Dropship Malaysia

People said money don’t grow on trees. Well, that’s not necessarily true.

I mean you can still sow some seedlings of investment and water them with your hard work and time. Later you’ll see how money drops in front of your eyes, and before you know, it’s raining money all the way!

From where you asked?

From your ‘dropshipping tree’!

What Is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping has now gradually become a widely-known business around the globe and Malaysia is catching up real fast. Many prefer this what seems to be an easy method of selling products above the other.

Most of the time, when people think of kicking-off their business, dropshipping will likely be the top on their list. Wait, what’s that? You have no idea what dropshipping is?

Well, it’s basically about you marketing a supplier’s product without having to deal with the inventory of the product nor do you have to carry or even see the product for yourself.

All you have to do is to engage with the supplier and make a good impression on your customers while giving them the best service. You will have the supplier to send the product to your customers whenever you make a sale out of it.

In short, you will be the intermediary between the supplier and the customers. But most importantly, you are the marketer of the product!

Step-By-Step Guide To Start Off Your Dropship in Malaysia

So, how do you start off your dropshipping business in Malaysia? And what leads to the success of your business?

Well, hop on to this exciting ride of a simple step-by-step guide to a successful dropshipping in Malaysia – specially made for a beginner like you!

P/s: You might as well want to check out our article on how to kick-start your online e-commerce in Malaysia !

1. Muster Your Motivation

The truth is many will stop half-way while the rest don’t even bother to start. Thus, it’s important for you to gather your strength and get your motivation right.

In order for you to do this, you need to know yourself deeply. Know your strengths and weaknesses and start planning on choosing the best product for your business. It’s always best that you know what you are selling and why you are selling it.

If you have already started, find alternatives for your business to grow. Keep up to date with the latest marketing strategy nowadays. Do not quit half-way, I mean hey, even Naruto didn’t become a Hokage in a day!

2. Know Your Supplier

You need to know who you are dealing with as the supplier would play the main role in your dropshipping business.

It is best to pick a local supplier instead of the one abroad as this will ensure the delivery period is within the customers’ ideal estimation time. How fast an item is being delivered to your customers will be a measuring stick of how reliable your supplier is.

In Malaysia, if the delivery period goes beyond 4 working days, chances are you will lose your customers in the future!

Apart from that, take serious consideration of how much profit you will gain. Some products might not be worthy of your time and energy despite how popular it is. Never settle for less.

Another thing you should consider is how efficient is the supplier when it comes to an unforeseen inconvenience. Let’s be real, mistakes can happen anywhere, anytime.

Faulty in the deliverance of a product as well as what seems to be a mistakably high-quality item which turns out to be of a lower quality upon arrival do happen in the drop shipping business.

Therefore, the supplier needs to take fast and serious action to cater to customers’ demands and needs in order for them not to lose their trust.

Bear in mind, only work with the professionals.

3. Brand It Til They Know It

It is always good to be able to stand on your own two feet. But what’s better is when you can stand tall on your own name.

Just like how you need a spade and other farming utensils to plant trees, you will also need your tools and weapons in marketing the products of your choice.

One of them is by creating a brand of your own, a catchy one that will stick to your customers’ minds. But that’s not all, you must also find a strength which can benefit your customers in a way other brands could not.

Besides, what is a brand without a proper marketing strategy? Therefore, it is vital that the brand’s name could reach out far enough to be known all across the country.

So, do make full use of your marketing skills in order for your brand to stand out from the rest.

To those who do not have the basics in marketing, why not make some investment to attend courses on e-commerce SEO as well as Facebook Advertising. This will definitely be worth your sweat.

The first will serve to boost the visibility of the brand in digital marketing.

The latter on the other hand can be seen as a promising step to gain more customers for their business of dropship in Malaysia as Facebook penetration in this country is reported to be one of the highest in the world.

