Can Dropshipping Make You Money In 2023?

Yes!

Dropshipping is a very lucrative, easy to set up, and profitable business if you learn to do it right. This business model is getting all the attention for many varied reasons, you don’t have to worry about product fulfilment, delivery, or inventory management.

What you need to do in a dropshipping business is take orders from customers around the world, sell products, and make profit. 

More articles you’ll enjoy

Top 10 marketplaces to buy ecommerce stores

How to dropship on Ebay

Dropshipping Business Model

Dropshipping is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to get started in ecommerce. It order fulfillment business model that allows you to take orders from customers around the world and there is no need for the business to keep products in stock. 

Contrary to popular belief, the dropshipping model is not a get-rich-quick game plan. It requires and involves a lot of day-to-day management, numerous business and process obstacles. Though it is one of the easiest and most lucrative business models, you need to know how to work your way around the tasks and factors. 

Dropshipping is a 100% legal business model as long as you obtain all of the prerequisites permits for a seller of a traditional ecommerce store. In this online store business model, a third-party supplier will handle the product shipping and handling, whereas you will take care of the orders. You can get started with a specified business license and seller’s permit.

Steps To Start A Profitable Dropshipping Business 

Dropshipping is an easy-to-do order-fulfillment system that allows small or big store owners to sell directly to consumers without the need for stocking any inventory. When a particular customer purchases a given product from your dropshipping store, a third-party distributor ships that product directly to them. 

You set the retail price for that product on your dropship store and when the customer buys that product, he pays the retail price set by you. Now, once you have paid the supplier’s selective wholesale price, the rest of the amount from the sale is your profit. You don’t have to handle any shipping of products or invest in inventory for this business model. 

Here are the steps to getting started and making a profit with your dropshipping business. 

1. Start a dropshipping business store/website 

The first step to getting started with your business model is to create a business ecom store or website. This will provide you with a platform to sell your products and services and also promote your business. There are numerous options that are so easy to get started with and anybody can do it, and how many dropshipping millionaires are there? 

You can choose an ecommerce platform that fits in your budget, and comprises and provides you with all the specific features you need for your business or store. 

You can choose from many different ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, BigCommerce, etc. They are all very well-known and easy-to-use platfroms that provide you with all the essential setup to get started and host your own brand of the website from scratch and how to make money from dropshipping.

Shopify 

This ecommerce platform is pretty well known and is a great way to start your online business model as a beginner or professional. It is a beginner-friendly ecommerce platform that provides you with a shopping cart model and a website to get started with instantly. With the help of the secure website that is provided by Shopify and a free built-in credit card processing, you can start taking orders from the get-go. 

Read our guide on how to start a Shopify store

Though some may say that running a Shopify store may not be free or the most affordable option, it sure is easy for you as a beginner to get started as you don’t have to worry about the technicalities of starting your dropshipping website and get it up and running immediately. 

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is also an ecommerce website or cart platform where you can get started for free. It is one of the popular shopping cart platforms right now. But since it is free, many people register with them to build their own ecommerce platform to sell their products. 

Here you need to set up everything on your own including your website, your store, and other required elements, and you also need to host your own website.  

Wix

You can get started with Wix to browse, set up, and choose your ecommerce store and website, and make use of one that suits you best from its wide range of dropshipping platforms. Wix also offers a wide variety of product options and variations for you to choose from. 

Wix also does not charge any transaction fees and allows you to sell your digital or physical products, source them from various well-known marketplaces like AliExpress, create your own custom merchandise, and many other cool features.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a more robust platform and affordable option than Shopify as it is a very easy-to-use, fully hosted platform that you can get started with instantly. It provides you with numerous features and platforms that you can choose from a suitable online store to make more bang for your buck. 

It is a scalable platform where you can also grow and maintain an extensive inventory, use impressive data reports to make informed business decisions, and make use of the most useful built-in features to help you mold your business model to your preference, and think will dropshipping make you rich.  

2. Research and choose a dropshipping business idea

The next step in line is to choose the appropriate and appealing dropshipping niche for your business. The products and services you choose for your business model and start dropshipping stores should have a higher price tag and be very popular and trending product niches in order to make profits, as generally, drop shipping process results in lower profit margins, and gain instant access.

When you are getting started and opening up an online retail store and looking into the nitty-gritty of an online retailer such as competitors, and the latest trends, you need to do market research for a niche you’re interested in and decide on how profitable it can be in the future.

