Posted on 24/04/202422/04/2024 in AI, Business

AI Apps: Best Artificial Intelligence Apps for a Range of Uses

Inexpensive AI apps can help you with everything from video generation to budgeting. Learn how to find the most practical AI apps.

The artificial intelligence (AI) market is now expected to surpass $700 billion by 2030. AI has the capacity to simulate and potentially exceed a human’s ability for creative thinking and problem-solving, and continues to expand into new territories every day.

Businesses can use AI applications to save time, enhance content and campaigns, and improve the customer experience. Here are the various types of AI apps that can help you run your ecommerce business.

Ecommerce merchants use various AI models to increase business efficiency. Here are some of the main categories for AI apps and examples of useful apps with AI-powered features:

Chatbots

Chatbots are computer programs that interact with users through text prompts. AI chatbots take this technology to a new level by using natural language processing (NLP) to generate text that understands and responds to a wide range of human languages and colloquialisms, allowing for more nuanced and contextually relevant conversations.

For example, a conversational AI chatbot could address questions from an ecommerce customer about product availability or shipping costs even if the customer misspells the product name or phrases a question awkwardly.

By generating text that adapts to a user’s language, AI chatbot apps give ecommerce merchants the ability to provide users with personalized experiences based on the user’s preferences and past interactions. Here are some of the most popular new AI chatbot apps:

Tidio. An AI app that features a user-friendly interface and monitoring tools, Tidio integrates with Shopify and offers plans that start at $29 a month or $290 for a year.
Gobot. Designed to assist with customer support and free for the first 5,000 engagements, Gobot tailors text prompts based on the user’s language to create a personalized shopping experience.
Ochatbot. Designed to learn your store’s inventory within minutes and keep your data private, Ochatbot offers a paid plan starting at $29 a month and pro plans that include advanced features like prompts for users who’ve abandoned their shopping carts.

Image and video

Generative AI tools give you the power to create personalized content for your brand. For example, you can use an AI app to enhance your product images or create branded videos for YouTube. Here are a few apps that use generative AI to enhance content creation:

CreatorKit. This image and video creation tool—with free and pro plans that start at $29 monthly and $144 yearly—uses generative AI to produce videos with attractive templates and easy background replacement features.
Minta Video. Minta Video uses AI to generate brand-tailored video content for free (up to five videos per month) or for $35 monthly (up to 70 videos a month).
DALL-E 2. For 2¢ per high-resolution image (1024×1024 pixels), DALL-E 2 interprets simple text prompts to create photo-realistic or abstract images in a range of styles.

Virtual assistants

Use an AI assistant to schedule meetings, organize email accounts, manage bookkeeping tasks, and other tedious tasks of everyday life. With automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, voice assistants let you verbally dictate administrative tasks.

Virtual assistants enhance efficiency and reduce human error in detail-oriented tasks like data entry and project management, saving valuable time. Many ecommerce platforms now incorporate AI systems functioning as virtual assistants. For instance, Shopify employs various AI tools, including the newly introduced AI assistant Sidekick, to help you manage your store. A couple of other AI virtual assistant options include:

Reclaim AI. This AI-driven app—with a free basic service plan and a business plan, which includes analytics and integrations for $12 a month—automates administrative tasks like calendar management and task prioritization.
Bardeen AI. This app includes features that help you automate tasks like organizing emails, qualifying leads, and generating reports for a limited free plan or a $10 per month pro plan.

Product recommendations

Use AI-powered apps to offer product recommendations to customers. These apps use conversational AI tools like natural language processing (NLP) to generate text prompts with recommendations for users based on historical data like customers’ search histories or previous purchases. An AI app that creates targeted recommendations can engage potential customers based on their interests and help them learn about your company at their own pace.

Here are a couple of examples of AI-powered product recommendation apps:

Wiser. For $9 to $49 a month, this app generates informed product recommendations, suggests product bundles at various times throughout the customer journey, and creates targeted messages that can increase conversions.
LimeSpot Personalizer. With services starting at $18 per month, LimeSpot Personalizer can integrate product recommendations on any page of your site and A/B test personalized content blocks on your site.

Finance

Finance apps leveraging machine learning can streamline invoicing, employee payments, and budgeting, boosting productivity in daily financial management, payment tracking, and real-time feedback. Here are two to try:

Fyle. This finance app includes standard plans that start at $7 per month and uses AI to track expenses and provide real-time analytics about budgets.
WallyGPT. This free app gives users AI-generated financial advice based on budgets and expenses.

Transcription

Some AI apps give you the power to automatically transcribespoken language into written text or instantly translate spoken input. These tools enhance on-the-go efficiency. You could use them to simplify the transcription of an interview for a blog post, or to help you organize your notes from a meeting.

Here are a couple of examples of AI-powered apps that assist with transcription:

Transcy. With a free version available to Shopify merchants, this app uses AI to translate your ecommerce store into multiple languages depending on where you’re selling online.
Otter.ai. This AI app offers a free basic plan that includes 300 hours of meeting transcriptions every month.

Marketing

AI apps can enhance your marketing efforts by processing real-time traffic data and insights about customer behavior. For example, AI apps could consolidate a wide range of customer profiles into generalized AI avatars that help you make decisions about how to focus your marketing campaigns toward your target audience.

Two cutting-edge apps in this space include:

Glowtify: AI Marketing. At $50 a month, this AI-powered app is designed to improve your marketing efforts by generating complete campaigns along with specific and actionable goals.
InCharge. With pricing plans starting at $29 per month, InCharge tracks and consolidates advertising data from across platforms and features creative analytics in a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to adjust and improve your marketing efforts.

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us: blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/ai-apps

Posted on 23/04/202422/04/2024 in Business

What is CPM Marketing? Your New Tool for Brand Awareness

Learn about CPM marketing, its benefits to advertisers, and how to calculate CPM rates.

In the frenzied world of digital advertising, brands compete for consumer attention across social media, search engines, and websites. An effective messaging strategy—not to mention the right advertising pricing model—can help you break through the noise.

One of the most popular tools to achieve this is CPM marketing. With this format, advertisers pay based on impressions instead of clicks or conversions. At first glance, CPM marketing seems like a leap of faith. You’re paying upfront without guaranteed results. However, as in life, first impressions matter.

This article dives into how CPM marketing works, how to calculate your rates, and why it may be the right choice for your marketing goals over other pricing models.

What is CPM?

CPM is a digital advertisingpricing model where advertisers pay for each ad display or impression. CPM stands for “cost per thousand impressions,” or “cost per mille” (mille means “thousand” in Latin).

