Drop Shipping: Learning Resources for Beginners

Starting a drop shipping business can be easy if you have the proper resources, and with the Internet it’s easier than ever to find them. You don’t even need to leave your chair to learn everything that you need in order to run a successful online store. There are dozens of websites that offer courses not just on eCommerce, but specifically for drop shipping. Moreover, some of them even go beyond being a guide to drop shipping; they also teach users how to market their shop and products effectively.

In this article, you will find a compilation of useful resources online where you can read up and learn more about drop shipping and the steps you can take to ensure its success.

Udemy

Founded in 2010, Udemy is an online learning platform that is rich in content; with topics ranging from business, marketing, software development, to lifestyle, personal development, and even music–anything under the sun, really. They have a vast selection of courses for drop shipping which can be sorted via level, language, and price.

You can see from the course list the number of lessons and the number of hours for the course, as with the learning level applicable to it. They also make use of a rating system that allows past users to judge how helpful a specific course is, so prospective users like you will have an idea if it is worth your time and money.

Example lessons include:

• Drop Shipping Proven Blueprint
• Building a Profitable Drop Shipping Store
• eBay Drop Shipping Guide
• Walmart Drop Shipping Guide
• Shopify Drop Shipping Guide

Prices vary from $20 to a couple hundred, but you can expect the more expensive ones to have bulkier content. Signing up for a membership on the website does not entail any cost, though. You can also sign up for their email service to receive personalized recommendations and deals.

A Better Lemonade Stand

A Better Lemonade Stand describes itself as an online eCommerce incubator that makes decision making easy for entrepreneurs. Their website contains impressively detailed articles about starting the business; and even has an article which lists down 50 drop shipping suppliers and manufacturers and their product categories, with a downloadable Google doc version. Sample articles include:

• 72 Hour Drop Shipping Business
• How To Start a Drop Shipping Business In a Week
• Finding Drop Shipping Companies
• How to Test Product Ideas with Drop Shipping When You Don’t Drop Ship
• Trending Products and Niches

They have training courses, case studies, guides, tools, and recommendations for your business venture; in addition, you can get access to all 150 verified drop shipping companies via their contact information for a one-time fee of $19. The website also has a thriving community of subscribers that share stories and experiences regarding their shops; making A Better Lemonade Stand a wonderful resource for business-minded individuals.

Drop Ship Lifestyle

With one-on-one coaching, advanced training modules, advertising courses , and even a live workshop, Drop Ship Lifestyle is a great educational resource when it comes to drop shipping. However, their membership–despite being a one-time fee–is quite expensive. You get the following courses and extras for $1,497:

• Drop Ship Lifestyle Blueprint
• Shopify Design
• Adwords for eCommerce
• access to DSL members online community
• custom Shopify themes.

The Premium Package costs a whopping $2,497, but adds importing and overseas business to the list of things you will learn about. You can also enjoy 24 advanced training modules, as well as access to DSLabs, DSL Shopify apps and themes, and their supplier directory. They also have two more plans:

• Done For You – The service will set up your store and social media accounts so you can focus on learning and operating the business.
• Mentorship – You will have a one-on-one coaching for 12 weeks, and a personalized niche selection verification.

Prices for the latter two packages are not published, though you can expect count on them to be more expensive than the previous two.

Store Coach

Store Coach is really more focused on general eCommerce, but it does include drop shipping among its numerous lessons. They have been helping entrepreneurs for 10 years now, and have been featured on a couple of TV shows and newspapers due to their success.

They have simplified the teaching process by dividing what you’ll learn into four phases: planning, building, marketing, and operations. Each phase contains three to four chapters for a systematic learning experience. Whether you are a newcomer to business or you already have a store but would like to grow, you’ll find that Store Coach’s offers have something new to help you get more traction. Signing up is free and gives you access to the previously mentioned course.

On the other hand, a Pro membership–which costs $49 a month or $441 a year–adds the Niche finder pro to your arsenal, among other features like a supplier directory, rank master, Ask-a-Coach (with which you can initiate a one-on-one private session with a coach), periodic live learning workshops, a US business set-up guide, and a thousand dollar discount to annual live events.

YouTube

This popular video sharing and streaming website has gained quite a reputation when it comes to training and educational video content. Since the platform is very popular and accessible by everyone, more and more subject experts are using it to reach out to individuals who would like to gain more knowledge about a certain process or practice. YouTube has thousands of drop shipping videos explaining the business and giving step-by-step instructions to viewers.

Some content creators on YouTube known for uploading drop shipping-related videos are Anton Kraly (who also happens to be a Drop Ship Lifestyle coach), Trevor Shipp, Jack Pitman, EcommerceWith Andrei, Shopify, and Wholesale Ted. These are just several among hundreds that offer different styles and procedures of explaining drop shipping.

And there you have it: a list of online resources you can turn to in order to learn about starting and keeping a drop shipping business alive and kicking. It doesn’t end here, though. You will find many other resources that can teach you a thing or two about drop shipping–some may even come from co-entrepreneurs that you’ll encounter while taking a course.

While studying drop shipping and marketing concepts by yourself may be quite a challenge, with all the possible distractions in your environment, do keep in mind that your efforts will pay off once you apply these lessons to your business. Improving your store and growing your customer base can only get easier from here on out. So check these places out, get your mind ready, and get that coffee pot on for burning the midnight oil while learning all about drop shipping!