How to start a DropShipping store with WordPress + WooCommerce

So you finally decided to get on the bandwagon of making thousands of dollars a month with little to no effort? Well, it’s about time! Today HBHosting is sharing with you a simple guide on how you can create your own dropshipping website with WordPress + WooCommerce, saving you thousands of dollars in the long term.

Sounds Gucci?

Well, let’s get started!

What is DropShipping?

DropShipping is the process in which you sell products online without keeping the inventory yourself. This allows almost anyone to start this process without needing many resources to create your own business. A WordPress DropShipping site can get started with as little as $6.00AUD per month?

So I know what you are all thinking… You are wondering, How can I run an online store selling products without keeping any inventory or product stock? How will I ensure orders are fulfilled?

Well, to answer that, it is pretty simple. Once you receive an order, you transfer it to the supplier, who then packs and ships the order items for you to your customer. Once that is done, you let your customer know once the product has been shipped and then they receive the product.

How to start a DropShipping store: A short breakdown of the process

Here’s how DropShipping business model works.

1. You set up your WordPress DropShipping store and fill it with products from your dropshipping niche.
2. You promote your DropShipping store on different social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram.
3. A buyer sees your ad and purchases a product
4. You then notify your supplier and make the payment the payment with your customers’ shipping details
5. The supplier fulfils the order
6. You let the customer know the shipping tracking number and that their product has been sold
7. Your client receives the product.

Now, how simple is that for a business model?

You don’t need to keep stock. So even if the product isn’t selling, you won’t have thousands of boxes around of that product. You just bring in the sales.

The DropShipping business model is ideal for creating your first side hustle and bringing in that extra cash every day/week/month. There is no coding needing so minimal startup costs. It is basically plug and play with WordPress.

Trust me, this process is so simple that people build new ones every month to follow the trend. They invest a few dollars on the hosting and domain name, throw ads at it, bring in a huge return, and then move on to the next trend. There are thousands of YouTube videos out there of people doing this weekly.

Benefits of using WordPress for DropShipping

1. It is open source.

This means it is free to get started and has thousands of people using it every day and updates often. That means if there is a bug in it, you’ll be sure it will be fixed very quickly and won’t cost you a cent.

Being open-source also allows you to customise your storefront as much or as little as you want. You can use templates or create it all from scratch.

Within HBHostings web hosting plans, you can install WordPress with 1 click of the button. So even that is so simple, anyone can do it. But if you are struggling, you can just open a ticket, and they will install it for you.

1. Simple to set up

Are you nervous because you have no idea how to code? Don’t worry; most people that run a dropshipping website have no clue what coding even is. But with WordPress, that doesn’t even matter; you can get started just by pressing simple buttons until you are happy with the results.

Everything you need to get started is created for you already. All you need to do is install the WooCommerce plugin in WordPress, and you’re basically done after you add your products.

1. Plenty of premade themes and plugins

Have you thought about it? It is probably already out there made for you! So someone else has already done all the hard work for you. You just got to make money.

How to start WordPress Dropshipping store: a quick guide

1. Pick a niche

When it comes to building a brand, it’s good to have a niche, something people associate you with, and when they need that product, they return to you. If you focus on everything and everyone, you will get nothing. But if you focus on a group of people, you will quickly build up a strong brand presence and make hundreds of sales a day as it allows you to target specific people. Neil Patel writes a fantastic article on niche picking.

Did you see on Facebook those sock companies that put your dogs face on your socks? that was their niche dog socks.

1. Choose an SEO friendly domain name and host provider.

Got a niche? Well, you’re almost there now!

It’s time to pick a catchy name for your store and order that domain name so you can get it up on the internet before someone else, and you will also need a hosting provider. A hosting service provider will set up your account for a small fee where your website will reside on the internet. At HBHosting, that fee is AUD 6.00 per month!

1. Install WordPress

This is probably the most challenging step… all you need to do is log into cPanel, which is sent to you in an email from HBHosting explaining your account login details. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click WordPress Toolkit and then click install. Phew, that was hard, wasn’t it?

1. Set up WooCommerce

As mentioned earlier, WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress that turns it into a storefront for you. This gives you functions like cart, payments gateway, product page, checkout page, currency and other settings.

Once you have installed it and followed the instructions to set up the location, currency, etc., it’s time to keep moving forward.

1. Select a theme for your storefront

In WooCommerce, you can download and install many free and paid themes with a click of a button. These themes give a look and feel to your website, so choose wisely as this is what can make and break a sale.

1. Fill your store with products.

Because you are a DropShipping store, you won’t have your own stock around to take fancy photos and build each product manually, which also sounds very tedious and breaks most businesses.

We have found a plugin called WooDropShip this makes this whole product simple but costs a few dollars for a lifetime subscription of making your life simple! These people are not sponsoring us, so even if you click our link, we won’t be making any money; we are just here to help you find the simplest way to earn that extra money!

WooDropShip automates the whole process of adding products to your store and semi-automates the fulfilling of orders.

How to get started:

1. Sign up or create an account on WooDropship and click Connect Shop to connect your WooCommerce dropshipping store with WooDropship.
2.  
3. *Make sure that you’re logged in as WordPress admin before you perform this step.*
4. Next, select Go To AliExpress from the WooDropship dashboard. Search the products with your keyword and click the Import icon. The products will be automatically imported into your dashboard.
5.  
6. You can find them under Products> Import List.
7. Now, you can edit the product title, description, variant information, adjust the pricing and edit the images.
8. Once done, click PUSH TO STORE, and the product will be automatically published (added) on your WooCommerce dashboard.

It’s that easy with WooDropship.

1. Promote your DropShipping store

If you want orders and sales, it is pretty simple… people need to know about you. To do this, create ads on different social media networks such as Facebook and Instagram. To make excellent ads, though, we recommend another nonsponsor Canva; they make it very simple to create product ads for Facebook and Instagram and also have many templates you can use!

1. Take care of your orders.

So you got your first sale? Congratulations!

Now don’t forget to do the most essential part. Transfer the order to your supplier. You can either do this manually, OR you can use WooDropShip.

WooDropShip will notify you when an order is placed. All you need to do is pay for the product, and WooDropShip will do the rest and auto-fill in the clients’ details.

So a task that will generally take 5 minutes to input all your clients’ details now takes only 30 seconds!

1. Provide excellent customer support

Now that you have all this free time since everything is automated and all this free space, it allows you to provide the best customer support and give your customers the attention they deserve! Since without them, your business would not be running.

How to start WordPress dropshipping store: Summary

So there you have it, a simple way to start making a side hustle with DropShipping with WordPress and WooCommerce! If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment or open a ticket within our ticketing system in our client area.

Peace.