Last updated on February 14th, 2019
The idea of dropshipping in Nigeria is a great idea, only if you know how to run it successfully. But the reason I captioned this title as “How to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria” is because it’s a whole lot different scenario when it comes to Nigeria.
Starting a drop shipping business in Nigeria means you have to think of the payment gateway for your business. Also you need to know suppliers that are ready to ship your products to Nigeria.
What products should you dropship? And if you’re thinking of dropshipping internationally, then you should be aware whether or not you have to pay tax or register your company. Lastly, you need to understand if are you going to pay a custom tax on all the product you’re drop shipping in Nigeria especially when you are importing them.
These and more, are the reason I made the title how to dropship in Nigeria, because of the economy uniqueness and some rules and regulations guiding e-commerce business in the country. So you probably need to sit tight and enjoy the ride as I do justice to this in the best way I can. If you are not subscribed to this blog please do to get more of this and join our community on Facebook.
Ok! So what’s drop shipping all about and how does it work?
In the simplest form dropshipping is selling products without buying or having them.
This is how it works; after you’ve create an online store and added your product to it. When I mean product I mean pictures and descriptions of the product, because you don’t have the product in physical. And after this, once you made a sale all you have to do is contact your third-party supplier (owner of the product) by sending your customer address and paying the supplier from the sales you made. The supplier in turn, make the shipment to your customer. Although based on agreement, the supplier might add your brand name to the product. You can check my previous article on dropshipping for better understanding.
How to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria with 5 easy steps
Before we start let me quickly answer some of the frequent questions commonly asked about drop shipping in Nigeria.
- Do you need to pay tax dropshipping with AliExpress in Nigeria? The answer is NO! Paying of Tax are for resident inside the US.
- Will you pay tax duty on products shipped into Nigeria? Still NO! Whatever amount you are to pay on a product will be clearly written on your supplier website.
- Do you need to register your company as an e-commerce business? The answer is NO and YES! When starting you don’t necessarily need to register just to save the cost. But when your business starts booming and growing momentum then you should consider registering your business.
That’s that about that. So let’s look at the steps on how to start a successful dropshipping business in Nigeria.
- Step 1: Find a supplier.
- Step 2: Select a product to dropship ( bestselling).
- Step 3: Choose a selling platform.
- Step 4: Market your business.
- Step 5: Start making money.
Step 1: Find a supplier
Before starting a dropshipping business, your first priority should be your supplier. Suppliers are the backbone of all dropshipping business. Reason being that the quality and reliability of your supplier can determine the success of your business. Trust me without a reliable suppliers there won’t be a product for you to dropship. So you might have to take them seriously.
For the sake of this post, and probably for the fact that you want to dropship in Nigeria or elsewhere your best option of choosing a supplier should still be AliExpress.
Their products are relatively cheap giving you a profit scalability on your business. The good thing is 80% of drop shipper are using AliExpress so this might be your best choice in Nigeria.
If you want to dropship a rare product that happens not to be on AliExpress. Although hardly will you see one. The best thing here is to use the Google search engine to locate your supplier by using your selected keywords.
Step 2: Select a product to dropship
The second step after choosing your supplier is to choose the product you want to dropship. Many people are often tempted to start selling anything they can think of, but drop shipping doesn’t work that way. For you to be successful, you need to choose one or two related products or a niche you will be selling from. But make it limited. It’s better to be a big fish in small water.
Another thing you should have in mind while choosing your product is that you can’t just start selling any product you see. It has to be on the market trend. That is, demand for it must be relatively high or at least very stable and the competition for it should be minimal. Unless you want to injure yourself!😯
Thus, you can simply use Google trends to know if the market for the product is rising or decreasing. You can know products with the highly competitive market by searching other popular stores. Also, best-selling products in popular stores may give you an edge while starting your business. See the image to see an example of Google trend.
Step 3: Choose a selling platform
Now here is the most important part, because this is going to determine how your store looks. Whether it’s a professional site or not and you know professionalism breeds reputation.
This is the platform that’s going to host your store. ( To be put simpler, the house your online store will be occupying ) Here am going to write on just two platforms which are WordPress hosted platform and Shopify.
WordPress – Here you need to get a domain name. That is, the name of your website, and get a hosting plan for it. Your host company will be responsible for hosting your store and keeping your store data files.
After your domain name and your hosting plan are ready you can then install e-commerce software ( WooCommece ) on your website through WordPress. This can be done through one-click installation and after that, you can start tweaking the website to your taste. Here you will literally create your website yourself but no coding is involved and it’s nothing you can’t do.
If you want to create a WordPress store you can check out NameCheap for your Domain names and check Bluehost for your hosting plan. They’re both a wonderful platform.
For WordPress site, AliDropship is a WordPress plugin that can perfectly help your dropshipping business, it works just like Oberlo
Shopify – Shopify is a website that allows you to register with them if you want to sell your product online. They offer ranges of service from hosting, Domain name, Design, CMC, Payment Gateways, e-commerce plugins and everything else you need to start a successful online store.
Related: Shopify Reviews 2019 – How Shopify works in Nigeria (Pros & Cons)
Shopify is one best platform for dropshipping if you are a newbie or even a professional. It allows you to focus on your business by branding and marketing your products while they manage your store for you. You can create your store and ready to start selling immediately within 5minute so far your marketing strategy is in place.
