Are you preparing to start a successful dropshipping store for passive income? More and more people are starting dropshipping businesses these days, but only a few pull off the dynamics of running a successful store. Before getting your head in the dropshipping business, a checklist might jumpstart the process easily.
With a dropshipping store checklist, you would be able to know everything about the business, which will save you tons of money on useless subscriptions throughout the year.
But first, let’s move forward to the most asked question, ‘why dropshipping when you have a thousand other ways to earn passive income?’
Well, dropshipping, by definition, is the process of selling products from an online store without having to invest in a warehouse or upgrading the inventory. It means that you won’t have to keep any products in your house or any other storage place. When someone orders a product on your store, you place the same order with a third-party supplier.
Running a dropshipping store is quite easy and inexpensive. Moreover, there are automation tools to help you with a large number of orders at the same time.
The third-party supplier takes care of everything; from the delivery to shipment and packaging. In short, you get to make money off the product that you have never even touched!
However, starting a dropshipping store can be a nuisance without a checklist. After all, you have to juggle between different elements of the business model.
Let’s shed some light on the importance of making a checklist before your dropshipping startup.
Opening a dropshipping store with Shopify takes a substantial amount of time and energy. A million thoughts run through your mind at the same time. How to integrate Oberlo with Shopify? How to add compelling product descriptions? How to add other extensions to your Shopify store?
A smooth launch of a dropshipping takes more than you can imagine. You must have a marketing plan in working and all of the products loaded correctly before inviting people to your Shopify store.
Instead of preparing aimlessly, you should take an organized and methodological approach to your dropshipping startup launch.
You can ease your mind with a comprehensive yet purposed checklist for your dropshipping startup.
With so much happening on social media platforms and your website, it is easy to forget a critical step for a successful yet breezy launch.
A dropshipping startup launch streamlines your tasks and reduces ambiguity about the pre-launch tasks that need to be done right away.
A research study in the journal of Medicine (New England) determines that making checklists reduce medical mistakes, malpractice, and complications in patient care.
However, there’s a format to making a good checklist. A dropshipping startup launch requires user-friendly, easy-to-read, effective, and concise checklists.
Remember that a checklist only provides a reminder for taking important steps in the process. They should be practical and approachable.
Even a professional can make huge mistakes under pressure. So, it makes complete sense to create a concise checklist for your dropshipping store launch.
But what should be included in your dropshipping startup checklist? Don’t worry as this article lists everything that you should do for a successful store launch.
You are just the following steps away from a successful dropshipping store launch:
In this section, we will move forward with the basic requirements to start a dropshipping store:
Every person has a reason to initiate a business or to launch a store besides his/her regular job. The reasons vary from person to person. One might want to improve his technical skills while the other one might want to earn a passive income.
However, one of the main reasons to start a dropshipping store is that people are sick of their 9 to 5 jobs. They are looking forward to exploring the online earning platforms, one of which is Shopify.
Regardless of the reason that motivated you to test the online earning platform, you can run a successful dropshipping store as long as you have the motivation.
If you have an interest in a specific nice for your dropshipping store, you are more likely to be patient than to wait for immediate results.
You need one gadget besides an established internet connection to launch your dropshipping store; a laptop or a personal computer. Almost any laptop or PC can provide the functions to run an online business. If you are someone who likes to move while working, get a laptop. Otherwise, get a personal computer as it is more inexpensive. It all comes down to your preferences.
But, it is best to invest in modern technology as it will help you create a user-friendly, intuitive, and responsive design for your website and dropshipping store.
Although you don’t need to be online 24/7 on your dropshipping store, you need a stable internet connection to access your mail, payment gateways, social media platforms, and store from time to time. Moreover, you need high-speed internet to respond to customers’ orders and queries.
Follow the steps to ensure that you have a stable internet connection at all times:
If your internet is still lagging, do the following steps to improve its speed;
Market knowledge is crucial to launching any type of business. It gives you a clear idea of competitors, market trends, sales opportunities, and thought leaders in the industry.
But what do you need to add to your checklist from this section? Let’s find out:
If you have no idea how dropshipping model works, you are less likely to succeed in the first three years. However, it is easier than before to know all about it. All you have to do is type, ‘how dropshipping works? And you’d be displayed a ton of videos and guides.
There are specific videos and tutorials which will help you set up a Shopify store and teach you all about the dynamics of the dropshipping business model.
Moreover, you can join the dropshipping communities of like-minded people and gain useful tips on how to sell hot products quickly. It is better to follow real-life examples than to go by the rule book.
When you step into an unfamiliar road, it is common to get confused in the beginning. Luckily, many people have tried and tested the dropshipping business model. They are aware of the complex duties and responsibilities of running a dropshipping store.
Dropshipping business is not where you can run the store conveniently or sell quickly in the first year. However, there are real-life examples to take tons of inspiration from. You can listen to podcast interviews of successful dropshippers to keep going. You can earn a handsome amount of passive income and change your life by doing your due diligence.
For obvious reasons, AliExpress is one of the safest places to find reliable third-party suppliers. Sellers on AliExpress are more than ready to collaborate with dropshipping entrepreneurs and offer millions of winning products at reasonable prices.
Besides, they also offer amazing discounts on bulk orders. Therefore, it is essential to know how AliExpress works, how refunds and exchange items are handled, how customers reach you, and how the customer orders are processed.
A good niche is your way to grow and increase your profits and sales opportunities. The products on your dropshipping store must be related in some way. For instance, if you are selling home décor items, adding chocolates would not be a good idea to utilize your space.
Experts recommend choosing a niche that interests you. This way, you would be able to handle your business in the best possible way. For example, if you have adequate knowledge about gaming laptops, why not sell them? There’s no harm in adding high-end products to your dropshipping store unless you lack background knowledge.
While choosing the niche, you’d have to keep your marketing plan in sight too. Are the products you have chosen promotable? Can you run ads of them on Facebook?
Not a single business in the world can run without proper technical preparations. Whether you are a tech-savvy person or not, you’d have to have a domain name, a responsive website, a mobile-friendly Shopify store, and a hosting partner.
