Social media with over 3.2 billion monthly active users is one of the best things to happen to dropshipping. It has helped to strengthen social commerce over the years, giving rise to millions of dollars in profits for many dropshippers.

Imagine having a product or service and no market to sell to. Frustrating, not so?

Social media has not only created a marketplace for dropshippers, it has also supplied them with tools to make their work even easier.

For instance, with shoppable posts and Instagram Checkout, a dropshipper can easily sell to any Instagram user who clicks on their photo posts.

What’s more? With a Facebook Shop dropshippers can also sell in-app to Facebook users anywhere, seamlessly integrating social with commerce.

But that’s not all, in this post we’ll be highlighting five major ways social media has and is still benefiting dropshippers, so you can learn how to maximize social media as a dropshipper, but first

Who is a Dropshipper?

A dropshipper is simply an entrepreneur or business owner who is into dropshipping business.

And

What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a retail fulfilment model that allows you sell other people’s products at your own price without needing to buy stock or keep inventory yourself.

Meaning you don’t need to physically store and manage the “other people’s products” you sell; all you need is a supplier from whom you obtain product photos and description, and a website or dropshipping store and you’re in business.

Following are ten quick steps summarizing just how dropshipping really works

How Dropshipping Works at a Glance

1. You open an online store on ecommerce platforms like Shopify
2. Identify and approach trusted and verified suppliers
3. Import product pictures and descriptions from suppliers into your online store using tools like Oberlo
4. Edit product description and set your own price and price rules
5. Market, market, market
6. Receive orders and payment from buyers
7. Remove your profit and forward customer details and order details to your suppliers
8. Suppliers pick, pack and ship orders to your customers globally
9. Customers receive their products and can give you feedback
10. Rinse and repeat

Dropshipping and Social Media

Dropshipping is an online business that relies heavily on digital marketing, and social media is one channel that makes this possible.

With a large and growing user base, business  friendly tools, and increasing online shopping spend, there has never been a better time for ecommerce and dropshipping.

Following are

5 Major Ways Social Media is Helping Dropshippers Succeed

1. Social Ads

Facebook alone has over 2 billion monthly active users. A dropshipper can have up to 5, 000 Facebook friends and thousands of other mutual friends or friends of their friends, who can see and interact with their posts.

With Facebook Ads, they can reach even more Facebook users anywhere in the world by targeting specific demographics who might be interested in their products.

Depending on their budget and knowledge of Facebook Ads, they can actually reach millions of users. Assuming they reach a million eyes and only 1% eventually convert or buy at $5 profit, that’s an amazing $50, 000 in total profit.

Not bad for a dropshipper who doesn’t own a physical store or any physical product for that matter, working in his pajamas at home or from the beach with a smartphone or a laptop, and that for a couple hours a day, any time of the day.

2. Social Listening

With active social listening brands can literally hear anything said about them on social media and respond appropriately. With billions of active users, social media is abuzz with conversations, and much of that is about brands and businesses.

Growth is good, but most businesses grow big then grow deaf; they become big, then too big to listen. Soon they go straight from deaf to dead. As dropshippers grow, it can become a challenge to keep tabs of all customer feedback.

If customers repeatedly try and fail to draw your attention to a bad product, experience or complaint, they may resort to calling you out on social media. If this disgruntled customer is an influencer with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers you could be in soup.

With active social listening, however, you can quickly pick up your mentions and act to resolve any issues raised on social media before it escalates.

3. Social Mentions

As mentioned above, one negative social mention or hashtag from a powerful social media influencer can lead to a massive backlash and boycott of your dropshipping store or products, with far reaching consequences.

Similarly, one positive social mention from a powerful social media influencer can see your branded hashtags trending, and result in thousands of new followers plus thousands or more in sales.

Influencers can use social mentions to recommend or spotlight a brand or product to their millions of followers. They can also use it to rubbish a brand or product with ease.

Dropshippers can take advantage of this and get faster results with their marketing efforts, either by hiring influencers or getting them to notice their products and subsequently mentioning them.

4. Social Shopping

From shoppable posts to Instagram shopping, Instagram Checkout to Facebook Shopping and many other similar social commerce features, social media is positively enabling commerce.

Not only do people socialize on social media, they can also shop. They can be chatting with their friends and making a purchase at the same time. Such is the power of social commerce.

With many brick and mortar stores locking up and online shopping looking up, there has never been a better time to be a dropshipper than now. This is because reports say online retail sales will increase in the coming years, up to $4.88tr by 2021.

Dropshippers mostly rely on digital marketing to drive traffic, conversion and sales. It is essentially a numbers game; social media has the numbers, dropshippers can bring their “A” game. Perfect collaboration.

5. Groups

This is simply one of the biggest benefits dropshippers can derive from social media use; belonging to social media groups. There are dedicated Facebook Groups for nearly anything you can think of.

There are groups for artists, bikers, chefs, dancers, editors, fan clubs, game of thrones, healthy living, IoT, journalism, ketogenics, lovers, marketers, nerds, opticians, pastors, quotes, rappers, students, teachers, undergraduates, volunteers, women rights, etc.

The list is endless.

Most dropshipping courses add subscribers to social media groups where they can network and share ideas and experiences about what’s working, hot products, good suppliers, etc.

Conclusion

So much can be said about social media and dropshipping. These are just a few. Let us know how social media has benefited dropshippers or retailers and ecommerce as a whole.

Author Bio

Amos Onwukwe is an AWAI trained Business and Ecommerce Copywriter. He has featured in Huffington Post, Dumb Little Man, Self Growth, Ecommerce Nation, eCommerce Insights, Understanding Ecommerce, Small Biz Club, Successful Startup 101, Small Business Bonfire, among others.

Twitter: @amos_onwukwe