The Best Tips for an Online Shop Without a Warehouse
Thus, it is possible to sell your products in an online store without a warehouse.
- How to sell products in your online store without a warehouse
- The 7 best tips for your online store without a warehouse
- These shop systems support you if you run an online store without a warehouse
- Flexible and affordable through dropshipping
You want to sell products online, but you dread maintaining the warehouse and bearing the associated costs? Then an Online store without a warehouse might be the ideal solution for you. This handling is also known as Dropshipping.
In this article, we explain to you how to sell products in your online store without a warehouse and give you the best tips for this. We also reveal which shop systems support you with dropshipping.
Recommended E-Commerce-Platforms & Shopsystems
On our comparison platform OMR Reviews you can find more recommended e-commerce platforms & store systems. We present over 230 solutions that are specifically tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized companies, start-ups and large corporations. Our platform offers comprehensive support in all areas of online commerce, from product presentation to customer management. Take the opportunity to compare different e-commerce solutions, taking into account real user reviews, to find the perfect system for your individual business needs:
- Wix (Directly to the provider)
- Salesforce Commerce Cloud (Directly to the provider)
- Shopware
- Sana Commerce
- OXID
- SCAYLE
- commercetools
- Ecwid von Lightspeed
- SAP Commerce Cloud
- novomind iSHOP
- PlentyONE
- STRATO Webshop Now
- Intershop
- Movable Ink
- Spryker
- CopeCart
- novomind iMARKET
- novomind iAGENT
- ikas
- cgrd commerce GRID
- spreadshop
- Shopify Plus
- OXID
- Shopify
How to sell products in your online store without a warehouse
If you want to sell products in your online store without your own warehouse, this is called Dropshipping. The items that you offer to your customers in your shop are stored with wholesalers. As soon as your customers place an order, it is forwarded to the wholesalers' warehouse and shipped directly from there. But your customers cannot see this, so they think that they received the products directly from your company.
The great advantage of this business model is that you save yourself the costs of storage and do not have to make an investment to always have enough products in stock to meet your customers' demand. You also save packaging and staff costs for the employees who would normally pack and ship your products. The dropshipper does this for you. This increases the number of products that you can offer in your shop and you can always pass on the most modern offers to your customers. You only take care of the marketing for your company and the support for your customers.
The 7 best tips for your online store without a warehouse
To be able to successfully sell products via dropshipping to your customers, you should pay attention to a few things.
- Decide which products you want to offer in your shop. These can be products that you are familiar with or products that are currently trending. After making your choice, make sure that the offer in your online store without warehouse does not violate any copyright rights. Continuously monitor the market and occasionally consider which products could be interesting for your customers.
- Next, you register your Dropshipping business. You can initially try out your dropshipping part-time if you wish, or set it up directly as full-time self-employment. You register your business with your local city administration. This will then inform your local tax office about the business registration.
- Look for the right suppliers. For this, you need to do some initial research. Which wholesalers offer the handling for an online store without its own warehouse? Which range can you access? Focus your selection of suppliers on the quality of their offered products, their delivery conditions, and the profit margins that result from the collaboration.
- Choose a suitable shop software and invest some time in your online store. The online store is your company's business card, which is why you should maintain it. Build it so that the visitors find their way around well and like to spend time on your site. The right shop software can also contribute to this. This should present your offer attractively by being able to insert photos and appealing product descriptions. It is also advisable to synchronize your shop software with the inventory of your suppliers to prevent unpleasant surprises for your customers because the ordered products are not deliverable after all.
- Allow your customers to create a account in your online store. This will increase the willingness to order again in your store, as all data is already stored in their customer account and a new order is just a few clicks away.
- Rely on (email) marketing to draw attention to your products and your online store. You can achieve this, for example, through social media, Google Ads, an existing newsletter distribution list, or influencer marketing - depending on which channels your target group prefers. You continuously expand your brand and its recognition through the right messages in the right channels.
- Provide outstanding customer service. In addition to advice for visitors, the customer experience also includes handling returns and obtaining feedback. After the purchase is complete, for example, you can obtain reviews from your customers, through which you can continuously optimize your web presence, product selection, and service.
These shop systems support you if you run an online store without a warehouse
As you have already read in our fourth tip, the selection of a suitable shop system is an important success factor for your online store. For this reason, we would like to introduce you to two shop systems that make your online business easier.
First of all, we would like to recommend Spreadshop to you. The free full-service shop system is ideal for creating and marketing merchandise products. For this, your customers can make their choice from over 120 available products and accessories. After your customers have placed their order, Spreadshop takes care of the complete order processing and logistics for you. This also includes printing the products and customer service. The system uses a Print-On-Demand process to avoid overproduction and unnecessary additional costs. As Spreadshop is an official Meta business partner and official merchandise provider for YouTube, the sale of your products is optimized across various social media channels. The shop software can be easily integrated into your website and supports all common payment methods so that your customers retain complete flexibility. Data security is ensured through an SSL certificate and GDPR support.
The second shop software you should know about is Spreadconnect. With this e-commerce solution, customers can create their individual product lines in a short time, sync automatically with your online store and can also be sold there. As soon as a new order is placed, it is printed as Print-on-demand and then shipped to your customers. For the product design, your customers can choose from over 200 different products that Spreadconnect carefully packs and sends to them. In addition to clothing, this includes home accessories, pet products, bags, drink vessels, and children's items. All products are only produced after your customers place an order, so there is no overproduction. This way, you can easily increase your brand awareness and improve your income without having to spend a lot of time on product design and shipping. Spreadconnect is compatible with Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace, Magento Open Source, Order Desk and Shopware. You can also offer your products in shop systems on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok. Spreadconnect promises a fast processing time of a maximum of 48 hours, uses only OEKO-TEX certified, vegan ink, and offers your customers environmentally friendly products made from sustainable organic cotton. Returns are recycled or donated.
Flexible and affordable through dropshipping
Whether you simply don't want to rent your own warehouse or always want to offer the latest trends to your customers - this is possible with an online store without a warehouse. Once you've found suppliers that match your ideas and set up your shop, nothing stands in the way of your successful online business. Through targeted marketing and careful monitoring of changes in the markets, you can efficiently prepare your company for current challenges and quickly seize opportunities - sustainably and without high costs.