Benefits of CPM

CPM marketing offers several advantages, making it an effective option for many digital advertising goals. Here are some of the key benefits of CPM ad campaigns:

Improved brand awareness

A CPM campaign on ad networks like the Google Display Network allows businesses to increase brand awareness. The CPM pricing model gives advertisers access to premium ad placements and broad reach across web pages. This builds brand awareness and recognition by showing ads multiple times.

CPM ads can go beyond awareness and into sales when part of larger digital marketing efforts.

Cost-effective customer acquisition

CPM advertising is a cost-effective way to get new leads and customers, compared to some other digital marketingpricing models. CPM campaigns let you tailor your target CPM rate based on your customer acquisition costs and the value of a conversion. Spending is predictable, because you pay only for impressions delivered rather than clicks, which can be harder to estimate.

Effective retargeting

Although CPM ads may not directly drive conversions, they allow retargeting, which can generate leads and sales. CPM campaigns repeatedly get your brand and ads in front of high-intent audiences across ad formats and placements.

When aligned with email, social media, and search ads, marketing campaigns that use CPM can nurture consumers through to conversion. The awareness and familiarity of CPM strategies make potential customers more likely to engage and convert when they see your messaging on other channels.

How to calculate CPM

The formula to calculate CPM is straightforward:

CPM = (Total Cost of the Campaign / Total Number of Impressions) x 1,000

To use the CPM formula, you need two pieces of information:

The total cost of your advertising campaign, or the amount you pay to run the ads
The total number of impressions your campaign will generate (or has generated)

Once you have these numbers, you divide the total cost by the total number of impressions. This gives you the cost per single impression. Because CPM is the cost per thousand impressions, you multiply the result by 1,000 to get your CPM.

CPM calculation example

Let’s say a clothing retailer runs an online advertising campaign with the following details:

Total cost of the campaign: $5,000
Total number of impressions: 2,000,000

Here’s how they could calculate their CPM:

CPM = ($5,000 / 2,000,000) x 1,000

CPM = $2.50

So, the CPM for the clothing retailer’s advertising campaign is $2.50. This means that for every thousand impressions its ads receive, it pays $2.50.

CPM vs. CPC vs. CPA: What’s the difference?

Advertisers can choose from various ad pricing models, each with its own method for calculating costs. The three most common models are cost per mille (CPM), cost per click (CPC), and cost per action (CPA). Understanding the differences between these models is crucial for marketers looking to optimize their ad spend and return on ad spend (ROAS).

Here’s what each pricing model means:

CPM (cost per mille)

CPM, or cost per mille, refers to the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand impressions for an advertisement. An impression is registered each time the ad is displayed to a user, regardless of whether it’s clicked or leads to a conversion.

CPM is best suited for campaigns designed to increase brand awareness, because it focuses on the number of times an ad is seen rather than interaction with the ad.

CPC (cost per click)

CPC, or cost per click, is a pricing model where the advertiser pays each time someone clicks on its ad, regardless of what happens after the click. This model is typically focused on driving traffic to a website or landing page.

CPC is often used when the campaign aims to drive immediate action, such as visiting a website or landing page, rather than just viewing an ad.

Here’s how to calculate CPC:

CPC = Total Cost of the Campaign / Total Number of Clicks

CPA (cost per action)

CPA, or cost per action, is a model where the advertiser pays only when a specific action is taken due to someone clicking the ad. This action could be a sale, a sign-up, a download, or any other predefined conversion event.

CPA is a performance-based model that is commonly used in affiliate marketing, a process where content creators earn a commission every time someone buys something through an affiliate link they share. Advertisers favor it to ensure their ad spend maps to specific conversion goals.

Here’s how to calculate CPA:

CPA = Total Cost of the Campaign / Total Number of Conversions

Each model serves different advertising objectives. The choice between CPM, CPC, and CPA depends on what an advertiser wants to achieve with their campaign.

Wrapping Up:

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/cpm-marketing

Posted on 22/04/202419/04/2024 in Business

Marketplaces are thriving in South Africa

More than half of South Africa’s 60 million people now use e-commerce channels for purchases. And, if one considers research that shows 47% of offline shoppers will move online within a year, it becomes clear that this number will swell exponentially in the short to medium-term.

It comes as no surprise that online marketplaces are thriving amid the e-commerce boom. As more South Africans gain access to digital platforms, it becomes easier for them to buy goods from the comfort of their home or wherever is most convenient at the time.

What is interesting to note is that the South African market differs slightly from those of first-world countries.

Electronic Funds Transfers, for example, remain important in South Africa where credit card payments are more widely accepted overseas. Being able to handle these seamlessly is vital for any local marketplace.

One area where South Africa still has an opportunity is in access to certain products, and it stands to reason that businesses able to finesse the process of sourcing and importing in-demand product lines have the potential to do well.

Making sure that buyers enjoy consumer safeguards while shopping these hard-to-find items is also important. For example, shopping on an international platform may not allow for easy, cost-effective returns. Having goods imported may also attract additional duties and fees for the buyer of the goods.

Of course, with more e-commerce businesses entering the market, a situation develops where a marketplace will need to stand out from the crowd to attract customers who have become ever-more discerning.

According to Craig Lubbe, Head of Marketplace at e-commerce ecosystem Bob Group, South African consumers are value-conscious and like to compare prices across online stores.

Lubbe says a big selling point of online marketplaces is that it is very easy to compare prices across different sellers.

“The convenience of having multiple sellers in one place positions marketplaces as ideal platforms for this comparison shopping,” he says.

Yet running a platform and making it a success are two very different things. Marketplaces need to balance ease of access to products and user experience whilst making sure that the shopping experience is safe and secure for both sellers and buyers on the platform. Communication with shoppers during this process is equally important. Good online shopping experiences require frequent delivery updates once an order is placed.

Sometimes buyers also have questions prior to making a purchase decision, which is an important part of the shopping process. “On our Bob Shop platform, for example, you can ask questions from the sellers about the products on offer, and often sellers can even source other products which are not listed at the request of a buyer.”

He says creating a user-friendly experience provides an opportunity to “delight customers”. While the experience may not necessarily be noticed at each point, ticking the right boxes helps remove barriers for customers deciding if they should buy or not.

Conversely, a bad user experience will tip the scales in the wrong direction.

There are other important aspects that sellers need to finesse. Accurate product titles, well-produced product descriptions and good product imagery affect a buyer’s purchase decision. Not enough information about the product or failing to inform customers when they can expect delivery can put off a customer immediately.

