Starting out with your very first e-commerce venture? Then you’re probably considering dropshipping for some or all of your inventory.
Dropshipping has many advantages. But it can also be complex, especially at the beginning. That’s why a dropshipping course is a smart idea. These courses will ensure you have a good understanding of how dropshipping works. They’ll help you make well-informed decisions when it comes to picking suppliers or homing in on that hero product.
In this article you’ll learn how to establish your Shopify dropshipping business and find 5 of the best dropshipping courses for your business.
Let’s do it.
How do you become a dropshipper?
First up, let’s just clarify what we mean by that term. It usually refers to a person who runs an ecommerce business without keeping any actual stock. In other words, you set up and run the point of sale, while suppliers take care of stocking the goods and shipping the orders out to your customers. So there’s no need to clear out your garage.
With dropshipping, there’s no need to keep stock yourself, so you can keep your garage as full as you like
3 simple steps to getting started as a dropshipper
Getting into dropshipping isn’t particularly difficult, but there are some common mistakes people make. These include choosing a niche that’s too risky, not doing proper market research, or focusing on the wrong products.
To make a successful start to your dropshipping life and avoid these mistakes, here are 3 simple steps you should follow:
- Pick a suitable niche and make sure it’s an area you’re interested in. If it’s selling jewelry, read our marketing guide for dropshipping jewelry.
- Define your target audience and learn to think and communicate like them.
- Set up an online store and start making money.
Let’s take a quick look at each of these 3 steps.
Picking a niche for your Shopify dropshipping
First, you’re going to need to pick the right niche for your dropshipping business.
- Size: it shouldn’t be too broad, because it can be hard to cover the range of products necessary. But it shouldn’t be too narrow as this can limit your growth.
- Popularity: your niche should be popular enough that you can start selling immediately. But make sure it’s not too competitive yet or you’ll struggle to make an impact.
Finally, it should be something you’re interested in. You’ll have to research this niche, write about it, and provide customer support related to it. So it needs to be something you have a passion for.
To get some ideas you can make an inventory of your personal interests. Then surf the web and social media to find existing Shopify stores for inspiration.
If this doesn’t get the wheels turning, you can also use tools like Google Trends. It allows you to look up keywords and see how they’re trending over time. Or read this blog post on how to find products that sell.
Once you’ve got your niche pinned down, make sure to double check if it really matches the criteria we mentioned on size and popularity. To make the process easier and more structured, you can also use this specialized dropshipping tool that will do it for you in 11 easy steps.
Defining your target audience
Now it’s time to define the target audience for your Shopify dropshipping business. Ask yourself:
- Where do they live?
- What languages do they speak?
- What problem will your products solve for them?
- Where can you meet them online?
- How much money can they spend?
The more information you can gather, the easier it will be to tailor your facebook ads and marketing to suit your audience’s interests.
Setting up your dropshipping store
Finally, you need to get an actual Shopify store set up. Social media accounts and blogs are both fine options to get started with. However, once you’re really serious about becoming a dropshipper, a dropshipping Shopify store is your best bet. You’ll be able to optimize your site so you rank on search engines and you’ll appear more trustworthy to potential clients.
For a more detailed guide on how to become a dropshipper, check out this Shopify article on getting started dropshipping. Or for a more personal account, check out Maria’s dropshipping success story - she’s gone from $0 to $1,000 per day.
Are dropshipping courses worth it?
Given dropshipping’s popularity as a low-risk business model, there’s no shortage of information about it online – YouTube videos, forums, blogs, and personal websites can all provide you with a solid introduction. On the other hand, it can be hard to work out which sources are credible. You might even get contradictory suggestions.
So, if you want a more practical, step-by-step guide made by professional instructors, online dropship courses are still the way to go. In our opinion, they are definitely worth it if you’re serious about dropshipping. Here’s why:
- They’ll save you time: With online dropshipping courses, the course provider and instructor will have done the leg work of finding the resources you need. Plus, they have the real dropshipping experience needed to identify what’s most important. Figuring all of this out by yourself will definitely take longer.
