Dropshipping clothing business is a savvy way to turn anyone into a business owner. Instead of setting up your own store with a warehouse full of stock, you take online orders and get products shipped to your customers from wholesale suppliers.
It’s a lucrative idea with a proven success record – in the last year alone, around 23% of all online sales were fulfilled via drop shipping. Keen entrepreneurs love the simplicity of this idea, not to mention the low running costs. It’s something you can set up from the comfort of your home, saving your investments for a good website, marketing and supplies. Many types of dropshipping businesses exist, though online clothing stores tend to be the most popular.
Nevertheless, many dropshipping businesses fail because they keep making the same mistakes. While you can be successful, don’t assume that all you need to do is set up a website and find a supplier. The errors below are frighteningly common and will signal your demise as a dropshipping clothing company!
Common pitfalls ruin your dropshipping clothing business:
1. A Poor Pricing Strategy
The premise of drop shipping is to buy low and sell high.
Sounds simple, right? Well it’s not! Loads of new entrepreneurs fail with their dropshipping clothing businesses because their pricing strategy is terrible. They either buy products for too much money, leaving little room for making a profit, or they try to sell their products for far too much and dissuade anyone from buying.
You must find the perfect middle-ground, a place where you can purchase products and make a decent profit from them without out-pricing your customers. When starting, it’s good to aim for between 10-20% as a profit margin from sales. That figure should give you some idea as to how to figure out the right products to buy at the right prices.
2. Choosing Low-Quality Items
Undeniably, the biggest error when starting dropshipping clothing companies is selling the cheapest and most low-quality items possible. You see this happen all the time, but it results in poor reviews or lots of returns.
The only way around this is to find a reliable and high-quality wholesale clothing provider. Wholesale providers are the only way to make a profit, but some are much worse than others. Pick one that uses quality materials and sells clothes you’d genuinely buy yourself! It makes your store a lot better and will help you attract more customers.
3. Not Having Good Enough Photos
You might sell great items in your store, but people avoid buying from you because the photos suck! It’s especially critical for clothing companies; consumers want to see how items look on real people or in certain lighting.
Unfortunately, as a dropshipping company, you don’t have access to the products to take photos. This relates to the previous point of picking a quality supplier. The best ones will have loads of detailed images on their website for you to use on yours. The more photos you provide, the higher the chance there is of seeing sales.
When done correctly, a dropshipping clothing business can be extremely profitable. Make sure you’re not guilty of the pitfalls in this post and you’ll be well placed to become the next big thing.
