How To Start Dropshipping With Wix

We just released our Wix integration, and as we know many of you are thinking about starting a dropshipping business, here comes a step by step guide on how you can start dropshipping if you already have or you’re thinking of setting up a Wix store. 

So, read on if you want to set up your dropshipping store on Wix. 

Why setup a Wix store?

Founded in 2006 as a cloud-based platform to help people build websites for free, Wix is now used by approximately 200 million users worldwide. This makes it one of the leading website builders on the market. If in the past the platform was not among the best ecommerce platforms, lately Wix has started to expand the functionality of its platform for people to create an ecommerce store fast and easy. So, now, Wix is competing with the other giants of the ecommerce space, including Shopify, Squarespace or WooCommerce.

Even if Wix is a website builder and not a dedicated online store platform like Shopify, we still believe it gives you access to extensive tools and awesome features to setup an ecommerce store and it’s a great choice for launching your first online business. 

What are some of its advantages? Well, Wix offers multiple ecommerce plans for every budget, it’s very easy to use, which makes it perfect for beginners and also owns an extensive app market with powerful tools to help you build and scale your online business.

Why start dropshipping with Wix?

We’re sure most of you already know what dropshipping is, but just in case, let’s see what dropshipping is again. Dropshipping is an ecommerce business model where you sell products on your online store without actually having an inventory of your own or a distribution center to store and ship these items. Instead, your products come from a third-party dropshipping supplier or a manufacturer, who also ships these items directly to your customer.  

Now, why is this ecommerce business model so popular? Well, it’s obvious, right? Dropshipping is great if you’re starting your first online store, don’t know what to sell, don’t manufacture your products, don’t want to buy large quantities of products or don’t have where to store a ton of stock. When dropshipping, you just pay for the products you actually sell. How awesome is that?

And what about the profit? Is dropshipping profitable enough? Here is how it works: you sell your products to customers at a retail price that is higher than the wholesale price you need to pay to the supplier. The profit is what you keep after you pay the supplier and other tools or services you use, like the Wix subscription plan. And this profit can be decent or huge, depending on the products you sell. 

For example, if you sell a fashion item that has a wholesale price of $18 (the price you pay to the supplier), and then you sell it to a customer for $36, your profit is $18. 

For all these reasons and more, it’s forecasted that the global dropshipping market will reach $196.78 billion in 2022 and it will continue to grow, reaching $476.1 billion by 2026.

More on the pros and cons of dropshipping in the next chapter. 

Pros and cons of dropshipping

There are many advantages to starting a dropshipping business, the next are the most important ones.

It’s easy to setup. Once you take your time and learn the most important parts of this business model, it’s actually easy to start a dropshipping store as the starting costs are low. 

No need for an office. You can work from anywhere. That’s huge, right? You can setup an online store and dropship from your home, for example. You only need a laptop and an internet connection.

It’s easy to scale. With dropshipping, once you start getting more and more sales, you can grow and scale your business without worrying about other costs or logistics. 

No need to rent a storage place. As the suppliers hold the stock, you won’t need to find a warehouse space to store your products.

No packing and shipping. As we already said, one great benefit of dropshipping is that all the packaging and shipping will be done by your third-party supplier.

Of course, as you can expect, there are also disadvantages when dropshipping. Here are the most important ones:

Low margins. When you start, your margins may be quite low, so don’t expect high margins right from the start. Now, if you choose the right niche and do your research, you probably can reach bigger profits fast.

Complex order processing. This happens if you choose to sell products from multiple suppliers and platforms. Different suppliers have different shipping times and services, which can create confusion and delay.

Limited control. This business model means letting go of having a lot of control over stocking products, order fulfilment, or shipping. You need to trust your suppliers to do all these so that you can focus on marketing and getting orders. 

Customer service issues. You may think you don’t need to provide support, but you’d be wrong. Yes, you’re not the one making and shipping the products, but your customers don’t know that, so in their eyes, if something goes wrong,  they will turn to you for solutions. So make sure you’re always available and helpful. 

How to start dropshipping with a Wix store

Here are the steps you need to follow to start a dropshipping business when having a Wix store.

Research the dropshipping business model 

The first step is to research all about the dropshipping model. So, you need to find the right blogs, magazines, websites, courses or videos that can give the correct information on this business model. 

Once you start reading and figuring out how this ecommerce model works, you will also know if dropshipping is for you or not.

As we know there is an overwhelming amount of articles and videos out there about dropshipping

You can start by checking the next blogs and channels:

1. AppScenic Blog
2. AppScenic YouTube Channel
3. Do Dropshipping Blog
4. Shopify Blog
5. Torchbankz Blog
6. Dropshiplifestyle Blog

So,  take your time and don’t rush into anything before you are sure that you’ve got what it takes to start a dropshipping business. 

You can also check these +40 popular questions about dropshipping.

Choose your niche

The right niche can give you the push you need to succeed in this industry. As you know, the ecommerce world is highly competitive, so you need to choose what kind of products you want to sell. We strongly advise against selling a bit of everything, as that strategy can be overwhelming and will make the whole process more difficult. 

The best approach is to find a niche and stick to it. How can you do that? Well, there are a few things you should keep in mind, for example, what kind of products are you most passionate about? What products do you like the most and maybe have a bit of knowledge about? You should have a strong interest in the niche you’re going to pick and also some experience with it. 

Also, what’s trending these days in your region or worldwide? We recommend picking one of the top niches to dropship, one that’s evergreen and predicted to trend in the coming year too. 

Make sure you also look at the best-performing online stores in your area, as these are your competition. What are they selling and what are their best-selling products?

So, all in all, the best niche has to be evergreen and trending but also needs to fulfill a need and be profitable. 

