How to Build a High Converting Shopify Dropshipping Store in 2023

Dropshipping can make you a million dollars if you play your cards right. Here’s how to build a high converting dropshipping store on Shopify in 2023.

Dropshipping has been all the rage for years now. You’ve no doubt heard stories of people making thousands of dollars from selling products that they never even held in their own hands. The dropshipping market was estimated to be worth more than $111 billion in 2018.

This business model has been growing in popularity for years. But when something seems too good to be true, it’s usually because there’s a catch. And indeed, many people now say that dropshipping is no longer a viable business model due to the lower profit margins.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is when you sell products that you don’t actually hold. The customer buys through you, then you place their order with the supplier who then ships directly to the customer.

In this way, you can sell any product from anywhere in the world and you don’t have to worry about keeping stock.

You can still make a lot of money dropshipping

Many of the people claiming that you can’t make money dropshipping either don’t know how to do it properly or they haven’t found the ideal product and market. You can still make a lot of money dropshipping if you plan right.

You need to do some ground research before you start designing your website. Here are some things you must know in advance.

Know your niche

Starting out with dropshipping isn’t easy if you’re not already established in eCommerce. It’s better than beginners pick a niche area to focus, rather than try to build a general store. Being more targeted with your product will reduce your competition and allow you to build a brand easier.

Some good niches include:

• Calligraphy sets
• Organic teas
• Candles and oils
• Yoga and wellness gear
• Bamboo household goods
• Organic and natural cosmetics

There are bundles of products you can sell. Try to find one that isn’t already being sold by too many people but isn’t so niche that not enough people will buy it. It’s all about finding that Goldilocks spot.

Check out our guide on the best dropshipping niches and products in 2023 to get a better idea of what products to work with.

Know your market

You need to understand your customers. Do extensive research and build customer profiles to be able to target them in marketing more effectively. You need to understand things like:

• Customer preferences
• Pain points
• How your product makes their life better
• What they do
• Why they buy
• What they expect from you

Aside from knowing about your target customers, you must also understand your competition. Study their website, read their copy, subscribe to their marketing materials. See what they’re doing and note how you can do it better.

Use a Shopify dropshipping app

Not everyone knows how to reach suppliers. Using a Shopify dropshipping app opens you up to a huge range of products and suppliers, saving you the hassle of having to locate them yourself. Using an established app also ensures that the suppliers have been checked for legitimacy, so you won’t have any unexpected problems down the line.

You can also save time by importing product photography and copy into your own store - although it is best to do these things yourself.

Some good Shopify dropshipping apps include:

** Oberlo - recommended **

• Spocket
• Modalyst
• AliExpress Dropshipping
• Ecomdash

Building a high-converting Shopify dropshipping website

Now that you know what you’re selling and to who, you have to build a professional and high-converting Shopify website to launch your dropshipping business.

Make sure you use Shopify’s 14-day free trial to give you a window to design your website. You’ll need to upgrade to a paid package before you can make sales.

A high-converting Shopify website must have the following things:

• Optimized product pages
• Optimized for mobile
• Offer value to customers
• Master the use of SEO
• Clear navigation
• Invest in advertising

Check out our list of 11 successful Shopify dropshipping websites to use as inspiration when designing your own high-converting site.

1) Optimize product pages

Your product pages are where the magic happens. You must optimize these pages to convince people that this is a product worth buying. A lot goes into making great product pages, but I’ll try and break it down into simple steps - if you pay attention to them all then you’ll be well on your way to having a high-converting dropshipping site.

Write compelling copy

Make sure the copy on your product pages is your own. It doesn’t have to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, but it should be original and it must address the customers’ concerns. Remember that the primary function of copy is always to communicate rather than show off.

• Make sure customers know exactly what the product is
• Make sure to include any essential details
• Use your brand’s voice in your copy
• Write as if you’re talking to a friend
• Write for the customer first, then for SEO
• Don’t include any unnecessary information

Include your own product photography

Most dropshippers skip this step so by doing it you’ll already be ahead of the competition. Simply importing product photography from AliExpress or elsewhere isn’t good enough.

If you want to convince the customer that your products are genuine and high-quality, then you should make the effort to take your own product photography.

1. Buy one test product

2. Hire a professional photography

3. Keep a consistent theme with your photography

4. Show different angles of products

5. Show product scale

Shooting videos of your product in action is also a great way to increase your conversion rate. People like seeing how a product works and the added media will increase your brand’s trustworthiness.

Have a clear call to action

Make sure you have a clear call to action (CTA) on every product page. Your Add to Cart button should be immediately visible when someone lands on a product page. They should never have to scroll down to find it. Make sure there isn’t any clutter around the CTA button and don’t get clever with the wording - just Buy Now or Add to Cart is perfect.

Your ultimate goal is to get the customer through to the checkout, right? So don’t start putting obstacles in their way and make sure it’s as smooth a process as possible.

2) Optimize for mobile

People and phones go together like cheese and wine these days. It’s estimated that 54% of all eCommerce sales will be made on mobile in 2020.

Most merchants design their websites on a laptop and don’t pay enough attention to how their site works on mobile. Don’t be like them.

