How to Open a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store in 2023?

Are you wondering how to open a WooCommerce dropshipping store? Or are you just curious if WooCommerce is something for you? Either way, this article will guide you through all the things that you need to keep in mind when opening a WooCommerce dropshipping store in 2023. Sit back, relax, and enjoy reading!

WooCommerce dropshipping is one of the most popular choices for people that don't want to host their dropshipping store on an ecommerce platform like Shopify. WooCommerce is perfect for people that don't have a big budget, people that have experience with WordPress, and people that want more freedom with their design!

1. What Is WooCommerce Dropshipping?

Let’s start by understanding what starting a dropshipping business means, and after that, I will explain to you what WooCommerce is.

If you already understand it, then you can click here to scroll down to the next step!

If not, then I will explain it really simple to you:

1. You got an online store where you sell products, but you don’t have any of these products in your storage, or in your house.
2. When someone places an order on your dropshipping store, then you place that same order directly with your dropshipping supplier. Don’t worry. There are a lot of apps out there that help you with automating this. For example, DSers, or these 14 DSers alternatives.
3. Then your dropshipping supplier will handle the rest. Think about preparing the package and sending the order straight to your customer.
4. Now your customer will receive the package straight from your dropshipping supplier, and you never touched the product in between!

The most common question people have now is, won’t my customer know that the package didn’t come from me?

For example, aren’t there any advertisements or recipes from the supplier in the package?

No.

You just need to make sure that your supplier accepts dropshipping and blind dropshipping.

You can learn more about blind dropshipping by reading this article here.

And if you want to learn more about dropshipping, then you can read this article:

Dropshipping for Beginners: What Is It & How to Start Today?

But what is WooCommerce? I personally think that they can explain themself really well; just take a look at this great video from them:

What is WooCommerce?

There are three things I want you to know before you get started with learning about how to open your WooCommerce dropshipping store:

• WordPress is needed if you want to have WooCommerce. See WooCommerce as an app for WordPress. Luckily for you, WordPress is free to use as well!

• An ecommerce platform (like Shopify) is a software application that is specially focussed on ecommerce stores. Most ecommerce platforms will provide you with free hosting for your store.

• Self-hosting means that you won't use an ecommerce platform. If you host your store yourself on WooCommerce (there are other options, but WooCommerce is the most famous one for ecommerce), then you will need to search for a host your self. That's why I call it self-hosting!

2. Why Do People Choose WooCommerce for Their Dropshipping Store?

Now you know what WooCommerce is and, if you didn't know that yet, you also know what the dropshipping business model means!

Let's continue this article by learning why people choose WooCommerce for their dropshipping store.

I do need to make this clear, WooCommerce isn't the right fit for everyone. For some people, it's better to pick an ecommerce platform like Shopify.

If you want to know more about what fits with you, then I suggest reading this article here.

And if you're unsure whether WooCommerce is the best platform for you, take our quiz here to get a personalized recommendation based on your needs:

No worries if you're not interested in that. I just thought I'll include it in case some people are not sure yet what fits best with them!

1. You own your own dropshipping store

Opening a dropshipping store on an ecommerce platform is basically the same as renting a stand on a flea market, but if you stop “renting the stand”, then you can’t use it anymore, because it’s not yours!

The same goes for your store if you cancel your subscription.

You can’t use it anymore after that.

For example, if you use Shopify, then they will remove your store if you stop paying them.

If you host your dropshipping store your self, then you have full control over it, and nobody will remove it.

2. Not a lot of monthly fees

If you go with an ecommerce platform, then you pay that ecommerce platform a monthly fee to use their platform.

For example, Shopify is $39 per month on their cheapest plan (as you can see on the image above)

One of the things they will give you in return is free hosting, but yeah $39 x 12 = $468 or around $351 if you pay yearly.

The next thing that you need is an app that connects your dropshipping store to your dropshipping supplier.

For Shopify, that will most likely be DSers if you're dropshipping with AliExpress.

DSers is free for unlimited orders per month, but most dropshippers will upgrade their account someday.

Maybe not immediately, but when they are getting more and more orders, there is a big chance that they will upgrade their account. (For example, to get cashback on their AliExpress orders)

So, then you’re looking at $20 x 12 = $240 per year.

