How To Start A Dropshipping Business in Ghana
Several business opportunities are available for everyone to venture into. Some of these require you to have some required experience while others don’t.
Dropshipping is one of the business opportunities that require no experience at all. But as with all businesses, you need to committed.
Similar to all other businesses, starting a dropshipping business is not an easy task. Yet, this could be an opportunity for you to learn something new in your entrepreneurship journey.
Dropshipping business is an easy business opportunity as compared to some other selling and retailing businesses. Therefore, if you are really serious about making money, dropshipping could be an option for you.
In this article, I am going to show you how you can start a dropshipping business in Ghana.
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a retail business method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock or a physical shop.
What happens is that, once a customer places an order, the shop owner then purchases the product through a third-party and gets it delivered to the customer. Thus, the seller doesn’t have to handle the product directly.
This means that, before you start a dropshipping business, you don’t have to own a physical shop. All the products, purchases, and deliveries will be done by the third-party company you buy the product from.
What Are The Benefits of Dropshipping?
The dropshipping business has a lot of benefits. Some of these benefits don’t appear automatically, some of them begin to show when you start the business and you become more devoted and committed to the business.
- Less capital is required to start the dropshipping business.
- It is very easy to get started.
- No location is required; you can work wherever you are all over the world. All you need is an internet connection and an electronic device.
- There is a wide range of products for you to sell.
- There is no need to quit your full-time job to pursue your dropshipping business.
What You Need To Know Before Entering The Dropshipping Business
Before you venture into any business, there are some important things you need to be aware of. Some of which if not taken notice of, could go a long way to affect you in the success of your business.
Below are some of the important things you need to know before entering the dropshipping business.
You need to have a trusted dropshipping partner: Because the dropshipping business involves more action from the third-party (the dropshipping partner), having a trusted and a reliable dropshipping partner puts you on the right track. For example, if someone makes a purchase and your dropshipping partner does not deliver the product, it will affect your business and you will lose the trust of your future clients.
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The success of your business depends on your commitment and hard work: Unlike other businesses, the dropshipping business involves a little bit of commitment and hard work. This is because, unlike a physical store, the dropshipping model requires you to extra hard to market and sell your products. Also, you need to gain the trust of persons who might wish to make transactions with you.
How To Start A Dropshipping Business in Ghana
- Choose your preferred dropshipping niche and business model (plan).
- Perform competitive research on your niche and the products.
- Choose your dropshipping supplier/partner.
- Build your e-commerce store.
- Look for your capital/finances.
- Market your dropshipping shop/products.
- Analyze the performance of your shop and improve on it.
- Now, let’s explain briefly each of the steps listed above.
1. Choose your preferred dropshipping niche and business model (plan)
The dropshipping business has several niches. The niche is simply the category of products you sell in your shop. For example, you can choose to sell apparel or electronic gadgets, you can also choose to sell products belonging to more than one category/niche.
Also, you need to have a business model that will depict your business plans, goals, and what you intend to achieve in a particular period of time.
2. Perform competitive research on your niche and the products
Next, you need to perform competitive research on the niche you want to venture into and the products you intend to sell.
During the business research, you need to ask around to see if people are really interested in buying the products you intend to sell. You can do so through physical and online surveys, normal interactions between your friends, etc.
This will give you a clear idea of what the needs of the people are and the way you can offer them their preferred goods.
3. Build your e-commerce store
Once you are done with your competitive/market research, you then need to build your e-commerce shop where you are going to sell your products. You can easily do so by using Shopify’s dropshipping option.
If you don’t have enough money, you can proceed to use Facebook’s shop feature, or you can create an e-commerce website. Any other method you think might work perfectly for you will be okay.
4. Look for your capital/finances
At this point, you should have your capital/finances ready. If you don’t have some, you can go to the bank to look for a loan or any other place you will be able to find one.
Without the money, there’s nothing you can do to grow your business. Several organizations offer loans and financial support to entrepreneurs.
5. Market your dropshipping shop/products
Last but not least, you need to market your shop and the products you sell. In my opinion, this is the most important part of your dropshipping business journey.
There are several shops and sellers online. How is someone going to find your shop if you don’t market it?
There are several ways you can market your business. Even if you tell your friends that you have a business, that is also called marketing.
You can also use Facebook ads when you start and once your money starts coming, you then proceed to Google ads and other alternative ways of advertising. For example, radio and TV station advertisements.
6. Analyze the performance of your shop and improve on it
Finally, after following all the steps and methods successfully you then need to analyze the performance of your shop and find a suitable way of improving it. With the analysis, you check which products are selling and the ones that are not selling.
After you look for innovative ways you can sell the once that are not being bought by your customers.
Immediately after you start your business, there’s no need to immediately jump into analyzing your shop. After a few months, you can choose to do that; preferably three (3) months.
How Much Can You Make From Your Dropshipping Business?
In Ghana, the first thing we check when we want to start a new business is the amount we will make from that business. It is not only in Ghana, all over the world that is what everyone looks at; which is very important.
People make up to $100,000 every year through dropshipping in the United States. This means that if you are hardworking and determined, you can earn from $20,000 – $100,000 every year from your dropshipping business.
Some Tips To Make Your Dropshipping Business Successful
To be successful in any business, you need some tips from the experts (i.e. those who are already in the business). Below are some of the expert tips that can help your dropshipping business successful.
- Find the right supplier for your business.
- Avoid underpricing and over-pricing of your products.
- Order and test product samples.
- Always try to create amazing offers.
- Monitor and study your competitors.
- Use a proper e-commerce platform for your dropshipping store.
- State your shipping dates and time clearly.
- Go for multiple payment options.
- Finally, SEO is key to a successful business. You can contact Ghanaian SEO expert, Shepherd Yaw Morttey via email: [email protected] and he will help your business gain the required SEO to push your business on the web.
Conclusion
The dropshipping business an upcoming business that has proven to be a good source of income in some other countries. In this article, we showed and explained to you everything you need to know to start your dropshipping business in Ghana.
Some hardworking people who have taken the dropshipping business very seriously are making a stable and increasing income from it. Some of whose name cannot be mentioned here for some reasons beyond us.
Even though there aren’t many Ghanaians engaged in this business, if you read this guide thoroughly, you should be able to be the first Ghanaian to make your first $20,000 – $100,000 from dropshipping in Ghana.
