“This year’s Black Friday is going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Said Kamil Sattar as we sat down to talk about how he generated over 1 million in sales revenue during BFCM last year.
We all agreed that Black Friday 2020 is going to be an extraordinary opportunity to break into entrepreneurship and build a store and skillset that secures sales year-round. We asked Kamil all the questions a budding entrepreneur, as well as a seasoned dropshipper may have on building a thriving online store.
We wanted to give you a leg up on your competition, and help you gain the skills and knowledge necessary to make this BFCM an incredible platform to start or grow your dropshipping business.
We’ll be covering anything from how to get started, the best marketing tactics, and how to find winning products for this year’s BFCM, holiday season, and beyond. By the end of this article, you’ll be fully equipt with the tools and strategies you need to make this BFCM one for the books.
Are you ready for a life changing Q4?
How can a Novice get started?
There’s no better time than the present, and with Black Friday approaching, setting up your online store and social networks is critical now.
Building a trusted brand and testing which ads and segments are successful takes time and effort, so to get the formula right, now’s the time to fail fast and learn the lessons that will lead you to success.
We want to help you get started right away, so we’ve outlined how you can start a dropshipping business below, and be on the fast lane to a profitable online store.
1. Select a Niche
A step that can’t be rushed; selecting a profitable, thriving niche that you genuinely enjoy is critical to starting your online store on the right foot.
You can set up your base by listing the niches you enjoy, for example: Pets, babies, women’s fashion, etc. From here, you need to do some quantitative research to discover which terms are trending and have the most search volume.
Use Specific terms like “Dog Collar” or “Leggings with pockets” to get a better understanding of what people are searching for specifically.
2. Select an eCommerce Platform
eCommerce platforms make getting started easy, and have all of the tools necessary to build an ecommerce website. Each option below features a free trial and amazing templates to get you started on your online store.
- Shopify
- BicCommerce
- Wix
- WooCommerce (for Wordpress users)
3. Find Dropshipping Suppliers and products
You have two options for finding dropshipping suppliers and products.
You can search and reach out to suppliers individually and test their products, quality and shipping times, or you can register for a platform that already does this for you.
Before choosing suppliers, you need to make sure that they have a large inventory and production capacity as well as the capacity to produce new and trending products.
You need to go on your customers journey and vet the suppliers based on these three criteria:
- Communication: How well and often do suppliers communicate about delivery status or tracking numbers?
- Shipping Time: How long does it take for your product to arrive, and is it in accordance with their listed processing and delivery ranges?
- Quality of Product: How does the product look when it is delivered? How do you feel when opening and reviewing your product?
Whether you’re doing this individually or using a dropshipping platform, keep in mind that your products will be a representation of you. So make sure you evaluate suppliers based on these questions and look for fast shipping, unique dropshipping products, and reliable returns and satisfaction guarantees.
Tips for a high-converting dropshipping store
Now that you’re set up with the basics, It’s time to build a storefront that makes impulse buys irresistible, and recurring customers a norm.
We asked Kamil what his store looks like, and what dropshippers can focus on to make sure their online store is high converting and engaging enough to turn visitors into customers. He shared the following critical tips:
1. Keep it simple
The first thing Kamil stressed was to keep it super simple. A fast page loading time and a mobile friendly interface is absolutely critical, so keeping a 2 second loading time on even the slowest network is ideal. Anything more than two seconds increases your bounce rate by 40%, a loss you can’t afford after spending time and money getting that visitor on your page.
2. Mobile Friendly
Having a mobile-friendly eCommerce store is a no-brainer, since more than half of international website traffic is from a mobile device. Make sure you’re accommodating half of your traffic by ensuring your store loads quickly and is easy to navigate on mobile. If you’re curious about how your eCommerce store scores on a mobile friendly test, try out Google’s free mobile-friendly test and make sure you fix any slow loading images and pages.
3. More Visuals, Less Text
If there’s one thing we all agreed on, it’s that people are too lazy to read. Us included, we simply don’t have the time or patience to read unnecessary text.
Put yourself in your customers shoes, they land on your page to look at your branding, products and be inspired enough to make a purchase. They don’t have the time or patience to read a paragraph right at the header, and they’re not interested in wordy propositions. Keep things visually appealing, and use concise sentences that deliver the message in a simple but powerful way.
But how can you communicate the value proposition?
Focus on adding imagery and graphics that put your point across in as few words as possible. Use creative imagery to entice your customer to purchase and help build your brand up. Check out an example of beautiful visuals and proposition below:
If you take your own product photos, Kamil suggested adding in unboxing videos or images to not only build trust, but to let them know that you’re a real small business and take customer trust seriously.
How do you create ads to capture people’s attention?
