How To Start Your Skincare Dropshipping Business In 7 Easy Steps
Starting a dropshipping beauty brand, like any type of venture, isn’t always easy peasy lemon squeezy. Still, it’s a great first step into the world of entrepreneurship. And we’re here to guide you through it!
Thanks to dropshipping you don’t need to hold any inventory or pay for products upfront. If you’re serious about your new venture, then it can become a sustainable source of income in the long run. The dropshipping model allows you to start your own beauty brand with minimal upfront costs and no upfront fees, making it accessible for new entrepreneurs.
If you’re passionate about skincare and to take the leap into entrepreneurship, keep reading! This guide will show you exactly how to transform your vision into reality, all in just a few simple steps.
Step 1: Do Your Research
So, you have decided to start a skincare dropshipping business, what now? You need to conduct a thorough competitor research. Begin by exploring other skincare brands in the market – see what they're selling; analyze their visual identity; look at how are they marketing their products; note their pricing and customer reviews. This kind of research will help you understand the competitive landscape and how you could stand out with your brand.
Your research will help you pinpoint your ideal target market and understand which products to sell by looking at best selling items and current market trends. This approach ensures you select products that appeal to your audience and maximize your profit potential.
You'll often see the term "niche" in ecommerce resources, which is key to success. This is because the chances to be successful if you’re catering to a specific niche are much better. It gives you your own specific audience and, thus, less competition to worry about.
**Here’s an example of a niche:**Skincare products for chemistry students, where your designs consist of molecular patterns. You can put a chemistry formula cheat sheet or pun on the product packaging.
Some ways to go about your competitor research are:
Run a Google search — try using Google tools, like, Google Trends.
Use competitor spy tools like Similarweb, Niche Scrapper, Sell The Trend or others.
Browse social media.
Review product descriptions and product images on competitor sites to see how they present their best-selling items.
Step 2: Choose A Dropshipping Supplier
Selecting the right dropshipping supplier is a critical decision that can make or break your new venture. It is essential to partner with reliable dropshipping suppliers that not only offer a wide range of products but also maintain high product quality, as this ensures you can meet diverse customer needs and build trust in your brand. When searching and evaluating potential partners look for suppliers that offer a wide range of high quality, clean beauty skincare products, reliable shipping options, competitive pricing, and excellent customer service. Other factors to consider are product availability, fast order processing times, and available online store integrations.
Efficient inventory management, streamlined order fulfillment, and fast shipping are crucial for customer satisfaction and the long-term success of your dropshipping business. Some dropshipping suppliers also provide auto-ordering features, which can help automate the fulfilment process and reduce manual effort.
Selfnamed offers a whide range of sustainable, high quality products that you can customise with your brand. Selfnamed also provides customizable package options, allowing you to brand each package with your logo and design for a professional customer experience. We have put years into product research and ingredient sourcing to make sure the end product is not only effective, but also aligned with clean beauty principles - friendly to your skin and the environment.
The very essence of Selfnamed products lies in the active ingredients sourced from flowers and herbs from the Baltic meadows and forests. The unique natural environment of the Baltic region contributes to the potency of these ingredients.
Our products are Natural and Organic Certified according to the international COSMOS standard by ECOCERT Greenlife. All products comply with the necessary regulations, so you can legally sell them in the EU, UK, and the USA.
If you plan on starting your skincare dropshipping business with Selfnamed, know – you’re in the hands of industry professionals, who want to see your business reach new heights.
Selfnamed Performance Skincare Product Sample Set
Step 3: Build Your Ecommerce Store
Next thing on your skincare dropshipping business to-do list is building your ecommerce store. This will be the home where you send traffic, showcase and sell products, and process payments. Selfnamed currently offers direct integrations with two of the biggest ecommerce store platforms in the world: Shopify and WooCommerce (Woo).
These platforms make it easy to build and launch your ecommerce website, from finding a domain name to adding marketing and sales plug-ins. Between the two, there are an estimated 5 million-plus users who’ve earned billions of dollars, globally. They are complete commerce platforms that allow you to sell in multiple places (including online stores), sell in multiple currencies, and easily manage products and accept payments.
You don’t have to have design skills or be a developer to use either of these platforms. Once you sign up, you get access to a variety of themes and store templates (free and paid). Shopify and WooCommerce also offer a streamlined process for managing multiple stores and automating key aspects of your dropshipping business operations, from product sourcing to order fulfillment.
If you need help deciding, which platform to choose for your business, here's a brief comparison:
Step 4: Decide On a Business Structure
If you’re serious about starting a skincare business, you may want to set up a legitimate business entity. The dropshipping model is especially ideal for small businesses, as it often does not require order minimums or minimum order quantities, making it easier for entrepreneurs to start without upfront costs or holding inventory.
Unfortunately, we haven’t gone to law school, so we can’t offer legal advice. Please note, that business structures may differ from country to country. For example, in the USA, most small entrepreneurs (ecommerce sellers) tend to go with either a sole proprietorship or an LLC.
Furthermore, it’s important to check the tax requirements in your country – or in the case of the USA, in your specific state. For example, if Selfnamed products are sent to a business in another EU country, we don’t charge VAT if you have a valid EU VAT number, and you have been approved as a verified status in your Selfnamed profile. You can learn more about our billing and taxes policy here.