This means that one year of Shopify with DSers on the advanced plan will cost you around $552!

That’s a lot!

For some people, this is worth it, because they don’t want to take care of a lot of things themselves.

But for others, it's not, and for these people there is WooCommerce!

3. More freedom than with an ecommerce platform

Another reason why people pick WooCommerce over something like Shopify is freedom.

They want more freedom.

They want to decide more by themselves.

If you got a Shopify dropshipping store, then you need to live by Shopify’s rules on how something is supposed to look like.

It’s hard to change it without the help of expensive developers, or you’re lucky, and you found your perfect theme!

This is totally different from WordPress and WooCommerce.

You will have all the freedom you need to create something amazing.

But like I said above, not all people want this kind of freedom. Most are okay with the rules that an ecommerce platform like Shopify laid out, but there are people that don’t like these kinds of limitations.

3. Choose Your WooCommerce Dropshipping Host Wisely

As I said above, one of the reasons that people pick WooCommerce over an ecommerce platform is that they don't have that many monthly costs.

However, please don't think it's free or super cheap now to set up a WooCommerce dropshipping store.

It's still a real business that you're starting. (Source)

The thing with self-hosting your dropshipping store is that you might not get that many monthly fees, but you will still need to pay for your hosting.

This might be a problem for some because most hosts want you to pay yearly instead of monthly.

So you might pay less in total, but you will need to pay it all at once for the year at the beginning of your dropshipping journey!

That's why I don't suggest you pick WooCommerce or anything else self-hosted if you're not sure if you're going to use the hosting for a year.

I call it a waste of money if you spend a lot of money for a year worth of hosting, and then you decide to close your dropshipping store the next month…

WooCommerce Dropshipping Hosting: Which host to pick for your store?

This might be the most important step in this whole article. Picking a host for your WooCommerce store!

I will give you a few examples of WooCommerce hosts below so you can see which one fits your needs and budget the most.

But first, let's go over a few things, so you know which host to pick:

• Pick a host within your budget. There are so many super great hosts out there costing a lot of money, but you don't need it when you're just beginning.
  
  Do you know why?
  
  Well, when you're just beginning with your WooCommerce dropshipping store, then you probably won't get that many visitors each day anyway (well, except when you're going to spend a lot of money on advertisements, of course).
• Pick a reliable host. Please don't only pick a host because they are the cheapest. Go look around a bit on Google and see if there are positive reviews for that host. If not, then I personally think it's better to pay a bit more for a host that got positive reviews!
  
  You don't want your host to suddenly go down, right? Or that you got a burning question and that they never respond?

Now that you know that, it's time to see a few examples of hosting companies that can help you host your WooCommerce dropshipping store.

I will tell you the price of their hosting plans, but keep in mind that this can change in an instant because of all these promotions that these hosting companies do.

So I do suggest going to their website yourself as well to see their latest pricing!

1. WooCommerce Beginners Hosting

The first ones are going to be two hosts that you can pick when you're just beginning with your WooCommerce dropshipping store.

The first one is SiteGround.

And this is their current pricing for WooCommerce hosting:

And the second one is Bluehost:

And this is their current pricing:

I personally recommend SiteGround more. I used both Bluehost and SiteGround now for this blog, and SiteGround was way better for me in terms of speed and support!

2. Kinsta

The next hosting company option is called Kinsta. I personally can't advise you if you should pick Kinsta or Cloudways (more on that one below), because I don't have experience with both these companies.

But I did include them in this list because most people are fairly positive about these two hosting companies.

If you want to learn more about Kinsta, then I suggest watching this video below:

Year 3 on Kinsta! A Review of My Managed WordPress Web Hosting on the Google Cloud Platform!

This is the current pricing of Kinsta for their WooCommerce hosting:

As you can see, it's one of the more expensive hosting companies, but you get what you pay for. Just take a look at this review:

3. Cloudways

The next option that you can choose is Cloudways. If you want to learn more about Cloudways, then I suggest watching this video below:

Cloudways Review 2 Years Later & Cloudways Setup Tutorial - WordPress Cloud Hosting Provider

The current pricing for hosting your WooCommerce store with Cloudways is:

You will also get a 20% discount for your first 2 months if you use the discount code DoDropship. Awesome, right?

