How To Start Successful Dropshipping W ith WooCommerce

Here’s an offer. You start a WooCommerce store. I’ll tell you how to make a fair profit without owning a single product by dropshipping. Do we have a deal? If yes, let’s see how exactly dropshipping with WooCommerce leads to monetization.

How does dropshipping work?

Imagine having a gardening tools store, but I need more money to rent a warehouse and buy products to stock. So I’ll go to Mr. Gomez, who owns a large gardening store, sign a contract with him and determine he will give me a percentage of the profit if I sell his products.

Next, I take photos of the products and post them on my website. When the customer buys a product from me, I will call Mr. Gomez and send him the customer information, such as contact number and address. Then he sends the product to the customer. Finally, I’ll receive my profit after a certain number of purchases.

That was a simple example of how dropshipping works. But first, you should choose an online store’s platform to get started. Here are some features that make  WooCommerce the best choice.

Is WooCommerce good for dropshipping? 

Although there are several platforms to start selling online, building your dropshipping website on WooCommerce offers some clear advantages.

Ownership

Some other platforms charge you a monthly fee and can delete your store at any time, but with WooCommerce, you keep full ownership of your store, products, and content.

Flexibility

Other platforms limit what you can do, but with WooCommerce extensions, you have endless flexibility, whether you’re a beginner or a coding expert.

Functionality

WooCommerce allows you to connect to your fulfillment center to manage inventory and shipping. It automatically notifies suppliers when an order is placed, and you can assign specific products to each supplier.

 Support and community

WooCommerce offers live chat support for all paid extensions, along with an active support forum full of developers and shop owners for everything else.

After choosing a dropshipping platform, it’s time to set up your WooCommerce store!

 Set up WooCommerce for dropshipping

With extensive available plugins and features, setting up WooCommerce does not seem like a complicated process. Let’s build a foundation for our website first.

 Select a WooCommerce dropshipping host 

WooCommerce hosting offers you a lot of basic website maintenance, setup, and security options. But of all these hosts, how do we know which is right for our business?

 What is the right hosting for your store?

Each host brings something unique to the table. We mentioned some of them below. It would help if you compared these several options with a shortlist to find the best fit.

 Anchor

Your suitable host must have anchored its focus within WooCommerce. Look for signs on the company’s site on working with WooCommerce or WordPress.

 Support 

Select a host that includes direct contact via phone, email, or online chat. Ensure it provides full-time support to windows through automated backups and restorations without extra fees.

 Plan

You’ll want to pick a hosting plan that meets as many of your needs as possible. These may include:

• Volume of traffic
• Storage space required
• In-house caching system
• Automated backups

 Safety

The host server shouldn’t go down for a long time so that visitors can reach your site whenever they want. It should feature an SSL certificate, malware scanning, and a firewall.

 Open-source development: 

A large community of open-source developers provides a solution for every issue you face. Select a host that invests in the Open Web to develop and maintain functionality.

Now that our shortlist is complete, we must find a good hosting company.

Best WooCommerce hosting companies

This section will introduce you to the best WooCommerce hosting companies, review their important features, and look at their cost. We used a table to compare them easily. 

1. We are halfway there. Let’s make the appearance of our site attractive for dropshipping.

WooCommerce dropshipping themes

Outer beauty turns the head, but … There is no “but.” It takes only a second for visitors to decide whether to keep browsing your site. So you have to create an appealing website design theme. Thousands of WordPress themes are available on the internet, but some factors can help you choose the best option.

How to pick the best theme for dropshipping?

The website’s theme should be easy for you and look attractive to the visitor, leading us to the factors below.

Easy installation

You don’t want to spend time on how-to-install videos for your website theme. So pick a WordPress theme that features pre-built and easy installation. 

Customization

In dropshipping, you don’t have control over some issues, and customization must always be available. Look for pre-built add-ons or customization plugins before choosing.

Responsive design

Your customers use different devices to visit your store. So decide on a theme compatible with different tablet, mobile, and PC browsers.

Speed

Visitors don’t like waiting too long every time they open your website. Take a look at people’s reviews on overall theme speed.

User interface

Do not use children’s clothing themes for sports equipment stores. Your site theme should be in line with your product and shop. The first impression is the only tool to attract customers if you are a dropshipping beginner.

Updates

Your website shouldn’t lose new features of WordPress. Use themes that support updates to keep up with the competition. If its last update was long ago, it is not a good option.

