US mobile gamers will spend $18.83 billion on virtual goods this year and less than $1 billion on subscriptions, according to data from Insider Intelligence/eMarketer.
Therefore mobile gamers are a huge niche market that brands can target and that are willing to spend billions on non-physical products.
Virtual goods refer to items like avatar skins and video filters.
According to the report, in-app spending for US smartphone users is expected to reach $42.31 billion this year, with around half going to gaming and the other half to non-gaming apps.
Total virtual goods spending in gaming mobile apps in 2023 is expected to reach $19.54 billion and then in 2024 get to $20.29.
There are e-commerce platform alternatives to Shopify with similar functions in 2022.
According to an article in Forbes, the best alternatives are Shift4Shop, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Wix, and Ecwid.
Shift4Shop, which is $29 a month, has a monthly payment processor with no monthly fee, and you only pay the standard credit card processing fees. However, if you use a separate payment processor, fees start at $29 per month.
The website builder is simple to use, and the pros are that it includes a free domain name, 24/7 support, and special deals if you switch from another platform.
A negative is that it is not as customizable unless you use HTML or CSS.
BigCommerce is $29.95 a month and easy to use, and includes a native blog and multiple currencies. The pros include selling on various sales channels and using tools such as coupons, discounts, and gift cards.
Negatives are that you must pay for abandoned cart recovery and that many themes are similar.
Another option, according to the report, is Wix which is $27 per month and includes abandoned cart recovery, social selling, and 24/7 customer support. You can get a free domain name when paying yearly for a premium plan starting at $27 per month.
Pros include a fantastic drag-and-drop store builder, over 800 free templates, and a $300 ad voucher when paying annually. A negative is that the free plan does not allow for accepting online payments.
Another option is Ecwide which is free or $12.50 per month and can integrate with WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Joomla. Pros include turning an existing website into a store and getting unlimited bandwidth.
Negatives include no support for the free plan and must have a business plan or higher for custom orders.
The Forbes article also lists Squarespace, which is $14 per month with 24/7 support and a free custom domain for the first year. Pros include that some plans have no transaction fees, quality free templates, SEO features, and dropshipping integrations.
Negatives listed include a limit of 30 minutes of video storage and that you must have a Business plan or higher for e-commerce features.
TikTok is predicted to pass YouTube in time spent on their app in the US per day, according to a report by Insider Intelligence/eMarketer.
TikTok will reach 45.8 minutes per day among US adults, and YouTube will attain 45.6 minutes.
“This is the first time in history that TikTok will overtake YouTube by this metric,” reported Insider Intelligence/eMarketer. In addition, TikTok is making inroads into longer videos with the ability to post videos up to 10 minutes in length.
Insider Intelligence/eMarketer
Twitter is in third place in terms of average time spent per day on the social media platform, followed by Snapchat, Facebook, and then Instagram.
The average US user checks their mobile phone up to 200 times per day, making SMS marketing very attractive, according to Forrester research.
An article published in Insider Intelligence/eMarketer cites SMS Comparison research that the average consumer engages with 95% of text marketing messages within three minutes of receiving them.
Most conversions happen within the first three hours of receiving a text, so making them short and personal is essential. Offering a discount in a welcome email after signup can be effective.
However, brands need to be careful not to overuse this effective marketing channel.
According to the article, it is effective to use text messaging when launching a new product targeting loyal customers.
Shopify announced the release of two new free themes: Ride and Colorblock.
Shopify says the new themes are great for the use of bold colors and visuals.
The Colorblock theme is made for clothing and accessories and can maintain large catalogs.
Shopify
The blocks are customizable. The theme includes extended menu navigation, and there is also space for written content and brand storytelling.
The Ride theme is geared toward sports and recreation and includes room for any catalog size, editorial content, and visual storytelling.
Shopify
In addition, there are new paid themes. For example, Tailor is meant for apparel brands and Baseline theme for art and entertainment, clothing and accessories, and home and garden.
Popular dropshipping influencer Davie Fogarty mentions Ecomhunt as a tool to find new products in his new YouTube Shopify Tutorial.
“Basically they give you a whole range of products that are ready to dropship,” said Fogarty about Ecomhunt.
