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How to start Dropshipping with BigCommerce?

Last updated: March 01, 2024
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Daniel

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You’ve already heard about dropshipping if you’re looking for an online business opportunity. Dropshipping is a cutting-edge online business model that needs relatively little initial costs. Dropshipping has become one of the eCommerce industry’s buzzwords. With its amazing choices, it has revolutionized the whole industry.

BigCommerce, like Shopify, is a good place to start a dropshipping business. You will make significant strides by combining multiple methods and sourcing from the right suppliers. For example, by using responsive templates, BigCommerce helps you convert your website, allowing users to interact with online templates.

But how does dropshipping in general and BigCommerce work, and why do you need it to achieve your entrepreneurial goals? Please stay a little longer and read through our article. This time work will provide you an insight into the function of dropshipping and assist you in building your supply chain with the help of BigCommerce.

Dropshipping: The Introduction

What is dropshipping?

1. What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a form of retail fulfillment in which a store buys goods from a third-party retailer rather than stocking them. The items are then distributed directly to the clients. This eliminates the seller’s need to manage the goods directly. However, this method may not sound familiar; however, dropshipping is used as a distribution model by 33% of online retailers.

Dropshipping is advantageous to business owners because it does not necessitate as much capital as the traditional retail model. You don’t need to open a physical store, pay overhead, or stock inventory. Instead, you open an online shop and purchase wholesale from vendors that already have supplies and storage space.

In dropshipping, the merchant is solely responsible for receiving clients and handling orders, so you’ll basically be a middleman. Regardless, by pricing up the things you market, you’ll reap the lion’s share of the gains. It’s a straightforward business model that can pay off lavishly.

This is a more hands-off operation for the store. The retailer is under no requirement to order inventory or fill orders in any way. Instead, the commodity is handled by a third-party provider itself.

2. Advantages and disadvantages of dropshipping

Advantages of dropshipping

The reasons why retailers decide to choose dropshipping method are because of its easy-to-start, fast-growing, convenience to manage, flexibility, and low demand for capital. The specific explanation for these advantages can be found below.

Firstly, with dropshipping, you no longer need to open a brick-and-mortar store to stock the products and staff to help you deal with orders. You don’t even have to work on your physical store for a set amount of time every day. It’s shockingly hands-off once you’re up and running.

Secondly, your business model doesn’t have to change all that much when you grow. As your company expands, you’ll have to bring in more time in sales and marketing, but your daily routine will remain largely unchanged. One of the advantages of dropshipping is that prices do not escalate as the business grows, making it simpler to keep your business growing at a fast rate.

Thirdly, you can start a dropshipping business with very little money because it takes very little. You don’t need to make any high-level investments to start a company when you can do it all from your laptop.

Last but not least, with dropshipping, you have the opportunity to be your own boss and make your own rules. It is, without a doubt, one of the most adaptable professions available to anybody.

Working-from-home is now possible and requires nothing more than a laptop and the ability to function when it is most convenient for you. Besides, since you won’t have to make several commitments, you’ll be able to do it with ease. You’re mainly responsible for your online storefront until you’ve identified vendors and set it up.

Disadvantages of dropshipping

After understanding all the given advantages, we will show you some foreseen possible disadvantages of dropshipping.

One of the drawbacks of dropshipping is that low margins are expected at first. That’s not to suggest it can’t be lucrative, but you should be mindful that certain niches have relatively low margins. This is particularly true if you’re dropshipping in a highly competitive market.

Dropshipping seems to be simple: the customer places an order, you process it, and the supplier fulfills it. However, if you’re sourcing goods from different vendors, though, you may run into some issues.

It’s possible that each of the suppliers uses a different delivery method, posing a challenge for both you and your buyers. Costs can add up quickly, and delivering different items can be difficult.

This isn’t a common issue for dropshippers, but it’s worth noting. Some vendors aren’t as trustworthy as they claim to be, and you never know where your product comes from. Even more dishonest are vendors who, , use a trademarked logo or another company’s intellectual property without permission.

Another drawback of dropshipping is that you have no influence over certain facets of the process, such as inventory stocking, order fulfillment, and delivery. You must rely on the vendors to do it correctly on time. This simply means that if anything goes wrong, it will be difficult to deal with.

Most importantly, customer service might become more difficult as you choose dropshipping. It can be challenging to process orders and manage customer service when you’re just the storefront and don’t have much leverage. Besides, one of the most negative features of dropshipping is that you are responsible for your consumers’ complaints.

Is BigCommerce suitable for dropshipping?

BigCommerce dropshipping page

Dropshipping can be a straightforward way to provide more goods to your clients or to start your own company. However, there is an explanation that not everyone is suitable to be involved.