Now you can find a suitable theme for your website based on these factors.

Recommended themes for dropshipping with WooCommerce

What follows are some of the best themes available on ThemeForest for dropshipping? If you want more choices, search for “dropshipping” on this site. 

Elessi

With features like unique product filtering, multiple wishlists, and quick product view, this theme is optimized for conversions and includes several layout options. 

Soma

ُSoma developers say clean and beautiful design, completed page builder, and amazing speed is why it is an amazing choice for your online shop. 

Goya

Goya is your choice if you want a WooCommerce theme with minimal design while looking stylish. Your customers will love its simple user experience across all devices.

Flatsome

Flatsome comes with the drag and drops page builder, which allows you to design your website without coding. Also, it is always up-to-date and compatible with the latest WordPress versions.

Avada

One of the best-selling WooCommerce themes with over 770 thousand users. It offers full customer support and useful theme updates that make it user-friendly. People are not attracted to anything by chance, do they?

Now is the time for the sweet talk of money.

Payment gateway 

Payment gateways are like credit card readers for your online shop. You have two choices for the right payment gateway for your store.

Modern vs. Classic

Classic gateways needs a special bank account for credit card payments called a merchant account. Like PayPal, modern gateways deposit funds directly from customers’ credit cards into your account.

We recommend modern gateways, as you won’t need to do anything special to get started. Look for “easy checkout” and “directly” or words that describe immediate payments in the gateway description. 

Hosted vs Integrated

Hosted gateways navigate customers to a second payment platform, while integrated ones connect to your website and customers never have to leave your store.

Consider using hosted channels if you care about data security and customers’ personal information. But when the conversion rate is more important, integrated gateways might be your choice.

Congratulations! We have officially set up our WooCommerce store for dropshipping. We need to pick some plugins to help us manage our dropshipping business.

Essential WooCommerce dropshipping plugins

WooCommerce, by default, may lack the features you’ll need to run a dropshipping business efficiently. However, there are several excellent WooCommerce dropshipping plugins to fill that gap.

Following are five plugins you can use for dropshipping with WooCommerce. 

AliDropship

You can use this plugin with WooCommerce or a standalone WordPress eCommerce store.

(Image 06) alt: AliDropship WooCommerce dropshipping plugin

Top features

• Pricing automation
• Customizable free themes
• Live statistics
• Unlimited products

Pricing

You can get it for a one-time fee of $89.

MC Wishlist

Every business needs an automation tool that offers multiple email marketing and lead generation features. MC Wishlist is a plugin that combines all marketing tools besides a wishlist to relieve you from installing additional email marketing and coupon plugins.

(Image 07) alt: MC WooCommerce Wishlist plugin

Top features

• More than 5 different lists with lots of free features for both owner and customer
• Smart coupons, email automation, and email campaign in a marketing toolkit
• Lifelong customer support
• Compatibility with all popular plugins and themes

Pricing

MC Wishlist offers amazing features for free. However, you can enjoy all possible options, including marketing and analysis, for $95 per year.  

Rankmath

Which business is successful without ranking top on Google? Rankmath allows you to analyze your website based on Google algorithms to become a top-ranking website.

(Image 08) alt: Rankmath WooCommerce SEO plugin

Top Features

• Use Artificial Intelligence for SEO
• Dynamic Keyword Suggestions
• Smart Link SuggestionsPricing

Pricing starts from $59 for individuals to $499 for agencies.

CartFlows

You require a sales funnel builder to increase conversions & maximize profits. Cartflows turns your WordPress website into an optimized selling machine. It provides everything you need to generate leads and grow sales with upsells, order bumps, and other powerful features.

(Image 09) alt: CartFlows WooCommerce plugin

Top features

• Dynamic Offers
• Order Bumps
• A/B Split Testing
• Checkout Editor

Pricing

It starts from $79 for the starter to $269 for the Pro.

AliExpress Dropshipping for WooCommerce

AliExpress is the most popular platform for dropshipping. This plugin imports products from AliExpress to your WooCommerce store and leverages its automated features.

(Image 10) alt: AliExpress dropshipping with WooCommerce plugin

Top features

• Compatibility with Chrome extension
• Keyword-based product search 
• Price markup rules setting 
• CSV format product export

Pricing

You can add this plugin to your WooCommerce store for $79 per year.