The good thing is they offer a 14days trial. You can set-up your store in a day and start marketing immediately for the first week. With this, it’s possible to make profits within the 14days and pay your hosting plan even after the trial expires.
I will recommend Shopify just to avoid the stress or even the cost of hiring a freelancer to create a WordPress site for you. With Shopify, the basic plan is just $29 per month. But this is nothing when the money starts rolling in.
Related: how to make money with Shopify in Nigeria
Step 4: Market your business
Without marketing, nobody is going to visit your store. You can’t just sit down and expect them to come and buy from your store. You have to take it to them. The best place to market your product is Facebook. You can do this by creating a Facebook fan page after your domain name and create a Facebook business account to run your Facebook advert.
When running your Facebook ad, choose one of your cheapest products to drive traffic to store. Once they make their first purchase they will naturally come back.
Another means is by collecting their emails upon sign-ups and send marketing emails on new products or discount offers on existing products. I talked more of this in this guide you can check it out.
Step 5: Start making money
To make the work easier there is a Shopify plugin “Oberlo”, it’s a plugin or App specifically design for dropshipping.
What it does is that it helps you to import product descriptions, photos, etc from your supplier website to your store. This can be with just a click and when a product is sold in your store, it automatically sends the customer details to your supplier. The supplier then ships the product to your customer address.
Drop shipping can prove to be a good residual stream of income when done the right way and following the proper channel.
Please if you have any suggestion or contribution toward this, or you practically need my help you can let me know in the comment box.
Take the bold step now with Shopify within the 14days trial and grow your business.
Please if you find this helpful, you can help by sharing it with your friends and family and also subscribe to our blog or join our community on Facebook and let’s make the money💰 together😉.
Want to Learn More?
- The Cost of Starting a Dropshipping Business
- How to choose a profitable product niche for your dropshipping store
- How to start an online store in Nigeria – step by step tutorial guide
- How to create a drop shipping website with WordPress
- Why dropshipping with AliExpress shipping time shouldn’t affect your business
- How to choose a Supplier on AliExpress for your Dropshipping Business
- How to automate your drop shipping business with WordPress.
great article. This is one business u want to venture into. The question is how do i get a good and reliable supplier on aliepress?
Once you’ve decided on the product you want to dropship go to Aliexpress Create an account with them and browse the products. When you’ve seen the product, check the product reviews, 5star or 4star reviews is usually good and check the response rate of the supplier too. If it looks good click the product and contact the supplier that you want to dropship the product, tell them your location if they ship to that location and also negotiate price too. They may not reply immediately because of time Difference and if you don’t flow choose another supplier.
Thanks
One more thing. I just created a free shopify store but the issue now is that it’s store’s checkout is password protected,they say i need to pick a plan to disable the password. Meaning my customers can’t check out. Please help,how do i go about this?
Thanks for reaching out Emitheo, the password is to protect your store until it’s properly ready for selling so people won’t be able to access it in that state. You need to add product to your store, integrate your payment gateway, your domain name if you have one and test the check out process yourself before going live.
If you are ready login to your Shopify dashboard scrow down and click >> “Online Store” after that scrow down and click >> “Preference” after this scrow down to “Password Page” choose a plan, Mind you they won’t charge you until your 14days trial expired. So choose a plan and then disable the password and your store is live. But I will suggest you make sure your store is properly set-up and ready before you raise the password. Check this out for better understanding …https://help.shopify.com/manual/intro-to-shopify/initial-setup/setup-prepare-for-launch#step-by-step-place-a-test-order
thanks bro….it was super helpful.
You always welcome, if you have any further question don’t hesitate to ask me.
H
i thanks for the breakdown, please i want to know which payment gateway that can process USD is available for Nigerians using shopify or wordpress
Hi Becky, If you want to do international dropshiping in which you will be paid in dollars, I will advice you use a “PayPal business Account”,or “Shopify Payment” for Shopify platform and for WordPress you can use PayPal or stripe. There are more for WordPress.
I read your writeup which i find really helpful. Please I need more enlightenment on the payment structure I mean international dropshipping.. can I have your email address?
So much to read and learn from your blog.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for reading through
Thanks for this. My question is can I create an online store with aliexpress just like with shopify?
No you can’t. You can only be a seller just like how People Sell on Jumia and Konga. But you can create a WordPress website that can link directly to AliExpress through the use of AliDropship Plugin
Please you didn’t talk about the payment gateway for Nigeria while doing dropshipping in Nigeria.
Hi Maximus
it depends on the platform you want to use and your targeted location. For example maybe Shopify or WordPress and the country you to sell to. check this list for Payment Gateways in Nigeria and read this Review on shopify for their payment gateways. If you choose to target overseas country you can use PayPal or stripe, PayU etc.
Thanks for sharing, I will consider this dropshipping business but not until I’ve done a whole lot of researches on it.
Thanks for reading through!
Stripe does not have Nigeria.
Yeah, thats true and strive is not the only payment gateway in Nigeria. We still have PayU, Cashenvoy etc.
Please, how can one add products from aliexpress to shopify store?
