Starting a dropshipping business? 6 WordPress hosting features to consider

Choosing the right hosting tool for your dropshipping website can make or break your business’s success. Luckily, WordPress is a tried and true solution with the native features and plugins you need to get your dropshipping business up and running in no time.

In this article, we will discuss the top WordPress hosting features to consider when starting a dropshipping business and some hot tips for getting started.

Top 6 WordPress hosting features for starting a dropshipping business

Ready to start your dropshipping business? Here are the top six WordPress features to look for.

1. Dropshipping plugins

One of WordPress’s greatest strengths is its massive collection of plugins. Fortunately, it has several dropshipping tools and plugins to streamline your sales and fulfillment process. This includes native integrations with specific wholesale platforms and platform-agnostic plugins.

Each of these tools is a little different, but the general functionality is to connect your storefront to your supplier’s fulfillment workflow. This allows your suppliers to receive notification of the orders through your site so they can fulfill them promptly.

You can search “dropshipping” in the WordPress Plugin Directory to browse the entire collection and compare options.

2. Website themes and layouts

Another valuable feature of WordPress for starting a dropshipping store is its broad collection of themes. With WordPress’s themes, you can quickly build a site to house your online storefront.

WordPress offers website layouts specifically for building an e-commerce store. The color schemes of these layouts can be switched at the click of a button so you can quickly get a rough idea of what your branded storefront would look like with different themes. 

Once you’ve chosen a theme, you can customize the design to match your brand more seamlessly. You can add your logo, branded colors, and branded fonts to get the exact look you’re going for.

3. Review plugins

Collecting reviews from past buyers is very important. Customer reviews serve as great social proof for future buyers since they give insight into others’ experiences with your brand. Plus, they help you understand customer expectations so you can adjust your offers as necessary. 

Fortunately, WordPress has a few different plugins in its marketplace that help dropshipping companies collect customer reviews. 

Some of these tools are for collecting reviews, and others are for displaying reviews from other platforms, like Google Reviews.

4. Large storage capacities

When running a dropshipping business, it’s crucial to upload high-quality images of the products you’re selling. This will help customers get a high-level view of the product’s appearance when they order from your website. 

For example, if you’ve got a fashion dropshipping store where you sell men’s tuxedo suits, blazers, and jackets, uploading high-quality images of these products is very important for customers to decide which one they want to order and how these products will look when received. 

Since uploading high-quality images takes up a lot of space, it’s essential to look for WordPress hosting that comes with ample storage at an affordable price. EasyWP is a great option.

5. Fast and reliable performance

AdTech platforms thrive on accurate data to optimize advertising campaigns, and WordPress hosting plays a critical role in ensuring this process runs smoothly. Hosting solutions prioritizing speed and reliability eliminate bottlenecks, enabling seamless data collection for AdTech platforms. 

For instance, with optimized tracking functionality, businesses can better analyze customer behavior, refine ad targeting, and ultimately increase sales. Choosing hosting that supports fast performance ensures your AdTech tools deliver insights you can act on, boosting your marketing ROI.

6. Bookkeeping and tax plugins

Taxes can be a tricky aspect of running a dropshipping business, especially when selling across multiple regions with diverse tax laws. This is where WordPress hosting becomes more than just a place to store your website. It’s a foundation for implementing effective business tax strategies. 

By pairing a robust hosting solution with tax automation plugins like TaxJar, Avalara AvaTax, or WooCommerce Tax, you can streamline complex processes such as calculating region-specific tax rates, collecting sales tax, and generating detailed compliance reports.

Reliable hosting ensures these essential plugins run without a hitch, providing the stability and speed needed to handle real-time tax calculations and reporting. This minimizes the risk of costly errors and saves you valuable time by automating compliance tasks. With the right hosting and tools in place, your tax strategy evolves from a headache into a streamlined system.

7 additional tips for starting a dropshipping business 

Now that you’re familiar with some of the top WordPress features for running and growing a dropshipping business, let’s review some top tips to help you get started.