Choosing specific niche products gives you an edge over larger, established businesses, as they often have a more zealous customer base, and thus it can make selling your products to specific crowds much easier and profitable by promoting your products.

When you are a beginner and want to test the waters with dropshipping, you can go for popular niche products, such as fashion, electronics, technology products, tech accessories, fitness and health-related products, home, and kitchen products, etc.  

• Tips for choosing the right products and business idea:

• Choose a product that is trending and does not have an original intrinsic value of its own. You can use Google Trends to check if the product chosen is trending upward. Also by using some SEO tactics like looking for the keywords that customers are using to search for products, you can use it to your advantage. 

• You can cross sell your products by creating and choosing a niche with numerous varied related products. This will improve your chances of repeat customers and build a trust and connection with your customers as you are providing convenience and high-quality products and recommendations regularly. 

• Keep a close eye on your competitors, and the products they are recommending and selling, and understand their ways of work. You can also sign-up or subscribe to competitors’ email lists, to get better insights into their marketing strategies and customer trends. 

• You can also use Facebook ads or Google Ads to understand the search intent of your customers. This will help you with keyword research and other insights you need to promote your products or services. 

• Select products that have a bigger average order size. This will help you get more commission on products that are less expensive, but trending. 

• It is better to avoid products that lose their popularity or go obsolete within a short period of time. Such products are mostly based on short trends found on social media or electronic products that cater to a specific niche only. 

3.  Checking business parameters and choosing a niche

When you want to sell products on your own store dropshipping website, you need to make sure that you have decided on what types of products you will be selecting to sell here. You need to decide if you will provide any kind of personalization to the products you are selling. Personalized products are much more appealing than traditional ready-made products. 

Choose products that appeal to your target market effectively. This will help make sure you have repetitive customers and you can build a rapport with them. You can also create content to promote such products that can bring large audiences to your website or store. 

Also, if you are selling consumable products like trending food products, toys, gadgets, and tools, makeup, etc. it will help bring more traffic to your store. 

4. Find dropshipping suppliers

This step is one of the critical steps toward creating a successful and profitable dropshipping business for you. Having genuine, well-accredited suppliers is quintessential to running a smooth, hassle-free business. You need to make sure to find a genuine dropshipping supplier that will provide you with a high-quality service to promote their products and in turn help you grow. 

Stay away from fake or fraud suppliers that may ask you to pay a monthly fee to procure their products or to get access to their catalog. This is a major red flag and you should be easily able to identify the supplier as fake or fraudulent. Usually, dropship suppliers do not sell their products as wholesale and thus will not claim to provide huge discounts, etc. 

Nowadays, many ecommerce platforms offer plug-and-play tools and plugins for users to help find their potential suppliers and connecting your online store to different DSers, like for shipping times for example Shopify or aliexpress dropshipping.

Here are a few ways you can find good feasible and genuine dropshipping suppliers.

Contact the manufacturer directly

This is one of the most foolproof ways to get a supplier that will allow you to sell genuine products directly to your store. The authenticity factor increases here and you can be rest assured that the product quality is damage free and the right one. When you contact the distributor directly, they will be more than happy to help you with a wide variety of products from a number of different manufacturers.

The manufacturer can provide you with a list of genuine wholesale distributors, then you can make a deal with them to dropship multiple products making more profit. If you are dealing with a large distributor of that manufacturer, you can gain immediate access to a large catalog of products that they are selling to start a successful online business!  

Use a dropship directory

Dropshipping directories can help you find genuine distributors from a database of suppliers that are organized by niche. This a unique and convenient way to get distributors and products to sell via the dropshipping store. 

It is a great and secure way to find vendors and get started with them immediately. You can research about the distributors and get to know about their various product catalogs to choose the products you want to sell on your website or ecommerce business. 

Partner up with a print on demand company

Nowadays, there is a new niche that has emerged for buying and selling products that are printed with the most liked themes, visuals, and memes. By partnering with a print on demand service or company, you can come up with ideas, or designs for your store and sell them on demand on various products such as mugs, t-shirts, merchandise, caps, frames, etc. The possibilities are endless. 

When working with a print on demand company, you don’t have to worry about inventory or shipping costs, you can list a product with custom orders online and the company will provide you with the finished product with the designated print when the customer orders. The company will manufacture or print the design on the product, and also ships it to your customer. It’s that easy. You can consider websites like Printify, CustomCat, or Printful and easily get started as a beginner. 