Hi lexybar
You can do that by saving the products picture from AliExpress then re-edit it and also copy the product description also re-edit before you upload it in your Shopify. The easiest way to do that is by using the Oberlo plugin. Its helps you do that almost automatically and it has a 30 days free trial.
must there be an amount in my ATM card before I can choose a plan because it’s not verifying my card
Hello Bash
They’ve had a lot of Issues with declining MasterCards, so i believe that might be the reason. However, i wont suggest you add your billings if you are not ready to launch your business.
Hello Mr David,
What is the best way to receive my payments and buy if I decide to dropship to Nigeria and to US?
Which do you use that works best for you?
About the Payment gateway, My PayPal account is run by my cousin in US because PayPal does not receive payment in Nigeria. If you want to sell within Nigeria payment gateway is not an issue. You can use CashEnvoy,PayU, PayStack etc.
good day mr David,
Please if i want to do dropshipping on our Nigerian local food to people outside the country, how do i go about that? Thank you
Hello Joy
That’s sounds like a good idea exporting our local food abroad. it’s a two way thing. If you have a supplier of the local food already in Nigeria then you can drop ship from such person so far he/she agree to ship the food outside the country.
The second is, the product and your company has to be registered with CAC and get a Nafdac Reg for the product since you will be dealing with edible products.
If you have a ready supplier or you can easily get one, then its a doable business.
Feel free to contact me if you need my further help.
Great stuff you’re doing here. I must commend you.
This post really simplified the process. Though getting a list of payment gateways or a list of successful product for Nigerians probably in another post, would further expatiate on the topic.
All the same, many thanks brother.
Glad you find it informative. I believe i made a post on that already
I noticed you did not really expatiate on other ecommerce platforms like Jumia and Konga. Is the process the same on these platforms or totally different?
Any products on Jumia or Konga that takes over 20 days to be delivered is probably dropshipped. Because if it’s their product, delivery within Nigeria shouldn’t take that long. The beauty of dropshipping is that your customer will never knew it was dropshipped in the first place.
how many days will the product be shipped to Nigeria from Ali express… how many days do they ship to Nigeria
Products from China takes 21 to 45days to reach Nigeria. But most times 21days. You can check Jumia internation products and learn more about their shipping days to have a clue of it.
Is there a manual or video I can get on how to set up my shopify store. Please reply
I’m sorry i don’t have one to that effect at the moment, but will do something about it.
Hi David,
I really commend your article here. You are really doing a great work. Please how do I connect my PayPal business account to my GTB dollar account to receiving money through alidropship. I have this plugin for couple of months but could not even use it for just a second because I am getting stalked at payments gateway point.
Please assist.
Regards,
David
Hi Sake,
Thanks for the kind words, about the Gtbank domiciliary account, i currently don’t use it but have spoken with one of their agents on it before, and she said it possible to receive payment from PayPal with the dollar account but i don’t know how sure it is. She said one as to link the dollar card with the PayPal account. Am sorry i can’t be much of help, my own PayPal account is run by my cousin in the U.S
Hello good job.I approach Jumia for Dropship from overseas to Nigeria they refused.I have a company that focus on designer products.but will like to know any Nigeria ecommerce website that can accept Dropshiping I have over 10000 products to Dropship. Designer products authentic items.I want to create my own website for that but d money they are calling is much
Interesting! But most won’t be willing to deal if you don’t have a website. They need to know they can trust you.
Great work bro, very informative. I have the same issues as David and i’m thinking of letting my coz run my PayPal account from the US so that i can move on. I also have got the plugin for a month now.
I must commend your efforts here, well done sir.
Thanks bro
I’m glad i can be of help!
Great work here. My question is how do I tell people they will get their goods in 21 to 30 days. Im scared of nigerian mentality on ds issue.How have you been able to do it for nigerian market since most of ds goods are already trendy in nigeria.
Thats a Good Question, but take a look at Jumia international products and study their delivery span and people’s reviews about the product bought. If they can buy there, they can buy from you too.
Good research work David:
Please i will like to know how do you get your percentage of the money paid when you drop ship through aliexpress… because the supplier will get his/her own money paid before shipping it to nigeria.
Please explain as that area is not clear to me.
Thanks for your swift response..
Hi
Its a simple math.. Assuming you dropshipped a product for $20 and the actual price is $10 once you’ve collected your money from your customer… $10 will be the amount paid to your supplier while you keep the remaining profits for yourself.
Hello David,nice job you are doing here. Is it that the client pays to you first,before you pay to the supplier?
Yeah…that’s very correct.
Hi, Admin,
Thanks greatly for this. I am so glad and grateful.
The guide is well detailed. You have a good command of English too.
I will go on and try this out. If I have any challenge, I’ll get back to You.
Thanks once again. God bless You.
You always welcome
Wow! I find your site so educative. This will be my one stop site hence forth. Please I want to find out which payment gateway I can use with Woocommerce?
Thanks Nonso, I’m glad you find it informative. About your question you can use any of the payment gateway that works with WordPress.
Thanks once again for all yoir help so far. Your site is the most informative Nigerian site I’ve seen on this dropshipping topic.
Please I just want to know, how can I dropship from Ali express to the US?
I have a site, I have bought the alidropship plugin I have set up payU, asides the PayPal issue, what other Co Verna are there dropshippinh to US, you talked about tax, how do o go about it? Also must I register my company?
And how do I launch it there? I’m just perplexxed.