These terms might be confusing to many of you, so let’s move forward and make it easier for the novice dropshippers:
In technical terms, a domain name is the address of your website that is used to highlight it among other websites on the internet. A website address directs your customers to your products and helps them to place orders.
However, a domain name should be relevant to your Shopify store and SEO optimized so that it can reach a larger audience.
You can take your domain name from various providers, like GoDaddy. It is a reliable service provider to register the domain name for your website.
A hosting provider allows you to place valuable information for your customers on the server. If you don’t have a hosting service, your viewers can’t see your content.
To activate your dropshipping store, you have to pay for hosting and ensure that your website is visible to the world. If you are not tech-savvy, the hosting provider will resolve all your issues and provide you with exceptional customer support service.
If you have paid for hosting service, have a domain name, and decided on the niche, move on to building a dropshipping website right away. A dropshipping website is the basis of your Shopify store.
In this step, you are left with two options only:
Ready-to-buy dropshipping stores include an established store, a custom store, and a premium store. Let’s move forward to their differences so you can decide which will fit best your needs.
A custom dropshipping store from AliExpress is all about personal preference and functions in mind. You can determine the functions that you want and the developers will add them for you. When the store is ready to launch, the developers hand it to you with complete ownership.
A premium store is fully functional to get started with your dropshipping business plan. Apart from the premium store and unlimited functions, you get a legal copy of the store so there’s no problem in the future.
An already established dropshipping store might be for the immediate go-getters. As the name suggests, it is an already established store with a certain number of orders, a track record, and considerable traffic volume.
Buying an established dropshipping store allows you to make well-informed decisions on hot products.
WordPress is one of the largest platforms to help you arrange the elements of your dropshipping website systematically. Almost 30% of the websites on the internet are owned by WordPress and for obvious reasons.
WordPress is quite intuitive, user-friendly, and easy to use. If you have zero experience in running a website, WordPress might be your lifesaver.
Here are some of the reasons why building a dropshipping website on WordPress is wise enough:
Creating a standard home page, service page, product page, and the FAQ page is quite necessary for the launch of your dropshipping website. Many novice dropshippers don’t bother creating standard pages. The lack of attention to your website might disappoint your potential customers. They might not consider you a real business.
Standard pages help allows potential customers to trust your business. Moreover, the following policies allow them to understand who you are as a person behind the brand:
Other pages include:
Moreover, the content you write for these pages is not set in stone. You can always upgrade it just like your product images and descriptions.
An ‘FAQ’ page gives valuable knowledge to the readers beforehand which develops trust. Fewer people contact you for basic questions because they already know the answer is there on your website!
Now that you are done with technical preparations and content creation, it is time to build an action plan for your dropshipping store.
Don’t forget to add the following steps to the checklist before launching your store:
No store can function without adding trending hot-selling products. Now there is another checklist to find trending products to sell online. While experts have their own methods, you can start by using a dropshipping product research tool.
This is where Sell The Trend’s product discovery machine shines. It is an AI-Based product research tools that helps you with finding trending products to sell online. Products that are yet to be picked up by your competitors.
If you have integrated AliExpress with your Shopify store, you can explore the whole website and add hot-selling items relevant to your niche. The process is so easy, even for beginners. After all, it takes less than 30 seconds to import a product from AliExpress.
There are no limitations when it comes to uploading items.
Rightfully earned income and profits come from the right pricing strategy. However, there’s no rule that you should know to gain profits: the price of your items should be more than the same product on AliExpress. The differences between these prices will decide your profit.
However, you should not overlook the satisfaction of your customers. Higher prices scare away a lot of customers. Therefore, you need to set reasonable prices at the start to lure customers.
Various plug-ins help you to set up makeup pricing rules. All you have to do is input pricing formulas and the plug-in will update the price of your products automatically.
No entrepreneur can make big sales opportunities without an effective marketing strategy. We highly recommend observing market trends to promote your products in the best way possible.
You need a way to use marketing channels and tools to your advantage. The best strategy is to attract potential customers and increase website traffic by providing value.
There are many elements of a content marketing strategy but the most important of all is SEO or search engine optimization. Without SEO, it would be hard to get noticeable on Google’s SERPs.
Here are a few ways to improve your content marketing strategy:
There you have it; all the important elements to create a checklist for a successful store launch. A checklist as helpful as this helps to get over the beginner phase faster. However, the checklist will stay with you always. You can always take a look at it to ensure that you are prepared before your big yet successful dropshipping startup launch.
Learn more about starting a Shopify dropshipping store here at Sell The Trend.
The inception of dropshipping has allowed many potential entrepreneurs to open business world-wide. If you have basic design skills, can write appealing product descriptions, and can run the business as per the industry trends, you’d make a good earning in the dropshipping world.
The only issue that arises is, how will you spread the word about your online dropshipping store? Marketing or advertising is where many dropshippers fall short of money. They don’t know the power of advertising which causes them to lose a huge chunk of revenue.
But the good news is, you don’t have to be an advertising guru to finesse your dropshipping ads. With the guide below, you would learn to run dropshipping ads in no time.
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
Many people are opting for a dropshipping business because it is one of the easiest ways to earn passive income without dealing with the main hassles of an e-commerce store: inventory and shipment.
Dropshipping works when the customers place orders on your website and you send the information to the suppliers so that they could send the parcel directly to the customers while you get your profit.
However, the only aspect that you need to pay attention to is the advertisement. You need dropshipping ads to attract a cold audience. You must know how to use your dropshipping ads and convert the cold audience into sustainable yet ever-green revenue.
How successful your dropshipping ads will go depends on the accessibility of the resources. Fortunately, you can run incredible ads even if you have a little money in your pocket. Your writing skills are the only talent that this campaign requires.
Can you write appealing product descriptions for the ads? Can you edit short clips of the products for the ads? Can you pitch to the cold audience by writing a great sales note? If yes, advertising your dropshipping store might be as easy as eating a cake.
As much as you want your dropshipping business to thrive by the ads, you can’t run the ads without devising a proper plan/strategy. Every entrepreneur needs to bear certain aspects in mind when preparing a dropshipping advertising strategy, such as:
Adding keywords is not necessarily associated with adding technical jargon related to your product. Keywords are simple phrases, words, and even sentences that people type on the search bar when looking for a particular product.
