How to Start a Wix Dropshipping Store with Modalyst

What is Wix?

Wix was founded in 2006 as a cloud based platform to help people build fully personalized high quality websites for free. On their site, the company highlights that Wix.com is a place where you can:

• Promote your business
• Showcase your art
• Set up an online shop
• Test new ideas

The Wix vision, according to their CEO and co founder Avishai Abrahami , is “to see every small business owner effectively leverage the web to take their business to new heights … we want to give [everyone] the easiest and most effective way to do so.” The company’s vision is quickly becoming a reality. Wix is ubiquitous. Used by approximately 160 million users worldwide, it remains the leading website builder on the market. While the company has always been known for its ease of use, including the drag and drop editor, and vast selection of design templates, it has been less widely considered as a powerful and extensive ecommerce platform.  But very recently, its reputation as an online store builder is changing. Wix is looking to dominate ecommerce and target everyone who wants to sell online. Over the last few years, the company has impressively expanded the functionality of its platform. While they continue to add extensive tools and features for their website owners, they have also built an online store builder that makes it easy for everyone to create an ecommerce store. Now, Wix has set their sights on strengthening their moat and competing directly with other big companies in the space, including Shopify, Squarespace Commerce, and WooCommerce.

What is Shopify?

Shopify, like Wix, is a cloud based development platform with millions of users. It is an out of the box e-online store builder designed specifically for entrepreneurs to sell products and services online. Many consider Shopify to be the leader of the ecommerce development sector. However, it appears that Wix is going to be a formidable challenger in this arena as it looks to take over a lot of Shopify’s market share.

What is Squarespace Commerce?

Squarespace Commerce is Squarespace’s platform for online businesses. There are over 100,000 Squarespace websites that use the ecommerce plan. Squarespace Commerce is a compilation of features for selling products and managing orders online. By simply integrating a payment processor, you can process credit card transactions, accept PayPal payments, and receive refunds. If exceptional design is your foremost priority, Squarespace Commerce may be the best fit for your needs. But different online store builders are better suited for different concerns. For example, if you have big growth plans for your store, Shopify is great for scalability. But if you’re looking for cost effective options for beginners, then Wix may be your best bet.

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce helps you sell products and services from your WordPress site. It’s a free WordPress plugin with additional features available as extensions. WooCommerce is owned by Automattic, the parent arm of WordPress. Automattic is reputable, so when you use it, you’re in good hands. WooCommerce has been around since 2011 and has an experienced development team behind it. It’s no surprise then that WooCommerce keeps getting better and better. And more and more popular. Just like WordPress, WooCommerce is free and open source. So despite its premium feel, it’s completely free for anyone to download, use and modify.

Wix eCommerce Review

Historically Wix has been regarded as a popular solution to create fully personalized, high quality free websites. And it continues to be the leader for anyone who wants to create beautiful professional websites. Nevertheless, Wix is becoming the best website builder on the market with ecommerce functionality. It is not a dedicated online store platform like Shopify, but rather a website builder with extensive tools and features to build an ecommerce store. If Wix is not a dedicated platform for building online businesses, why should I use it? We believe Wix is an excellent choice for launching your first online business, and then taking it to the next level. Wix has many ecommerce plans, catering to the needs of first time retailers to power sellers. And while Wix may have fewer built-in ecommerce features for creating an online shop, it is very easy to use for beginners and has an extensive app market which make it powerful enough to build and scale your online business.

Wix and Dropshipping

Can I Dropship on Wix?

As the demand for Wix ecommerce grew, so did the demand for ways to drop ship using a Wix store. As more and more people become interested in online entrepreneurship, the more they look for out ways to start a business online. Wix now makes it easy to sell online. And while many have the aspirations to sell products and earn extra income, very few know what to sell online or where to find the best dropshipping products. For the last few years, Wix users have been clamoring for a way to use WixStores to run a successful drop shipping business. In fact, if you use the Google search engine, you won’t find a ton on the topic of Wix drop shipping. But you may be able to find this thread posted a few years ago in Quora. The question drew in many responses, most of which started with “No” or “Not really.” Other users have asked about whether Oberlo or Spocket can be used with Wix. Until a few weeks ago, these responses were all true. There was no way to import dropshipping products in just a few clicks to your Wix ecommerce store. In October, Wix.com and Modalyst released a dropshipping app for WixStores. The app is still new to the market, but it is already generating positive reviews.

