Dropshipping Sales: Best Practices and Tips For Your Online Store

So, you’ve checked out chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3 of our Dropshipping 101 series – now your store is up and ready to bring in the customers. Okay… where are they?

As an active dropshipper striving for success, you know that you can’t just sit around twiddling your thumbs; you’ve got to get at it. Learning how to boost traffic and dropshipping sales is a pretty big curve, so chapter 4 of PageFly’s Dropshipping 101 series is all about giving you the tools you need to start climbing.

We’re giving you intros into the 5 most important areas in which you can hugely improve your dropshipping sales, followed by some really great links to sources that we trust.

Related reading: Top Free Dropshipping Suppliers In US and Worldwide 

I. Using Facebook Ads to Improve Dropshipping Sales

Facebook ads have launched the fortunes of many dropshipping stores. Image credit

This won’t be your first time hearing that Facebook can dramatically improve your dropshipping sales, and it certainly won’t be your last.

The mogul of social media is here to stay for the long term. As its presence in our lives becomes more profound, and its reach into the business realms more calculated, Facebook represents a frankly unmissable opportunity for your dropshipping store.

Here’s a few reasons why…

• It’s most popular amongst high income earners – 74% of U.S high-earning adults (+$75,000 p/year) use Facebook, compared to 72% in the middle income bracket and 68% in the lowest income bracket. The platform represents a great chance to target those with disposable income.
  
• Ad prices are falling – Towards the end of 2019, the prices of ads on average fell by 6%, something which Mike Wehner, Facebook’s chief financial officer stated was a year-on-year decrease. The impressions that these ads created increased a massive 37% in the same period, which means your Facebook ads could do wonders for your store.
  
• Every generation uses Facebook – If you’re advertising for an older audience and think Facebook can’t increase dropshipping sales, think again. Millennials certainly represent the highest percentage of adopters at 84% (out of 100% of millennials in the U.S), but by far the fastest adopters of the platform are our oldest generation – with a huge 11% growth in the last year alone.

1. How do Facebook Ads Improve Dropshipping Sales?

1.1. Facebook ads help you find your audience

Facebook Audience Insights can help you zone in on your ideal customer base. Image credit

So, maybe you’ve never made a dropshipping sale before – but with your site ready and waiting for that first confirmed order, who is going to be your first customer? It’s totally fine not to know who your exact target audience is, because ecommerce is a learning curve.

Facebook can accelerate you to the peak of the curve by giving you the vital first step:  revealing your audience to you.

Let’s say you’re dropshipping in the kitchen utensil niche. Your products are cheap, cutesy and fun, and you’re dropshipping out of U.S warehouses. Your instinct might tell you that your target audience is female and at a young adult age. But with more men spending time in the kitchen nowadays, and with dads seeking out goofy homeware or gifts, maybe it’s not?

If you start your Facebook ads with a broad audience in mind, you can check the analytics and narrow down exactly who your target audience is. This is utterly invaluable information for your business and the future of your dropshipping sales.

After fine-tuning and honing your Facebook ad campaign, you can target the optimal age, gender, location and interest category of your audience – meaning the right people see your ads and your dropshipping store’s traffic and sales increase dramatically.

1.2. Facebook ads build trust in products and brands

One of the most valuable aspects of a Facebook ad is its social proof. Social proof is the idea that if an ad has positive comments, warm reacts and a high share count, it will make it seem more legitimate and build a prospect’s trust in your product or brand.

But it’s more than an idea – there’s proof behind social proof. Of the 57% of people who claim that social media influences their shopping, almost half say that Facebook is the most influential platform. The reactions that Facebook ads can generate can single-handedly launch dropshipping stores.

We’re not just saying that! Check out BlueCrate’s incredible ‘butter grater’ Facebook ad from 2018. The numbers are stratospheric – 40 million views, 220k shares, 50k reacts and 20k comments – for an advert.

Click HERE to watch the full video

BlueCrate’s Facebook ad strategy has driven their dropshipping store sales through the roof, which is why we included them on our list of top 11 dropshipping store examples. Don’t expect their level of success on day one, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t achieve it through Facebook ads and the psychology of social proof.