Work with Wholesale2b, Shopify or AliExpress

You can easily spot trending products and find their distributors from the plug-ins found on these platforms. It is easier to reach out to potential customers and distributors on one platform. They can help you find and add trending and useful products to your own online store and bring customers to your shop.  

Tips to choose the right dropship distributor

• The trust between you and your distributor matters the most. You need to research and choose reliable suppliers that are trustworthy and can rely on to provide optimum quality and quantity. 

• You can choose to place a test order from the particular distributor and check for his quality and trust parameters before finalizing the deal. 

• You can check for their speed and shipping time for their products, which should ideally be 2-3 business days. 

• You need to check if the distributor provides customer support so they can help solve any product or service issues in the future. 

• You can also check if they lay emphasis on the maintenance of the quality of packaging throughout their products. Low-quality packaging may not appeal to customers and may also lead to damage to the products that are being shipped. 

• You can check with the distributor if he will deal with the customization of his products as you can easily command premium pricing for personalized goods from customers. 

• Check if they provide some kind of warranty period for their products and a proper return policy in case of issues. 

• When dealing with a distributor, make sure you have a single point of contact in place to ease communication and deal with product issues if any. 

5. Build your dropship store and drive traffic

Once you have decided on your niche and decided on the product lists to showcase on your website, you need to build up your dropship website or store by driving traffic to your website.   To stand out in your dropship market, you need to pay emphasis on marketing. You should be able to reach out to the masses far and wide to promote your products. 

Marketing via social media is the best and most effective way to reach your target audience. It is also one of the affordable ways to get started with marketing. Paid advertising on Facebook and Instagram can help you reach out to people faster and efficiently on social media platforms. 

Content marketing via blogs and articles promoting your products is another effective way to drive traffic to your dropshipping website. Creating blog posts, infographics for Pinterest or content for a Youtube channel are all great ways to educate your audience about your products via influencer marketing. You can try different channels that appeal to your audience like Twitter or email marketing too.

6. Examine and improvise marketing strategies

As time passes, likes, dislikes and trends keep changing. Thus you need to be on par with the changes happening in the niche market and analyze and improve your marketing strategies accordingly. This will help you get consistent business opportunities and make more money. 

Is Dropshipping A Profitable Business Model?

Dropshipping business is a profitable, and highly scalable business model. If you pay attention to promoting your business via social media and other channels, drive traffic to your website, and showcase your products in a way that will appeal to your target market, you can achieve better sales and results. In your dropship business, you need to focus all your efforts on marketing and sales for your business without the need to store inventory or physically ship out orders. 

Top Benefits Of Dropshipping Store Online Business 

• Low to no set-up costs, like inventory cost, overhead, and warehouse costs.

• Low risk business model. 

• Quick and easy to set up your online store.

• Highly scalable business model. 

• It is location-independent, wherein you don’t need a warehouse or an office to work from. 

• Great ROI on business with minimal effort. 

FAQS

Can I make money by dropshipping?

Yes, dropshipping is a lucrative and profitable business to make money online. It’s a low-risk business model, where you are not responsible for shipping or manufacturing the products, and is profitable because it doesn’t incur huge initial costs or own inventory. You can also make money dropshipping because dropshipping companies earn a good amount of profit margin with the right distributors/suppliers.

Can I work with Multiple Dropshippers and Shipments

You can start multiple dropshipping businesses at once. When you have learnt the tricks of the trade, you can invest your time and effort in growing your business across multiple niches. This will help you make more income via different channels. You may deal with different multiple distributors and customers, thus you have to be careful and plan and strategize accordingly. 

Is dropshipping a good side hustle idea?

Dropshipping is a great idea for a side hustle, as it is a low-risk opportunity. You are only in charge of shipping the products when purchased, which provides you with profit margins. You can also dropship on marketplaces like Amazon, Shopify, and eBay to reach more customers.

What are the most profitable products to dropship?

• Trending items from social media like TikTok

• Useful gadgets & home improvement

• Trending apparel and footwear

• Baby products 

• Personal care 

• Pet supplies

• Beauty products

The Final Verdict

Yes, dropshipping is an easy to set up business that can help you make money in the long run. If done right, it gives you the freedom to work at your own pace and time, promote your products and business, and also lets you scale your business. You should definitely consider dropshipping to make you money.