like a true Digital Nomad make money while lying on the beach somewhere in the world? It's a dream that seems too good to be true but make no mistake, it really is possible! We've covered countless ways to make money online before. A topic that we haven't discussed before dropshipping† You can also run a dropshipping company while traveling around the world.
With Dropshipping you do not need your own stock, so with an internet connection you can start an online store from anywhere. Even while traveling! Does that sound like music to your ears? Then read on…
Also read: DIGITAL NOMAD | 100x tips for starting and advanced travel blogs
Also read: 10 Ways How Digital Nomads Make Money Online
Features of dropshipping
But what exactly is dropshipping? And how does it work? These are the three main features of dropshipping:
- You can run your dropshipping business anywhere.
- You can start with a minimal investment.
- Running a dropshipping company mainly takes time but hardly any money.
So what exactly is dropshipping?
You need to find a manufacturer and/or wholesaler (we call both a 'supplier' for convenience), who is willing to have their products marketed through independent web shops without stock. So you are going to sell stuff without having to buy anything yourself. So you can get a legitimate business going with minimal startup costs.
This is how dropshipping works
- You start a webshop in which you sell products from suppliers.
- After you receive an order online, you send the customer's order to the supplier and the supplier ships it directly to the customer.
- The product is packaged and shipped for you by the supplier. In most cases, you don't even see the product itself, even if you made the sale.
- Any profit left between the cost of the supplier's product and what you charge the customer will be kept by you.
It actually is!
A quick note on the terminology: "dropshipping" is what you do as a store owner. The 'dropshipper' is the supplier who delivers the product, packages it and ships it to your customer.
A real world example
Let's say you're going to sell headphones using the dropshipping business model…
- In the past, you first bought 25 headphones, opened a (web) store and tried to find customers to sell to.
- If you ended up selling only 5 headphones and going bankrupt, you'd have a room full of headphones and an empty bank account.
- You are the one who has made the investment and therefore takes all the risk.
Dropshipping takes time but hardly any money
Do you see where I want to go? You need no big investments to start an online store according to the dropshipping principle. All you have to do is create a website with a webshop, and possibly link it directly to the supplier's system.
With all the useful apps, plugins and tools of the free website builder WordPress of Shopify You don't even need to be able to program. It will take you quite a few days / weeks to put together a good webshop yourself, but in principle anyone can do it with a little effort. It really isn't rocket science in 2022!
Spend your time on promotion
As soon as your webshop is online, you will mainly focus on promotion. What is your target audience and how are you going to reach it? How do you ensure that your webshop is found by potential customers?
You may be able to buy advertisements for a few cents per click, so that in the short term you will already have potential customers in your webshop who are actually looking for headphones. The rest of the time you will spend on promotion via social media, for example.
Just a few hours every week from anywhere in the world…
Hard work pays off
Of course you will have to do your best to make your dropshipping business a success. But whoever sells a good product and works hard will definitely find customers. In fact, customers will find your webshop!
The tipping point when you lie on the beach with orders flying out the door will definitely come after hard work. Then you enjoy a cocktail while your website runs on autopilot. So a passive income! Every world traveler's dream…