2. Improving Dropshipping Sales through Facebook ads – Further Reading

• Facebook for Business // Facebook ads guide
• Shopify // Facebook ads for beginners
• Oberlo // The complete guide to Facebook marketing
• Ecommerce Prophet // Facebook ads beginner to expert
• AdEspresso // The beginner’s guide to Facebook advertising
• Revealbot // 5 ways to use Facebook Audience Insights
• Bear Fox Marketing // How to build trust through Facebook advertising
• AgoraPulse // Why your Facebook ads (desperately) need social proof
• Do Dropshipping // 9 awesome dropshipping Facebook ad examples
• WordStream // 9 tips to write the best Facebook ads ever (with examples)
• PageFly// How To Build A High-Converting Facebook Ads Landing Page

II. Using Google Ads and Google Shopping to Improve Dropshipping Sales

Google has two big ways to boost sales for dropshipping stores. Image credit

Great dropshipping companies might be running their ads on Facebook, but the best of the best are using both Facebook and Google. That’s because Google has 2 potential channels for increasing dropshipping sales: Google Ads and Google Shopping.
The internet’s number 1 website processes 3.5 billion searches a day, which translates to some serious opportunities if you’re looking to boost dropshipping traffic and sales:

• 8x your investment with Google Ads – Google estimated that on average, Google Ads multiplies a business’ ROI (return on investment) by a factor of 8. That’s $800 gained for every $100 you spend advertising on the search engine.
• Google Shopping listings convert 30% more than text ads – Google Shopping is on the rise and now, your product listings on the platform are 30% more likely to get a click than through a traditional text ad.

1. How do Google Ads and Google Shopping Improve Dropshipping Sales?

1.1. Google Ads attracts a buying audience

Nail your landing page – nail Google Ads. Image credit

Google Ads and Facebook Ads are pretty different in their approach. All too often we find ourselves mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, but when do we ever do that with Google? We head to Google only when we’re looking for a specific thing; when we want a specific solution to a specific pain point.

Broadly speaking, Google searchers are more geared up for a sale than Facebook scrollers. Once a Googler has typed their query into the search bar, the scramble between web pages is immediately on. Considering that the top 3 search results get 75% of the clicks for a certain search term, Google Ads can help you top the tussle by placing your ad in plain view of prospective buyers.

In short, if you can create a great landing page and link it through a Google Ad, your dropshipping sales will soar. Landing pages that deliver what they promise are gold dust in ecommerce, and a well-placed Google Ad to bring in sales-ready customers can be constant fuel for your dropshipping fire.

To find out more about the importance of a good landing page, and how to create one, check out this article. 

1.2. Google Shopping is the complete advertising package

Google Shopping displays everything a potential customer might need to know.

At first glance, the Google Shopping marketplace is a window shopper’s dream. It compresses everything they’re searching for into a grid that provides a title, a high-quality image, a short description, reviews, and a link for every product. It also offers the chance to save it to a collection and continue your searching.

As we mentioned before, Google Shopping listings on average are about 30% more effective than text ads alone. They’re essentially boiled down landing pages; they offer all the information a buyer needs in the product feed and then leads them via a link to your product page.

You can optimise dropshipping sales by firstly creating a detailed product feed on Google Shopping. Then, you create a campaign and choose your bidding strategy, followed by what kinds of ads you’d like to display (product of showcase ads for dropshipping stores).

There’s quite a bit to get your head around when it comes to Google Ads and Google Shopping. But our resources below will give you a better idea of how to increase dropshipping sales with Google.

2. Improving Dropshipping Sales through Google Ads and Google Shopping – Further Reading

2.1. Google Ads

• Neil Patel // Google AdWords made simple – a step-by-step guide
• HubSpot // The ultimate guide to Google Ads for 2020
• AdEspresso // Google Ads bidding strategies: the ultimate guide
• WordStream // Why use Google Ads? Here are 10 reasons
• Google Ads Help // Understanding landing page experience

2.2. Google Shopping

• HubSpot // The ultimate guide to Google Shopping in 2020
• Oberlo // The beginner’s guide to boosting sales with Google Shopping Ads
• Yotpo // The complete guide to Google Shopping
• Printful // Getting started with Google Shopping
• Search Engine Journal // Why Google Shopping is the best place for retail search advertising

III. Using Instagram and Pinterest to Improve Dropshipping Sales

Instagram and Pinterest marketing is a big time focus on selling through image. Image credit

In today’s age with today’s attention spans, there’s no wonder why platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are doing so well. The popularity of both image-centred platforms is proof that we’re less about the reading, more about the looking, which could mean big things for your dropshipping store sales.