4. Be Dynamic

There is no easy job in this world. Same goes to a dropshipper. You need to force yourself to work the extra miles as you need to keep track of your monthly sales income.

This also applies to the mean number of orders per month and not-to-forget the number of followers on your social media.

Whether the statistic is going up or down, there should be a reason behind it and that is what you are expected to pay attention to – the progress and regress of your sales.

Also, bear in mind that there is no easy way out in getting your business started. An amateur dropshipper usually spends more than 40 hours per day to get their business going.

You could hire some staff to help you out later when your business is growing, but in order for that day to come, you will have to work from the scratch, and by scratch, I mean with full determination.

Top Selling Online Products for Dropship in Malaysia

Now that you’ve known how to start off your business and has set your will to do so, it is vital that you know the current demands in online market right now:

The Benefits of Dropship

1. Easy To Begin

As a kick start, you do not even need a team to start off your business. You can work alone or maybe with a trustworthy friend to begin your business journey.

You can just sit back and chill with a cup of latte, still dress up in your pajamas and run your business online like a professional drop shipper.

Besides, most suppliers do not even need credit application from you, which means you can start immediately on the very same day you sign up. You can promote your items right away.

Moreover, because there are multifarious products for you to choose from, you can even set up multiple websites for your dropshipping business in just a few clicks.

2. Save up Money & Time

Zip up your purse and keep the butterfly as you don’t need to think of the inventory of the products.

How big shall the warehouse be to store your items nor how attractive shall the packaging be to wrap your products are none of your business.

It also saves you time as you are not required to get the products from the supplier by hands, in fact, you don’t even need to see it.

This automated business enables the supplier to import the products of your own choice to your online store in just a couple of clicks.

3. Testing Platform to Find the Most Profitable Product

Because you can choose how many products you want to sell, whether it is from the same or different supplier, you can seize this opportunity to keep track of your sales revenue. You can compare which one gives you more profit, and which one gives you less to none.

This in return will give you the easy way to find the most profitable product for your dropshipping business. The winning product will definitely earn you the most ka-ching!

The Downsides of Dropship

1. You Can’t Control The Inventory

The fact that you have no control over the inventory of your chosen products is itself the pro and con that you will need to face.

Be ready for any unforeseen complaints from your fellow clients in case of discontinuity of the products without prior notice. Products can also go out of stock without the supplier letting you know beforehand.

Thus, this will affect the shipping times of the products as well as result in the downgrading of your brand and website reputation.

2. Copy Paste Business Model

Bear in mind that you are not the only dropshipper in this vast world. You will find many others who sell the same products as yours, so the competition will be high. Same price, same marketing strategy – tight margins.

3. Only The Supplier Knows the Quality

Because you will only be ‘seeing’ the products through the description and specifications given by the supplier, chances are your product might not be as high quality as you thought it would.

Customers might as well decide to return the products to the supplier and this can be a bit tricky as you are required to get an authorization from the supplier before clients could ship back the unwanted items.

How To Boost The Sales of your Dropship?

1. Master Marketing Skill

What sets you different from other drop shippers would be how you promote your own brand and services. Thus, it is vital that you master advertising skills, boost your web traffic as well as converting your store’s guests.

Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads will surely help in augmenting the promotion of your website due to the growth in a number of people, especially in Malaysia, who would roam around these social sites to look for their desired items.

Another one would be Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) which helps in elevating the rank of your brand in the search engine. This is significant as audiences would usually view the top three searches that they found in the search engine.

In order to optimize your brand in SEO, you will have to create a presentable and meaningful blog content promoting your brand. You can also add up customer reviews as proof of your quality service.

You must also aim to stand out from the other sellers by providing custom content which is only available on your site and not the other.

You can do this by giving them new and valuable information on the products you are selling. For instance, update them with a new description of the product accompanied by high quality and meaningful photos for affirmation.

Marketing skill is indeed important as statistic shows that a drop shipper who fails to get more than 99 views will likely won’t be getting any sales.

