How to Dropship on Shopee?

Are you planning to start a business in Southeast Asia? Dropshipping on Shopee may be one good option.

Southeast Asia has been one of the top emerging markets across the globe since the pandemic hits. The report from eMarketer shows that retail eCommerce sales in this area will increase to US$89.67 billion in 2022 and continue to rise in the next years. In addition, the number of internet users in Southeast Asia is predicted to reach 558.48 million by 2025. Thus, it is a great opportunity to enter this emerging market right now.

Shopee, as a leading selling platform in Southeast Asia, is no doubt the first choice for your business. And dropshipping on Shopee could provide the easiest way to take your chance.

In this article, we will give you an ultimate guide for Shopee dropshipping.

Keep reading!

What is Shopee

First things first, let’s learn about what Shopee is.

Shopee is one of the major online marketplaces in the world. There is a wide range of products in this marketplace, from health & beauty products to computer accessories, clothing to home supplies. You can nearly find whatever you want here.

Founded in Singapore in 2015, Shopee was only available in Southeast Asia and Taiwan at first. But at present, it has been accessible to sellers in other countries like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and so on.

Why should you dropship on Shopee

Shopee has been developing at a fast speed in recent years. The popularity of Shopee on Google Trends shows a tendency of continuous increase. For data proof, according to Statista, the total gross merchandise value (GMV) of Shopee reached US$18.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. The number is expected to grow continuously!

Besides that, here are some other important reasons why you should dropship on Shopee.

Potential traffic

Shopee is well-known to a great number of customers. As long as you build a store with a qualified product detail page, you could get traffic without too much effort.

Convenient marketing

Shopee provides sellers with different marketing tools. With these tools, you can drive traffic to your store and increase sales easily.

Customer service

With the communication tool offered by Shopee, you are allowed to communicate with your customers promptly and effectively.

No commission

Unlike Lazada, there is no commission fee for selling on Shopee. Even if you sell on Shopee Mall, only a small amount of commission fee is needed, still money-saving.

Multiple payment methods

Shopee allows different payment methods, making your customer’s paying more convenient.

How to Dropship on Shopee

Since now you know the advantages to sell on Shopee, you probably want to explore how to be a dropshipper on this marketplace.

Here, we provide you with 6 steps you may refer to.

Find a niche

A niche is a small part of a market, aiming to meet the specific needs of the target customers. For example, clothing is a market, and inside it, the dress is a small niche, which could be further divided into a few smaller niches.

When you sell in a niche, you devote your energy and time to a special field. That increases your chance to succeed. Besides that, you may become an expert in the field to increase your customers’ trust. Focusing on a niche is also good for avoiding stiff competition in the dropshipping market.

Then, how to find the right niche?

1. Understand your interests and strengths 

Ask yourself,

-What are you interested in? Fashion? Cosmetics? Or Outdoor supplies?

-What are you good at? Are you skilled at marketing? Or have you been knowledgeable about a category?

Then you will come up with some niches you want to enter.

2. Identify what you can help with your customers

After you find some niches, you should explore problems customers encounter in these markets. Are you able to solve the problems? Or what service do the customers need? Will you meet their needs? Checking out such problems will help exmine whether you should take that niche.

3. Research your competitors

Your competitors could give you some inspiration of which niche to put invements into. Research what they are selling, how much their products are priced, what is the profit margin of these products, and if their business keeps developing. Your research will suggest if you should enter such niches.

4. Narrow down your niches

Having known about your customers and competitors, you need to narrow these niches to one profitable niche. You should ensure that this niche is neither over-saturated nor too small.

That is, there is no fierce competition and too many sellers in this small market so that you have a chance to make profits. And meanwhile, there should be some competition, which proves other sellers also think the market is worth putting effort into.

5. Test this niche

The final step is to test your niche. Try to build a store and sell, then you will know if your idea is viable.

No need for inventory, dropshipping on Shopee is a good start to test it.

Start a store with Shopee

After you find your niche, it is time to set up your store. 

The procedure is as followings.

1. Sign up on the Shopee website

Your phone number, Facebook account, or Google account is needed here for registration.

2. Fill in your personal information

Click on the My Account button, fill in your username and shop name, choose your gender and date of birth, and complete other information.

3. Complete your shop profile

Go to Seller Center and finish your shop profile including your shop name, images or videos of decorating your shop, and shop description.

