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Lots of people enjoy dressing up in costumes. That is why Halloween is as popular as it is. Halloween costumes are big sellers. In fact, Halloween spending is in the billions of dollars! That is a big incentive for dropshipping Halloween costumes.
Halloween retail spending was estimated at $9 billion in 2018. It’s a little less than 2017’s record of $9.1 billion. [Source: thebalance.com]
Dropshipping enables you to cash in on this billion-dollar market. It is a low-cost and low-risk online business model. You do not need any previous experience or any technical knowledge to get started.
Having your own eCommerce store is the first step to creating a new income stream. I’ll explain how you can open your own dropshipping Halloween costume store in the most cost-efficient way possible.
Why Dropshipping Halloween Costumes Can Be a Profitable Business
The great thing about Halloween costumes is that they are not only big sellers during Halloween. People utilize costumes all year long for various reasons.
Whether it is for a costume party, cosplay, corporate events, and more, costumes are big sellers throughout the entire year.
Halloween Costume Niches
It is easy to open a general costume store and sell a little bit of everything. However, you can also focus on one specific niche.
For example, renaissance costumes are quite popular. You could open a store that focuses on costumes and accessories strictly in the renaissance niche.
Here are some other costume niches to consider:
- superheroes
- fantasy (wizards, witches, etc.)
- kids costumes
- animal costumes
- pet costumes
- 70s, 80s, 90s costumes
The Benefits of Dropshipping
Dropshipping doesn’t work the way a typical eCommerce business does. It actually has some advantages over most eCommerce stores.
No Buying or Storing Inventory
In a typical eCommerce business, you would need to invest some money into buying your inventory. You would locate Halloween costume manufacturers and ask about wholesale pricing.
Stocking your store with a wide variety of costumes and accessories could cost in the thousands of dollars even at wholesale pricing. Inventory costs are often the reason many people do not start an online business.
Besides buying inventory upfront, you would also need to store your items. This could mean renting out a storage space or a small warehouse.
You do not have this concern with dropshipping. The manufacturers of the products handle the storing and shipping of your items for you.
Once you find dropshipping suppliers that you want to use, you can essentially sell everything the suppliers sell.
When a customer places an order in your store, that is when you order it from the dropshipping supplier. During the checkout process, you input your customer’s shipping information.
The dropshipping supplier then ships the item to your customer for you. Your profit is the difference in price between what you charged for the item and what the dropshipping supplier charged you.
Of course, this entire process can be automated with the dropshipping software that you use for your store.
Offer a Wider Selection of Products Without Any Extra Expense
The dropshipping model enables you to offer a large variety of products in your store without any extra expense. That is because you do not have to buy your products up front.
You can offer more products which means more potential sales. A typical eCommerce business can be limited in this sense as many business owners do not want to tie up their cash in products that may or may not sell.
Finding Dropshipping Suppliers for Halloween Costumes
Locating dropshipping suppliers on your own is a time-consuming process. Dropshipping suppliers have their own terms and some may charge fees.
Even worse, some do not offer wholesale pricing which can eat into your profit margins. If you want to save yourself time, you can use a wholesale/dropshipping supplier directory or you can source products from AliExpress.
AliExpress’ Hassle-Free Product Sourcing
AliExpress is a large online retailer that is a part of the AliBaba group. They are made up of merchants primarily based in China and other locations to include the U.S.
What makes AliExpress a hassle-free sourcing option is that they don’t have any requirements to begin selling, nor do they have any fees.
Many dropshipping store owners utilize AliExpress as their dropshipping supplier. Some other benefits to consider:
- Worldwide shipping
- U.S. merchants are available
- Over 100 million items
- ePacket shipping (a faster shipping method from China to the U.S.)
- Buyer protection system with full money-back guarantee
- No limits on the number of products you can sell
- No limits on your profit margins
- Online shipping tracking
Steps to Setting Up Your Own Dropshipping Store
Opening up your own store to begin dropshipping Halloween costumes is extremely easy. You do not need to have any form of technical background.
I will explain how I opened my own dropshipping store (pictured below).
My own dropshipping store
First, you will need to register your own domain name. You can do so using any web registrar of your choice. I buy my domain names from NameSilo. I also host some of my websites with NameCheap as well.
I use WordPress and a dropshipping plugin called AliDropship. I decided to use WordPress in order to save on monthly software fees (WordPress is free to use.)
The AliDropship plugin is a WordPress dropshipping plugin that turns a WordPress website into a full-featured AliExpress dropshipping business.
If you are familiar with using WordPress and installing plugins, you can install AliDropship easily.
However, for anyone else, I recommend if you want to buy the plugin to include a year of AliDropship’s web hosting. When you do, they will install WordPress and the plugin for you free of charge.
Their web hosting also includes free SSL which you will need for your store as well.
Include web hosting during checkout for free WordPress and plugin installation
Order a Custom-Built Store
An even easier solution is to leave the building of your store to the professionals at AliDropship. They offer a custom dropshipping store service in which they handle all of your store’s details.
They will register a domain name, perform niche market research, customize the design of your store, import top-selling products, create your social media account pages, set up your payment gateways, and so much more.
There are three custom store packages to choose from and a special Supreme Custom Package.
No matter which package that you choose, you will be assigned your own personal manager. Your personal manager will serve as your project manager who oversees the buildout of your store.
You’re assigned a personal manager with any custom store package
Having your store custom built is a huge time-saver. In 10 to 23 business days (depending on the package you choose), you will have a dropshipping business ready for making sales.
What’s Next After Your Costume Store is Built?
After your store is up and running, the real work begins. That is the work of marketing and promoting your business.
Like any business, without proper marketing, it will be difficult to make sales. The good news is you are probably already utilizing the most popular marketing platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
You will need to put those skills to use by creating accounts for your business on those same platforms. You can easily automate your social media marketing with an AliDropship add-on plugin called Social Rabbit.
Paid advertising is also a great way to generate consistent sales. There is a bit of a learning curve when using paid advertising, so I recommend doing some research before diving in.
You can learn a lot by reading the marketing tips section on the AliDropship blog. They have tons of actionable marketing advice for getting your first sale and future sales.
My Closing Thoughts On Dropshipping Halloween Costumes
Halloween is a BILLION dollar market. That is awesome news because it means there is plenty of money to be made.
Dropshipping Halloween costumes is a low-cost and low-risk way to get a piece of this market. There is room for everyone so don’t ever feel discouraged by competition.
Yes, a dropshipping business will require hard work. However, there are many success stories out there to inspire you to make a go of it yourself.
With consistent effort, there is no reason why you cannot be successful. Of course, it all starts with reliable dropshipping software.
No matter how you get started, I wish you much success in your online business!
