Hello, Nairalanders.
Dropshipping which is selling products directly from manufacturers/wholesalers without you handling any inventories and physical goods is known to be a profitable business worldwide and has made many, hundreds of thousands and even millions (Am speaking dollars).

The question is, what are the current realities for starting this business in Nigeria? Is the problem of international shipping still an issue, or have time frames for free shipping improved? how long does it take on average?
Do the customers get discouraged by the shipping time?


That's while I wrote an article on

ALSO READ: My Dropshipping Journey From Zero to $10,000 monthly

I'm also interested to know and start.

mcmbonu:
Hello, Nairalanders.
Dropshipping which is selling products directly from manufacturers/wholesalers without you handling any inventories and physical goods is known to be a profitable business worldwide and has made many, hundreds of thousands and even millions (Am speaking dollars).

The question is, what are the current realities for starting this business in Nigeria? Is the problem of international shipping still an issue, or have time frames for free shipping improved? how long does it take on average?
Do the customers get discouraged by the shipping time?

Also, I would like those of us interested in this biz to know some reliable sites or partners that drop ship to Nigeria.
Also, could there be any existing Nigerian wholesalers / manufactures that dropship?

Whatever knowledge you have about drop shipping will be welcomed, pls share.

In this thread, you’ll learn how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria from the comfort of your home.

The idea of dropshipping in Nigeria is a great idea, only if you know how to run it successfully. However, the reason I captioned this title as “How to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria” is because it’s a whole lot different scenario when it comes to Nigeria.

how to start a dropshipping business in nigeria
Starting a dropshipping business in Nigeria means you have to think of the payment gateway for your business. Also, you need to know how to deal with suppliers and have your products shipped faster.

What kinds of products should you dropship? And if you’re thinking of dropshipping internationally, then you should be aware whether or not you have to pay tax or register your company.

Lastly, you need to understand if are you going to pay a customs tax on all the product you’re drop shipping in Nigeria especially if you’ll be importing them.


ALSO READ: My lecture on How to grow your business from zero to selling thousands per month.

What’s drop shipping & how does it work In Nigeria?
In the simplest form dropshipping is selling products without buying or having them.

This is how it works; after you’ve created an online store and added your product to it. When I mean product I mean pictures and descriptions of the product.

This is because you don’t have to have product stock in physical. And after this, once you made your sales, all you have to do is contact your third-party supplier (owner of the product) by sending your customer address and paying the supplier from the initial money paid to you by your customer


ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

The supplier in turn, make the shipment to your customer. While you and your customer returned home happy.

However, if you are going to be using AliExpress to source for products, you don’t need to contact the seller. All you simply need to do is go ahead and pay for the products and fill your customers’ details on AliExpress as the buyer.

Without questions asked the seller on AliExpress will have the product packaged, processed and shipped to your customer without them knowing it’s from AliExpress.

How to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria with 5 easy steps?

Before we start let me quickly answer some of the frequent questions commonly asked about drop shipping in Nigeria.

1. Do you need to pay tax dropshipping with AliExpress in Nigeria? The answer is NO! Paying of Tax is for residents in the US.

2. Will you pay tax duty on products shipped to Nigeria? Still NO! Whatever amount you are to pay on a product will be clearly written on your supplier website. The shipping cost covers the tax duty.

3. Do you need to register your company as an e-commerce business? The answer is NO and YES! When starting, you don’t necessarily need to register just to save the cost. But when your business starts booming and growing momentum then you should consider registering your business.

My lecture on How to grow your business from zero to selling thousands per month.

In addition to this, some payment gateway might require you to have your business register before you can start making use of their services. A good example is Paystack. and Stripe for receiving dollar payment.

That’s that about that. So let’s look at the steps on how to start a successful dropshipping business in Nigeria.

1. Choose a Product to Sell
2. Find a Reliable Supplier
3. Choose a Selling platform.
4. Market your business.
5. Start making money.

Step 1: Choose a Product to Sell
The first step to this is choosing the product you want to sell. Many people are often tempted to start selling anything they can think of. You should have this at the back of your mind that drop shipping is a business.

