8 Essential Steps to Drop Shipping Healing Crystals

Into healing crystals and looking for new ways to earn? With drop shipping, you can easily turn your passion into a lucrative business. All you need is a computer, an online storefront, and a trusted wholesale crystal supplier to fulfill your orders. You don't even need huge capital to get your business up and running!

But as with any new business, there are certain things you need to take care of in the preparation stage for a successful takeoff.

In this post, we flesh out the details of how to dropship crystals and the things you need to sort out before starting the business.

Is There a Steady Demand for Crystals Nowadays

Let's dissect crystal selling and the dropshipping business model first so we're on the same page.

Maybe you came here thinking: Is there enough demand in the market for healing crystals to start a crystal shop in the first place? Is there a solid customer base for it?

The answer is yes. Colourful, shiny rocks, minerals, and gemstones of various shapes and sizes even rose during the pandemic. Crystals have always had a steady demand from spiritual healers, yoga practitioners, crafters, and collectors. Over the last 5 years, the term 'crystal' has received a steady number of enquiries on Google. It is an indicator of people's sustained interest in all things crystal.

When the Covid-19 health crisis struck in 2020, more and more people turned to the healing abilities of crystals (and other metaphysical items like smudging herbs) to cope with stress and anxiety brought by uncertain times.

Astrologers and tarot readers have seen an increase in their business since the pandemic, wrote Kristin Wong in her Elle article. Meanwhile, Dazed Digital received a 22-percent increase in traffic for their horoscope-related content in the last quarter of 2020.

In the same year, Bloomberg reported that while sales for diamonds plummeted, demand for less expensive crystals and minerals (amethyst, citrine, quartz, and malachite) surged. Martin Rapaport, the founder of the Rapaport Diamond Report, attributes this trend to consumers' desire to satisfy their intrinsic need for peace, harmony, and emotional stability. While some people watch movies, work out, or discover a hobby to feel better, others find comfort in meditating with or being surrounded by crystals.

Thus, there's no time like the present to be in the crystal biz. The market is growing. There are customers from many different demographics waiting for your service. And one of the fastest, most affordable ways to deliver crystals to your desired customers is (you guessed it!) drop shipping.

Why Sell Healing Crystals via Dropshipping

Due to stable demand and the ease of setting up a shop online, selling crystals online is a promising business opportunity.

But selling crystals in bulk requires that you have a huge inventory so you can cater to various orders. How can you sustain this when you're in a shoestring capital?

In a drop shipping supply chain there are 3 players involved:

• Manufacturers - They create the product but they don't necessarily sell directly to consumers. Their main buyers are wholesalers and retailers.
• Wholesalers - They order products from manufacturers and add markup before selling the products to the retailers. Typically, wholesalers have diverse suppliers to ensure stock availability at all times. In the case of crystal wholesalers, they often source their products from different miners and crafters all over the world.
• Retailers - This is you, the seller who directly transacts with the public and puts up the products online at a markup.

By dropshipping healing crystals, you get to control your earnings by marking up your products. And you won't have to worry about finding a space to store your stocks. Thus, saving you money and effort!

8 Things to Get Started with Crystal Dropshipping

Here's everything you need to prepare before you set up a crystal drop shipping business. (This list is not exhaustive but it contains the essentials when you're just starting with your business.)

A solid customer base

First of all, you need to identify your target customers. Who do you want to sell crystals to? What do they need? Understand your niche, their problems, what solution they're looking for, and find out if your product matches their needs. You can also check out what other established crystal shops are doing to attract their customers.

When you're crystal clear about who your products are for, it becomes easier to locate your customers and develop a marketing strategy that generates sales.

Crystal shops have a diverse range of customers. The most common ones are crystal healers, collectors, crafters, decorators, and teachers. Find out what each customer segment wants and you're on your way to fleshing out your niche.

Popular and marketable crystal products

If you've been buying crystals for a while you probably have a bit of an idea of what items are hot now in the market. But if you're just dipping your toes in the crystal world, choosing which crystals to sell can be overwhelming as there are hundreds of them in every cut, colour, and size imaginable!

How you fill your store is truly up to you. One way to do this is to ask your potential customers what they need. You can also sell collector items. Or choose crystals based on benefits and intentions. Any approach is fine as long as it fits your budget and your intended customers want it.

The rock specialists at Stonebridge Imports (an Ontario-based supplier of crystals) say you can never go wrong with these all-time best-selling crystals:

• Tumbled stones
• Rough chips and chunks
• Crystal points and clusters
• Beads and bracelets
• Pendants
• Pendulums
  

When it comes to crystal species, you have the following options:

• Amethyst
• Rose quartz
• Clear quartz
• Agates
• Selenite
• Sodalite
• Tourmaline
• Green aventurine
• Obsidian
• Amazonite
• Onyx
• Smoky quartz
  

Not only are these crystals popular, but they're also the easiest way to use and

incorporate the energy of crystals into your daily life.

