Challenges of Creating a Dropshipping Business in Canada

Ah, Canada, it’s beautiful, it’s filled with an educated citizenry, and it is cold. No one wants to go out shopping in the winter, and Canucks love to shop online. If you are thinking of starting an online business, you may have balked when you saw the high cost of renting a warehouse. Fortunately, dropshipping businesses will let you sell retail items from home without having to pay any overhead.

What is dropshipping?

A company that uses a dropshipper does not keep any of the products it sells in stock. An online retail company will set up an online store that offers certain products housed in a dropshipper’s warehouse. When a person orders an item from the retailer’s store, the retailer notifies the dropshipper, and someone in the warehouse pulls the item and ships it to the customer. The dropshipper will charge the retailer a certain amount of the profits from each sale.

Benefits of Dropshipping

You can start a dropshipping business with little to no money. You can set up your online store on any one of several e-commerce platforms. Most of them will charge a small monthly fee, but the first month is almost always free.

Not only will you not have to worry about warehousing items, but you can buy the items you sell on an on-demand basis. You can also advertise on social media at no cost.

Some companies will allow you to create and sell your own shirts, hats, blankets, and novelty items online if you have a creative bent. All you have to do is upload your design onto their website and select the item or items you want them printed on. If you would prefer to create a cup or shirt with a clever saying on it, they will have an online tool where you select a font and type in whatever you want.

Challenges of Which to be Aware

 

There are a few problems that can arise when using a drop shipper.

• People may not want to buy what you are selling.
• The market might be oversaturated.
• There is no way to make a significant profit.

Before you begin your business, you will want to make sure that people want to buy what you are selling. This can be challenging to small business owners as they are unlikely to have money to spend on a professional market research company.

You will want to try and find buyers who are being underserved, so you will not have very much competition. This can be especially challenging in a relatively small country like Canada.

If you are thinking of selling t-shirts, you may notice that there are plenty of shirts out there that are marketed towards Christians, Republicans, and Democrats. You may want to sell shirts to atheists, Libertarians, or Socialists.

According to printful.com/ca/drop-shipping, anyone can start a dropshipping business, so plenty of people do. But you will need to get your product in front of the people. Look for groups on social media that are geared to what you are selling. If you sell items for children, join a group for parents and post your items there. See if there are Instagram influencers who have followers who are likely to buy your items.

Be sure to figure out how much you want to charge for your product before you open your eCommerce store. Find out how much a drop shipper will charge you and decide how much you will need to charge your customers to make a profit that is worth the time and effort you will put into the business.

Starting your own business is fun and exciting. But being prepared for challenges will make everything go smoothly.