And like every other business, you need to do thorough research and a business strategy on how to be profitable in your business. One of the ways you can do this is by looking for winning products to sell.

Another thing you should have in mind while choosing your product is that you can’t just start selling any product you see. Try as much as possible to check the demand over-time for such products through the use of Google Trend.

ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

It has to be on the market trend. That is, demand for it must be relatively high or at least very stable and the competition for it should be minimal.

You don’t necessarily have to have tons of products on your website to be successful in this business model. Your emphasis should be on hot products around a particular niche.

Having a niche store is also good. This will allow you to easily Up-sell and Cross-sell customers with similar or necessity products.

When I mean niche, what I simply mean, is having your store around particular kinds of products. A good example of a niche store is a store around wireless devices.

Step 2: Find a Reliable Supplier

The place of suppliers cannot be over-emphasized in dropshipping business. This is because they are the owners of the products you’re selling. So, it’s safe to say the quality of your supplier determines the success of your business. Trust me without a reliable supplier there won’t be a product for you to dropship. So you might as well take them seriously.

One of the ways to spot good supplier on AliExpress is by checking their seller rate. You wouldn’t want to go for a seller below a 90% score.

Most likely, AliExpress is this the best options for anyone interested in dropshipping from Nigeria. Except you have a reliable manufacturer or seller in Nigeria that’s willing to work with you.

In this case, all you’ll have to do is promote their products send orders to them, and they will be the one to handle the logistic within Nigeria.

Other than that, AliExpress is your best guess!

Products on AliExpress are relatively cheap giving you profit scalability on your business. The good thing is over 80% of drop shipper use AliExpress so this might be your best choice in Nigeria.

However, using AliExpress also comes with its own challenges! Which of course is the issue of AliExpress long shipping time.

This is when questions like; will your customer be able to pay before they receive their products in Nigeria? Or will they be able to wait over 30 days before they receive their package, will begin to pop up in your mind.

Then you’ll begin to wonder, is all hope gone for dropshipping in Nigeria?

Nah! You can always sell to international markets or delve in Mini importation business.


ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

Step 3: Choose a selling platform

Now, this part is very important, because it determines how your website is going to look to your customers. And you know professionalism breeds reputation. For this I’m going to list two platforms for building your store. They include:

WordPress and
Shopify

WordPress –

Here you need to get a domain name. That is, the name of your website, and get a web hosting account to host your web store.

Your web host determines how your web data is saved online. This is practically like a house for your website while the domain name is like an address to that house.

After your domain name and your hosting account are ready, you can then install e-commerce software (WooCommece plugin) on your website after you’ve must have installed WordPress from your Cpanel.

This can be done through one-click installation. And after that, you can start tweaking the website to your taste.

Here, you will literally create your dropshipping website yourself but no coding is involved and it’s nothing you can’t do.

Here’s the most important part, after everything is set up, you then need to get this Dropshipping Plugin (AliDropship). Without the plugin, you can’t run your dropshipping business effectively.

Better still, if you can’t create the website yourself, or you don’t have enough time probably because of your work, you can easily order a ready-made dropshipping store from AliDropship.

This is a perfectly customize dropshipping store with hots products that are ready to start selling. No work is required from your side when you ordered the custom dropshipping store. You can read the full review here.

ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

Shopify –
Shopify is a self-hosted platform and a website builder that allows you to easily build a website under a few minutes. You can create a store under 30 minutes and start selling any kinds of products you want to.

This is one of the best platforms for dropshipping if you are a newbie or even a professional. It allows you to focus on your business by branding and marketing your products while they manage your store for you.

The good thing is they offer a 14days trial. You can set-up your store in a day and start marketing immediately for the first week.

With this, it’s possible to make profits within the 14days and pay your subscription even before the trial expires.

But then, just because I said so, doesn’t mean you can!

I will recommend Shopify for those with no experience with WordPress as Shopify is relatively easy compared to WordPress but more expensive.

Step 4: Market your business

Obviously, without marketing, nobody is going to visit your store. You can’t just sit down and expect customers to come and buy from your store.

You have to take it to them. The best place to market your product is through Facebook and Google Merchant.

You can do this by creating a Facebook fan page after your domain name and create a Facebook business account to run your Facebook advert.

