Dropshipping for newbies: how to start dropshipping in Lebanon?

Dropshipping is one of the best business models beginners in the world of e-commerce can pick up, especially for Lebanese with a very limited budget who want to start their own online hustle regardless of their experience in digital marketing or whether they're currently living in Lebanon or abroad as a student outside the country.

What is Dropshipping

But before we dive into our topic of how Lebanese can successfully start their own dropshipping business, let's address the elephant in the room.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is the process of acting as the middle man between the supplier or the manufacturer of a product and the consumer who purchases the product, meaning you're selling these products without even touching or owning them. You help sell these products, the supplier deducts the cost of their product from a successful sale, and you get to keep the profit. Simple, isn't it?

Why Choose Dropshipping

Unlike e-commerce, where you need a huge budget of at least $3,000 to cover testing and trying different products, purchasing products in bulk uncertain if they'll sell, and keeping you stuck with an inventory, that's not the case with dropshipping:

• •You need only a small budget to get started
• •No managing or owning inventory
• •You focus only on marketing and advertising

This is the exact model multi billion dollar brands like Gymshark and Wayfair used to build their businesses without owning inventory and risking their budgets in their starting phase!

What will you learn?

In this article, you're going to learn:

• •How to decide on your store's niche
• •How to find winning products
• •Factors that qualify a winning product
• •Cons of dropshipping
• •How Droparabia addresses these cons

Deciding the niche

This is one of the most important steps that usually gets overlooked by almost everyone who wants to start dropshipping.

"Why sell only fitness products when I can also sell beauty products and car products?"

Unless you want to look like a generic dollar store that signals "cheap" and "low quality" and doesn't demonstrate a clear purpose, go ahead, no one is stopping you :)

Here's why choosing a niche is a must:

• 1.It helps you build a brand that has a clear purpose and demonstrates expertise in a certain niche, which can help you earn the complete trust of a certain audience
• 2.It allows you to position yourself as a problem solver rather than someone who sells "products"
• 3.It helps you identify your target audience so you can empathize with their problems and pain points and speak directly to them

The most profitable niches you can choose from are:

• •Health and beauty
• •Fitness and wellness
• •Cars
• •Pets
• •Kitchenware
• •Electronics
• •And many more niches you can find on Droparabia

But please, and I'm saying this for your own good, do NOT under any circumstances go for dangerous, hazardous items or contraband like:

• •Weapons
• •Adult products
• •Unknown or unauthorized medicines

Qualifying a product

So you took my advice and decided on your niche, splendid for you!

Now let's learn about the factors that will allow you to almost instantly identify whether a product is a seller or a loser.

1st: Does it solve a real problem?

This is really important because not everyone is willing to spend their money on some useless junk (unless it has a wow factor, which we will discuss in a moment).

Take, for example, a fidget spinner. What problems does it solve?

...

That's right.

Nothing.

This is a mere distracting toy that became a fad, especially in 2018, specifically during the time when all schools in Lebanon were preparing for their final exams.

How about a lotion that removes wrinkles?

Now this is a real problem-solving product that people, especially women in their 40s, have no choice but to buy.

Always ask yourself this question: Does this product solve a real problem? If yes, then sell it.

If no, either pass on it, or consider selling it if it's part of a very strong ongoing trend that's currently happening, from which you can make good money.

2nd: Does it have a good profit margin?

You want a selling price much higher than the supplier cost, usually a 3x markup or more. A skincare gadget sourced at $8 and sold for $30 works well. A phone charger cable sourced at $4 that only sells for $6 doesn't, since after ad costs you make almost nothing.

3rd: Is it lightweight?

Light products mean cheaper shipping, better margins, and faster delivery. Aim for items under about 1 kg, like jewelry, phone cases, watches, or small beauty tools. Anything heavy, like a 5 kg appliance or a piece of furniture, eats into your profit through shipping and slows delivery.

4th: Is it a retainer?

This doesn't necessarily determine whether a product is a winner or not, but is rather an optional consideration.

A good example of a retainer product is a container of health benefit supplement gummies. Once they finish the container, they're going to order a new one.

An example of a non-retainer product is a shaving machine, which could last a lifetime for them unless they break it or lose it.

The old way of dropshipping

The old and traditional way of dropshipping had many cons that caused almost everyone to label dropshipping as a "dead" or "terrible" business model.

And these cons are:

• •Having to search for hours for a product to sell
• •Finding reliable suppliers who hopefully have the product you want to sell
• •Finding a reliable delivery company to deliver the product to the customer as soon as possible
• •No control over product quality, which could lead to customers demanding a refund

How Droparabia permanently changed dropshipping

Because of these major cons left by the old dropshipping model and traditional e-commerce, Droparabia, the first dropshipping platform in Lebanon, was born.

With this platform, you no longer have to search for hours for a product to sell, find or deal with suppliers, or ever worry about delivering the products to your customers' doorsteps.

Droparabia finds and sources for you a wide variety of catalog products consisting only of winning products with real market demand in the Lebanese market!

With its one-of-a-kind and advanced logistics network and infrastructure, you pick the product you want to sell by connecting your Shopify store to Droparabia through its own app extension, and add the product directly to your store with the click of a button.

And Droparabia will handle the packaging and order delivery for you as soon as a customer places an order on your Shopify store!

You don't own or manage inventory, you don't stress over deliveries and order fulfillment, and you only pay for the product's cost while keeping the profit!

On top of all that, if a certain product you wanted to sell is not present on Droparabia, all you have to do is provide a screenshot and details of this product in the "request product" feature on Droparabia, and the platform will find and source it for you!

Summary

How much you can earn from your dropshipping business depends on several factors, such as:

• •How much effort are you willing to put into this business?
• •Are you willing to bounce back from trials and errors?
• •Do you treat dropshipping as a business model or a get-rich-quick scheme?

But I'm not going to leave you hanging without an answer. Instead, I'll let these guys answer the question for you.