Dropshipping Startup Costs
The average business in America costs on average of anywhere between $5,000 and $25,000+ to start, but with Oberlo it’s nearly free! Becoming a store owner online has never been easier. Years ago if you wanted to start a business and sell a product you would have had to worry about storing your inventory, paying an overhead for your brick and mortar store and shipping your own products. Dropshipping allows entrepreneurs to get started for free although there is a few costs you’ll want to keep in mind as you get going.
First your Oberlo Starter Plan is free forever. It includes everything you need to get your business underway. Oberlo is your key to import and manage your dropshipping orders but needs a platform to run on and this is where Shopify comes in! The Basic Shopify plan is $29 per month and powers your storefront, payment processor and gives you access to loads of other features such as reports and analytics so you know how customers are engaging with your store.
Second you’ll want to consider investing in a custom domain. Custom domains allow you to have a “yourstore.com” address instead of one ending with “myshopify.com”. This fee is not completely necessary since your customers can still access the store through the free domain but is a worthwhile investment as it is an average cost of around $20 for the whole year.
Think about all the stores you visit and you’ll notice most end in “.com” and although not necessary helps to make your store look more professional. With that small professional detail customers are more likely to trust your brand and make a purchase or sign up to your newsletter.
Apps are another investment you want to keep in mind. They solve a number of problems and can be used to help you offer support for customers and increase conversions through cart recovery emails. Although there are many that are paid there’s also just as many free ones! Here’s a list of our Top 15 Free Apps You Need to give you some ideas of how they can benefit your business. Once you use these to get the sales rolling in you can look into and start investing in paid versions.
Next you’ll want to decide your investment for marketing. Unlike a mall your store is online and so you’ll need to get creative with putting it in front of potential customers. With social media channels and paid advertising there has never been an easier time to access your direct target market.
As a free option you can look into making use of social media channels. This should be something you do regardless as it will give your brand “social proof” and allow customers to engage with your products, ask questions and get to know your business. It will drive organic traffic (the best kind!) and ideally those interested will funnel to your store and sign up for the email list or make a purchase. You can make an Instagram account and Facebook page for free to start engaging with your audience and sharing content with them. Remember to consider other free platforms like Reddit and Pinterest if they suit your brand. Your customers are the key to your sales and this will allow you to learn what they like and want to see more of!
If you want to push traffic to your store you can look into Facebook Ads, hiring an Instagram Influencer or Google Ad words. Here is pros and cons list on Facebook ads and Instagram Influencers to help you decide; although Google Ad words has been fruitful for many dropshippers as well. Facebook ads can start at $5 a day to help you find and identify your market before you invest more. While for Instagram many dropshippers pay around $50-$75 for a one-time ad with an influencer that has around 100,000 followers who will see it. The benefits here is that you can show your ad directly to your target market and this results in a great return on your investment!
Here’s a free ebook on Marketing your Store to show you how to use different platforms for both free and paid advertising!
With all the free tools and social media channels available I had sales rolling in for less than $50! Compared to the thousands of dollars needed to start a local business today there is no better time than now to get into dropshipping! 
