How To Dropship On Shopify In 2024 [New Approach]

Shopify is the most popular dropshipping platform that accounted for $6.65 billion during the twelve months concluding on September 30, 2023.

With this in mind, learning how to dropship on Shopify is a crucial skill to have in 2024 that can change your life for the better.

This will be the only Shopify dropshipping guide you’ll ever need. I will cover everything from start to finish so you can start dropshipping immediately.

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What Is Shopify Dropshipping?

Shopify dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where you sell products through your Shopify store without holding inventory. Instead, when a customer makes a purchase, you order the product from a third-party supplier who ships it directly to the customer.

This allows you to run an online store with minimal upfront costs and eliminates the need for warehousing and managing stock.

However, even if it may take more work and persistence, it’s still not confusing or hard to master. All you need is a little time and a minimum dropshipping budget to get going.

But first, check – Is Shopify Legit for Selling?

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How to Dropship on Shopify – Step-by-Step

When it comes to dropshipping on Shopify, there are a few simple steps that you just have to follow. 

So, here it is: the full step-by-step process for how to dropship on Shopify.

💡 Tip: Discover The Pros and Cons Of Shopify for Dropshipping In 2024.

Step 1: Find a Product to Sell

First of all, you can sell almost any available dropshipping product online. However, finding a winning dropshipping product will increase your chances of succeeding much faster.

In order to do this, you must do your research. This basically means you have to find out what people are currently looking for. With this in mind, you will quickly locate a product to satisfy their needs and skyrocket your sales.

So, be more on social media, look at what’s going viral, and learn how to use Google Trends to see what’s currently trending. 

This way, you will quickly see a pattern and learn which products will sell great at any given time.

ANSWERED: How Many Products Should I Start With When Dropshipping With Shopify?

Step 2: Find a Dropshipping Supplier

Now that you have your winning product, you will need a reliable supplier to pack and ship it to your customers.

But, how do you find suppliers? Well, there are two great ways beginners can find good suppliers for dropshipping.

First, you can learn how to dropship on Shopify with AliExpress. In addition, a much easier way to find reliable dropshipping suppliers is by browsing the free supplier directory at dropshipping.com.

When contacting suppliers, make sure you ask them these questions:

• Do you have a minimum order quantity (MOQ)?
• Do you charge a drop fee?
• How long are your shipping times to these countries (list the countries you want to dropship to)?

If there is no MOQ and no drop fee, then this will be a good supplier. Also, asking these questions will let you know if they are easy to communicate with.

⚠️ Important: Do not work with dropshipping suppliers who aren’t easy to talk to or who don’t respond quickly.

For example, I highly recommend you use the AutoDS supplier directory to find reliable suppliers. The platform has a huge supplier base, with suppliers offering over 500M products. Plus, their suppliers ship from the US, China, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Canada, Australia, etc.👇

Also, the system seamlessly connects with globally recognized suppliers such as Amazon, AliExpress, Wayfair, CJDropshipping, and others. 

Moreover, you can find suppliers in various dropshipping niches like toys & hobbies, home & garden, outdoors, home improvement, electronics, clothing, shoes, jewelry, beauty, pet products, sports, and many more.

Also, the supplier directory from Dropshipping.com is a helpful tool. It offers a free list of more than 2,000 reliable suppliers, enabling me to tailor my search to fit my particular dropshipping niche, supplier location, shipping costs, and other preferences.👇

Step 3: Create a Simple Shopify Store (Don’t Overcomplicate)

A great rule you can follow when building your Shopify store is to avoid spending over one day building it. You should be able to build all the necessary features in a day. 

However, this rule is only applicable if you have a one-product dropshipping store, which is perfect for beginners.

