Dropshipping can be an invaluable tool to test new markets — and of course, new products. It’s not just for ‘beginner’ entrepreneurs, but for successful business owners too.

If you haven’t heard of dropshipping, it’s a fulfillment model where a storeowner doesn’t buy products in advance. They actually never see the products! After the storeowner receives an order, they simply buy the product from the supplier and have it shipped directly to the customer.

You can see how this ecommerce model has some key benefits for first-time entrepreneurs, like reducing the risk associated with stocking inventory before knowing what sells and increasing business flexibility. While it’s totally understandable why an established business may not be interested in changing its fulfillment model to something like dropshipping, it can still be useful in certain circumstances.

So, what if you are a more established business? Should you consider dropshipping?

Regardless of the size of your business, there are really only two ways to grow revenue. You can acquire more customers, or you can sell more to existing customers. And let's face it, selling more to existing customers is often easier.

You’re probably asking yourself — if it’s that simple, why don't more businesses dropship? It’s because they’re unsure of what exactly to sell and they don’t want to take a gamble on inventory costs.

With dropshipping, expanding your product line doesn’t have to be something you’re afraid to do any longer. Here are three dropshipping strategies that you can start implementing right now to quickly grow your product line with no upfront inventory costs.

1. Test new product ideas with no minimum order commitments

The first (and probably most obvious) way you can use dropshipping to grow your product line and revenue is to test new product ideas.

Many times, sellers are hesitant to add new products to their lineup because they don’t want to commit to hefty upfront inventory fees, minimum order quantities, and dedicating valuable warehouse space when they’re unsure how well an item will sell. This can lead to a lot of missed opportunities, but this is an area where dropshipping can be a big help.

Gone are the days of anxiously waiting to see if a new item will be a raving success or total flop. With the ability to quickly and easily test new product ideas with no real commitment, you’ll be free to get more creative and try selling things you wouldn’t have considered in the past.

The obvious upside to doing it this way is that if you’re diligent about testing new product offerings, you certainly will find those winning ideas that your customers love. Then you’ll be in a better position to either develop a similar product of your own, bulk order from your current supplier, or find one that can add your branding.

It’s an often overlooked strategy but an extremely cost-effective way to scale your brand fast and minimize stress at the same time.

2. Start adding seasonal products to the lineup

It can be hard to predict how much inventory to keep on hand with seasonal products. Because of this, many retailers either only order enough that they can be sure they’ll sell out, or just avoid it altogether. Dropshipping can help bridge the gap and allow you to capitalize on those seasonal trends with no fear of ordering too much or too little inventory.

The cost of additional warehouse space and seasonal staff to manage the order fulfillment are other reasons that prevent many from offering seasonal merchandise. Dropshipping makes these things of the past, all while giving your customers access to as many products as they can buy.

Selling seasonal products and holiday related items may not be something that you’ve considered before, but it can be a great way to add some serious revenue to your bottom line.

3. Add products to bundle with your core products

Focusing on increasing your customers’ average order value (AOV) is one of the most important metrics you should focus on as an online retailer or ecommerce seller. For many there is no better way to do it than by offering product bundles or “frequently bought together” deals.

The problem is when you’re looking to expand your product line to offer complimentary products, how do you figure out what to offer so you’re not left with a pile of inventory that’s not moving? One of the easiest ways is to keep an eye on sites like Amazon and see what their “frequently bought together” section suggests for items similar to your core product offer.

Once you’ve identified several items worth testing out, it’s easy to take advantage of the dropshipping model and test out which items your customers respond to best. Once you’ve proven which ones will boost your AOV the most, it’s time to move on to bulk ordering and custom branding.

Conclusion

Whether your entire business model is focused on dropshipping or you want to grow your product line, there’s a solution that makes it easy to manage and saves you time and money: the Alibaba.com and Dropified integration.

Dropified automates dozens of daily tasks required to run a successful dropshipping business and can quickly tests new product ideas, dropshipping them directly to your customers before committing to any inventory costs. With Dropified, you can focus on validating the next product market fit for your audience and scale those winning products to grow your ecommerce stores.

Start dropshipping today with Dropified's suite of powerful tools and the full integration with Alibaba.com. Learn more here.

This week's #B2BTuesday Tip:

Always try to bundle related products together as a package deal. Not only can this help you reduce shipping costs when the products come from the same warehouse, but it gives you a price advantage over competition.