Dropshipping has gained traction with the growth of eCommerce. Through dropshipping, sellers can fulfill orders without having to acquire physical stock. Instead, they purchase items from suppliers and have them shipped to buyers directly. This means sellers don’t handle the products they sell directly.
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To run a successful dropshipping business, entrepreneurs must source for suppliers – often manufacturers and wholesalers, then find ways to get customers. The most effective strategy for such firms to reach customers and sell more products is creating dropshipping funnels.
What are DropShipping Funnels?
A dropshipping funnel refers to the process that visitors of online dropshipping stores go through before deciding to buy a product or not. It is basically the customer’s purchase journey.
Dropshipping funnels enable online businesses to move prospects who interact with their brands for the first time through the purchase journey until they become paying customers. Whether you plan to start a dropshipping business from scratch or look for dropshipping stores for sale, you can use funnels to understand prospects as they go through each stage of the purchase journey.
Essentially, a customer’s purchase journey has four key stages, namely:
- Awareness Stage – when prospects first become aware of your dropshipping business and its offerings
- Interest Stage – when prospects begin evaluating your offerings in light of the problem they want to solve. At this stage, they research to see whether your business offers the best solution.
- Decision Stage – here, prospects conduct an in-depth assessment of your dropshipping business. They consider the different aspects of your offerings including how you package products, pricing range and shipping costs.
- Action Stage – At this stage, potential customers make actual purchases. If they don’t, nurturing them further is worthwhile.
The insights they gather through the funnels enable them to implement practical marketing activities on the proper channels, craft relevant messages for each stage and convert more prospects into customers.
How to Create a DropShipping Funnel
If you’re looking to build dropshipping funnels for your business, here’s a comprehensive guide to help you do so:
1 Pick A Product That People Want
Creating dropshipping funnels starts with identifying a solid product that shoppers want to buy. It’s the items that you sell that cause people to get into their wallets and pay. Dropshipping items that people want to pay for is critical for building funnels that convert prospects. To do this, start by determining the problem your buyers have, then determine whether the items you want to sell offer customers the solutions they’re willing to pay for.
The best way to determine what people think about the products you wish to dropship is to research the items. Read reviews on competing products. Look out for compliments to see what you need to emulate. Pay attention to complaints as well. This enables you to determine what your competitors may be lacking to improve your offerings.
2 Create Converting Home and Product Pages
After identifying items that people want to buy, start building the core parts of your dropshipping funnel. Essentially, these would be your site’s storefront or home page and product pages.
Creating these pages allows you to move prospects from the top of your sales funnel to the bottom where they make a purchase. Product pages are critical pages in any dropshipping website. It’s the place where visitors decide whether to buy or not. Building your product pages correctly allows you to get your items to more customers, which means more sales and profits for you.
Below are four things you can do to improve conversion rates of your dropshipping site:
- Optimize your site’s home and product pages
You can do this by showcasing your products correctly. This means informing visitors everything about your product, including how it looks and is used. Avoid using blurry photos or over-the-top graphics that could distract your visitors.
Consider creating a product video to show visitors your products in action. Naturally, people are visual – your visitors will focus more on the images or videos you use to show off your products than text. As you use visuals, create a context for them. For instance, if you decide to sell lunch boxes for kids, use images that show kids carrying the product to school.
- Communicate Product Benefits
Informing your target audience about product features is good, but showing them the benefits, those features can deliver to them is much better. Whatever product you choose to sell through dropshipping, placing the benefits that those products offer from the time they land on your site is crucial. You don’t need to write a lot of content to do this; you can pass your message through a simple tagline.
- Add Social Proof on your Site
Leverage customer testimonials to show visitors how your product has impacted others positively. Including social proof on your pages shows visitors that you’re offering authentic products that solve their problems. It also allows visitors to get recommendations from their peers who have used the product. Social proof is a powerful way of building customer trust since users generate it.
- Build Customer Trust
People buy from companies that they trust. Building customer trust is essential for improving conversion rates for dropshipping businesses. To push prospects down your sales funnels, consider integrating elements that build their confidence in the design of your store. You can do this by providing your customer support team contacts and providing a FAQs section on the site.
3. Make Landing Pages Attractive
Most first-time visitors will learn about your dropshipping business through a landing page. Ideally, prospects should be directed to a landing page that informs them about your business and the unique benefits you offer when they download an eBook, sign up for emails, or click an ad.
Dropshipping businesses should have attractive landing pages to push prospects down the sales funnel. The page should have a form for capturing lead information like emails, job titles, and locations. This enables sellers to continue communicating with them.
Better still, offer perspectives incentives to encourage action on your landing pages. For instance, offer discounts on more purchases, advertise a deal or include a free shipping threshold on the landing page to boost conversions.
4. Upsell Prospects
Upselling prospects can help nudge them into purchasing as they move down the dropshipping funnel. Online business owners can target prospects with offers like special discounts, extended free trials, and product demos when they get to the decision stage. Doing so can encourage them to make a favorable purchase decision.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re just starting a dropshipping store or have been running one for years, creating dropshipping funnels will convert more visitors into paying customers. Apply the steps discussed in this guide to take your business to the next level.