A clear understanding of the drop shipping process

It pays to have a thorough understanding of how drop shipping works. Besides knowing the business model like the back of your hand, it's also important to know the issues that come with it and how best to address them.

Crystal dropshipping isn't always rainbows and unicorns. Some challenges might arise along the way such as:

• Shipping issues - Dealing with different suppliers can blow up your shipping costs. For instance, if a customer purchases 2 items, each sold by different manufacturers, each item will have different shipping costs.

When faced with shipping complexities, retailers must find a solution to charge customers for shipping without making them feel they're overcharged.

• Inventory issues - It's easy to be on top of your inventory when you own it. But when you source your products from multiple suppliers, you have no control over the availability of your stocks and how fast they can ship orders.

That's why it's necessary to diversify your suppliers to make sure you can fulfill orders on time.

• No control over customer experience - The responsibility of delivering orders falls squarely on your drop shipping partner. How they perform (whether they ship products on time or not, deliver intact or broken crystals) will reflect on your business. So choose a drop shipping supplier with a fast turnaround and impeccable customer service.

This brings us to our next factor…

A trustworthy crystal supplier

The success of your drop shipping business hugely depends on your relationship with your suppliers. So be picky when choosing your drop shipping partner.

You want to work with a reputable crystal wholesaler who:

• Has been in the industry for years
• Supports ethical and environmentally sustainable mining of rocks, crystals, and gemstones
• Has a perceptive insight into the trends of the crystal business
• Can point you to diverse suppliers of finest crystals (local and abroad)
• Offers vast product choices
• Has a great customer service team ready to assist your needs

Keen knowledge of the properties of crystals

Customers, especially those who are just discovering the uses and properties of crystals, will need your expertise to guide them on which specific crystals to use.

You don't need to know the tiniest details about all the crystals in the world; knowledge of their origin, history, healing, and metaphysical benefits are enough information to share with your customers. When you know what you're selling (and put in the effort to educate others about them), your customers will trust you and your products.

A simple, straightforward online store

Decide on an eCommerce platform you want to use. The most popular and user-friendly platforms for creating online stores are Shopify, WooCommerce, and Wix. Here, you can build your store from scratch and customize every page. Or you can sell your products on AliExpress, a Chinese eCommerce platform made for wholesalers and retailers all over the world.

To make your healing crystals drop shipping even smoother, use DSers. It's a drop shipping solution that helps you simplify how you manage your products and orders. For example, it allows you to place hundreds of orders from your online store to your suppliers in a matter of seconds. DSers also lets you import new products from your supplier into your store with no sweat.

You can use this tool on all eCommerce platforms mentioned.

A seamless shopping experience

A great online store is customer-friendly. Make it easy for people to navigate through your pages, find the products they need in a few clicks, and check out their orders without hiccups.

Here are some tips to create a worthwhile online shopping experience:

• Design for mobile users - More than 50 percent of the world's internet users buy products using their mobile phones, according to 2021 statistics by DataReportal. So design your drop shipping store with mobile phone users in mind.

Use minimal design features and make sure the buttons are bold and clear enough. Make sure your navigation pattern is familiar to your target customers. Use high-resolution product images and write concise and value-packed product descriptions. Also, make sure your pages load within 2-3 seconds, or your customer will abandon your site.

• Display updated customer service channels - An About Us page, live chat/call option, social media, and contact information are the pillars of open and available customer service. These elements should be visible on your website.

Besides the quality of your product, people will remember how you attend to their queries and concerns (which will then become the basis of their impression of your business). An excellent customer care experience results in customer loyalty and repeat business.

• Develop an easy checkout process - People are always in a hurry. The last thing they want is to have to jump through hoops when processing their orders. Give your customers a quick checkout once they're ready to finalize their orders.
  

Secure payment options to earn your customers' trust

Showing your customers that you offer secure payment options is another important aspect of earning your customers' trust. Do this by posting the icons of payment options on your site. Make sure these payment gateways accept major debit and credit cards, accept different currencies, and are accessible in your country (as well as that of your customers).

Final Word

Having a stable demand from diverse customers, crystals are one of the most profitable products to sell on the online marketplace. And drop shipping is the simplest way to get crystals to your desired customers.

Getting started with crystal drop shipping is easy. Just set up your online shop, identify and get to know your customers, and sell what your target customers need. Work with a trustworthy crystal wholesaler who supplies a wide range of products and fulfills orders with a sense of urgency.

Once these bases are covered, you'll be able to run your business and share the power of crystals with anyone, anywhere!

Finally, use a drop shipping tool like DSers to streamline your processes (from managing your inventory to processing and tracking orders). Crystal drop shipping should be a smooth-sailing venture when you have the right tools in place.