Let’s suppose you sell mobile phone covers. Potential customers needing covers would type the word, mobile covers, on the Google search bar. Even though, there would always be variations with what the potential customers’ type, it is your job, as a dropshipper, to add to know the relevant keywords. These phrases and keywords allow you to target the right audience and increase ROI on your dropshipping advertising campaigns.
Are you preparing dropshipping ads to improve website traffic, brand awareness, or sales? The purpose of the advertising strategy allows you to target the right audience. The goal of any dropshipper is to target the people who actually buy rather than individuals who only click on the ads.
If your target is to increase sales, running the dropshipping ads on various platforms will definitely work out for you.
All the advertising platforms, be it Instagram, Fiverr or Facebook, need to know about the people you plan to target for sales. For example, if you have a dropshipping store selling shoes, targeting ads towards people looking for shirts will be senseless. The better you can identify your potential customers, the more ROI your dropshipping ads will return.
One good thing about the advertisement industry is that dropshippers have the opportunity to select any platform for advertising: from Facebook and Twitter to big video search engines like YouTube.
However, the advertising options don’t just end on social media platforms. Before moving on to the big social media networks, we have a general advertising method, PPC or pay-per-click.
The foundation of online advertising has laid on pay-per-click or PPC. This model for dropshipping ads is quite simple. The businesses pay a small fee to the browser each time a person opens up the dropshipping ads. PPC is so popular among businesses that the biggest search engine, Google, has its own PPC advertising model.
Among the Google PPC ads, the sponsored search result is the most common type. Note that when you search for something on Google, the first three results are always based on ads.
One advantage of running PPC ads through Google is that you don’t need compelling product videos or pictures. Just a little money and stellar copywriting skills.
Now, the main reason why PPC works across the globe is because this model involves the use of keywords. Whenever a potential customer writes a keyword, the search engine targets it and displays the PPC ad relevant to it.
Once you have found the right keywords to target the audience, it is time to put the pieces of information together and create a dropshipping ad. For example, if you are targeting the word cover, the PPC ad might read something like ‘teen mobile covers.
The PPC ads include the keyword in the meta description as well as the title.
Even though there’s not a big disadvantage of PPC ads but the keywords you would use might end up in your competitors’ PPC ads as well. Hence, your PPC ads lose ranks.
When you can’t make sales due to an overly-used keyword, that’s where the bidding comes in. Bidding refers to using reserved keywords to ensure that your dropshipping ads will show up on the result page and get clicks.
However, you have to make sure that the following aspects are in order:
It is necessary to create a plagiarism-free yet unique ad copy from your competitors. What are selling points that will intrigue the customers to buy from you? high-quality? imported? Fast delivery? How does the copy make your dropshipping ad stand out among the other ones on Google?
Is your landing page for dropshipping business working? When the customer clicks through the ad, he ends up on the landing page. Therefore, the dropshippers have to ensure that the call-to-action is clear and the content is persuasive enough for the customer to purchase and make a sale.
The Google rating of your dropshipping store’s advertising campaigns, PPC ads, the relevance of phrases/keywords, and the quality of the ad copy is quite important. A better score means less cost of PPC ads and more click-throughs.
How much is the keyword related to the ad? Is the service or product you are advertising good enough to deserve click-throughs on your dropshipping?
Instagram is great for engagement and thus, a great advertising platform for dropshipping ads. Even if you have a small audience, you have a great possibility to get maximum likes, comments, and story shares.
It is a great social media tool for improving brand awareness, creating brand identity, and cultivating a community with potential customers.
Two great features of Instagram, the shop tab and the product tagging allow your followers/potential customers to shop and check out through the dropshipping ad.
Before the introduction of these features on the Instagram app, the advertising on the social media platform was limited to bloggers and influencers only. The sponsored posts are still prevalent on the app but the new features, the in-app shop tab allows the followers to purchase something with just a few taps on the screen.
It frees the customer of every hassle that came with the influencers’ sponsored posts. There would be no negotiating with the influencers. Moreover, the influencers won’t be held responsible if your or any dropshipping store decides not to deliver the product.
The self-learning advertising platform allows every dropshipper to create and run as many dropshipping ads as they want. Unlike PPC ads, you’d have to use the images for picture dropshipping ads and videos for dropshipping story ads.
There are five types of ads that you can use on Instagram for your dropshipping store:
The newest of the dropshipping ads on Instagram, story ads play as the user switches the stories of other people. Dropshippers are allowed to share their products’ photos and videos for a limited amount of time.
All the dropshipping story ads are placed strategically by the Instagram algorithm so that they appear local and friendly to the users. However, dropshipping story ads are great for product recalls.
Like sponsored ads, slideshow dropshipping ads also appear on the user’s feed. While the video dropshipping ads contain a video, the dropshipping slideshow ads on Instagram contain still pictures in the video. It gives dropshippers similar benefits as the carousal dropshipping ads.
Carousel dropshipping ads can be swiped through, by the user because one ad contains 2 to 10 pictures of the product. Each picture in the carousel ad has its caption. They are great for dropshippers who want to introduce the whole range of products from their dropshipping stores. The call-to-action at the bottom of the carousel ad makes it more beneficial to the dropshippers.
Photo ads are one of the simplest of Instagram ads. They can be displayed to the users in square orientation, portrait, or landscape. The dropshippers have to feature a single photo and link the product to the main product page on the dropshipping website.
Video dropshipping ads are often played in square orientation or square mode for about 60 seconds. Most dropshippers split the 60 seconds or the orientation for the product video as well as the text. The video dropshipping ads are played to promote hot deals, sales, combo deals, and even memberships.
Outside the world of pay-per-click advertising, Facebook is one of the most effective social media advertising tools to run dropshipping ads for increased sales and website traffic.
Facebook is comparatively preferred over Instagram due to its variety of users and wide reach world-wide. Conversions and click-through rates are higher on Facebook as compared to Twitter and Instagram.
All the dropshipping Facebook ads fall into two types:
Therefore, you’d need great snaps and videos of your products to stand out on Facebook. You can create, run and manage your dropshipping ads through the advertisement manager feature. Upon entering the ads manager tool, you’d come across a pyramid for running dropshipping ads.