For example, dropshippers with small businesses with little marketing resources might not find this method to fit their business. It is because their small volume makes them rarely appear in Google search results. As a result, they’re very difficult to locate using a quick Google search.

As we previously mentioned, BigCommerce is a good place for you to start your dropshipping business. BigCommerce does offer a decent chance of making profits. It’s also a fantastic way to build the brand in the marketplace.

It has built-in features which require fewer tools. As a result, it’s an excellent e-commerce website. The value proposition is also appealing due to the models and applications.

It’s an ideal platform for those who are familiar with dropshipping. BigCommerce has different apps to make it easy to navigate while still providing high-tiered profit margins.

It also has a number of integrated marketing tools, making it a viable choice for partnership. It is, though, just for experienced retailers. Someone who understands how these platforms and technologies function.

Pros & Cons of BigCommerce dropshipping

Pros & Cons of BigCommerce dropshipping

Pros of BigCommerce dropshipping

Now you know all the possible benefits of dropshipping, let’s take a look at what pros BigCommerce dropshipping can give you!

One of the primary strengths of BigCommerce dropshipping is that there are no transaction fees. It offers higher dropshipping margins than its rival Shopify. You will make payments without incurring any extra fees because there are no processing fees. As a result, BigCommerce’s pricing is marginally more favorable.

Furthermore, it has a wide variety of customization services that can be used to create an appealing website. For instance, BigCommerce has a wide variety of e-commerce templates. As BigCommerce dropshipping help create the brand’s profile, you now have the ability to create a website using the provided website themes.

Another advantage of using BigCommerce is the built-in options. You can monitor shipment rates with tools like ShiperHQ. This assists in the development of your shipping routines by offering a clearer view of the transfers that are taking place. This feature makes it a good platform for dropshipping entrepreneurs looking to upgrade their processes at a low cost.

Cons of BigCommerce dropshipping

Now shall we come to the negativity of BigCommerce dropshipping itself that you should be aware of?

First of all, BigCommerce has update restrictions. That is, you must sell a certain amount of merchandise before upgrading your plan. It is less difficult for those who are making steady progress.

On the other hand, it would be constrained to be limited to a single package for those who have difficulty in selling. Other websites, such as Shopify, do not impose such restrictions, and you can change your plan at any time.

Apart from that, some of BigCommerce’s features are neither attractive nor useful. Google Feedback, personalized search, and other advanced features are only available on the most expensive plans. To get these facilities, you will have to pay a fee. When comparing Shopify and BigCommerce, Shopify has the benefit in terms of ease of use.

BigCommerce does not have a wide range of dropshipping integration options. Furthermore, dropshipping applications have fewer choices, making them somewhat more difficult to use.

How to start dropshipping on BigCommerce?

Build your dropshipping store with BigCommerce

When it comes to dropshipping on BigCommerce, there are no hard and fast rules. That means how you set up drop shipping can depend on your real-world relationships and circumstances, as well as which marketplaces or applications you prefer to use.

Nevertheless, in this part of the article, we will strive to be general enough to appeal to a wide range of people while being precise enough to be useful.

Step 1: Create a Sales Strategy

The merchandise, the brand, and the niche are the three factors of a drop-shipping store’s basic selling strategy. Taking some time planning how to take advantage of all three facets of an online shop will eventually bring profit to your eCommerce store. But how to do so?

For example, you can start with deciding on a market in which you can build a brand. After, you’ll have to stock your inventory based on the niche you’ve chosen, and create a network of people who are interested in these products. This will assist you in attracting customers to your company.

Your branding can be affected by the goods you sell. A well-thought-out branding and design style can go a long way toward establishing customer confidence. You should have a log, a tagline, and several other essential marketing materials to accomplish this.

Step 2: Select a Pricing Plan and Register

BigCommerce offers three pricing plans (Standard, Plus and Pro plan) to select from, and a customized Enterprise package. Notably, both policies have 0 % processing costs and unlimited items, file storage, and user accounts, which is ideal for any size enterprise. These features, indeed, provide a viable option for developing an attractive pricing plan.

However, they do, though, have a sales cap, which means that if you go over it, you’ll have to upgrade to a higher package. If you want to achieve greatness, you should literally be conscious. Remember to ensure that the chosen plan suited your upgrade requirements.

Customer groups and custom search filters are the two other essential functionality that are not available in these plans. These are excellent features for your online shop, and they can entice you to upgrade.

We highly recommend you start straight away with a free 15-day trial. With a free trial opportunity, you can have a clearer understanding of what features it has to offer and use most of them to design out the majority of your shop and get it ready to sell on launch day. However, to use enhanced features and make your website live, you’ll need to sign up for a pricing plan.

