How to Set Up a Dropshipping Hair Store (Step-by-Step Guide)

Are you thinking about opening your very own hair extension dropshipping store?

Excellent choice! The beauty market is flourishing, and the demand and popularity of hair extensions are soaring, making it a perfect market to step into.

However, how do you go about it, and what does it take to recreate a thriving company from scratch?

Relax. You are here for a reason, and we've got you covered. ✅

Take a brief, enlightening walk with us as we take you through the eight essential steps of launching your official hair extension dropshipping store. 

Ready to seize your entrepreneurial dream? Let's dive in!  

Step #1: Learn the Ropes of Your Hair Extension Store

Right, first things first.

Before you rush to buy a domain or hire someone to create a logo for you, the first step is to determine your target audience.

This is not a very small market, but you have to focus on a specific audience. 

To start, first, ask yourself the following questions: 

• What are you selling
• Who are you selling to
• Why should they buy it
• Who is your competition

These are the key questions that would help you find the vision for your hair extension dropshipping store.

What type of natural hair extensions are you going to sell: clip-ins, sew-ins, tape-ins, bobs, lace, or frontal hair wigs?

What hair texture/quality will your extensions be? Are we talking wavy, straight, or a little bit of everything for a more versatile product portfolio?

What price range are you looking at high-end, low-end, or very moderate?

Effective marketing is not just about standing out and being unorthodox.

Yes, having a unique selling point can help you attract the right customers, but it also makes all subsequent steps a whole lot easier.

Word of Advice: Keep it simple and avoid the spread effect. It's okay to be able to do more, but it's better to do one thing well. In the end, the choice is yours.

Step #2: Choose a Trustworthy Dropshipping Supplier

Suppliers are invisible partners in business.

They will not only want new products to sell but will also have to manage stocks as well as shipments, which means that they need to be trustworthy.

Don't just use the first company whose name pops into your head. Use patience to investigate, sample the goods, and read the feedback.

When you are choosing your supplier, here are the four essential elements you need to look out for:

• Quality: These extensions need to be on point. Nobody wants to go through a bad hair day ever.
• Delivery: Nobody has the patience to have a two to three-week wait for their next weave.
• Returns: In this case, you must always be ready for an if this happens kind of moment.
• Responsiveness: Nobody likes slow responses and non-professionalism.

Consider looking at Dropship Beauty to find the ideal hair vendor for your hair extension dropshipping store.

It's a remarkable platform, and we highly recommend it.

If you want to explore further, Aliexpress and Alibaba are also reliable options.

Word of Advice: Order a few samples first! Check out the quality, examine the product, and decide whether it deems worthy of your brand values.

Step #3: Building Your Brand Identity

A brand is not only a logo or a name.

It is the image and the feel that your hair extension dropshipping store would create. Who is your target audience?

Are we talking wig enthusiasts, people dealing with Alopecia, or professionals who require high-quality wigs regularly? 

Furthermore, what vibe should your website give off? Well, personalizing your website is among the most crucial steps in establishing your brand identity.

Everything from establishing a consistent tone, choosing a color palette by keeping color psychology in mind, and defining your services and brand story. 

Build a brand identity with which your desired target market would resonate, leading to an increase in organic traffic and conversion rate.

People who undermine the importance of building brand identity often find themselves feeling lost and unguided in the middle of their journeys.

Once you have a vision of who you want to be, it will help you design your packaging, social media, website, and the manner in which you speak with your customers.

So, to sum up, the following factors should be taken into consideration while branding your business:

• Name: Ideas that are easy to remember and representative of the niche. Ensure that the name is available to be used as a website.
• Colors and Fonts: Pick two or three colors and fonts that are in line with your brand.
• Voice and Tone: Are you sarcastic or authoritative? Make sure you know your tone and keep it across all platforms.
• Logo: Come up with a nice, eye-catching, yet simple logo (you can use canva.com or hire someone who designs logos).

Word of Advice: Your brand should have a narrative. The more genuine and relatable it is, the more powerful it feels to your audience.

Step #4: Customize Your Dropshipping Hair Extension Store:

Well, here is the step that will test your technical ability – but it's easier than it sounds.

For five years, the landscape has evolved so that it's easy to build a Shopify or WooCommerce store.

You do not need to be a wizard of computer science to create an aesthetic and professional website.

