Dropshipping toys
There is a huge online toys market, in terms of demand and offer. Would you like to start selling toys online, in your own online store? You could sell (board) games, dolls or wooden trains, for example. There are plenty of suppliers and wholesalers, including those offering dropshipping.
Why should you dropship toys?
Are you always looking for safe, sustainable and enjoyable toys for your children, as a parent? Or are you interested in a certain kind of toy yourself? If you have an affinity for some toys, you can definitely create a product range for your online store based on it.
Toys are an excellent product segment to sell via dropshipping. As long as children are born, there will always be a demand for toys. The amount of physical stores is declining, causing more people to shop for toys online.
For retailers who know how to respond to trends, a specific target group or a niche market, there are always opportunities for a successful online store. This is especially true for shops that sell their products through dropshipping.
Toys offer enormous marketing opportunities
To sell toys, you will need to invest in marketing. This is why dropshipping is a great choice for selling toys. It will save you time and costs, which you can use for your marketing. Are you skilled in creating a social media presence, or with podcasts or video marketing?
Consider, for example, unboxing videos in which sellers or influencers unpack and demonstrate products. Videos often resonate with children, who in turn inform their parents about the items they are most interested in!
Are you experienced in choosing toys for your children? Then you can start your own online store as well!
Dropshipping is a safe way to try out selling online. You do not need to buy any stock, which means that you do not have any storage costs or run the risk of leftover stock. In addition, many dropshipping suppliers allow you to sell toys under your own brand name. Since your dropshipping supplier handles many of your business processes, you have more time to optimize other aspects of your business.
Stand out from competitors
The market for toys is huge. There are a lot of online stores that sell a wide range of toys. They have already built up a large customer base. As a newcomer, you will need to stand out from these competitors, if you want to attract customers.
Your dropshipping supplier may provide ready-to-use product descriptions and photos. However, using these will make it difficult to stand out from others. Making your own descriptions and photos will help. First, order a few products to test them, take pictures and decide what information about them should be included in your online store.
Become a specialist or even market leader in your segment
It is smart to choose a clear niche or market segment. For example, choose a category of toys and only sell products that fit into that category, such as dolls or a specific brand. Some sellers specialize in educational toys, or mechanical toys like cars. You could also become the leading seller of teething rings, or even more specific: wooden teething rings.
It helps if the niche or chosen segment suits you well. A seller of wooden teething rings who actually believes in the importance of natural materials in products, is more likely to succeed than someone who does not. If you already know a lot about a topic, you can easily share facts about it on social media, or your own blogs. This gives you an opportunity to explain to your customers why your products are better than those of your competitors. You can publish these posts on your own website, but you can also have them published as a guest post on websites that focus on young parents, for example.
Perhaps you already have a strong presence on social media. You can certainly use that to show your customers how different you are from competitors! For example, you can post videos that show your products on YouTube or Instagram. This can give your customers a better idea of what your product is like. Children also enjoy seeing what they can do with your toys, and they enjoy watching these kinds of videos.
Explore the international market too
It is common knowledge that, before launching a business, you need to conduct market research. See if you can (partially) replicate success formulas in a different target group, or product range. There may well be a gap in the market for your products across the border, while your local market may already be saturated.
Most dropshipping suppliers offer you the option of shipping abroad. This will make it easier for you to explore the international market as well. All you need to do is set up an online store in that language. Who knows, soon you might become the market leader in toys in another country.
Do you know a successful influencer? With a different target group or market, you can do it too.
Choose a target audience and tailor your website to them
After choosing a niche and products for your online dropshipping store, you will need to set up your website. Do you want to focus on children, or on parents and grandparents who will buy the toys as gifts?
While (grand)parents might look for information about how safe and sustainable a product is, children want to read about all the things they can do with your toys. For grandparents, you probably want to keep the website a little more accessible and simple. Be aware of your target audience while setting up your website.
Also, take into account where your target audience is. Grandparents might find your website via Google, while a younger target audience is mainly active on social media.
Ask how your supplier handles packaging
Once you have a dropshipping supplier in mind, it is useful to check a few things before you start selling their products. Some wholesalers put products loose in the shipping box, or pack them so poorly that the toys arrive broken or dirty.
Therefore, look up reviews about the wholesaler and find out if there are any complaints about the packaging and shipments. Also ask the supplier about how products are packaged. You are responsible for the state of the product when it is delivered to a customer, even though you have very little influence over the shipping process. By making clear agreements about this in advance, you can prevent customer complaints.
Quality requirements
Another aspect that you should check with a dropshipping supplier, is the quality of the toys. You obviously do not want babies or toddlers to hurt themselves with your products. Because of that, you should order the products yourself before adding them to your online store. By doing so, you can test their quality. Are there any loose parts on the toys? If so, clearly state this on the product page so that parents will know to stay alert when their child plays with the toy.
Look up reviews about the quality of the products. Has the wholesaler received any complaints in the past? If the supplier is located outside of Europe, you will also need to check whether the products meet European quality standards. Quality standards outside Europe are often less strict than we are used to. Even when you sell through dropshipping, you are responsible for everything you sell. By being well-informed about this beforehand, you can prevent problems.
