Last Updated on 1 year by Komolafe Bamidele
The fact that anyone with a good network connection to the internet can become a potential competitor has fueled the thought that dropshipping dead venture.
And rightly so, you can take a glance at countries with large dropshipping bases and conclude that the market is totally saturated. But if you take an in-depth look at the market, you’ll realize that it is far from the truth.
The fact is that, even with the ravaging influx of Covid-19 e-commerce has massively exceeded expectations. The reason for this is that change is constant.
The market is constantly changing and only those who are smart enough to notice the flow use the trend to make money.
Affiliate marketing is another business model that has earned an excellent reputation due to its sustainability.
Any Tom, Dick, and Harry who owns a website with lots of traffic can easily engage in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a less complex sales tool that doesn’t require the website owner to do much.
First off, What is Dropshipping? Is Dropshipping Dead?
Dropshipping is simply the online sales of products without the traditional pre-purchasing of stocking up.
Site owners basically process orders of consumers and send them to the manufacturer who, in turn, sends the products directly to the consumer.
Dropshipping business owners can be seen as intermediaries as they do not need to buy products in advance.
All they do is advertise a vast variety of products, promote them to their own tastes, and inform their product provider when an order that needs to be sent out is made.
As stated earlier, Is Dropshipping Dead? No! it does not require buying the products beforehand, however, the traditional trading model can be mixed with dropshipping to generate more revenue.
This practice can be done without disclosing the source of the wholesale product offered. A variety of methods can be used to deliver products to the consumer without disclosing the wholesaler.
Some of these methods are:
Blind Shipping: This is simply shipping products without including a return address that states the sellers’ identity. The receiver will be absolutely unaware of where the package or product came from.
Private Label Shipping: With private label shipping, the wholesaler sends the product to the customer with the retailer’s customized address. This way, the consumer thinks the package was directly from the retailer.
Ultimate Fulfillment House: This ultimate fulfillment package can include a customized packing slip, that includes the details of the retailer like company logo, name, contact information, address, among others.
Contrary to beliefs, the drop shipping market is not even close to saturation. The reason why people think that it’s Dropshipping Dead and saturated is that common drop-shippers place priority on selling low-quality products and utilize low-quality marketing strategies, setting up stores too quickly and running ads of a few dollars hoping to get returns in millions. But seasoned drop-shippers take the business seriously.
They watch the supply and demand chain and devise a value providing strategy for the market. A sufficient budget is used for advertising and they are willing to lose this capital.
Professional dropshippers understand their customers’ first concept and that getting rich is a process.
They are simply by being well prepared as they invest their time and effort while still keeping customers in mind.
The Good And The Bad Side Of Drop Shipping
Dropshipping comes with a lot of baggage, however, it is important to understand that each business has a different style and terrain so these advantages and disadvantages are absolutely relative.
An entrepreneur has to understand the terrain of business in which he is running, to be able to see the pitfalls and the upturns.
Also, some times, what might seem like a disadvantage to some might be of extreme advantage to another due to the peculiarities of their business model.
Ways To Start Dropshipping Business
Are are among the newbie that want to start dropshipping business and you will to get more insight about the best why to build profitable stores without spending alot of money on hiring freelance to help you out the store creation
Choose Winning Products
Why do dropshippers fail? The failure of dropshippers start from their inability to choose a winning products to promote, from onset which is probably the reason why they believe that dropshipping dead.
Choosing winning or hot customers demand products that solve problems is the untold secret behind you making 6-Figure profits within short period of time,
So how do you choose Winning Products since you just starting up? With Ecomlad dropshipping tool you discover viral products for your store in seconds. We enable people to have a profitable dropshipping business
Dropshipping through Shopify
Shopify, remain the best and most popular and successful ecommerce platforms good for dropshipping to build an online store..
Luckily for you I have detailed tutorials on how you can build profitable shopify dropshipping store from the scrap without hiring a developer meanwhile you might prefer hiring a freelance to help you build the stores on time,
then i will recommend the best and most reliable shopify store developer freelancer to hire on fiverr
Dropshipping through WordPress
You might have heard about WordPress before as content management system? I know that want come into your mind is that of course yes! WordPress is used for blogging….
