In part 1, we’ve gone through all the necessary market knowledge to start dropshipping coffee on Shopify.
In this article, we’ll go deeper into the 3 most important steps to grow and run a successful dropshipping coffee store.
Let’s delve into the ultimate guideline and actionable tips to choose the right dropshipping coffee suppliers, set up and design a high-converting online store, and market your coffee brand!
How to dropship coffee? 3 simple steps to grow a dropshipping coffee store on Shopify
3. Choose the right dropshipping coffee suppliers
Selecting the right dropshipping coffee suppliers for your business is a critical step in ensuring the success and reliability of your business. Here's a step-by-step guideline to help you navigate the process effectively:
Define your product needs
Clearly outline the types of coffee products you intend to sell and the business models you've chosen. Whether it's organic single-origin beans or specialty blends, understanding your product needs is the foundation of selecting the right supplier.
Identify potential suppliers
Utilize various resources to find potential suppliers tailored to your needs. You can conduct online searches using platforms like Google, watch YouTube review videos, and seek recommendations from communities on social platforms like Facebook.
Evaluate dropshipping coffee suppliers' reliability and quality
- Reputation: Check the reviews and testimonials from other businesses that have worked with these dropshipping coffee suppliers. Look for patterns in feedback to gauge their reputation.
- Pricing and terms: Compare pricing structures, payment terms, shipping fees, and any additional charges. You should also check for minimum order quantity (MOQ) requirements, favoring dropshipping coffee suppliers with reasonable MOQs for dropshipping.
- Shipping and fulfillment: Assess the shipping capabilities, including shipping times, packaging quality, and tracking options. A reliable and efficient fulfillment process is crucial for customer satisfaction.
- Return and refund: Ensure that the dropshipping coffee suppliers offer proper return and refund policies so your customers can effortlessly return when the quality doesn’t meet your standards.
- Legal compliance: Verify that the supplier adheres to the legal and regulatory requirements of your target market as each country has different food and health regulations. For example, in Canada, roasted coffee shall be roasted green coffee, shall contain not less than 10% fat, and may contain no more than 6% total ash while other countries like the US or UK don’t have regulations like this.
- Communication and responsiveness: Evaluate the communication and support terms of potential dropshipping coffee suppliers. Responsive communication is vital for addressing issues, especially when it comes to tracking orders or refund issues.
Verify product and service quality
After researching and evaluating potential coffee suppliers, you should verify their reliability and product quality.
The easiest way to do that is to become a customer yourself to experience the suppliers' service. Order samples to evaluate the quality of their coffee products firsthand. This step is vital to ensure that the products meet your standards and the delivery isn’t slow.
You can also act like a customer to reach their support to see how they respond to feedback and claims from customers, and even try to place a return order. By this method, you can verify their professionalism in customer support.
By following this comprehensive guideline, you can establish a reliable network of suppliers for your dropshipping coffee store.
Top 3 Dropshipping Coffee Suppliers for Shopify Stores
To save your time and effort, we’ve curated the 3 best dropshipping coffee suppliers for you to choose
#1. Supliful
Supliful is one of the best dropshipping apps for Shopify coffee stores, designed to simplify the dropshipping experience for coffee store owners.
Pros
- Seamless integration: Supliful seamlessly integrates with Shopify, offering a user-friendly and efficient experience for managing your dropshipping coffee store directly from the platform
- No upfront fees: One notable advantage of Supliful is its zero upfront fees, providing a cost-effective solution for entrepreneurs entering the dropshipping coffee market.
- Focus on healthy coffee: Supliful specializes in health and wellness products so most of its coffee products are healthy coffee with added health benefits. One of their most notable products is mushroom coffee.
- Wholesale pricing: Supliful offers wholesale pricing, enabling you to maximize profit margins by obtaining coffee products at a competitive rate.
Cons
- Limited coffee product selection: As Supliful specializes in organic and healthy products, not in coffee, it offers only 14 coffee products. Thus, this might not be the ideal choice for those seeking a comprehensive range of coffee options to appeal to a broader audience.
- No support for private label coffee dropshipping: Although Supliful advertises a service called private label, this service is actually white-label. This service only allows you to design your unique label to put on their product, not create your coffee blend.
#2. Dripshipper
Dripshipper emerges as a dynamic player in the world of coffee dropshipping, known for its user-friendly Shopify app and diverse product range.
Pros
- Shopify integration: Dripshipper offers one of the best dropshipping apps for Shopify coffee dropship stores so it seamlessly integrates with Shopify, simplifying the product import to store and management of your dropshipping operations.
- Private-label and white-label support: You can choose to dropship white-label coffee with your brand label or to create your coffee blend to sell it as your private-label products. Dripshipper provides versatility in branding and customization
- Diverse product range: The supplier offers a comprehensive selection, ensuring a variety of coffee options for your store. Their product range includes trending coffee like organic and sustainable coffee, specialty blends, and health and wellness coffee.
Cons
- No free plan: Dripshipper does not offer a free plan, which may impact initial budget considerations in your trial process.
- Increased competition: Due to its popularity, increased competition from other stores using Dripshipper is a potential drawback.
- Website building service: Although this isn’t the main service of this app, many customers reported issues with their website building service, citing slow performance and subpar results.
#3. Aroma Ridge Coffee Roasters
Aroma Ridge stands out in the realm of coffee suppliers, recognized for delivering top-tier coffee quality coupled with an extensive selection.
Pros
- High-quality coffee: Aroma Ridge has earned a reputation for consistently providing high-quality coffee. This feature appeals to discerning customers seeking an elevated coffee experience.