The pyramid of dropshipping ads is as follows:
Here are the different ways to advertise effectively on Facebook:
The number one reason for failed dropshipping businesses is not detecting the right target audience. How can you expect people from buying your phone covers when they came looking for a patio cover? If you are well-versed in your dropshipping niche, targeting the right audience would be a piece of cake. Otherwise, it would lead to disastrous results for your dropshipping business.
It is obvious that teenagers won’t buy the same products on Facebook as veterans. However, you can use Facebook Audience Insight and detect your target audience.
By using this extension, you’d be able to distinguish the audience with respect to their:
If you are selling funky mobile covers, Facebook will only direct the dropshipping ads to people who have purchased the mobile covers in the past. The tool will also direct the dropshipping ads to people who have shown interest in similar businesses.
The concentrated the target audience is, the better the success. The first thing to look at before running the dropshipping ads on Facebook is the location or the geography of your target audience. Target the locations where you can offer fast delivery to potential customers.
Expert dropshippers always suggest going slow with the Facebook ads. Spending a lot of money on advertisement, especially if you have a tight budget is not wise.
With the Facebook advertising tool, you can pay on a daily basis for dropshipping ads. You don’t have to go for a lifetime budget or the one-time investment, as they call it.
Facebook spends money on dropshipping ads in two ways:
Both have different working models. Therefore, it is best to explore both options using a part of the little money you have for advertising.
Advanced Facebook marketing tools show your dropshipping ads to custom audiences as well. Dropshippers are allowed to customize their advertisement viewers’ lists by using their Facebook names or email addresses.
Anyone could be added to the custom audience: from positive reviewers to your previous customers. You could also add the people who have contacted you for your product prices earlier.
YouTube dropshipping ads are quite expensive as compared to Instagram or Facebook ads. However, they are worth spending money on.
Video advertisements never fail, especially on YouTube because they allow the dropshippers to gain massive revenue.
YouTube’s bidding advertisement system is quite like any other advertising platform. However, you can pay for only two types of dropshipping ads:
The CPA takes into account the four factors:
Based on the CPA model, this ad type allows you to improve the traffic to your website.
The following ad type is used to create awareness about your niche, business, product, and services. It is based on the cost-per-view ad model.
One of the ad types of CPA, which allows dropshippers to generate prospects and quality leads
Based on the CPV model, allows dropshipping businesses to create awareness about their niche and new products.
After you have pointed out the objective, you can create and run the following types of YouTube dropshipping ads: 
Dropshipping advertising is a fine art and the only way to improve your sales and traffic through dropshipping ads is to tweak your campaigns consistently. In short, trial-and-error is the best approach to run successful yet reachable dropshipping ads.
Create multiple ad copies and videos and determine which one works best for you.
Sell The Trend is an all-in-one dropshipping platform that helps you find trending products, order fulfillment, and targeting the right audience on Facebook & Instagram. The Influencer Engagement Calculator, Facebook Audience Builder, and Video Ad Creator of Sell The Trend can save you a lot of time and money.
The Facebook Audience Builder helps you define and build an audience for your product – minimizing your advertising budget.
In case of further questions or suggestions, don’t hesitate to leave a reply or contact us.
Is dropshipping legal? The straightforward answer is an affirmative! And it’s also a legitimate business.
Are there risks to running a dropshipping online store? The answer is definitively yes. After all, life itself is a risk.
No matter what you’ve heard or read, dropshipping is perfectly legal. It’s a popular online business model that revolves around selling and shipping products to customers without keeping any inventory.
In this arrangement, the seller acts as an intermediary in charge of marketing the products being sold, the shipment, the delivery, and the packaging of the products being outsourced.
Set up correctly, the dropshipping business model can make you a sizable fortune. However, dropshipping comes with legal liability and lots of risks you need to be aware of. Knowing this risk – and preparing ahead of time for them – will improve your odds of success.
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
In this post, we will be discussing the legal side of dropshipping. We will also be highlighting some of the risks involved in dropshipping and how you can circumnavigate them to keep your dropshipping store going.
It promises to be an interesting read.
Keep in mind that the tips we share here do not constitute professional legal advice. If you have the means, we recommend you consult with legal professionals.
What really is dropshipping? Don’t get us wrong, we know you are probably a blackbelt dropshipper who knows the ins and outs of the business and can create an Udemy course on it.
But for those who need arefresher, dropshipping is the act of reselling products for a markup without actually keeping those products. We have a detailed guide on starting a dropshipping business, which we believe you will find useful.
One of the vital keys to a successful dropshipping business is finding the right wholesale suppliers. We also have a guide on finding the best dropshipping companies you will find useful.
Even if having a dropshipping business may seem very approachable, (dropshippers making thousands of dollars daily from reselling items listed on AliExpress are notorious) the reality is a bit different. And this type of business has its risks that cannot be neglected.
Yes, dropshipping is legal. However, there are certain steps you need to take so as not to err on the wrong side of the law as an e-commerce retailer. Some of them are as follows:
Dropshipping is a legitimate business, but having a business license is not compulsory. Hence, it’s useful because it will strengthen your eCommerce business. It’s quite common in the industry not to have a license, particularly among beginner merchants.
It’s recommended to check on your state legislation and the requirements of the platform where you plan to list your eCommerce store. Then act accordingly. Having a business license is the basis for paying your taxes, liability, and legitimacy.
Even if technically you don’t need a business license, having one will establish you as a serious business partner about suppliers and help you gain the attention of your clients more easily. Plus, this is a solid foundation for promoting a professional and reputable business.
A legitimate business pays its taxes. And you want to be perceived as a legit business. Recognized as such by customers and state authorities. The level of your taxes depends on your geographic location and may be very different from your direct competitors established in other countries.
Once your business is set up you will have to pay income and sales tax. Consult with a specialized lawyer and an accountant to know exactly what taxes you have to pay, so you can establish the prices for the products you sell accordingly.
Dropshipping businesses operate most often with multiple products and multiple suppliers. Consequently, prices, shipping, and taxes quickly become complicated tasks. As such, consider using a dropshipping platform to help you automate your processes and repetitive tasks.