After we have installed the needed plugins, now we have to connect our WooCommerce store to the most popular dropshipping platform, AliExpress.

Dropshipping with AliExpress on WooCommerce

You may ask why we recommend using AliExpress among the websites like Amazon and Alibaba. We’ll give you the answer below. 

Is AliExpress good for dropshipping?

While other companies provide low opportunities to work directly with suppliers, AliExpress is open to consumers and offers products at competitive retail prices with no minimum order conditions.

Not convinced? Here are other reasons why AliExpress is a better choice for startup businesses.

Affordable startup costs

You won’t need to put up a lot of initial investment to get started with AliExpress. All you need to invest in is a WooCommerce store.

Flexibility

You can run your dropshipping business from anywhere in the world. All it takes is a computer and an Internet connection.

Low-risk margins

You can sell products in your store without owning an inventory, leading to zero warehouse costs and leftover stock. AliExpress dropshipping removes all of these risks. 

Adaptability

With AliExpress, everything you need is already on your computer, and you won’t suffer costs like rent, employee salaries, and bills. You can hire freelancers to help you if your store grows out of your ability.

Now you should combine your WooCommerce store with AliExpress to start selling products.

How to connect AliExpress with WooCommerce

Merging AliExpress and WooCommerce doesn’t have to be complicated. It only takes a few clicks through the steps below.

Register on AliExpress

To start, you first need to register on AliExpress. The registration process is simple and similar to any website you’ve used.

Join the AliExpress workbench program

After registration, you must apply for AliExpress dropshipping workbench program. You can access this program from the dropshipping center in the AliExpress account setting section.

WooCommerce configuration 

You require a dropshipping plugin for this step. We recommend using AliExpress Dropshipping For WooCommerce to get the best results. The configuration process is explained in the plugin documentation.

Import products

Now, you can use the mentioned plugin or Google Chrome dropshipping extension to add products to your store. 

Wait! Did you choose what products you want to sell? If not, don’t worry. We’re here to help.  

Best products (niche) for dropshipping with AliExpress

You’re usually selling stuff on social media, so you should offer a benefit that makes people stop scrolling. Two types of products include these benefits.

Remarkable

Your product may have some sort of “Wow factor” that people could see and think, “Hey, that’s cool!” and buy it right there on the spot.

There are some examples no one had seen before when people started dropshipping them.

Magnetic wall keyholder

This holder is designed with a strong magnet affixed to your wall and keeps your keys in sight. Plus, the cute cloud shape will look adorable in your hallway. What a brilliant idea!  

Sliding control moon lamp

Each light comes with a wooden stand and a simple remote control that allows you to change the brightness of the lamp’s color. A stunning view of the space! 

Glowing sticky balls

These sticky balls seem fun, unlike anything people have seen before. They don’t necessarily do something special but pleasantly reduce stress. 

Problem-solving

People face new problems every day. They will love it if you sell a product that can solve even a small problem and make their daily life easier. They were attracted to the following products for this reason. 

Cord holder

It’s easy to get disorganized when dealing with multiple USB cables. This cord organizer helps people keep everything in order with the strong adhesive that keeps the cords moving around. 

Bedside shelf for beds

This bedside shelf has a strong clamp that attaches to the bed and can support snacks, dishes, books, and more. It also covers the lack of space for small bedrooms and provides comfort. 

Cleaning gel 

Most people have spent the last two years studying, working, and probably eating behind their laptops. The issue is that their meal remnants have fallen onto laptops and are stuck between keys. This gel will pick up dust and crumbs easily and pleasantly.

You can start your business right now. But we want to introduce tools that make WooCommerce dropshipping easier for you.

Final Words

With all dropshipping benefits, supplier dependence may be the main challenge of this business. Many AliExpress dropshipping suppliers don’t offer returns. So, you need to define a return policy of your own.

Sometimes your customer’s order never arrives. In this situation, you should make a refund to your customer first. Then you should ask the supplier about the problem and try to solve it for future purchases.

If the product was harmed during shipping, you should ask for images of the damaged product and offer a refund to the customer. Then let suppliers know their packaging is unacceptable and ask them to improve it for the next orders.

Well, we’ve come to an end. Do you have any questions, comments, or experiences? Let us know in the comments section. Also, if you are a supplier, mention it so dropshippers can find you. 

Also Read: 6 Best ECommerce Platforms For SEO In 2022 – A Complete Guide