropshipping Platform For Beginners
In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, dropshipping has emerged as a popular business model for entrepreneurs looking to start an online store with minimal upfront investment. However, choosing the right dropshipping platform to launch a dropshipping business can be crucial to its success. There are different types of platforms to consider: customizable websites and marketplaces.
So, in this article, we’ll take a look at the three easiest dropshipping platforms for beginners from both categories. For beginners, three platforms stand out for their ease of use, robust features, and supportive communities: Shopify, Etsy, and Facebook Marketplace. On top of that, we’ll take a look at the most relevant features to look for when choosing a dropshipping platform. That way, when we start dropshipping, we can maximize our sales.
The 3 Easiest Dropshipping Platform For Beginners
First and foremost, let’s take a look at the difference between the two types of dropshipping platforms we can utilize. Unlike an eCommerce website, a marketplace is a platform that lists products from multiple sellers. It involves three parties: the marketplace administrator, the vendor, and the buyer. On the other hand, an eCommerce website is a channel that sells products from a single vendor. In fact, it only involves the seller and buyer.
Utilizing an eCommerce website allows for more customization and better brand development. Furthermore, it allows the buyer to focus only on our listings and products without their attention being pulled by another seller with the same product.
Alternatively, if we use a marketplace to dropship our product we can leverage the trust and recognition that the marketplace already has. On top of that, we can utilize the large audience and free traffic readily available on the platform.
Shopify
First, let’s take a look at Shopify, a customizable website. Shopify helps business entrepreneurs create and manage their online stores with zero coding. In short, this means that Shopify is a hosted eCommerce platform software. Their diverse customization options and themes allow us to manage our store to stand out from the competition. As such, countless sellers started dropshipping using Shopify.
Key Features:
- Hosted platform
- Customization options
- Professional templates
- Shipping discounts
- Customer service
- Buy dropshipping stores
Since Shopify is a hosted platform, we can get the skeleton of our dropshipping store with all the bells and whistles already taken care of. With the host, domain, and backend covered, we are able to start designing our store. On top of that, with their numerous themes and apps, we are able to customize our store.
Shopify also has ready-made templates that are designed and set up for high conversion rates. As such, this helps us start off with a strong store layout, optimized to convert viewers into buyers. Plus, there are numerous Shopify apps like ‘Shop channel’ that enable us to create a free mobile experience for our store. Or, the ‘AutoDS’ app that allows us to automate everything from product imports to order fulfillment and more.
What’s more, Shopify gives shipping discounts that go up to 64% allowing us to save money in our dropshipping endeavors. Plus, they have great customer service available 24/7. We can reach their support team through email, live chat, or even phone.
We can also buy Shopify dropshipping stores for sale. By doing this, we can skip over the processes like system establishment, traffic, restricted cash flow, inventory sourcing, and customer generation. Alternatively, we can utilize tools like BuildYourStore.ai to get a free Ai-generated Shopify store optimized for sales.
Since Shopify is a customizable website, there are subscription and selling fees we need to cover. Shopify costs $24/month for the Basic plan and $69/month for their Shopify plan. As for their ‘Advanced’ plan, it costs $299/month. There are no listing fees, but Shopify applies the industry-standard processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for all online purchases.
Etsy
Etsy is a unique dropshipping marketplace where we can sell handmade, unique, rare items. So, it enables us to stand out from the competition and cater to a niche market willing to spend more on handmade unique items.
Key Features:
- Free organic traffic
- Minimal competition
- Low upfront costs
- Niche platform
- Branding opportunities
- Higher profit margins
Dropshipping on Etsy lets us enjoy free organic traffic since it’s a marketplace with tons of active buyers. So, utilizing the tons of organic traffic it gets anyway, we can maximize our sales conversion potential. Besides that, Etsy’s minimal competition since the types of products sold on Etsy are very niche. On top of that, as an open marketplace, it has low upfront costs, allowing us to build our business easily.
Similarly, Etsy is a niche platform that enables us to offer unique and hand-crafted products. With that said, we can enjoy more branding opportunities and higher profit margins. As a highly scalable platform, we can expand our business globally and earn substantial passive income. As a matter of fact, Etsy generated about 11.6 billion USD in gross sales in 2023.
Now, when it comes to the price, Etsy is an open marketplace that doesn’t require any upfront investment. However, there are some selling fees associated with it. The listing fee costs $0.20 for each product we add to our Etsy dropshipping store. Another type of charge when dropshipping on Etsy is the transaction fee of 6.5% of the product’s price. And lastly, there are payment processing fees we need to cover that range from 3%-4.5% plus $0.30 per sale.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is a Facebook selling channel where people can discover, buy and sell items. Despite it being around for a while, dropshippers only recently started utilizing this very profitable platform for their eCommerce endeavors.