Having a business license reduces your liability as a person, a fact that may become important if legal issues related to your store appear. Most probably you will work with suppliers operating in foreign countries and problems like poor-quality products are common. Thus, it’s wise to be protected in any case.
Besides your business license, it’s probably a good idea to consider Product Liability Insurance. Its role is to defend your dropshipping business in front of legal and financial risks related to the quality of the items your business sells.
This is another area where a business license comes in handy. No one wants to make business with shadow companies, everyone looks for legit business partners that respect their promises and deliver what was agreed.
And you want healthy, successful, and profitable business relationships with your partners. Having a proper dropshipping agreement contract in place is essential for this. Consequently, the first step is to prove your business adheres to these principles and is trustworthy and a legitimate entity.
Being a registered eCommerce entity shows that you are serious and that is the best answer to the “Is dropshipping legal” question.
While dropshipping is totally legal in the United States, it’s natural to wonder if it’s also legal in Europe, particularly in countries like Germany, France, Switzerland, and the UK.
The good news is, dropshipping is perfectly legal in Europe and even in the aforementioned countries.
If a good number of your customers are based in Australia, you might be wondering if dropshipping is also legal in Australia. Dropshipping is perfectly legal in Australia, provided you don’t violate consumer protection laws and you are not selling counterfeit goods.
Dropshipping might be legal, but is it ethical? What are some of the ethical concerns you should keep in mind while running your dropshipping business?
The truth is that it is entirely up to you to decide if you want to make your dropshipping hustle ethical or not. Here are a couple of tips that can help you make it as ethical as possible to build and maintain trust with your customers.
Well, the answer to that question depends on if you are using a dropshipping platform or selling directly from your website. It also depends on the promotional method you use.
For instance, if you are dropshipping via Amazon and you default on some of Amazon’s laid-down rules, your might end up losing your online store.
How can you avoid getting banned on Amazon? Here are a couple of tips that can help:
Another common place where dropshippers get banned is Facebook. You can get yourself into trouble with Facebook when promoting your product/business there for the following reasons:
Aliexpress is definitely one of the biggest online marketplaces and makes it easy to connect with lots of dropshipping suppliers. Plus, it’s dropshipping-friendly and easy to use.
Nonetheless, there are precautionary steps you need to take when dropshipping via Aliexpress to avoid legal and court costs. They include:
The following requirements are not expressly necessary, but most established dropshipping companies recommend having them for your business health and your peace of mind as a business owner.
Your online store should display the following sections:
You don’t need a “Terms and Conditions” section on your store, but you can’t skip it if you want to protect your business in unforeseen situations. Plus, it’s an excellent way to let your customers know what your business practices are and what they can expect.
This is a document required by law in some countries to protect the information you are collecting. Since your shop can be accessed globally, a Privacy Policy is necessary, even if in your state or country it is not.
As various situations beyond your control may appear and unsatisfied clients may claim refunds, you should have such a policy in place. It is a useful tool to help you find a solution to your client’s requests. Do yourself a favor and protect yourself and your brand as much as you can.
Clients will be eager to know how fast they can receive the items they ordered. It’s not a must to have a shipping policy, but you will receive this question lots of times and it’s better to have it clearly written.
Your shipping policy should include information regarding domestic and international shipping. For example, domestic shipping takes on average 4-12 days depending on the client’s residency and international shipping takes on average 2-3 weeks.
Offering your clients the possibility to track the shipment of their item in real-time avoids supplementary questions that your client service should answer. Insert a link or a tracking widget allowing verifications of the shipment status. Customers will be grateful for this attention.
Adding a business disclaimer to your website can also help guard your dropshipping business against any legal liability.
A business disclaimer is a legal document that warns shoppers against the risk of using your products, letting them know you won’t be held liable if something bad happens.
For example, let’s say you sell electronic products, and a customer gets hurt from using one of your products. If you have a business disclaimer on your site, that customer can’t take any legal action against you.
In general, dropshipping businesses rely on highly popular platforms like Amazon and eBay. If you ask yourself “is dropshipping legal on these platforms?”, you should know that, yes, they are. Moreover, a large part of the retailers selling their products via Amazon and eBay are dropshippers.
The rule of thumb is that you have to respect their requirements and rules and resell just items from wholesalers not from other retailers. For example, you can source your products on Alibaba – a wholesaler and not from AliExpress – a retailer.
The problem with retailers is that the reseller just adds a markup and it’s not ethical from the customer’s point of view. Not to mention that the markup might simply not be worth the effort.
eBay and Amazon are very tempting because they offer access immediately to a massive audience. And they are a good starting point for a dropshipping business if you source unique products direct from manufacturers. Later you can build your own brand, with your own store and use other marketing venues like social media, content marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, etc.
The most obvious reason why eCommerce businesses get into legal trouble is that they sell products that either belong to others or are prohibited by laws.
One such situation is selling products protected by trademark and/or copyright. They are trending products or a large number of people want them, but you need special authorizations to commercialize them. These types of products are usually associated with sports teams, world-renown brands, with international stars and influencers. Think Lionel Messi’s t-shirt or toys like Barbie dolls or Lego sets.
Potential lawsuits come most often from counterfeit products or replicas. Customers are misled that they get the original product at a good price and later they notice that the things are not exactly what they were expecting.
If you insist on selling these types of products and want to avoid all potential troubles related to them you should first get a License for Reselling. Then contact the manufacturers and wholesalers entitled to produce and distribute these items.
Another situation that has a high potential for trouble is selling restricted products without the corresponding license. Restrictions are due to the necessity of having certain manufacturing or distribution conditions. Such products are medicines, some food products, or special types of alcoholic beverages.
Here are some of the regular questions we get from wannabe and experienced dropshippers.
Is dropshipping a legal and safe business?
Yes, dropshipping is a totally legal e-commerce business anyone can do, regardless of your level of experience. So you will likely never get into any trouble for setting up a dropshipping store. The only time you might get into is if you start selling trademarked, counterfeit, or contraband products.
As for safety, well, it’s totally up to you. If you use reliable payment gateways like PayPal or Stripe and also protect your personal information, your security concerns would be very minimal.
Is my dropshipping income taxable?
Dropshipping is a form of e-commerce, so your income is very much taxable. However, whether you pay tax or not largely depends on where you are operating your business from. If you are running your business from Africa or some countries in Asia where tax laws are weak, you can get away with not paying taxes.
