danielgraham
BANNED
- May 23, 2019
- 9
- 3
goodluck
Starting Dropshipping Store From Scratch With Only $150
- Thread starter ashesuhah
- Start date
ashesuhah
Registered Member
- Dec 2, 2018
- 61
- 36
I just go to instagram search for a niche and then try to contact as many as possible pages. Also, once you find a page that fits your niche and has many followers, click the little arrow on their profile it will suggest you more accounts in the same niche.
ashesuhah
Registered Member
- Dec 2, 2018
- 61
- 36
Update time.
I mentioned about bad conversion rate in the previous post. I added trust badges on every product page and in the footer. Don't get it wrong it looks clean (not too much, since they are small) and made a website even cleaner.
About that $43 promo on a bigger page.
I thought it will be waaay better, but. It was overnight post (cheaper price) and page owner said he will post it at 9pm est time, but was posted way later. Of course there are less chances to sell something at night.
From this post made $197 in sales and probably not much in profit, but will calculate it later on. Reached a conversion rate to 9%, but at the end of the day, it was 5%. I can say that 5% is pretty good for a dropshipping store but something like 7% would be perfect for me.
An hour ago posted another promo on a 50k page, paid $15 for it and immediately received one sale, thought it was promising, but no more sales for other 53 minutes post being live haha. Also, one more influencer should post one more promo in 30 minutes and post it to a few engagement groups. Will see how this will go.
I am not adding domain and subscription fees anymore since it's for one year and full month, I'll be only calculating what I spend on promoting web. I will add those to the end of the month to see if there will be any profit.
Spend:
$58 for shoutouts (30 more but it's new so doesn't count for now)
Sales: $247
Profit without shoutout prices: $113 (this is according to oberlo and it's without transaction fees and I think it does not include shipping fees if there is not free shipping on Ali, so it should be let's say about $100
Honestly, I thought it will work better. It's a start slow, but hopefully, it will get better.
Let's call this thread not make a dropshipping with only $150, but make a dropshipping store with at least money as possible
and I am bad at math, but I think I made those $5 in profit that I mentioned in a first post haha
Received one more sale while writing this, maybe those 2 promos won't be very bad.
I mentioned about bad conversion rate in the previous post. I added trust badges on every product page and in the footer. Don't get it wrong it looks clean (not too much, since they are small) and made a website even cleaner.
About that $43 promo on a bigger page.
I thought it will be waaay better, but. It was overnight post (cheaper price) and page owner said he will post it at 9pm est time, but was posted way later. Of course there are less chances to sell something at night.
From this post made $197 in sales and probably not much in profit, but will calculate it later on. Reached a conversion rate to 9%, but at the end of the day, it was 5%. I can say that 5% is pretty good for a dropshipping store but something like 7% would be perfect for me.
An hour ago posted another promo on a 50k page, paid $15 for it and immediately received one sale, thought it was promising, but no more sales for other 53 minutes post being live haha. Also, one more influencer should post one more promo in 30 minutes and post it to a few engagement groups. Will see how this will go.
I am not adding domain and subscription fees anymore since it's for one year and full month, I'll be only calculating what I spend on promoting web. I will add those to the end of the month to see if there will be any profit.
Spend:
$58 for shoutouts (30 more but it's new so doesn't count for now)
Sales: $247
Profit without shoutout prices: $113 (this is according to oberlo and it's without transaction fees and I think it does not include shipping fees if there is not free shipping on Ali, so it should be let's say about $100
Honestly, I thought it will work better. It's a start slow, but hopefully, it will get better.
