The best DropShipping resources [Updated for 2022]

Today we thought we’d take a look at some of the things you need for a DropShipping business, and some of the best resources that are likely to help you to reach the success you’re aiming for. These resources aren’t the only ones available to you though, so although these are great options, if you find they’re not quite what you need, do a bit more digging – what you’re looking for is almost certainly available.

What is DropShipping?

Alright, so if you’re at the stage of searching for DropShipping resources, you’re probably well aware what DropShipping actually is – but just to be sure, we thought it was a good plan to do a quick recap.

DropShipping is a method of selling directly to customers where the seller does not hold stock. The seller’s job is marketing, and making sales, and when they make each sale, they pay their supplier for their customer’s order (and a little fee) and the supplier picks, packs and sends the order directly to the customer.

If you’re new to DropShipping, and just starting your research before getting your business started, then allow us to point you in the direction of our Ultimate guide to DropShipping – it’s packed full of information to help you get started. Our blog is full of useful information too, so be sure to find the information you need in there too.

What resources do you need for DropShipping?

When you’re getting started with DropShipping, you’ll find there are lots of things you need to establish. You’ll need to know what you’re going to sell, of course, and where you’re going to source those products. From there on, you’ll need research tools, and automation to get your products onto your sales channels so you can actually start selling – that’s before we get to the task of marketing your business, the social media management tools you’ll need, and more.

DropShipping platforms

You might think we’re biased, talking about how great DropShipping platforms are since Avasam is one, but it is widely reported that that 90% of eCommerce businesses fail within their first year. Businesses that use a DropShipping platform have a much higher chance of success than those that go it alone and do manual DropShipping, or implement their own automation – so give yourself the best possible chance of getting it right and pick a DropShipping marketplace that has the automation you need.

Platforms automate and standardise DropShipping processes, which reduces the chance of human error, and generally will give you access to more suppliers – which means you can scale your business up dramatically with less effort on your part.

When you’re deciding which platform you’re going to work with, there’s a few things you’ll need to consider.

Since each business is different, these aren’t the only things you’ll need to keep in mind when you’re choosing your DropShipping platform – so be sure to list your requirements for what you definitely need, and what would be nice to have, when you’re doing your research.

Avasam

We’d normally talk about Avasam last, after we’ve shown you the alternatives, but we’re breaking from the norm today to blow our own trumpet a bit. When we developed the Avasam platform, it was clear to us that DropShipping wasn’t being done by many businesses as efficiently as it could be – so we set to work designing a platform that allowed DropShipping to be done right, and allow more people to create their own businesses, and to be successful.

Avasam has direct integrations to marketplaces, website providers and shipping providers. You can see our list of integrations on this page, but they include Amazon, eBay and Wish, Shopify, Magento and WooCommerce as well as connecting you to shipping providers like Whistl and Hermes. That means there’s very few manual processes required, and product levels at your suppliers are updated automatically, so you’re at much lower risk of overselling. That means you can get on with the business of marketing your products and increasing your profits.

Our suppliers are based in the UK and Europe, meaning much faster delivery times and fewer issues with communications and time zones compared with overseas suppliers, like on AliExpress. We verify our suppliers, and you can check reviews from other sellers, so you can be confident in the level of service your chosen supplier will provide.

Currently, all of our suppliers are based in the UK and Europe, so if you want to sell outside of that region, you may need to consider that there will potentially be longer delivery times. That might not be an issue for your customers though, it’s just something you need to bear in mind, and be sure to manage your customer expectations accordingly. We’re onboarding new suppliers to Avasam weekly though, and we expect to be adding suppliers worldwide in the near future.

We’ll be straight with you though – nothing is perfect for every business, and you need to do your research accordingly. Although Avasam is a great platform, especially for brand new businesses, it isn’t perfect for every seller worldwide, and we doubt it ever will be the perfect fit for every single business. The world of eCommerce does not stand still, and so our to-do list is constantly being updated, even as we complete additional features and functionality. If the feature you need isn’t available yet, get in touch – there’s a strong possibility it is already in the pipeline, or that we can provide you with a workaround until we can develop that functionality.