Here is what you need to focus on when building your first store on Shopify:

1. Purchase and connect a domain straight from Shopify (5 mins)
2. Install Oberlo from the Shopify app store and import your product (5 mins)
3. Write a short and clear description (45 mins)
4. Upload simple images showcasing the product and all of its benefits (10 mins)
5. Create a single homepage that also serves as a high-converting landing page (2-3 hours)
6. Generate and set up pages for your policies (30 mins)
7. Set up Shopify Payments, PayPal, or any other (10 mins)
8. Design a simple logo in Canva (30 mins)
9. Install your Facebook pixel (20 mins)

That’s basically it. As you can see, it should take you about 5-6 hours to set everything up. If you don’t run into any issues while completing these steps, it may take you even less time.

With this in mind, you should also know that you’ll spend more time later installing some of the best Shopify apps to help you grow, customize your store more, and do other activities. However, for a start, you don’t need to complicate things any more than this.

Step 4: Start Running Ads

After going live with your Shopify dropshipping store, the next thing you must do is start advertising your product. 

The best way to advertise a dropshipping product for beginners is either on Facebook or TikTok.

Learn More: You can view these guides on Facebook ads and TikTok marketing for dropshipping to learn step-by-step how to do both.

How to Dropship on Shopify – Cost-Effective Marketing

Marketing is a huge portion of what you will be doing when you start dropshipping. This applies especially to paid advertising.

So, here are a few tips to help you get a much higher ROI (return on investment) with your ads.

👉 Learn about Shopify Conversion Rates: A Beginner’s Guide (2024).

Facebook Ads

• Stick to sales funnels: learn eCommerce sales funnels and use that strategy to create your Facebook ad campaigns. It will eventually lead to super low-cost ads and high conversion rates down the road.

• Test different ad types: you will never know which types of Facebook ads will have the highest ROI for your business until you test a few different ones.

• Create a high-converting landing page: learning how to create high-converting eCommerce landing pages will significantly increase your conversion rate and, in turn, your ad ROI.

• Start retargeting as soon as possible: retargeting Facebook ads are where you can expect to get the lowest ad costs and the highest conversion rates. However, you need a few sales before you can get to this stage.

Google Ads

• Make sure every ad has the following: the main keyword in the Headline, in the Description, in the URL, a discount or other offer, and a powerful Call to Action.

• Create Remarketing campaigns: Google Remarketing campaigns are quite similar to the Facebook retargeting strategy. Target mainly users who’ve spent over 30 seconds on your store.

• Optimize ads by bids instead of budget: There are different ways to set up Google ads for dropshipping. Optimizing your ads by bids instead of by your total budget can get you more cost-effective results.

TikTok Ads

• Research your audience: There are lots of different users on TikTok. You need to look at analytics and see what types of people are most likely to buy your product. Then, target only those people.

• Create highly-engaging content: I can’t stress this one enough. TikTok is all about highly-engaging content that makes people interact and stay on the platform. If you can figure out how to do that, then you will have lots of sales.

• Include faces in your ads: You will be surprised by how many more conversions you’ll get if you put a face to your product in your video ads.

Instagram Ads

• Partner with influencers in your niche: When it comes to Instagram marketing for dropshipping, a great way to grow and get affordable conversions is to work alongside reputable influencers.

• Don’t underestimate hashtags: If you take the time to research which are trending hashtags and which ones have the potential of blowing up, you can use that to your advantage to reach many more users.

• Tidy up your profile: Having a professional profile can increase your chances of people buying from you. Many users go to check out your profile to see if you’re legit before buying.

How to Fulfill Dropship Orders on Shopify

Congratulations, you’ve just gotten your first sale on your Shopify dropshipping store. Let’s find out how to fulfill it and send it on its way to your customer.

When learning how to dropship on Shopify and how to fulfill dropship orders on Shopify, you’ll notice a section on the navigation panel that says Orders. This is where you’ll want to go when you receive an order.

From there, follow these steps:

1. Click on the order that you want to fulfill
2. Click on Fulfill item
3. Either let Oberlo fulfill it automatically if you’re using AliExpress or do it manually
4. Click on Fulfill item again
5. Then, collect the payment and you’re done

👉 Learn How To Add Afterpay To Shopify: My 4-Step Guide + Examples.

