Did you know that in 2020, the global e-commerce market reached a whopping $4.28 trillion? And that a large portion of that revenue came from digital products, such as e-books, courses, software, and music.

If you’re looking for a way to tap into this lucrative market, dropshipping digital products on Shopify might be the perfect solution for you. Dropshipping digital products is a business model where you buy the rights to digital products from their original creator, rebrand it ad sell them on your digital storefront.

You can sell anything from e-books and courses to software, music, or even digital arts like graphic design, illustrations, etc. In this blog post, we will guide you through how to dropship digital products on Shopify successfully.

Step-by-Step Guide to Dropshipping Digital Products on Shopify

Let’s look at how to use Shopify to sell your digital products to a global audience:

1. Choosing a Niche and Target Audiencea

One of the key steps to starting a successful dropshipping business with digital products on Shopify is to choose a niche and target audience. This enables you to offer solutions that match your customers’ needs and preferences. It also helps you stand out from the competition and attract loyal customers by offering unique products and competitive offers.

The first step to finding a profitable niche is to conduct product research and analysis to determine your target audience. You can do this by researching the top digital product categories available on Shopify such as ebooks, courses, software, music, etc.

Also, check out your competitors' offers and marketing strategies. This will help you position and price your products favorably with your target audience.

Keep in mind that choosing a niche and target audience is not a one-time decision. Continuously monitor market trends, customer feedback, and sales performance to see if you need to adjust your niche and target audience over time.

2. Selecting a Private Label Rights Platform

A PLR platform allows you to buy the rights to sell digital products created by others, such as ebooks, courses, software, etc. Here are some factors before choosing one, such as:

Product Quality: Select high-quality digital products that provide value to your customers and fit your brand image. Make sure to avoid low-quality or outdated products; in the best-case scenario you get low sales, and in the worst-case scenario, you get bad reviews and potential customers avoid your store- neither is great.

Pricing: Go for a PLR platform that offers competitive and affordable prices without hidden fees or charges. Some of the best PLR platforms to get affordable pricing are Devulture, PLR.me, Digital Products Pro, etc.

Product diversity: Choose a PLR platform with a wide range of digital products that suit your niche and target audience. It should also offer products in different formats like PDFs, videos, categories, and topics.

3. Creating a Shopify Store

Here’s how to create your dropshipping Shopify store:

1. Create a Shopify account- Go to Shopify.com to sign up, and enter your email address, password, and store name (you can change your store name later if you want).

2. Choose a theme- Shopify offers hundreds of free and paid themes. Choose a theme that fits your niche and your brand, you can search by category, industry, or style. You can also view and edit your theme before publishing.

3. Customize your store- Once you’ve selected a theme, you can customize it to create a store that’s user-friendly, visually appealing, and fits your brand. You can choose from different colors, fonts, images, and other branding assets such as logos. You’ll also be able to add landing pages, product categories, and more.

4. Upload Products- After customizing the look and feel of your store, upload the products you want to sell and choose the format for it. For example, you can make your ebooks downloadable PDFs or read-only.

5. Optimize your store- Make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for in your product listings by using simple and catchy product titles, categories, and descriptions. Also, use high-quality and relevant product images and videos.

You also want to make it easy for your customers to buy from you. So, enable multiple payment methods and currencies so you can collect payment globally. Also, add product reviews, ratings, and trust badges to increase trust and social proof.

4. Listing and Managing Digital Products

Add your products, categorize them, and specify the features of your digital products, such as file format, size, and compatibility. Also, don’t stop at simply highlighting the product features, craft simple but catchy product descriptions that help customers understand the product value.

Also, customers cannot see or touch your digital products before buying them; use high-quality product images that showcase the uniqueness of your digital products.

5. Marketing and Promotion

One of the challenges of dropshipping digital products on Shopify is how to market and promote your store effectively. Here are some strategies for promoting your digital dropshipping store and attracting more sales:

Social Media Marketing: You can leverage social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and Pinterest to create engaging content that showcases your digital products and their unique selling points. This helps you grow your brand awareness and build customer loyalty.

Trendhijacking- this strategy allows you to track viral products and spy on competitors' marketing strategies to drive traffic and sales to your e-commerce store. So, instead of going in blind and spending your money running ads to a cold audience, you advertise to an already interested audience by piggybacking on viral trends and ranking your store as the best place to buy the products.

It also makes your dropshipping business more profitable by helping you cut down on advertising costs and other costs you would have incurred if you were competing head-on with big competitors.

Email Marketing: Email marketing is like having a direct line to your customers. You can use it to send them special offers, product recommendations, pre-order products, and more.

6. Redefine Customer Experience

Providing excellent customer service can help you retain customers, increase loyalty, and generate positive word-of-mouth. Respond to customer messages as soon as possible, listen to their needs, and offer solutions that meet their expectations.

Also, give your loyal and new customers promotional offers and discounts on their orders. This will retain new customers and offer lifetime value for existing customers.

Conclusion

Dropshipping digital products is a great way to start an online business with low risk and high reward, you don’t have to worry about inventory, shipping, or fulfillment.

However, you still need to attract customers and convince them to buy from you. Using an effective marketing strategy like the Trend Hijacking Strategy helps you to minimize marketing costs, run a profitable e-commerce business, and scale up easily.

The trend hijacking strategy is a proven method that has helped many digital drop shippers run a profitable and rapidly growing business. If you want to learn more about how to use this strategy for your digital dropshipping business, book a free call.