Secret Selling Techniques: 10 Dropshipping Dos and Don’ts

Hi! My name is Diana, and it’s my job to help dropshipping business owners promote their stores – so exciting! So, I see really lots of dropshipping stores on a daily basis, notice some things that would make them more money-making, and you know what? I can’t keep it all to myself anymore! I’m ready to share our little secrets: selling techniques that will help you get the most out of your business, make fewer mistakes, and get tangible results faster (money, yay!). 

Below, you’ll find 10 dropshipper dos and don’ts. If you recognize any don’ts as the actions you once took, don’t get mad or sad! You didn’t have such an article to learn from before, you know. So, get ready to remedy the situation and follow these selling techniques to run your business more effectively. 

#1 Don’t rely on email marketing or SEO only – run ads!

You won’t even believe how many dropshipping beginners get surprised when they find out that having a store is not enough to make sales. There’s nothing surprising about it: this is a truly comfortable thing to believe in that takes no effort. 

But, in real life, things are not that airy and magical. 

To make sales, you need to get people to your site. Almost force them to come! How? Target your prospective customers on Facebook and Instagram, offer them a cool deal and they won’t be able to resist! 

Sorry if this advice seemed obvious. But I’ve seen so many business owners who underestimated the power of ads so I kinda feel obliged to remind you: RUN ADS. Please!

#2 Don’t abandon social media pages of your store. Publish posts regularly

Social media pages of an online store deserve our close attention

When I come across an ad, sometimes I go straight to the site, and sometimes – I visit the page of this store on Facebook/Instagram. 

Why do I do that? Because usually online shops have nice, visually pleasing accounts where I can see the whole product range at once, prices, and even reviews of customers without leaving the app. So, store pages on social media are kinda prototypes of the store itself, just on different social media platforms. 

I strongly believe that your prospective customers are no different from me. So make sure your store’s pages on FB and Instagram look great and present your brand and products properly – they are good assistants on your way to sales. 

An empty account is a no go. Publish some posts telling about your products & their benefits and some entertaining posts. Yes, don’t forget about the latter! Having the “selling” posts only can make an impression that you push people to buy. While they need some kind of a relaxing vibe, be in a good mood and trust you to buy from you. So some nice entertaining posts will make them more loyal and ready for purchases. 

#3 Don’t let your prospective customers slip away. Do some chasing!

“I run an ad, nobody bought from me, I’m giving up”. Come on! You got into ecommerce to win, not to lose! Moreover, there are so many selling techniques leading to victory – you just need to find out what tools work for you. 

There are really many ways to chase people who have all the chances to buy from you! 

1) Reach out to those who visited your store but didn’t buy – run remarketing campaigns.

2) Send those people some promotional emails. But how to get their email addresses? Set up a pop-up on your site offering a discount that works for only 24 hours. What’s so good about a discount you say? Well, it’s a great way to inspire people to buy from you – they have to pay less (admit, you like doing it too) and they have to do it fast. Cool scheme.

3) Find your prospective customers using detailed targeting Facebook offers. And try different combinations of interests and locations. Do some research, and find out what offline shops your customers may visit, what they read, where they live, what they’re interested in and use all that info to reach them with ads. 

There are many more selling techniques allowing to attract people to your store – e.g. ads on different social media, targeting competitors’ subscribers, etc. You can learn some from our special blog section.

#4 Don’t keep the same product range forever. Be in constant search

Let’s look at the usual clothing stores you buy stuff from. Do they sell the same things all the time? No. Trends, seasons, even different situations in the world have an impact on stores’ product range. So, your dropshipping store has to conform to all that too! Moreover, trendy items sell better than basic ones. 

What to do? Do constant research, upload different items that you see as very promising ones, be swift when it comes to trends or new customers’ needs (for example, people prefer buying eco-friendly and sustainable stuff these days). 

To move is to live!

#5 Don’t neglect video format. Create video content

Video content plays a huge role in your online business promotion

Speaking about trends: nowadays, people are more prone to consume video format rather than usual images. 

According to Statista, 54% of users expect video content from a brand or a business. 85% of Internet users in the US watch videos online from their devices. So, if video marketing is the future, then the future is here!

Let’s check if you are reading this article thoroughly: what do we do with trends? Right, we accept them and get the most out of them! So try adding more video content to your store and ads. 

However, these were just general words that you can read all over the Internet. So where exactly you can use videos when it comes to your dropshipping store? 

  • On your product pages: publish the video reviews of your products on YouTube and embed them into product descriptions. People really view those before buying, so we’d recommend to not only show the product, but to show it in use and to mention its benefits;
  • In your video ads;
  • On the homepage of your store (if your theme is designed with a place for it);
  • In your social media accounts.

#6 Don’t look at your store from a store owner’s perspective only. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes

It’s a common situation when you try to sell a product, have lots of traffic, but nobody buys. One of the reasons can be a too high price. So put yourself in your customers’ shoes and make sure that your product is what they can afford. 