Lubbe says sellers operating on marketplaces that pay attention to detail have potential to thrive, but they should also remember that demands change. Marketplaces also need to constantly adapt to new technologies and trends. This means they should always be looking to improve the shopping experience, both for the seller and buyer.

“What we have found successful is standardising our offering in terms of payments and consistent, cost-effective delivery options, for example. As time goes on, there will be other focus areas that we need to address to remain an option for our buyers and sellers in South Africa”

Wrapping Up:

The article originates from: https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/is-your-favourite-online-marketplace-giving-you-the-best-user-friendly-experience-453709a

Posted on 21/04/202422/04/2024 in Business

Cultivate a Community Online in 3 Simple Steps

Liah Yoo built an audience on YouTube before launching her brand KraveBeauty. She shares how to create a community online while redefining your industry.

Often, cultivating a loyal community online is one of the best ways to build a brand. But how do you make content that’s relatable and rallies the support of strangers? Liah Yoo has the answer.

Liah is the founder of KraveBeauty, a multimillion-dollar skincare company that’s resetting industry norms. Her brand focuses on limiting the number of products used in a typical skin care routine to minimize breakouts.

Liah founded her company after she documented her own journey with adult acne on YouTube. She built a community of more than one million subscribers before launching her market-disrupting brand.

Ahead Liah shares the strategies that helped her connect with a large audience online.

3 ways to build a community online

Lilah has been creating content on social media since 2011. Tap into more than a decade’s worth of her experience to grow your own community.

1. Find a problem you already have

If you want your content to perform well on social media, address a problem you understand first hand. “Community gets built really easily around a shared problem,” Liah says. As soon as she began making videos documenting her struggle with adult acne, people started subscribing to her channel.

Lilah was vulnerable about her own frustrations, and how confused and overwhelmed she felt with the industry. “Oftentimes with acne-prone skin, we’re applying way too many products, and sometimes you need to press reset and simplify in order to clear your skin,” Lilah says. Her content was enjoyable because it not only was relatable, but came from an authentic point of view.

2. Create a slogan that embodies your brand

Lilah highlights the importance of having a slogan for your content. “Nike has, ‘Just Do It’ and Apple has, ‘Think Different,’” she says. “Your slogan represents your brand and the lifestyle you want other people to also join and live together. For us that was definitely #PressReset.”

The slogan refers to resetting thoughts around routine, the industry’s waste, and other jargon brands use to scare or upsell customers. Lilah uses the slogan throughout her content, including as a hashtag on her posts.

3. Focus on value for your audience

So many influencers sell skin care products online that it can be unclear what actually works and what’s excess. Lilah focused her content on providing value in the form of helping and informing her audience.

Frustrated by all the contradicting information sold to her by popular skin care brands, she wanted to promote the fact that you don’t need expensive treatments or topicals to heal. “The industry makes you feel like you need to apply more products, go through a laser treatment, or take accutane,” Liah says.

If you can create content with helpful, tactful information, people will keep coming back for more. Developing personal expertise is important when it comes to making your posts engaging online—and earning the trust of your target audience.

Wrapping Up:

The article originates from: https://www .shopify.com/za/blog/liah-yoo-krave-beauty-build-community-with-content

Posted on 20/04/202419/04/2024 in Business

E-commerce surge spells opportunity for SA’s SME transporters

The growth of e-commerce has been unprecedented, reshaping consumer habits and driving increased demand within the transportation sector. To bolster e-commerce expansion in South Africa, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must embrace new technologies, adapt to changing consumer preferences, and employ innovative operational strategies. By staying abreast of e-commerce trends and developments, transporters can effectively navigate the dynamic e-commerce landscape.

Consequently, since the onset of the pandemic, there has been a remarkable surge in technology adoption and a transition to e-commerce, resulting in heightened demand for transportation services. This shift presents a significant opportunity for existing and emerging transport companies to capitalize on the evolving market dynamics.

According to Statista, revenues in the worldwide e-commerce market are projected to reach around US$3.18t (R59.34t) by the end of 2024. With an annual growth rate (CAGR 2024-2029) of 9.47%, volumes are expected to reach $5trillion (R93.3t) a year by 2029 from 3.2 billion active users, or a 44.4% population penetration (up from 36.6% in 2024).

These rate estimates may be moderate, given the anticipated exponential advancements in efficiencies and productivity driven by artificial intelligence across various sectors, including energy, manufacturing and transportation.

Market analysis

Aspiring transporters must grasp the factors driving the rapid growth of e-commerce, including new ways of working, emerging technology, consumer behaviour and decreasing technophobia across age groups.

Freighters need to remain vigilant and stay updated on the latest technological advancements that influence e-commerce, such as AI-driven personalisation, blockchain for supply chain transparency, and augmented reality (AR) for immersive shopping experiences. They need to be aware of these innovations to adapt their services accordingly and offer value-added solutions to e-commerce businesses.

Partner with retailers

The digitisation of the economy, coupled with the adoption of smart technology in vehicles, renders traditional business practices obsolete. The emergence of user-friendly apps that can simplify starting and managing an online business makes it accessible to entrepreneurs and small businesses. The involvement of financial institutions further democratises e-commerce, ensuring it is no longer exclusive to large retailers.

Add value

Transportation alone is no longer enough, operators must uniquely differentiate themselves. While some may emphasise scale, others can offer promotions in partnership with retailers, commercial (product) insights, regular newsletters or subscription services. The possibilities are endless and limited only by available tools.

Plan your routes

Delivery is no longer about speed; personalised care for business and customer information is crucial. Forward-thinking transporters conduct additional research on target areas’ planned development or provide real-time updates on road works to offer real-time communication to customers.

A customer may be willing to wait a few extra days, knowing that a transporter has communicated about potential disturbances, like social unrest.

The power of data

The day, when every aspect of public and private infrastructure is digitised, is fast approaching, where vehicles talk to each other and the surrounding environment in real-time. There is already an enormous and ever-expanding repository of data collected through GPS-powered apps, mapping solutions and even businesses themselves. Accessing and maximising this data enables transporters to be more than just couriers, they become advisors.

Wrapping Up:

The article originates from: https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/e-commerce-surge-spells-opportunity-for-sas-sme-transporters-675101a#

Posted on 18/04/202417/04/2024 in Business, Entrepreneur

Unleashing Business Success: The Journey of Tyson Walters and Shed Defender

Today, let’s delve into a case study featuring Tyson Walters, a notable figure in the e-commerce realm of Shed Defender.

Over the past years, Tyson Walters has made a mark in the e-commerce landscape, particularly in the niche of selling dog onesies. With over 30,000 units sold and a cumulative revenue surpassing $1.7 million USD, Tyson’s brand, Shed Defender, stands out in the market. Surprisingly, he’s achieved this feat with just a team of three, including himself.