Step 3: Build your Dropshipping Store with BigCommerce

One of BigCommerce’s 120+ eCommerce pre-built themes to help you get started with your online store. There are almost twice as many templates as Shopify, and each template comes in three or four different styles, making the options even more diverse. This, coupled with a few very specific niches, means you’ll most likely be able to find a template that’s as close to what you’re looking for as possible.

BigCommerce encourages you to use custom coding to completely customize your store’s templates. If you want some custom features or an entirely new look, you might even hire someone specializing in BigCommerce development.

If that isn’t necessary, templates already include all of the web pages that you need to create a complete website; all you have to do now is fill in the blanks with your own content.

Step 4: Select a Product Sourcing Application

The next step is to find products that are suitable for your store. BigCommerce has a couple of product sourcing apps that you can use to find products and list them on your eCommerce store without doing anything manually. However, there are significant differences in terms of quality and platforms from which they can source. It’s critical that you look for product apps that are better suited to your needs.

The app you’re looking for should be able to search multiple marketplaces for listings. It should also be able to import all of the goods in your store with a single click. Moreover, it should also have the ability to send orders to vendors automatically. Remember to consider these, and you’ll find the perfect app for your needs.

Modalyst is one of the most well-designed and well-performing apps, but it can only be used for marketplaces in the United States and Europe, such as Stein.com and Wish.com.

e-ProductPlug is another excellent app that uses a spreadsheet order system to target any online store. However, none of its AliExpress apps, which are the go-to spot for low-cost drop-shipping items, are imposing.

Step 5: Get Your Business Going

By logging into your BigCommerce dashboard once everything is in place, you can quickly launch your store and begin selling. Under “Review & test your store,” there’s a button that says “Launch Store” at the bottom of the page. When you click on this, your online store will go live and be accessible to the public.

Your app should provide all necessary support without the need for intervention. In fact, you should be able to sell and ship products to customers with little to no interference if you use a good drop-shipping app like the ones listed above. All you have to do now is keep selling and generating traffic, upgrade your inventory regularly, and keep your pricing competitive.

Some tips for dropshipping on BigCommerce

Tips for dropshipping with BigCommerce

Because the competition for dropshipping business profits is so fierce, proper and effective planning for setting up an eCommerce store is essential. In this part, we will show you some fantastic BigCommerce dropshipping tips.

1. Choose the right niche

The first step is to adequately identify your product’s niche. The more knowledge and experiences you have about your niche, the easier it will be to increase sales. There are some points you need to consider before deciding the niche you’re about to follow:

  • Stick to a niche that interests you more than others rather than experimenting with alien niches.
  • Check for an adequate number of products on the market when deciding on a niche.
  • Examine the viability of promoting them via social media and paid ads.

2. Use a domain name

Choose your website domain name

Always try to get a top-level domain name (.com). It assumes that your company is relevant and well-known. The rationale for this is that large corporations prefer the .com domain.

If you can’t get a .com domain name, .co is a wonderful substitute. Apart from .com and .co, other domain names would not give you an advantage over your rival.

Avoid .org domain names as they are suitable for charities and non-governmental organizations. Because it is mainly linked with educational institutes, .edu is not a good choice for a dropshipping website.

3. Make sure your website is automatic

The best way to increase drop shipping sales is to use integration apps to automate essential tasks. Dropshipping can be simplified by functions such as sending email to prospects, automating social media posts, inventory management, and more.

4. Make Epacket efficient

If you have to deliver internationally, it would be a time-consuming process, and will not be well received by the consumer. The Epacket would substantially increase the speed with which products are shipped.

Get your product delivered in a matter of days. Customers do not want to wait for months.

5. Simplify your landing page

The sole purpose of the Landing Page is to serve as a Call to Action button and to collect the user’s contact information. The landing page should be made as clear, minimal, and responsive as possible to easily represent what you’re selling and provide information to make the purchase process simpler.

6. Create a catchy headline

The headline is one of the first things that people notice, and you don’t want jargon to ruin the first impression. You should better keep your headline light and airy and maintain a good balance of power, emotional, and urgency words.

The relevance of the product is highlighted to represent what is available to the user in the headline. The more pertinent the headline is to the user’s pain points, the more important he would place. The image is equally important, and it plays a key role in improving the headline’s readability.

A good headline should be able to respond to questions that cannot be avoided at all costs. This is one of the most crucial aspects of a dropshipping landing page.

  • Is there enough information?
  • Why should I trust this website over others?
  • Will the website fulfill my requirements?

7. Use multiple Call-to-Action (CTA) buttons

Call-to-action buttons

The more CTA options you have, the better your marketing message will be delivered and the chances of conversion will be increased. In comparison to the other components of the landing page, they should have a higher level of visibility.