We’ve provided a forever free plan for Avasam, and when you’re ready to source more, our subscription charges are low, so you can scale your business sustainably. Sign up for your forever free account, with no charges up front here.

DSers

Since Shopify sunsettedOberlo, DSers is now the recommended way to source from AliExpress for Shopify store owners. It is available (alongside Avasam) in the Shopify app store.

Although Oberlo is one of the most popular DropShipping platforms, the major downside is there are relatively few integrations still. There are a few good ones – WooCommerce and Wix, and PayPal are available for you to use, and we’re sure that more are in development, but there are definitely fewer than you might like.

On top of that, you’ll need to remember that most of the suppliers on DSers are AliExpress suppliers – which means they’re generally being dispatched from China. For you, that means there are long delivery times, and in the post-COVID-19 era, customers are likely to be looking for products that are already in their country. If you’re solely selling products from China, on your Shopify website, you’ll need to be aware that many customers will head for marketplaces where sellers can fulfil their orders in just a day or two.

The good thing about DSers is that you can sign up for an account for free – which means you can use DSers for research purposes, and to find out what is trending on AliExpress.

Doba

Doba is a US-based DropShipping platform that has over two million products available at wholesale prices. The platform doesn’t offer complete automation, but there are some useful features, like being able to create inventory lists and the in-house staff that can create your product lists for you.

However, Doba might not be the right option for you if you’re based outside the US. Products on Doba can’t be shipped internationally – which means growing your business will need to be solely US-focused with Doba, or you’ll need to use another platform for other markets.

There aren’t any integrations that connect you to any marketplaces or eCommerce websites – meaning that you’ll need to do manual (CSV) uploads to your sales channels. API information is available though, so if you’re skilled in setting up API connections (or have someone on hand that can do it for you!), you might be able to make Doba work for you.

In terms of costs, Doba also isn’t great for DropShippers who are just starting out. It’s expensive compared with other platforms, both in terms of the prices of the products and the subscription to the platform. There’s no facility to negotiate prices with your supplier – what you see is what you have to pay, and you’ll never speak to your suppliers, so you’ll have to maintain your Doba subscription to continue to sell those products. Basic subscriptions are $39.99 per month, but if you want access to all Doba’s suppliers, you’ll be looking at $249.99 per month. There is a free trial account though, so if you’re looking for information, or to test the platform, you can do so without cost.

Dropified

Dropified is another Shopify app that connects sellers to AliExpress and eBay suppliers. It has been around since 2015, and it’s held in relatively high regard by many users.

Dropified offers you connections to a few more sales channels than DSers does – it connects with Shopify, but also WooCommerce, BigCommerce, CommerceHQ and GrooveKart – but not any marketplaces. If you’re already using any of these eCommerce platforms for your website then it might make sense to consider Dropified for sourcing your products. These are the only integrations available – there are no marketplace integrations available, so you’d need to do manual uploads of your inventory if you choose to work with Dropified. That means you’ll be at higher risk of overselling and human error.

Dropified offers you connections to a few more sales channels than Oberlo does – it connects with Shopify, but also WooCommerce, BigCommerce, CommerceHQ and GrooveKart – but not any marketplaces. If you’re already using any of these eCommerce platforms for your website then it might make sense to consider Dropified for sourcing your products. These are the only integrations available – there are no marketplace integrations available, so you’d need to do manual uploads of your inventory if you choose to work with Dropified. That means you’ll be at higher risk of overselling and human error.

If you’re a complete novice when it comes to setting up connections, you might want to take into consideration that Dropify don’t offer phone support – any support you need will be requested via email, or chat on Dropified, Slack or Facebook Messenger.

