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How To Start a Dropshipping Business: 9-Step Guide (2024)
Dropshipping is a low-risk way to sell products online. Follow these nine essential steps to start your dropshipping website.
One of the biggest hurdles new dropshipping entrepreneurs face is choosing what products to sell. It’s a significant business decision with long-term consequences for your brand and website.
If you want to know how to start dropshipping to generate profit, focusing on in-demand products like the ones suggested below is important.
Here are some of the most searched-for dropshipping product categories:
Whether you run a one-product dropshipping store or sell a catalog of items, use these suggestions to inspire business growth.
The global retail market for apparel and footwear is currently valued at $1.7 trillion and isprojected to approach $2 trillion by 2028. With consumers increasingly buying clothes online, dropshippers can seize the opportunity to capitalize on this trend.
This dropshipping niche breaks into categories like menswear, women’s wear, accessories, and bags. T-shirts are a top choice for dropshippers, allowing customized designs through dropshipping clothing suppliers like AliExpress. Seasonal clothing and footwear trends offer opportunities to sell new and different products, and to work with influencers to help market your products to the best audiences.
The beauty industry—including skin care, cosmetics, hair care, fragrances, and personal care—is expected to be valued at more than $758 billion by 2025. While conventional products represent 85% of the market share, consumers are also expressing interest in vegan, organic, natural, and planet-friendly cosmetics.
Two increasingly popular dropshipping product categories are:
Beauty and skin care videos are popular on TikTok, making this category a natural fit if you enjoy making GRWM (get ready with me) videos or similar content.
Searches for kitchen and dining products have steadily increased over the past five years. And with more people working from home or spending more time at home in general, this category has room to grow. Recent studies project that the market for kitchen tools, already worth more than $6.4 billion in 2024,will grow by 3% year over year.
In late 2023, a child’s emotional reaction to receiving a stainless steel insulated tumbler for Christmas went viral on TikTok as limited-edition water bottles flew off store shelves. Reusable water bottles are a great dropshipping product because they are lightweight, inexpensive, and available in fun colorways.
They also pair well with accessories like water bottle slings, silicone water-bottle ice-cube trays, and lunch boxes. You can even design print-on-demand water bottles or offer customized bottles for back-to-school or holiday gifts.
The global baby care market is projected to grow from $240 billion in 2024 to more than $419 billion by 2032.
“People are spending more and more per baby every year because of new product innovation,” Babylist founder Natalie Gordon shared on the Shopify podcast. Babylist started as a baby registry; now, they also dropship baby products.
Babylist promotes its dropshipping products by creating helpful content for its audience. “We’re talking to people who are making these product decisions for the very first time,” Natalie says of her audience of new parents. “You don’t even know what a diaper pail is when I’m telling you our top recommendations for diaper pails.”
Current trends show people are cautious when selecting babycare products like food, skin care, or safety devices. If you’re planning to dropship baby products, it’s essential your business is credible and trustworthy.
The demand for pet supplies is reaching a seven-year peak, with over $150 billion in sales projected for 2024. The pet supply market includes a variety of products, like clothing, food bowls, collars, carriers, and treats. Selling pet products can earn you repeat customers. After all, pet owners need more than beds and water bowls. If you’re starting a pet products business, consider bundling your products with treats, toys, or apparel.
If you’re a pet parent yourself, you probably have a good understanding of what other pet parents need. One low-lift marketing opportunity is to order sample products and create short-form content featuring your pet.
Spending on home interiors, décor, and furnishings is set to reach $949 billion by 2032. Search interest has been steady over the years, typically peaking in January and July.
Small online retailers have an advantage with home interior products because nearly everyone needs them, but not everyone is looking for the same things. This makes items like pillowcases or rugs perfect for niche marketing.
If you have a home office, then you’ve likely contributed to the $18 billion market for lightweight office supplies, many readily available through dropshipping suppliers. Think pens, desk pads, office décor, and dry erase markers.
Back-to-school shoppers usually have a list of supplies to buy, ideally in as few transactions as possible. Bundling packs of pens, pencils, markers, crayons, erasers, and other supplies could be a way to boost sales. Plus, products like mechanical pencils use refills, encouraging repeat purchases and offering opportunities to build brand loyalty.
Whether they’re stringing patio lights in the backyard or buying an automatic soap dispenser for the bathroom, many consumers look to social media for home improvement ideas and tutorials.
Consider starting a YouTube channel or TikTok account to demonstrate your products and how they work. Then, you can use social commerce to sell the goods.
Products like screen protectors and phone cases are always in demand, with interest peaking in the winter. The market for protective coverings alone is forecast to reach $41 billion by 2030.
Phone accessories provide bundling opportunities, too. For example, you could offer a broadcasting bundle with tripods, ring lights, green screens, and other equipment.
Plus, while it’s possible to work with third-party suppliers, a print-on-demand app can help you create original designs for customers who value uniqueness.
The global car accessories market is expected to reach $1.9 trillion by 2028 and search interest has been climbing steadily for years.