• 93% of people consider a product’s appearance to be its biggest selling point – That’s 9 out of 10 people who prefer to look at product images rather than descriptions. You can’t make dropshipping sales off images alone, but they certainly speak louder than words to most consumers.
• Instagram’s ad revenue has increased by 200% in 2 years – At an incredible pace, brands are adopting Instagram as a way to advertise to their audiences. Between 2018 and 2020, the amount of money spent on advertising on the platform has doubled from 6.18 billion to 12.32 billion
• Pinterest users are 3x more likely to shop than users of other platforms – 48% of Pinterest users say that shopping is their primary aim when using the app. That’s 3 times as many Facebook shoppers and 5 times as many Instagram shoppers.

1. How do Instagram and Pinterest Improve Dropshipping Sales?

1.1. Instagram is the home of influencers

Influencers, petfluencers and granfluencers can help you sell big through simple psychology.

The term ‘influencer’ may be new to you, but the practice certainly isn’t. At school we listen to what the popular kids say, and as adults we listen to what celebrities say. This kind of social approval psychology brought Calvin Klein an additional 3.6 million Instagram followers – all a direct result of Justin Bieber uploading pictures of his underwear.

Don’t worry, you don’t need megastars to drive your dropshipping sales. Instagram is awash with specialised celebrities now (over 500,000 to be precise) and influencer marketing is open to anyone.

Dropshipping jewellery? Speak to a jewellery influencer. What about dog collars? A pet influencer can help with that. Even clothing for the elderly? Yep, just get in touch with granfluencer.

The knock-on effect of influencer marketing is that influenced customers, ones who have bought your product after it was promoted by an influencer, are often inclined to also promote the product in a bid to be like their influential hero. Instagram happily encourages this through hashtags and, before long, you’ve got both celebrity influencers and an army of real customers promoting your stuff and sending your dropshipping sales skyrocketing.

1.2. Pinterest is advertising that consumers love

Oddity Mall boosts its dropshipping sales through a great Pinterest presence.

Pinterest isn’t like other social media. Most users don’t use it to create content, but rather to find ideas that they can ‘pin’ to build up mood boards of concepts they enjoy or products they like. For businesses it’s possible to create pins of products and to add them to a collection, turning the platform into a mini-storefront for your dropshipping business.

Pinterest algorithms work by showing users the most relevant content related to what they’ve been searching. For example, a user who’s been looking at and pinning posts about drawing pencils and watercolour pens might soon find a company’s pin about high-quality Stonehenge paper on their homepage.

The best thing about Pinterest is that none of this feels invasive. It’s all happily absorbed by pinners, who are actively looking for additional ideas and products by other companies. If you can tap into the 58% of users who claim the platform helps them make decisions to buy, Pinterest can drastically increase dropshipping sales for your store.

2. Improving Dropshipping Sales through Instagram and Pinterest – Further Reading

2.1. Instagram

• Oberlo // How to use Instagram to promote your business in 2020
• HubSpot // The ultimate guide to Instagram for business
• Yakkyofy // How to promote your dropshipping business with Instagram marketing
• Do Dropshipping // How to find Instagram influencers for dropshipping
• HireInfluence // The complete guide on how to find influencers
• PageFly // Selling On Instagram With Shopify: The Perfect Duo

2.2. Pinterest

• Instapage // Pinterest ads, why you should use them, best practices and more
• Wordstream // 3 reasons you need to try Pinterest ads
• Oberlo // How to master Pinterest advertising and more
• Strike Social // Everything you need to know to advertise on Pinterest
• Business Pinterest // How to connect with the deciders
• PageFly // Selling On Pinterest: The Definitive 09-Step Tutorial

IV. Blogging and SEO Strategies to Improve Dropshipping Sales

Blog writing and SEO both fall into content marketing – a very powerful force in ecommerce. Image credit

If you’re new to ecommerce, you may be new to the phrase ‘content is king’. If you’re not new to it, we apologise for overusing it to the same degree that ‘not all those who wander are lost’ is overused, but there’s a reason that this systemic cliche is truer than it is annoying.