Why is Dropshipping with Wix Popular?

Here are the reasons why dropshipping using Wix ecommerce is popular:

No inventory needed

You don’t need to buy inventory upfront and can post images of the inventory to your Wix storefront. The inventory remains with the supplier until you sell the product. When you sell the product, the supplier will ship the order directly to your customer. The only thing you should do is carefully vet the products before listing them to your virtual store on Wix. Generally, if the products are of high quality, they will be easy to sell online.

Easy to manage

You don’t have to monitor your own inventory or sales. There are many apps, like Modalyst, that will do this for you automatically. Similarly, you don’t have to monitor price fluctuations on your website: as the price from the supplier change, the software you use will update it for you.

No shipping logistics

You don’t need to pick, pack and ship orders to your customer. The supplier you work with will do this for you. All you need to do is to start a Wix ecommerce shop and sell products.

Small investment capital needed

Unlike many other businesses, you can start drop shipping for less than $30. As you don’t need to buy inventory upfront, the only capital you’ll need is payment for a website provider. If you do not want to pay that, you can dropship via Amazon or eBay, and you can start your business for free.

No real estate overhead

You don’t need to rent a warehouse to keep your stock. The stock will be warehoused and managed by the dropshipper. Furthermore, you can literally sell products from your home. Many online entrepreneurs set up shop in their living rooms or kitchens; others in coffee shops. You can also hire freelancers to help you if you need the extra capacity.

Many products to choose from

There are millions of products from thousands of suppliers available on platforms like Modalyst. You can find trending products or focus on a specific niche.

Global market opportunity

Ecommerce is becoming more globalized and cross border transactions are easy to do. This means the world can literally be your target audience. Just find suppliers from specific regions or ones that deliver worldwide.

Easy to start a store

You don’t need an advanced degree to be a successful drop shipping online store. You just need the right direction to learn it. You also don’t need to build a website for ecommerce from scratch.

Suppliers are willing

Many suppliers are looking for ways to expand their sales channels. They now understand its a huge business opportunity to work with online boutiques who dropship their products. These are the many reasons behind the popularity of dropshipping. Before we dive into how to set up a Wix dropshipping store using Modalyst, let’s take a moment to review how to create an online store on Wix.

Wix Stores

Wix is one of the hottest platforms right now for building online stores. It has a great range of website friendly templates, which makes creating your online boutique a piece of cake. It’s also seriously improved the backend of its platform. A robust backend enables online entrepreneurs like yourself to use the reporting and analysis tools necessary to grow your business. Plus, you still get all the great customization tools that come with the regular Wix website building platform.

Wix Apps

The Wix App Market is filled with over 300 popular web apps, powerful services, and amazing features to enhance your website and grow your business. As a stand-alone e-commerce platform, Wix has extensive functionality. But even that functionality can be limited in certain respects. Wix doesn’t do everything out of the box. Fortunately, there is a growing marketplace of third-party applications that you can add to your Wix website to enhance it. In this market, Wix provides you with a vast selection of apps that extend the functionality of your website or store and are easy to install. Wix apps are similar to Shopify apps or the plugins you add to a WordPress site.

Wix Apps for Dropshipping

As of right now, Modalyst is the only dropshipping software for Wix online businesses. You can find Modalyst on the App Market for Wix here:

What is Modalyst?

Modalyst is a dropshipping app that can be integrated into Wix stores. Modalyst enables online stores and website storeowners to find unique and quality dropship items that are immediately available for sale.