Let's call this thread not make a dropshipping with only $150, but make a dropshipping store with at least money as possible
and I am bad at math, but I think I made those $5 in profit that I mentioned in a first post hahaReceived one more sale while writing this, maybe those 2 promos won't be very bad.
paydette
Supreme Member
- Dec 12, 2018
- 1,313
- 1,909
$11 is about right for namecheap.
amateurhunter
Junior Member
- Aug 16, 2018
- 177
- 41
Following this! Good luck on everything
bencherki hamza
Newbie
- Nov 23, 2018
- 24
- 5
Following
ashesuhah
Registered Member
- Dec 2, 2018
- 61
- 36
Update time. Prepare for a long post haha
First of all, I see a lot of people saying that you need a lot of money or at least 500 or 1000 to start dropshipping business and be ready for a big loss in the beginning.
I am not a completely noob at dropshipping, I have created stores in the past, I know in and outs but I am not a pro, no way and... I didn't lose money at all with this store. Not a single dollar. You just need to learn a lot before opening a store and that's not true that you need to invest a lot of money in it. When I opened my first store I lost money with it but eventually, it became profitable (only a bit, as I mentioned on the previous post never made good money with dropshipping), but if I have had more information and did a waay better research on products, influencers and other stuff maybe shop would be profitable without loss.
This journey is not as profitable as I would like, but it's not a loss, I did not lose a single dollar. That's a good thing.
So I posted those 2 promos on other IG pages ($15 each) and it went normal. Still looking for a page or product to go crazy. So for those few days store earned for me $548 (sales not profit)
What I like:
Returning customer rate. IDK how they return since the store is new, but it's very good %
Average order value. It's a good number. I see people are willing to spend $50-70 on my store which is really good. It means that they like products and don't care about shipping times because they can't get them anywhere else. My shipping times are clearly stated on every product page and shipping page to not confuse clients.
I also like that is catching up a bit... but
The results are not nearly good enough.
What I don't like
I don't like that store isn't as profitable as could be. It's because of some expensive ass shoutouts which bring not enough sales.
I REALLY don't like that there is pretty good amount of traffic but <and here we go again> not enough sales. Conversion rate is better now, and not really bad for a dropshipping store, but from IG influencers it should be highly converting traffic.
What interests me:
this
It's pretty amazing how many people visited my profile from those shoutouts and actually about 315 clicked on link. 315.. Which amazes me and it also amazes me in a very bad way that there weren't enough sales. Yes, I said it again.
Another very interesting thing. Today I made only one promo on 8k page. Smallest one so dar. Oh forgot to mention, that I added maybe 13 new products (it's a pieces of clothing that you can only buy from resellers now and of course mine are not authentic, but it's 1:1 replicas, and I am not hiding from customers they know what they are purchasing. Yes, you can't sell stuff like this but it's BHW forum not a stupid course FB group)
What I did I wrote a nice caption trying to "touch those customers". All captions on promos I see is the same "get it now it's 50% off" "limited stock click the link in my bio" and you know so on. I thought what if I write something like an influencer should write if they really recommend my shop:
<....> you all need to check @yourshopname!
(something about your product) and believe me, it's worth buying..
The best part is that you can always DM the @yourbestshop and ask for a discount, they will do everything to give you the best price
Go get something before they out of stock
It's very personalized and I actually never saw something like that. It stands out from all those "go buy" captions.
Aand it worked. Kinda. Not really actually. This is what happened SECONDS after posting.
This is only from 8k page seconds after posting. 100k pages didn't bring that traffic in seconds. I thought wow... but not a single sale for an hour now hahaha
It's really interesting actually. People are sending DM's for me asking about the products being nice and so on. Most of them say "oh it's very cool I am ordering it rn" but there is 0 orders for me haha. So it's confusing for me. But that "DM for discount" caption thing might work..
I don't actually care because that promo was hella cheap and I wasn't expecting sales, but 101 unique visitors and 0 sales. That's not good at all. Oh, one thing, the products I advertised are expensive. $35-40 for t-shirt, $69 for a hoodie. So maybe that's why.
To conclude. I am happy that a didn't lose a single dollar and the message is that you can do the same. It's possible to open a dropshipping store without losing money.
I am not happy about profit and traffic not converting as good as it should. Maybe later. Have an idea, how to use influencers for a regualar traffic, but will talk about it later.
