If print-on-demand isn't for you or if you want to grow your consumer base with an easy-to-navigate platform, try dropship. For most entrepreneurs, dropship is the easier, more accessible route to starting your own ecommerce store. Read through our Dropship guide to go from newbie to a new entrepeneur with their very first sale.

Intro to Dropship

What is Dropship?

Dropship is when a retailer takes an order from a customer and passes that order to a supplier who ships the ordered product directly to the customer. 

Sellers love this process because they don’t have to buy inventory, store it, nor manage shipping. If you do dropship with Chip, we'll take care of even more, including customer support, payment processing, and fulfillment and shipping. We work closely with AliExpress to process your orders to ship to the U.S. - no matter how big or small. Did we mention the fastest 24-hour payout process to hit the dropship industry?

Learn more on our blog: Introducing Chip Dropship

Print-on-demand vs. Dropship

Print-on-demand (POD): A business model that allows sellers to work with a product supplier that offers an extended personalizable product selection to which you can add your designs through an online platform. 

Dropship: The process of sourcing third-party items, selling them in your online store, and then passing a customer's order to the third-party supplier so they can process and directly deliver the order to your customer while you keep the profit of the transaction.

Both POD and dropship business models share core attributes to propel your online store to the next level. However, one might still be better than the other, depending on what products you want to sell, how competitive you expect the market to be, and which option has a larger profit-earning potential.

Learn more on our blog: Print-on-demand vs. Dropship

Dropship Upsells

Learn about upsells on dropship listings to multiply your profits! Once a potential customer has made it to your ecommerce store, it’s your perfect chance to turn a singular sale into a multiple-item purchase with just a few tweaks and clever tricks on your custom domain store.

What are upsells?

Upsells suggest products related to a customer’s shopping cart items and shopping history at different points of the sales funnel. Upsells can give your ecommerce store sales boost and can significantly increase your average order volume (AOV).

Combine print-on-demand and dropship upsells

Upsell your POD products with dropship products to increase your selling opportunities across the board. Set your upsells to suggest related products to your customers. Suggestions may be based on design similarities, niches, or even complementary products.

Learn more on our blog: Dropship Upsells

Picking a product to sell

How to Select a Dropship Product 

The key to creating a successful dropship listing is selecting the right product from a reliable supplier that’s also trending or in demand. There are also several steps you should follow to find the perfect products for your ecommerce store:

1. Choose the right supplier(s): Chip has teamed up with AliExpress, a China-based ecommerce platform that offers a variety of low-cost products from different suppliers ideal for dropship.
2. Identify winning products: Set your price range, consider your level of expertise, and go for trending products.
3. Determine if there's a market for your products: Pick a niche, research your competitors, and engage on social media.

Learn more on our blog: How to Select a Dropship Product

How to Choose a Dropship Niche

If you’re excited to start your dropship ecommerce business, it’s essential to know how to pick a niche to build your ecommerce store around. Learn how to select the best AliExpress niche products to start selling to your customers!

In dropship, a product niche is a product subcategory or a group of subcategories that you can sell to a group of people with the same interests and passions. This is also known as a niche market.  

Benefits of building a dropship store around a niche market

• Test different products and markets: Starting in the dropship business involves little to no risk. This gives you the freedom and flexibility to experiment and identify scalable and profitable product subcategories.
• Increase your average order value: Use upsells to encourage customers to purchase more than one product.
• Get more repeat business: Selling products within the same subcategories will earn you a reputation. Your store will be your customer’s go-to when they want products similar to the ones they’ve already purchased from you.

Learn more on our blog: How to Find Dropship Niche Products

Creating a listing

How to Create a Dropship Listing

Increase your profits by adding highly-coveted products to your Chip store. We'll walk you through exactly how to create a dropship listing on Chip, so you can get started selling ASAP. Don't forget - in order to use Dropship with Chip, you must have a custom domain.

Before you create a listing...

1. Find a product you want to sell from AliExpress and copy the URL.
2. Go to the Dropship menu in Chip’s dashboard.
3. Import the product via the URL you copied.
4. Edit the product details.

Learn more on our blog: How to Create a Dropship Listing

Guide to Creating a Great Dropship Listing

Thousands of dropship sellers source their products from AliExpress. So, what can you do to stand out from the crowd? The keys to creating high-converting listings in your dropship store lie in writing creative listing names and informative product descriptions, including product variants and prices, and keeping your dropship listings relevant.

Learn more on our blog: Guide to Creating a Great Dropship Listing

How to Optimize Your Dropship Listing

AliExpress product descriptions aren’t always accurate or grammatically correct. However, by optimizing your dropship listing titles, descriptions, tags, and images, you can improve your chances of getting discovered by your customers and being favored by search engines. Optimize your dropship listing by focusing on these elements:

• Listing title
• Product images
• Product description
• Tags
• Upsells

Learn more on our blog: How to Optimize Your Dropship Listing

Promoting your store & products

How to Promote Your Dropship Store to Get More Customers

As a Chip dropship seller, we know that promoting your store and marketing your products is at the top of your list. Top-selling dropship sellers have found a way to increase their conversion rate through their digital marketing and sales strategy, and we want you to do it, too.

Build a high-converting dropshipping store

Your dropship store’s conversion rate is the percentage of potential customers who visit your website and complete a purchase. So, how do you turn your dropshipping store into a high-converting website? First, ask yourself these three questions:

1. What are your dropship’s store sales goals? First, define what success will look like for a dropship store like yours. Having a crystal-clear goal will help you align your marketing and sales efforts to promote your dropship store in the most effective way possible.
2. Who is your target niche? Identify which unique market segment you want to reach and turn into loyal customers. Consider that the more specialized your dropship store is, the easier it will be to promote and acquire new customers.
3. What is your unique value proposition?  Communicate clearly what differentiates your dropship store from your competitors. Focus on your potential customer and highlight the benefits of getting a product like yours from your dropship store.

Once you’ve answered these questions, it’s time to spread the word and ensure your potential customer base finds your dropship website easily.

Learn more on our blog: How to Promote Your Dropship Store to Get More Customers

Marketing Your Dropship Store: Digital Advertising & More

The dropship industry is booming! So, we’ve put together this comprehensive digital marketing guide with our best marketing tips for online entrepreneurs looking to start their own dropshipping business or grow their current dropship store. 

As many of you are already aware, Chip Dropship enables sellers to add the best-selling AliExpress dropship products to their ecommerce store without worrying about handling payments, shipment, and customer support. Check out our latest marketing tips to find out how you can promote your Chip Dropship store and get more dropshipping sales!

Learn more on our blog: Marketing Your Dropship Store: Digital Advertising & More