Imagine you’re a usual customer and you want to buy some new mugs in your kitchen-themed store. Will it be easy to find this product in the menu? Is it convenient to navigate through your store? 

All in all, try to take an unbiased look at your store and make sure it’s the place where people will be eager to buy. 

Some more questions you might ask yourself: 

  • Are my store theme colors pleasant to look at? 
  • Is the product assortment wide and well-organized? 
  • Do the product pages look appealing? Do they tell enough about the product’s benefits? 
  • Are there any customer reviews? Are they positive? 
  • Is there all the necessary contact info, info about shipping? 

Be unbiased about ads as well. Facebook always lets you preview the ad – so take a proper look and decide if you’d click on this ad. If yes, run the ad. If no, improve it or ask for the help from specialists. 

#7 Don’t let your customers know that you dropship. Present your own brand

Yes, the majority of dropshipping entrepreneurs do know this “rule” but I’ve seen some cases when store owners call their store Super Dropship Store or even leave AliExpress sellers’ logos unedited in their product pictures. Once again, I do not laugh at those entrepreneurs and I always do my best to point out things they can improve. But I’ve seen what I’ve seen, and I really want you to avoid making the same mistakes while you’re figuring out the best selling techniques. 

Why telling people that you dropship is bad after all? Well, this way you reveal that you’re a reseller, and people hate to pay more. So present the products that you sell as of your own brand if possible and properly edit product pages to eliminate all signs of AliExpress. 

#8 Don’t avoid automation. Use smart solutions to save enough time to experiment with multiple selling techniques

Your money and nerves will definitely benefit from it, too. Want to motivate your site visitors to buy from you by giving them a discount coupon? Don’t send it out manually – again, use a pop-up on your site that sends out the coupon to every subscriber automatically. Or compile a mailing list and send out the coupon to your clients in one click. Mailchimp is the platform that we can recommend for that. If you need a hand, we’ll be glad to help you out with the pop-up or email marketing. 

Prepared some posts for social media pages of your store? Skip placing those manually, just put them into Social Rabbit’s Planner and let the plugin do the work. Social Rabbit has so many cool automation features! Check them all here. 

Want to sparkle more sales by offering a gift for purchases over $XX? Dump adding that gift to every order by hand and use the Gift Box add-on which will automatically put the gift to the cart. 

We can go on and on with the list of useful add-ons and their features that can save your time but we really have more stuff to tell in this article, so…

Check out the whole list of handy add-ons here and use them to get more money in less time (you’ll be surprised what wonders Facebook Business add-on can do). 

All in all, why incorporate automated solutions in your selling techniques? Well, because the less time you spend on some boring work that machines can do for you, the more time you have to come up with promotional ideas, run and test more ads, find some cool new products and invest your effort into your business. 

Plus, you can have more time to spend with your dearest and nearest or just to do what you love. 

P.S. Don’t forget about automation features Facebook offers to advertisers – e.g. automatic placements, CBO, automated responses and others. 

#9 Don’t skip seasonal sales. Seize the opportunity

When it comes to holidays and sales in their honor, people are ready to spend money online as never. So don’t miss the opportunity to get that money and sell the hell out of your store! All you need to do is just not to miss certain dates. 

You see, sale offers look much more attractive when offered on some holidays. People often need to buy tons of gifts at that time, they suppose you offer the best, sale price and, you know, are all merry and under some sale fever. 

What to do? Make plans according to the ecommerce marketing calendar, and always start preparing your store and promotional campaigns in advance to make it on time. Remember that you should take into account not only holidays of your own country, but the holidays of your target countries. Did you know that people give gifts on Ramadan?  

#10 Don’t say “I don’t know” and “I can’t”. Be ready to learn

It’s motivation time! 

All the successes of ecommerce entrepreneurs and huge numbers on their bank accounts are not pure luck – it’s the result of the hard work. So do you really think everybody knew how to run ads when they got their first online store? I sincerely doubt it. Did they know where to start? Don’t think so. But they believed in themselves, were always open to new knowledge and new experience and were not afraid to leave their comfort zone. And so can you! 

So, what to do when you’re afraid to do something (start advertising, try new ad objectives, strategy, products, etc)? Do this exact thing. 

Don’t know how to do that? Read our blog, watch our video course about advertising or YouTube channel, or at least consult the Internet. Yes, the latter is really full of sh*t on some level, but still it is a huge resource of educational materials that will answer your questions and will help you move forward to get profit at your dropshipping store.

That’s it about selling techniques. Hope you liked the article! And you know what? I believe in you, and I’m sure you and your dropshipping store will be so successful! All you need to do now is to act, learn and put some effort which will definitely pay off. Happy dropshipping, everyone!

By Diana С. Diana is a seasoned Internet Marketing Specialist who loves to explore new selling techniques, help customers promote their stores, and share all that experience with you!

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