[Shopify Case Study] Less than a month. Over $3,000 in dropship sales.
There is plenty of money to be made in drop shipping. Drop shipping is one of the easiest, low maintenance, eCommerce businesses that exist.
You just need to know how to get people to your site… and this is where most people fail. But, you don’t have to fail like them. Actually, we want you to succeed.
We’ve put together a little experiment, to find out the best way to cheaply and simply get traffic to your drop ship website. Keep reading to find out how we made our first sale in 11 days after opening our store and kept our store converting from then on.
Many people believe in the mantra “If you build it, they will come.” In eCommerce, this couldn’t be further from the truth. I’ve heard from so many people, who have picked AMAZING niches, ( I was actually quite jealous I didn’t think of them myself), but they couldn’t make it work.
This was because they thought that their products were so incredible that they didn’t need to put in the work to drive traffic to their site. I see so many people fail this way, don’t let this be you. Remember this:
The internet is full of so much information and products for sale that it can be confusing and overwhelming for many customers to sort through all the noise and find a good site to buy from.
This is your priority as an eCommerce business owner, to help the people, who are already searching for your product, to find and buy from you.
How do you do this, you ask? It really isn’t as daunting as it sounds.
Get Dropship Sales With a Good Traffic Source
We used only one traffic source...
That’s right. We only used one channel to make over 20,000 impressions, 547 clicks, and $3,400 in sales in 22 days.
Check out this screenshot for proof:
Note: We have three different campaigns that run on different days, so we are spending 10/day total. Titles are blurred to keep the niche private.
Below is a snapshot from our Shopify dashboard showing sales. This channel is a Google Shopping Campaign.
If you haven’t heard of Google Shopping, We’ll break it down for you real quick.
Therefore, when someone searches a certain product, say “entryway chandeliers”, Google pulls up its Google Shopping data for “entryway chandeliers” on the front page of your search (note: this is an example and not what we were selling).
This is huge! This means that in your first few days of business, you can be on the FRONT PAGE of Google by using a Google Shopping Campaign. This is exactly how we made all of our sales within just DAYS of opening our store.
With a Google Shopping Campaign, you can pay next to nothing for clicks. We set our MAX CPC (maximum budget for cost per click) to .20-.30 cents. In total, we spent $94.25 for this period of time.
That means we spent $94.25 to make $3,456.97 in sales (of course, we’re maintaining decent profit margins because we selected a good niche). I don’t know about you, but I’d take that exchange every time!
Dropship Sales: Is Google Shopping Your Only Option?
It is an optimal time to be an online merchant with a drop shipping store. There are an immense amount of marketing channels to choose from. This is encouraging, but should not be assumed that it won’t take some work to bring in sales.
Between technical obstacles, a fierce selling market and increased expectations by customers on their experience when buying online, having strategies in place are vital.
Although other online merchant sites can help with your drop shipping business, Google Shopping continues to be the best and most acclaimed option, even above competitors like Amazon, Bing, and Shopzilla.
If you have Shopify, one of the most beneficial Shopify Apps to get is RetailTower. RetailTower is super simple to use, and you can upload your products to other platforms as well, all for free!
RetailTower also makes it super simple to update your product feed when you make changes to your inventory within Shopify. Check it out here!
How Can RetailTower Help My Dropship Sales?
RetailTower assists by integrating other comparison engines. Everything is automated, meaning feed submissions to shopping engines such as Google, Amazon, Bing, Shopzilla, and PriceGrabber are done seamlessly.
What does this mean? You have more time for focusing on perfecting and fine-tuning your online store.
If you’re one of the ones who has heard all these horror stories of brilliant individuals getting awesome ideas to sell this or that amazing product and then somehow failing to sell a single item; now you know why this happens, and how you can easily prevent it.
Getting traffic is not a right of passage or a universal pat on the back for opening your very own eCommerce store. Traffic is something you have to put a little work into to earn. In this case, if you use the tools I mentioned above, it is extremely minimal, low-maintenance work!
But the great thing about this little traffic lesson is not everyone knows that you only need to spend a little to make a lot. But now you know, so use this knowledge, this one-up on your competitors, and kill the game by getting your business out there and converting like crazy.
See if you can beat our sales in 22 days, we’d love to feature you on the blog.
We’ll help you every step of the way.
As always, leave a comment. We’re happy to keep the conversation going!
Hey Everyone,
As many of you already know I created Drop Ship Lifestyle after selling a network of eCommerce stores and then trying to find a community of other store owners to network with… What I found was a bunch of scammers who promised newbies they would get rich quick by following their push-button systems!
This led me to create a new community along with an online training program that shares how to build a REAL online business.