1. Partner with trustworthy suppliers

The old saying “a chain is only as strong as its weakest link” is very true regarding dropshipping. When you outsource the fulfillment portion of your customer’s buying experience, you’re putting a lot of trust in your dropshipping supplier to provide a positive experience for your buyers.

That’s why partnering with a reliable supplier whose standards match your own is crucial. When choosing a supplier, look at reviews from retailers who have previously used them from dropshipping. 

Remember that you get what you pay for, so don’t go with the cheapest supplier just to save money. Negotiating to get a good deal is okay, but don’t pinch pennies if it compromises the quality of your products or customer experience.

2. Invest in branding

Building a professional brand identity can set your dropshipping business apart in the market and help you reach potential customers. Although you may not be selling items with your brand, you can brand the customer journey, starting with marketing assets and rounding up with follow-up emails after placing an order.

Companies like Tailor Brands can help you create a unique logo, establish your branding, and even assist with LLC formation to ensure your business is ready to operate smoothly. While hosting handles the technical backbone of your site, Tailor Brands provides the creative and legal support to make your dropshipping store look and feel professional from the start.

3. Invest in marketing

Creating a well-designed marketing strategy is vital for reaching your ideal customers. Some effective marketing methods for dropshipping include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing
• Influencer marketing 
• Paid advertising
• Email marketing

Although it’s possible to carry out some marketing efforts on your own, it’s typically more efficient to outsource marketing to an agency or hire a dedicated team member to handle these initiatives. Mapping out marketing strategies, creating marketing materials, and managing campaigns can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

4. Understand the startup costs

Dropshipping gets a lot of hype for the low barrier to entry since upfront costs are very low. The overhead costs you’ll have to plan for include:

• Business registration fees (i.e., LLC or Corp registration)
• Web hosting
• Branding and marketing
• Customer support (can usually be handled in-house to start)

Use this list to estimate the upfront investment you’ll need to make to bring your dropshipping business to life.

5. Assess the demand

When starting an online business, assessing the demand for the products you want to sell is essential. You can use a mix of different tools, including Google Trends and other keyword research tools, to assess how many people are looking for the type of product you’re interested in selling.

Of course, the dropshipping business model has a built-in safety net since you don’t have to hold any inventory. With that in mind, you don’t need to rely as heavily on demand assessments as you would for a retail business with in-house fulfillment. However, if you’re going through the effort of starting an e-commerce business, it’s worth doing your best to ensure profitability.

6. Invest in website management

As an e-commerce business owner, your business doesn’t work without your website. Since your website is your business’s most valuable asset, it’s worth investing in a website management solution.

Managed WordPress hosting from a solution like EasyWP helps ensure your website performs as efficiently as possible. This service provider can help you launch your site and continue to manage the site maintenance to keep your loading speeds up, prevent broken links, and so forth.

7. Listen to feedback

Using data from your live website and feedback from past buyers to improve your business will help you build customer loyalty. Combining these two types of insight will help you identify where your customer experience is lacking. 

For example, if you’re struggling to make sales, it may be an issue with your website and marketing. If you’re getting negative feedback, there may be an issue with your product quality.

The built-in analytics tool on WordPress is good, but you can assess your site more thoroughly with external tools. Google Analytics and Google Search Console are two essential tools for evaluating your site traffic. Both of these tools are free to use and can easily be installed on your website.

Leverage WordPress to launch your dropshipping career

WordPress is an excellent hosting solution for dropshipping businesses. From easy-to-build websites to useful plugins, this platform has everything you need to build a profitable business with dropshipping.

Are you ready to start a successful dropshipping business? EasyWP can help you get your site up and running in no time. Sign up today to start your free trial.

About the author

Guillaume is a digital marketer focused on handling the outreach strategy at uSERP and content management at Wordable. Outside of work, he enjoys his expat life in sunny Mexico, reading books, wandering around, and catching the latest show