2. Lure Them with Offers!

No matter how much you love money and profits, never be that stingy seller who fails to offer sales to his customers. I mean, who doesn’t love sales? This method will motivate your audience to buy more and more of your products.

Be smart in offering deals to your customers. Make it a win-win situation for both you and your clients.

One way you can do this is by making bundle sale. Your target should be to sell more of the same product.

For instance, if you are selling bayblade, then more bayblades should be included in your bundle products. If your customers give good reviews about the product, chances are they will want more of it.

3. Automate & Outsource Your Business

Being a solo drop shipper will require you to be ‘the everything’ for your dropshipping business. You need to advertise your promotions, deal with suppliers, provide best customer service, analyze the revenue and the list goes on and on.

No one truly has the time to cater to all of these. Come on, everyone got their own life!

Therefore, automating and outsourcing most and if possible all of your tasks, should help you to access more free time to think about how to grow your business.

Some of the tasks that can be outsourced are as follow:

• Graphic and image editing

• Descriptive writing of the product

• Product promotions at Shopify

• Customer service

• Content writing

• Social media administration

• Managing campaigns

• Order handling

• Payment transaction

However, bear in mind that automating and outsourcing also come with a price as you will need to hire someone else to do your job. Make sure that the cost that you are to spend will not result in you losing your profit.

4. Customer-friendly Website

Do you believe in love at first sight?

If you do, (well, even if you don’t), believe me, that the representation of your homepage layout will be the first thing that shall determine as to whether a customer would want to further explore your online business page or not.

You might as well want to study the websites of your competitors, focusing on the details such as the theme that they use for their homepage and the copy setting on the sites.

You can also look at whether they include their logos or not as well as what apps do they put on their sites.

Fret not as you can always find the right apps to be featured in your homepage through the Shopify app store. This application will help you to design your site similar to other successful brands.

You might as well want to consider to add other pages to your site such as the FAQs by customers. This will help in enlightening new customers on how the online dropshipping business of yours is being handled.

As for the image for your site, never, ever, don’t you ever, use a stock photo with a watermark on it. This will decrease the overall quality of your site no matter how stunning it is.

You can always get free high-quality images from online sites such as Unsplash, Pexels as well as Burst.

Oh, and don’t forget to credit the rightful owner of the image, okay!

You might also be interested to read on our article on the Top Ecommerce Platforms in Malaysia.

5. Separating General from Niche

To start your business, it is normal that you will begin with a general store to test your market. You will most probably consider what you enjoy doing, what you’re good at as well as what people will pay for.

That is definitely a good strategy.

As you get used to your dropshipping business, you will have the desire to narrow down your sale on a niche product that you identify to be the most profitable to you. This will enable you to easily find the right audience for your products.

However, most successful brands such as Amazon starts with a niche focus of selling books. It then ends up expanding its store to sell everything under the sun.  

Even so, it’s better for you to start with a general store and later specify what you want to sell as it is important for you to understand and master the dropshipping concept before you jump to a niche store.

6. Exceptional Customer Service

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

That’s right, people! Your customers matter, so your treatment towards them is everything.

Offer them refunds for any mistakes on your part or even if they mistakenly make extra transaction upon their purchase. Respond to them as soon as possible because let’s be real – no one likes waiting.

Once in a while, why not give an e-card greeting to your loyal customers who ordered multiple times from your store.

Make jokes with them (one liner and dad jokes are okay but NEVER a dirty one) as well as offering monthly giveaways, especially to those who have been buying from you since the first day you started your business journey.

This will make them feel appreciated and you will indirectly leave a good mark on their heart. Do not wait for your brand to be well-known to give them this special customer service, but start it from your very first sale.

Always bear in mind that you are nothing without them.

Besides, this method is also one of the ways for you to stand out from the other stores selling the same products as yours.