When running your Facebook ad, choose one of your cheapest products to drive traffic to store. Or use this method called Free Plus Shipping Model.

Once they make their first purchase they will naturally come back.

Other means is by collecting their emails upon sign-ups and send marketing emails on new products or discount offers on existing products.

Instagram ads and Instagram influencer do a good job in marketing dropshipping products too, you can as well check them out.

ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

Step 5: Start making money

Like I mention earlier, to make the work easier, there is a dropshipping plugin called “The AliDropship plugin”. This plugin is specifically designed for dropshipping.

What it does is that it helps you to import product descriptions, photos, etc from your supplier website to your store.

This can be done with just a click and when a product is sold on your store, it automatically sends the customer details to your supplier. The only thing left for you to do is to pay the supplier.

After that, the supplier then ships the product to your customer address without questions asked and your customer won’t know the product is from a third party.

Dropshipping has proven to be a good residual stream of income when done the right way and following the proper channel.

So learning how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria is not enough, you need to implement what you’ve acquired.

The Issue of Payment Gateway
The payment gateway is still the greatest hindrance to several online businesses in Nigeria. However, in the case of dropshipping, there are few ways around that. They include:

Stripe
PayPal and
Paystack
Stripe – This is the most widely used payment gateway in the world even better than PayPal. Their seamless integration makes it easy to receive payment on your website in any part of the world.

By default, it doesn’t work in Nigeria. And to legally use it, you’ll need to register your business in the US.

mcmbonu:
In this thread, you’ll learn how to start a dropshipping business in Nigeria from the comfort of your home.

Thanks for this. I'll like to crave your indulgence with a few questions though.

In comparison, are Instagram/Facebook stores as productive as WordPress or Shopify sites?

Can I open a Jumia store and dropship as well?

In selling some uncommon products whose demands are few and far in between but profitable and do not show up on Google trends, is there another means of running the market feasibility research?

Is there a free way of using Google AdWords for research?

How do you tackle that long duration of AliExpress delivery?

following..Thank you

Thanks for this, please can I have your contact?

Stripe – This is the most widely used payment gateway in the world even better than PayPal. Their seamless integration makes it easy to receive payment on your website in any part of the world.

By default, it doesn’t work in Nigeria. And to legally use it, you’ll need to register your business in the US. I’ve written a complete guide on how to register your business to use Stripe.

PayPal – this platform is one of the most widely accepted payment gateways but unfortunately it’s not visible in Nigeria. However, there has been a way around that. Which I’m sure few people are currently aware of.

If you’re not, I have a PayPal report on how to set up your PayPal account that receives payment in Nigeria. Although it’s going to cost you a fee, a tiny fee in that matter… You can check the price here!

Alternatively, you can use…
Paystack – this platform accepts payment by default only in Nigeria. But if you want to receive payment internationally, you need to create an account with them and have your business registered with CAC and also have a corporate bank account in your business name.

After this, you can then send them a request for receiving international payment. If everything goes well, you can start receiving payments within 24 hours.

How to Open and Use Stripe to Process Payments As A Non US Resident

I’ll assume you offer services online or have an e-commerce/dropshipping store or you simply need Stripe to receive payment on your business website.

Whichever it may be, Stripe is still by far the #1 payment processor you can use to process payments on your website across the Globe.

Using stripe allows you to easily accept payment on your website via credit card without transferring your customers to another website.

The payment processor is embedded on your website which makes it invariably quick, easy and flexible for your customers to make payments.

It doesn’t matter what country your customer is paying from, your price in dollars is charged on your customer’s credit card and remitted to your stripe account immediately.

We all know how important it is to receive your hard-earned profits after you must have invested your time and funds in the business.

And using Stripe makes this easier and reliable! Even better than PayPal.

However, the bad news we already know is that Stripe is only available for residents in the US and a number of other countries.

But, what if your country is outside Stripe availability by default, is all hope gone? Nah!

This now brings us to the good news that you can still use Stripe legally even if your country is not part of the supported country.

How can you achieve this?

All you need to do is register a business in the US and use this information to set up your Stripe account legally.

