Dropshipping is a great way for entrepreneurs to make money online. It is easy to understand and implement. There are other options than reselling products from other businesses to make a career.
This article will cover all the ways dropshipping can make you money, their potential earnings, starting costs, perks and cons.
What is Dropshipping?
Before we get into the details, let’s first review dropshipping.
Dropshipping is where someone sells something that they don’t have. Instead, they send the customer’s order directly to a marketplace or supplier, who then handle the rest.
Drop shippers don’t need to manage product inventory, packaging, and shipping. This reduces startup costs and helps eliminate time-consuming tasks.
General Dropshipping Statistics
Dropshipping is still possible
Grand View Research predicts that the global drop shipping market will grow at 28.8% from $102.2 billion in 2018 and $557 billion by 2025.
This expansion is due to the rising preference for online shopping, cross-border trade and the revolutionized role of smartphones in online purchasing.
Google Trends data suggests that dropshipping is gaining popularity rapidly over the past five years with no sign of slowing. As a result, major corporations have been investing in infrastructure to offer drop shipping services.
Shopify, which is the world’s second largest eCommerce platform, purchased Oberlo, a dropshipping company, in 2017. This enabled the company to compete with direct competitors like BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce.
Dropshipping is a great way to make money
Ecommerce is growing rapidly. Ecommerce accounts for 21.8 percent overall retail sales and generates $6.39 trillion in revenue.
The COVID-19 has made a significant impact on eCommerce by disrupting global supply chains and slowing down shipping delays. It also offers significant business benefits, such as increasing digital adoption and making it easier for consumers to shop online.
Dropshipping is a popular eCommerce fulfillment model. It accounts for 30% of all online sales.
Dropshipping is a great way to make money online, but it’s a huge mistake.
Dropshipping: Can you get rich?
Dropshipping is like any other business and can make you rich. If done right, it’s possible to make thousands or even millions of dollars. However, determination and hard work are the keys to success. There is no one-size-fits all strategy to achieve success.
Dropshipping requires extensive research, countless trials and error to find out what works and what doesn’t.
We encourage you to try dropshipping for yourself. Dropshipping can help you build a business.
Dropshipping: How to Make Money
Dropshipping offers 18 ways to make money.
Resell Tangible Products
Dropshipping is the most popular way to make money. You can resell physical products. You start by searching for products in other markets and supplier websites. To make money, you sell the products on your website at higher prices. When your customers buy the products, you submit their order details to them. The rest of the process, including packaging and shipping, is handled by you.
Insights
Grand View Research claims that the electronics industry holds the largest share of dropshipping, at nearly 30.0 percent. The next three categories are Fashion, Toys & Hobby & Diy, and Furniture & Apparatus.
Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, so you can use its data to keep up with market trends.
According to Statista (13%), electronics (44%), clothing and jewellery (443%) and home & kitchen (39%), beauty & personal (36%)), cell phones and accessories (28%), pet supplies (20%), sports & outdoor (17%) and automotive parts and accessories (12%) are the top categories of Amazon customers in the United States.
These data could help you determine which products are most popular and profitable to dropship. You can select less popular categories to reduce competition.
Drop shippers who use Facebook Ads would also benefit from the fact that the average conversion rate for a fitness business is 14.29 percent. Next is healthcare (11.0 percent), followed closely by beauty (7.10%), home improvement (6.56%) and fashion (6.56%) (4.11%)
Top Instagram interests for marketers (30%) are travel (45%), fashion (42%) and health & fitness (35%), skincare & makeup (30%) and sports (29%).
The most used Pinterest categories for marketers include home decor (which accounts to 69%), beauty (50%) and women’s clothing (46%)), sport &travel (39%), gardening (35%)), health (33%), electronics (30%), and men’s wear (which accounts to 30 percent of all user) (13%).
These figures will help you determine the earning potential for dropshipping real goods and which promotional venues are most effective.
Pros
- It will save you money over the long-term, as you won’t need to invest in warehousing and developing brick-and mortar storefronts. The most money is spent on promoting your products or purchasing individual orders from consumers.
- You can see the results in a very short time. If you use Pinterest Ads or Facebook Ads to market your products, you will immediately know how successful they are. Then you can decide what next.
- It’s easy to get started: With a few powerful tools and platforms, and a variety of online resources, anyone can start a physical product dropshipping company in no time.
- Dropship to any country: If your suppliers allow it, your products can be dropped shipped anywhere in the world.
- Growing into something larger: Gymshark is a global fitness company that began as a small dropshipping business.
Cons
- If you increase the price of the product too much, it is not possible to make a lot. This would mean that no one would purchase the product if it were not so. It’s therefore difficult to make significant profits.
- You don’t have much control over your backend. Your vendors will take care of fulfillment, packaging and shipping. It would be difficult to know if an issue has arisen.
- Extremely competitive: You’ll face other drop shippers as well as small businesses in your industry, as well eCommerce giants like Amazon, eBay and Walmart.
- It can be hard to brand your company. Dropshipping products can be sold by anyone. It is therefore difficult to be the market authority.
- Payment processor problems include: Some payment services like Stripe or Paypal might ban your accounts because they don’t have control over the supply chain.
- Customer service issues: Customers may complain about slow shipping and poor product quality.
- Problems with refunds, chargesbacks and returns: Consumers may ask for refunds or file a dispute to recover their money. The return process can be complicated because you are not the one who distributes the goods directly.
Startup Prices
An eCommerce or dropshipping site builder such as Shopify and BigCommerce charges a monthly fee of $30. A domain name is $10 per year and a business email is about the same. Third-party applications can cost anywhere from $10 to $100 per month. These fixed costs must be taken into consideration.
Variable costs are next on the list. It costs $10 to acquire a customer and $10 to fulfill an order. To consistently sell 50-100 units, you’ll need anywhere from $1,000 to $2,000
We recommend a budget of approximately $2,500 to start dropshipping materials. Although you can go higher or lower than this, it is a good starting point.
Potential Earnings
Drop shippers might make hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars selling a single product. Others see only losses.
We can’t give you exact numbers, but you can get ideas from the success stories below.
Alexander and Andreas are the owners of the first, a pet dropshipping business. The interview revealed that after one year of investing, failing and trying again, the owners earned $500,000 per month and exceeded the $10 million mark.
Subtle Asian Treats is the second, which sells plush toys and specialty stores. After learning about dropshipping for one year, Tze, the owner, realized that he could make $19,000 from selling bubble tea pillows.
How to Start
To anyone who is interested in making money drop-shipping, we recommend AliExpress, Oberlo and Shopify.
Shopify is the most widely used eCommerce platform. It allows you to quickly set up an online store and scale it up. Shopify also offers over 100 design options and more than 4200 apps, which can be tailored to suit any company’s requirements.
AliExpress is an eCommerce giant founded in 2010, and now owned by Alibaba Group. The platform works mainly with direct producers and can offer 100+ million tangible goods at a fair price, which can be resold to make money.
Oberlo also allows you to import AliExpress products quickly into your Shopify store, and start selling immediately.
Dropship Print On-Demand Items
Dropshipping is also possible by selling print-on-demand items. These are items such as t-shirts and hoodies as well as purses and mugs. They can be printed with your own designs right after you place an order.
You can rely on third-party organizations to handle your customer orders. This is similar to traditional dropshipping.
Insights
Print-on-demand has seen a 12% increase in its market share over the past four years, and it shows no signs that it is slowing down. This growth is partially due to the increased demand for unique and exclusive products as well as developments in printing technology.
All types of businesses can be affected by the COVID-19 in one way or another. The print-on-demand strategy seems to have more benefits than drawbacks due to the rapid rise in sales of personalized products, especially face masks.
Personalization is a key component of print-on-demand. Data Intelo predicts that the global market for personalized gifts will grow at a staggering CAGR of 9.5%, rising from $26.3 billion in 2019 and $41.3 billion by 2026.
Studies show that brands offering personalized services can increase their revenue by 20%. Customers also reported spending more money when they could customize their services. 77% of respondents said so.
Pros
Print-on-demand has all the advantages of traditional dropshipping but also offers many additional benefits. These are listed below.
- It is easy to find trusted suppliers: Many of the printing partners and suppliers available today, like Printful and Printify are reliable and highly rated.
- Your brand: Dropshipping offers you a great opportunity to create a unique brand. Many suppliers also offer dropshipping services that allow you to ship orders with custom packaging and invoices.
- Loops of feedback: You have the ability to quickly create a new design and observe how customers react.
Cons
- Rely on your printing partner: You lose control over the fulfillment and shipping process just as in the old model.
- It is hard to come up with winning designs in a highly competitive industry like print-on-demand. If you don’t have original, attractive, and trending designs, it’s difficult to survive.
- There are very few products available in every print-on-demand category. There is no way to sell a cat-shaped coffee mug.
- Extended processing times: Each product must undergo a printing process, which delays the fulfillment process.
Startup Prices
Print-on-demand services don’t charge a monthly fee. You only have to pay the product price and shipping.
An online store, domain name, business email, third party software and marketing and fulfilment budgets are all necessary. This is similar to reselling physical items.
We recommend spending $2,500 to establish a reliable dropshipping print-on-demand business.
Potential Earnings
In 1-2 years, print-on demand drop shippers will generate an average of $100-$200 per monthly. This is normal, as people spend most of their time learning how to design the best product.
After you have found the right designs, it is easy to expand your dropshipping business.
Let’s look at two examples of success to get some inspiration.
Carlos Rodriguez founded The Happy Givers and has sold over $200K by selling dropshipped shirts with meaningful messages. This was possible by creating a strong social brand, and giving back as much as possible to the community.
Famous In Real Life is number 2. In less than two years this store went from being obscure to a well-known brand, with sales of $700,000. Mike Pasley, the owner, spent many years trying out different product designs and concepts to create a profitable print-on-demand business.
How to Start
Printful is the best on-demand printing platform. It allows you to create over 230 high quality items quickly and then sell them on your site.
The company offers a variety of products, including shirts, jackets and hoodies, sweatshirts as well as bottoms, swimwear, sports bras. Caps, bags, jewellery, jewelry, socks, keychains. flip flops. Blankets, pillows, wall art, bean bags, pet items and more.
Printful will send the order to the closest fulfilment center when a customer buys from your store. The item is created in 2-7 days and delivered to the customer.
Printify, TeeLaunch and SPOD are all recommended dropshipping platforms that allow you to print on demand.
You don’t have to be a designer, but you might consider hiring someone on Fiverr and Upwork.
Sell White-Label/Private-Label Products
White-label products, which are manufactured by third-party suppliers, are labeled with a different logo and brand name to give the impression that they are made by the brand.
Print-on-demand can be described as a type of white label. Print-on-demand is a different model from the white-label standard. You can print your graphics directly onto products. White-label goods, however, have fewer customization options.
Here’s an example of white-label product.
Both types of products are rebranded under a different company’s name. This means that the terms “white label” and “private label” are often misunderstood by large companies and most people. A private-label item, on the other hand is usually made for one shop and hence the name “private”.
We’ll refer to them as one for the purposes of this article.
Insights
- In 2019, the white-label/private label market was valued at $60.8 million. It is expected to continue growing in the coming years.
- Private label products accounted to 17.9% of North American retail sales. In Europe, however, they accounted 31.7 percent.
- According to eMarketer private brands are one reason customers shop at a particular retailer.
- Minimum half of millennials would be willing to buy private-label products from any category. 48% also stated that they planned to buy more products in the next year.
- Customers are becoming more aware of white-label/private-label items due to the advent of digital marketing, and they are more eager to try them out.
Pros
- Rapid brand expansion: Being one of the few merchants who white- or private-label a product is essentially stamping your brand’s name on it. When it comes to smartphones, there are only three firms that come to mind: Apple and Samsung.
- Higher profit margin: Because people appreciate branded products more than non-branded ones, you can charge more for your white-label/private-label items.
Cons
- Insufficient supply of reliable products and suppliers: It’s difficult to find trustworthy suppliers or manufacturers online who sell white-label, private-label products.
- Drop shippers will sell your product in a flash, creating competition and saturation. To take control of the market, promote your product and scale up quickly.
- Manufacturer dependence: This is similar to dropshipping. You give your backend to third parties. The key to success is finding a reliable partner.
- Dropshipping companies might charge a lot for new products because of their exclusivity and novelty.
Startup Prices
Because white label and private labels are more costly than dropshipping products, we recommend that you invest $3000-$5000 in order to get started. This budget includes all operations expenses, including maintaining an online store, promoting and delivering orders.
Potential Earnings
Kenzzi, a well-known dropshipping business, specializes in two types white-label products: microdermabrasion devices and hair removal handsets.
It goes viral immediately and attracts over 350K monthly visitors to its store. This is mainly due to the use of Facebook marketing and Instagram influencers.
Consider that the $229 hair-removal device has a ridiculous 1% conversion rate. Kenzzi’s monthly income is approximately 229 * 350,000 * 11% = $801,000.
You can see how profitable dropshipping is for a product that costs $25 on Alibaba.
How to Start
Alibaba should be your first stop for finding white-label/private-label products to dropship and profit from. Log in to Alibaba and search for white label or private label in the search bar. Then browse for the product you are looking for.
The platform is well-known and we don’t have to talk about it. Alibaba.com, the largest wholesale marketplace in the world, offers millions of products in over 40 categories.
Alibaba offers dropshipping services at a fraction of the cost of AliExpress.
To quickly import Alibaba products to your Shopify store, you can use Spocket and Modalyst.
Make Money with Intangible Goods
Dropshipping tangible products is something you might consider. You could also resell digital products from others.
This is how it works. The resell rights allow you to legally sell eBooks and online courses while keeping 100% of the revenue. You can also purchase PLR (private label rights), which allows you to claim ownership of the products and make them your own.
You can also use intangible goods as an incentive to sell or upsell physical dropshipping products.
Insights
According to research, the eBook market is expected to reach $16 billion by 2020. It is projected to reach $38 Billion by 2026. This represents a high CAGR (11.7%) between 2021 and 2026.
Similar trends will be observed in the elearning industry. It is expected that it will grow at 8.56 percent annually, rising from $226 billion in 2020 and $370 billion by 2026.
These marketplaces have grown due to the rapid growth of internet access in emerging countries and the accessibility of online materials that are cheaper than offline counterparts. The COVID-19 pandemic helps people to feel comfortable with online learning.
Pros
- There is no need to purchase inventory, or worry about shipping and return fees. Your overhead costs will be low.
- It’s extraordinaryly profitable: You retain almost all of the sale proceeds.
- Fully automated: It is possible to build a system that delivers digital goods directly to your clients, without any additional actions.
- Complete control of product quality, stock, and sales funnels.
Cons
- High competition: You can compete with not only other respected publications, but also with free resources.
- Keep up to date with the latest content: Clients need to be provided with the most current information about your intangible goods.
Startup Prices
To purchase amazing digital products with full resell rights and a website construction cost, you only need to spend an additional $100-$200.
Earnings Opportunities
According to Author Earnings only 3% of Amazon’s 200,000 authors make more than $10,000 per year. Only 1% of self-published eBooks could make a lot of money.
Online course creators could make anywhere from $1000 to $50+ per month.
How to Start
PLR Database and PLR Me both provide excellent resources to find high-quality digital products that have resell rights. You can sell the products on your Shopify store by using Digital Downloads and Easy Digital Products after you have purchased them.
You can contact Amazon writers or Udemy instructors to find the right information. They will be happy to share their work and help you negotiate a profit split.
Create an Affiliate Program with Admitad
Dropshipping products to China marketplaces such as AliExpress, DHgate and Banggood allows Admitad to help business owners recover a portion of their money.
It is a well-known network for affiliate marketing that connects marketers and publishers to achieve mutual benefit. Advertisers can draw more people to their sites by joining the platform. Publishers can make money by helping them promote products through commissions.
Insights
Admitad offers a substantial money-back guarantee for AliExpress products. It ranges from 0.75 percent up to a staggering 69 percent. Banggood holds a 6 to 12 percent market share while DHgate is at 2 percent to 51 per cent.
According to Admitad’s annual report, dropshipping was the most popular traffic source for the site with over 1.5 million orders and $13.2million in sales.
Dropshipping publishers (dropshippers who are part of the Admitad affiliate program) can earn an average commission from $1.4 to $13.
Admitad is completely free to join. There’s no additional charge. Only a monthly subscription is required to connect Admitad with your dropshipping application.
There is little to no additional work required. Once you have set up Admitad’s affiliate network, the system will calculate your payback and assist with it. You don’t need to do anything else.
Cons
- Low earnings: You’ll make an average of a few cents or a few dollars per order.
- You can trust Admitad to work with a different model. The sales of your dropshipping shop determine how much money you make.
Startup Prices
All you need to connect Admitad with dropshipping programs like Oberlo and DSers is an additional $19.9-$29.9/month.
Earnings Opportunities
This model usually covers some of your payment processing fees or service costs.
Let’s say you have 100 monthly orders and that each order is $20. You can earn $60 per month by adding $100 to 20% and 3% respectively.
How to Start
Register as an Admitad publisher to obtain your unique affiliate link. Depending on which dropshipping software you use, paste the link in your affiliate section.
Get a Cashback App
Cashback programs like Megabonus, LetyShops and cashBack allow you to get a portion of your money back for dropshipping orders.
Insights
These apps pay cashback in the range of 1% to 30%. You can also get up to 60% cashback for every product you purchase.
Pros
- No investment is required for cash-back apps. There is no need to pay any additional fees for third-party services.
- After installing the cashback software, you don’t need to do anything. All you have to do is turn it on and everything will work in your favor.
Cons
- Admitad has low earnings. It is similar to affiliate marketing in that you make very little on each order.
- Depends on sales at the store: If there are no sales, you will not get any money back.
Startup Prices
It’s completely free to install cashback software, earn extra money, and run your dropshipping company.
Potential Earnings
You might be able to get cash-back for certain service prices and payment processing fees.
How to Start
LetyShops is our top choice because it’s reliable and offers the highest cashback rates. Once you have completed installing the app, visit the dropship website and click the icon to activate it. If it turns green, you’re good to go. If it turns green, refresh the page and try again.
Start a Dropshipping Shop and Flip It for Profit
The next step to make money is to flip a dropshipping business. This means that you purchase one from someone, or make it yourself, then grow it and then sell it to another person for more money.
Insights
Empire Flippers, a well-known platform for website flipping, conducted research on each firm that was flipped. The data shows that the average ROI for a flip is 24 percent with an average duration of 407 days. However, the vast majority of flippers had a significantly higher ROI at 114 percent.
Pros
- High profit margins: It is not unusual for a flipper to double or triple the store’s value within a year.
- You should have steady income before you start flipping. Dropshipping stores with traffic allow you to make a profit and then reinvest your money in the business’ growth.
Cons
- Dropshipping is a trusted business that will charge you between a few thousand and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- It’s not easy to find clients. The market is highly competitive and it’s hard to find people willing to spend thousands of dollars on a dropshipping business that they don’t know will make money in the long-term.
- It takes a lot of effort to learn about a store and increase its traffic, income, and search rankings.
- Ridiculous: Dropshipping stores that have no growth potential or are penalized by Google can be risky.
Startup Prices
You will need at least $10,000 in order to get started in this business. You will need to purchase dropshipping stores, run ads, perform SEO and build social media profiles.
Potential Earnings
Dropshipping stores’ normal flipping rate of 30-36 percent per month or 2.5-33% annually is their annual profit. If your store makes $10,000 per month, it can be sold for $300,000-$360,000
There are many success stories about this model. An Onfolio case study shows that a niche website owner bought the site for $2,700, and then flipped it for $24,000 within a year. Another case study by TheWebsiteFlip states that they purchased a website for $5,560, and then resold it for $30,000. This was in five months.
How to Start
Flippa and ExchangeMarketplace allow you to find stores that have already been successful. Even though most marketplaces automatically calculate all data and allow sellers to make changes, it is still a good idea for you to verify the authenticity of the store’s product catalog, social media profiles, SEO profiles, traffic and earnings.
After your dropshipping business has made money, you can relist it on these marketplaces.
Becoming a Dropshipping Supplier
Dropshipping providers are companies or individuals that sell products to other sellers.
If you are a dropshipper, you won’t be required to market to your products directly to end-users. Dropshippers will generate sales, while you will manage fulfillment and shipping.
Insights
CJDropshipping and Ruby Imports are the most well-known dropshipping companies. You can invest millions in product development if you want your company to be as successful as them.
PrivateLabelExtensions and PepperAndCute are two low-cost dropshipping suppliers. They offer services to drop shippers as well as selling products to their regular customers.
Pros
- Selling other people’s products has the exact opposite advantages and disadvantages of dropshipping.
- You can have control over the backend processes. This will allow you to provide the best service for your customers.
- Because they help you with advertising, which is one of the most costly aspects of any business, resellers can be very profitable. You’ll be able create new sales every day while still maintaining a reasonable profit margin.
Cons
- It’s a huge investment: Product procurement and storage will require a large amount of money.
- Distribution and inventory issues: How to keep up with sudden increases in demand while still shipping on time.
Startup Prices
Let’s say you work in the stationary industry. If you order in bulk, each notebook will cost approximately $1.5 plus $2 shipping fees. For 1000 units, the cost of a notebook is approximately $1.5 + 2 * 1000.
To have 50 different types of stationery in your warehouse, you will need to spend $3500 * 50 = $175,000
Although this figure is only an estimate, it gives you an idea of the amount you will need to start drop shipping.
Potential Earnings
For each product, you should expect a 20% profit margin. The profit margin may be higher in certain businesses.
How to Start
Alibaba is the best place to buy large quantities of products at a very low price.
Once you have sourced your products, Spocket or Modalyst can help you get them in front of thousands drop shippers and retailers.
Create A Supplier Directory
Dropshipping supplier directories are a list of dropshipping suppliers that offer high quality dropshipping services from different areas. The owner usually makes money by charging users to access the directory.
Insights
Dropshipping directories such as WorldwideBrands and WholesaleCentral are well-known.
Pros
- Profitable: Because it is so affordable to create and maintain a directory, you can keep most of the profit.
- Automated payment collection and directory accessibility: It is easy to set up an automated system to collect the payments of your purchasers and give them access to the directory.
Cons
- Keep your supplier directory current by updating frequently: This is critical. If this is not done, others may protest and demand refunds.
- It takes extensive research to find the best vendors in different niches. You must search the whole internet. A good directory should have at least 1000 entries.
Startup Prices
A website is all you need to display your suppliers list. It costs about $50 per year.
Potential Earnings
Access to your dropshipping supplier list could cost you anywhere from $49 (e.g. SuppliersData) up to $299 (e.g. WorldwideBrands).
How to Start
WordPress and Wix are the two most powerful platforms for building websites. You can create any type of website with a variety of tools, including a supplier directory.
WordPress, which powers more than 30% of all websites, is the most used content management system (CMS). It allows you to design your website as you wish, and also offers a large plugin library that will allow to quickly expand the functionality of your site.
Wix, a drag-and drop website builder with over 200 million users is popular. It is easier to use than WordPress and offers less customization.
Use Amazon Affiliate Marketing on Your Store
Amazon Associates is the largest affiliate program on the internet. It allows content creators and publishers the opportunity to earn fees for referring customers to Amazon’s products.
It’s possible to make decent money by selling Amazon products that are related to your niche and monetizing existing dropshipping stores.
Insights
Amazon Associates can give you up to ten percent commission for every qualifying purchase. The highest payment rates are available for luxury beauty, handmade, physical & digital music, Amazon’s devices, watches, jewelry, shoes, handbags & accessories, and luggage.
During bounty events, you can earn flat commissions up to $15
Pros
- Amazon Associates membership is completely free. It’s only a small investment. You only need third-party software to display Amazon products on dropshipping sites.
- Amazon is a trusted and well-known website. Most people are familiar with it and feel comfortable buying from it.
- Amazon has millions of products. You can find almost every product in any niche on Amazon.
- Even if you don’t promote things directly, you can still make money from them. As long as your visitors use your referral links to visit Amazon and make a purchase, they will continue to receive commissions.
Cons
- The commission rates are very low. As stated previously, the maximum fee for commission is 10%. This corresponds to a few dollars per purchase, even if it’s small.
- The cookie session starts when someone clicks one of your links. It can last up 24 hours. If they don’t make a purchase, or add items to their basket during this time period, you will not be paid any commissions.
- Amazon prohibits associates from marketing via email.
- PayPal payments are not possible. Instead, you can pay by check, direct deposit, or Amazon gift card.
- Because Amazon Associates has strict rules about what you can do and cannot do, it is easy to be banned. Therefore, it is important to read and adhere to all Amazon affiliate policies.
- There is a rigorous application review process. You could be disqualified from this program if you store does not have unique content or provides value for your customers.
- Dropshipping may be affected by sales conflict: Amazon products promoted on your site could cause dropshipping sales to suffer.
Startup Prices
You only need an additional $5-10 to market Amazon products and make money with your Shopify dropshipping shop.
Potential Earnings
This model is a great way to make a lot of money.
To give you an idea of what to do, imagine you are promoting a $20 Amazon product at a 5% commission rate. Refer 100 people to the product and you can make $100. 100 * $20 * 5% = $100.
How to Start
Register with Amazon Associates to get started. Be patient, as the application review can take some time. Once you have been accepted, log in to the affiliate dashboard and get your unique affiliate link.
Spreadr App lets you import any Amazon product into your Shopify store. You can also display a button which drives customers to Amazon to buy them.
Dropshipping Product Subscriptions
Dropshipping is a great way to make a steady stream of income by offering product subscriptions.
This diagram is easy to understand. You provide ongoing services in exchange for recurring payments. For example, surprise gifts are given to your customers every month.
Insights
Paymotion reports that selling to an existing customer has a 60% to 70% chance of success, while selling to a prospect is only 5-20% likely.
McKinsey claims that the subscription eCommerce market has grown at an average rate of over 100% annually for the past five years.
15% of online consumers have subscribed to at least one subscription in order to receive products on a regular basis.
Pros
- Increase revenue: It is more expensive to attract new customers than to retain existing ones. Profitability can be boosted by increasing retention rates by 5%, which increases it from 25% to 95 percent.
- Client loyalty can be increased by providing excellent customer service. Your customers will remember you and be more inclined to return to your brand when they need new products.
Cons
- Subscribers can be hard to find: Customers shouldn’t have to sign contracts that limit their purchasing options if you don’t offer anything special.
- It is hard to maintain consistent service. Dropshipping suppliers are responsible for all backend operations. Subscription products may not arrive on time and in good condition.
- High turnover rates: According to data, nearly 40% of online subscribers have dropped their subscriptions. Dropshipping companies that cannot provide consistent customer experiences will see this number rise significantly.
Startup Prices
Most third-party subscription apps can be set up for free. However, they will charge between 1% to 3% per transaction.
Potential Earnings
Birchbox is an excellent example of a company who makes the most of subscriptions. Birchbox currently has 2.5million active users and generates $200m in annual revenue.
How to Start
PayWhirl Subscription Payments and Recharge Subscriptions are great apps to implement a subscription model into your dropshipping shop. It takes just a few minutes to install and configure them for any product.
List your Products on Other Ecommerce Websites
Many people regularly visit and support large online marketplaces. Dropshipping is a great way to increase exposure and sales.
All recommended eCommerce sites include Etsy and Wish, BestBuy and OnBuy.
Dropshipping products can be sold on Amazon, eBay and Walmart.
You must make sure that you are the seller-of-record. This means that all shipping slips, invoices and shipment packages must include your brand name. You will also be responsible for processing refunds and returns.
Insights
A poll found that Amazon, eBay and Etsy account respectively for 46.7 percent and 35 percent of all product search results.
65 percent of buyers also stated that they feel comfortable buying on marketplaces owned by brands they’ve never heard of.
Pros
- Reach new customers: Dropshipping products and your brand will be available to a wide range of interested buyers, of all ages, genders and economic statuses.
- It’s easy to set up: Most marketplaces only take a few minutes to sign up and start selling. You can also sync your product inventory to these marketplaces with several third-party software.
- You can use it as a branding component in the following ways: Your brand will look more trusted if it is represented on multiple sales channels.
Cons
- It is difficult to manage multiple sales channels. Customers and markets have different buying habits. Your current sales and marketing strategies might not work in all areas.
- All over the place, bans are being placed on the wrist: Since you don’t control the supply chain, it can be difficult to comply with all the market’s requirements regarding product quality, shipping schedules, and unique packaging.
Startup Prices
You may need to pay $14.99 to $39.99 per monthly to become a merchant on major marketplaces. Additionally, third-party programs that connect you to dropshipping stores can cost an additional $19-$29 per per month.
Potential Earnings
Take, for example, Amazon vendors. JugleScout reports that 44% earn between $1,000 and $25,000 per month. Some super-sellers can make up to $250,000 per month. Profit margins are higher than 10% for 68 percent of the profit-earners.
Etsy merchants make less profit than Amazon, with an average monthly revenue of $537.50. This results in a monthly profit totaling $291 after expenses are deducted. It is easy to understand this, given Etsy’s smaller business size than Amazon.
How to Start
CedCommerce offers a range of apps to help you integrate your dropshipping shop with the majority of the above-mentioned marketplaces.
Once you have installed the app, you can easily push your products to the marketplace and manage all your listings from one place. All information, including prices and orders, is synced in real time between the systems.
Dropshipping to AliExpress is not recommended as you cannot guarantee that the items will arrive without any platform trace.
According to Amazon and eBay, it is against the law to purchase an item from another marketplace or store to ship it directly to your customer.
You should therefore only use wholesale dropshipping services such as CJDropshipping or print-on-demand providers like Printful, Printify and others.
Dropshipping Gigs
Dropshipping specialists might offer services such as constructing high-converting stores, sourcing successful products, and running ads for other people to make money.
A website is a great way to market yourself. However, it is faster to set up a Fiverr Account.
Insights
Statistics show that Fiverr has 3.42 million buyers, with $189.51 millions of them spending in 2020.
Even more remarkable is the fact that 55% of the income from the platform comes from repeat customers. This simply means that people will return to you if they receive excellent service.
Fiverr customers spend on average $205 annually, an increase of 20.59% between 2019 and 2020.
Fiverr receives a 20% fee on all orders.
Pros
- You can make a lot of money with Fiverr. Some vendors charge $200 for dropshipping. If you score five gigs per monthly, it will cost $1000.
- Cross-selling is possible with other services: You can market and assist third-party businesses in selling their products or marketing your past engagements to supplement your income.
Cons
- You need to have expert knowledge: Dropshipping is a great way to provide customer support.
- It’s not easy to find clients. Given the fierce competition on Fiverr and other websites, you will need to work hard to get customers.
- Manage stringent requirements: Clients might occasionally ask you for unusual tasks. You must keep cool and think of the best ideas.
Startup Prices
Membership in Fiverr is completely free
You can create your own freelancing website by paying $50 for hosting and a domain name.
Earnings Opportunities
Priceonomics has estimated that 96.3 percent (5HR) merchants make less than $500 each month. 1% of Fiverr sellers make more than $2,000 per monthly.
Dropshipping can be a great way to make money, but you will need to work hard to keep up with the rest of your competitors.
How to Start
Dropshipping forums and Facebook groups can be a great way to find potential clients. Be as helpful and active as possible. If you have established good relationships and authority, you can offer gigs to other members.
Make a YouTube Channel about Dropshipping
You might also consider starting a YouTube channel if you are interested in sharing your knowledge. Advertisements on your videos or promoting affiliate programs to your viewers could make you money.
Insights
YouTube, which has over 2 billion users logged in, is second most popular social network site after Facebook.
A Google study found that over 40% of YouTube users use YouTube to find out more about products and services before they purchase them.
The number of YouTube channels earning at least $10,000 annually has increased by 50% over the past year in terms of earnings.
Pros
- It’s easy to get started. You can easily create your YouTube channel in minutes and start publishing videos whenever it suits you.
- There are many ways you can make money with your videos: Affiliate marketing, advertising, donations, courses and eBooks.
- YouTube Analytics lets you quickly see the results and pinpoint any problems.
Cons
- YouTube is highly competitive. You need to constantly think of new ideas. Without engaging and new content, it’s hard to be successful.
- Dropshipping requires a lot of knowledge.
- Video editing and optimization requires a lot of effort and time.
- There will be many trials and errors. Don’t expect to succeed at first. It’s about sharing your content, getting comments, learning from your mistakes and trying again on YouTube.
Startup Prices
A YouTube channel can be started for free, if you don’t include the cost of equipment like cameras and microphones.
Potential Earnings
Imagine that you have a YouTube video of 100,000 views with AdSense ads and a Shopify affiliate promotion.
AdSense pays YouTubers an average of $3-$5 for 1000 videos. In a money-related niche, such as dropshipping, this number could be significantly higher ($15-20 per mile is common). Let’s say $5 to make a quick calculation.
Shopify’s affiliate program has a conversion rate estimated at 1%. Each successful referral is paid $58.
The total earnings from YouTube videos would be approximately 100,000 / 1,000 * $5+ 100,000 * 1%* $58 = $58,500.
You can see that YouTube is a very lucrative place to work.
How to Start
YouTube Academy offers a variety of resources that will help you get started on YouTube as soon as possible.
Apart from Shopify you can also promote dropshipping winning products research tools, ad spy tool, Shopify apps or find great affiliate offers on ClickBank for affiliate marketing.
Create a Blog about Dropshipping
Even if you are not a YouTuber or a blogger, it is a great way to share your dropshipping knowledge and still make money.
Insights
The content marketing industry is expected to reach $412.88 billion by 2021. Blogging accounts for a large portion of that. 500 million blogs are among the nearly 1.7 billion pages on the internet.
According to research, 6/10 clients enjoy blog posts at the beginning of their buying process.
Pros
- To get started with blogging, there is usually a small initial investment. Some are even free.
- There are many ways to make money with your blog: Adverts, affiliate marketing and donation, course, eBooks and other similar methods to YouTube.
- Passive income is still possible, but you will need to work hard at first. As your blog becomes more popular, you’ll stop writing new blog posts and focus on updating the existing ones.
Cons
- Dropshipping is extremely competitive: You will be competing with established platforms like Oberlo and Shopify to start a dropshipping website.
- It takes time to see any tangible results. On average, your blog takes six months to gain any significant traffic. Even longer to make any money.
Startup Prices
Three major charges are important to remember.
For a domain name, the first option costs $11.99 per annum. The second option is web hosting, which can be purchased for between $40 and $50 per year. You may also need to pay an additional $100 for third-party themes and plugins.
We recommend that you spend $100-$200 on a dropshipping website.
Potential Earnings
Glassdoor states that the average American blogger earns $50,606 annually. Their income statistics show that many well-known bloggers like Adamenfroy or CreateAndGo make more than $100,000 each month.
How to Start
WordPress is the most used blogging platform and the one that powers our website.
Dropshipping Apps
A Shopify dropshipping program is another attractive option for tech-savvy people. It’s similar to Oberlo or Topdser.
Insights
Shopify app developers were able to generate $233 million in 2021. This is more than in 2018 or 2020.
Shopify announced that it will take 0% from the first $1,000,000 in-app revenue generated by the Shopify app store. Apps that surpass this threshold will see a 15% revenue share, instead of 20%. This will allow anyone interested in starting a Shopify app design business to make a lot more money.
Pros
- Profitable: A majority of the money that you make from Shopify apps is profit.
- Shopify provides a wealth of information about this topic that you can access via the app learning portal and the Shopify YouTube channel. Developer forums also have a lot of useful information.
Cons
- It will take you at least 3 to 6 months to learn how things work if you don’t have any programming knowledge.
- Shopify is highly competitive. They already have a number of dropshipping apps. If yours doesn’t have unique features, it can be difficult to convince people to switch.
- Shopify’s core software is constantly updated, so developers need to keep up with these changes.
Startup Prices
Participating in the app developer program is completely free.
Potential Earnings
Shopify’s new app generated an average of $27 to $355 per monthly in the past three months.
Apps that gain popularity could earn as much as $5465 per month. Shopify’s top app developers can make anywhere from a few hundred to millions of dollars annually.
For example, FORSBERG+two’s owner makes $275K annually in profit.
How to Start
To get started, sign up for Shopify’s app developer program.
Dropshipping Shopify Themes
Shopify themes are more popular than apps. These pre-designed templates allow customers to change the look and feel of their store instantly.
Insights
Shopify charges a 30% to 50% commission for each theme sold, depending on which option you choose. It’s not as large as apps, but it is a substantial amount. To help developers make more money, however, certain changes to the revenue sharing will take place in September 2021.
There are currently no themes on the internet specifically designed for dropshipping. Debutify is an exception, as it offers a winning product search engine. You have a good chance of making decent money and competing if you make one.
Pros
- Profitable: Shopify themes typically cost $180. You’ll still be able to make a substantial profit, even if Shopify takes a 30%- or 50% cut.
- Shopify offers many tools similar to apps to help you get started.
Cons
- It takes design, coding, and marketing skills to build a strong theme. You will need to have the vision of a marketer and a designer in order to create a theme that is beautiful and highly-converting.
- Compete with other popular themes. There are many themes available on Shopify Marketplace and third-party websites.
- The combination of speed and compatibility is a nightmare: It can be difficult to create a theme that’s fast but also compatible with thousands upon thousands of Shopify apps.
Startup Prices
It is free to join the Shopify theme development program.
Potential Earnings
ZipRecruiter estimates that a Shopify theme developer makes $78,815 annually. This number is not directly representative of the income of the dropshipping theme owner, but it can be used to guide.
How to Start
You can design a theme just like apps by joining the Shopify developer program.
Create Winning Product Research Tools
We also have efficient research tools to help dropship products. Ecomhunt and AliShark, SellerPulse and Dropispy, are just a few examples.
Insights
The demand for product research tools is constantly high as evidenced by the increasing number of new tools available on the internet and how much traction they get across various advertising channels.
Pros
- It is extremely profitable: The cost of running a website application is small compared to the amount of revenue it generates.
- You don’t need to be a programmer. Some of the most popular dropshipping platforms for product research, like ThieveCo and Pexda have products that have been hand-curated. If you are able to identify them, it is possible to design a winning product.
Cons
- Hackers could try to steal your data, DDoS your tool or attempt to take it all. This poses a security risk.
- Your tool may become slow or sluggish if you scrape and display thousands of product data.
Startup Prices
Dropshipping is a cost-effective way to start a business. It costs between $200 and $500. Hosting, domain fees, and third party APIs are all included.
Potential Earnings
For example, take Sell the Trend. It costs $39.97 per month and gets about 150K monthly visitors. If the conversion rate of 1% is used, Sell The Trend can generate 150K * $1 percent * $39.97 = $59 955 per month.
How to Start
RapidAPI is a great tool to speed up your development. You can access product data from AliExpress and Amazon using a variety of APIs available on this website.
Conclusion
Dropshipping can be done in many ways. These include selling real products or print-on demand items, affiliate marketing with Admitad and using cashback programs, flipping businesses and developing Shopify themes and applications.
Each approach has its own set of initial costs, income potential, benefits, and disadvantages. It all depends on your personal preferences and strengths.
No matter what path you choose, dedication and hard work are key to success. There is no single way to succeed or make it easy.
Keep trying and failing. You will eventually get there.