Building a creative marketing strategy that keeps your visitors scrolling is going to be the cornerstone of your success.
How does a successful dropshipper like Kamil keep his visitors engaged, and leave an impression on them?
Here are some fun and engaging sales tactics that Kamil used to generate over a million in revenue last year. These Black Friday marketing tactics are a surefire way to keep users on your page, and entice them to make a purchase.
Gamification
People love playing games. What they love more than a fun game, is winning! Give your visitors a reason to convert by offering them a chance at a discount if they play. It doesn't have to be anything complicated, it could even be something as simple as spinning a virtual wheel.
What matters is that they get a “one-time opportunity” to win a substantial discount on your products. Even if they don’t end up converting, have them enter their email to play, and build your email marketing leads for future conversion.
The Final Countdown: Apply Urgency
Give your visitors a reason to act fast and make their purchase “before it’s too late!” by incorporating a one time countdown for a discount. If you had to make a purchase in the next 6 hours to receive 50% off, wouldn’t you act fast and make your purchase?
These scarcity tactics work wonders on Black Friday since the appeal of a good deal for a limited time is heightened. However, make sure it’s a deal that no one would want to pass up.
Social Proofing
We can’t overstate the importance of building trust in your eCommerce store. From secure payments to generous guarantees, having these in place makes it easier for people to trust you and purchase from you.
Using a social proofing mechanism helps build this trust, by showing people - in real time - that someone out there is also shopping on this website and putting things in their cart. You’ve probably noticed it before and never realized that it covertly builds trust.
Exit Popups
It’s only natural that some website visitors will want to leave without buying anything. This gives you one last opportunity to give them an offer they can’t refuse, or at least leave behind their email address.
Create a popup that activates when they are trying to leave your website, and watch your visitor not only reconsider, but provide you with their email address so they can potentially keep shopping with a discount.
Best Marketing Strategies for Q4
Black Friday is a time to shine and secure customers and leads for the year to come. Along with sales, your main objective will be to create a solid mailing list, and build a large potential customer base that you can strategically retarget.
This year, Black Friday is going to be online, so targeting the right audience with the right ads is critical. We asked Kamil what strategies he used to market his products during this time, and how dropshippers at all levels can leverage these techniques to make sales. With these marketing strategies, you’re sure to increase your sales, and build a mailing list that increases recurring customers.
Paid Advertising on FB and Instagram
Let’s be honest: there’s a good chance no one has ever heard of your brand and online store before. You’re still new to customers' eyes, so you need to start by building trust and making yourself visible and appealing to your target market. On average, it takes over four impressions of your ad to convert someone into a customer.
The reason for that, is trust.
When running Facebook ads, you gain two valuable pieces of information. The first, is information about your target market and all the data you need to hone down your high converting market segment. The second, and just as important, is leads.
Whether they made a purchase or not, it is in your best interest to get their email address and as much information about them as possible. With this information, you’ll be able to target them with personalized email marketing or SMS marketing. Make sure you gather this data from each visitor!
Lastly, keep running ads. Even if you find that you haven't made any sales yet, use the data you’ve gained to make better decisions and really pinpoint your winning audience and their behaviours. This is a strategy that, as you’ll later find out, defines a successful dropshipper from an unsuccessful one.
Well perceived Value to the average shopper
If you’re selling an incredible gift bundle that makes your shopper think they’re getting the deal of the century, you’ve got the right idea.
The concept is to create a sales proposition with products that have an affordable wholesale price (what you, the retailer, pays) and have the potential to be marked up substantially due to their perceived value when bundled together.
Take a look at this Glossier “Super Pack”. Buying one or two seems pricey, but when you bundle all three for value - You’ve got yourself a phenomenal deal.
Use your own creativity (or outsource it to a freelance graphic designer) to create enticing Facebook ad imagery that really convinces your customers that this is a product and sale they don’t want to miss.
People love a good deal on Black Friday, so make sure you focus on the value and savings they get from making the purchase.
Manual bidding on Facebook Ads
Due to the large volume of people running ads on Facebook during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you’re going to get outbid and your costs will soar. The worst part is, your ad will not be able to make an impact or yield the results you expect on BFCM.
We asked Kamil how he deals with the immense competition and prices on Facebook ads, and how a dropshipper can make their ads be seen and clicked on in a sea of competition. His answer was simple: Manual Bidding.
What is Manual Bidding?
Kamil warned that this is no approach for the beginner. It takes some expertise and an extremely well-defined target audience to pull it off. If you’ve used Facebook ads before, you can leverage the data you already have about your target audience.
If not, make sure you gather as much data about your audience as you can. From their demographic to their geographic location, be aware of where they shop, and how.
