Supplement drop shipping is a great way to start your own business without having to build your company from the ground up. With supplement drop shipping the products, packaging, labeling, and fulfillment are taken care of, your job is to market and sell the supplements.
And to start your own supplement drop shipping company, you need a website.
What to Look for in an E-commerce Platform
There are dozens of e-commerce platforms out on the market right now and each business owner you talk to will swear by a different one. The important part is finding a platform that works for you.
Here are a few things to consider during your search:
Pricing and Payment – Cheapest isn’t always best but on the other hand just because something is more expensive doesn’t make it better. Make sure that you can afford the platform and that is has features that you think of as must haves. The cost of a platform can also include the need to hire a developer to set it up if your programming skills aren’t advanced enough.
Integrations – Speaking of plugins, if you want to integrate all areas of your business (accounting, marketing, etc.) look for a platform that offers plugins and integrations for these areas.
SEO Friendly – SEO is how your site gets found. Search engines look for things like relevancy when ranking websites. Being able to use your own domain name, have a blog, and the ability for customers to leave on-site reviews is important because they signal that your site is relevant.
Mobile Friendly – Having a mobile friendly website and shopping cart is a must. There’s no getting around this one. 60% of searches come from mobile, so if you’re not mobile friendly you won’t rank as well or get as much traffic. Plus customers are more likely to bounce.
User Friendly – This is a must have for both you and your customer. You want your platform to be intuitive for you customers to use so they won’t get frustrated and leave your site. You also want the platform to be easy to use for you so you don’t have to spend as much time learning the ropes.
Top 5 E-commerce Platforms for Supplement Drop Shipping
Here are 5 of the most popular e-commerce platforms out there right now and breakdown of the pros and cons for each.
Shopify
Shopify is regarded by many as the gold standard of e-commerce sites. It’s extremely popular and a very common option for people just starting out.
Pros:
- Easy to use
- Out of the box solution
- Launch a site in minutes
- Lots of integrations and plug-in options
- Free trial
Cons:
- Pricing
- Difficult to customize
- Limited content marketing
Bigcommerce
Thousands of people use Bigcommerce to power their e-commerce businesses. It’s a powerful and viable option that many people like and trust.
Pros:
- All in one platform
- Lots of how-tos and tutorials
- Intuitive features
- Built-in marketing features
- Free trial
Cons:
- Pricing structure
- Not as many add-ons
- Difficult to edit certain features
Volusion
Volusion has been around since 1999 and their clients include multi-million dollar companies like Intel and 3M. It’s got a lot of great features but it’s not really an out-of-the-box option.
Pros:
- Built-in education
- Lots of customer support
- Onboarding program
- Easily customizable dahsboard
- Free trial
Cons:
- Not fully mobile responsive
- Not many design options
- Difficult to implement
Magento
Magento isn’t usually the first option for many small e-commerce businesses because it requires a lot of resources to get it up and running. On the other hand it is very scalable.
Pros:
- Scalable
- Very flexible
- Custom user interface
- Free Trial
Cons:
- Difficult to use
- Requires a lot of set up
- Needs special dev skills
WooCommerce
Woocommerce isn’t its own platform. It integrates with WordPress sites to enable them to become e-commerce stores. So if you have a WordPress site and want to make it into an e-commerce store WooCommerce is a great option.
Pros:
- FREE!
- Professional look
- Customizable
- Flexible
Cons:
- Customization isn’t easy
- Requires coding knowledge
- Frequent updates
The Takeaway
Supplement drop shipping can be a great way to start a business quickly. The drop shipper takes care of the product and fulfillment all you have to do is set up the shop so that you can sell the product.
Do your research when looking for the right platform for you! Not every platform is the right fit for everyone but there is definitely a good fit for you out there and chances are it’s one of the 5 we talked about above.
Once you’ve got your site built, On Demand Fulfillment can help you take care of the product side. We’re a one-stop-shop supplement drop shipping company and we also private label the products for you (which no one else does, as far as we know!). We keep over 100 products stocked in-house to drop ship directly to your customers!