How to Get Started with a Pre Built Shopify Dropshipping Website?

Let us guess, you have received the ready-to-launch shop of your dreams but don’t know how to get started with a pre built Shopify dropshipping website? That’s why we are here to help. 

In this blog, the eComStart team will walk you through the 11 steps to start with ready made Shopify stores– from importing products and connecting your custom domain to setting up payments and more.

Let’s dive right in!

1. Overview of Prebuilt Shopify Dropshipping Store

A prebuilt Shopify store is an online store that is pre-made on the Shopify platform. Depending on prebuilt store providers and merchants’ needs, prebuilt Shopify stores can come with a pre-designed store layout, pre-loaded product listings, or even pre-integrated apps. 

For example, here is a readymade Shopify store at eComStart that comes with all you need to start selling right away:

 

Thanks to the cost efficiency and convenience that prebuilt Shopify stores offer, many merchants have increasingly chosen premade Shopify stores over custom Shopify stores. 

Instead of building a store on your own, a prebuilt Shopify store setup would remarkably cut down your time and effort, allowing you to get started selling in a few days.

For the dropshipping model, prebuilt Shopify stores can be beneficial in the sense that they often come with pre-loaded products, pre-integrated suppliers, as well as automated order processing systems. This means you can start testing your dropshipping products with a functional website and gain an edge over your competitors if the products sell well. 

2. How to Buy a Pre-Built Shopify Store?

Follow the three following steps to buy a pre-made Shopify shop:

1. Decide your budget: The first question is to ask yourself how much you are willing to pay.
2. Choose your niche: Next, choose a niche you want your business startup to specialize in.
3. Find a provider: Finally, with your budget and niche in mind, you can do research to find a provider on Google or online marketplaces.

💡 Check out our guide on quick guide on how to get a pre-built Shopify store for more detailed information, tips, and tricks. 

3. How to Get Started with a Pre Built Shopify Dropshipping Website: A Guide

Now that you have a better grasp of prebuilt stores and how they work, let’s learn how to start dropshipping with a prebuilt Shopify store properly.

3.1. Thoroughly Review Your Store’s Design & Structure 

The first thing to do after receiving your prebuilt store is to review its design and structure so you can know what is included. 

Then add your branding assets like your logo, your brand name, etc., so it becomes your unique store. 

 

During this process, if you are not satisfied or run into anything odd, just contact the provider for timely support. 

3.2. Add Store Information

Afterward, you will need to add your store name and customize your About Us page. Also, to boost trust among your shoppers, don’t forget to add legal pages like Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Return Policy.

 

3.3. Connect Your Domain 

As the premade Shopify store’s domain would end with .myshopify.com, so the next thing to do is connect a custom domain to the store. 

You can change to another .myshopify.com domain for free. However, it’s something we’d advise against because a custom domain like .jamejewelry.com would appear much more trustworthy among your potential shoppers than the default .myshopify.com

To connect your custom domain, navigate to Settings > Domains. Herein, you can choose to buy a new domain right on the Shopify admin dashboard or connect your existing one.

 

3.4. Check the Supplier 

After you have connected your custom domain, remember to check the supplier. Usually, prebuilt Shopify stores would come with integrated suppliers and products. However, you should double-check important information to see whether the supplier can be in your best interest. 

Besides the product price they offer, ensure that you know crystal clear other important information as well. For instance, do they ship to your target markets? If they do, how long will it take? What’s the shipping fee? 

From our experience, here are some dropshipping suppliers you can count on:

Suppliers/Supplier directories	Strengths
AliExpress	Millions of products available
CROV	Unique products on platforms like Shopify, Amazon, and eBay.
Costco	Same-day and two-hour deliveries for US-based customers

To diversify your supplier network, we highly recommend using Zopi Dropshipping so you can find products and suppliers on multiple marketplaces like AliExpress, Temu, or CJdropshipping.

 

3.5. Import & Manage Your Products

With some reliable providers to work with, you ought to do some product research to narrow down which products to import to your store. And from our experience, here are four characteristics that a winning dropshipping product should have:

• Uniqueness: What’s so different about your products that leads your customers to the so-called AHA moment? 
• High demand: Are people buying similar products somewhere else, searching for them on Google, or talking about them on social media platforms?
• Healthy profit margin: What is the price your competitors are offering? And what about the price do your suppliers offer? Can you compete with your competitors and still maintain a wide enough profit margin to scale?
• Stability: Do the products you want to dropship have an evergreen appeal or just short-term trending items?