Creating blogs and maximising your SEO are the two best content-driven ways to improve organic dropshipping sales for your store:

• 70% of consumers prefer to discover brands through blogs than adverts – There’s no bigger indicator that traditional advertising is dying out than this stat here. 7 out of 10 people prefer this content advertising medium and the same number feel more closely connected to a company because of it.
• A solid SEO score creates 70% more traffic than a pay per click (PPC) ad – Paid ads on Google and social media work, for sure, but many marketers see SEO as 70% more effective than PPC at driving sales. It’s a long-term strategy that can end with some pretty special dropshipping sales figures for your store.

1. How do Blogs and SEO Strategies Improve Dropshipping Sales?

1.1. Blogs are the strongest magnets for prospects

Think you’ve got a tough dropshipping niche to blog for? If Bidet Genius can do it – so can you!

Blogs are the new advertising. Paying to advertise your product pages on Facebook and Google is all well and good, but useful, high-quality writing is really what gets brands noticed and dropshipping sales flying.

In fact, Google themselves revealed that high-quality content is one of the 3 most important ranking criteria out of Google’s 200+ factors. Ad money can run out, but consistently well-written articles can see your website sitting pretty at the top of Google’s search results for a long time.

Good blog writing doesn’t even feel like advertising. Its primary aim is to solve a pain point for a customer and nowadays, Google knows which articles contain the most useful information.

Say you want to learn how to cut a pineapple; logically, you’d type ‘how to cut a pineapple’ into Google. The first result you’ll be met with is a well-constructed blog post with a step-by-step guide and accompanying images, along with what you might like to do with that cut pineapple in the ‘more pineapple recipes’ section.

This is an example of a sales funnel, which gathers prospects from Google and gradually ushers them towards a sale on your site, perhaps without them even intending to buy anything at the start. It’s a technique that, at last recording in January 2017, brought this particular food blog’s owner, Jessica Gavin, $4,500 per month.

Read more: Best Blog Design Examples To Learn From

1.2. SEO is the fifth fundamental force of nature

There’s a lot to learn with SEO, but don’t be overwhelmed. Image credit

If blogs are for the people, SEO is for the engine. The clue is in the title, really. Search Engine Optimisation is the practice of constructing a website for the almighty Google in the hope that it might bless you with a top 3 ranking.

Finding a balance between writing for people and writing for Google will take a little time, but you can and certainly should do both on the pages you want seen.

Here are a few areas in which you can improve SEO on your product pages and, therefore, boost dropshipping sales across your store:

• Title tag – Include your main keyword in the title and again in the meta description, as well as the name of your store and an attractive Call To Action (CTA) like ‘free shipping’ or ‘sale on now’.
• Detailed description – Many dropshipping stores neglect a detailed description, but this is a great way to explain the product for customers and to ease in some relevant keywords for Google.
• Engaging design – A good design will keep visitors on your page for longer and encourage them to explore. This will lower your bounce rate (which measures who leaves your store after viewing one page) and increase your Google presence.
• Page loading speed – Again, there’s nothing worse for a bounce rate than a slow page. Having a fast loading page will keep bounce rates low and, ultimately, increase dropshipping sales.
• Alt text – To help Google rank images on your product page, you’ll have to write alt text. Using keywords sparingly and being as detailed as possible are the best ways to do this.
• Reviews – SEO tries to determine which sites are the most trustworthy, and product page reviews and comments really help it to do that.