Here’s a more in-depth article about how to find the right dropshipping niche for you

The next ones are the ten trending dropshipping products and niches to sell in 2023:

• Toys and baby products
• Eco-friendly products
• Pet supplies
• Beauty products
• Women clothing
• Home decoration
• Tools
• Tech and gadgets
• Hobby
• Gifts

Choose a name for your online store 

Once you know what niche you want to go for, you can pick a name for your dropshipping business and online store. 

We recommend starting by doing a Google search for a certain product store or niche and seeing if that brings some inspiration. Or you can brainstorm some store names either with your business partner or with your family and friends.

Incorporate your company

When you start thinking of a name for your business or store, you should also research what are the rules of the country you’re dropshipping in for setting up a dropshipping business. For example, you should learn about the ecommerce laws that apply to your location. 

Keep in mind this is a must-step for every dropshipper and business owner. Choosing your business’s legal structure is very important as this can have huge legal and financial implications for everything related to your business. 

Read more on the legal issues behind dropshipping

Now, this is a complex and important step, and as such we’ve written entire articles about setting up a proper dropshipping business. So, read this article if you want to setup a sole proprietorship or LLC in the USA.

If you’re in the UK or want to dropship products there, then go ahead and read all about it in this article.

Create your Wix ecommerce store 

You can now start to setup your Wix ecommerce store.

Here are the 7 steps you need to follow, as stated on the Wix ecommerce site:

1. Login or sign up for a Wix Account – to do that, you need to go to wix.com and create a free Wix account or log in to your existing Account or site.
2. Choose the template for your online store – you can choose from over 500 templates specifically made for ecommerce stores. All these templates are fully customizable and have great business tools built right in.
3. Customize the design of your online store – there are over 1000 design features to choose from so that you can design the style and image that you have in mind for your online store.
4. Import products to your online store – you can either manually add products to your store catalogue, or import products as a CSV file. If you are dropshipping, you can choose a great dropshipping (like AppScenic) to integrate with your Wix store and start importing products to your online store with a few clicks. 
5. Accept payments on your online store and set up shipping locations – at this step, you need to connect to a payment provider and select your preferred payment methods. You also need to define the regions you ship to and your shipping rates. 
6. Connect your own domain – you can either connect your domain if you already have one or choose a custom domain name for your store.
7. Publish your online store – now you can publish your online store and start promoting it to bring in traffic and customers to the online store. 

Choose your dropshipping app 

Once you found your niche and started setting up, you will also need to find a dropshipping app that can give you access to the products you need. 

You will see hundreds of apps, services and features in the Wix App Market to enhance your online store and grow your dropshipping business. And you will find that you need to add quite a few third-party applications if you want your online store to have extended functionalities. 

AppScenic is one of the most advanced dropshipping apps you can integrate with your Wix store. Our app gives you access to over 1 million dropshipping unique, premium products, all coming from top-tier suppliers worldwide. If you connect your Wix store with AppScenic, you will actually connect with the fastest and most reliable suppliers from the USA, EU, UK, CAN (and beyond). 

Now, as we want you to have the time to test our platform and check if it’s the right one for you, you can start with a Free Account that lets you import 500 products to your store. Of course, if you want to publish these products and have access to our app’s awesome automation features, you need to switch to one of our paid plans. 

But, once you decide you want to use AppScenic, our app will automate the entire dropshipping process for you, from product sourcing, product import, and 24/7 stock & price sync to auto-ordering, automatic payments, auto-import tracking numbers, and many other powerful features. 

Here’s more about how to start dropshipping with AppScenic

Start promoting and selling your products 

The final step of your dropshipping journey is to start advertising your Wix dropshipping store.

But, before you actually start advertising, you need to optimize your website for Google. We recommend doing extensive keyword research so you can better understand what your audience is searching and then building up your online store (for example product pages) around those keywords. 

To rank better on Google, you could also start a blog and write a few articles per month. 

Once these are done, you can start by advertising your products using Google Shopping Ads, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest Ads. Of course, it all depends on what social media platform works better in your region and the niche you chose. 

If you’re new to all of these, you should only focus on setting up only Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Here are a few free courses to help you get started:

• Google Ads courses: Coursera and Google Skill Shop
• Facebook Ads courses: Coursera and Facebook

Setup a realistic budget

This is probably one of the most important steps you need to figure out if you decide to start dropshipping. Many will tell you it’s not at all expensive to have a dropshipping store. Well, even though you won’t need to pay upfront for any products you publish on your store, you still need to have some money to start such an online business. For example, you need to have a budget for building up your Wix store, or for finding dropshipping apps (which give you access to products and suppliers) and advertising your products. 

So, what’s a realistic budget? Honestly, it’s quite difficult to say exactly how much you will need, as it depends on so many factors, like the type of store, niche, type of products, audience, competition, etc.

But, as we want to help you see the big picture, here’s an example of how much it can cost to start a dropshipping business in the USA: 

• Domain: $14 per year
• Ecommerce platform (such as Wix): $26 per month (plus the 2% transaction fee)
• Dropshipping platform (such as AppScenic): $37 per month
• Sampling products: $200
• Marketing (such as advertising on Google and Facebook): $1,000 per month
• LLC company to incorporate: $600 one-time fee
• Other apps: $29 per month

So, the total cost you need to pay one time is approx. $1800. After that, the cost per month will be a bit lower, around $1000 if you keep the same budget for advertising.

There is a chance you will spend less than this and even have a successful dropshipping business. But, you should know the budget above is meant to help you be prepared for many scenarios and also let you test at least 15 products. 

More on the true cost of dropshipping

Ready to start your dropshipping business?

If you think dropshipping is for you, then start by setting up your online store with Wix and then register for an AppScenic Account to import and publish products on your store.