Dropshipping on Shopify - the complete guide

Ever since it entered our lives, the internet has opened up business and financial opportunities that were once out of reach for most people. Opening a store used to mean buying stock, renting a suitable space and even paying employees. Today anyone can open an online store on Shopify and start running a business of their own.

Dropshipping - what does it actually mean?

Before we dive into dropshipping on Shopify, how to do it and what makes Shopify a good platform for it, it's important to understand thoroughly what dropshipping is. In a dropshipping store, unlike the familiar stores you find in a city center, the seller doesn't hold any inventory. In effect, a Shopify dropshipping seller is an online middleman between a supplier offering a product and potential shoppers.

What the store owner needs first is a supplier that will let them sell a particular product to customers browsing the site. Once the product exists and there is an agreement with a supplier that can ship it to the country, all that's left is to open an online Shopify store.

A Shopify store for dropshipping 

Shopify is a Canadian company that offers online stores to anyone who wants to open one. Shopify is considered a very convenient place to set up a dropshipping store for several reasons, which we'll cover later in this article. To open a Shopify store, go to the company's website and create an account. If you're new to the field and inexperienced, you can try Shopify's services with a time-limited free trial.

Significant advantages over other platforms

Several platforms let you open an online dropshipping store, but Shopify is considered the leader for a few main reasons. First, it lets the supplier manage the store remotely, by granting them permissions to manage the site. With those permissions they can better control how products are shipped to customers. For the store owner, everything they need is in one place: they can manage orders, update inventory and products, handle marketing, sales and payments, and design the store.

Different types of dropshipping 

The principle of dropshipping is an agreement with a supplier and, in effect, acting as a middleman between the supplier and customers through a Shopify store. Even so, there are several ways to do it. For example, you can find a finished product and list it on your site so shoppers can buy it through your Shopify store. You can also find several products, contact the relevant suppliers and combine them into one finished product. Existing stores and businesses can also open an online store on the dropshipping model in order to grow and expand. 

Choose a product before you start 

One of the most common dropshipping mistakes is opening a store before the seller has a product. The excitement and the desire to open something of your own can be a little blinding and make you forget how the dropshipping model works. For dropshipping sales in an online store to work, you need a winning product. It's best to find a reliable supplier first, one that can deliver the product as well as possible. Make sure the supplier's product has already sold before, so it's a proven product. Keep in mind that there is always demand for different products in different fields, so it's better to do some research before choosing the type of product you want to sell in your Shopify store.

Opening a Shopify store

Once you have at least one product you're confident in, and you've agreed on the terms you want with the supplier, it's time to open a Shopify store. As mentioned, you can open the store on the company's website, with a short free trial. Use that time to try out the interface, understand what you can do, and see how you can improve your store and make it better.

Store language

Planning to do dropshipping in Israel? Note that many Shopify themes don't fully support Hebrew and right-to-left layout out of the box. To overcome this obstacle, which can be fairly significant in Israel, dedicated apps have been developed that convert the store's interface to Hebrew. You can change how sentences are displayed, so they run right to left, and get translations for very large numbers of words.

Payment and marketing 

Before you start, remember that you also need to choose payment methods that shoppers can use to buy the product you offer on your site. And don't forget marketing. The chances of people stumbling on your Shopify store by themselves aren't especially high. With social networks and SEO techniques, you can increase your online store's exposure, attract more visitors and, in turn, increase your sales.

Shopify in Hebrew - RTL

If you want to build a Shopify store in Hebrew and do it as well and as professionally as possible, it's worth using the app SENSE RTL.

Our app will help you convert your entire store to Hebrew flawlessly, so it looks very professional to visitors and gives them the best, most comfortable browsing experience. Of course, it will also increase your site's conversion rate among visitors from Israel.

If you're opening a Shopify store in Hebrew, it's recommended - you could even say essential - to use an app that lays out your site right to left perfectly.