Thread by @SCHM7DT

The Evergreen E-Commerce Q&A Thread For Broke Beginners Who Want To Start Their Own E-Commerce Business But Don't Know Where To Start:

(Will be adding to it as more questions come in)

"How do I source products and find manufacturers?"

You don't. There's a Chinese wholesale website called aliexpress.com. You find products on there, list them on your Shopify store using an app called Oberlo, and then the supplier ships products direct to your customers

"Will customers experience long wait times, high shipping costs, or foreign packaging?"

Wait times depend, ideally you want to sell products from suppliers with warehouses in the US (sort by "ships from US" on Ali)

High shipping costs, no

Foreign packaging, yes

"How do I market and spend money on ads?"

The easiest and best way right now in my opinion is Facebook ads

Learn the basics via Google, YouTube, courses, etc. and the rest as you go

@StartSellingSSS has a great free FB ads guide on his website as well

"How much money does it take to start?"

It depends

Some people it takes $100

Some people it takes $2,000

Ideally you want to start with $1,000+, but no less than $500

"Is making an LLC/incorporating necessary for dropshipping?"

*This is NOT legal advice*

But at first, no

You can worry about incorporating and paying taxes once you're actually making money

For now, focus on getting to the point where you even have to worry about it

"How do I process payments?"

Shopify does it for you via Stripe and PayPal

You don't necessarily even need PayPal, Shopify payments will process payments and send them straight to your bank account with or without it

"How do I research and choose products?"

Too much for one tweet, but what I recommend is finding something that's already selling and targeting it to a more specific group of people (not your FB ads targeting, just your marketing in general)

Make them feel like it's "for" them

"Where can I find examples of good ads?"

Can't guarantee they'll be good but just search Facebook for "Get Yours Now" and other similar calls-to-action

Then you can click on their FB pages and click on the "Info and Ads" tab to see their all ads

"How do you find reliable US-based manufacturers?"

You don't

At least not at first

Don't worry about finding reliable suppliers when you're first starting, just focus on making sales and then you can refine from there

"What's the best way to deal with returns/refunds/complaints/etc?"

Just refund them

Not worth getting chargebacks and risking Shopify/PayPal holding your payments