Let’s take a closer look at his profile and the milestones he’s achieved:

Name: Tyson Walters

Website Brand: Shed Defender

Employees: 2

Monthly Revenue: $70,000 USD

Website: www.sheddefender.com

Now, let me share my analysis of this case study from a first-person perspective.

1. Introduction to My Core Business

I’m Tyson Walters, the founder of the Shed Defender brand.

Our journey began formally in October 2016, but the idea had been brewing in my mind for about six years prior. It took several years of fabric testing and design experimentation to reach where we are today.

Our flagship product, the Shed Defender, is a versatile pet bodysuit that effectively controls pet hair shedding and dander, while also providing comfort and alleviating pet anxiety.

We offer nine sizes to accommodate dogs ranging from 5 pounds to approximately 200 pounds. To date, we’ve sold over 30,000 units, generating over $1.7 million in sales.

As we venture into the new year, we anticipate continued business growth and have some exciting new products in the pipeline.

2. Genesis of the Idea

The genesis of this idea traces back to 2011 when I had a heavily shedding Saint Bernard named Harley at home.

No matter where we went, whether in the car or at home, her hair was everywhere. It became a nuisance whenever we visited friends and family, leaving a trail of hair wherever Harley went.

Existing anti-shedding products in the market, like car seat covers and sofa covers, felt restrictive and uncomfortable for Harley. Seeing no effective solutions, I decided to create something new.

My initial idea was to design a suit for dogs that could collect hair and dander. The prototype was initially sewn by my mother and underwent several rounds of improvements. After hiring a professional seamstress, we tailored a suit that suited Harley perfectly.

Harley wearing the prototype attracted much attention, with many inquiring where to purchase such a product for their pets. The positive feedback I received over several months highlighted a clear market demand, prompting me to turn this idea into a business.

I extensively tested these samples on dogs of various sizes in different settings, from animal shelters to dog parks. After achieving satisfaction with the fabric, design, and sizing, I borrowed some money and launched a website.

Initially, progress was slow, but one day, an advertisement I posted on Facebook caught the attention of The Dodo, an animal news website. The resulting video went viral overnight, leading to inquiries from national and international media outlets.

This whirlwind experience brought excitement but also a daunting amount of work to fulfill the demands of thousands of customers.

3. The Production Journey of the First Product

The production journey began with sourcing suitable fabric, necessitating elasticity, comfort, breathability, and durability. After thorough research and sampling, I discovered a sports mesh fabric made from recycled plastic bottles, which met all the necessary criteria.

This fabric proved lightweight, breathable, and durable, capable of withstanding the daily activities of dogs. With the fabric finalized, I focused on refining the design, experimenting with various versions.

I explored options like Velcro, snaps, and different fabrics before settling on a design that surpassed existing products in durability, versatility, comfort, and effectiveness.

Initially, a seamstress could produce only 1-2 custom Shed Defenders per day. However, with the surge in demand, I realized the need to collaborate with a manufacturer to handle the increasing number of orders.

After thorough inquiries and recommendations, I found a reliable contact in San Francisco willing to collaborate.

4. The Entrepreneurial Journey

I created my first website using Squarespace, initially intending to sell a few Shed Defenders as a hobby. Without a manufacturer yet, I engaged a local seamstress who could produce a few units per day, all made-to-order.

Investing a small amount in Facebook advertising, I witnessed a surge in demand, further amplified by The Dodo’s video. Media coverage skyrocketed overnight, along with a flood of orders, making it clear that relying solely on my seamstress was untenable.

While it was heartening to see such demand for my product, it was also daunting, as I was navigating uncharted waters. I immediately sought local manufacturers’ services and was fortunate to find one in San Francisco, a two-hour drive from my home.

Although production commenced, it took several months to fulfill the first batch of Shed Defenders. Consequently, early customers had to wait longer than expected to receive their orders.

To ensure customer satisfaction, I sent sincere emails, explaining the situation and providing regular updates. Most customers were understanding when approached with honesty and transparency.

Upon shipping the first few thousand Shed Defenders, my parents and I personally packaged and shipped them from their kitchen table. It was then that I realized it was time to fully commit to the business.

Borrowing some money from family, I began stocking inventory and invested in marketing efforts. The initial two years were a steep learning curve, with numerous ups and downs, but I have no regrets!

Woman holding three dogs wearing shed defender

5. Customer Acquisition Strategies

Facebook Advertising

Facebook ads have been our go-to platform, offering an accessible solution for startups. With budgets as low as $20 or $50, we could kickstart campaigns, and the ad management platform is user-friendly.

Starting with minimal daily budgets, we gradually increased spending as we saw positive returns and sales growth. Experimenting with audience targeting, ad copy, and design has been instrumental in our success.

Amazon

Amazon serves as another vital sales channel for us, offering an advertising platform suitable for various budgets. While initially challenging, we hired an agency to assist in setting up and running our store.

After a year of internal operations, we opted to outsource to a third party, maintaining control over pricing and quality. With Amazon’s vast customer base, it’s a platform worth exploring for any business.

6. Future Plans and Lessons Learned

We’re currently profitable, achieving a 65% year-over-year revenue growth last year. Our gross profit nearly doubled, thanks to bulk production, providing better profit margins.

Starting from 2019, we plan to expand our product line, strengthen brand presence, and diversify sales channels. While reflecting on our entrepreneurial journey, the importance of due diligence stands out.

We’ve made various mistakes along the way but persisted in moving forward. My biggest advice is to conduct thorough research, as things that sound too good to be true often are.

For instance, we once received a batch of defective products that couldn’t be sold. This setback almost derailed our business, emphasizing the need for careful supplier vetting.

Early on, we also fell victim to overhyped marketing promises, resulting in excess inventory. Therefore, my advice to budding entrepreneurs is simple: refrain from overstocking unless confident in your sales projections.

7. Tools Utilized

We leverage Shopify, Shipstation, and DearSystems as our e-commerce, shipping, and inventory platforms, respectively. Shopify’s user-friendliness and integrations make it an ideal choice for startups.

Yotpo serves as our customer review system, providing invaluable insights for product improvements and identifying new use cases.

8. Advice for Entrepreneurs

Read “The 4-Hour Workweek“

If you’re unable to find answers or unsure where to start, seek guidance from someone smarter than you.

Reiterating, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is! Conduct due diligence to avoid costly mistakes.

For instance, we were persuaded to use cheaper zippers initially, leading to extensive replacements due to defects. Similarly, partnering with a television shopping ad company proved disastrous, as their promises far exceeded their capabilities.