2. Improving Dropshipping Sales through Blogging and SEO Strategies – Further Reading

2.1. Blogs

• Oberlo // How to write a blog that boosts sales in 2020
• Medium // Why you should be blogging on Shopify
• Shopify // 8 brilliant blogs run by ecommerce stores
• Smart Blogger // Affiliate marketing in 2020: free guide for beginners
• Toptal // The 5-step process for turning your blog into a high conversion funnel

2.2. SEO Strategies

• PageFly // Make your Shopify product page SEO-friendly
• Databox // Seo vs PPC: which channel generates more sales?
• Backlinko // Google’s 200 ranking factors: the complete list (2020)
• OnCrawl // How to optimize your product pages for SEO
• Internet Marketing Ninjas // Keyword research for your product pages: the ultimate guide

V. Website Optimisation Tips to Improve Dropshipping Sales

Aesthentials is a hugely successful dropshipping store – great web design and tonnes of features that drive visitors towards a sale.

Once you’ve got potential customers onto your site, how do you keep them there? While all of our other tips to improve dropshipping sales focused on the initial awareness and interest stages of the sales funnel, our last one will show you how to improve dropshipping conversion rates through a killer website.

Again, we’ll keep it brief here, but you can check out our 12-chapter conversion rate optimisation improvement article for some unmissable free advice.

1. How can Website Optimisation Improve Dropshipping Sales?

Here are 3 types of apps that are tried-and-tested and drive up dropshipping sales. You’ll find all of these on Shopify:

1. 1. Product options apps

Every customer that comes onto your product page will be different. Treating them like individuals and offering them more ways to customise the product you’re selling gives them a greater feeling of control and encourages them to make a purchase.

Types of product options include size, colour and style variants. Product option apps on Shopify offer a lot of great features that can really distinguish you from the crowd and help you give power back to the prospect.

See more: Top 5 product option Shopify apps 2020

1.2. Upsell and cross-sell apps

These types of apps really ramp up the Average Order Value (AOV) of your customers. Once they’ve found something they like in your store, they’ll be presented with a menu of other products that ‘customers frequently buy together’ with the product they’re already looking at.

This kind of upselling and cross-selling helped Linio, an ecommerce megastore in Latin America, to increase conversion rates by 30%. Stories like this are pretty commonplace with upselling and cross-selling.

See more: Best 07 Shopify upsell apps 2020

1.3. Product review apps

We talked about social proof earlier with Facebook ads, but Shopify’s product review apps do much the same thing. 87% of people trust online reviews as much as word-of-mouth, so they can be an incredible tool if you’re looking to improve dropshipping store sales.

Apps like Loox and Yotpo offer your prospects some secondary opinions from real people, which can be a very powerful way to usher them over the sales line. Review apps like these have an additional benefit of providing your product page with a greater SEO score.

See more: Best Shopify Product Reviews Apps For Your Store Success 

1. 4. (Bonus) – Make your site your own

Notebook Therapy is a haven of beautiful and unique dropshipping design.

There’s no app for this, but making your website design unique is quite possibly the best way to improve dropshipping sales. It’s innate in humans to be attracted by something that goes against the grain.

In dropshipping, there are two easy ways to do this: custom fonts and original photography. One of the best dropshipping websites we’ve ever seen is Notebook Therapy. Their beautifully crafted fonts, exquisite photography and perfect color palettes are all tailored towards their young target audience; and it’s fair to say it’s doing wonders for their dropshipping sales.

Remember this: 94% of first impressions are about a website’s design, and you typically only have 10 seconds to make it. Make it count with PageFly, one of the top-rated page-building apps on Shopify. Try us out for free today.

Get PageFly For Free Now

2. Improving Dropshipping Sales through Website Optimisation – Further Reading

• Spocket // 7 key things to know when designing a dropshipping website
• Dropified // How important is the design of my dropshipping website?
• Shop Theme Detector // The top 10 Shopify page builders
• PageFly // Top 10 product pages built with the PageFly app
• 3DCart // How to set up product options – the complete guide to product variations
• Envision // How to create customizable products in Shopify without an app
• Digismoothie // 7 proven upsell strategies and tactics on Shopify 2020
• Oberlo // 4 easy ways to massively boost sales with upselling and cross-selling
• Ecom Elites // 9 best Shopify review apps that will help you get more sales
• Out of the Sandbox // Tips on adding and managing product reviews on your Shopify theme