Auto accessory buyers want to be sure products work before buying them. Adding product reviews to your page can help them shop with confidence.
If you can produce short-form videos demonstrating how your products enhance car comfort or efficiency, even better. Consider how-to videos to promote items like windshield wiper blades or a car-cleaning video to show off a portable vacuum cleaner.
Dropshipping is a low-risk way to sell products online. Follow these nine essential steps to start your dropshipping website.
Here are six dropshipping websites and analytics platforms where you can research best-selling products:
The find products feature in AliExpress’s business suite lets you browse bestselling dropshipping products by category or see the day’s most popular items.
The Amazon Best Sellers page features products with the highest sales in specific categories, and can help you find trending dropshipping products to sell in your store.You can also dropship with Amazon directly.
Google Trends analyzes the popularity of search queries and topics; you can search terms by country and compare them against other topics to discover popular products to sell.
#tiktokmademebuyit is a TikTok feed where people share experiences with new purchases. If you’re looking for fun, creative, and even comical dropshipping products to sell, browse this hashtag for ideas.
Treendly is a tool for identifying trending products. It collects data from multiple sources, including Google Trends and social media. Browse by category and location or set alerts for specific products or niches.
WatchCount.com is useful for finding product ideas on eBay. Use this tool for real-time insights on product popularity.
Social commerce platforms like Etsy and Pinterest are visually appealing and fun to browse. Use social signals such as likes, shares, and comments to gauge product popularity.
Many people feel comfortable placing a $200 order online without talking to a representative. But what about a $1,500 item they’re unfamiliar with? Consider the price point of your products relative to the level of pre-sale service you’ll provide. If you plan to sell high-priced items, be sure to offer personalized phone support and to set your margins high enough to cover the expense.
Often $50 to $200 is the sweet spot for maximizing revenue since products in that price range don’t necessitate extensive sales support. For lower-priced items, aim to sell more. The reverse goes for high-ticket items. With higher-priced products, “your profit margins are going to be amazing, so you have less to sell instead of selling more, which I love,” says dropshipping entrepreneur Kamil Sattar, known as The Ecom King on YouTube.
The downside is that expensive products come with expensive everything else: phone support, advertising, shipping and returns. That’s why Kamil advises new dropshippers to start with less expensive items before moving on to high-ticket ones. “You want to learn all the skills by selling lower-risk products, and then once you’ve got those skills, you can move into the higher risk.”
Some manufacturers will set a minimum advertised price (MAP) for their products. This pricing floor prevents price wars and supports reasonable profits. Finding a niche where manufacturers enforce MAP pricing can be beneficial, especially if you plan on building a high-value and information-rich ecommerce site. When prices are steady, you can compete on the strength of your website without worrying about losing business to cheaper rivals.
Start thinking about how you’ll promote your store before you launch it. Potential tactics include publishing a blog, giving away free product samples, and participating in active online communities related to your products.
Kamil is a big fan of organic TikTok marketing. He recommends creating 30 days’ worth of short-form videos before starting a new account for your dropshipping store.
As a general rule, inexpensive accessories have higher profit margins than pricier offerings. While a mobile phone store may only make 5% on the latest smartphone, it can generate profit margins of 100% to 200% on the case that goes with it. Meanwhile, digital products can generate even more.
When selecting products, consider upselling or cross-selling opportunities. “You can turn a dropshipping store into a hybrid where you use print on demand as a nice little cross-sell,” Kamil says. “Let’s say, for example, somebody comes to my dropshipping store and they buy an office desk. Why not buy a nice customized mousepad for your mouse?” Shoppers may be price-comparing desks, but they’re unlikely to check where they can buy the cheapest mouse pad and may be enticed by the convenience of bundling one with their desk.
Investing in a quality website can pay big dividends. But if the products you sell change frequently, maintaining that site will require work. To generate higher return on your website investment, try sourcing low-cost items that aren’t updated with new models every year, like tools or personal care products.
In a world where free shipping is often expected, selling large, heavy items can get expensive. The smaller the items, the less you’ll have to spend shipping them.
Selling a product that’s hard to find locally can increase your chances of success. Most people needing a garden rake or a sprinkler can grab one at their local hardware store. But if they want a niche market item like a medieval knight’s costume or falcon-training equipment, they’re likely to turn to ecommerce.
Dropshipping is a relatively low-risk and versatile business model. Researching appropriate products, preparing a strategic marketing plan, and establishing a good ecommerce site are among the tactics you can use to increase your chances of success.
From first-time sellers to global retailers, Shopify works for everyone. See plans and pricing.
Dropshipping profit margins are typically lower than those in other retail business models, as retailers must pay the suppliers that source, store, and ship customer orders. However, the hands-off nature of dropshipping also means that retailers typically operate with low overhead costs. As a result, successful dropshipping stores that process a high volume of orders can be extremely profitable.
AliExpress is the most popular dropshipping supplier directory. It offers more than 100 million products you can source and sell in your dropshipping store.
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