In conclusion, entrepreneurship is a journey filled with challenges and opportunities for growth. Embrace the journey, learn from mistakes, and persist in pursuit of your vision.

Wrapping up

If you aspire to emulate Tyson Walters’ success in South Africa, Shopshipshake offers robust supply chain support. Direct sourcing from Chinese factories reveals procurement costs only a fraction of Shed Defender’s selling price. Moreover, the compact and lightweight nature of the products facilitates cost-effective air shipping. With dropshipping, products can reach your South African customers within 10-15 days from China, yielding profit margins as high as 70%! Link for Product

This article is originally written by Shopshipshake.

Posted on 17/04/202417/04/2024 in BUSINESS, Business, SEO

How To Create a Sitemap in 4 Simple Steps in 2024

Before you create a sitemap manually, check to see if your tech stack has already created one for you. If not, you can create a sitemap in four easy steps.

If you knew inspectors were coming to approve a building for commercial use, you’d probably set things up for them beforehand, get an idea of what they wanted to check, and be on-site to walk them through the premises. That’s pretty much what a sitemap does, but for search engine crawlers. It provides them with a layout of the website, a hierarchy of each page’s importance, and a rough time frame for when they should come back around again to inspect for updated keywords.

Creating a sitemap for SEO is fairly straightforward. Although it can be time-consuming for larger sites, a suite of tools can help streamline the process or even automate it. It’s also just good practice, given the importance of a website in the user’s overall experience of a business. Just as preparing a property for inspectors provides a good opportunity to tidy up and ensure essential infrastructure is in working order, so too can the process of creating a sitemap provide a good overview of your website’s overall structure and coherence.

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is a file that provides a structured list of all a website’s pages, helping search engines like Google understand the site’s organization and content hierarchy. This enhances the site’s discoverability in search results. The file contains a list of every URL you want crawled and ranked, as well as their relative importance to each other, their last update, and their frequency of update. For ecommerce sites, sitemaps guide search engine bots through product or service listings, categories, and relevant pages.

There are two types of sitemaps: one written in XML (extensible markup language) and the other written in HTML (hypertext markup language). XML sitemaps are created so search engines can crawl and index your site. Specialized sitemap formats exist for websites primarily focused on presenting imagery and video, and “news sitemaps” help websites like Google News and Google Discovery prioritize surfacing timely news stories.

HTML sitemaps help with crawlability, helping search engine bots move from one page to another. HTML sitemaps help bots discover more pages.

Why create a sitemap?

The benefit of creating a sitemap is that it helps search engine bots crawl more pages on a regular basis, which can improve your website’s rankings, as rankings are linked to on-page optimization. Google uses sitemaps to help its bots better crawl and index sites. Arthur Camberlein, technical SEO and data specialist at Shopify, says, “Remember to list all the website URLs you want to index. Don’t include pages like ‘/cart’ or ‘/contact’, for example. [And] take the time to create an XML sitemap, because it helps bots efficiently crawl your pages.”

Sitemaps can help you:

Index new pages quickly. If your site frequently adds or updates products, a sitemap helps search engines quickly identify these changes, leading to faster exposure.
Enhance user experience (UX). UX designers also produce sitemaps so they can create a website layout that’s intuitive and easy for users to navigate.
Prevent duplicate content issues. Avoid including non-canonical URLs in your sitemaps. Doing so may prompt bots to crawl these URLs, which wouldn’t benefit your website. Your website’s XML and HTML sitemaps should only contain self-canonicalized URLs that are indexed (as opposed to not indexed) and return a “200 HTTP” status code.
Appeal internationally. If your ecommerce business operates in multiple regions and languages, you can create separate sitemaps for each locale, so search engines use the appropriate versions in each location.

How to create a sitemap

Gather all your URLs
Code them in XML
Add your sitemap to your website
Submit your sitemap to search engines

Before creating a sitemap, decide whether you want to automate the process. One or multiple elements of your tech stack may have already created a sitemap for you. For example:

Shopify dynamically creates a sitemap for all websites built on its platform, including international variants.
The popular web publishing tool WordPress allows users to take advantage of plug-ins that generate sitemaps automatically.
Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, and Link Sleuth have tools that can help generate an automated sitemap for your website.

If you’ve used any of these, you can skip directly to step four to learn how to submit a sitemap to the search engines of your choice. If you want to make one manually, though, the process is fairly straightforward.

1. Gather all your URLs

The first step is to get all of your website’s URLs together in one place. If you have a very small website, you can do this by clicking on each page and pasting the URLs into a text document. For larger websites, consider using site crawlers (like Screaming Frog or Site Bulb), exporting the list of URLs from your content management system (CMS), or pulling them from the landing page data of your analytics platform.

2. Code them in XML

Next, add the data that enriches this list of URLs for crawlers. Using a text editor like Notepad (Windows) or TextEdit (Mac), or a code editor like Sublime Text, begin creating the XML code for the sitemap. For each web page, you’ll list its:

Location. This is just its URL.
Last modified date. This is written in the format YYYY-MM-DD.
Change frequency. You can list its update frequency as always (for constantly updated pages), hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never (if the page is likely to remain static).
Priority. This ranges from 0.0 (least important) to 1.0 (most important). You typically want your homepage listed as 1.0, major pages at around 0.8, and lower-importance blog posts at around 0.6.

Do this for every page, then save the file as sitemap.xml.

3. Add your sitemap to your website

The next step is to take your sitemap and attach it to your website. Locate the root folder of your website and upload the sitemap file. Now that the sitemap is online and accessible via browser, capture its URL for the next step.

4. Submit your sitemap to search engines

Finally, you need to let search engines know you’ve done the work. (Even if you automated the creation of their sitemap with a tool, you’ll still have to take this step.) Go to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools, find the tab listed “sitemap,” and paste the sitemap URL you just created. At this point, you’ve given the engines all the instructions they need, and if there are any glitches with the information you provided, they’ll surface them for you.

