Amazon Dropshipping For Australia: How Does It Work?
If you want to earn money from ecommerce sales, you’ll be glad to know that in Australia these sales are set to reach $15.44 billion by the end of 2021.
One of the ways in which you can benefit from this and get in on the action is by engaging in dropshipping, whether as a hobby or a business.
What, exactly, is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is when a store doesn’t keep the products it sells. Rather, when a store sells a product, it buys it from a third party and then ships it to the customer.
You can also make use of print-on demand dropshipping, which lets you advertise customised products like posters, books, and mugs, without purchasing any inventory. When customers purchase these items, the supplier produces the product for you and ensures it gets shipped to them.
One of the easiest ways to get started with dropshipping is to dropship for Amazon, so read on to discover more about this and how it works.
Why Choose Amazon?
Although you can dropship with various online retail stores, choosing Amazon comes with some important benefits.
These include how you don’t have to pay for the cost of a warehouse, therefore keeping your costs down, and some Amazon sellers mark their products “fulfilled by Amazon,” meaning that they ship their products to Amazon and then Amazon sends the items out to customers who have ordered them.
In addition, since Amazon has some of the fastest shipping times, it will ensure that customers receive their purchases very quickly, putting your company in a favourable light.
It’s also good to remember that Amazon has over 300 million active customers accounts across the globe, and you can use that to your advantage by dropshipping with this retail giant.
In Australia specifically, Amazon has been said to be striving to dominate the ecommerce market, with Amazon Australia sales having increased by over 60 percent (to $2.6 billion) in 2020.
How To Get Started With Amazon Dropshipping
- If you’re interested in starting a dropshipping business with Amazon, here are the steps you will need to follow.
- Open an Amazon seller account by going to sellercentral.amazon.au. Here, you’ll choose an individual or professional account. Ensure you have personal, tax, and billing information ready when you’re setting up your Amazon Seller account as this documentation will be required.
- Choose your products. Start finding products you want to sell on Amazon. Try to find products that are in high demand and don’t have much competition, as these will be the most viable for you. Keep things simple when you’re starting out with Amazon dropshipping by sticking to items that sell well, such as garden, home, and sports items.
- Find a supplier. Now you will need to ensure you find a supplier of the product. You can do this in various ways. Let’s look at some of the best options.
- Search for suppliers on the internet. While this can be time-consuming, you can usually contact suppliers directly on their websites. They will often have forms on there that you can use to sign up to be a dropship retailer for them.
- Go to trade shows. This is a good way to reach out and meet potential supplies.
- Check out dropship directories. Visit Australian Dropshipping Suppliers for detailed information about suppliers that are ready to work with dropshippers.
- Set up a product listing on Amazon. When setting up a product listing, you will have to choose a product category, fill out the information for the listing, and set a price. Bear in mind that, while dropshipping fees vary from one type of product to the next, Amazon usually takes between 10 and 15 percent of your profits.
- Promote the listing. Once you’ve published the product listing on Amazon, you need to promote it so that you can bring lots of traffic to the page and start making sales. Make use of Amazon’s Pay-Per-Click feature, which enables you to make ads for the product so that it will be displayed higher in Amazon’s search results. Market your product online, such as on social media platforms or via your blog, to bring attention to it.
- Don’t forget to buy product samples. Before you sell the product, it’s essential that you know what you’re selling. You wouldn’t sell something blindly to customers in real life without first knowing if it’s worth it, so don’t take this approach when dropshipping. Order the product for yourself to see how it looks and works, as well as how long it takes to be shipped to you. This will ensure that you will be able to give your customers product satisfaction.
Follow the rules. There are important dropshipping rules you must follow that are set out by Amazon, such as:
- If you want to dropship, you must agree with your supplier that you will be the seller of the products on all external packaging, packing slips, and invoices, as well as any other product information. This is important because it prevents confusing the customer about who’s completing their order as well as who they need to get in touch with if they have a problem related to the product.
- You have to ensure you process customer returns of your products and be responsible in this regard.
- It’s against Amazon’s dropshipping policy to buy products from a different retailer and then have that retailer ship them directly to customers.
What About Fulfilment By Amazon?