The procedure for handling it is broken down into the following steps:

• Pick a Platform: One platform that is quite popular with people who want to drop ship, Shopify has quite a simple interface. If you wish to have more control over your website, WooCommerce, with the help of WordPress, is a good choice.
• Choose a Theme: Pick a template that has a straightforward design so that it's easy to use while also being mobile responsive (a large percentage of the traffic is likely to be on the phone anyway).
• Create Product Pages: Use high-quality, professional pictures of the hair extensions. Inform about the specifics, such as the length and the texture, and how to maintain them. Optimize the product descriptions with the appropriate keywords as well.
• Create Payment Option: Also, allow people to pay with credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and other modes for a great shipping experience.
• SEO's Purpose: The website should be optimized for search engines to ease the process of achieving organic traffic. SEO will be discussed in more detail in another section, but do ensure that your store is built on a firm foundation from the very first day.
• Social Proof: At the start, it is important to collect the worked-out social proof, even if it is only from customer feedback.

Step #5: Set Your Prices Realistically

No doubt pricing can be very hard, but it is a key part of your hair extensions dropshipping store's success.

One has to look for a price that is reasonable and reflects the quality of the product and its value while still meeting the budget of the clientele.

Simply put, it's:

• Cost of Goods: How much do you pay the extension supplier to do the work?
• Shipping: Include any shipping expenses, even if you give your customers free charge because of shipping, which has to be shouldered.
• Profit Margin: Eliminate the profit margin for a particular sale (which is usually between 20 and 50 percent).
• Market Prices: Get an average price range from competitors selling similar products and set yours at the required percentage above or below that.

Word of Advice: Never price yourself too cheaply. You may consider lowering prices because you want sales, but customers tend to think that low prices mean low quality.

Make sure the prices are appropriate according to the value delivered.

Step #6: Optimize Your Hair Extension Dropshipping Store for SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) may sound daunting, but it's a way of saying, "Make your store the apple of Google's eye."

The primary aim here is to get your store to rank highly on search engines whenever someone searches for hair extensions, for example.

Now, here's how to begin:

• Use Keywords Strategically: Try to include phrases like "shampoo hair extension dropshipping store" into the product pages and blog pages, along with meta descriptions, in an organic manner.
• Meta Tags: These are pieces of text that explain your page's content for search engines. Every page should have them optimized.
• Fresh and Authentic Content: Google is a big fan of new content that attracts the audience's attention. Labor/week and business blog posts that are useful to the viewers, such as how to care for hair extensions, can help elevate your positions.
• Optimizing of Images: Ensure that your pictures have reasonable sizes so that they do not interfere with the speed of your website, and add alt text descriptions.

Word of Advice: SEO is a slow process, but once the rankings pick up, advertising debt will never be needed, as a flow of visitors will be natural.

Step #7: Show the World What Your Store Is All About

A hair extension dropshipping store is already set up.

It is time to announce it to the public.

There may be some wonderful sites, but if no one knows about them, sales cannot be realized. It's all about how to tell people.

Here are a few effective strategies:

• Social Media Marketing: Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest are very suitable for beauty businesses. Post tutorials, before-and-afters, and customer stories. Don't forget to use hashtags.
• Influencer Marketing: Find social media influencers who can promote your company and who fit your brand. You may benefit by gaining their followers and trust.
• Email Marketing: Opting for people to subscribe should begin on the first day. Do not forget to send news, offers, and hair care recommendations.
• Paid Ads: Using Facebook, Instagram, or Google Ads can allow you to receive a lot of traffic within a very short period.

Word of Advice: The secret to this is persistence. If your shop doesn't take off instantly, you should always interact with your audience and create useful materials. 

Step #8: Deliver Exceptional Customer Support

Let's be honest here – most people would like to be pampered, as it's common for people making purchases like hair extensions to be not only expensive but personal as well.

With such great customer service, once-off buyers would, in most cases, turn into fans who would do endorsements for your hair extension dropshipping stores. Here is how to do it perfectly:

• Be Timely with Your Answers: Time is certainly of the essence, so if the concern is with regards to a query before purchase or with regard to issues post delivery, quick resolution goes a long way in making the clients have trust.
• Have a Generous Return Policy: Cater for clients who may have changed their minds and hence would want to return or exchange their purchased items.
• Adopt an Empathetic Tone and Engage: Warm up to the client in ways such as calling them by their names, acknowledging the dilemma they are facing, and inviting them to other products like the ones they've previously bought.

Word of Advice: Recommend that your customers provide feedback and submit reviews after receiving their orders.

Time for the Big Launch!

Starting a hair extension dropshipping store can seem laborious at first, but after setting up the business structure, it can easily be scaled up.

If you follow these eight crucial steps, then you are destined to achieve the pinnacle of success.

Remember, consistency is key. 🪄

Build your brand identity, invest in reliable suppliers, understand your target audience better than you understand yourself, and do not shy away from using multiple social media channels to spread brand awareness.