Sitemap best practices

Consider following these tips when building and maintaining your sitemap:

Use tools. Your CMS, website builder, or analytics program may have tools to help streamline or automate the process of building a sitemap. Unless you’re really interested in getting to know XML and your full site hierarchy, make use of them.
- Use sitemap indexes for large websites. If you have more than 50,000 URLs to index, build multiple sitemaps nested together using a sitemap index.
- Prioritize high-quality pages. When categorizing each page’s priority, emphasize the key landing pages and category pages, so search engines know they’re more important than, say, a very old blog post.
- Consider which pages to block. Search engines cannot index pages that are password protected, so do not add those to your sitemap.
- Consider publishing an HTML sitemap for users. Many major websites have HTML sitemaps that delineates the hierarchy of the website and its pages. This doesn’t really help with search engine optimization (SEO), but it can be a useful tool for visitors looking to scope your full offerings in a different format.
- Validate your code.Code needs to be perfect to work properly. Before uploading a manually coded sitemap, use a code validation tool like W3C Markup Validation Service or TutorialsPoint’s XML Validation Tool.
- Update your sitemap periodically. Set yourself a reminder to upload a new sitemap occasionally. If you’re frequently adding lots of new pages, consider doing this every couple of weeks. If you’ve performed a dramatic redesign, update your sitemap quickly so the new pages are reflected in search engine results. Even if you have a relatively static page, consider giving it an annual once-over.

Wrapping Up:

This article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/how-to-create-a-sitemap

Posted on 15/04/202416/04/2024 in Business, products

Choosing the Best Safety Shoes: A Comprehensive Guide in 2024

When it comes to working outdoors or in potentially hazardous environments, investing in a reliable pair of safety shoes is paramount. Whether you’re an electrician, construction worker, or involved in chemical or mining industries, the right safety boots can significantly mitigate risks and protect your feet from harm. In this guide, we’ll delve into the different types of safety shoes available, how to choose the best ones, and recommendations for the latest models that offer both safety and comfort.

Main Factors to Look for When Choosing Proper Footwear for Your Job

When choosing the right safety shoes, check your working environment and the kind of job you perform for any of the following safety hazards:

WALKING SURFACES

In workplaces with smooth, wet, or slippery walking surfaces such as kitchens, you will need non-slip shoes or safety shoes with anti-slip soles which give you maximum grip under conditions caused by polishing, water, ice, oil, or any substance that will cause you to lose your balance. For uneven surfaces such as milling sites, look for ankle-high safety shoes that will protect your ankle from sprains. Make sure the walking surfaces are properly maintained as well.

PROTRUDING OBJECTS

In workplaces where sharp-pointed objects such as nails or scrap metal are commonly found on the walking surface, such as workshops, safety boots with thick soles that are resistant to punctures are required.

FALLING OBJECTS

In workplaces such as construction sites, where injuries from falling objects such as bricks or tools can occur, steel toe boots are a necessity.

ROLLING OR MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT

Steel toe boots should also be worn in workplaces such as warehouses that have heavy rolling equipment such as forklifts and trollies. Workplaces such as assembly factories with mechanical equipment that perform punching and crushing tasks such as scrapyards also require steel toe boots.

THERMAL

In work environments that have working conditions with extremely hot materials or temperatures such as foundries, or extremely low temperatures such as refrigerated warehouses, thermal boots must be worn. Wearing the proper safety boots will protect workers against burns or frostbite.

ELECTRICAL

In a work environment where electricity is a hazard, work boots with non-conductive soles and heels must be worn. This will protect workers against electric shock.

CHEMICAL

Chemical resistant boots must be worn in workplaces that deal with harmful or corrosive substances such as bleach or acid. These boots are made knee-high to protect against accidental splashes.

BIOLOGICAL

Biological hazards such as allergies, rashes, and germ growth, are usually found in wet or outdoor working environments. Safety boots are designed to be waterproof and chemical resistant.

Once you have selected the right safety shoe for your workplace’s environment, check them for these minor but important details:

What are the work, safety and protective shoe norms?

Safety shoes must meet the EN ISO 20345 norm which requires:

200 joule impact resistance at the front of the shoe,
anti-slip soles on smooth and greasy floors in industrial environments (XPS 73012 norm),
closed back of the shoe.

The EN ISO 20345 norm is then divided into different categories corresponding to specific protections indicated by the letters:

A: anti-static footwear
Fo: hydrocarbon-resistant soles
E: heel and sole energy absorption
P: perforation-resistant soles
Wru: upper part of the shoe resistant to water penetration and water absorption
Wr: water-resistant shoes

EN ISO 20345 compliant safety shoes:

What kind of shoes are appropriate for my work environment?

Safety shoes must be worn in all industries where there is a risk of foot injury. You have to determine the type of shoes you will need for the work environment:

For indoor and outdoor work, for example on construction sites and in mines, it is better to favor S3 shoes or potentially S5 if it is necessary to intervene in a flooded environment regularly.
In the agri-food industry, generally work is done indoors and in a dry environment. In this case, it is possible to switch to S1 safety shoes or S1P shoes if there is a risk of perforation of the soles. Depending on the type of floor covering, you may also need to provide anti-slip protection such as SRA or SRB, or soles insulated against cold or heat.
In some laboratories, especially for the chemical industry, you will need to provide safety shoes, for example to prevent risks related to products used. In this case you can choose S1, or S2 if there is a spray risk.
On construction sites, often S1 or S1P shoes provide the necessary protection, but you will of course have to adapt the type of protection to your specific risks.
For the automotive industry, shoes must often meet specific risks such as those related to welding. In this case, you can for example look for S1 shoes that are also classified Hro.

Fashionable safety shoes with ISO standards

Where to find stable safety shoes suppliers for your business?

Choosing the right safety shoe doesn’t have to feel like a daunting task because we are here to help! Our extensive range of brands and shoes and our many years of experience makes meeting your requirement easy and speedy.

As the world’s largest industrial nation, China boasts competitive quality and prices for industrial safety products on the international stage. SSS provides stable Chinese supply chain and logistics services to small and medium-sized enterprises in South Africa. Our partnered factories strictly adhere to ISO 20345 standards , offering high-quality and affordable products.

Fashionable safety shoes with ISO standards sponsored by Shopshipshake (SA Warehouse Available):

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us: blog.shopshipshake.com.

If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/register/business

Posted on 21/12/202317/04/2024 in B2B e-commerce, Business in South Sfrica, e-commerce, Shopify

How does dropshipping work in South Africa?

Dropshipping is a retail method that allows online merchants (any person) to sell goods without keeping any inventory on hand.

The retail method helps online merchants (any person) sell goods without holding any stock. When a store owner gets an order (via their e-commerce store) from a customer, the store owner arranges for the products to be delivered to the customer’s door.

It’s also ideal for individuals who want to test various product concepts before committing to a more extensive inventory. When you use the dropshipping business strategy, you can advertise products directly from your online storefront. Once a customer places an order, you transmit (depending on how your store integrates with the supplier) the order to the drop shipper; you may not want the customer to know that the supplier will ship the products. Depending on your agreement and the services the supplier offers, you may want the supplier to send the order directly to your customer.