How to Cancel a Fulfillment on Shopify

If you think that you’ve made some type of mistake or want to cancel a fulfilled order for some other reason, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to Orders from your Shopify admin panel
2. Select an order that has been Fulfilled
3. Click the “…” button in the Fulfillments section
4. Select Cancel fulfillment

👉 Check out my guide on How To Pause Or Cancel Shopify Subscription?

Must-Have Shopify Apps to Get Started Dropshipping

The vast majority of dropshippers have used or are still using these apps for their dropshipping store. They are crucial extensions that will help you run your business and scale when the time comes.

• Zendrop – this app helps you instantly import and edit products from US Suppliers to your Shopify dropshipping store.

• Loox Reviews – this app lets you import real product reviews from wherever you imported your products, not just AliExpress.

• Plug in SEO – great SEO for dropshipping is critical for any business that wants to grow. This app will detect any issues with your entire store’s SEO and show you how to fix them.

• Klaviyo – this is an email marketing Shopify app that lets you create and customize emails to send to your customers. It also allows you to schedule and create advanced email marketing campaigns.

• ReConvert – it lets you easily implement upsell and cross-sell dropshipping strategies to boost sales.

• Promo – this free app can help you create simple yet highly engaging product videos for your store displays or your ads.

• Easy Digital Products – this is an outstanding free Shopify app that facilitates selling digital products online.

• TikTok – it lets you easily create and manage your advertising campaigns on the TikTok platform.

• ReferralCandy – allows you to create referral marketing campaigns that let your loyal customers drive sales for you.

How To Dropship on Shopify – Best Practices for Beginners

If you’re dropshipping on Shopify, these are some simple rules that you will benefit from.

✅ Less Is More

What does this mean? It simply refers to keeping things simple. You don’t need to fill up your store with pointless features and confusing designs. 

Keep it simple. Add only what is necessary, create sleek pages, and display elegant product images.

✅ Write Your Own Product Descriptions

You should never copy product descriptions from other sources, especially not from AliExpress when dropshipping on Shopify. This is one of the biggest dropshipping mistakes you can make.

Instead, look at your product and ask yourself, “What problems does this product solve?”.

Once you have your answer, write your description based on the problems it solves and the benefits it offers. Don’t simply list features like how long it takes to charge or what color it is.

However, with the Shopify Magic Tool, you can now generate attention-grabbing and SEO-friendly product descriptions in seconds.

✅ Make Your Store Easy to Navigate

If a customer finally decides to buy, your job is to make this process as simple and as fast as possible. This is one of the most important lessons when learning how to dropship on Shopify. 

So, how can you do this? 

Well, you can start by placing visible Call to Action buttons on more sections of your landing page. This will entice your customers to buy and make it easy to start the checkout process. 

Once they click on “Buy Now”, this should instantly take them to checkout. There should be no other process in between. Otherwise, your conversion rate will suffer.

👉 Read my in-depth Shopify Magic Review: A Game-Changer for E-Commerce?

✅ Think Long-term

You need to think of dropshipping as a long-term business that you will be doing for the rest of your life. This way, you get more committed and start making clearer and better decisions. 

On the other hand, if you don’t care about your business, you won’t put in the work, you will make excuses, and you simply won’t have the willpower to grow a brand that can generate a lot of revenue every year.

As a result, learn to fall in love with your brand and make every decision and hour that you put into it count. Furthermore, take learning how to dropship on Shopify seriously and you will be satisfied with the results.

How to Dropship on Shopify – Brief Summary

These are a few beginner steps that all those who want to learn how to Dropship on Shopify must go through.

Shopify simplifies the dropshipping business model quite a lot. However, it does not mean that it will always be easy.

Want to acquire a Shopify store? Here’s my complete guide on how to buy your Shopify Store. 

The sooner you start, the more you will learn. The more you learn, the better you’ll get, and the easier it will become to make dropshipping on Shopify highly profitable.