7. Online and Offline Availability

Social media is the new ‘home’ to most Malaysian millennials nowadays. So, use this opportunity to better engage with your customers in order to expand your dropship business in Malaysia.

When people come to your house, they must be expecting you to get the door open for them as soon as they knock on the door and start calling for you.  

Same goes to your customers. As soon as they slide into your dm or text you personally, they are expecting you to be on the line and reply to them as fast as you could.

However, be innovative with your availability. Start learning on video marketing and get yourself an audience from events where you are a part of.

8. Get A Bigger Crowd

The number of your followers and the email chains that you own does matter in dropshipping. Both of these, especially the email lists will add up to your value to the potential buyers out there.

This can be a new approach for you to get in touch with your targeted customers offline. Make a partnership with famous influencers and get them to promote your service during one of their talks or shows.

They are likely to buy from you when they see many people have engaged with your services and this could also mean that you are a trustworthy brand.

For instance, you can always optimize your email chains through targeted paid traffic that can be done on a landing page.

This page in return will give you a lead magnet which you will have to follow its delivery with an automated email sales arrangement in order for these prospects to transform into paying clients.  

Expectations vs. Reality in Dropshipping

1. Expectation:

Copying someone else is the easiest way to find a winning product

Reality:

This seldom works, especially if you’re a beginner. It’s almost impossible for you to spend a bigger amount for advertising and promoting your items when copying your well-established competitors with the same product.

2. Expectation:

You will find 10K under your pillow after starting your dropshipping business yesterday.

Reality:

*cue Bruno Mars’ song* Too young too dumb to realisee~ Money doesn’t come rolling, mate. The only way for this to work is when you have established a brand and learned various methods of online business scaling.

But, no matter how you look at it, it is unrealistic for a beginner. You need to take time to learn the marketing strategy and how the business really works so that you can be better than your counterparts.

3. Expectation:

0 money is needed to build a brand and sell products as I am using the dropshipping model.

Reality:

Remember when I told you to zip your purse and keep the butterfly away? Well, that only applies to the fact that you don’t need to take care of the inventory of the products.

However, you will still need around 1-3K to order sample products and test your ads.  Besides, you will be needing more money to scale when your winning product has been found.

4. Expectation:

Facebook Ads is the only go-to method to drive profitable online traffic

Reality:

Even though Facebook penetration in this country is reported to be one of the highest in the world, this could also mean that the social site is now becoming jammed-packed with advertisers.

The latest statistic also shows how advertisers are increasing on the site while the audience is becoming lesser and lesser by day. Thus, there are days where you will earn a profit, but there are also days where you won’t.

Some of the Best Dropshipping Suppliers in Malaysia

1. Twenty3

Being one of the most popular apparel brand names across the globe, Twenty3 is now emerging higher than before with its brilliant service of the dropshipping business.

It gives multiple choices and options to newly flourished fashion businesses in Malaysia. Apart from that, it also provides dropshipping opportunities to fresh entrepreneurs in this country.

2. Savevalue2U

A newer one compared to Twenty3, Savevalue2U is now growing bigger to match its supplier counterparts.

This store consists of a miscellaneous range of products from different categories and is known to be best at maintaining the availability of the desired products at competitive prices.

Customers and sellers have been giving good reviews so far on the products being sold here, parallel to its main objective which is to give the best business experience to both its customer and seller.

3. Esgesee

Esgesee is now one of the blossoming brands in fashion dropship. Committed and passionate to its fashion business, the company also provide dropship medium for a variety of trending fashion demands.

It is definitely one of the best options for dropshipper who wish to expand their business exclusive on fashion and apparels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, dropshipping is definitely the best way to jump-start your business in Malaysia, especially with the fast budding of social media entrepreneurs on the net.

Besides not having to pull out a cheque from your bank account to purchase a warehouse to store your products, you can also work from home or simply anywhere with an internet connection.

Start now, and you’ll reap what you sow sooner. All the best!