When you think of e-commerce, what comes to mind? If you think—time and location, that’s great. For new entrepreneurs, dropshipping is often much easier to start up; it involves less risk and requires little capital.
People read books daily. In 2018 alone, the book industry had a 1.3% increase in sales, with more than 696 million book sales. This means as a drop shipper, your prospective customer base is massive.
So if you’re thinking of dropshipping books and you’re not sure how to begin, then you’re just in time. This article will show you how to start dropshipping books. In this post, you’ll learn:
- Understand How Dropshipping Works
- Choose Your Book Niche
- Find a Supplier
- Build Your Online Store
- Set Up Your Shopify Website
- Get Necessary Business Licenses and Permits
- Open a Business Bank Account
- Have a Marketing Strategy
- Give value
Follow on with this post, to find out more.
1. Understand How Dropshipping Works
You start dropshipping books, you need to first understand how dropshipping works. Dropshipping e-commerce model allows stores to sell products without paying for products upfront or keeping any physical inventory. When a customer buys a product from a dropshipping store, a third-party supplier ships it directly to them.
You don’t have to open an on-site store or keep products in a warehouse. Instead, you open an online store and buy from suppliers. You set the retail price you wish to sell, and the customer pays you while you in turn pay your supplier.
2. Choose Your Book Niche
Next step to start dropshipping books, create your book niche. There are many book niches ranging from non-fiction, comic books, religious books, magazines, yearbooks, notebooks, cookbooks, eBooks, and lots more.
Two ways you can choose a book niche:
- Through your target audience: Once you decide on what kinds of books you’d like to be known for, you know what audience you’re looking for. This will inform the kinds of books you choose
- Using traffic: Sometimes, certain books become bestsellers because of the traffic the author may have generated. Choosing to sell these books is a great way to begin your dropshipping journey
3. Find a Supplier
Once you choose your book niche, find a supplier. Think of yourself as the connecting bridge between your supplier and customer. To run a successful dropshipping business, you’ll need a reliable supplier.
This means if you choose an unreliable supplier, he or she can deliver poorly written books to your customer unknown to you. There might also be supply errors, missing items, low-quality products, wrong supplies, etc.
And because you have no control over the supply, you’d always be the one to take the blame. There are two types of suppliers when using the dropshipping e-commerce model to fulfill orders:
The Dropshipping Marketplaces
Marketers buy products from manufacturers and sell them to dropshipping retailers. Examples of dropshipping marketplaces include:
- Alibaba
- Oberlo
- Amazon
- AmericanBookCo
- Lulu Express
- Acutrack
Manufacturers or Importers
Drop shippers bypass the intermediaries to buy directly from the manufacturers or importers.
4. Build Your Online Store
To start dropshipping books, build your online store. Your dropshipping business needs an online platform from which you will operate. Your online store replaces a physical store; it is where you receive orders, sell products, process payments, and send traffic.
Using an e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, eBay, or BigCommerce, allows you to start dropshipping books. You will not need to hire a web developer to build your online store with any of these platforms.
5. Set Up Your Dropshipping Website
To begin dropshipping books, set up a dropshipping website such as Shopify. Shopify is a great platform that allows you to build and launch your e-commerce website, find a domain name, add marketing and sales plug-ins, accept payments in different currencies, and manage products.
A simple Shopify website can occupy up to 25 products and usually costs $3,500 to $5,000.
To set up an online dropship store on Shopify:
- Choose your book supplier. You can choose through a supplier database like AliExpress, Amazon, Eprolo, or Printify
- Sign up with your email address
- Select your store type and follow the on-screen prompts to finish the connection
- Choose your products and upload books to your store
6. Get Necessary Business Licenses and Permits
To begin dropshipping books, get necessary business licenses and permits. This is important for your dropshipping business. Identify with a business attorney to know the requirements needed to obtain a business license/permit depending on your State law.
Below are the basic requirements for obtaining a Business License:
- Name of the proposed Business
- Nature of the business
- Address of the business
- Type of business (Private or Public Company)
- Particulars of the Director; Name, date of birth, gender, phone number, Email address
- Forms of Identification: International Passport and signature
7. Open a Business Bank Account
Once you have your business license and permits, open a business bank account. To open one, you’ll need:
- Your business name
- Phone Number
- Email address
- Social Security Number
- Business License
- Business formation document
Using your business account for your dropshipping business gives you an edge over your competitors.
8. Have a Marketing Strategy
Your marketing strategy has to be top-notch if you want to beat the competition and generate more sales. Don’t just quote the prices of the books you are selling; give customers compelling reasons why they should buy the books you sell.
Extensive knowledge of your target audience will help you create the right marketing messages. Make maximum use of social media to market your products. You can use ads and SEO to drive traffic to your website.
Don’t just stop at getting customers; work to keep them returning for repeat purchases. You can use loyalty programs, discounts, rewards, and emails to keep them engaged with your store.
9. Give Value
With so many competitors in the Dropshipping business, your unique selling point is in the value you offer your customers. Learn to study reviews to ascertain the books your customers need.
Furthermore, identify what makes you different and leverage it. For every sale, give your customers a great experience to shop again.
Conclusion
To begin your dropshipping business, understand how dropshipping works. This is your first step to start dropshipping books. Do your research, understand how the markets work and how you can navigate them. Once you have an understanding of how the market works, choose your book niche. Decide on what types of books you’d like to sell.
Next, find a supplier, build your online store, set up your Shopify website, get necessary business licenses and permits, open a business account, have a marketing strategy, and lastly, be sure to always give value. This way, you can easily earn referrals and your customers will keep coming back.