The CTA button’s color and background should be selected to indicate a high level of contrast. This eye-catching effect is one of the most effective ways to entice consumers to take action.

8. Ensure your page is easy to navigate

The easier it is for your customer to navigate your website, the more likely he is to proceed to the payment page. On the home page of a BigCommerce shop, there should be major categories that are consistent across all pages.

Moreover, the quicker it is for a consumer to get to the goods, the better the chances of a sale. Every successful dropshipping landing page must have simple navigation.

9. Identify the traffic

The next step in BigCommerce dropshipping advice is to identify the appropriate traffic. Take a few moments to review your website’s Google Analytics. Find out what the most popular traffic sources are in terms of volume.

You’ll get helpful information from a variety of sources, including organic search, paid search, e-mail, and more. Now that the traffic sources have been identified define the campaigns that have resulted in a significant increase in traffic.

You can then narrow down the audience category based on several parameters to find people interested in the website.

Common questions about BigCommerce dropshipping

Common questions about dropshipping

This part will state some straightforward answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about dropshipping.

1. How exactly does Dropshipping work?

Dropshipping is when a supplier fulfills orders from a third party and delivers them directly to the customer. To put it another way, the vendor sends the sales order to the retailer, who then fulfills it.

Working directly with a manufacturer or wholesaler, the vendor typically gets a discount on the item, and their profit derives from the difference between the initial item cost and whatever price they sell it for.

The distributor does not keep their own inventory or ship directly to their customers. Instead, they concentrate their efforts primarily on marketing, advertisement, and maintaining their online presence.

Yes, dropshipping is, in fact, legal.

Other legal concerns may arise depending on who your supplier is (as discussed above), but dropshipping is a perfectly legal method of order fulfillment on its own. Just remember to use a Dropshipping Agreement Contract to defend yourself.

3. Is dropshipping profitable?

Dropshipping would, in fact, be lucrative for traders.

Dropshipping is a low-risk business model that helps you to sell goods to consumers without incurring the high operating costs associated with a wholesaler. Because of the lower costs, dropshipping allows you to become profitable much faster than most business models.

4. Do I need to register a business entity to dropship?

Yes, if you start making sales, you’ll need to register your company, but there’s no reason to do so until you’re consistently making them. This is because the vast majority of payment processors demand proof of your company’s credentials.

5. How much does it cost to start a dropshipping business?

The truth is, depending on how much sweat equity you want to put in, it will range from $0 to around $1,100.

6. Do dropshippers ship internationally?

This varies greatly depending on the dropshipper, so double-check is required.

International shipments can rapidly become prohibitively costly, and obtaining precise quotes for shipping fees, customs, and duties for hundreds of countries can be difficult. An international order takes a drop shipper substantially longer to process because there is more paperwork involved. Some may charge a fee for international delivery.

7. How do I incorporate dropshipping into my business?

We only endorse dropshipping as a complement to a conventional eCommerce business model, as we explained above. Assuming you already have at least one or more online stores (or at least know how to set that up), adding dropshipping is similar to launching any other new product, with a few exceptions.

Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:

  1. Investigate which goods will be a good fit for your approach, market, and client base.

  2. Examine how your rivals are selling the product, particularly in terms of pricing.

  3. Find the most suitable vendor.

  4. Complete a beneficial fulfillment process for both of you and add it to your system. Depending on your sales management software, this could be straightforward or require some adjustments.

  5. Make a list of your new product and advertise it. Any special circumstances, such as changes in delivery times or locations, should be specified.

Final thoughts

Dropshipping with Bigcommerce has a lot of potential ahead of it. In fact, BigCommerce is an eCommerce platform that dropshipping is unquestionably one of the most creative ways to grow your business.

It comes with a variety of enticing alternatives and benefits. Once you’ve implemented these dropshipping landing page steps and tips, you’ll be able to take the lion’s share.

In order to run smoothly on the market, you will need competitive market expertise. You should also seek help from sourcing firms like LeelineSourcing, which will assist you in finding the best vendors.

Investigate the market you want to enter and build your shop around it. To make great progress for your shop, find the right vendors and use the built-in tools and apps.

Bigcommerce Integration Apps are the way to go if you want to make money. Automation would make it easier and more efficient for you to handle and maintain the massive amount of traffic.

Please feel free to share this article with your friends and colleagues if you find it useful. Your sharing not only helps to spread the word, but also demonstrates that you support the author.


Sam Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Avada Commerce, an e-commerce solution provider headquartered in Singapore. He is an expert on the Shopify e-commerce platform for online stores and retail point-of-sale systems. Sam loves talking about e-commerce and he aims to help over a million online businesses grow and thrive.

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