First of all, I see a lot of people saying that you need a lot of money or at least 500 or 1000 to start dropshipping business and be ready for a big loss in the beginning.
I am not a completely noob at dropshipping, I have created stores in the past, I know in and outs but I am not a pro, no way and... I didn't lose money at all with this store. Not a single dollar. You just need to learn a lot before opening a store and that's not true that you need to invest a lot of money in it. When I opened my first store I lost money with it but eventually, it became profitable (only a bit, as I mentioned on the previous post never made good money with dropshipping), but if I have had more information and did a waay better research on products, influencers and other stuff maybe shop would be profitable without loss.
This journey is not as profitable as I would like, but it's not a loss, I did not lose a single dollar. That's a good thing.
So I posted those 2 promos on other IG pages ($15 each) and it went normal. Still looking for a page or product to go crazy. So for those few days store earned for me $548 (sales not profit)
What I like:
Returning customer rate. IDK how they return since the store is new, but it's very good %
Average order value. It's a good number. I see people are willing to spend $50-70 on my store which is really good. It means that they like products and don't care about shipping times because they can't get them anywhere else. My shipping times are clearly stated on every product page and shipping page to not confuse clients.
I also like that is catching up a bit... but
The results are not nearly good enough.
What I don't like
I don't like that store isn't as profitable as could be. It's because of some expensive ass shoutouts which bring not enough sales.
I REALLY don't like that there is pretty good amount of traffic but <and here we go again> not enough sales. Conversion rate is better now, and not really bad for a dropshipping store, but from IG influencers it should be highly converting traffic.
What interests me:
thisIt's pretty amazing how many people visited my profile from those shoutouts and actually about 315 clicked on link. 315.. Which amazes me and it also amazes me in a very bad way that there weren't enough sales. Yes, I said it again.
Another very interesting thing. Today I made only one promo on 8k page. Smallest one so dar. Oh forgot to mention, that I added maybe 13 new products (it's a pieces of clothing that you can only buy from resellers now and of course mine are not authentic, but it's 1:1 replicas, and I am not hiding from customers they know what they are purchasing. Yes, you can't sell stuff like this but it's BHW forum not a stupid course FB group)
What I did I wrote a nice caption trying to "touch those customers". All captions on promos I see is the same "get it now it's 50% off" "limited stock click the link in my bio" and you know so on. I thought what if I write something like an influencer should write if they really recommend my shop:
<....> you all need to check @yourshopname!
(something about your product) and believe me, it's worth buying..
The best part is that you can always DM the @yourbestshop and ask for a discount, they will do everything to give you the best price
Go get something before they out of stock
It's very personalized and I actually never saw something like that. It stands out from all those "go buy" captions.
Aand it worked. Kinda. Not really actually. This is what happened SECONDS after posting.
This is only from 8k page seconds after posting. 100k pages didn't bring that traffic in seconds. I thought wow... but not a single sale for an hour now hahaha
It's really interesting actually. People are sending DM's for me asking about the products being nice and so on. Most of them say "oh it's very cool I am ordering it rn" but there is 0 orders for me haha. So it's confusing for me. But that "DM for discount" caption thing might work..
I don't actually care because that promo was hella cheap and I wasn't expecting sales, but 101 unique visitors and 0 sales. That's not good at all. Oh, one thing, the products I advertised are expensive. $35-40 for t-shirt, $69 for a hoodie. So maybe that's why.
To conclude. I am happy that a didn't lose a single dollar and the message is that you can do the same. It's possible to open a dropshipping store without losing money.
I am not happy about profit and traffic not converting as good as it should. Maybe later. Have an idea, how to use influencers for a regualar traffic, but will talk about it later.