Reselling of products is the most common kind of drop-shipping. It is a business that sources products from several suppliers and puts them all up for sale online on one website.

Dropshipping is an order fulfilment process in which the goods go straight from the supplier to the customer without ever going through the seller. Instead, the retailer asks their supplier to send the item from the manufacturer’s or wholesaler’s warehouse directly to the customer when a customer places an order. Dropshipping is most frequently used for physical products.

What is a drop shipper, and how does a supplier fulfil the order and delivery process?

A business that stores inventory and ships goods on behalf of a merchant is known as a drop shipper. One scenario would be when an e-commerce company that lacks the space or money to maintain inventory uses drop shippers. Order fulfilment is all the steps a company takes between receiving a new order and placing that order in the customer’s hands. The most popular strategy is when a store owner calls the supplier when a customer places an order, and the supplier will send the goods directly to the customer’s door.
Dropshipping is a unique way to launch an online web business with little initial outlay, it is a manufacturer or a supplier who controls inventory for a retail merchant and sends orders straight to the client. A business or individual that sells goods to clients without keeping stock is known as a drop shipper.

They serve as a go-between for the supplier and the customer. After receiving a customer’s order, the drop shipper will contact the supplier to purchase on the client’s behalf. The supplier will send the item straight to the customer’s home.

What are the benefits of the drop-shipping business in South Africa?

Dropshipping is a business strategy that allows online merchants to sell goods without keeping any inventory on hand. A store owner contacts the supplier after receiving an order from a customer, and the supplier will send the goods to the customer’s door. You could jumpstart your business if you pick the correct niche and have a solid marketing plan.

The following are some of the primary advantages of drop shipping:

Dropshipping has advantages because it enables business owners to provide products from numerous vendors without purchasing inventory. Since they don’t have the same overhead expenses as traditional stores, they can offer more affordable prices.

There is no need to pay rent for a warehouse to store your goods, which may save small enterprises a lot of money.

It is a fast-to-the-market with a minimum-cost business strategy. You would only need an online store so that you could start accepting orders from customers right away.

It will save you time: Your average retailer is responsible for specific duties such as: accepting and receiving stock, storing and packing stock, retrieving stock when sold, packing stock, and shipping it off. All of these tasks take a lot of time and money, and you probably need help to do them. Drop shipping takes care of all these tasks for you, saving you time and money that you can put toward other areas of your business.

Test new products without investing large sums of money. In this way, dropshipping allows retailers to test new products, and they don’t need to carry any stock.

Find products for your eCommerce store from South African suppliers:

If you are looking for products for your online business from South African suppliers, there are a few things to keep in mind. Ensure the supplier has a solid reputation and a proven track record first. Next, evaluate if the supplier offers reasonable prices. Third, check the supplier’s return policy if you’re unhappy with the goods. Verify the supplier’s shipping policy on orders exceeding a particular threshold. Contact us for affordable rates if you want to launch an online store. Finding suppliers in South Africa is one of the best ways to do this, ensuring that you can access local products and save on shipping costs.

The most popular products people buy on the internet:

1. Clothing
2. Electronics
3. Books
4. Music
5. Games
6. Toys
7. Health and beauty products
8. Home and garden products
9. Sports and outdoors equipment
10. Baby and child products
11. Office and school supplies
12. Travel and Luggage
13. Pets and pet supplies
14. Food and drink
15. DIY and crafts
16. Garden and outdoors
17. Car and motorsports
18. Motorcycles and Powersports
19. Collectibles and antiques

Does dropshipping work in South Africa?

Dropshipping is popular in South Africa and is a great way to start an online business without risking too much of your investment.

Do Takealot and Bidorbuy do dropshipping?

Takealot and Bidorbuy do not do dropshipping. However, they are excellent sites to find niche products to dropship by figuring out the best-selling products. The Takealot website is a great place to monitor top goods. Enter a keyword into the takealot.com or bidorbuy search box and filter the results.

Let’s set up your online dropshipping business in South Africa

We will formulate the best retail method to start a dropship business.

Different methods for sourcing products for your prospective dropshipping business:

1. Obtain a list of products from another country’s suppliers’ websites. For example, Amazon and eBay in the USA, or Shopshipshake.
2. Join a local dropshipping supplier’s dropshipping program.
3. Source items from various South African suppliers and sell them on your website.

Here are a few general pointers that can assist you in getting started:

Decide on a niche:

The niche you choose to focus on is very important. It is the niche that will determine the type of products you will be selling and the type of customers you will be targeting. Focusing on a certain niche is one of the best ways to differentiate your dropshipping business from the competition; it helps you develop a marketing strategy that is more focused and efficient, as well as makes it simpler to locate the ideal vendors and goods for your company.

Let’s create your professional website. Because your website is the public face of your company, it must be credible and professional. We build, host, and support your store.

Doing research on your company’s customers, competitors, and products can help you figure out which products are popular and should be dropshipped.

4 Dropshipping Product Research Tools:

1. Semrush is well-known in digital marketing and SEO.
If you dropship on Amazon, Semrush’s Product Research Tool for Amazon is a great place to start.
It delivers real-time Amazon product popularity data. The built-in calculator helps you figure out how profitable a product is by calculating its return on investment.
2. Ecomhunt updates its successful product list.
Ecomhunt offers subscriptions to its product database.
3. The Shopshipshake Shopify Dropshipping Integration Empowers Shopify business owners with advanced product research capabilities. It seamlessly integrates the entire Chinese supply chain platform, allowing you to easily purchase products from 1688, Alibaba, and Taobao on a single website. With dropshipping functionality, it automatically syncs with your Shopify store, offering fully managed procurement, shipping, international transportation, customs clearance, and local delivery. Plus, all transactions support Rand payments for your convenience.
4. Thieve.Co, which says that its product list has been looked over by experts in its field. Using millions of buyer activities, the programme generates a list of profitable products.
5. Dropship Spy analyses Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok data to further analyse platforms.

No Inventory Worries with Multi-Vendor and Dropshipping Stores

Model	Advantages
Multi-vendor and dropshipping	Entrepreneurs don’t have to keep stock or inventory. This feature lets business owners focus on marketing, customer service, and platform management while enjoying benefits like low startup costs, scalability, flexibility, reduced risk, and streamlined operations. Amazon, Etsy, and eBay are examples of multi-vendor stores that do well, and Shopify and SaleHoo are popular dropshipping platforms.
Print-on-demand	Store owners work with service providers to print designs on products only when a customer orders them. Printful, Printify, and Teespring are all examples of platforms that let store owners do this.
Affiliate marketing	Promote and sell products from other businesses and get paid a commission through sites like Amazon Associates, ClickBank, and CJ Affiliate.
Digital products	E-books, online courses, and downloadable art do not require physical inventory and can be sold via platforms like Gumroad, Teachable, and Etsy (for digital downloads).
Subscription boxes	Store owners curate products from various suppliers and offer them as a subscription service like Cratejoy and Subbly.
Licensing	Getting the right to sell or distribute products, brands, or intellectual properties lets store owners work with licensors or third-party manufacturers, and opportunities can be found on platforms like License Global and Art Licensing Show.
Online marketplaces for services	Connect service providers with customers, so there’s no need to manage inventory.