And this is exactly what I’ll be doing justice to in a bit…

ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

How to Set Up Stripe Account for Non-US Resident or Non Supported Countries

For you to set up a Stripe account legally without any future issue as a non US resident you’ll need the following:

1. US Business Formation (LLC)
2. EIN (Employer Identification Number) or Tax ID
3. US Physical Address
4. A US Phone Number
5. Finally, US Bank Account

Okay. Before you get overwhelmed, everything can be set up within a few days and equally at a relatively low price.

The most important of all is creating a Limited Liability Company (LLC) in the US in other for you to get your Tax ID (EIN).

Once you’ve gotten your EIN or Tax ID, you can then proceed to create your Stripe account.

Below is a message from Stripe confirming the validity of setting up a stripe account as a non US resident.

If you’re a non-US citizen and have a US based business with an EIN you would be able to open a Stripe account. When we request the last four digits of your SSN, you can just enter ‘0000’ please ensure that you enter a valid tax ID (EIN) that has been provided for your business. We will then reach out at a later stage and request either a passport or government issued ID to verify your identity.

If you don’t have a SSN/ITIN, you are only able to register as an LLC Corporation, Non-Profit or Partnership. If you sign up as a sole Prop/Individual, we require a valid SSN/ITIN even if you have a valid EIN

So basically, as a non-resident you can create an account with Stripe so far you have a business entity in the US and a valid EIN number.

Luckily for you, you don’t have to pay for the business formation, however, you do need to pay for state filing and tax ID.

laivwire:


Thanks for this. I'll like to crave your indulgence with a few questions though.

In comparison, are Instagram/Facebook stores as productive as WordPress or Shopify sites?

Can I open a Jumia store and dropship as well?

In selling some uncommon products whose demands are few and far in between but profitable and do not show up on Google trends, is there another means of running the market feasibility research?

Is there a free way of using Google AdWords for research?

How do you tackle that long duration of AliExpress delivery?

You need an eCommerce store for your dropshipping business, Not an Instagram store Incase you don't know how to build a store and I can design for you a professional store and also show you secrets I used to grow my store. kindly whats App me 0.8.0.2.9.5.8.9.0.9.5

No, you need your own personal store. kindly check out the store I built for one of my student>>> www.bytelk.com

yes, there are many ways you can check for hot trending product you can Dropship, kindly DM me

Yes, you can do a google trend research using Google trend and keyword Planner

Using supplier who can dropship from USA to USA or Europian country.. DM me for more Details

lightdream:
following..Thank you

welcome

prince10348:
Thanks for this, please can I have your contact?

welcome

Setting Up an LLC for Your Business in The US

One of the perks of having your business set up in the US isn’t limited to Stripe usage. You can have several similar businesses under the registered business.

And also important, is the fact that you don’t have to have a Social Security Number (SNN) to have your business set up in the US.

You just need to choose a NAME for your business and decide on the state you want it to be registered in the US.

However, you do need to be careful as to which state you decide to set up your business entity. This is because some states charge high state filling (Business Registration) and as well as annual business tax.

But I do find;

Colorado
and Kentucky…
to be quite affordable.

Colorado charges $10 annual Tax fee and $50 state filling while Kentucky charges $40 state filling and $15 annual Tax fee.

At least as at the time of writing this article. You could as well do further research on that if you want.

The state annual tax is a tax you pay on your business at the end of every year. So they vary based on the state you choose to set up your business.

States like California and Hawaii should definitely be out of your pick because they are freaking high on tax.

But not to worry, the sole purposing of this post is to show you how to get it done as easy as possible and at the cheapest fee.

I’m equally not based in the US but I have my business set up in the US so I can equally use Stripe to process payments as a non US resident.

I was able to do this using IncAuthority.com and Kentucky as my business state because it’s relatively cheap.

The good news is I’ve been able to partner with them because I know many people will be needing this service and I want them to have it at the best place.

Plus, there are various service out there charging as high as $1000 for this same purpose. But at the end of this post I’ll show you how you can get it done for less than $200.

Coming from someone who also is a non-resident of the US I know how beneficial it can be for your online business.

Most especially my blog readers!

How to Form Your Business LLC Using Inc Authority
In other to know how to use Stripe to process payments as a non-US resident you do have to form a business entity in the Us using Inc Authority.