But it’s a completely different case in the US or Europe – you might lose your business for good if you fail to remit taxes on your income. So it makes sense to collect taxes each time you make a sale.
Is dropshipping ethical?
Dropshipping isn’t some kind of scam or pyramid scheme you use to fleece people of their hard-earned money. It’s purely e-commerce, and so it’s very ethical.
It only becomes unethical when you start selling fake, illegal, or trademarked products in your store. So, you are never going to get arrested for floating a dropshipping store and marketing it veraciously.
Should You Let Customers Know You Only Dropship?
The truth is, more often than not, customers don’t pretty much care if you are dropshipping or actually own the products they buy from your store.
However, it’s best to state clearly on your site that you only dropship. It can be your saving grace should any legal issue arise in the future.
Having a prosperous dropshipping business involves lots of effort and respecting a long list of dropshipping legal requirements.
To ease your burden, count on a dropshipping platform like Sell The Trend especially designed to help you respect all the legal and ethical practices in the industry. And support you in choosing the right winning products and also selecting some trusted suppliers.
-c4514.jpg "How to Start a Dropshipping Business with Zero Investment?")
Imagine selling products you have never handled, from countries you have never visited, to customers you have never met, from your MacBook, and without ever leaving your house. Welcome to the world of dropshipping.
What is minimum investment dropshipping? If you are wondering how much it costs to get your dropshipping store off the ground, this article will address the most common questions, help you get started the right way, and help you make the most out of your budget.
Dropshipping is a darling of the e-commerce world, partly due to its alluring, get-rich-quick feel and the low entry barriers. Thousands of people have launched fledgling companies right in their homes, with barely any capital injection. Of course, it’s nothing close to a get rich quick business.
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
Because of the low entry barriers, plenty of people have taken a stab at dropshipping and unfortunately, the shores of the ecommerce world are strewn with wrecks and debris of dropshipping businesses that either never got off to a good start or just couldn’t get it right.
But does this mean that dropshipping is dead and that you shouldn’t take the voyage? The answer is a resounding no.
By taking advantage of free trials and starter packs, you can set up a dropshipping business with virtually no money. You will just have to set aside some time every day, hope against hope that everything goes well, and presto! You have a dropshipping store. This, of course, isn’t the best strategy and we’ll offer a few tips in this article to help you get started the right way.
We’ve discussed a detailed breakdown of how much money (as little as $40) you’d need to spend before launching your ecommerce website. You can consider any of the three options discussed here depending on your budget or whether you just want to give it a trial run.
Dropshipping is a tried and tested business and with the right mix of marketing tactics, products, and customer service, many have reaped handsome profits.
Here’s a visual representation of the dropshipping business model to give you a better understanding of why you’ll need to do a little more than just setting up your store to increase your chances of success.
The essence of dropshipping is the fact that your store never has to own or keep inventory and the fact that it will only serve as a middleman.
But why would customers buy from your store instead of just going directly to the big stores such as Amazon and Alibaba which will almost always offer lower prices and faster shipping?
The answer may surprise you.
The sorts of people that come across a product and then go online to research the absolute best deal for it before they make a purchase are NOT your customers. Dropshipping is designed for the impulsive, spur-of-the-moment shoppers who are intrigued by a product the moment they spot it online and want to order it right away. Retail statistics show that this group of people comprise nearly 80% of young shoppers.
Therefore, the most successful dropshipping businesses are built around these groups of customers, the ones that can’t resist the lure of an impulsive purchase. With the right imagery, copy, and call-to-action, you can attract prospects to your store and convert them to actual sales.
The Covid-19 pandemic has inadvertently led to more impulsive online purchases. As more people remained confined to their houses for extended periods, they were compelled to make online purchases for their usual supplies. Yet many others also turned to online shopping to fill the hole, by scrolling their screens all day and dealing with the temptation to purchase a product in just two mouse clicks.
One of the fastest ways to launch an ecommerce website is to use an ecommerce website such as Shopify. You can get a custom domain name from Shopify and use the apps and tools to help boost your sales.
Shopify provides a free myshopify.com on sign up but it isn’t customizable since the brand name, Shopify will always appear in the URL, which can impact your SEO efforts. You can also purchase a domain name as part of the plan you select and all the search engine results will go to your domain name instead of a Shopify page.
If you already have a domain name, then the respective maintenance fees with your provider will apply. Hosting your domain at Shopify will cost around $11 a year while other service providers will host your domain name at a cost of anywhere from $1.00 to around $2.99 per month.
Of course, you’ll be lured into spending more money on getting the “perfect domain” but it’s always prudent to keep your startup costs low. At any rate, the quality of your ecommerce store is far more important than the name.
Shopify lets you run a two-week free trial of your ecommerce shop without having to supply your credit card details. After that, you can select from one of three plans:
It’s generally not recommended to go with the advanced package at the initial stages, especially if you have no experience with building and growing ecommerce sites.
Take advantage of the free trial to set up your ecommerce store and get a feel of the actual work and processes it will involve. Once set up, make a mock purchase from your store to get a sense of what your customers will be going through.
Like many other ecommerce platforms and content management systems, Shopify provides free themes and templates which you can customize and use to design your store. You won’t need to build your ecommerce site from scratch since the templates will help you design a beautiful store without having to learn any coding or web design skills.
There are a lot of tips and tricks you can execute to give your store a great start, and without having to spend any extra money.
The first, and perhaps one of the most crucial elements, is to have a mobile-first approach when setting up your store. There are more than 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world and they spend a few hours every day on their phones. Therefore, the first time a customer comes across your store will probably be on a mobile phone.
Always ensure your website is mobile-focused. What are the odds you’ll provide your payment information to an ecommerce site after an unexpected crash or an ecommerce store with super slow loading speeds? Shoppers will always lose confidence in such a store or just get frustrated and leave a buggy and unstable ecommerce website.
Other helpful tips include:
Shopify has numerous tools such as plugins and integrations that can amplify your store or solve many problems. Try out different tools to solve marketing, payment, social media, reviews, inventory management, and other operational issues, then keep the ones that work and discard the rest.