When it comes to pricing, you’ll need to consider whether Dropified will really suit you if you’re a beginner. Subscriptions start at $39.17 per month, but if you want features that will really help your business to grow (such as the advanced profit dashboard) then you’ll need to pay for the higher priced $97 per month package. Like most systems, there are trial periods and special offers, so make the most of the trial to be sure it’s the right solution for you.

Suppliers and product sourcing

If your DropShipping platform doesn’t provide access to the products that you’re looking for, you might need to find alternatives, or additional suppliers. Not all of the options in this list will provide connections to your website or your preferred sales channels, you’ll need to choose carefully, or you may need to use the services of a developer to provide the integration you need.

SaleHoo

Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, SaleHoo is a wholesale and DropShipping directory offering international contacts. The co-founder started the company in 2005 after being frustrated at the lack of resources for new businesses. Today, SaleHoo has over 8,000 wholesale and DropShipping suppliers that you can access, alongside some market research tools that can help you establish what is trending, and what is most profitable. There’s some suppliers that are selling well-known, branded items – so if that’s what you’re looking for, then it is most definitely worth a look.

There’s unlimited training with SaleHoo, and they have a community forum as well as unlimited support – so if you’re starting out in eCommerce for the first time, this might be a valuable resource too. There’s a lot of people who are impressed with SaleHoo too – over 97% of reviews on Trustpilot state that it is Great or Excellent.

So how much does all this cost? Well, it’s a pretty reasonable $67 for a year’s access, and just $127 for lifetime access. That’s an absolute bargain if you’re growing your business internationally, and expect to be scaling your business dramatically over the next few years. Unfortunately, there isn’t a trial period for SaleHoo, so you’ll need to jump in if you think it’s the right solution for you. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, there are staff available to help you locate the product you want, and if you’re really not satisfied, you can request a full refund for your subscription at any time. You can’t say much fairer than that!

Wholesale2B

Wholesale2B is a DropShipping tool that helps to connect you with suppliers and can help you connect with some marketplaces. They also offer CSV DropShipping, which means you have more options to work with Wholesale2B if you’re confident in using CSV files to upload inventory to marketplaces, and so on.

Wholesale2B is based in the US and can deliver orders to the US and Canada. It’s possible to use shipping forwarding services like myus.com, but you’ll need to bear in mind that you’ll have to absorb the cost if you decide to use that option.

You can start with a free account, but functionality is priced separately – so if you want to DropShip to eBay, it’s $37.99 per month. If you want to add DropShipping on Amazon, then that’s another $37.99 per month, and if you want to add products to one or more stores, that’s an additional $29.99 per month. Analytics and website feeds are extra too – so a major downside to Wholesale2B is that it can get expensive pretty quickly.

Worldwide Brands

Worldwide Brands offers access to an extensive database of wholesalers that is updated weekly. It’s been around since 1999, so there’s a LOT of information in the database. The wholesalers on the directory are mostly US based, but are happy to work with international sellers – you will get in touch with each supplier to work with them. There’s no automation offered by Worldwide Brands though – it is just a directory of wholesale suppliers. That might be enough to deter you any further, but it is a pretty epic resource.

The directory will cost you $299 to access, but once you’ve paid that, you have access for life – there’s no compulsory additional fees or monthly subscriptions to pay. It’s worth noting that there are times when Worldwide Brands offers lifetime access to the directory for a much lower price – when we were writing this post, they were offering an April Fool’s Day sale that reduced the price by $75. We don’t know how often this type of reduction is made, but if you’re looking for access when it’s close to a holiday, you might want to wait until closer to the holiday to see if they offer a special price.

Some reviews that we’ve seen for Worldwide Brands mention there’s a lot of up-selling once you’re a member, and that you’ll be encouraged to sign up and pay for other products and services. That said, Trustpilot reviews are all marked as ‘Great’ or ‘Excellent’, with no reviews below that – which tells us there aren’t many users that are fed up of the upselling, or that have problems once they’ve paid for their lifetime subscription.