- You’ll progress faster: Learning by yourself usually means figuring out the different elements one at time. First you learn about suppliers. Then about pricing. Then about Facebook ads. Then about marketing. Then about customer support. But you’ll need to know something about all of these things before you even start. A course can give you a good overview of every aspect of running a dropshipping store - not just the first one you have to figure out.
- You’ll avoid mistakes that might hurt you in the future: Making mistakes early in your dropshipping business can cause long-term problems. Pick the wrong supplier, or fail to deliver good customer support on your online store, and you might end up with 1 star reviews. Jump straight into your marketing and you might burn through cash with no result. A course can ensure your ecommerce business is sustainable and grows continually.
What is the best dropshipping course?
What follows is a list of some of the best dropshipping courses for aspiring entrepreneurs in 2022. To save you some time, we’ve provided a short description covering:
- what’s great about each course,
- who it’s most appropriate for,
- and how much it costs.
Feel free to skim the rest of this article and pick the course that best matches your criteria. So, without further ado, let’s get to it.
Oberlo 101
Who is this course suitable for?
Oberlo 101 is excellent for beginners who want an affordable guide that will take them from the basics of dropshipping all the way through to their first sale.
What’s great about this course?
In making this course, Oberlo has included all of its own best tips, tricks, and tactics. Oberlo is a leading Shopify dropshipping app, connecting Shopify merchants to suppliers who can ship direct to customers - so they know a thing or two about dropshipping.
But that’s not all. The course also includes insights and inspiration from several six-figure entrepreneurs. This means that by picking this course, you’ll learn from some of the very best minds in e-commerce.
With Oberlo 101 you’ll learn:
- How to find the most profitable dropshipping products
- How to identify your target audience
- How to build a brand
- How to launch your first Facebook advertising campaign
- And much more!
How much does it cost and what do you get?
For only $49.99, you’ll get access to 8+ hours of content and a wealth of bonus material, including:
- Dropshipping budget spreadsheets
- Live monthly dropshipping Q&As
- Branding color charts
- Business name generators
- Store policy templates.
In addition, whenever new content gets added to the course, you’ll get immediate access to it for free.
Here’s a preview of the first lesson to get you an idea of what’s on offer.
The Complete Shopify AliExpress Dropship Course
Who is this course suitable for?
The Complete Shopify AliExpress Dropship Course is designed specifically for people looking to build a dropshipping business using Shopify and AliExpress. It’s great for budding entrepreneurs who want to start from scratch and enjoy a practical approach to learning.
What’s great about this course?
One of the best things about this course is that you’ll learn by doing. Just in the first few lectures you already build a fully operational e-commerce store.
From there, you’ll learn how to:
- Find profitable markets
- Find hot products that will really sell
- Identify your ideal customer
- And drive traffic to your store.
What’s more, the final lectures are all focused on how to build your store towards $100K/year and beyond.
With over 77,000 students to date, a rating of 4.7 out of 5, and regular updates, you’ll be getting one of the highest quality courses out there.
How much does it cost and what do you get?
If you find the price of €129.99 a little too steep, make sure to check back regularly as Udemy runs frequent discount campaigns. If you catch it at the right time, you might get the entire course for as little as €9.99!
The course features 8+ hours of on-demand video content, numerous articles, and downloadable content.
Best of all, after completing the course, you’ll get a certificate of completion and will be able to access its contents at any time.
eCom Elites
Who is this course suitable for?
eCom Elites is designed to give you a complete understanding of every important element of dropshipping. eCom Elites is perfect if you prefer to learn by first getting a complete theoretical and conceptual understanding of the topic, and then moving on to more hands-on tasks.
What’s great about this course?
While this course is a bit pricier than the rest, it is an absolute masterclass in dropshipping. It’s made by the e-commerce wizard Franklin Hatchett, and comes with a ton of high quality resources.
To make sure that you have all the knowledge and skills you need to build a successful dropshipping business, the course features over 170 videos. These range from 10 minutes to 1 hour in duration, and ensure that every base is covered. You also get individual supervision when setting up your store.