Other tools such as Sell The Trend help you find and sell the right goods, which is absolutely critical. You certainly don’t want to find yourself marketing products that don’t sell well or ones that have a ton of competition. Sell The Trend is an all-in-one dropshipping platform designed to help store owners find lucrative and trending products using AI technology.
In a nutshell, Sell The Trend provides the following three key benefits:
Source: Sell The Trend
Use the 7-day free trial period to experiment with it and discover the best products for your dropshipping site. If it’s a fit, you can select one of two available plans; a monthly $39.97 plan and a yearly $32.97 per-month plan. The yearly plan comes with an offer of two free months, which will come in handy down the road should your eCommerce store take off in its first year of operation.
Once your store is up and running, you’ll need to generate traffic, leads, and ultimately, sales. While setting your store might cost next to nothing, it’s absolutely critical to set aside an initial marketing budget to spend on ads and driving traffic to your store until you begin to generate enough sales revenues.
One of the least expensive ways is to begin with posting organic content that promotes your store on your social media platforms. These can be high-quality product images, relevant videos, and engaging captions. Get as personal as you can while also staying within professional lines.
However, original posts on your social media pages can only go so far. Putting a little bit of money behind your posts can help you reach a far much larger audience. Other marketing strategies that can quickly help you get your products in front of more potential customers include:
Shopify integrates quite well with Facebook ads. All you have to do is set up a Facebook Business Manager Account and then install the Facebook pixel tool, which serves as a connection between your website and your Facebook ads. And the good news is that you won’t have to dig your hands into a web of software code to set it up.
One of the first steps to undertake before setting up your dropshipping business is to figure out the paperwork and some of the legal requirements for setting up a business wherever you are located.
You may need to pay for a business license, a seller’s permit, or a sales tax permit if you are going to sell products that attract a sales tax. Contact your local commerce or local agency to get more information.
Other potential costs may come from your suppliers, who are one of the most crucial elements of your dropshipping business. Some suppliers charge a fee to use their dropshipping services, which would then eat into your profits. Therefore, finding the right suppliers can save you both time and money in the long run.
How much would you need to get your eCommerce store off the ground in, say, your first month of operation? You’ll require a minimum amount to set up your store and some extra amount to test your end-to-end sales process of the products you intend to sell. That means placing one or two orders to get a feel of what your customers are likely to experience.
Here’s how that math would look like in your first month:
Basic Shopify = $29
Domain name hosting = $11 (year)
Total = $40, give or take.
Basic Shopify = $29
Domain name hosting = $11 (year)
Sell The Trend Subscription = $39.97
Placing two orders = $100
Total = $180, give or take.
Basic Shopify = $29
Domain name hosting = $11 (year)
Sell The Trend Subscription = $39.97
Facebook ads = $300 (around $5-10 per day)
Total = $380, give or take.
Note that you can use dropshipping automation software to handle operational issues such as order fulfillment, product importing, and marketing tools such as Facebook audience builders and video ads creators, all of which are available with Sell The Trend. These often come in handy as your sales revenues grow.
Remember, the first two options costs will only get your foot in the door. A huge chunk of your initial expenses should go to marketing. Dropshipping is now hugely popular in the eCommerce world and there’s a zero chance that you’ll find yourself operating in anything close to a monopoly.
Fortunately, many dropshipping businesses already in the market don’t apply the right marketing tactics. Sell The Trend helps you stand out within the clamor and marketing noise and close more sales.
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
-5f93f.jpg "Should I Dropship High-ticket Products?")
In the world of dropshipping, a lot of energy is focused on relatively small, low-cost items that can be purchased at wholesale prices and sold for a tidy profit. But what about dropshippers who are interested in selling higher value products? Is selling high-ticket products a good call for your dropshipping store?
Generally, the answer is no. There are a few reasons why going for high-ticket products in your dropshipping store is often a mistake, which we’ll cover later in this post, but in general the problem with high-ticket dropshipping is that it goes against all of the best benefits of dropshipping itself.
One of the best parts about dropshipping is that it allows you to start and run a store with little to no upfront investment. You can start selling products without investing heavily in marketing, upfront purchases, and setting up your online store.
But selling to high price-point buyers with high ticket products is different. You’ll need to invest huge capital in marketing to attract them, not to mention the fact that high ticket products are expensive by nature.
In this article, we’ll explore in detail some of the insider tips when it comes to high ticket dropshipping, including
In general, a high ticket product is any high-end priced product that you may sell in your dropshipping store. There’s no official ‘cutoff,’ but generally any single item worth more than $500 is considered a high ticket product. Examples of common high ticket products include sofas, furniture, industrial equipment, expensive electronics, and more. If you want to get a sense for what categories of high-ticket products are common, consider what you would see walking around an IKEA showroom.
Why do dropshippers often get enticed by high ticket products? Usually it’s because they like the idea of getting a huge profit off each individual item. They think, ‘I would have to sell 100 units of this smaller product to make the same profit I could make from selling just a couple units of this larger one.’
However, this mindset is often a trap— selling high-ticket products isn’t as simple as it seems, and the investment of time, effort, and money involved often negates any profit you might be expecting.
If you’re considering adding high-ticket products in your Shopify store or other dropshipping store, there are a lot of things to consider first.
First off, you need to start with proper product research to find the right products. Unfortunately, the internet is littered with bogus suppliers who sell cheap knock-offs and poorly made items, and even many of those that do offer quality products do so at the cost of poor service, extremely slow shipping, and undependable product availability.
So how do you find the right suppliers?
At Sell the Trend, we make it easy with our industry-leading supplier database. Our AI-powered search function helps dropshippers comb through over 7 million products in over 80 niches, adding them to stores with just one click. Meanwhile, we connect dropshippers with leading names like Aliexpress and CJDropshipping to provide access to the fastest, most dependable, and most reasonably priced suppliers available.
But which categories are best when it comes to high ticket products?
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
If you are going to go into selling high-ticket products, there are some categories that are more effective than others.
Our opinion is that in general, high ticket dropshipping will not result in the kinds of margins and profitability that dropshipping can be capable of delivering. The startup costs, marketing costs, and overall investment are all too high— particularly when you take into account the risk that one of the products or categories you select may not pan out. With standard dropshipping, that risk is far lower because you’ve invested much less in each individual category or niche.