Be mindful that if you are not a local and want to sell on Shopee, you need a cross-border registration. Just apply for it by filling in your information in the survey. And then their team will contact you to further the processing.

Work with a supplier

Shopee in itself doesn’t support dropshipping. But working with a supplier makes dropshipping on Shopee possible.

A supplier deals with inventory management, order fulfillment, and shipment for you. So the supplier plays a significant role in your dropshipping business.

However, it is not easy to find a trustworthy supplier in a short time.

For your convenience, we select some reliable supplier sources for your reference.

1. Aliexpress

Aliexpress is a business-to-consumer(B2C) marketplace founded by the Alibaba group in China. There are over 100 million products in various categories on this platform. Many verified suppliers allow you to buy low-priced goods in a large quantity. They also offer dropshipping services and ship orders worldwide. 

Plus, Aliexpress updated Aliexpress Dropshipping Center recently. This search tool allows you to find an accountable supplier more efficiently.

2. Alibaba

Founded by the same company as Aliexpress, Alibaba is an international business-to-business(B2B) platform. This platform connects China sellers, manufacturers, and wholesalers with worldwide retailers and dropshippers. A sea of products in various categories are available to you. Some are even not easy to find on other eCommerce platforms.

Most importantly, you can purchase products in bulks at a lower price on Alibaba. Plus, many dropshipping suppliers provide private and white label products. You are allowed to customize these products to build your brand. 

3. Sup Dropshipping

Sup Dropshipping is an all-in-one dropshipping service solution launched in 2010. Working with suppliers worldwide, Sup can help you source the competitive products you need. Anytime you want to source an item, just place sourcing requests! Your personalized supporter is there for you.

Whenever you receive an order, you sync it to our system. Then we pick, pack and deliver the order on your behalf. You avoid plenty of hassles at a minimum cost.

In addition, we offer you branding and quality inspection services. You can add your logo, brand, and unique design to your products. The print-on-demand tool SUP DROPCUSTOM even allows your customers to design the product. Also, you can customize your package. Before every order is shipped, our team checks the product to ensure it is in a good condition.

Sell proper products

Selling proper products is important to earning profit and running your business. However, choosing profitable products among a large quantity of them tends to be a challenge.

Here are some products we recommend selling.

• Small, light, and high-profit-margin products
• Items that are unique in design or function and convenient for use
• Trending products( Note: sell before your competitor begins to sell them, and update them when your competitor has been selling them. Keep an eye on your competitors all the time!)
• Complementary products. For example, some sellers may sell eyeglass and eyeglass nose pads separately. It is an opportunity for you to combine these two products to sell as one set. It could be time-consuming to find a supplier selling 2 products, but you will find it worth the effort.

Market your business

Whatever your products are, however amazing they are, they need to be found by your customers before sold out.

So how?

Most often, you realize that through marketing. There are many marketing methods, such as social media marketing, email marketing, live streaming, SEO, and paid ads.

At the beginning of your business, you’d better try different marketing methods as possible as you can. And then focus on two to three main marketing methods, which makes it much easier to establish your online presence.

Offer customer service

In the business world, customer service is always crucial. Anyway, no one wants to buy from a seller with bad customer service.

Therefore, you should provide your clients quality and outstanding service in the whole process of selling a product.

Answer their queries in time, inform them about the conditions of their orders, and send them your best wishes in the holidays. These all probably increase your customers’ satisfaction and loyalty to you.

FAQ

Is it free to sell on Shopee?

Local sellers are charged for free to register and list products on Shopee, but need to pay a small transaction fee when an order is completed.

Selling in Shopee Mall will be charged for the registration fee, commission, and other fees.

Can I dropship in Malaysia?

Of course, you can. Shopee is available in Malaysia. Though this platform itself has no tools to support dropshipping, it allows a dropshipping business when you collaborate with a supplier or an agent. To start dropshipping in Malaysia, please refer to this article.

Conclusion

Shopee is one of the most influential e-commerce platforms. Dropshipping on Shopee will be the choice of more and more businesses based in the Southeast Asia area or even other regions. Grasping skills to dropship on Shopee, you will make your success sooner or later.

Or have you already successfully built your business on Shopee?

We would appreciate it very much if you can share your story in your comment.