What are the steps to actually follow please. Thank you
The US is the easiest country to sell to. My personal store targets US because products shipping is usually faster there (10-20 days). You don’t need to register your company before you start and about tax, you’ll need to pay if you are living in the US!
I hope that answers your question if you still unclear you can reach me I’m always happy to help.
My brother thabks so much. I’m super duper greatful
Hello David you doing a very good job, my question is since your main target is the US.How do you get your products visible to the US market .what platform do you sell on or link your site to in order for US resident see you products. Or do you just run ad’s strictly for the US market
Thanks
When I mean target I’m talking about ads. Normally, you get to enjoy traffic from any part of the world if your website is optimized for search engine. But when you run ads you decide the country you want to target.
Hi, please hw can i access my PayPal acct, i have a sister in US…
Accessing it from here may flag the account unless you have a vpn installed
Hello Mr David, you are really doing a great work here. I am really impressed with your work it is informative and current. God bless you.
Pls i have a question bothering me. Here it goes, now assuming i have an online store with shopyfy for example and my payment gateway is paystack and my customers pay me in Naira how will i pay my supplier in Dollars?
Secondly, can the process of receiving payment from my customers and paying my suppliers be automated to manage multiple orders.
Thanks.
Hello Mr. Naasir
Thanks for your Kind words… about paying your supplier, you can either do that through Paypal or via your MasterCard. The dollar equivalent will be deducted automatically.
About your second question… If you are using Shopify Platform you can do that via Oberlo App and if its WordPress, you can also use Alidropship Plugin
Hi David,
Great job you are doing. Pleasevfinding a supplier like Aliexpress means registering as an affiliate I suppose before downloading and importing products into my website.
Nope… Affiliate as nothing to do with drop shipping, all you need to do is register as a normal member and import products.
David thanks for this informative trend… My question is.. The money i recieve from the customer is it going directly to my Nigeria Bank account?…
It depends on the payment Gateway you are Using… If you are using MasterCard, Visa etc. to receive your money from customers the money goes first into your payment gateway account. Let’s say Paystack. It’s from there you can now withdraw into your bank account.
But in other to do all this endeavour you have a corporate bank account.
Thank you very much for the write up, it was very helpful and educative.
Thank you, Margaret.
Hi. David
Please can you put me through the shopify. Do you have a book guide on it. I will glady appreciate it.
Not for now…but working on it!
Hi David…This write up is straight forward and very educative
I have a question, if i want to target an international market. Can i still access my website and account from Nigeria here normally or must I use a VPN. Or what are the things to register or do to dropship internationally
You don’t need to change your VPN at-all. All you need is a Payment Gateway that can receive international currency, which of course is PayPal.
For those interested in a Business PayPal account that can receive and send money here in Nigeria without the use of VPN should contact me.
Please I am interested in the Business PayPal account and I would also like to chat with you privately, I have a lot of questions to ask
Just sent a mail to you with my contact details. Thanks
please I need your phone number
Have sent an email to you with my Whatsapp line. You can contact me.
Hello, a word write up. I wil like to discuss with you on phone.
I want your whatapp number too
Please I am interested in the Business PayPal account.Thank you
good day can I get your number want to start what do I need.i want you to help me gradually as it is been set up
Seriously, It,s straightforward! Set up your website and install the necessary tools, although depending on the platform you want to use.
And also, please reserve some change for adverts!
Pls can i use my paypal to buy on instant gold nigeria and get the dollar equivalent in naira, also pls send me your contact information
Most of them are only willing to sell PayPal not willing to buy, but you can give it a trial, please reach me through the contact page.
Hi, I am in Nigeria, and I warm the to start dropshipping on eBay to clients in the US and Canada. How can I do that effectively, without them knowing my exact location
Hello Petrollena
Sorry, not sure exactly how you can do that as I don’t currently sell on eBay! But why trying to hide your location?
You can reach me through the contact page though.
Hello, thanks for this invaluable piece, I would like to get ur contacts number, can this business PayPal process international credit cards for customers willing to pay with their card?
Hi Josh, PayPal only process PayPal payment. For credit card payment you’ll need a different payment gateway. As such you can add up to two different payment gateways.
But Hardly will you see a regular shopper online without PayPal account because most people prefer paying with PayPal instead of exposing their credit card details.
Thank you very much sire, I’m well relieved with the later part of the response.. Can I get your whatsapp.? Thanks again.
I might not be available to respond to your chat, but i”ll return your mail if you send one. Thanks
I have been able to set up a US PayPal account. I want to know if it’s necessary to to upgrade to a business account or leave that way.
That’s great, Yeah, please upgrade to the business account to enjoy seamless transaction. Here’s quick tip on how to spy on other top-selling dropshipping products on Shopify and add them to your own store.
Lovely aticle pls when starting a dropshiping can i employ someone as in IT guy to work on it as a staff for my drop shipping buiness for me while i face some other buisness.
Of course, That’s one of the reasons Daniel from Uganda was able to make $50k per month via dropshipping business.
Hello David, thanks for the info and I appreciate every post. I would like to know how customers get their delivery and how infective is GPS in Nigeria?
Same way you get your product when you order a product from AliExpress. I’m sorry I don’t really understand what you mean by GPS?
Ok really interested in drop shipping business but am outside the country. Am also considering bringing in locally made stock fish etc. I have a supplier. Pls how best can I navigate this
Am assuming the stock fish are to be sent from Nigeria. If that’s the case you don’t need to dropship them. You could list them online and sell exactly from where you are. Or you could rephrase the question.