There are other ways in which Amazon can help you with your online business, and one of them that’s worth considering is Fulfilment By Amazon (FBA), which we mentioned earlier.
Amazon FBA is available, and expanding, in Australia. While a few years ago it only had one centre in Melbourne, it currently has six centres and is growing rapidly.
Once you’ve set up your FBA account by adding it to your current seller account, you will create your product listings and prepare the products you wish to sell. Then, you’ll ship the items to Amazon.
This enables Amazon to take care of the rest of the process, such as the packing and shipping of products. It will also provide customers with tracking information for their orders and handle customer service, such as if customers want to return the goods.
This can help to take a lot of stress off your shoulders, but you will have to consider FBA fees. You’ll have to pay a flat fee per unit that’s based on the weight and size of the item. There’s a useful table on Amazon that you can use to help you figure out what fees you will have to pay.
How You Can Get Customers To Buy Products From You Instead Of Your Supplier
One question you might have if you’re interested in starting a dropshipping business is if customers would just find it easier and more practical to purchase goods directly from suppliers instead of making use of your services.
After all, there are tons of product suppliers out there, so why would customers want to use your services?
This is where the issue of brands comes in. You have the opportunity to take products and present them however you want to, based on your brand. Remember, the products will be packaged in a certain way by you and have your company name on them. This gives you excellent opportunities to promote your brand and make it more appealing to customers.
Let’s consider the example of purchasing a plain white t-shirt. This is an item that you can find in almost every retail store. Why would customers choose to purchase such a basic item from a certain brand when all the retail shops are selling pretty much the same item?
And yet, you’ll find that many customers will stick to the brands they know, trust, and love. Why?
It comes down to how well the brand is marketing itself. If you can market the plain white tee that you want to sell and do a good job of it, this will encourage customers to purchase it from you instead of going to other suppliers who are offering the same product but don’t have smart, value-intensive marketing behind them.
With the above example in mind, let’s explore some important tips for you as a dropshipper to consider when it comes to marketing the products that you wish to sell.
- Have a dropshipping website on which you provide customer reviews and testimonials in your online store. This is valuable to help customers who are visiting your site for the first time see that you’re a brand they can trust and get quality products from. What people say and think about your shop can go a long way to helping you increase your customer base.
- Create social media ads. Advertisements, whether on TikTok or Facebook, are great to target potential customers. Videos in particular are engaging and will be easier to remember than content that’s focused on text. It’s been found that by 2022, online videos will continue to grow in popularity, and they’re set to make up over 82 percent of all consumer internet traffic. This is 15 times more than in 2017!
- Make use of retargeting strategies. It’s faulty thinking to assume that first-time visitors to your website will make a purchase. Many don’t, so you have to be smart about trying to get their attention for a second time and luring them back to the products in your online store. This is where retargeting comes into play. Retargeting is a marketing strategy that involves displaying ads to visitors who have left your website without making a purchase. Of course, you will need to make use of platforms such as Facebook to do this. Go to Facebook Business Manager and open a new, custom audience. From the menu, choose ‘website traffic’ for your marketing goal. Then choose ‘People who visited specific web pages,’ which will show you the people who have been visiting the product page and need an ad to show them more information about the product so that they can see the value in buying it. This is a type of retargeting that will encourage them to go back and view the product again, and this time hopefully purchase it.
Related Questions
What are some of the most in-demand products sold on Amazon in Australia?
Currently, products such as disposable masks, lego building kits, food storage containers, and laptops are some of the most popular ones.
Is dropshipping legal in Australia?
Dropshipping is legal, but you have to ensure that the products can be legally sold in Australia and you need to comply with the Competition and Consumer Act as well as the Australian Consumer Law.
Do you need a business license for dropshipping?
If you’re not selling products online as a hobby but a business, you’ll need an ABN, or Australian Business Number. The benefit of this is that it will make suppliers more eager to partner with you and it allows you to get an Australian domain name.
Conclusion
If you want to start a dropshipping business, you should consider selling your products on Amazon. In this article, we’ve looked at why Amazon is beneficial, as well as how to get started with Amazon dropshipping.
We’ve also featured some important tips you’ll benefit from when it comes to making sure your company becomes the go-to retail shop for customers.