- Wide range of coffee selections: Diversify your product offerings with Aroma Ridge's extensive catalog, catering to various tastes and preferences. The breadth of choices enhances your store's appeal to a broader audience.
- Private label and white-label coffee dropship support: Aroma Ridge accommodates both private and white-label customization. This flexibility empowers you to create a distinct brand identity with exclusive blends tailored to your target market.
- Fast shipping: A standout advantage of Aroma Ridge is its commitment to fast shipping. With orders processed within two business days, customers receive their purchases promptly, contributing to a positive buying experience.
Cons
- Non-refundable signup fee: To start the dropship program with Aroma Ridge, you need to pay $100.00, which is non-refundable. Thus, dropshippers should consider carefully before starting.
- High service cost: A $3.25 fee will be applied to each order. Plus, if you want to print your labels on their product, it will cost you $50.00 per 100 labels. Thus, if you want to sell their coffee under your own brand, the cost is relatively high.
4. Set up your online dropshipping coffee store
The first thing when launching an online store is choosing a robust eCommerce platform, and Shopify stands out as a top choice. Here's why you should consider Shopify for your venture:
- Customizable and flexible: Unlike platforms such as Etsy and Amazon, where stores often conform to the framework of the platform, Shopify offers a high level of customization for your online store. Shopify premium themes like Zest or Megamog give you the flexibility to curate a visually appealing and feature-rich store that aligns with your brand image.
- More band control: As you can create a customized online store that authentically reflects your brand identity, it’s easier to establish a distinctive brand identity than on other platforms like Amazon or Etsy. With Shopify, you have greater control over how your brand is portrayed.
- Direct customer relationship: Customers make purchases directly on your Shopify coffee dropship store, providing you with direct access to valuable customer data. This direct relationship facilitates better customer engagement, allowing you to tailor your marketing strategies and offerings based on customer behavior.
In short, Shopify is the ideal platform for dropshipping coffee stores because of its advantages in customization, brand control, and customer data. If you want to start a dropshipping coffee store on Shopify, you can follow this guideline to set up your own store.
5. Promote your dropshipping coffee brand
Now that your Shopify coffee dropshipping store is finely tuned, it's time to turn your attention to marketing. Coffee enthusiasts are often more tuned into branding cues, giving an advantage to smaller brands. So you should market your brand by emphasizing what makes your coffee distinct.
Here's how you can effectively market your Shopify coffee dropshipping store and make a lasting impression on potential customers.
Blogging about coffee for SEO and authority
Start a blog or content section on your website dedicated to coffee-related topics. This not only improves your SEO and boosts Google ranking but also positions your brand as an authority in the coffee space.
You can try to create engaging and informative content, such as brewing guides, coffee recipes, or articles on coffee culture. These types of content not only attract organic traffic but also keep visitors engaged and interested in your brand.
Coffee aesthetics on social media
Social media serves as a dynamic platform for building brand awareness and connecting with the audience, and it’s no different with dropshipping coffee. You can utilize social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest to showcase your coffee products. Here are some expert ideas for your social media marketing:
- Facebook ads: Leverage the community-building aspects of Facebook to create a dedicated space for coffee lovers. Share informative content, host live coffee sessions, and encourage discussions on favorite coffee rituals. Utilize Facebook Ads to target coffee enthusiasts, amplifying the reach of your unique coffee offerings.
- Instagram coffee diaries: Embrace the visually rich nature of Instagram to showcase the allure of your coffee products. Create an Instagram feed that's a visual journey into the world of coffee, from enticing images of your blends to captivating behind-the-scenes moments. Engage with your audience through coffee-related challenges, polls, and visually striking coffee-centric stories.
- Pinterest coffee inspirations: Tap into the visual discovery world of Pinterest by creating boards filled with coffee inspirations. Pin visually appealing images of your coffee products, accompanied by related content such as coffee recipes, DIY coffee art, and unique coffee-themed lifestyle ideas.
For more ideas to sell your dropshipping coffee on social media, check out this Shopify guideline on selling coffee online.
Build a coffee club to leverage email marketing
To start email marketing, you should build an email list that echoes the enthusiasm of coffee lovers. You can utilize tools like the FoxKit All-in-one Sales Boost app to create a pop-up message to promote and offer tempting incentives like exclusive discounts or in-depth coffee brewing guides to engage and encourage visitors to become subscribers.
Keep your subscribers engaged with regular newsletters featuring not just product updates but also behind-the-scenes glimpses, limited edition releases, and captivating coffee tales.
Influencer sip-and-share
Influencer marketing is a powerful method to build your brand and dive deeper into the target audience. Form partnerships with influencers deeply entrenched in the coffee or specialty beverage niche. Collaborate with baristas, coffee enthusiasts, or lifestyle influencers who can authentically showcase your coffee products. Their genuine love for coffee resonates with followers, making it an effective avenue to expand your brand presence within the coffee community.
In Conclusion
Starting a successful dropshipping coffee business on Shopify involves 5 key steps that are choosing your business model (white-label or private-label), finding the right niche, selecting reliable suppliers, building a high-converting storefront, and marketing your brand.
This guideline walks you through all these steps, provides essential knowledge, and actionable tips to streamline your process.
As a finishing touch, consider Foxify - Smart Page Builder, an invaluable assistant, to jumpstart your store design quickly and solidify your brand presence efficiently with 80+ high-converting templates. With Foxify, your dropshipping coffee store is poised to stand out in design, conversion, speed, and SEO.
