Dropshipping craft supplies is a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurial artists who’re looking for some side cash or existing dropshippers diversifying their business. The best part about this niche is that it has minimal competition. You can easily get your foot in the door with a good dropshipping strategy and reap the benefits.
But remember, the expectations of craft supplies buyers are different from the average buyer, so knowing how to serve this audience is essential to your success.
Here are 6 top tips that you can use along your journey to start a successful dropshipping craft supplies business.
1. Research the Market Demands Before Getting Your Craft
Jumping into the market without enough research is like walking through fire. However, thorough research can be your fire extinguisher.
Here are some simple and actionable steps to point your research in the right direction:
Know The Needs And Trends
Knowing your audience is the key to dropshipping craft supplies. For example, there are different types of artists who would need different things, ranging from acrylic paints to canvas boards, and sketches to glitter punches.
In such a scenario, market research lets you identify the demands of your ideal customers.
Use Google Trends and social media for starters. After that, deep dive into craft supply sections on Etsy and Amazon. The rule of thumb is to find a subcategory that has a good demand but few competitors.
Keep an Eye on Competitors
Sometimes, detailed market research can get confusing. A smart way around is that you research your competitors to learn more about the market.
Your experienced competitors have already done their research. All you have to do is see how they’re using this research.
For example, if we plan to dropship stationery supplies, we will check for top competitors in this field. In this case, our top competitors would be Notebook Therapy and Kawaii Pens.
Next, we will hop onto our competitor’s social media account, checking Notebook Therapy’s Instagram page to see the market demand level and how they’re targeting their audiences.
From just one Instagram search, I found how popular this niche is and what relevant hashtags we will have to use to find our target audience.
2. Have A Perfect Story for Your Craft Supplies Brand
Whether it’s the story of starting your own business or how art has a unique place in your life, people love hearing stories. Narrating a unique brand story is the best way to allow visitors to engage with your brand.
Although you can tell all sorts of stories, it should be good enough to build a personal connection with customers.
A compelling brand story ticks all of these boxes:
- Connection: How does your brand improve their life?
- Value: What are the qualities of your store that artists should invest in?
- Purpose: Why do you care about your customers?
As you will be running a craft supplies business, it’s a no-brainer that your target audience will be artistic. Your visitors are more likely to remember your brand’s story than a heap of features listed on your store’s homepage.
Having a creative and quirky story adds a humane touch and entices your visitors to purchase from your store.
3. Never Compromise on the Quality of Your Crafts
When it comes to dropshipping craft supplies, quality is the king!
For most crafters and artists, their craft supplies are more than mere tools. It’s their medium to express themselves and portray their passions.
So, when you provide them with great quality supplies, they’re more likely to be appreciative for your brand while working on the craft. Not only this, they will also recommend your supplies to other crafters in their circle. True customer satisfaction carries your brand further without doing any extra work.
On the other hand, if you provide customers with low-grade supplies, they will avoid your brand in the long run.
Consider this situation: Lisa purchases a round-edged canvas from your craft supplies dropshipping store. When she receives a canvas of sub-par quality, she would be inclined to return.
Now she gets in touch with your customer service and she finds it tough to return. If something like this would happen, she won’t only leave a bad review but also the store.
Returns, repairs, and bad reviews all cost you real money.
4. Have A Perfect Selling Strategy Right from the Beginning
Strategy is not about holding hour-long meetings and generating obscure reports. You don’t really have to be a business or marketing mastermind to develop a great plan.
Sitting down on your desk with a pen and paper to draft your plan is what truly counts. So sourcing and marketing are two aspects that need most of your attention.
Sourcing
Your supplier can literally make or break your dropshipping business. So, choose brands that you can trust. Either check for online retailers or visit your local retail craft store to assess the supply.
Don’t forget to take notes of prices and quality specifications while you’re searching for your supplier. It’s okay if sourcing is taking you some time because the mistake of choosing the wrong supplier means your business will lose money when your supplier would offer low-quality and damaged craft supplies.
Marketing
Firstly, you can use eCommerce platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc to display the dropshipped craft supplies. Afterward, you should focus on keeping your product descriptions succinct and easy-to-read.
Since your customers will base their decisions on “how” the product looks, product photography is something you must invest in. Your product images should visually communicate and accurately represent the textures and scale of your supplies.
5. Never Sleep on Shipping Rates
We all know that free shipping isn’t really free. Someone has to cover the expenses.
But how much does shipping truly cost?
Well, it varies depending upon the dimensions and weight of the product you’re dropshipping. However, the most important factor to consider is: If your shipping costs are way too high, you’re missing out on a large chunk of profit.
Please note that making wild guesses on the dimension of your product makes you lose money. The major cash sink is when dropshippers don’t research the freight and dimensional weight fees. In fact, some shipping carriers may penalize your business for inaccurate guesses.
Here are my top tips to help you reduce shipping costs and maximize profits:
- Platform Offers: Check what shipping benefits your ecommerce platform provides.
- Discounted Rates: Negotiate shipping costs with your carrier when your shipping volume reaches a good threshold.
- Use Hybrid Shipping Services: Hybrid services like UPS SurePost, FedEx SmartPost, etc, first pick up your order and transport it to a sorting facility. This way you can reduce shipping costs.
Also, free shipping increases conversions but can be a major cost sink in the long run. But still, that doesn’t mean you should not offer free shipping. Instead, you should smartly price your products to include shipping rates.
- Offer 1: $20 product cost + $5 shipping charge.
- Offer 2: $25 with free shipping.
Your dropshipping craft supplies store will see more sales and profits with the second offer.
6. Be Dedicated and Work with Precision
Dropshipping craft supplies might seem a little intimidating initially but if you’re ready to work efficiently towards making it successful, there’s nothing that can stop you.
As you know, your target audience consists of artists. Most artists have a great eye for detail and they will be glad if your website offers them a neat interface. In case if it’s the other way around, they will move to your competitor’s store.
But, it’s not much challenging to please your target audience. Here are a few factors that would need your attention:
- Radiate Professionalism: A professional-looking storefront will attract more visitors and create credibility.
- Choose An Impressive Logo: Your logo “speaks” to your visitors. Create your own unique logo or outsource it to other graphic designers.
- Consistent Theme: Your dropshipping craft supplies store shouldn’t keep switching between flashy banners and plain web pages often. Maintain one overarching color scheme and stick to it.
- Ensure Intuitive User Experience: The store navigation should be seamless and the page must load quickly.
- Spread the Word: People will only interact with your business when they know about it. So, don’t be afraid to invest in advertising your brand.
- Find Good Suppliers: Your suppliers are your store’s best friends. Take your time to evaluate their supply and decide.
Final Words
Like any opportunity, there are pros and cons of starting dropshipping crafts supplies online. But trust me, there’s always a huge chunk of profits lying out there if you know how to leverage it the right way.
When you’ve thoroughly researched the market and strategized your business plan, don’t hesitate to get started. Use these tips as your compass and navigate your way towards dropshipping craft supplies successfully!
Where to Find Craft Supplies?
In Syncee Marketplace you can find millions of products of reliable dropshipping suppliers from US/CA/EU/UK/AU/AS and more! Pick what you want to sell, upload the products into your online store easily. Syncee will automatically upload and update the product data daily and will take care of the automated order data synchronization.
Find Ready-to-Sell Products in Syncee Marketplace Now!
About the Author:
Azfar is an eCommerce ninja at ConversionsKitchen, who have been writing awesome stuff about ecommerce for over 4 years. you’re more than welcome to have a look at his extensive write-ups on our blog.