But with the help of woocommerce Plugin and Alidropship dropship Plugin you can build high converting dropshipping store on along unlike the expensive cost of shopify,
Oh! It sound more better right? so how can you create your dropshipping store built with WordPress? Here is one my details step by step guide on how to build your store with WordPress.
Perhaps you might find it difficult building the store all by yourself maybe you are not techy guru or you have limited time to complete this particular project.. Here are the options that might be helpful to you to with dropshipping through WordPress
The first option to you can order pre-made high converting store from the Alidropship which includes the Alidropship plugin, hosting, domain and everything you need to start the business.
Finally option is to hire freelance that will help create the store at the affordable price to get started, from my experience fiverr remain the best place to find the best wordpress developer that will create outstanding store for you
Learn Dropshipping in the right ways
“Theory without practice is useless, practice without theory is dangerous” this is popular quote which implies that you need to learn how to start dropshipping business in the right way.
And most preferred from the successful dropshippers… So how can you find some of them? You might probably hard of 100k blueprint 4.0 or Dan Dasilva’s the author of the Course,
100K Blueprint 4.0 is definetely one of the best ecommerce courses out there. In my opinion, it’s much better and more affordable than Dropship Lifestyle
The “Good” Dropshipping is not Dead
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First of all, drop shippers are basically middlemen and they do not have intermediaries that can eat into their gains. A drop shipper doesn’t have to pay any subscriptions or join any community to get traffic.
All you have to do is launch your website, set up a devised marketing strategy, and cast out your fishing net and refuted the mindset is dropshipping dead?.
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Storage and shipping headaches are totally avoided: The biggest advantage that drop shippers enjoy is the fact that they do not need to own a storage facility or have to worry about shipping the products they sell.
Companies and entrepreneurs have to purchase products, get a storage facility, as well as set up a good shipping system in the conventional market. Drop shippers, however, only have the luxury of searching for the best products and receiving orders via their sites.
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Product price change: The fact that drop shippers control their online store gives them the power to change the product prices, scale up their business to giving them an increase in profit margins.
Drop shippers can also adjust prices based on the location of customers as well as other variables that help generate even more revenue isn’t that awesome? with this awesome benefit do you think dropshipping dead?
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Independence: Individuals who have their own websites can go beyond increasing prices to their tastes. They can also optimize their landing page, create promotions, and also use various tools that could influence the inflow of traffic and revenue.
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Retaining customers: Customers are likely to return to make newer purchases if they find that a dropshipping site delivers premium service. These same people could aid by referrals, telling people close to them about the efficiency of the dropshipping site organically increasing sales exponentially.
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Promo and offer control: Drop shippers leverage in their freedom to develop their own offers and promos. Dropshippers can easily create seasonal promotions to get the best out of their website to scale up their sale and revenue.
The ‘Bad’ Why Dropshipping is Dead?
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Conventional business risks: Drop shipper has to understand that they run a business quite similar to an e-commerce platform so they run many of the same risks. For example, brand identity needs to be developed, reputation has to be managed, the website has to be refurbished from time to time, a marketing plan has to be devised as well as taking care of other things outside receiving orders.
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Provision of customer support: Customer support has to be maintained which can be quite stressful for the drop shipper. Customers must be satisfied at every point. This can be hard as customers expect immediate attention to their complaints regardless of the drop shipper’s platform size.
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Payment to providers before shipping: Dropshipping cannot send orders to the product providers unless the customers make their payment, which is in turn transferred to the manufacturer. This is bad in the sense that the buyers might change their minds in the process.
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Order processing: The responsibility for the provision of order request with the correct details falls on the drop shippers.
“Affiliate Marketing vs Dropshipping” What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is simply promoting someone else’s product through your site and in turn earns a pre-set commission from the sales.
Affiliate marketing is simpler to understand and easier to settle into as a profession because the risks involved are fewer than dropshipping, one can easily work with renowned companies and make enough money that leads us to the main point of the article Affiliate Marketing vs Dropshipping, Which is More Profitable?.
Most times, all that is needed for you to work with is an affiliate link that takes the customers directly to the manufacturer or wholesaler’s website.
