“Dropshipping with zero investment” is the first term that mainly attracts us towards the concept of dropshipping. But how much of it is really true that the question I am gonna answer in this post. I would say that the tag line delivers a wrong idea about dropshipping as starting a dropshipping needs some investment. Of course, starting a dropshipping store with zero investment is possible with trial subscriptions of the services that are required for dropshipping but to run a proper dropshipping store it requires some investment. Maybe compared to starting a proper business the investment may seem negligible.

I am going to highlight some of the free as well as some financial investments that are a part of the dropshipping business and will suggest some additional investments that would help you further excel in your dropshipping business.

1.WordPress: WordPress is the platform where you can build a customized dropshipping online store. WordPress is a free platform, which means you don’t have to pay anything for building your site on WordPress. Over the internet, 34% of the websites are WordPress based, which means every 3rd website you will find on the internet is developed using WordPress. Also, you don’t need any top-class technical knowledge to use WordPress, it is quite easy to master.

0$ for WordPress.

2.WooCommerce: Another free and very important part of your dropshipping online store is WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that adds e-commerce functionality to your WordPress website. WooCommerce helps you to convert your WordPress site into an online store with just a few clicks. 99% of the online dropshipping stores across the USA, Canada, and the UK are powered by WooCommerce. WooCommerce is quite easy to set up with your WordPress designed store.

0$ for WooCommerce.

3.Domain name: Once your store is set up then you need to assign an address to your website, which can be used by your customers to access your site and this address is called domain name. Domain name comes in a variety of options like .com, .net, .org, .uk, .us etc. The most apt one for your business would be .com. You can expect something around 15$ for your .com domain name.

15$ for .com Domain name.

4.Website Hosting: Once your website is ready, the next step is to put it live on the internet. You need some space to store your website online and that process is called website hosting. There are multiple websites offering hosting services. As you are new to dropshipping and your website is new, you won't require premium hosting services you can go with the basic plan. The plans for website hosting range from 40$ to 170$ depending upon your requirement.

50$ for a web hosting service(unlimited space, SSL certificate, unlimited emails)

5.WooDropship: Once your website is ready to go live, you would need to fill your online dropshipping store with the products from Aliexpress. Manually importing products to your site is an almost impossible task and time-consuming process, when I say time-consuming you really need to import every pic, description and every other detail from Aliexpress one by one. Woodrosphip helps you import products from AliExpress with a single click also it makes the whole dropshipping process semi-automated, that means when a buyer places an order on your website it automatically places the order on AlliExpress you just have to complete the payment step. WooDropship has plans ranging from 14.99$ to 49.99$ per month. A basic plan would work for you if you expect less than 100 orders per month.

14.99$ for your WooDropship subscription.

Optional Investment For Your WordPress WooCommerce Dropshipping Store

Now coming to the optional investments that help in enhancing your online dropshipping store to the next level by improving the user experience.

1.Product Validation: Your customer expects good quality products from your store that the main reason they are buying from you. It becomes your responsibility to deliver the best product available in the market. If the product lacks in quality it would ultimately affect your store's reputation as well as you would have to pay for the product return is some cases. Therefore it is always better to do product quality checks before dropshipping it to the consumers. Ordering a sample product will help you judge the quality of the product shipped by your seller. You could expect a budget of around 80$ to 150$ for this process.

80$ for product validation.

2.Themes: Investing in a good premium theme is always good. It helps you stand out from the remaining websites using the same free WordPress themes. Read our Top 10 WordPress Themes to select the best theme available in the market. You could expect to spend something in the range of 45$ to 70$ for a top-class theme, cheaper options are available but it is not recommended as they have less customizable options.

45$ for good quality WordPress Themes.

3.Marketing: Since you are new in the market, it would take a lot of time if you try the organic way of marketing, if you want a fast result method then you should take paid marketing into consideration. On average google ads ranges, 1$ - 2$ cost per click(CPC) and other mediums like Facebook costs 5.95$ for thousand impressions. In order to bring an approx of 100 users to your site from each mode of advertisement, you will be paying around you 60$ for facebook ads and approx 100$ for google ads. At first, it might appear costly, but it helps to build the customer base and improve your brand reach.

Total marketing cost 160$.!

It would cost almost 364.99$ approx to run a fully marketed premium looking dropshipping store.

We know building a dropshipping store on your own is quite difficult if you don't have any previous experience building a dropshipping store. Don’t worry we got you covered WooDropship will build you a fully customized dropshipping store as per your requirement for just 99$ and that too under 48 hours. We have been in this business for quite some time, therefore you can totally trust us with your dream dropshipping store.

Happy WooDropshipping!