We strongly recommend consulting with a lawyer before deciding on a business structure.
Step 5: Get Your Finances In Order
A common mistake entrepreneurs make is mixing their personal finances with business finances. This often causes confusion, makes accounting more difficult, can lead to personal assumption of business liabilities, and is a big red flag for tax audits.
To avoid unnecessary headache, we recommend keeping your business and personal finances separate as much as possible. The best way to do that is by opening up a new account in your business’s name. Another way is to keep all your business-related finances in your PayPal account and operate with that as much as possible. However, once your skincare business really takes off, a separate bank account would be a smart move.
How much money you earn with your skincare dropshipping business is totally up to you, as you are in charge of the profit margins. When setting your prices, remember to factor in shipping fees and consider offering discounted prices on bundle deals to increase your profit margin.
Tracking customer orders and ensuring timely processing is also essential to maintain a healthy cash flow. We recommend reading this article to understand how to earn money with Selfnamed, before launching your store.
Step 6: Market Your Dropshipping Store
Now, that you have all the steps on how to start a skincare dropshipping business, it’s time to talk about marketing your new store and attracting your ideal customers. To stand out in the beauty industry, you may want to put extra effort into your marketing strategies and advertising efforts when building your business plan. Effective branding and product positioning can help you stand out when dropshipping beauty products.
Here are different ways to market your store:
Paid ads (Meta and Google). Facebook ads allow for scalable advertising campaigns that can effectively tap into impulse buying behaviors. You can also run Google Shopping Ads to target long-tail keywords, reaching shoppers who are often closer to making a purchase decision.
Influencer marketing. This can be an affordable way to reach your target audience because people tend to trust influencer recomendations more than traditional advertising. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram ideal for these collaborations.
Content Marketing. Perfect for building a long-term stream of organic traffic for your store. You can start a blog around your dropshipping niche, creating content that both entertains and educates your audience. If written format blogs aren’t your thing, explore YouTube or podcasts as options to spread the word about your brand.
Communities. Get involved with groups of people who are passionate about your niche. Start conversations with potential customers on Reddit, Facebook Groups, or other online forums. The aim here is to genuinely help and build relationships, fostering trust that can naturally lead to customers wanting to buy from your brand.
Email marketing. A powerful tool for dropshipping beauty stores, as it helps build long-lasting relationships with customers and encourages repeat purchases. By consistently sending targeted, personalised content, you can increase customer engagement and boost sales over time.
Leverage beauty dropshipping trends. Use social media to promote your beauty brand and your online store, highlight the skincare products that are on high demand, and showcase your own brand’s unique branding to attract beauty enthusiasts.
Step 7: Analyse And Improve Your Offering
Once your skincare brand is established, you have picked out the best cosmetics products, and you have launched your online store, start looking at the results of your hard work and check your store analytics. Ask yourself this:
What are my best-performing products?
Where should I put more ad funds for optimal return?
Who are my best customers?
Are people buying more on desktop or mobile? And what’s the conversion rate for each device?
Which skincare products and variants are the most profitable?
How are my sales and gross profits looking like month over month?
Am I staying profitable after covering all the store fees at the end of the month?
What other skincare products or features my customers have asked for?
As you analyze product performance, consider expanding your product line to include high-quality body care, hair care, and bath products to increase customer satisfaction. Creating new solutions based on customer feedback and market demand can help address specific needs and set your brand apart. You may also want to explore developing a dedicated line of skincare products that tackle specific concerns as part of your business growth strategy.
Also, don’t forget to check in on your competitors, especially those in the same niche as you. Are they raising or lowering their prices? How often are they adding new products? What can you do more, to drive even more traffic to your store?
Answers to all of these questions above will help you decide on how your business should develop further on. Don’t be scared to experiment by switching things up for products that don’t sell so well. Perhaps they need a more compelling description or title. Perhaps it’s possible to change the the packaging design, or maybe your customers don’t have enough information about the product, so you might need to push more on influencer marketing.
Whatever your first results are, don’t give up – keep going! In most cases, it takes a bit of time for things to pick up and for customers to notice your store. But, by staying consistent, things are bound to improve. So, enough waiting around – start your skincare dropshipping business and work towards financial freedom!
How To Start Your Own Skincare Line Using Selfnamed
Selfnamed is here to help create your own skincare line by making the process as simple and seamless as possible. Selfnamed enables you to launch your own private label skin care and hair care product line, allowing you to customize and expand your offerings to suit your brand and market needs. As soon as you decide on your ideal customer and product range, there are only a few simple steps to take:
Select product sample sets. You can choose from a variety of high quality, organic or natural certified skincare products made in Northern Europe.
Add your style. Selfnamed offers an easy-to-use design studio to create labels and packaging. You can work with pre-made print-ready templates or create designs from scratch. You can also choose our design service to help you showcase your unique brand and attract customers.
Start selling your products. There are no minimum order quantities, meaning you can easily adjust the volume to your needs.
Before making a custom order, we recommend looking at our sample set selection. These sets contain curated product lines for different skin types, letting you choose the best products for your brand. This way you can test the products — their consistencies, textures, fragrances, as well as packaging quality.
These are the basic steps on how to start your own private label skincare line from the comfort of your home. Best of luck with your new endeavour!
