Start a Dropshiping Store

Hello all,
For a long time now i have been watching Droshiping threads and i would love to try it.
Honestly i am a totally newbie on this field, never done dropshiping before (althought i've been doing money online from other methods in years).
I would love if someone can explain me about dropshiping, from literally 0...

1) First of all, what are the total costs to start a dropshiping bussines? (Personaly the money for me are not a problem, but just to know the investement).
By "Total Cost" i mean, shopify cost (From creation to fully store)? Any other templates or add-on's on shopify? Check-out? Themes? Literally anything... if someone could list for example: Shopify store xx$, This add-on xx$, that other thing xx$ and so on to TOTAL XXX$ to invest, that yould help me a lot.
P.S: I know that you can start with a free trial, but i'd rather choose payment and fully funcional instead of free and limited.
2) At the beggining i am not thinking about any automatiozation at all (like oberlo or others). I plan to do things manually first until i scale. When i do, Oberlo would automate it all for me? Thats what i've read... Also, what's the cost of Oberlo?
Basicly if i do things manually in the begining, it should be just "Receive an order - Order the product on AliExpress for example with the shiping adress of the buyer that ordered - Send a message to the buyer that the order has been placed and will be in xx days for example - Keep track of all the products in a Spreadsheet in Excel for example - check the trackigs/buyer messages often for everything . Is this the right way?
3) To do a dropshiping bussines, do i need a Bussines PayPal? For people to send the money thought?
4) Shopify or Own Site? Or any other system at all? Pross/Cons please.
5) I guess AliExpress is ideal place to take the products from... any other idea i can think of right now?
6) Is it better to promote via FB/IN ads or via shoutouts from Influencers?
7) I am planing to target the US or AU audience... is that a good idea? Also, ePacket is the right choise?
8) Honestly i don't have a niche in mind right now, but i was thinking of products like Phone Cases, Cheap Smartwatches (like Huawei Bands etc), Wireless Charges or somethifg like those... or maybe Woman Clothes/Accesories? Any suggestion?
9) What happends when someone ask for refounds? Basicly i know i'll just refound them the money, but how do i deal with AliExpress at that point? Any suggestion to lower the % of claims? Something like "Buyer pays shiping back"?

I'm sorry i took this writing too far, but as i said in the start, i am a totally newbie in this field
Also, i guess when it will help me start, some other newbie in the future will find this thread and will have all the info ready in one place

Looking forward for your suggestions/responses.

Thanks.

Hi!

Have a look at the thread I posted yesterday to answer this exact question, it is more of a how I did it story, but should give you some ideas to get started and what needs to be done. BHW is your best friend and there is a wealth of experienced people here who will help you

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/j...50pm-average-my-dropshipping-journey.1130946/

The above thread should cover your questions....As for refunds, if starting with zero investment, you need to ensure that you do your due dilligence and only target high quality products from high rated sellers (if using aliexpress), try to mitigate the risk of refunds early on. Naturally these will occur, and in that case in most cases you need to have the customer return the product then offer a refund. Depending on the value of the product, sometimes its just easier to offer a refund without asking for returns.

Any other questions feel free to ask

@TheRumBarron thanks for that. I read carefully your thread and it's inspiring how some can scale from 0 to TOP.
However the part of costs you were explaing was not covered on your thread because you used an established ebuy account, which i dont have... thats why i thought of ahopify for example...

Also, another question for everyone who will respond to this. Can i manage all this via Mobile? Or do i need a Laptop/Desk?

Bardhi said:

@TheRumBarron thanks for that. I read carefully your thread and it's inspiring how some can scale from 0 to TOP.
However the part of costs you were explaing was not covered on your thread because you used an established ebuy account, which i dont have... thats why i thought of ahopify for example...

Also, another question for everyone who will respond to this. Can i manage all this via Mobile? Or do i need a Laptop/Desk?

Click to expand...

eBay is free to set up, there is no cost there until you start posting products which you will then pay at the end of a billing cycle, so no upfront cost. However it can be difficult to start making sales with 0 feedback and a new account - i belive you need at least 10 transactions before you can sell on personal accounts, so to compensate you would have to make nice ads, like an infographics type ad to convert sales.

In terms of managing mobile, there is a host of people who dropship purely via social media, so this is an option you can explore...unfortunately Im not experienced in this, as you will need to get your platforms, generate a following (plenty of guides on BHW on how to do this effectively) and then from there you can start to advertise your products, that would be the best way if you want to manage via mobile.

For shopify management, set up etc, would defo recommend doing this via deskotp/laptop. If you dont have one, I would suggest you first look at the social media option.

Thanks.
I don't have a problem of managing it all via Desk or Mobile i was just asking for the best way, and thanks for you response.
Also, i was thinging of combining social media as Ads + Shouldout from influencers.

Bardhi said:

Thanks.
I don't have a problem of managing it all via Desk or Mobile i was just asking for the best way, and thanks for you response.
Also, i was thinging of combining social media as Ads + Shouldout from influencers.

Click to expand...

no problem at all

Social ads and shout outs is certainly one way to drive traffic to a shopify store, but dont just limit it to that, there are many avenues to explore for driving traffic, try as many as you can and see what is most appropriate for your site

Good luck to you bro, hope it works well for you! Just dont give up, if you get stuck get posting on this site to seek help/advice

Bardhi said:

8) Honestly i don't have a niche in mind right now, but i was thinking of products like Phone Cases, Cheap Smartwatches (like Huawei Bands etc), Wireless Charges or somethifg like those... or maybe Woman Clothes/Accesories? Any suggestion?

Click to expand...

You can basically choose any niche, if you maybe go deeper and "merge" niches, you can get great results. For example: targetting people on FB that love motorbikes and that are interested in phone cases... find some phone cases with a motorbike pics on them and you're good to go, very precise targetting and a lot of conversions.

Second thing is to brand your store, you gotta be unique because if people want to buy something, they go on amazon, they don't care about a random store with a random logo and a random name. Search some tips on how to brand your products and your store, but the first tip I gave is a good starting point =)

@TheRumBarron thanks again for you good luck wish. I'll make sure to hit you up if i need any further info.

@Tenebra23 thank you for your suggestion, hadn't thought of combining those too for example? Very helpful.