How can I dropship on Jumia and Konga?
Depends on how long you’ve been on the platform. Your total sale and current product should determine if you can or not.
Nice article I appreciate this info, can paystack receive international payment lets say USD
Nah, not at the moment
Thank you David for the information. You are really doing a great job. Have 3 questions.
1. I intend dropshipping from Aliexpress (China) to USA and Nigeria. The currency selected on my website would be Dollar. Can you help me with a PayPal and Stripe account to be integrate on my site for payment.
2. I wanted to use paystack as my payment gateway, when I registered with paystack I was made to understand that that they accept international and local currency but you said that is not true. Please clarify.
3. The currency tag on my products is Dollar, will my products selling well in Nigeria as most people don’t operate a dormicillary account.
Hi Stephen
This was the response I got when I contacted Paystack if i can sell abroad with thier payment gateway…
The above quote was the response I got from Paystack. Meanwhile, you can make your currency setting display both Naira and dollar if you want to target more countries other than US.
But you definitely need a PayPal or Stipe account to target the Internation market. I currently use PayPal though, and you can contact me about setting it up for you when you’re ready.
I want to actually sell weavon but I don’t have pictures of the hair…so what should I do….
As a personal product or Dropshipping? whichever, do Google image search for the name of the Weavon you’ll see it.
Good day, I want to start drop shipping to Nigeria. Now the cheapest means of shipment to Nigeria takes a month which is not customer friendly and as a newbie with low capital, I cant afford the expensive with minimal delivery time shipping company. What do u suggest I do?. Thanks alot
If adding the shipping fee to the price of the product won’t be too high for the product, you could give it a try. If not i’ll suggest you target other countries with ePacket shipping option.
Pls how can you help me to set up a PayPal payment gateway.
Which of the payment gateway, and on which platform?
Shopify…paypal
Ok ma, I sent a mail to you already
Great blog and very informative. Just came across the word drop shipping very recently and I wouldn’t have gotten a better information. Thanks bro. I will like to communicate with you more on starting up. Thanks.
Thanks for your kind words Jude.
In fact,Only few still knows about the drop shipping business model in Nigeria.
Hi David,
Thanks for ther good work.
I am interested in a Business PayPal account that can receive and send money here in Nigeria without the use of VPN.
Reply
Thanks bro for this humanitarian service,pls i will like to have your contact am ready to setup a drop-shipping eCommerce business.
Thanks.
Hi Olushola, thanks for this writeup. I have been thinking of dropshipping from Aliexpress and you have just helped to make things a lot clearer. I will need further assistance with setting up my website and integrating a payment gateway. Please can I have your number or email ? Thanks
You can reach me here… olusola.david@torchbankz.com
Thanks so much brother for the information you share.
I have a woocommerce site, I have bought alidropship plugin for woocomerce and I have setup payU payment gateway.
I am currently putting g up my products from Aliexpress but I didn’t come tact the suppliers myself.
I just used the alidripship plugin to pick up rated suppliers randomly. Please is that good enough?
Also is there any other thing I need to do before going live to dropship here to Nigeria?
Finally I want to know if Ali express wold ship the goods directly to my customer’s doorstep or they just deal with shipping to Nigeria while I have to find another way to get it to my customer’s doorstep? Or do they ship to post office instead?
These are little hitches I am still not clear on.
I’d so appreciate your feedback.
Thanks so much in advance.
Products will be shipped exactly to customer address added on your website. but you should know if it’s free shipping that will have to be the post office.
About going live! I hope you’ve re-written the imported product description from AliExpress because they usually include drop shipping in the description. Everything needs to be edited so as to be optimized for SEO and once all the required pages are ok you can launch your website.
Oh thank you sir. I’m really grateful
Please sir,
I have built a woocommerce based website for dropshipping. I also purchased the alidropship plugin which I have currently integrated into the site.
I have a few questions:
1. I have started adding products but I did not contact the supplies individually. I just used the alidropship plugin suggestions to add products from suppliers that had a rating of 90% and above. Do you suggest I start to call them one by one?
2. Also, is it okay to add products from different suppliers at random or to try to stick with one or two suppliers while I select amongst their various products? I need you advice.
3. How do I start selling to other countries? I mean asides payment integration, and tax concerns, is there any other thing I need to activate to make the website open to other countries, like registering the biz name under their own corporate affairs or something (eg in US for example)?
Thanks a lot for all teh wealth of information you bring us here. I am extremely grateful!
Hi Nonso,
I like your questions and I’m more than willing to help.
1. You don’t need to call the suppliers and about the rating, me I actually prefer 95% and above!
2. About adding products from various suppliers, you should know that if a customer buys more than one product on your store which is from multiple suppliers from aliexpress the products will arrive differently in a different package. My way of reducing this is to import more than one products from a single supplier so far the are good products. So if the product bought is from a single supplier they will arrive in one package. but that doesn’t mean you should limit your products to one supplier.
3. You don’t have to worry about the business name. but you do need to worry about registering your business in Nigeria in other to be able to use payment gateways. currently, I use a verified PayPal and Ravepay for my payment gateway. The “ravepay” was a new development I discovered lately, they can process dollar payment for you.
