In this article, you will find the complete guide on how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria. Dropshipping can be done from the comfort of your home.
Starting dropshipping from Nigeria is a great Idea if only, you have the knowledge to do it the right way. However, why I tagged this article as ( Complete guide on how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria) is because I am sharing my experience/ideas from my Nigerian point of view. How I’m able to succeed in Dropshipping here in Nigeria.
Starting a business in Nigeria like dropshipping business means you have to think of many things like:
- The payment processor for your business.
- Mentor
- Capital
- How to deal with supplier
- How to have your products shipped quickly.
- What idea of products should I dropship? In case, you are thinking of going global, then you should be aware of tax or company registration for each country.
Also, you should be aware of import tax In case you’re dropshipping in Nigeria.
And all these are the reasons I tag the title of this article (Complete guide on how to dropship in Nigeria), because of some rules and regulations and economy uniqueness protecting e-commerce business in the country.
So you have to get your seat and enjoy the roller-coaster as I take you down in the best possible means I can.
If you are yet to enroll into my Dropshipping Masterclass, kindly do, to get started with your Dropshipping business and also you will have access to join over 1000 drop shppers in our Telegram community where we answer questions, help each other and make money together.
What is dropshipping & how does it work In Nigeria?
For easier understanding, Dropshipping is when you sell a product without buying or having them.
Here is how it works, you first create an online store, after you have created an online store and added different demanding product to it. What I mean here is putting pictures and description of the product. The pictures and description can be taken from online eg AliExpress.
Note, you don’t need to see or have the physical product in stock before making any sales. So, once you made your sales, all you have to do is contact your supplier (the real owner of the product) by sending your customer address and then you pay the supplier from the initial money paid to you by your buyer(the customer).
The third-party supplier, in turn, makes the shipment to your buyer(the customer). While you and your buyer(the customer. home happy.
It looks simple right hmmm. No, but we can help you start your Dropshipping business and you will start earning in 14 days contact Us.
However, if you will be using AliExpress to source for products, you do not need to contact the seller(supplier). Simply, All you need to do is go pay for the products and then fill your customers’ details(eg home address, phone number, etc) on AliExpress as the buyer.
The seller on AliExpress will then packaged the product, processed and shipped to your customer without them knowing it’s coming from AliExpress.
5 Simple steps on how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria?
Before I start, I will like to answer some frequent questions commonly asked by New drop shipper in Nigeria.
- How much you can earn by dropshipping? Dropshipping allows you to make more profit from selling a single product. You can decide to buy a product with shipping cost included at no more than $10/pc, and sell them for $28 or $48. which is 60% profit margin, right? Sell the same product 5 times a day, you will be making profits of over $100/day. $3000/month (1million naira).
- How long it takes for the shipping? If you’re shipping from USA to USA, It takes 2-7 days. USA to another country takes 4-11 days. China to the USA takes 7-25. China to countries takes 7-25.
- Can I make my products at my branding? Yes. Many Sellers provide you with branding service as soon as you’ve reached the minimum purchasing quantity.
- Do I need to pay any tax dropshipping with AliExpress in Nigeria? The answer is NO! Paying of Tax are for only USA residents.
- How much money do I need to start dropshipping? To start dropshipping you need a minimum capital of $50 – $500. Depending on your level of experience.
Next, we will look into steps on how to start a successful dropshipping business in Nigeria.
- Choose a Product to Sell
- Find a Trusted/Reliable Supplier
- Setup your store
- Market your product.
- Start making money.
Step 1: Choose a Product to Sell
Choosing the right product to sell is the first step to take in starting a successful dropshipping business in Nigeria. Many people make the mistake of selling anything they can think of. You should always know that dropshipping is a business, not a gamble.
And like every other business, you need to do deep business research and then pick a strategy on how to be profitable in the business. One of the ways you can do this is by searching for hot in-demand products to sell.
Another thing you should know while choosing your winning product is that you can’t just start selling any product. Try as much as possible to check the demand over-time for such products through the use of AliExpress Dropshipping Center and Google Trend. (Link)
The daily demand for most products must be relatively on the high side or at least very stable and the competition for it should below.
It’s not necessary to have tons of products on your website to be successful in this dropshipping business. Your emphasis should be on hot products around a particular niche.
Having a niche store is always good because it will allow you to easily Up-sell or cross-sell customers with similar products.
When I mean niche, what I simply mean, is having your store around particular kinds of products. An example of a niche store is a store around kitchen utensils.
Step 2: Find a Reliable Supplier
The place of good suppliers cannot be overemphasized in this business, because they are the owners of the products you are about to selling. So, it is safe to say the quality of your supplier determines the success of your business. Trust me without a good supplier there won’t be a product for you to dropship. So you most as well take them seriously.
The best ways to spot reliable supplier on AliExpress is by checking customer comments and seller rate. Don’t go for a seller below a 90% score.
AliExpress is this the best place for anyone interested in doing dropshipping business from Nigeria. Except you have a good manufacturer or seller in Nigeria or elsewhere that’s willing to partner with you.
In this case, all you will have to do is promote their products and send orders to them when you receive an order, and they will be the one to manage the logistic within or outside Nigeria.
Other than that, AliExpress is your best option for any drop shipper in Nigeria!
Products on AliExpress are very cheap giving you profit scalability on your business. The system is there to product you In case your didn’t deliver your product as promised. and note over 80% of drop shipper use AliExpress for there Dropshipping business so this might be your best choice in Nigeria.