Wholesale Central

Wholesale Central is another directory of B2B wholesale suppliers. It’s free to use, but you’ll need to click through to each supplier’s website separately, or contact them to arrange for them to supply your business. You can sign up for free, which will get you a free subscription to Independent Retailer magazine, as well as access to trusted suppliers. There’s also a product locator service that might help you if you’re having problems finding suppliers for niche items – so it’s worth the free sign-up.

The directory also divides up products into categories including ‘What’s Hot’ and ‘Top Suppliers’ which might be useful for research purposes, and there’s a list of upcoming trade events that might be useful for planning if you’re based Stateside.

Wholesale Central suppliers are mainly based in the US, so if you’re looking to start DropShipping there, or to expand your business with local suppliers, then the Wholesale Central directory might end up being really useful for you.

Sunrise Wholesale Merchandise

Sunrise Wholesale Merchandise is a ‘wholesale DropShipper’ – that is, essentially, just a supplier – that was established in 1999. Unlike other suppliers (especially Avasam suppliers) you’ll pay a subscription – either monthly or annually to access the products. If you can pay for a year in advance, you’ll save quite a chunk on your fees, so if you’re going to use Sunrise Wholesale and can afford to, it’s worth doing so.

There is some automated functionality which can be really useful – connecting to Amazon, eBay and Shopify. There’s a seven day free trial, which should be plenty of time to assess the suitability of their offering. Once you’ve paid your subscription, you can access their inventory files in CSV and XML formats, which mean you can upload products to marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, or to your own website.

Sunrise Wholesale only ship within the US & Canada though – so again, if you’re expanding Stateside, this could be a great resource for you. Reviews mention great customer service, and there are over 15,000 products to choose from. On the downside – this is just one supplier, who is charging you to access their products, and if products are returned for reasons apart from delivery damage, they will charge you a 20% restocking fee. Depending on what you’re selling and the margins that you set, that might not be a huge problem – but could impact on your profits.

Megagoods

Megagoods is a California based DropShipping supplier that is one of the few American suppliers who will ship internationally. You can sign up for a 30 day free trial – after which you’ll be charged $14.99 per month as a service fee for access to the products, as well as a $1.50 fee for each order. That’s quite a big charge, especially on lower priced items, and you’ll need to watch your margins.

There’s a 20% restocking fee for unwanted items, and if products are sent back to Megagoods without arrangement by the seller, they may charge the customer 50% of the price of the product. This might lead to issues for you – whether you decide to pay the fee, or you’ll need to charge your customers. If you charge your customers, this could lead to negative reviews – so you’ll need to be aware of that if you decide to take this approach. On top of that, not all items get free shipping, so you’ll need to watch out for that and factor it into your prices.

The Megagoods inventory is relatively small compared to some, and when we visited the website there were lots of products that were marked as temporarily sold out. Although Megagoods might be worth a look, you’ll need carefully assess whether they have what you need and whether those fees are going to be worth doing business with them.

The advantage that Megagoods might have over other suppliers is that they can DropShip them with your company name on your orders. Some suppliers won’t do this for you, so it’s well worth bearing in mind if you’re building your brand.

National Dropshippers

National Dropshippers is a supplier based in New Hampshire that was established in 2005. Although they charge you to access their products, they don’t offer anything in the way of automation – so if you’re listing their products, you’ll need to order the items your customers want manually. Their website is pretty basic, and the categories and filtering options aren’t anywhere near as advanced as some other suppliers.

You’ll need to pay a membership fee to National DropShippers to be able to access their wholesale prices. They provide a 7-day free trial, but once this is up you need to either pay monthly ($23.99), quarterly ($59.99 per three months), bi-annually ($107.99 per six months) or yearly ($199.99 per year). They’ve also got a one-off lifetime fee that you can choose, which is a $299.00 one-off fee. If you’re expecting to use National DropShippers for more than a couple of years, whether continually or intermittently, it is likely to be worth paying the lifetime fee – of course, assuming they have the products that you’re looking for. Be sure to make the most of that 7 day free trial before you sign up!

