With the world becoming more digital and the economy more unstable — especially because of COVID-19 — you can find plenty of people selling magic formulas to become a wealthy entrepreneur. Drop-shipping is one of these formulas.
No one can deny that the drop-shipping business model is an opportunity, and a lot of people around the world have managed to shift from a regular job to a drop-shipping business. But is this success also achievable in the pleasure products industry?
Thriving within the adult market is more a matter of doing your homework, and really studying the business and how to compete alongside the big players.
When people see courses or books that promise to make them rich in a short time, it is obviously tempting to want to get involved. In the case of drop-shipping, it seems very easy: you just pick a product and a vendor that will send that product directly to your customer once it’s purchased on your site; buy the cheapest package for e-commerce in Shopify; set up a one-page shop for that product; invest your credit card limit in Google Ads and SEO for the first month and then Boom! You are the newest millionaire in town.
Or maybe it’s not that easy.
First of all, you need to understand or do a bit of research on the market, on the product, the type of customers and where they are located. Then, you have to negotiate with the vendor to decide on where the vendor will send the product from, the shipping rates, how much spread you can gain, what the vendor terms are, documentation and taxes. Once that is all sorted, you will need to pay for the Shopify subscription and create the page.
Creating the page, even though Shopify is really user-friendly, still requires a bit of knowledge about web design or design in general. Let’s consider that, up until this point, the product could be from any industry.
However, when it comes to SEO and advertising on Google Ads or social media, things become really tough when you are in the adult industry. So, depending on how you are starting your new drop-shipping business, maybe your credit card limit won’t be enough.
Let’s start with SEO. For those who don’t know, SEO means “search engine optimization.” Basically, you have to optimize your page content in order to be found by your customers on search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, etc. If you have no idea about how to go about this, but want to go on with your drop-shipping business anyway, you will either have to pay to learn, or pay someone to do it for you. The first option would be the best, since by now you should understand a bit about the industry and hence should be able to write content or optimize the content on your page for SEO, once you learn how. The second option is more dangerous. The more you search for someone to sort the SEO issue for you, the more different offers you will get. However, from my experience I will tell you: don’t hire an SEO specialist that’s not in the pleasure products industry market. It’s just a waste of money and time.
Most of the time, when you search on YouTube for how to advertise in Google Ads, you will get general advice for any product from any market — and that’s the problem. If you don’t account for restrictions on adult, you will either not even get through to put the ads live, or once you do, you will have your ad suspended or, worst-case scenario, your account will be banned due to Google’s advertising policies that include prohibited content, prohibited practices, restricted content and features. Believe me, depending on how you write the content of your ad, or on your shop, your shop can fall into these prohibited or restricted categories. Hence, if you really want to advertise your sex product on Google Ads, read Google Ads’ policies carefully before moving on. If you don’t, it can get frustrating.
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest — all of them have advertising policies, and selling items such as sexy lingerie or a sex machine can be deemed unacceptable and may even lead to getting your shop profile banned from those platforms.
So, for drop-shippers the learning process can be annoying because it demands more time and more money than you expect. If you have more than one product, let’s say a variety of products, it’s hard to control the inventory manually. You have to hire an inventory control application to control your inventory, so when you add all of this to the terms you have agreed on with your vendor, your margin has to increase and then the question is: are you still as competitive as you thought?
So, is drop-shipping a recommended model for adult retail? Of course it is, and there are several good wholesalers in the market nowadays that have embraced the drop-shipping model. Thriving within the adult market is more a matter of doing your homework, and really studying the business and how to compete alongside the big players.
You also don’t need to depend on mainstream social media to advertise your products. Depending on your budget, there are competent agencies in the adult market that can optimize your advertising campaign. There are adult market advertising apps that are really user-friendly and can be used instead of Google Ads — such as Adsterra and Exoclick. Other cheaper solutions could include getting your product advertised in a sex blog or enrolling in affiliate programs.
Drop-shipping is a model that can be used by small online retailers that want to get a start in the adult market. However, keeping one’s feet on the ground and not relying on a seemingly magic solution to become successful overnight are the first steps to success.
JFK Løvlien is creative partner at Stuffgoodies, an online retailer of adult products.