This affiliate link will give the accurate traffic size your site generated as well as those who clicked the link and actually bought something, it’s simplicity of affiliate marketing business modal that most people to come into conclusion that dropshipping is dead.
There are a lot of methods used to track affiliates, but they are all dependent on your special tracking link being clicked by someone. The use of cookies is the most common means of tracking affiliates.
A small file known as a cookie is stored on a user’s computer when an affiliate’s link is clicked. When they buy any product, the business owner would be able to see that the buyer was referred by you.
The email used or IP address can also be used for tracking affiliates but these are more advanced methods. The amount an affiliate makes can make varies wildly – it falls between zero and millions of dollars.
Can you imagine that you can promote alots of high ticket product that pay has high as $1000 per sale….. Is that awesome?
The type of offer you promote on your website determines the income that will be generated, the traffic on your site, and your understanding of other marketing skills out there.
Physical products are probably the easiest thing to promote for one reason, and one reason only: Amazon makes it easier for physical products to be promoted by affiliates. They run the world’s largest affiliate base.
It is as easy as signing up and you will get a link for any product you want on the site while earning a small commission for everyone who buys something via your affiliate link.
The fact affiliate marketing is one simplest method to make money online, does mean you can achieve your 6-Figure goals without learning.
To be successful in affiliate marketing it’s important to you learn affiliate marketing in the right way even top affiliate marketer continues learning everyday
Facts About Affiliate Marketing
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84% of the publisher and 81% of brands depend on the power of affiliate marketing. This statistic will continue to be on the rise as affiliate marketing spending goes up every year in the United States.
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Affiliate marketing spending in the United States increases each year by 10.1%, meaning that by the end of 2020, that it could reach $6.8 billion.
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Content marketing costs were found to be 62% of traditional marketing schemes in 2018 while simultaneously generating more than three times the returns of traditional methods.
Best Affiliate Networks 2021
You might be wondering you want to start affiliate marketing with the right CPA or affiliate networks to promote other products to earn high commissions without you having a website or online. Here are the recommended affiliate to start
Affiliate Marketing Pros and Cons
Affiliate marketing can be easily implemented and understood, but there are some advantages as well as disadvantages that should be considered before venturing into it.
Pros of Affiliate Marketing
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Affiliate marketers do not need to handle shipping or monitor inventory: Just like drop shippers, shipping, monitoring inventory, or processing orders does not concern the affiliate marketers. These responsibilities fall on the companies running the adverts.
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Low–risk model: Affiliate marketing has much lower risk because a large investment is not needed to build a working campaign. Affiliates still run websites, but it can be an informative website that directs users to other options.
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Variety of offers: Affiliates can tend to be spoilt for choice as they can have thousands of companies working with them for advert placements. Offers tend to be unique, some can be easy to convert while others need more attention but offer bigger revenue development.
Affiliates can decide to hone their skills with low paying promotions before moving on to higher-paying ones.
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High–Profit margins: Entrepreneurs who own their own online store have to make plans beforehand, cook up marketing plans, and assemble the strategy that would give them an edge, unlike affiliate marketers. It is far more seamless for them.
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Small capital: Starting a website these days can be quite cheap. Depending on the traffic your content racks up, it would be extremely easy to become an affiliate.
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Customer service: Unlike dropshipping, affiliates do not need to engage consumers at any point. The advertising companies are saddled with the responsibility of taking care of the customer’s needs and otherwise forms of customer support.
Cons of Affiliate Marketing
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Commission percentages: The amount of money affiliates make per transaction is fixed and is defined according to the offer of choice. The prices of the products cannot be adjusted so they have no control over their income.
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Recurring customers are hard to get: It is hard to get old customers to click on a certain link more than once so affiliates always have to look for new customers.
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Payments delay: Most times, affiliates are paid at fixed times, either weekly or monthly, depending on the offer. Funds are not always accessible as soon as it is generated.
Affiliate Marketing vs Dropshipping?
As much as affiliate marketing and drop shipping are structured similarly, they are different in various ways. People just have to work with what works for them.
Affiliate marketing can be very profitable and is the easiest to start, which is why it’s become more popular over time.
Dropshipping and affiliate marketing are basically different. Choosing between the two would be easier if there is a basic understanding of the two business models.