National DropShippers only ship to the continental USA, Alaska, and Hawaii – so may be of use to you if you’re looking for products to sell to US customers.

If you want an eCommerce store setting up, they also have a solution using templates that means your website is ready to go, and includes monthly wholesale membership to their products. We’ve not done the digging on that, so we can’t say if it’s a good solution for your business – but since every business is different, it’s worth having a look. They also provide a full-service eCommerce website solution that is priced at $299 one time fee + $29.99 monthly subscription, which might be an option if you’re looking for a bespoke website.

Alibaba and AliExpress

You’ve probably heard of AliBaba – it’s a marketplace for retailers who want to buy products in bulk from suppliers. If you’re DropShipping, and don’t have access to a warehouse to store products, Alibaba isn’t going to suit your needs. If you’re looking for cheap items to DropShip, you can look to AliExpress.

AliExpress is a China-based eCommerce marketplace that allows customers and sellers to access products at wholesale prices, without needing to buy in bulk. You’ll be able to find plenty of products on the AliExpress platform that you can DropShip – but you’ll need to remember that there is nothing to stop your customers finding the exact listing you’re using, and buying from the supplier directly. Of course, there’s issues with working with suppliers in China too – you’ll have long delivery times to manage customer expectations for, and there might be issues with communication too. That said, if you’re looking to source items that suddenly start trending, AliExpress is almost certain to have the products that you want.

We wrote a huge article that looked at AliExpress in depth here, so head there to find out more if you’re wondering if AliExpress could suit your business needs.

DHGate

Officially launched in 2005, DHGate offers B2B access to over a million Chinese suppliers. It’s an alternative to Alibaba, and so you’ll need to be prepared to pay for minimum orders on many items. If you’re DropShipping, you’ll probably only be ordering one item at a time – and some suppliers will allow you to do this, but be aware that you’ll pay more for each individual item.

The website is well designed, and it’s easy to sort and filter according to what you need. Like with Alibaba and AliExpress, since your suppliers are in China, you’ll end up having long waits for delivery – typically between 14 – 21 days.

In addition to lengthy delivery periods and increased prices on individual items, there are many reviews that mention poor service from suppliers – so be sure to check on-site reviews to ensure you’re going to be dealing with suppliers that won’t let you down. It’s a good idea to test service by ordering something for yourself before you start offering items from DHGate on your sales channels. Further to poor service from the suppliers, many reviews we see mention poor service from the official DHGate support too.

Since we’re talking about the negative here, you might wonder why we’ve included it in our list. Well, there are some reviews that state they got great service, and that they have done really well using DHGate. There’s ups and downs to all resources, so make sure you look at the reviews for each service you’re looking at. In this instance, be sure to use caution, and if you’re considering using DHGate – do plenty of research and make sure you know the risks involved.

Marketplaces

When you’re sourcing products, you might try to buy from sellers on a marketplace to sell on your website, or your other sales channels. Obviously if you decide to use this strategy, you’ll have smaller margins, and you’ll have to face the reality that customers can easily find the original, lower priced listings and buy from there.

But that’s not the only reason that marketplaces can be a resource for sellers. If you’re doing research – either before you start selling, after you’ve begun selling or to help you plan ahead – then the information you’re looking for is almost certainly available on marketplaces.

Take Wish as an example. When you log in, you’ll see ‘Popular’ items featured – which can give you an idea of what might be trending. The same with Amazon – you can access Best Sellers, Hot New Releases, Most Wished For and Most Gifted – which can be incredibly useful when planning your holiday campaigns. That’s before you’ve even got logged into your seller accounts – so if you’re in the setup stages of your business, don’t forget to use marketplaces as resources – especially on ones you think you’re likely to sell through.

DropShipping apps

Spocket

Spocket is a Shopify database app that allows you to sort items by country and upload straight into Shopify or WooCommerce. If you’re looking for items that are already in your own country rather than being shipped from China, Spocket can help make that easy. You’ll need to pay your Shopify subscription, of course, and then you’ll pay between $24.99 and $99.99 per month depending on how many products you need, and how many orders you’re getting.