I suggest going to their site yourself to see all their plans because you can choose from different data centers like AWS and Google Cloud!

4. AliDropship

AliDropship got its own hosting, which is perfectly optimized for its AliDropship plugin. So, if you’re going to use their plugin, then this might be perfect for you! (More about their plugin here)

The pricing of their hosting services goes like this:

4. Installing WooCommerce on Your Dropshipping Store

Now you know more about what WooCommerce is, and you have an idea which host you're going to pick! (Don't worry if you don't know your host yet, I suggest to read a few reviews on Google to see which one fits your needs to most)

This step will be separated into two options. The first option will be installing WooCommerce directly with your host, and the second option is to install it yourself on a WordPress website.

Option 1: Installing WooCommerce directly with your host

The first option is the easiest one, and you will probably use this option when you're going to install WooCommerce on your WordPress website!

I used SiteGround as my example because when I was writing this article, this blog was hosted by SiteGround.

This step is fairly easy; you just need to follow the steps that your host gives you. For example, with SiteGround, I only need to select WooCommerce, and it will automatically install WordPress + WooCommerce for me on my new website:

But this will definitely look different if you picked a different host.

Do keep in mind that most hosts have a support team available for questions. So just ask them if you think you're stuck!

Option 2: Installing WooCommerce yourself

This option is for people that can't install WooCommerce directly with their host or for people that prefer installing things themself!

Keep in mind that you do need to have a WordPress website already in order to install WooCommerce. As I said above, see WooCommerce as a free app for WordPress!

If you're not sure yet how to create a WordPress website, then you can click here to learn more about that!

Now all you have to do is read this article by WooCommerce, and you will have the WooCommerce plugin installed on your WordPress site in no time!

5. Getting a Name, Domain Name, and Logo for Your WooCommerce Dropshipping Store

The next steps before opening your WooCommerce dropshipping store are:

1. Picking a name for your store
2. Purchasing a domain name
3. Getting a logo for your store

If you're interested in learning how to do these steps, then I suggest reading this article of mine here.

You will easily see what you will need to do to complete these steps for your WooCommerce store.

Do keep in mind that that article isn't focused on WooCommerce; it's more of a general guide where I cover what you need to do for these steps if you're on an ecommerce platform and when you got a WooCommerce store!

6. Learning More About WooCommerce Dropshipping

Do you want to learn more about WooCommerce Dropshipping?

Awesome!

We're in the process of writing more guides that are covering different subjects regarding WooCommerce dropshipping.

If you're interested, then I suggest you subscribe to our email list (at the bottom of the article), and we will keep you updated when they are published!

We did publish one article about WooCommerce dropshipping already. You can find it here:

• The 11 Best WooCommerce Dropshipping Integration Plugins

Do You Want to Learn More? Here Are My Recommendations!

Are you currently dropshipping? Or do you want to start dropshipping?

Awesome! I’ll link to the articles below that I recommend you read next.

This way, you will be fully prepared to take your dropshipping store to the next level in 2023!

I just want to say one thing; my blog doesn’t endorse any paid dropshipping courses. (I hate them, they are the reason I created this blog)

If you’re interested in learning why I think paid dropshipping courses are a waste of money, then you can click here.

Below you will find the articles that I suggest you read next:

• Dropshipping Startup Checklist: 10 Things to Do Before Starting
• 18 Things to Know Before Starting a Dropshipping Store
• Where to Learn Dropshipping and Ecommerce in 2023 for Free?
• AliExpress Dropshipping: A 20-Step Getting Started Guide (2023)

And also, if you didn't create a WooCommerce account yet, then you can click here to create a free account!

Opening a WooCommerce Dropshipping Store: Conclusion

There we go! Everything that you need to know to open your own WooCommerce dropshipping store in 2023.

Awesome, right?

I hope my tips will guide you through the beginning process of your dropshipping journey.

Just please don't forget to not give up, and that easy money doesn't exist!

If you got any tips for this article or if you have any questions regarding dropshipping, then let me know by commenting below or contacting me directly by pressing the “Contact Us” button at the top!

Good luck with setting up your WooCommerce dropshipping store!