 Selling in the UK has proven to be very profitable for many online sellers around the world. But for the rest of the online sellers who want to tap into this marketplace but have no idea how to because it's a little bit different than selling to the USA for example, that is exactly why I'm creating this video to help you guys get started dropshipping on Shopify UK. So watch this quick intro and let's go. Hello everyone my name is Duran from AutoDS I'm the content manager and I've also been dropshipping for the last several years and in this video I'm going to teach you guys how you can get started selling on Shopify UK which is something that many people want to do and not too many know exactly how to do it the right way. There are so many questions that I've seen people asking so I will be addressing it in this video and then we'll move on to how to actually create your store on Shopify UK and get started. One second before we start that if you have not done so yet do not forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel to always stay updated on all of the latest and all of the hottest topics that we have coming out in the world of dropshipping and e-commerce in general. Having said that let's go ahead and begin with the most frequently asked questions that people ask before getting started on Shopify UK. So first questions first this is the most asked question is dropshipping illegal on Shopify. Shopify is all for dropshippers so on the one hand I don't understand why so many people are asking this question as Shopify themselves come out and say hey dropshippers we're here for you use our platform for dropshipping dropshipping in general is a legal business model so wherever you go you'll see dropshippers whether you know it or not. The next question is can you dropship with Shopify in the UK. So as I've mentioned Shopify is all for dropshippers it's not only for dropshippers you can still hold inventory you can have either inventory or be a dropshipper on Shopify they absolutely support both business models on Shopify so no need to worry about that. The next question that's asked so many times is is dropshipping legal in the UK so as I've mentioned dropshipping in general is a legal business model but different regions around the world can have their own rules when it comes to dropshipping for example you've got the competition and consumer laws for businesses this applies to the UK and online and distance selling so this applies to the UK whether you live in the UK or not as long as you want to sell in the UK you have to abide by these rules it's nothing that's so much different than things that you're already used to and I will leave the links to both of these articles from the UK government under this video so you guys can go ahead and read about it but all in all it's nothing to be worried about it's mainly going over competition laws and consumer protection laws to protect the consumer the end customer and also to help you as a seller know what are the right practices to compete with other sellers who are in your competition. So once again I will leave links to both of them you can give it a quick read one is a web page and the other is a pdf as you can see right here so just scroll down give it a quick read it's not that long and it will get you very familiar with the consumer laws and with the competition laws in the UK so definitely dropshipping is legal in the UK just follow those rules and you should be good to go. The last question before we move to the next section is UK good for dropshipping so UK is definitely definitely good for dropshipping I wouldn't call it an untapped marketplace because it is tap people are selling in it but the profit margins can be much higher in the UK than they are in the US because the US has much much more competition you can definitely get sales in both marketplaces one is not better than the other it depends what products you're selling the target audience that you are marketing it to but at the end of the day the UK has less competition than the US but also less buyers than the US but do not let it confuse you there is much less competition than there are less buyers let me give you a quick example of how many people are buying online in the UK now this graph here shows e-commerce sales in the UK from 2014 to 2019 so we don't have 2021 the current year and last year 2020 when that graph comes out I'll definitely show it to you guys but as you can see already from this graph we are rising year by year since 2017 and 2020 was COVID year so the graph there is going to be crazy and I'm sure that this year 2021 was no different so UK is definitely good for dropshipping the UK audience love to buy online in fact most of the UK consumers prefer buying online so UK is definitely good for dropshipping follow those two links that I sent I'll leave I'll leave it once again below this video get accustomed and familiar with what you can and cannot do on the UK market and once again you will be good to go now let's move on to the next section this is something that a lot of people also want to know do I have to pay taxes when dropshipping in the UK the short answer to that is yes but under what conditions whether you live in the UK if you don't live in the UK let's go over that right now so the first thing that we want to talk about is that that you're going to have to pay both ways but let's see under what conditions so first of all that is not charged on goods that are gifts worth 39 pounds or less so mostly when you'll be buying from UK suppliers you'll be sending them as gift packages so if they cost under 39 pounds you won't have to pay any VAT if you are not sending it as a gift package and you will see the the the logos and the prices and everything then it might not be considered a gift but if it is still under 39 pounds you can claim it as a gift you can ask a supplier to claim it as a gift and you will not have to pay VAT if it is over 39 pounds you will have to pay VAT to the delivery company either before the goods are delivered or when you collect them when the buyer collects them the price is based on what you're paying your supplier which means the product price and the shipping price together is the product price so so if both of those exceed 39 pounds you will have to pay VAT which is 20 percent now let's talk about custom duty so when do you have to pay customs customs is charged on all packages sent from outside europe and above 135 pounds so if the product cost over 135 pounds and you shipped it from outside the UK you went to a chinese supplier you went to a US supplier and you bought from them and shipped it to the UK and that product cost over 135 pounds then you will also have to pay customs now in many cases the seller can tell the buyer that he is responsible for customs like if you're selling on ebay for example but if you're on Shopify you can you can have it both ways you can tell the buyer that you will be paying for customs or you can tell the buyer that he is responsible for customs but at the end of the day whatever method you choose do what's good for