“They [Ecomhunt] give you the profits and analytics and everything,” he added. Fogarty opened Ecomhunt and showed his audience how it is used and how you can then go right to the AliExpress page of the product.
Fogarty released the new video on Saturday titled “Complete Shopify Tutorial 2022 – How To Create A Profitable Shopify Store From Scratch For Beginners.”
Fogarty has one of the leading channels on dropshipping. He created The Oodie brand using Shopify, which became highly successful.
How I Discovered An Amazing Product To Sell In The Home-Décor Niche With The Help Of Facebook Ad Library
About a week and a half ago, I was on Facebook when an ad of a really cool product popped up on my feed.
The product was in the Home Décor niche and it featured a Spacewoman statue(see picture above).
As you can see, the product and its variants are absolutely gorgeous! And the pictures used for the ad are super well made and no wonder it has stopped me from scrolling further.
So now, after seeing this gorgeous product and ad, I just had to check it out and do a bit of my own research ?
I really wasn’t sure if this product even exists on Aliexpress because it looks like something handmade and available only from some private supplier.
On top of that, I wanted to see what other products they are selling on Facebook.
The Home Décor niche is a very lucrative one so if you find a good product to sell, you can make some really good profit all year round!
And boy oh boy did I find some really amazing products to sell! Much better than this Spacewoman statue and with a crazy profit margin as a bonus.
So in this week’s article, I’m going to share the product that I think you should start dropshipping right now. Also including a full ad & store review with a selling strategy so you can take this product and make some bank too.
Enjoy.
The Product
This week’s trending products are these amazing chess figurines that I found with the help of Facebook ad library.
I was really curious about other products the original seller was promoting on Facebook so I did some research and found this amazing product that can make you some really nice profit!
As you can see, there are more products they promote on Facebook but the Chess figurines are the best looking ones.
And how do I know they’re doing good? Well just look at the number of ads running and the ad launch date.
The one above is the most recent one which was launched on May 21st with 8 ads running this creative.
But before that, they’re still running 2 extra creatives:
They have another 4 ads using a different creative which they also launched at 21st of May, and the oldest one is from May 19th advertising the white color pieces with 8 active ads running simultaneously.
So starting from May 19th, they’ve been testing more creatives and launching more ads for this product. I can see this only as a successful test which is going towards scaling phase.
And the best thing here is that it’s a simple Aliexpress product sold for reasonable price that leave us a nice profit to be made.
Both White and Black color are available, the high quality pictures are also from Aliexpress, and the product features are exactly the same.
The Aliexpress sellers have a HUGE amount of high quality pictures you can use for your ads and even a video too. You can have this product up and running in no time on your dropshipping store!
The Ad
Well there’s nothing much I can say about this ad really…
A simple high quality photo used as an ad on Facebook with a simple ad copy and a call-to-action text pointing to their store.
All you can take from this ad example is that a high quality photo is sometimes enough and in many cases, it can even perform much better than a video ad.
Still, I recommend testing a video as well just to be sure 🙂
So in this case, your main work will be setting up a conversion optimized product page for this product and launching your ads.
Creating a photo ad for this product is simple enough, so you can start running ads for this product right after you finish reading this article.
The Product Page
The first problem that I see here is the product title – Yes, it describes exactly the product which is a Chess Statue, but I would recommend making your titles a bit more appealing.
So instead of writing just “chess statue”, you can try writing something like “Artisan Made Elegant Chess Figurines”.
Just by changing the title a bit, you make the product seem more high quality and the value of it instantly rises.
The second problem is the logo…
I think they tried to go with a more “artsy & minimal” look here but it just doesn’t look good on Desktop and especially on Mobile.
The black square should be removed and the logo can be just a good looking font using 2 colors(black & white).
And the last problem I have is with the price:
A chess figurine on Aliexpress costs a maximum of $23 including shipping, so we have enough room to play with the price and make good profit dropshipping this product.
I think the maximum price for this product should be $59.99 and that leaves us with a profit of $37. They decided to price it for $69.99 which I think is a mistake.
But who knows, Maybe I am the one who’s wrong here and they’re doing great selling at this price… Either way, you should at least do some A/B testing and see which price converts better.
Other than that, I think the product description looks fine with plenty of pictures showing the chess figurines.
Could’ve been nice if they had at least one GIF there for people to really “feel” the product.