For instance, in this demo guide, we’ll be using Zopi Dropshipping– a tool that allows users to import AliExpress, products to Shopify stores without having to install a Chrome extension like many other dropshipping tools. 

First, go to Find products. Herein, you can browse a list of products on multiple marketplaces. The app even suggests trending dropshipping items, items with fast and free shipping in the US.

 

When you hover over a product’s statistic icon, the tool will give you access to all the information you need to know about that product, like order trends, price ranges, suppliers, shipping costs, etc. Then, with all the details provided, you can decide whether to sell it or not.

 

After you find a product you’re satisfied with, click Add to import list. Then, don’t forget to check the product’s selling price and information before pushing them to your Shopify store.

 

Finally, select the products you want to push to your prebuilt store and click Push to store to complete importing dropshipping items to your shop.

 

3.6. Set Your Store Currency 

The next step on how to launch a pre built Shopify dropshipping store would be setting up your store currency. Go to Settings > On the General tab, navigate to the Store defaults section to change your store currency. 

Afterward, Click on the ··· icon > Select Change store currency and select a currency for your store.

 

💡Tips: If you are eligible for Shopify Payments, you can activate currencies for other markets in Markets tab and sync them with Shopify’s checkout page to improve your conversion rate for global shoppers. 

On that note, let’s keep moving our guide with the next step– configuring your payments. 

3.7. Configure Payments

Now that you have added products and set up your store’s currencies, a crucial step in our tutorial on how to set up a premade Shopify store for dropshipping is payment gateway setup.

If you are living in the regions where Shopify Payments is supported, we highly recommend opting for Shopify’s in-house payment gateway. This is because you can avoid extra transaction fees for using third-party payment gateways.

But what if Shopify Payments isn’t supported in my country? No big deal. Shopify supports integration with over 100 third-party payment providers, so you can choose a provider that offers all your payment options.

3.8. Set Up Marketing Tools

No matter how life-changing your products are, you will hardly ever make sales without a well-thought-out marketing plan in place. 

Therefore, setting up marketing tools is a must, not a plus. And from our experience, here are the marketing tools you will need to set up and our suggested tools:

Marketing initiatives	Shopify’s native features/apps	Alternative Shopify apps
Email marketing	Shopify Email	Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Seguno
Paid ads	–	AdScale, Zocket, Nabu
Influencer marketing	–	UpPromote, BixGrow, ReferrLy
SEO optimization	Meta description settings for your products/pages	BoosterSEO, SearchPie, Avada SEO
Upsell and cross-sell	Shopify Bundles	ReConvert, Selleasy, UpCart

3.9. Add Customer Support Tools

As your store scales, having available customer support can safeguard your store against dissatisfied customers and negative reviews. That’s why after adding marketing tools, you should care about leveraging customer support tools as well.

Ideally, we suggest Chatty: Live chat Helpdesk FAQ. This app allows you to add a live chat widget on your storefront, allowing you to assist your customers on time.

3.10. Test Your Store

A lagging, buggy website will scare your customers away. Hence, testing your store should be a necessary step in how to launch a ready made online store for dropshipping.

Use our checklist if you don’t know what to test:

✅Cart page and checkout page

✅Product information, including prices, images, or descriptions

✅Responsiveness of all your store pages

✅Page speed performance on Google PageSpeed Insights

✅Email notifications (order confirmation, shipping updates, etc.)

✅Customer account creation

✅Search functionality 

3.11. Launch and Promote

After making sure your store is running like a well-oiled machine, the final step is to live it and promote your store with all the tools we suggest in step eight. 

Since you are a newbie getting started with no branding yet, make sure that you constantly monitor and optimize your marketing tactics accordingly. 

If you are unsure what lies ahead, check eComStart resources, where we provide you with step-by-step handbooks on how to get started with a Shopify pre built store and scale it to success. 

4. Conclusion

A ready-made Shopify store from credible providers like eComStart is filled with lots of sales potential. And to unlock that potential to the fullest, it is important that you know how to get started with a pre built Shopify dropshipping website properly. 

eComStart hopes after reading this comprehensive guide, you can know the detailed steps needed to promote your store effectively.

Remember to check eComStart.io to get the insider scoop on the latest eCommerce tutorials and growth hacks. 

5. Frequently asked questions