Modalyst for Wix Dropshipping Businesses

Modalyst allows you to find dropshipping products for your online store and have them sent directly to your customers. We focus on connecting you to the best products and dropship wholesale suppliers globally. Modalyst is the only dropshipping platform with a diverse list of suppliers, including designer wholesale suppliers, US dropship suppliers, and trendy fashion dropshippers with fast shipping products. Modalyst has trending products to sell in over 40 different categories. Modalyst has all the features which you need in a powerful dropshipping platform for ecommerce businesses:

• Single, Centralized Platform – manage thousands of suppliers & products in one place
• Inventory & Pricing Updates – inventory, imagery, descriptions and pricing are continuously updated
• Suppliers Offering Fast and/or Free Shipping!
• Automatically Add the Cost of Shipping into the Product Price & Offer Free Shipping to Your Customers
• Item Customization – edit descriptions, pricing, variants and imagery before adding products to your store
• Pricing Rules – control your markup and margins
• Sync Tracking Numbers – orders and tracking numbers are synced with your store
• Profit Calculator – see what you will earn on each product in real-time

Setting up your Wix dropshipping business with Modalyst

As we reviewed above, the first step to launching your dropshipping business is to sign up for Wix.com.

Select Your Target Market

Once your Wix store is set up, you must decide on a target market. To get the most out of your dropshipping business, you need to identify a niche market so that you can cater your product offerings to meet the needs of your customers. Through research, you can determine the best products to sell to the target market that you choose, but consider products that cost less than $20 and have no discernible brands, as this will help you maximize earnings and minimize competition.

Use Modalyst to Find Products to Sell on Wix

Signing up with Modalyst to find products to sell is your next step. Browse the Wix app market and select Modalyst, then click “Add”. This will automatically install the app to your Wix site and integrate all of its features. You can initially sign up for free on the Hobby plan, and this will give you full access to the app for Wix dropshipping stores and their marketplace so you can get a feel for how it works.

Adding Products to Your Wix Store

What’s a Wix ecommerce business without products? You can go directly into the Modalyst application to select the products you want to add, but remember to consider your niche market when creating your product list.

Find Products to Dropship on Wix

Choosing the right products to feature in your dropshipping store is essential. Focus on items that have a large number of high ratings, and drop ship suppliers with a feedback score of at least 95%. If possible order a sample from the supplier to see how the purchasing flow works and to determine the quality of the product. You will be working with these dropshipping wholesalers extensively, so make sure you understand their policies as well as how responsive they are with communication.

Import Products to Your Modalyst Account

To add a product, simply click “Add to Import List”. Adding to Import List automatically transfers the product title, description, supplier name, and wholesale pricing. The variants and product images are also included. High resolution images and compelling descriptions will help increase your sales volume and attract customers. Once you review the products in your list, you can sync them all to your online store on Wix in just one-click.

Determine Pricing for Your Wix Dropship Procuts

After adding items to your store, you need to determine the selling price. Use platforms like Amazon to research what is reasonable pricing for items similar to the ones in your catalog. Your goal is to sell items for more than what you pay the supplier for the product and for shipping, but not so high that buyers are not interested. Be sure to link payment options to your store at this time too. Wix payments are ideal as it can track all of your transactions for you and help you create customized templates. However, it is not available in all countries so you may want to consider setting up another payment gateway as well.

Configure Shipping Terms and Rates 

At this point, you have to edit your shipping rates to ensure you are providing accurate prices. To do this, look at the size and weights of your products and determine the pricing for both local and international deliveries. Note that this price should also consider the surcharge the supplier may charge for packaging and preparing the product for shipment – you want to make sure you are not on the hook for these costs.

Set up Customer Service

Setting up customer support is an extremely important step, as you want to help your customers make a purchase. Even though you already set up contact information in your store, consider an additional tool like Wix Chat to decrease your response time.

Wix Chat is a great way to build relationships with your visitors. You can help your customers faster, increase sales, and more.

• Chat from your desktop or on your phone with the Wix App

• Let visitors chat with you on your mobile site

• Know instantly when a new visitor comes to your site

• Get notified when someone buys a product or books an appointment

With Wix Chat, anyone visiting your site can instantly send you a message and start a chat. Chat back anytime – even from your phone.

Start an Online Dropshipping Store on Wix

Last but not least, it’s time to launch your store using Wix for dropshipping! Up to this point, your site has been password-protected and kept private, but when you are ready to open for business you can unlock it and make it open to the public. Once you hit save the site will be live, so now you can get started with promoting your store on social media and start attracting paying customers. Good luck!