you but once again what i want you to remember is that if you are bringing the product if you're buying it from outside the UK and you're importing it to the UK and it's over 135 pounds customs will have to get paid how much do you have to pay take a look at this chart right here so the type and value of goods and the customs duty non-excise goods worth over 135 pounds excises tobacco alcohol things like that so you will not be selling those items so goods that are worth less than 135 pounds including the shipping cost you will not have to pay customs duty but if it's over 135 pounds if it costs you the seller over 135 pounds to bring it to the UK including the shipping price you or the buyer will have to pay 2.5 customs rate and if it's above 135 pounds you'll get a custom rate so you'll need to contact the UK government and see exactly what you'll need to pay there to make it short once again for that you will pay 20% if the product costs over 39 pounds and if it's under 39 pounds and it's a gift you will not have to pay that 20% for customs if the product is worth over 135 pounds you will have to pay 2.5 customs when the product arrives in the UK now do not confuse the custom duty and that with your income tax that is two different things no matter where you live in the world if you're if you're in the UK or outside the UK as long as you're making income most governments around the world will collect income tax from you so in this case I definitely advise to speak with a local accountant in your country and see exactly how much income tax you'll have to pay and any other things like social security and so forth now the next question that people ask before they start their dropshipping business in the UK is should I start a company in the UK usually governments worldwide would require you to pay income tax on every source of income I already spoke about that but if you live in the UK and you want to start a dropshipping business in the UK you can start as a sole trader a limited company or a partnership the two most common used businesses is a sole trader or a limited company the biggest difference between them is as a sole trader it'll be much easier for you to run and manage your business when it comes to accounting so when it comes to your accountant it'll be easier for them to follow your taxes and your forms and so forth when you are a sole trader if you want to go for a limited company then you will be more protected better protected if for example a buyer sues you for whatever reason and let's say he's suing you for a hundred thousand dollars he cannot touch your personal assets when you have a limited company there's a separation between your personal assets and your business assets so when someone sues you they can only sue you for the amount of your business they cannot touch your personal assets so if you have mortgage on your house and things like that it will not touch your personal expenses and you'll get a better tax relief when you'll reach a certain profit in your business so read about the differences between that whether you live inside the UK or outside the UK contact your local accountant and see what options are good for you I will leave a couple of links as you can see right here I will leave them below this video that will help you better understand if you want to set up as a sole trader or as a limited company if you live in the UK now let's talk a little bit about UK VAT registration so if you're based in the UK then you'll need to register your business for VAT with HM revenue and customs which is called HMRC if the VAT taxable turnover is more than 85 000 pounds in the last 12 months so if you haven't reached that threshold yet you do not need to register for VAT at least not yet you can if you want to you can do it voluntarily but that is the threshold 85 000 pounds in the last 12 months so if you reached 85 000 in the last month then you'll need to register now once again more info on that I'll leave a link below this video now if you're not based in the UK and you want to sell to the UK you'll need to register for VAT as soon as you ship out your first package to the UK so no threshold as soon as you got your first sell you need to register for VAT in the UK now that we got the legal stuff out of the way let's get to the bread and butter before I take you guys step by step on what you need to do in order to start your Shopify dropshipping store for those of you who are already doing it or that want to know how you can improve shipping times from products coming outside the UK you're importing them into the UK one thing that you may come across is very slow shipping times and that is especially true if you are dropshipping for example from China using suppliers or sellers like Aliexpress so you can definitely improve your shipping times and this is something that's really important because your buyers at the end of the day they want to get their packages quick as soon as they pay you money and they want their product here and now they don't want to wait a month to see it they want to wait a week two weeks tops not more than that so this is exactly how you're going to get much faster shipping times when you're dropshipping to the UK but buying your products from outside the UK I want to take you guys to the Aliexpress dropshipping center I will leave a link to that once again below this video so the resources for everything that I'm going over in this video will be right below so this is the Aliexpress dropshipping center I'm going to click on find products to sell just to see a list of products that have been trending recently and here are the results that we have for products that can be shipped from Spain to the UK that are trending on Aliexpress so let's just move down the list just choose any product like the squid game costume which is selling really hot right now now I'm entering the product listing as you can see I'm shipping to the UK and here I have all of the warehouses that we have this product this this costume so I can choose Spain and if you can find any other country that's close to the UK then you can check that too so I click on Spain and as you can see here I'm getting an estimated delivery for November 23rd while I'm recording this video today is November 3rd so 20 days is not so fast it's not so slow it's not like shipping from China but sometimes you can get much faster shipping times from Spain but like I said if one country isn't good go for another one that's close to the UK like Italy for example so let's click on Italy and now you can see that the estimated delivery is November 14th so that's just 11 days from now which is a very good shipping time for products coming outside the United Kingdom and as you can see you can also find products from the United Kingdom and this is if you're not dropshipping from outside the UK to the UK if you want to keep it domestic this way you're going to get the fastest shipping time so if I click on the UK now you can see that the estimated delivery is still November 14th so in this case it doesn't matter if you're shipping it from the UK or