And the product reviews are good enough with some pictures and text reviews:
They even have a variant which acts as a bundle to sell all 3 pieces together
I guess it’s fine but I think an app that can display this bundle in a better way can bring better conversions.
The Checkout
Well, they have a logo on their checkout page but one thing I didn’t like is that the phone number is mandatory. Some people don’t like giving their phone numbers, even if it’s just for shipping updates.
So this move could lead to some missed sales just because people are tired of getting spam messages and calls.
Shipping:
I am quite shocked right now! I was sure this product will have a Free Shipping option but looks like it doesn’t. And on top of that, they make some excuses here by telling people it’s because of COVID-19.
I really don’t know what to say here…
I think charging extra $5 shipping when you already make a $47 profit is just them being too greedy. I would definitely make shipping free for this product!
Payment:
And then there’s also the tipping option on the Payment page which just makes this a little bit insane really… All of this will definitely drive some customers away and that’s a shame!
Other than that, everything else looks fine to me.
Selling Strategy
Don’t be greedy!
There’s plenty of money to be made here, so don’t do the same mistakes as this seller. As you can see, they are probably still selling this product for $70, even with shipping.
But it doesn’t mean they are getting a good conversion rate…
This is your chance to take the same product, prepare better ads, and offer it for a cheaper price with a Free Shipping option. This way you can actually compete against this seller and win the ad bids with a lower budget.
Sell this product for $59.99 with Free Shipping, and include some interesting bundles to spice it up a bit and temp your customers to buy more than one piece.
To Sum It Up
Sometimes looking into what ads a business on Facebook is running can lead to some awesome discoveries.
A bit of research and I was able to find a fantastic product you can now sell on your dropshipping store. All you need is a better ad, a conversion optimized product page, and you’re all set.
Follow the tips in this article and start selling this product now!
If you have questions, feel free to ask me in the comments.
Good Luck!
Struggling to find good products to sell? Not sure who’s your target audience? Tired of losing money on products you were sure were “winners”?
Then Ecomhunt is what you need! Find hot winning products that are added daily, spy on their ads & stores and import them into your store in 1 click and Start Selling Today!
CEO and founder of Ecomhunt Mordechai Arba responded to news that Shopify is waiving fees for PayPal transactions worldwide and shutting down Oberlo’s dropshipping app by saying that it is trying to reposition itself in the market.
“The fact that Shopify dropped Oberlo’s app for dropshipping in favor of DSers which is integrated with AliExpress, is a sign that Shopify sees a market for dropshippers and that it is alive and well,” said Arba.
In addition, continued Arba, “Shopify decided to integrate with DSers after looking at the data, and it probably showed that the dropshipping niche has growth potential.”
Shopify’s stock has steadily dropped over the past six months, and its first-quarter results fell short of analysts’ expectations.
“Perhaps Shopify is shaking things up now as part of its strategy to turn things around,” said Arba.
“The move to partner with DSers, which is affiliated with AliExpress, is also a move more into the Chinese market,” he added.
“If Shopify would be able to improve the shipping times from China to the rest of the world, it also could become a serious competitor to Amazon,” assessed Arba.
Shopify announced in an email to some users on Tuesday informing them that the platform is making pricing changes that will go into effect on June 16.
Shopify stated: “Up until now, we have applied Third-party transaction fees related to PayPal transactions in certain countries. However, as of June 16th, we are waiving these fees across the globe.”
This will be a massive benefit to those running stores out of countries that had previously had to pay a fee on PayPal transactions.
Payments that do not use Shopify Payments are subject to transaction fees. However, the new rule means that the fee will apply to sales not processed by either Shopify Payments or Paypal.
In addition, Shopify said it was aligning American Express pricing with its international American Express rates.
Google’s certificate program seeks to train people in digital marketing and E-commerce skills using Canva, Constant Contact, Hootsuite, HubSpot, MailChimp, Shopify, Twitter, Google Ads, and Google Analytics.
The skills in the course apply to jobs in marketing, search engine optimization, paid search, and email marketing.
“This fully online program teaches you the skills you need for an entry-level job in digital marketing or e-commerce, with no experience required,” states Google.
Over 150 companies will consider hiring certificate holders.
The marketing and other courses are available on Coursera.