Wow. I’m so grateful bro.
Infact you’re a heaven sent. God bless you for your rich info you dish out here. Thank you.
Please, Can I contact you privately on olusola.david@torchbankz.com?
Yeah you can
Hhello David
Thanks for this article,just getting to know about dropshipping and I would love to go into it,pls I need your assistance. How do I reach out to you
You can reach me here olusola.david@torchbankz.com
Great post here and you have taken time to reply all comments and questions. I will want to start with the shopify option since i have a very low start up capital, but my challenges are the payment gateways I don’t have a current account and I also want to know if I can do it from my phone as I don’t have a PC now. I will also appreciate if I can get your whatsapp or phone line to contact you.
Hi Chris
You can’t run your dropshipping business via the phone, it’s very limited. I’ll suggest you until you get a PC
Please i am new to dropshipping, I had the interested and I was looking up to internet for it. Then I found the article. Please how can I contact you personally, I need assistance
You can reach me through my mail Address
Please I will need to have your whatsapp number so you can put me through as a newbies in the business.
You can reach me on my mail I’ll respond to every of your question
Thanks for advice, help me out shopify or wordpress woocommerce for a beginner like me
For a beginner with no prior experience Shopify is always better because it’s easier to understand for those starting for the first time.
But personally, I prefer WordPress+WooCommerce.
Thanks David for this post, It’s very useful to me. Please can you share with me your email so we can talk more. I have questions though majority have been asked by others and answered by you. I need your email so I can contact you as I begin the process. Thank you
olusola.david@torchbankz.com
Hi,
Can I send you a mail to clarify some things about dropshipping please?
I would like to start a dropshipping business and the fact that you’re willing to answer questions is amazing! Thank you for the help!
Please, you can!
Thank you very much for this wonderful post, please what payment gateway is most suitable for Alidropshipping when selling internationally?
For AliDropshiping, The payment gateway available for Nigerians is PayPal and RavePay(credit card)
But we don’t use PayPal in Nigeria or is there anyway I can use it?
Yeah, you can open the verified one that sends and receive money in Nigeria.
thanks for the breakdown
You’re welcome sir!
Hi david, although i have sent you a mail but i would love to get an answer to this questions
1) can I drop-ship and sell on jumia directly if I don’t want to run my own website
2) can I have my store targeted on multiple countries at the same time like US, Europe, Nigeria and so on
3) fro your experience is there a market in Nigeria for drop shipped products?
Yeah Danny, just like I replied to your mail you can target as many countries as you like so far you are using PayPal because it’s almost accepted all over the world.
You can’t drop ship on Jumia and about Nigerian market, it depends on your strategy and probably marketing skills but selling abroad is more preferably as you can use the ePacket shipping option which increases your time of delivery, unlike the normal long shipping.
Good day olu
Can i use payoneer as my payment gateway if so how do i integrate
Hi Donald,
You can’t at the moment
Mr, David
I have sent you series of Email but no response from you please try and drop your number lets be having a whatsapp chat with you please, i have a lot of clarification to make in respect of this issue of Paypal, i have not open a paypal account before this is my first time so for me to receive money in Nigeria, should i indicate my location when filling the forms which is Nigeria. also do i need to have a Dollar account from my bank? to link it into the paypal account?
Sorry about that sir, please message me again I’ll send you my phone digits.
Let me do a little clarification about the PayPal payment gateway.
If you are collecting money via PayPal do have in mind that you can only pay your supplier via PayPal if the products is to be shipped to US or some few other international countries.
There are some countries that you’ll have to pay your supplier via credit card.
For example someone bought a product on my store in Nigeria and Paid via PayPal, but I was only able to pay my supplier via my personal credit card.
Because the PayPal payment option is not available for product sold to Nigeria. However, I still make the normal profit.
You don’t need a dollar account to run PayPal you just need a valid credit card to verify it.
Mind you, if you’re talking about the normal PayPal account in Nigeria that one is limited. It can only send out and can’t receive money.
So what payment options do you advised i use on my shop because i actually needed a payment method that can receive payment from any part of the word outside paypal since paypal cannot receive payment in Nigeria.
Try RavePay. Although I haven’t have much success with it. I just started using it too. But they do process dollar payment.
Hi.
I just came across your post now. Very detailed! However I hope you wouldn’t mind answering some questions I have. I would really appreciate It!
I want to start an online store with the dropshipping business and even though I stay in the UK, I am a Nigerian and my target audience for sale of the products is Nigeria as I feel it will be the best market for the products. My concern is this,
1. Can payments be made in Naira using one of the payment gateways available as you have listed in the post so the funds go in my Nigeria account even if I’m creating the store from the UK
2. Will registering the business with CAC in Nigeria help with this
3. Will I still have to pay tax for the online business here in the UK even if its just the store running/management I do here but transactions/market is in Nigeria.
Thank you so much.
3.
Hi Tinu,
If you are using a payment gateway from Nigeria linked to your Nigeria Bank account then you don’t need to pay Tax to the UK government.
So far your payment is not passing through any of their financial institution I think you’re safe from paying tax to them.
If you are using Paystack as your payment gateway you can easily collect payment via naira currency from your customers.
And yes, before you use Paystack your business must be registered with CAC.
I hope that settles your questions
Hello Mr David, I’ll like to confirm something in private please drop a contact…
Send a mail to me!