TheDemne
Regular Member
- Jan 31, 2017
- 471
- 130
Hey man about your problem that you should be way more profitable. Consider these things:
- the generel stuff: how does your store look like? Is it one of those spammy looking shopify stores with all those "special offer badges", "recently bought" and colors that simply don't fit. You said you are selling tshirts and hoodies. Do you display people that are wearing your clothes in your product images? How do you go about branding? Do you follow the same scheme?
- how does your ad look like?: people are on secial media to interact with other people NOT to buy. Know your target audience and see which content they like in general and then try to create ads that are similiar to the content your audience likes.
- impulse buy: does your product solve a problem? Why would someone buy your product? What are the benefits for the consumer? Do your clothes fit into a passionate niche? It is really hard to sell to cold traffic especially when a simple tshirt costs $40. You are still targeting Instagram where a lot of young people hang out. They don't have the money to buy a tshirt for $40 and honestly I also wouldn't unless it is something really special. It is a lot easier to sell products that are below $30 and have a high benefit to the customer's life.
- the generel stuff: how does your store look like? Is it one of those spammy looking shopify stores with all those "special offer badges", "recently bought" and colors that simply don't fit. You said you are selling tshirts and hoodies. Do you display people that are wearing your clothes in your product images? How do you go about branding? Do you follow the same scheme?
- how does your ad look like?: people are on secial media to interact with other people NOT to buy. Know your target audience and see which content they like in general and then try to create ads that are similiar to the content your audience likes.
- impulse buy: does your product solve a problem? Why would someone buy your product? What are the benefits for the consumer? Do your clothes fit into a passionate niche? It is really hard to sell to cold traffic especially when a simple tshirt costs $40. You are still targeting Instagram where a lot of young people hang out. They don't have the money to buy a tshirt for $40 and honestly I also wouldn't unless it is something really special. It is a lot easier to sell products that are below $30 and have a high benefit to the customer's life.
ashesuhah
Registered Member
- Dec 2, 2018
- 61
- 36
Very valuable post I suggest everyone take note.
No, my store does not look spammy, it looks like a real brand and doesn't have a single special offer badge haha. This part is okay, the store design is great. Yeah, that's a good point, there are no images of somebody wearing t-shirt. Will consider this. Shop really starts to feel like a brand, I organically gain followers on my IG which is the same as my domain name. I try to post something valuable on IG not products on white background.
I tried multiple ads so far, but I got a lot (for the price) of traffic, so people are clicking link so ad might not be an issue. I always try to match IG page theme and create a post that flows with the feed
It's kinda solves a problem because you can't buy this merch at a good price nowhere. It's a very passionate niche, and the original price for that t-shirt should be around $200 so $40 is not that much I guess. The shop also has products that cost only $10-20
YujinTan
BANNED
- Jan 7, 2018
- 4,971
- 971
about IG influencer kinda tricky right? How you know their followers are so call " real " ??
next how much they charge you? how they promote your site? place the link? but IG only profile can click comment cannot , Sorry noob here on IG hope you understand my english.
next how much they charge you? how they promote your site? place the link? but IG only profile can click comment cannot , Sorry noob here on IG hope you understand my english.
ashesuhah
Registered Member
- Dec 2, 2018
- 61
- 36
Always check engagement and ask to see how many people saw their last stories, it's helps define if followers are real or not. Also, look at the comments it says a lot too.
It depends, I usually pay from $5 to $80-100
They place link in their bio where is clickable. Also, there is a link in my IG bio.
vmMarketing
Regular Member
- Nov 4, 2018
- 269
- 112
Good luck with our journey. I stared a few years ago with the same budget on dropshipping too, so it is possible!
YujinTan
BANNED
- Jan 7, 2018
- 4,971
- 971
so you are telling them @ xxxx your iG account .? so that their followers will go your IG profile click your site link , I suppose?
hmm about their rate they got mention on their profile ? or you DM them to ask ? I never use IG inlfuencer get traffic so my bad ask a lot noob quesiton here .
Actually I always wanna do a drop ship integrate to my fashion / beauty site. Actually i wanna do fashion affliate kinda hard to find establish ones.