How much does it cost and what do you get?
With the standard package, which costs $197, you get all of the following:
- Over the shoulder store set up
- Full product research training
- Complete Facebook & Instagram traffic training
- Complete e-mail marketing set up & training
- Google SEO traffic mastery
- A Chatbot Academy that will explode your online sales
- Weekly videos including Q&A sessions
- Hatchett’s “super secret” training modules
- Private Facebook group access
- Instant access and lifetime updates
Those willing to part with another $100 for the ultimate package will also get access to a step-by-step funnel academy designed to help you target the perfect customer. The ultimate package also gets you elite Google ads training and 2 excellent books on selecting your business niche and selling six-figure products.
The Dropship Blueprint 2.0
The Dropship Blueprint 2.0 is a comprehensive and practical introduction to dropshipping that gives you a full overview of how to start an e-commerce business. It includes plenty of in-person coaching, so it’s great if you value one to one support.
What’s great about this course?
Unlike some of the more academically-minded courses out there, Dropship Blueprint 2.0 is very practical. During the course, you’ll be paired with a successful dropshipper and given access to the course creator’s personal line of contact. This means if you have any questions, there’s always someone to talk to.
Throughout the 50+ video lessons you’ll learn a variety of topics:
- In-depth strategies for researching winning products
- Steps for building and designing a professional and high-converting store
- Logo creation
- Brand building
- Creating high converting product descriptions
- All the essential apps you’ll need to fully optimize your store
- A #1 strategy for creating ads
- Beginner Facebook ad strategies
- Intermediate Facebook ad strategies
- Advanced and in-depth Facebook ad and scaling strategies
- Outsourcing & automation
- Solutions to growing pains and potential roadblocks
How much does it cost and what do you get?
The Dropship Blueprint 2.0 is currently priced at $150.
You get access to 50+ hours of video lessons, plus personal support from dropshipping experts. For your convenience, the course even provides a number of copy/paste templates that you can use on your site. This will free up more time for product research, brand creation, and other essential tasks.
Ecom Empires
Who is this course suitable for?
Last but not least, we’ve got a great option for those of you who are really strapped for cash at the moment. Ecom Empires is a course by the successful marketer and international speaker Nick Peroni. As you might have already guessed, this course is completely free of charge!
What’s great about this course?
Of course, one big advantage is that it’s free.
But don’t worry, free doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll compromise on quality. During 20 hours of video lessons, Peroni will take you through niche selection, market research, value proposition creation, and online marketing principles. Plus you’ll learn how to spy on the competition.
Even though the course is slightly outdated in some respects (channels like Snapchat, Pinterest and Instagram are not covered), you’ll still learn a great deal.
In addition to the above, the course also covers
- a good range of e-commerce platforms and models,
- how to set up a store on Shopify,
- Facebook ads,
- sales funnels,
- Google Analytics,
- and more.
How much does it cost and what do you get?
This is a free course that gets you over 20 hours of video lessons. If you’re not totally sure if dropshipping is for you, why not take a full course on it for free to find out!
Finding a dropshipping course: the takeaway
As this guide has shown, there is a dropshipping course out there for everyone. With any of the 5 courses mentioned above you’ll learn all the dropshipping basics you need to get a Shopify store up and running.
When choosing, just consider three factors:
- Your learning style: do you prefer practical tasks or do you like getting a theoretical overview of everything first
- How much help you’ll need: are you confident in setting up your business by yourself, or do you want someone with experience to personally look over it?
- Your budget and business goals: Think about how quickly you want your Shopify store to grow and how much you’re willing to invest into it. If you’re happy to take your time, you can go for a free course. The more expensive ones will move your Shopify business forward faster.
Once you’ve picked your course and signed up, there’s no harm in doing some pre-course reading. You could start with this guide to Google Ads for Dropshipping.
Whichever course you choose, be sure to enjoy the process as well as focusing on the results. After all, these are the first steps as an online entrepreneur.
