Looking for a micro-niche to really dig your teeth in? This article is here to teach you how to sell dog toys online so you can figure out whether it’s the right fit for your next business. You ready? Let’s go.
How to sell dog toys online?
First things first, how do you go about it? Selling dog toys? Here is a quick overview of everything you need to know to get started.
1. Choose whether you want to buy in bulk or dropship the dog toys
If you have money to invest and are ready to take a risk you can buy dog toys in bulk from a supplier and start selling them yourself. This way you will be managing inventory and sending out products yourself.
The good? Fast shipping rates. The bad? Higher risk, requires capital and more expensive.
The other option is you start dropshipping dog toys online.
Dropshipping basically means you become a middle man for your supplier. Once someone buys from your webshop, you buy it from the supplier. This way you don’t take any risk buying up products in bulk and sending them out yourself but you still keep a nice profit margin.
2. Choose whether you want to sell on your own store or through a Amazon
There are two ways to go about selling dog toys online. One is through your own webshop where you have infinite branding possibilities and the other is to use a marketplace like Amazon to offer your products on.
Selling through Amazon can be very competitive but you get free advertising. Selling on your own webshop requires more work but you reap the rewards long term.
3. Find a supplier for your dog toys
Of course, you won’t get very far without a supplier to supply you with the dog toys.
A supplier can be found through a number of ways that I will divide in three categories.
Category 1: Use a supplier from Aliexpress
Aliexpress is the easiest solution to start selling online as anyone can buy from Aliexpress. Suppliers on Aliexpress are 100% aware of dropshipping and they 100% support it, all you need to do is ask.
You can find hundreds of dog toy products and suppliers by simply searching for “dog toys” in the Aliexpress search bar. Once you find products, you can easily import them through Oberlo.
The good? Easy to start. The bad? Long shipping times from China
Category 2: Use a subscription platform
If you don’t want to sell products from China, you can instead opt for a subscription platform to find suppliers on. Subscription platforms offer products from different worldwide supplier.
This means there are US/EU suppliers available too. You can easily source your dog toys from these services by checking their inventory which you can always do by creating a free account.
They only charge a monthly fee to actually import the products to your store and use the suppliers.
Examples are: Spocket, Importify
The good? US/EU suppliers with faster shipping The bad? Monthly fees, you can’t contact the suppliers directly
Category 3: Find your own supplier.
This is kind of the elite tier of selling online. Here you go out in the wild (aka google) and dig deep (we’re talking page 102) to find wholesale suppliers to score a dropshipping contract.
This step requires a lot patience and many cold emails/calls to pull off. But you could find a really good and reliable supplier using this method that no one else is using!
4. Pick out the products you want to sell
You don’t need to copy a suppliers entire directory, this could result in analysis paralysis in your customers. In which case they often end up buying nothing!
Apple keeps selections simple for a good reason.
The founder (recommended for entrepreneurs) tells the story of McDonalds and tells the story of how McDonalds found success by creating a simple menu. Cheese burger with fries please!
Keep it simple guys. Don’t list 100’s of products, you’re not amazon. One product stores are doing really well right now for good reason.
If you’re using category 1 or 2 I’ve listed above you use multiple suppliers to source your products from. Beware though as this will result in multiple packages arriving at your customers and they probably won’t arrive on the same day.
5. Start your store
Once you’ve got the dirty work out of the way, it’s time for the fun stuff: building a brand!
The easiest way is to sell products online is using Shopify.
Anyone can start a Shopify account completely free as they offer a credit-card-free 14 day trial.
6. Figure out a marketing strategy for your store
Once everything is setup up, it’s time to bring in some sales. This is done through a proper marketing strategy.
There are many ways to market your dog toy store such as:
- PPC Advertising (facebook, youtube, google etc)
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing (SEO)
On top of that you also have retargeting methods such as:
- Email Marketing (abandoned carts, newsletters, etc)
- Retargeting Campagins using PPC advertising
Summary
Well that’s it really! You should now know how to sell dog toys online.
Here’s a quick sum-up for the lazy ones who skipped to the bottom:
- Choose between bulk or dropshipping
- Choose between your selling on your own store or Amazon
- Find a supplier to source your dog toys from
- Find and list dog toy products
- Start your Shopify store
- Get started on your marketing strategy