The easiest way to make sure your dropshipping website is optimized for mobile is to use a Shopify page builder app like PageFly - a trusted Shopify page builder with drag and drop function, no coding needed. This allows you to build your pages and make them responsive on all devices: mobile, tablet, laptop, and desktop

1. Make sure you check each edit in mobile

2. Visit your site on mobile to make sure it works

3. Don’t hang on to elements that don’t work on mobile

3) Offer value to customers

You can have the most professional-looking dropshipping site, but if you’re not providing real value, then customers are going to look elsewhere. You have to strike a balance between making a profit and providing value to your customer.

A great way to do this is to offer free shipping - even if it means adding the shipping costs onto the product itself. People don’t like additional fees and offering something for free seems like a favor.

Offer discounts for bundles

Cross-selling in bundles not only brings value, but it also increases the average order value in your store. Group related products together and highlight the fact that the bundle will save hassle in the long run.

Keep an eye on the competition

Make sure you’re aware of what the other guys are doing. If they’re offering discounts on select products, then you should do the same to price match. Try to always offer more value than your competitors.

Provide great customer support

Your job isn’t just to move products from suppliers to consumers. The time you free up from not having to hold inventory should be invested in providing better customer support and improving the user experience (UX) of your website.

Offer ongoing support to your customers and they’ll be more likely to return to your store.

4) Master the use of SEO

Driving traffic to your website is a constant battle. Advertising will only get you so far. Having meaningful, SEO-rich content provides value to people while also building your brand and helping you to rank on Google.

Publish blog content

If you’re selling organic tea and health products, then a blog about wellness hacks and mindfulness is likely going to resonate with your customers. You can share these posts on social media to bring more traffic to your website and drive up your conversion rate.

Add reviews to your site

Most people don’t think of reviews when you mention SEO, but the reality is that they’re full of keywords and Google considers them to be fair game. Reviews also drive up interaction on your site, which, again, helps you to rank on Google.

One quick way to make your website look like it has more traffic is to import reviews from Amazon or AliExpress. You can use apps like Opinew to do this.

Importing reviews is an excellent way to input social proof on your store. Building trust with your customers is essential when selling online.

Bringing customer reviews into your store is also great for SEO. People use a lot of juicy keywords when they write reviews and Google loves it. The extra engagement on your website will also be looked at favorably by search engines.

Check out Opinew to import AliExpress and Amazon product reviews into your store.

💥 Make sure pages load quickly

Page load speed is a determining factor in how high your website ranks on Google, so make sure you’re doing everything you can to minimize load times. For the average website, 61% of load time is due to images.

• Use JPG format for images
• Use ‘LazyLoad’ for images
• Keep plugins up to date
• Minimize the use of CSS

5) Use clear navigation

The role of navigation is not to be underestimated when building a high-converting dropshipping website on Shopify. A simple main menu is essential. Never use more than seven main menu items to keep things simple.

A visitor to your site must be able to get from your homepage to the product they want in three clicks to ensure no one drops off out of frustration.

Make sure your search bar is prominently displayed. You should also include pictures and prices in the search element to ensure the best customer experience. Accounting for typos and synonyms in search queries is also a must.

• TIP: Download a third-party search app from the Shopify app store to optimize your site search function.

Don’t forget about footer navigation

Believe it or not, the footer on your website does actually mean something. Research has shown that including links to collections and other important pages in your footer increases your site’s conversion rate.

You can also put important information like returns policies and privacy statements in the footer.

6) Invest in advertising

Dropshipping is an affordable business model because you don’t have to buy any stock to start up. That being said, if you want your business to be successful you should put some money aside for Facebook and Google ads.

Facebook ads

Everyone and their nan is on Facebook these days, and the price of advertising on the social media platform is actually decreasing. There are plenty of benefits to advertising on Facebook.

• Increases brand visibility
• Increases social proof
• Drives traffic to your site
• Can target specific demographics
• Can test how popular your ad is with different demographics
• Above point helps you to find your target audience

Google ads

Google says that an ad on its platform has an ROI of 8x. This means that your business will make $8 for every $1 you spend advertising on Google.

The best way to advertise your dropshipping business is to list your products on Google Shopping. Products listed here have a 30% higher chance of being clicked on than text ads.

Adding a review feed to your Google ads is an easy way to make them more trustworthy. You can use the Opinew app on Shopify to include a review feed from AliExpress or Amazon onto your Google Shopping ads. The added social proof is key to boosting your conversion rate.

Google or Facebook?

I’d recommend that you use Facebook ads to test your product in different demographics, then use Google ads to actually increase your conversion rate.
The reason for this is simple: people pay more attention to Google because they’re searching for something. When people use Facebook they’re usually just mindlessly killing time.

Check out our full guide on how to get more sales through different advertising methods.

Final thoughts

There’s plenty of money to be made by dropshipping. Follow the steps outlined, using a page builder app like PageFly Shopify page builder to create unique product pages and more to drive up conversions. It’ll also allow you to better optimize your website for mobile. And you’ll find yourself on the way to having a high-converting dropshipping website on Shopify in no time.

Download Opinew today and see how your customers can help develop your conversion opportunities through Shopify.