There’s an impressive group of Spocket users on Facebook, so if you’re looking for support using Spocket, it’s not hard to find. Although Spocket has had quite a number of great reviews on the Shopify App Store, it’s worth doing a quick look at reviews elsewhere – when we checked Trustpilot, more than 15% of reviews were marked as ‘poor’ or ‘bad’. That doesn’t mean it won’t suit you – just be sure to be aware of the sort of issues other users have encountered.

Inventory Source

Inventory Source is an app that integrates inventory feeds from your suppliers to automatically upload product data and quantities to 25 sales channels. Many of these are big name sales channels, including eBay, Amazon, Shopify and Magento.

You can view feeds from DropShip suppliers on the directory account which is free – which may be useful when you’re in the beginner, or research stage. For inventory automation, you’ll pay from $99 per month, and for full automation – which gives you extras such as automatic, or one-click order processing, or automatic sync shipment tracking – it’s $199 per month.

Like we’ve mentioned with other services, there’s mixed reviews for Inventory Source – so it’s worth reading up before you sign up for the subscription.

Shopify App Store

If you’re DropShipping and you’re making use of Shopify for your website, then you will almost certainly have used the Shopify App Store when you were setting up your website. Amongst the tools that both Shopify and independent developers post, you’ll find over 200 apps for DropShipping businesses. Be sure to filter by most installed, and check reviews to avoid the less useful ones.

WooCommerce Extensions

Just like Shopify, there are plenty of ways to increase the functionality of your website if you’re using WooCommerce. WooCommerce Extensions include tools developed by Woo and by third party developers, shipping apps and payment facilities, just as you’d expect.

Magento Marketplace

The Magento Marketplace is full of apps and add-ons to make your Magento setup even better. The same as with Shopify and WooCommerce, alongside the site optimisation tools, payments and security functions you’ll find plenty of useful tools. There are fewer free DropShipping resources on the Magento Marketplace, so be sure the tools you’re considering do exactly what you need them to before installing.

Research resources

Although you can use literally any of the marketplaces and suppliers that we’ve talked about already to help inform your research, there are plenty of other options to help you. Here are just a few of the tools we use regularly ourselves, and think you’ll find useful too.

Google

You might think this is stating the obvious – Google is the first place many of us turn to when we start to look for something! But we’re not just talking about Google’s search facility here. Google’s search facility collects and provides incredible amounts of data that is far and away beyond what we could ever need, and luckily, they have made that information available to everyone for free.

Google Trends is such a major resource that we posted a full-length article about it a while ago. We won’t rehash all that information here, but suffice to say that if you’re not using Google Trends alongside your other research resources, you’re guaranteed to be missing out.

Google Alerts is a service that can be set up to send you an email when a news story gets published that features your preferred keywords. Obviously, considering the amount of content published on a daily basis, that could be a LOT of emails cluttering up your inbox, so choose wisely.

On Google News, you can follow keywords – we found useful stories by searching Google News for ‘eCommerce’ and ‘DropShipping’.

Statista

We reference Statista all the time on the Avasam blog, and for good reason – it is absolutely chock full of data about trends across 600 industries worldwide. It’s data on a global level, so it’s a good place to start before you begin digging deeper, or when you’re deciding on strategies such as which social media platforms you’re going to use.

Review websites

If you’re up against competitors – as most businesses are – then it is worth checking them out on review websites. Generally people tend to post reviews on websites like Trustpilot, Reevoo and Feefo when they’ve received poor service, so knowing what your competition are doing wrong might just give you the edge.

Social media

When you’ve built a loyal following, don’t just let them sit there taking in your feed passively! If they’re following you, they’re interested in what you’re doing, so get them involved in your business. Many of your followers will be happy to tell you what they’re looking for in a company, so use Facebook polls and talk to them on your Stories and invite them to share their views.