The advantages of manual bidding include a more cost efficient campaign, a better competitive edge on competitors, and an easier way to manage campaign costs in general.
Manual bidding on Facebook works like this: You create a clear conversion or objective, and indicate how much you’re willing to bid in the auction. Facebook will use your budget and objective to complete the goal.
This is more of a tactic for experienced dropshippers, however you still have time to learn and master how manual bidding works before Black Friday.
How to deal with long wait times: Go on the Customer Journey
If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s a disgruntled customer wondering where their order from two days ago is.
Kamil shared some insight and useful techniques that kept his customers happy, engaged and recurring.
“People have become more impatient and unrealistic in their expectations for delivery” he says.
So, how can dropshippers get ahead of the curve and make sure they keep their customers informed, pleased and satisfied when their product finally arrives?
Managing these expectations is a part of customer service, and your ticket to raving and recurring customers.
Communicate with them before they communicate with you
Have a versatile and nurturing email cycle that eases the mind of your customer. Reassure them that the product is on the way, and let them know on which part of the cycle they’re at.
Email them every other day, and provide updates on tracking numbers as soon as it’s available.
Give your customers free stuff for waiting
Let's be honest. In the pandemonium of Black Friday, your products might be a bit late.
Why not mitigate their reaction and send them free stuff for waiting? It can be something digital, an eBook or a small trinket that matches what they already bought.
This not only makes them feel better, it makes them feel valued and appreciated. Something that builds a trusting and respectful relationship, that’s worth more than the cost of the product, and the free gift together.
What should you sell for BFCM?
It’s the most important time to shop (and sell) for most people, with the holiday season and new year just around the corner. People are itching for good deals on items they’ve long wanted, and for things they can gift to loved ones and themselves this holiday season.
We asked Kamil what he recommends we dropship this holiday season, and he didn’t hesitate to list criteria for the perfect BFCM product.
1. Products that drive repeat purchases
This may seem like a no-brainer, but products that run out and need to be repurchased are a golden opportunity. From artisanal soap to handcrafted self care bundles, your customers will come back to you for the things they love.
2. Products that need supplementary add-ons
Skincare trinkets that need different nozzles or vacuums that can get into the tiniest creases in your home all have different add ons that make them useful in more ways than one. Tech accessories are huge this year, and having add-ons for computers, tables, or home offices is a great place to look.
3. Gift Idea/Bundles
The holiday season is the season for giving, and the sentimental mood is at an all time high!
Build a gift collection for different people and occasions full of gift ideas for family, friends, pets, babies, and anything that strikes a cord this holiday season. People always wonder what they should get, why not make that decision easy for them with a curated collection?
4. Products that have higher perceived value
Just as we briefly mentioned above, having gift sets or products that have higher perceived value together are perfect for the holiday season. People are looking for a good deal and gift ideas, so bundles with low wholesale prices and high retail prices are a goldmine.
How to Find Product Ideas for BFCM
As we all know, winning products are a successful dropshippers most coveted secret.
So instead of asking which products Kamil recommends, He showed us how to find these products for ourselves.
He gave us his own fool-proof way of finding winning products to sell on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and how to use historical ads to build a winning campaign.
Look at past data to fuel future campaigns
Kamil let us in on a little secret called Adspy, a platform that has the largest repository of historical Facebook and Instagram ads.
Kamil told us the best way to find winning products (and winning ad campaigns to boot) lies in the historical data of past winning products.
He said to look at last year’s top performing ads and ask yourself two questions:
“Is his products still relevant? How can I take this idea and make it better?”
If you think the product is still relevant, then you’ve got a solid chance at rebranding the product and turning a profit again this year.
Filter based on historical ads with 1–5 million views and learn the reasons why these ads were successful.
Is it the call to action? Is it the color palette and ad copy?
Use historical ads and data to not only find potential winning products, but to build your ads based on the best practices and lessons from last year. This way, you’ve got a solid place to start, and proof that these methods can indeed work.
What sets off a successful dropshipper from an unsuccessful one?
Sometimes to achieve success dropshipping, you have to take some risks and make sacrifices. Most dropshippers will spend $500 – $1000 on ads without seeing immediate returns.
They have the same type of impatience that customers who want their items yesterday have. Little do they realize that most unsuccessful people quit right before they’re about to succeed. Unsuccessful dropshippers think short-term, are focused on instant gratification, and don’t consider re-investing their profits back into their business. Like many things in life, you’ll need to test items out to find the ones that work for you. Failure is an integral part of the success journey, and any successful entrepreneur can attest to this.
Lastly, think outside the box. Be creative and don’t copy someone else just because you can see that they’re doing well. Chances are, if you jump on the same bandwagon, your competition is hopping off and thinking of something new. Create your brand. Own it. Make it unique to you.
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