Mr, David
I have sent you series of mails but no response can you drop your number lets at least have private access to you please
Tony
Sorry about that sir, I just replied your mail now you should see my contact details there.
Nice write up, please I’ve been trying to find out a way to go about the delivery time considering the fact that products from AliExpress take as much as 25 to 30 days to get delivered. What’s your best solution for this?
If your targeted country support ePacket shipping option then try and use it. That’s still the best means for now. Except you’re willing to pay for shipping fee at the expense of your profit which is not advisable.
Cool… I’ve downloaded the e packet extension already, but the price I’m seeing for delivery still seem quite high. Is there a way around it? Or am I getting something wrong?
If you are choosing products with ePacket some might be free shipping and some might not. Most I see is around $2-4 for ePacket if not free at all!
Probably the one you see are normal shipping.
Hello David,
Thanks for the pretty extensive write up on drop shipping and for taking the time to answer questions that further clarify questions on the matter.
I have a few of my own and hope you can help.
I am based in the UK and looking at setting up a dropshipping business in Ghana
1. Can one drop ship in Ghanaas your write up is about dropshipping in Nigeria?
2 I am aware paypal is not available in ghana, so what payment gateway would i use and how do i go about that receiving payment from customers in Ghana. Would they be able to make a payment to my personal paypal account or i have to set up a business paypal account here.
3. Can i set up the business ie shopify account here with the target audience for ghana?
Kind Regards
C
Hi Castim,
I believe you can sell to Ghana if you want to. About the payment gateway… Ravepay is available for Ghanaians on Shopify.
So with that, you can even sell outside the country if you want to. Because ravepay equally process dollar payment too.
You don’t need PayPal to receive payments in Ghana I’ll suggest you go for the local payment gateway.
And while targeting Ghana I hope you’ve put into consideration the shipping time.
Thank you so much for the wealth of information you make available to us on your blog and even your commitment to answering every question we put up in the comment section. We are super grateful.
My name is Nonso, I have asked a few questions on the comment section and gained new insights from your answers.
Like I said before, I have this e-commerce site set up on woocommerce with alidropship-woo setup by me. I plan of dropshipping specifically female underwear to Nigeria.
You’ve made me understand that how I do not need to call each supplier individually, how you choose more products from one supplier to make the shipping and packaging uniform, how that I can sell in US without tax issues since I am not Resident there.
Based on these:
1. I am thinking of changing my site from selling in Nigeria to selling in the US. To help with fast shipping too as well as profit margin.
2. On my Nigerian site, I try to compare my prices with Jumia’s “shipped from overseas” items are sometimes still cheaper than mine, despite trying to greatly reduce my profit margin to just 500 naira per item. Is 500naira to big a margin from your dropshipping experience what do you think sir?
3. Trying to be as cheap as possible was my market strategy however, in trying to be cheap, I have been settling for cheap products at 1 – 2.5dollars that I’m scared may turn out to be of inferior quality. These are bras, lingerie, panties just all that feminine underwear niche. What are your thoughts please sir? Is it better to go for more expensive items with higher profits or cheap items with lower profit margin but larger number of sales?
4. If I set up the dollar currency to sell in US, is it okay to just concentrate on US alone? So I can scale up the prices or go for better superior products because I’m afraid the US audience may not value goods that a too cheap and maybe they may write them off? Or do Americans too go for very cheap China products From your experience?
5. Finally you said you use a verified PayPal, does it mean PayPal now works with Nigerian accounts too? Or you refer to someone else’s PayPal over there which you use?
6. As for the “ravepay” I’m grateful for your info I will read up more bout it and see how to come up with one.
7. In summary I’m thinking of forgetting the Nigerian audience andfocusing strictly on US audience with this site. What’s your take sir? Is it worth it? Or I should run both with same the pricing formula and same cheap products?
8. Lastly I am also trying my hands on mini importation biz. Any good piece of advice please?
Thanks a lot bro.
regards,
Nonso
Hi Nonso
This is some serious load of questions. First thing first, don’t compare your market with Jumia you’ll end up losing. Personally, I prefer selling to the US and I believe the reason behind that is obvious.
I order a product from my store to test the shipping since last month the product is still in China… and paying for the shipping to Nigeria is going to rip you apart.
So it’s better you sell abroad using the ePacket shipping option with AliDropship Plugin. Then about the payment gateway i heard paystack now process dollar payment although i haven’t look into that. You could look into that yourself.
About the price settings use this plugin … Dropship.me its free with 50 free winning products. The plugin is a complementary plugin to AliDropship plugin.
Once you’ve downloaded the plugin use their recommended price. Then about adverts try and create social media accounts around your store, this way you’ll enjoy free traffic once they are authoritative. You Can use the Social Rabbit Plugin for that.
Finally, about mini importation … you can try it out too.
Good day David, I really do like this post. Very insightful. Pls do coonect via mail with your whatsapp I’d. I have a question.
I want to dropship in nigeria from from but my fear is the delay in getting the products to customers here in nigeria which takes about 21-40 days. Time is money and most customers can’t wait that long. How can I go about it?
Ok, I’ll reply your mail
Hi. Please how can I reach you for a practical guidance through this?
You Can send me a mail
Amazing write up. I am up for this.
Thanks, I’m glad you up for it!