I’d love to hear what you think… it’s a 2.5-hour training designed to help you drop ship profitably… all for free.
Be sure to click here to check it out and send me your feedback!
If you go through the “How To Start & Grow A Hyper-Profitable Online Store” webinar and still have questions just contact me and I will help you out.
great post and well-executed store.
I gave google shopping a go a few months ago but it didn’t go so well.
I think I need to work on my niche before getting any traction from google.
Also, be sure to watch the most up to date version of our Google Ads for eCommerce course! It’s in our member’s area.
So am I reading this correctly… so if your profit margin is 20% that would mean your profit per month of sales is $640 – $94 ad cost so your net profit for the month was $546? That is a lot of effort for $546 a month…
Hi Max, This was a brand new store with basically no ad budget… the first few weeks are all about testing what works. Once you have the data, you can scale to as big as you want by buying more traffic.
Hi, I am having big difficulty with my site. I was hoping to get feedback on what I can do different? My site is a year old and I have put a lot of money into it with blogs and back links and building my social media platform. Normally I make $400 a month, but this month I’ve only made $36… This has been the lowest month, since the first month I started it. I’ve never made under $100 a month with this site. Anyway, could you please get back to me if possible – http://www.chakrabracelet.net
Hi Mary,
So at Drop Ship Lifestyle we only focus on selling high ticket products. That means a minimum of $200 but usually closer to $1,000 USD.
When you focus on high ticket you can earn much more money per sale, which allows you to start using many more traffic sources.
For a product in your price range you’re probably best off running direct response ads on FB and Instagram… and if you ever decide to get into high ticket eCommerce you can check out the Drop Ship Blueprint which is where I show you how to get the best traffic there is 🙂
Good luck!
Anton
Impressive ,
How can you get huge clicks 350+ only in few bucks , will you teach us ?
Of course! This is covered in Module 6 of the Drop Ship Blueprint. You can learn more here: Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Good information. Thanks for sharing it Anton. I bookmarked it to check back next year 😉
Awesome! We will be here when you’re ready.
I am curious about drop shipping.
Is there a phone number that I can call & speak with someone?
I’d like to know my options on the current circumstance that I’m in.
Hi Ron,
Happy to hear you’re interested!
The best time to ask questions (live) would be during one of our webinars. We actually have one scheduled now 🙂
You can sign up here:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
I would like to speak with someone over the phone who could better understand what I’m looking to do.
Could you have someone call me?
502-424-1259
Thanks,
Ron Holcomb
EZ-TEK ONLINE SUPPORT LLC
one more question.
Are all tools, apps, LABs included in 10day plan?
Hi Babur,
They are not… our tools & app come with our coaching program. You can learn more here:
Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Thank you!
hi Anton
Can you give more details about 10 day plan? thanx
Hi Babur,
You can learn more here:
Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Thank you!
Hi Anton , I’ll like to start on this business, and I need your guidance
Help me to clear all my doubts
Tks
Happy to help, Fabio! That’s exactly why I’ve created Drop Ship Lifestyle 🙂
Great article! I actually posted a question in a group regarding driving traffic to my Shopify store and a great individual dropped me this link. I’ve tried Facebook ads but had no luck (poor targeting), now I’m planning to checkout Google shopping really soon since one other individual only yesterday advise to try it out. In overall, thank you sharing.
Hi Wichly,
I would only recommend using Facebook ads for retargeting… if you’re following our model for drop shipping then it’s next to impossible to drive *cold* conversions from Facebook….
That’s what PLAs are for 🙂
Wow! This is awesome! I was wondering what that new add section was in Google Search with the suggested products. Would this work if you have a shopify store, but don’t hold inventory?
Of course! That’s exactly how we use them 🙂
However, It is also important to note that you cannot use Product Listing Ads (PLAs) to promote affiliate offers.
Cool! I can’t wait to delve deeper into this. Thanks!
Hi, Anton –
Pretty cool and useful, thanks! I’ve got one question, though: when you say “That means we spent $94.25 to gain $3,456.97. I don’t know about you, but I’d take that deal every time!” – depends on your margin, right? It’s not going to be worth it unless you’re making *much* better than 3% (which would just get you your money back.)
I guess the additional lesson here is “make sure you’ve got healthy margins, otherwise you won’t have any advertising money.”
Hi Ben –
You’re 100% correct!
Having healthy margins is extremely important and it is something that I always preach. In our businesses we only sell products priced at $200+ and we only work with suppliers who offer margins that leave us with at least 20% NET profit.
It’s also important to note that the markups (from wholesale cost to MAP) are usually well over 20% (closer to 100%). The 20% is what is left after we pay for shipping, CC processing fees, and the cost to acquire the customer.