Inc Authority offers online business incorporation services, as well as additional business services such as record books, operating agreements, federal tax identification numbers etc.

At Inc Authority, forming your business entity is free of charge except for state fees. And this is why it’s relatively cheap compared to others charging as high as $1000 for the same business formation.

I did intensive research before I finally picked Inc Authority to for my business LLC formation in the US. Their service was on point and I was moved to partner with them so I can share with you guys.

Going through their reviews on TRUST PILOT should show you exactly what I’m talking about, they are simply the best out there.

How to Form Your Business LLC Using Inc Authority
In other to know how to use Stripe to process payments as a non-US resident you do have to form a business entity in the Us using Inc Authority.

Inc Authority offers online business incorporation services, as well as additional business services such as record books, operating agreements, federal tax identification numbers etc.

At Inc Authority, forming your business entity is free of charge except for state fees. And this is why it’s relatively cheap compared to others charging as high as $1000 for the same business formation.

I did intensive research before I finally picked Inc Authority to for my business LLC formation in the US. Their service was on point and I was moved to partner with them so I can share with you guys.

Going through their reviews on TRUST PILOT should show you exactly what I’m talking about, they are simply the best out there.

How to Form Your Business LLC Using Inc Authority
In other to know how to use Stripe to process payments as a non-US resident you do have to form a business entity in the Us using Inc Authority.

Inc Authority offers online business incorporation services, as well as additional business services such as record books, operating agreements, federal tax identification numbers etc.

At Inc Authority, forming your business entity is free of charge except for state fees. And this is why it’s relatively cheap compared to others charging as high as $1000 for the same business formation.

I did intensive research before I finally picked Inc Authority to for my business LLC formation in the US. Their service was on point and I was moved to partner with them so I can share with you guys.

Going through their reviews on TRUST PILOT should show you exactly what I’m talking about, they are simply the best out there.



ALSO READ: How To Become A Dropshipper: A Guide For Total Beginners

Now let’s proceed to form your LLC at Inc Authority:
Setting up your LLC with Inc Authority is really straight forward, I’ve broken it down into the step by step guide below. All you need do is just follow the steps and your LCC and Tax ID will be set up.

Step 1. Head Over to Inc Authority
First thing first, you need to head over to IncAuthority.com to get started. Upon getting to the web page click on the “START NOW FOR FREE” button…

The next page is your business entity type and the state you want to form the LLC.

Step 2. Choose Your Business Entity and State
Simply choose LLC (Limited Liability Company) from the drop-down menu and choose your state. You can go with Kentucky because of the low cost and the cheap annual tax fee.

After that, click on “Save and Continue”

Step 3. Business Owner Details
The next step is about the business owner. At this stage, you’ll need to enter your First and Last name, your email address and as well as your US phone number.

Also, you need to click the “Terms and Condition” box to continue to the next step

To get yourself a free US number that works fine, you can download the TextPlus App on Google play store.

The App is free and it’s equally what I use.

Step 4. Enter Your Business Information
As I said earlier, you’ll need to pick a name for your business and a search will be carried out on it to check if it’s still available.

If it’s available, your business name will be created immediately upon the state approval. However, in the case whereby your proposed business name is not available, you’ll need to adjust the name or find another one.

But it’s not going to cost you any additional fee!

What you need to do here is simply enter your proposed business name, a good example is Dropshipping Technology and also write a short description of the business.

Finally, “tick the Minimize business and taxes” and proceed to save and continue.

Step 5: Your Business Address
At this stage, you need a physical US address where your document can be sent to. In my case, I gave them a call and I told them to send it directly to my email address.

But that doesn’t mean you don’t need the US address, you do! In other to set this up there are various services you can use like:

1. physicaladdress.com
2. virtualpostmail.com
3. shipito.com
You can get started for free using shipito.com, you just need to create an account and you’ll be giving address automatically. A physical address!

Next, enter your business address and click on Save and Continue.

Step 6: Getting Your Tax ID (EIN)
Inc Authority will be getting your EIN or Tax ID for you at just $49. Which is relatively cheap compared to other services out there.