What makes it super profitable is the fact that it’s untapped, so there is not a lot of competition. Apart from this, since organic traffic and sales are booming, it’s the perfect platform to use for dropshipping.
Key Features:
- We can dropship without a website
- Communicate with customers through Facebook Messenger
- No startup costs
One of the benefits of using Facebook Marketplace is the fact that we can dropship without using a website. If we’re eligible for the required features, we can use a number of Facebook’s business tools like order management tools and onsite checkout for payment processing. Importantly, to be eligible for these features we must be 18 years or older and live in one of the Facebook Marketplace-supported countries.
Plus, there are no startup costs. In fact, in addition to having no initial investment costs, the selling fees are only 5% which is much lower than other selling platforms with 15% – 20%.
What’s more, Facebook Marketplace makes it easy to communicate with our customers by using Messenger. Since customer service is a cornerstone for a successful business, the importance of easy communication is key. Being able to connect and talk to our customers with Messenger to resolve any queries is a huge benefit.
What To Look For In A Dropshipping Platform For Beginners
Finding the right selling platform is crucial to our success and reaching our dropshipping goals. Based on our unique needs and goals, we know we can sell on a marketplace or customizable website. However, there are some aspects that we should look for in any selling channel since they will ensure we maximize our success.
Pricing
First and foremost, we need to check out the price. Dropshipping is generally a very low-cost endeavor for sellers, so finding an affordable or free selling channel makes it easier to maximize our profits. This is because every month (or year), we’ll have to reinvest a smaller portion of our profits into our selling channel. So, we need to look for affordable or free selling channels. Plus, if we spend less on the platform itself, we can also purchase additional tools like AutoDS that will automate and optimize our business.
Ease of use
The next characteristic we should consider is the ease of use. Most dropshippers are non-technical users utilizing dropshipping for passive income. So, it’s crucial that we look for a selling channel that is intuitive and super easy to use so that we can easily navigate it. On top of that, it ensures we use the platform’s full potential and functionality. Complicated platforms that require technical knowledge will slow down our growth as well as impede our success.
Excellent customer support
Throughout the dropshipping process, the platform we sell on is our base for everything. So, it’s crucial we use a platform with excellent customer support. Dropshippers deal with various suppliers and customers that are all linked to their platform, which can lead to occasional issues. Good customer support helps manage and mitigate these problems effectively. On top of that, customer support ensures that any issues customers face with their shopping experience are resolved quickly, maintaining their satisfaction.
Apps & Plugins
The next thing we should look for in a selling channel is the different apps and plugins we can utilize with it. Using dropshipping apps for different aspects of your business significantly optimizes it and drives more profit. Additionally, having access to a wide range of apps enables us to find the right one to extend our selling platform’s functionality and improve our business processes. For example, by utilizing the all-in-one dropshipping tool AutoDS, we can automate all of our dropshipping process from product research and import, to price and listing optimization, order fulfillment, and so much more. So, make sure you’re able to integrate your favorite tools into your business.
Marketing
Last but not least, we need to consider what type of marketing strategies we need to implement for our chosen selling channel. As mentioned, marketplaces have tons of organic traffic and frequent customers, however they also have tons of competition. To navigate through it, we need to utilize the marketplace’s built-in marketing options. However, customizable websites lack any organic traffic and require marketing to attract potential customers. In this case, we can utilize PPC marketing, email, influencers, blogs, and any other strategy that best suits our goals. Ultimately, we just need to look into what type of marketing strategies we are able to utilize when choosing our platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is Best When Dropshipping A Marketplace Or A Selling Channel?
A marketplace is an open selling platform enabling anyone to sell just by listing items. Marketplaces have tons of organic traffic and a huge existing customer base which makes it easier for us to boost sales, but they also have tons of competition. A customizable website enables us to create our own custom store without competing with other sellers with the same product. However, it lacks organic traffic, which means we have to invest in marketing.
Which Are The Most Popular Dropshipping Platforms?
The most popular dropshipping platforms are Shopify, eBay, Amazon, Etsy, Facebook Marketplace and Wix.
Is Dropshipping On Shopify Profitable?
Dropshipping on Shopify is very profitable since it’s the largest selling channel available. It is also very affordable and has tons of functionalities to help you grow your business.
Conclusion
And there we have it! Now we know which are the 3 best and easiest dropshipping platforms to sell on so that we can easily start and grow our business. Whether we choose a customizable website like Shopify or open marketplaces like Etsy or FBM, they make it super easy for us to set up our business and start selling. On top of that, they’re easily scalable and very intuitive. Now, we also know the most important things to look for when choosing a platform, which makes it easier to find the best fit for us.