from Italy you're getting the same shipping speed I would choose the UK to keep it domestic but as you can see you can choose countries that are close to the UK and this way you can get fast shipping times for products that are outside the UK using suppliers like Aliexpress and the dropshipping center to find hot dropshipping products finally I want to talk to you guys about the step-by-step explanation everything that you guys need to do to start a successful store on Shopify so first I will go over the steps and then I will show you how you can learn to take each and every one of those steps and do it the right way so in general this is the structure that you have to follow to have a successful Shopify store in the UK the first thing that you want to do is learn how to conduct good and thorough product research what should I sell should I be should I be a general store should I have a niche store then you'll want to learn about the six criteria for choosing a good product to sell I'm going to get to that soon how are you going to learn that how to spy unsuccessful Shopify dropshipping stores because this way you'll be getting examples from other people who are doing it correctly and are selling and are profiting then you will learn how to go and choose the best UK dropshipping suppliers which we also have a blog article on so I will leave a link to that once again right below this video so that you guys can learn about that then you'll learn how to narrow down your winning products that you found from the three previous lessons the next step that you'll have to do after the product research phase not before is to register for your account on Shopify UK so simply head over to Shopify.co.uk like you can see up here and start your free trial the reason that you do not want to do it before the product research phase is because the product research phase takes a lot of time until you find the right product and the more time you spend on it the higher your success rate will be so product research takes a lot of time and during that time you don't want to waste your free trial so once you're done with your product research only then should you register for your Shopify UK account and start your free trial then you will learn how to name your business and connect your domain you'll need to have a good and unique name for your business you don't want a business that already exists out there and you'll also want to learn how to connect your own domain name to it so you'll have your own www.mystorname.com and not subdomain from Shopify's main domain the next thing that you want to do is create a store logo and select a good store theme that complements your products then you'll want to learn how to import products to your store so you get the products from your supplier and you upload them to your Shopify store then you'll want to learn how to create a professional homepage because once you have products you want to also showcase them on your homepage so you want to have a really good homepage for that the next step is to set your store policies and your legal pages your store policies and legal pages simply that the buyers know what to expect when it comes to your terms of service your shipping times the return policy and other things that your buyers will have to know they will want to know before purchasing a product from your website and websites usually that don't have store policies and legal pages have much less sales so that's definitely something that you want next you'll want to learn how to set up your navigation menu now that you have your products you've got your legal pages you want to set up navigation menu so that your buyers can find the links to all of those pages throughout your website and not just in one section or a no section at all then you'll want to set up your checkout settings and your shipping zones to include and exclude buyers from around the world from different locations who can buy and who cannot buy from your store and finally you're going to go live with your store so only after taking all of these steps will your store go live so that other people can view it and buy the products from it now once your store goes live the next step that you'll have to take on Shopify is to get people to know that your store exists how do people know that it's there how will people get to it so that they will be able to purchase from it so what you want to do at this step is learn online marketing and the best method for online marketing on Shopify one of the best methods is using facebook ads so you're going to want to learn how to set up a facebook page create a facebook ads account install the facebook pixel step by step right during this same exact structure then you'll learn how to perform audience research to find the right audience that's relevant for your product then you'll want to learn how to create a video for your ad select your campaign goals and your ad set then you'll finally be ready to launch your first ad and this is actually really exciting when you make it to this point you're an online marketer now you've got your own store your marketing and then you can start analyzing your ads seeing what works what doesn't work you'll learn how to analyze your ad performance and scale your success and this is what you need to know in order to run a good Shopify store if you take it step by step you will be successful if you put the right amount of time and you'll acquire the right amount of knowledge which you will get from heading over to our courses page everything here that I just went over you'll learn for free no charge just get this value learn from it and just go ahead and start and take action once you'll take action you'll start to notice the results not right away you'll probably not get yourself after your first ad or after your first day but with the right amount of work and consistency you will make those sales you will get to that profit that you're looking for it will require a lot of work which is why I created this course for you guys so once again I will leave a link below this video it's absolutely free I know I said it before but I'll need to say it again guys you've got about 40 videos over here step by step everything that I just mentioned and you will learn it for free so I hope that you guys enjoyed these golden nuggets on Shopify UK now it's finally time to take action so that you will start seeing your results so start by going to the links that I left below this video then watch the Shopify course which is once again absolutely free just watch it get your knowledge do not watch it all in one day it's a lot of information to take in but watch a few videos every day take notes refresh your mind watch more videos finish that course and then start your drop shipping business let me know how it went in the comments below guys and once again if you have not done so yet subscribe to our youtube channel so that you can always learn and always stay up to date on everything related to e-commerce and drop shipping thank you for watching good luck on Shopify UK and I'll see you in the future videos