Entrepreneurs don’t have to keep stock or inventory.

This feature lets business owners focus on marketing, customer service, and platform management while enjoying benefits like low startup costs, scalability, flexibility, reduced risk, and streamlined operations.

In conclusion, multi-vendor stores, dropshipping stores, and other e-commerce models mentioned in the above “table” are all similar in that they don’t require stock or inventory management. This gives entrepreneurs different ways to build successful businesses while focusing on important things like marketing and customer service.

Posted on 11/10/202311/10/2023 in Business

15 Baby Products To Start Your Dropshipping Shop

The baby product market is huge. In 2021 alone, consumers spent over $6.5 billion on baby products globally.

If you’re interested in the baby product industry, one way you can enter the market is by starting a dropshipping store. Here’s what dropshipping means and how to go about launching a dropshipping business for baby products.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a retail business model where one company operates a storefront—typically online—while another fulfills customer orders. Ecommerce store owners who follow a dropshipping model don’t keep products in stock, but source them from a third-party wholesaler or manufacturer, which ships out orders to customers.Click here to start selling online now with Shopify

Dropshipping is like being a middleman: You take customer orders and pass them on to a supplier who ships the product. You’re running an ecommerce storefront without having to manage inventory or shipping logistics.

How does dropshipping work for baby products?

Dropshipping baby products is more or less the same as dropshipping other retail items: as a seller, you establish an online store, market to a target audience, and handle sales transactions. You decide which baby products you want to sell online, and find baby product suppliers who can send out these products when a customer orders them.

In many cases, a store that dropships baby products uses multiple baby dropship suppliers to fulfill orders. For instance, the store sells both baby bath toys and baby diaper bags, but these products ship from two different baby products dropshipping suppliers, each with their own contractual arrangements with the dropshipping store.

As an ecommerce dropshipper, you’ll sign a legally binding contract with your suppliers. It usually covers the responsibilities of each party, quality and safety liability, and the length of the contractual relationship.

15 of the best baby products to dropship

Dropshipping ideas for baby products can come from many different sources: social media, friends who have kids, trends you see at your local daycare, etc. Whether you envision selling a hot trending baby product or something parents always need, like diapers, here are product ideas to get you started:

Organic baby clothes. Organic clothing is made from materials that come from crops grown in accordance with organic standards. These items, which run the gamut from pajamas to baby rompers, are made from cotton, linen, silk, jute, wool, or ramie. If you take this approach to dropshipping baby clothes, make sure you have a certified organic fulfillment partner.
Baby booster seats. These sit atop a regular chair, “boosting” a baby up to sit closer to adult eye level.
Baby bottles. An old standby among baby accessories, baby bottles should be made from BPA-free plastic to ensure safety. You can also explore other feeding accessories like cups, plates, and utensils designed for babies.
Disposable diapers. Disposable items lead to repeated online sales because customers have to replenish their supplies. Parents of newborns buy diapers for years until their child is potty trained.
Hypoallergenic baby diaper wipes. Wipes go hand in hand with diapers. As a dropshipper, consider bundling the diapers and the wipes in a combo package. Many customers prefer water-based wipes, as other varieties may cause skin allergies.
Diaper backpack. Another item in the diaper category is a backpack that holds diapers and various baby-changing accessories. These backpacks can be strictly utilitarian or surprisingly stylish.
Baby healing ointment. From cuts to chapped skin, babies routinely need healing ointment, and you can dropship this product in fairly small bottles. This lowers shipping costs and may lead to more frequent purchases when parents need refills.
No-touch forehead thermometer. A no-touch thermometer takes a child’s temperature safely and with (hopefully) few tears. You can partner with a medical supply company to dropship these.
White-noise machine. White-noise machines help babies sleep through the night, meaning they help parents sleep through the night as well.
Teething toys. Teething is a fact of baby life. There’s always a market for infant teething toys. Make sure to choose a supplier that uses BPA-free plastic or food-grade silicone.
Car seats. A sturdy car seat protects babies from car accident injuries. You can dropship full car seats, but shipping costs may be high for the customer, the dropshipper, or both, on account of the bulky dimensions. You can also dropship car seat covers, which ship more affordably in compact packages.
Breast milk storage bags. Breast milk storage bags are a convenient and hygienic way for mothers to store the milk they’ve pumped, allowing it to be safely stored and given to the baby later. These are appealing to dropshippers because the empty bags are extremely lightweight and can ship in small packages.
Bedding. Whether a child sleeps in a crib or a baby bed, they’ll need washable bedding. You can dropship sheets, blankets, or even baby sleeping bags.
Baby-related crafts. Some ecommerce vendors dropship baby-related arts and crafts products, such as a footprint ornament craft kit that lets parents create a Christmas ornament with their infant’s footprint.
Stroller fans. A stroller fan is a battery-powered device that clips onto a stroller to cool the baby on a hot day. Depending on your supplier, these fans may be nearly identical to those sold for adult use.

How to dropship baby products

Whether you want to dropship baby clothes, diapers, or thermometers, a Shopify store simplifies the entire process. You can start with Shopify’s online store builder that lets you custom create an ecommerce site to process online sales of baby products—or anything else you choose to sell.

Once you’ve decided what to sell, you’ll need a dropshipping partner, or perhaps multiple partners, to fulfill your orders. Many dropshippers source products from overseas through marketplaces like Alibaba and AliExpress. You can curate your list of suppliers using a Shopify App called DSers. Many of these baby products are mass-produced, meaning you may have to look in the US for more customized items like eco-friendly baby products. Sites like InventorySource or AppScenic may help you find such partners.

Your dropshipping store will succeed or fail based on the profit margins you earn on each item sold. This means you need to charge your customers a retail price higher than the fees you pay your fulfillment companies. By striking a balance, you can make dropshipping baby products profitable. Research your competition for pricing and shop around for the best deals on quality products from your sourcing partners. For an even more in-depth look, check out Shopify’s complete guide on how to start a dropshipping business.

Wrapping Up:

The article reference: