Dropshipping success rate is at 10% to 20% in 2024. It may generally take 6 months to 1 year before dropshippers make a real profit from their online businesses. While it is potentially profitable, most dropshipping business owners do not achieve success overnight. A select few, however, manage to make millions with hard work and the right strategy.
Cole Turner launched his dropshipping business when he was 18 and later became one of the world’s richest dropshippers. He tried different strategies - from selling plants and pottery to general items and jewelry. Eventually, he began catering to people’s needs and sold homeware products. With effective advertising, he earned $2 million in sales from March 2019 to May 2020. “Customer service sends shock waves through your whole business,” Cole tells Oberlo. “If it’s good because then you get return customers, you get positive reviews on Facebook, you get word-of-mouth sales.”
Today, succeeding in drop shipping requires more skills than it did several years ago. In fact, an AppScenic report suggests that up to 90% of dropshipping stores fail within their first few months of operation. Some fail by choosing the wrong market niche or failure to pick a winning product to sell. Furthermore, other dropshippers simply do not understand the business model or lack marketing skills.
According to Printful, experts anticipate the dropshipping market size to reach $301.11 billion in 2024while Oberlo says it will hit $476.1 billion by 2026. So while dropshipping is far from dead, it’s definitely not a get-rich-quick type of business.There's an opportunity to make money as a dropshipper but it can also be challenging as it gets more saturated each year. As Redditor u/rulesforrebels points out, there’s a “low barrier to entry,” plus it’s “very easy to quit.”
To be successful in dropshipping, you need to become an effective marketer. You want to design scroll-stopping ads or videos with virality potential. You need to come up with creatives that will grab the attention of your ideal audience and get them to take action. Also, dropshipping is all about testing multiple products and seeing what works for you. You have to provide value and deliver customer satisfaction as you build and grow your ecommerce store. Likewise, you can consider learning from top dropshippers by checking out their online courses such as eCom Success Academy by Adrian Morrison, Supreme eCom Blueprint 2.0 by AC Hampton, and eCom Elites by Franklin Hatchett.
In this feature, we will discuss how you can keep your dropshipping business profitable and boost its success rate. We’ll also tackle the reasons behind dropshipping failures, plus introduce you to another business model that’s more profitable, is not as saturated, and can be an excellent source of passive income.
How To Increase Your Dropshipping Success Rate and Be Among The Top 10%
For the most part, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Your goal is to look for products that are selling well, then find an example of an ad or store dominating the market. You can use tools like Niche Scaper or ShopInspect to find high-performing competitor ads. Take those creatives or store templates and do your best to replicate them. Put your own spin and try to do better than your competitors. Consider the following factors:
- What strategies and products are working for successful dropshipping businesses?
- Where are their ads lacking?
- How can you improve them to drive more sales to your store?
PRO TIP
When looking for popular selling products, look for ones that elicit engagement with tons of feedback, comments, and positive reviews. Tools like PowerAdSpy or Social Ad Scout can help you in this process.
1. Become an Expert Dropshipping Marketer
Becoming an expert marketer is an important ingredient to succeed in dropshipping. You are essentially going into a noisy marketplace and are trying to grab the attention of your target audience. The aim is to stop people's mindless scrolling online, introduce your product, and convince them to make the purchase.
To harness this power, you need to become an expert copywriter and an ad strategist - from the scripts in your visuals and videos, to the written words in emails, landing pages, and sales letters. You need to understand how to make an impression on your potential customers by tailoring your marketing efforts to their needs. Study and note things like:
- The age, interests, location and buying habits of your target buyers
- The social media channels they frequently use
"61% of consumers are influenced by custom content." Dragon360
Once you know your audience's culture and pulse, you can influence their buying decisions better. You can create ads that clearly communicate your products’ benefits right out of the gate. Your videos and images effectively dive deep into people’s pain points and invoke emotion to trigger impulse buys.
To get your marketing angle right, write down the positive key points of your items. You can take your verbiage to the next level by using the science behind your product. When you know how to influence people, you can move to any platform with your ads and dominate the market. Tools like Think With Google or BuzzSumo can help you conduct market research and achieve the best results in your marketing efforts.
PRO TIP
People don't care about your product. They care about how it can help solve their problem, save their time, or make their life better. Buyers generally make purchasing decisions to move away from pain or move towards pleasure, so you might as well highlight both factors in your creatives. Use strategic language to attract more of your target audience and increase your earnings. According to Exploding Topics, 89% of marketers “see a positive ROI when they use personalization in their campaigns.”
2. Sell Trending Dropshipping Products
Selling trending dropshipping products can increase your success rate. Focus on hot ticket items that aren't easily available everywhere. Your items should feel unique enough while still solving a problem, filling a gap, or simply having that WOW factor.
Also, inventory with scarcity triggers impulse buys and has a high demand. Pick items with a profit margin of at least 20% or higher than the supplier price. Understand customer psychology, so you can position your business better as you try to reach your target consumers.
What Makes a Drophipping Product Profitable?
A dropshipping product can be profitable if it attracts a huge market while allowing you a good profit margin. Aim for items that can give you 15% to 20% or higher in profit margin. Try high ticket products that are between $50 to $100 to increase profitability. More importantly, make sure you've researched well before you start testing products in your store, so look into the following considerations:
Ashfin Fy
@ashfin_fy
Pro tip for Dropshipping
To achieve a high success rate, you need to concentrate on picking trending products and making that product look as high-end as possible with great advertisement. If these areas are optimized, you'll be winning more than you lose.
4:14 AM · Oct 25, 2022
According to a Forbes report, some of the most profitable dropshipping products today are:
- Apparel and footwear (which is set to hit the $2 trillion market size by 2026)
- Health and beauty products (a $550 billion industry by 2026)
- Office products (a $252 billion market)
- Baby care products (a market that will hit $88.72 billion by 2026)
- Pet products ($4.5 billion market size)
Tips on Finding Winning Products in Dropshipping
3. Design a Professional-Looking Dropshipping Website
Designing a professional-looking dropshipping website is a must to attract buyers online. A low-quality store is the fastest way to fail with dropshipping, even if you have a winning product. If your website doesn't look like a legitimate business, you probably won't get any sales.
You can build a good store by using Shopify. The platform offers excellent templates, ranging from free (Craft, Crave, Origin, Publisher, Studio, etc) and paid (Emporium, Fresh, Reformation, Streamline, StyleScape,) to simplify the process for you. You may also consider hiring a professional for your logo and web design through freelance sites like Fiverr or Upwork.
In addition to the design, you also want to pick a unique domain name with a tool like LeanDomainSearch. Type in keywords and phrases you like to find available .com domain names you can use for your website.
“Online users form an opinion about a website in 0.05 seconds” - Forbes
That said, your ecommerce site’s goal is to convert traffic into actual sales. A good home page is essential but the most important part is the product page. It should work as a funnel, so it needs to pique visitors' interest and lead them to click the buy button.
Product Page Checklist
4. Modify Your Dropshipping Product Offerings
Modifying your dropshipping product offerings can help you gain advantage over your competitors. Instead of getting into price wars (which can be a slippery slope), you want to be strategic with your pricing. For example, you can use the following methods:
Offer your items in bundles (vertical and complementary items that work with your trending products) Offer upsells (congruent items that go with your winning dropshipping product) Identify products with high AOV (average order value) and offer discounts for multiple purchases If possible, adjust your pricing to offer free or discounted shipping
Use the Checkout Notes plugin on your Shopify store, which allows customers to leave a message for sellers. Notes not only improve consumer trust, but it might also increase your conversion rates. In fact, they can be a great way to handle abandoned carts and boost potential sales.
Another way to modify your dropshipping offerings and increase sales volume is to adopt urgency and scarcity techniques by adding header bars, such as:
- Limited Time Offer
- Save 10%-Buy Now
- Only X Left In Stock
These methods tap into the power of persuasion, allowing you to capitalize on people's quest for the best deal and their fear of missing out.
PRO TIP
Don't be afraid to test different price points or keep your offer stagnant. Use tools like Prisync or Price2Spy to track your competitors' prices. You may also add a countdown timer to invoke a greater sense of urgency.
5. Offer Fast Delivery in Your Dropshipping Store
Offering fast delivery in your dropshipping store is one of the surest ways to increase your success rate. According to a Roadie report, 72% of online shoppers “prioritize convenient delivery times” while 68% intentionally “look for shorter delivery windows at checkout.”
In short, customers expect fast delivery in 2024. Most buyers want to receive their online orders within 2 to 5 days. In fact, 85% of online shoppers search elsewhere when they see long delivery times in an online store. To step up your shipping game, go check out Google and Amazon for updated information on possible dropshipping supplier options you can use.
Google Search Engine
Go to Google and find dropshipping services based in the USA. Use variations of niche+product or keyword+supplier in your Google searches.
With this method, profit margins won't be as high as, say, AliExpress. However, there's still room for decent ROIs.
You can guarantee customers with faster shipping times, which could lead to more sales.
Amazon
Head over to Amazon.com and find third-party sellers that you can contact directly.
Ask if they have an extra supply or if you could use their Amazon fulfillment process.
Most dropshippers are too lazy to use this method, so there’s less competition.
Alibaba is another option for dropshippers that already have a profitable product or are ready to scale their stores. Reach out to wholesalers listed on the site and ask:
It’s important to ensure that they are a good fit and can meet the demands of your store. Examples of reliable supplier companies in the US include:
- DropCommerce
- Sellvia
- Spocket
- Sunrise Wholesale
- Wholesale2b
- WorldwideBrands
Alternatively, it’s also possible to find US-based on platforms like:
- Banggood
- Chinabrands
- CJDropshipping
- SaleHoo
PRO TIP
Diversify and aim for around 20 suppliers. This will help you handle common dropshipping problems, such as in the supply chain or limited inventory.
6. Add Value in Your Dropshipping Products
Adding value in your dropshipping products helps you convince buyers that your offerings are worth it. Value is the difference between price and benefits, which means how much the item costs versus the customer’s perception of the product.
People don't just buy products but the results the items provide. You can shift their perception by listing the advantages of your item and showing how it will enhance their lives. This moves the attention away from the price tag to the advantages they can expect by making the purchase.
According to Zendesk senior manager of customer success Sam Chandler, customer perception “is all about how the customer feels about your brand and their interactions with you.”
Craig
@craigtyr
The secret to good success rate with any dropshipping store is keeping the customers happy.
How do u do this? Simple.
Actually provide a good product, and good customer service. It’s the easiest thing.
No shortcuts!
4:30 AM · Jul 24, 2023
On X, Craigtyr writes that “the secret to a good success rate with any dropshipping store” is to “provide a good product and good customer service.”
So as people buy from your online store, go that extra mile to ensure they have the best shopping experience possible.
Ways to Add Value With Your Dropshipping Store
7. Build a Following for your Dropshipping Brand
As you build a following for your dropshipping brand, you get to broaden your reach and gain larger exposure online. The fastest way to do this is through effective use of social media. Define what you want to achieve and focus on your strategy. Establish your online presence by sharing consistent, strategic, and quality content. Consider these important questions to get started:
- How can you create a following on social media?
- How can you reach your audience and stand out among your competitors?
- Which type of content does your target market respond to?
- Which groups and communities should you join online?
- Which social media advertising campaigns and platforms are most effective for your business?
“67% of online shoppers have bought a product after seeing it advertised on social media.” Lovely Mobile News
Tools like Facebook Audience Insights can help you with your social media advertising strategies. It gives you access to useful information about your target demographic (such as age, gender, education levels, job titles, etc). You get to learn about people’s interests and lifestyle, allowing you to create effective marketing content for your dropshipping business.
5 Ways to Generate Dropshipping Content Ideas
You can use one or several of these ideas to make your posts more powerful. Whether you're using video ads or written content, the goal is to reach your ideal dropshipping consumers. So the more you understand what motivates your customer, the better equipped you are to gain their trust and add value to their lives.
PRO TIP
Influencer marketing is another effective way to spread the word about your dropshipping business. People with a lot of engagement (not just a huge number of followers) can help you get more recognition online.
You can source influencers through software like IZEA ($149 per month) or Influspy ($22 for the premium version).
8. Pay Attention to Your Dropshipping Profit Margins
Paying attention to your dropshipping profit margins will allow you to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing strategies and improve your success rate. The average profit margin for drop shippers is between 10%-30%.
Of course, you also need to reinvest parts of your earnings for product testing. Put at least 30% back into your business for advertising, faster shipping, and better quality products.
PRO TIP
Use a profit tracking app like BeProfit for tax preparation and ad spend calculation. This tool can also track the cost of goods and overall profit margins.
What Are Some Examples of Dropshipping Success Stories?
Some examples of dropshipping success stories are Mohammed Kamil Sattar, Drayson Little, and Paul Lipsky.
Mohammed Kamil Sattar
Known online as The Ecom King, Mohammed Kamil Sattar began his dropshipping journey after dropping out of college in 2016. He initially lost money after selling too many products and running many ads. Fortunately, he turned his mistakes into a dropshipping success story by learning TikTok organic marketing, tapping various suppliers, and keeping expenses low. He has made over $1 million in revenue from Shopify dropshipping.
Today, he runs several e-commerce brands such as Sole et Al, Supure LTD, and Fadcloset which focuses on luxury goods, health supplements, streetwear, and fashion. He is also the CEO of online education platform E-commerce Mentoring LTD and a former Forbes Council member.
Drayson Little
Drayson Little started exploring the world of entrepreneurship at the age of 12. He began with affiliate marketing before transitioning to dropshipping at 14. His early foray into business was fraught with challenges and initial failures. However, he stayed determined and his hard work eventually paid off. By age 16, his fledgling startup already became a thriving million-dollar business. Throughout his ventures, Drayson has amassed approximately $2.2 million.
Beyond his achievements, Drayson makes it his goal to share his business knowledge and experiences through social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. He is now a full-time trader and the founder of Stock Guru Trading.
Paul J. Lipsky
Originally a lawyer in New York City, Paul J. Lipsy left his legal career and pursued dropshipping in 2016. Seeking greater flexibility and freedom, he tried various online income-generating methods - including Shopify dropshipping and affiliate websites. He eventually focused on eBay dropshipping in 2017. Despite initial setbacks and a steep learning curve, Paul achieved his first significant profit during a fruitful quarter. This became a turning point in his dropshipping career. His success in the field became possible by mastering product research and by hiring virtual assistants.
Paul has made over $2.5 million through his dropshipping ventures and his online course, Dropshipping Titans. He also runs a popular YouTube channel with 112K subscribers, where he offers insights and guidance on successful dropshipping strategies.
Why Do People Fail With Dropshipping?
Most people that fail with dropshipping have unrealistic expectations. They lack the right mindset and quit before they see success. Of course, the reality is you need to put effort into establishing a profitable dropshipping store and treat it like a proper business. Additional reasons why people fail in the business model include:
Disadvantages and Risks of Dropshipping
Meanwhile, some common disadvantages and risks of dropshipping that could lead to dropshipping failure are:
Why I Prefer Local Lead Generation Over Dropshipping
Improving your dropshipping success rate is entirely possible as you take action. Be ready to test and fail with several items before landing a winning product. Build trust with your target market by prioritizing customer satisfaction. Develop unique marketing angles and have a strategic campaign to drive traffic to your dropshipping store.
As a former dropshipper myself, I made $48.95K in 30 days selling adult shark onesies. Overall, however, I only earned a profit of $3,000 after subtracting product and ad costs. I eventually decided to stick to my existing local lead generation business after realizing it was more profitable, more stable, and easier to scale.
With lead generation, I don’t have to manage multiple stores, handle order fulfillment, and compete in a huge market. Instead, I only need to create websites from scratch focusing on specific business niches and locations. As I rank my sites on top search engine spots, they become valuable digital real estate assets I can rent out to business owners who need traffic and leads for their companies.
Today, I have several lead gen sites that continue to make me money since I built them in 2014. I also don’t have to work on them much since they’ve ranked high on search engine results. By doing this business model, you can make $500 to $3,000 per month from a good lead gen site. Now imagine how much you can earn if you own multiple sites and target multiple niches and areas.