Also, using AliExpress also comes with its own problem! Which is the Duration of delivery of goods? The shipping time on AliExpress is long due to 99% of sellers are based in China.
This brings us to one important question; will your buyer (customer) be able to pay before he/she receives their products in Nigeria? Or will they be able to wait over a long period of time (over 14 days) before they receive their package, will begin to pop up in your mind?
Then you will start to wonder if all hope is gone for dropshipping in Nigeria?
No! You can still sell to global markets or delve into Mini importation business.
Step 3: Choose a selling platform
Choose a selling platform is really very important because it determines how your store is going to look to your buyers. Is the interface between You and your Customers. So, I’m going to show you the two platforms for building your store. They include:
- WordPress and
- Shopify
WordPress –
Building your store using Wordpress you will need a domain name and a web hosting account to host your store.
Your web host is where your data is saved online. This is similar to a house for your web store while the domain name is like an address to get that house.
After your domain name and your web hosting account are ready, Next stage is to install e-commerce software (WooCommece plugin) on your website after you must have installed WordPress from your Cpanel.
All this can be done through one-click installation. And you have done with your installation, you can start tweaking the website to your taste.
(We help you build a brand new, professional-looking eCommerce store with products imported, FULLY PREPARED for marketing).
No coding is involved, you can literally create your dropshipping website yourself and this is nothing you can’t do.
Here is the most essential part, after everything is set up, you then need to get a Dropshipping Plugin eg (AliDropship). Without a plugin, you can’t run your dropshipping business effectively.
Better still, if you can’t create the website store yourself, or you don’t have enough time probably because of your work, you can easily hire us to do that for you. We will Build and Deliver your store with 4 days of your initial Payment. Finally, when you join our masterclass, we will help you to convert your new store into profit. (Link)
We will perfectly customize drop shipping store to your test with hots in-demand products added to it, that are ready to start selling. No work will be required from your side when you hire us to build a custom dropshipping store.
Shopify –
Shopify is a self-hosted platform and a website builder that allows you to easily build a website under a few hours. You can create a store in less than 30 -45 minutes and start selling any kinds of products you want from it.
This platform is mostly used by many drop shipper because it easily allows you to build a store even if you don’t know anything on website design. But the problem with this platform is that it’s costly to manage.
The good thing is they offer a 14days free trial. You can build your store in a just day and start marketing immediately. You can check out my case study on how I use this platform to earn over $10,000 in my first month (link)
With this, it’s very possible to start making profits within the 14days and pay up your subscription even before the free trial ends.
But there is not a guarantee that, this will work for everyone!
I will recommend WordPress for those with low budget over Shopify as WordPress is less costly to manage relatively easy compared to WordPress but more expensive.
Step 4: Market your business
Obviously, without marketing, nobody is going to visit your store because nobody knows if your store exist. Is only when you show the world that your store. That when they will consider buying from you. You can’t just sit down and expect buyers to come and buy from your store.
You must take it to them. The best and cheapest place to market your product is through Facebook, Instagram and Google.
You can start by creating your Facebook fan page using your domain name as your page name and then create a Facebook business account to run your Facebook ads.
When running your Facebook advert choose one of your cheapest products to drive traffic to store. Or you can hire us to manage your ad account. We can help you convert every penny you spent into profit.
Finally, make sure you collect emails upon sign-ups and send marketing emails on new products or discount offers on existing products is will help to convert visitors into buyer.
You can as well check them out Instagram ads and Instagram influencers and this is another cheapest method to reaching your potential customer.
Step 5: Start making money
You need a plugin specifically designed for dropshipping eg “The Alidropship plugin” These plugins help you to automatically import product and it’s descriptions, product photos, price, review etc from AliExpress to your store.
This can be done with just a click and when a product is sold on your store, it automatically alerts you, supplier, by sending the customer details to your AliExpress supplier. The one thing left for you to do is to pay the seller (supplier).
After that, the supplier will then ships the product to your customer address without questions asked and your customer won’t know the product is from a third party.
Dropshipping has proven to be a perfect residual stream of income when done the right way and by following the proper channel.
So learning how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria is not enough, you need to implement what you’ve learned.
The Issue of Payment Gateway
The payment processing gateway is still the greatest stromboli blocks to several online businesses in Nigeria. However, in the case of dropshipping, there are few ways to solve this problem and they include:
- Stripe
- PayPal and
- Paystack
- Rave
Stripe – Right now, is the most widely used payment process gateway in the world even better than PayPal because of its easy integration which makes it easy to receive payment on your web store from any part of the world.
Right now, it does not work in Nigeria. And to legally use it, you will need to register your business in the USA. I have written a complete guide on how to register your business to use Stripe. check it out! (Link)
PayPal – is one of the most popular payment gateways but unfortunately, it also doesn’t allow Nigerians to accept payment. However, there has been a way around that.
I have written a complete guide on how to set up a PayPal that receives and send payment in Nigeria. Check it out! (link)
Alternatively, you can use…
Paystack – Is Nigerian payment processing company, so by default it accepts payment in Nigeria. But if you want to receive payment internationally (USD), you need to create an account with paystack and also make sure you have a domiciliary account with Gtbank or Zenith, a registered business with CAC.
When all this are ready, you can then send them a request for receiving international payment. If things goes well, you will start receiving payments in 24 hours.
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That’s it on complete guide on how to start dropshipping business in Nigeria.
Honestly, this is so details and I enjoyed every it of your article, I would consider starting this business, I have also done my personal research and I have come to conclusions that am starting this as side hustle…