In addition to using your followers, social media channels can be a resource to find out what is trending, both locally and worldwide – so use hashtags and analytics to help get the information you need.

SEO tools

SEO tools aren’t just useful for helping you optimise your website for Google. When you’re looking at trends and doing research, using your SEO tools can really help you to narrow down how popular a search something is – so don’t forget to make use of them. If you’re looking for SEO tools, check out this post that we wrote a while back.

eCommerce websites and blogs

There’s a huge amount of information being published every single day. Not all of it will be directly relevant to your business, so you’ll need to find what works for you. We can’t possibly point you at every useful resource out there, but here are some of our favourite websites and blogs that we visit regularly.

Tamebay

Tamebay is on our weekly must-read list, and when there are major announcements happening, we’ll visit the website daily. Set up in 2006 to share information about eBay, today Tamebay provides information about multichannel marketplace selling across all the major marketplaces. You can become a member of Tamebay to get complete access to everything they have. There’s a huge community of eCommerce professionals who contribute to the ongoing discussions, so if you’re looking for advice, or you’re wondering how others are managing an issue, Tamebay might just hold the answer.

eCommerce News

The eCommerce News website provide news about online retail throughout Europe, but if you head for the menu, you’ll find an incredible amount of information that could be an absolute goldmine. There’s eCommerce statistics, information about topics like returns, logistics and payment methods and so much more. If you’re looking to find customers in different countries across Europe, eCommerce News have collated the top 10 online stores Europe-wide, as well as in individual countries.

Avasam blog

Our blog is full of posts that round up useful information that sellers and suppliers can make use of, whatever stage their business is at – from absolute beginners who are only just starting their preliminary research through to experienced sellers. Although Avasam is a relatively new company, our team is made up of professionals who have extensive experience in the eCommerce and IT industries, and we’re using our blog to impart what has only been a fraction of our knowledge so far. We’ll keep sharing though – because we love what we do, and we want you to love what you do too.

Social media tools

You’ll want to make the most of your business, and there are plenty of ways you can use social media channels to increase your customers – which in turn, of course, means that you’ll increase your sales and your profits. We’ve written plenty of posts about different social media channels that you can use to increase your business, so we won’t replicate that here.

Once you’re posting on more than a couple of social media channels and your followers have increased in number, you’ll need a way to manage the time of your posts, and to be able to manage your messages from your followers. We talked about some of the most popular social media management tools that have a shared inbox on our post about Facebook Messenger, but there are so many tools providing this functionality. Some are free, and many are incredibly low cost – so be sure to find the right one for your business.

Some of the best tools have actionable posting built in too – that can post shoppable posts directly on different platforms. If this is something you want to implement (and why wouldn’t you?) then be sure that your tool has that functionality.

Design tools

We don’t all have the skills that we’d like to have when it comes to designing great social media and marketing assets. Luckily, we don’t need to have a fully functioning knowledge of Photoshop, or amazing photography skills – there are tools that can help you create professional quality materials with just a few clicks. There are plenty of tools that provide flexible designs using templates – Stencil is a great example.

Canva

A firm favourite with the content team, Canva has templates to help you create almost anything in a high quality format. From social media posts to business card designs, flyers to YouTube thumbnails – Canva is the easy way to create what you need. If you can drag and drop, you can use Canva – which is exactly the kind of simple solution you need when you’re short on time, or haven’t mastered Photoshop yet.

Gimpshop

If you can use Photoshop but can’t afford the licence, then it’s time to think open source. Gimpshop is a free, open source alternative to Photoshop that works on Windows, Mac and Linux – and can do everything that Photoshop can – that is, of course, to be available for free!

Stock photography and video

You don’t need to be a professional photographer or videographer to add beautiful images or video to your marketing materials. Our post on free stock video websites details what you need to know about stock video licensing, and some of the best free, and paid for stock video sources on the web. Many of those stock video websites have stock photos available too, but favourites for stock images include Pixabay, Pexels, and Unsplash.