You really did a great work here, thanks for the write up. Please i do need some guide, your email address will be of help.
olusola.david(at)torchbankz.com
With what have read so far in the comment section dropping shipping to Nigeria is not a good business or am I wrong
Not if you have a supplier close by!
How would I tell my supplier to wait for 30days or more
Your supplier or customer?
Good morning, I am so much bless to come across your write up, it really enlightened me on what I have in mind, which is dropshipping. First, I will like to have ur contact for further assistance from you.
Secondly, in ur response to a comment, you said ‘not if you have a supplier close by’. My question is, how close is aliexpress in this regard? Thanks.
Your contact is very important to me, please.
AliExpress is not close. Goods take up to 30 days to deliver in Nigeria with AliExpress.
I find this to be very informative, I’ll advice other readers to try and read through all the comments and replies to get even more insight about dropshipping.
I’ve been watching videos and equipping myself mentally to start this business. As easy as it sounds please bare in mind that the market is very saturated and it will do you more good to do a thorough research before starting.
It will also be nice to create a telegram support group for us to interact and discuss potential products to dropship. Thanks
Hello sir am having issues with my drop shipping business . have already build up my dropshiping business. And have lunch my website. I can show u my website if you want. But the challenges am having presently is that Facebook always block my account when it come to opening page and advertising . in fact have opened up to 10 Facebook account with the a of marketing my droppshipping business but yet Facebook do block them. Plz is the courses of it and the solution to it. My aim is to sell to USA and have already channel my contact to USA in my web and my droppshing account. Sir my coursing will handle my account. I will appreciate it if u can contact me to my email
I’ll suggest you read through the Facebook policy page. Because it seems there’s something you’re doing wrong.
Have ready through the Facebook policy but I did not see any reason why my 10 Facebook account was block .but the only thing i observed is . once I put my website or my phone number or any time I select SHOP NOW as Facebook final action to be take by client.my Facebook acct will be block. Plz what do u think I should do. My website is http://www.whiteteethcare.com plz help me check my web and see what’s is wrong with it if possible the fault is from it. Sir plz can you help me check what is wrong with it. Or don’t know if you can help me to open facebook and instangram page and set them up for me. I don’t mind paying you sir.if yes how much will u collect to do that doe me. My email is :ilorikolawole1@gmail.com
Really wanna thank you for the write up.
Pls want you to walk me through, I want to start a dropshiping business.
Thanks
Ok bro
Please email your contact. Wish to contact you about dropshppin
olusola.david@torchbankz.com But, I’ll rather you drop your question here so others can learn from it.
I really every bit of your explanations on dropshiping pls i would like to have your number,since I would like to own a dropshiping business too.thanks
Hello David first I will like to thank you for giving this information I don’t know how to start am a student this especially with the 14days trial please also how will I start making aliexpress or other online my suppliers since am registered with shopify please
The Oberlo app will link you with Aliexpress
Plx reply to my question plz
send a mail to me at olusola.david@torchbankz.com
Nice work my question is this can you find suppliers on oberlo too? and if so which is better for a beginners aliexpress or oberlo
Both Oberlo and AliDropship connects you with Aliexpress.
It just that oberlo works on Shopify while Alidropship works with wordpress site.
hello can i dropship from ali express to my jumia seller acount? if yes how?
No… you can’t
Great work you are doing here bro.super proud of how you graciously gave detailed explanations plus well answered questions. God bless you bro. Not every1 can give this much information considering how saturated the market is becoming. I have learnt quite a lot reading word to word plus all the questions and answers. I would say I am 80% set to start up my ecommerce business.
Just a few things to clearify:
You talked about paystack as a payment gateway and I also read you need a gtb dollar account but the business have to be registered with cac to use paystack..well that is out of options for now. I intend to use PayPal but how can I open a verified business PayPal account that can receive international transactions with no limits. You also said I have to pay my suppliers with PayPal if I am getting paid wit PayPal. Can oberlo app automatically make all those payments without me doing them manually? Considering huge sales.
You said people in Ghana can use ravepay for international payment since it processes dollars. Will my customers pay with PayPal or credit card with that option?
Can I use both PayPal and ravepay as payment gateway supposed I am in Ghana?
How can I pay my suppliers automatically if I am being paid with credit cards for people without PayPal. Or I have to do it manually?. Many more on my mind but please answer this ones for others to learn. I will still mail you personally
Hi Jerry
About paying suppliers not all of them do receive PayPal, some receive and some don’t. However, the best solution to this is to have some money in your credit card in other to pay supplier at ease.
About Oberlo, the App works semi-automatically. Once you receive orders on your store, you still need to push the ‘Order Button’ before its sent to AliExpress. But this time you won’t have to write your customer details manually the app will do that for you.
For the Payment gateways, you can integrate both PayPal and Ravepay to receive payments on your website, and most times i do have access to my PayPal funds immediately after payments.
I’ll suggest you get my eBook on How to set up a PayPal that allows you to receive funds either in Ghana or Nigeria.
Thanks alot, you are so kind for giving out all these information for free. Your site is very educative, I have a lot to learn from you.
Thanks Destiny. I’m glad you like it!
Please how do I get PayPal business account in Nigeria.
You talked about cooperate account is it a domiciliary account?
A Paypal business account not a dom account here in Nigeria