According to Statista, eCommerce growth in the Philippines is expected to hit 46.5% by 2024 in terms of user penetration. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate of 18.3%, resulting in a projected market volume of $6,610M by 2024.
Now, one of the best ways to participate in this massively growing eCommerce industry is through dropshipping, and that’s what we are going to talk about today- how to start a dropshipping business in the Philippines.
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Most probably, you already have an idea about what is dropshipping, especially that there is a lot of information about it across different social media platforms.
And maybe, you are just here to further learn how to do it here in the Philippines as a Filipino Entrepreneur. Well, my friend, you are in the right place. I will make sure to not waste your time and give you every piece of detail that you need to know to get started with dropshipping.
I personally run dropshipping stores, and what I’m going to do is to share with you everything about how I started it and how you can do it as well. Without any further ado, let’s go ahead and get started.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method in which the retailer (you) does not keep goods in stock. But instead, you just need to create your own online store (or any forms/ways of acquiring customers) and transfer your customer’s orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to your customers.
Why Start Dropshipping Business?
As I have mentioned above, dropshipping is one of the booming businesses here in the Philippines. Aside from that, one does not need a huge amount of capital to start with. If you’re the type of person who likes to do business without too many complications to avoid headaches, dropshipping is certainly the best one for you.
Why? Because in dropshipping, you do not have to manage your own inventories, handle customer returns, customer service, and other things involved in the business. Aside from that, it’s easy to learn the skills needed to run a successful dropshipping business.
Here’s How To Start A Dropshipping Business In The Philippines
Alright, as promised I’m going to share with you everything you need to know on how to get started with the dropshipping business in the Philippines. We are going to talk about dropshipping suppliers, skills that you need to know, and many other things that are essential for a successful dropshipping business.
The first thing we need to do is to distinguish which platform we are going to use. You might not know it yet but there are actually a couple of ways to do dropshipping.
What I mean is you can do dropshipping with top eCommerce platforms like Shopee or Lazada. Or you can also run your own online store and host it on an eCommerce platform like Shopify, and that’s what we need to talk about first.
Which eCommerce Platform Are You Going To Use?
Choosing the right platform to do dropshipping will depend on either the skills you currently know or the goal that you’re trying to achieve. If you’re trying to build a brand, then it is better to build your own online store.
It will give you maximum freedom or control over your business, like managing your customer’s data for marketing optimization (i.e. Facebook Pixel Data) and having the freedom to sell whatever you wanted to sell which is not possible if you’re going to do dropshipping with the top eCommerce platforms that I’ve mentioned earlier.
Both options have their own advantages and disadvantages, so let me go ahead and share them with you.
1. Top eCommerce Platforms
First, let’s talk about choosing a top eCommerce platform like Shopee or Lazada. One of the biggest advantages of doing dropshipping with either Shopee or Lazada is their millions of monthly shoppers which are, of course, can also be your potential customers.
They will do all the marketing and promotions to gather customers to their platforms where your products are going to be listed. This means that you do not have to be an expert in marketing like running Facebook ads, Google ads, and many others to start dropshipping business with them.
They also offer advertising inside their platforms like search ads, but it is not going to be complicated as running social media advertisements.
However, there’s still a particular skill that you need to learn if you’re going to do dropshipping with either Shopee or Lazada which is optimizing your product listings. You need to learn how to edit your product pictures, but no worries ’cause you can easily do that using tools like Canva.
Click here to check out Canva. It’s a tool you can use to easily remove photo backgrounds, add promotional banners, and many others.
Aside from that, Shopee and Lazada also have a learning center for their sellers where you can find and learn all the necessary skills on how to optimize your product listings on their platform.
I guess the only known downside of doing dropshipping business with either Shopee or Lazada is that you really don’t have control over some important things. Like what I have mentioned earlier, you don’t have control over your customer’s data.
You need to follow every standard and policy they have for their sellers and other things that are important if you’re trying to build a brand that will eventually give you an option to scale up.
2. Starting Your Own Online Store
Starting your own online store is the very first thing that you need to have if you’re trying to build a brand. But, you might be thinking that it is hard to build an online store (which is most people do) especially if you’re a beginner, which is definitely true way back 10 years ago.
But not today, because there are eCommerce platforms like Shopify where you can easily host and set up an online store, and they have every tool and system to fully operate an automated online store.
They even have a 14 days trial [ click here ] to check it out, it will give some time to play around and check how easy their system works.
Building your own online store will give you all the freedom that you cannot have if you’re going to start dropshipping with the top eCommerce platforms like what we have talked about on the first option. You can sell whatever products you wanted to sell, the control over marketing data (like from Facebook Pixel Data) for marketing optimization, and create your own name in the market or your brand.
However, it is necessary for you to learn marketing skills like running Facebook ads and creating marketing copy. It might take you some time to learn every necessary skill to successfully run and operate an online store.
But once you learned it, it’s going to be a lifetime knowing that you can apply it to whatever type of business that you might have in the future.
Aside from that, there are lots of learning resources available across the internet. In fact, I even have a tutorial about how to create an online store with Shopify, just click here if you want to watch that video.
But just so you know, you can actually do both. It depends on how you manage your time, and of course, your business capital budget. I may not be able to explain everything here but definitely, you can leave your question/s in the comment section below.
Dropshipping Suppliers In The Philippines
Choosing your dropshipping suppliers is one of the factors that will determine the success of your business. You should choose a supplier which will offer you mutual business benefits.
You should always consider your gain, how their system works, and the products that they offer for you to sell. Here are the top dropshipping supplier’s companies in the Philippines:
1. Dropify
Dropify is one of the most established Dropshipping suppliers in the Philippines. They offer thousands of products available for every Dropshipper and they have excellent systems that will allow you to do dropshipping business with top eCommerce platforms (like Shopee and Lazada) or running your own online store, like in Shopify.
Aside from that, they also offer a cash-on-delivery payment system, quality fulfillment system, and excellent customer support. For more details about them, you can check out their website or join their Facebook group.
2. Inspired Dropshipping
Inspired Dropshipping is another popular dropshipping supplier in the Philippines. They have an excellent dropshipping system that will allow you to easily manage Dropshipping orders and fulfillment, and like Dropify, they also have a system that will allow you to do dropshipping with Lazada, Shopee, or running your own store.
Unlike Dropify, Inspired Dropshipping products are really optimized for dropshipping. They even provide ad copies like product promotional videos that you can use for your marketing like Facebook ads.
For more details about them, you can check out Inspired Dropshipping‘s website or join their Facebook group.
3. Facebook Groups Suppliers
You might not know about it but there are actually product suppliers that also allow dropshipping on Facebook. All you have to do is search for whatever type of products you wanted to sell and just add “suppliers” when you search it.
But the only problem is they don’t have a system that will automate the fulfillment and ordering. However, if you’re willing and have the patience to do it manually, then here are the Facebook groups where you can find dropshipping suppliers: Shoe suppliers, RTW’s, Mixed Products suppliers.
I guess that’s should be it. If you guys have further questions, please leave them in the comment section below and I will get back to you as soon as I see them. Good luck!
Ganie
Educational…nice blog. Congrats keep it up.