This German Dropshipper Made $350,000 In A Year, Here’s His Formula

Most times you hear about successful dropshipping businesses, the owners are usually live in the United States or have their business registered there, which is sometimes necessary when working with certain dropshipping suppliers who require business registration documentation.

Because of these requirements, and the logistical concerns often encountered shipping things across borders, it’s rare to find stories from dropshippers in Europe who are also achieving similar successes. Felix is one of the rare ones.

Felix hails from Germany and has a background working as an IT freelancer online. After seeing someone mention dropshipping, he decided to try it out for himself. After some initial success, he expanded his product offerings, set up more stores and put a system in place which allows him to work just about an hour a day and make US$350,000 per year in revenue from his three stores. Here’s a look at what he made in one year from his most popular store.

(Note: Felix, like most dropshippers, won’t share links to the sites or niches he targets in order to protect his business, so you will not get details of that here.)

Image Credit: AliDropship

Initially, Felix tried out a few different recommended methods for marketing and managing his stores. Eventually, he found a working solution, which includes three things that he considers highly critical to the success of his business.

#1 Instagram Influencers

Social media marketing is the lifeblood of any dropshipping business, however, there are so many options when it comes to social media – which channel to choose, what content works best, how often to advertise, etc. – that it can be extremely daunting to know what to choose.

If you find yourself in this position, then do what Felix did. Ensure that you explore multiple options and test them out to see what fits. Even when you find a great option, keep trying others until you come up with the ideal combination.

After trying multiple options, he realized that using Instagram influencers to promote his products yielded far better results than standard Facebook or Instagram advertising. In fact, his first sales came as a result of him paying for an Instagram shoutout from an influencer, and he’s continued to see great results from this method since. He also uses Instagram retargeting ads to target those who leave his site before making a purchase.

This doesn’t necessarily mean promoting through influencers or retargeting ads will work for other dropshippers, but it’s always good to try to out all the social media marketing alternatives to see which one works best for you.

#2 Virtual Assistants (VAs)

Most dropshippers start out managing their own online stores and quickly realize just how much work goes into managing it. From website maintenance and processing orders to finding new products and marketing your store, you can get overwhelmed really quickly. That’s where you’ll need some help.

Thanks to the digital nature of your business, you are in the prime spot to take advantage of the services offered by virtual assistants – which are often more affordable and flexible than what you would get hiring in-office staff. Once you’ve set up the business and you’re clear on the processes, you can then outsource these to VAs, wherever they are in the world, and allow them to manage the day-to-day matters while you tackle the big stuff.

Felix currently works with 3 virtual assistants to handle order processing and customer service, and he admits that finding them wasn’t easy. As is the case with outsourcing work online, sometimes it can be a hit or a miss to find candidates who are professional and knowledgeable enough to get the job done. However, after testing out 7 different VAs, he has optimized his business operations and now happily works with these 3 VAs who enable him to keep his business running 24 hours a day without his constant involvement.

Another crucial element to making the most of VAs is to ensure that you review and document your own activities/processes and fixes in a clear way before hiring, so you can walk them through it easily and provide documentation they can easily refer to when you’re not available. Otherwise, prepare to get emails and phone calls multiple times asking for guidance on these matters.

#3 Service Recovery

Handling angry customers can be one of the most difficult parts of running a business overall. Consider the added factors of being online-based and not having full control of your inventory or shipping, and it can turn into a disaster.

Fortunately for Felix, he has a recipe for managing customer complaints that not only works well but sometimes even turns those angry customers into loyal fans and advocates. Along with the standard processing of their complaints via email or phone, he typically sends these customers a bit of free merchandise and discount codes to help smooth things over.

Of course, you don’t have to go giving away your merchandise to every customer who has an issue with your products or service. Instead, you need to understand that customers typically complain simply because they want their issues to be acknowledged and fixed. Treat them respectfully, listen to their concerns and rectify them to the best of your ability. That’s all they want and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how happy you can make them when you simply spare the time to help.

Considering Dropshipping?

Felix’ story, while not common, is certainly not unique. There are hundreds of thousands of dropshippers across the world taking advantage of this business model. Sure, getting set up is a bit daunting, and it can involve a lot of work at the outset to figure things out and gain your bearings, but once you do, it mostly smooth sailing.

Not only are there tons of resources and tools available for you now that didn’t exist five years ago, but you can also learn from folks like Felix who have built unique systems that work for them. The formula that works for him may not work for your business, but it definitely serves as a great guide to set you off in the right direction.

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