Overall, dropshipping high-ticket products has a few significant drawbacks that you should absolutely consider before diving in.
When it comes to selling low value items through your dropshipping store, you have fewer marketing barriers to overcome. People want something that fits their needs, that’s going to work, that’s inexpensive, and that will arrive when they need it. They don’t need too much convincing to pick you over someone else.
When it comes to high ticket products, you’re going to need to do a lot more convincing— and that means marketing spend. You’ll need to invest more in making the product look good, in making your store look high-end to match the product, and in costly tasks like product photography, copywriting, and more. For the many people who get into dropshipping for the low barrier of entry, this goes against the entire point.
Consider two different shopping experiences. In the first scenario, one of your mixing spoons breaks. You need a new mixing spoon, so you head online and search ‘mixing spoons.’ You’re not a professional chef, and many mixing spoons are basically the same, so you’ll probably click on one of the first options you see and, if the price is right, you’ll order it. If it’s poor quality or you don’t like it, no big deal— you can either return it or just absorb the few dollars you spent and order a different one.
Now consider a second scenario— buying a new sofa. This is a huge investment costing $1,000 or more. Not only that, but it’s not just about utility— you want to buy something that fits your style, your existing decor, and that will last you a long time. If you choose wrong, returning the sofa is no easy feat. You want to get it right, so you visit multiple stores, and you’re much more likely to go with a brand name you recognize and trust because the risk of making the wrong choice is much higher.
What does this all mean for you as a seller? It means that by the time a potential customer checks out your sofa, or whatever high ticket product they may be shopping for, they’ve probably already seen dozens more at other stores— and you have to convince them to choose you. This is a major hurdle to overcome.
Most dropshippers that are successful are able to sell a variety of items quickly— it’s the reason we’ve built 1-click functionality for adding products to your store in Sell the Trend. When a certain type of product starts trending, you want to be able to quickly add it to your store and start selling.
High ticket products make this difficult. People take longer to shop for them, trends move slowly, and a single product is less likely to suddenly take-off, providing you with a major stream of income. After all, most successful dropshipping stores make the majority of their profits from just a handful of high-selling items.
You may be thinking, ‘Sure, all this is good advice for beginner dropshippers that don’t know what they’re doing. But I’m experienced. I can handle high ticket products, no problem.’
Is it possible for experienced dropshippers to succeed selling higher priced items? Sure. It’s just extraordinarily difficult. You need to build more trust in potential buyers, and that means longer sales funnels and higher marketing costs. In the end, the experience of selling high-ticket products can quickly move you away from all the things that probably attracted you to dropshipping in the first place. If you’re willing to accept those changes, you may find success. But it’s far from guaranteed, even for expert dropshippers who know the business well.
Overall, deciding to sell high ticket products will come down to a series of factors that will determine your success or failure.
Fortunately, Sell the Trend can help with all of these. Our end-to-end dropshipping platform is the best way to find the right products from the best suppliers, reach your target customers, automate your business for maximum ROI, and more.
Ready to get started? Try Sell the Trend today.
Dropshipping is not only a practice but rather an art of selling winning products online. It is the most hassle-less job as you won’t have to worry about shipping services, inventory storage, and management. The manufacturer or the supplier ships the product directly to the buyer.
Most of the retailers are now considering dropshipping as there because of the low risks involved and high-profit margins.
Many veteran e-commerce store owners find this business model extremely tempting as compared to other e-commerce models. Why shouldn’t they? Nothing is more appealing than making sales without having to worry about preparing inventory or offering shipping services.
With a few hundred dollars and a considerate effort from your side, dropshipping winning and trending products on your e-commerce can make you thousands of dollars per month.
Dropshipping suppliers and manufacturers with dropshipping programs get 18.33% more profit than the ones who rely on conventional online channels to sell. Similarly, e-commerce retailers who rely on dropshipping have a 50% higher chance to make profitable deals than the ones who hold on-site inventory.
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
If you are one of the retailers who are interested in dropshipping and want to jump in the bandwagon, here are reviews of some of the best companies to start your dropshipping business:
Doba is one of the most comprehensive and best dropshipping companies in the market. Apart from buying the products directly from Doba’s marketplace, you can access a long directory of wholesale distributors, suppliers, and manufacturers.
This feature provides an ease to the retailers as managing the inventory and the orders from multiple suppliers is quite difficult.
It is compatible with Volusion, Shopify, Aliexpress dropshipping, Magento and all other shopping cart providers.
Doba has an advanced search engine that allows you to search for more than 2 million products from thousands of manufacturers and suppliers.
Various built-in features allow you to track orders, manage products, and even discover trending or hot-selling items.
Doba offers 3 memberships plans for its users. The basic starter plan starts at $29 per month while the pro plan costs around $249 per month.
If you are still hesitant to buy a plan, try out the 30-day trial to see if it works out for you or not.
SaleHoo has a huge wholesale directory with 2.5 million products and more than 8000 suppliers. Since its establishment, SaleHoo as helped more than 137,000 people to start their e-commerce store. Its exceptional customer support service and huge directory are what make it one of the best dropshipping companies in the market.
If you have the membership plan, you can access the market research labs to find the hot-selling and trending products.
It is also one of the cheapest dropshipping companies to start your business with. You just have to pay USD 127 for a lifetime membership plan.
So, if you are planning to test it for a year or two, taking the life-long membership is your best bet.
One downside of using Salehoo is that you have to get in touch with the suppliers and manufacturers yourself. There’s no in-built feature for fostering work relationships on the app.
Sell The Trend is an emerging dropshipping platform helping dropshippers to find $1000/day products within seconds.
It was launched primarily as an AI-based product research tool for dropshipping. Sell The Trend used Nexus product discovery that was somewhat unique among most product research tools available online.
Now, it is a complete dropshipping solution for dropshippers. When signing up for Sell The Trend product discovery tool, you get a powerful 9-in-1 platform to improve your dropshipping business.
With thousands of trending products handpicked by veteran marketers and Nexus search machine, you can expect the best out of this dropshipping platform.
Here are the 10 key features of Sell The Trend:
Moreover, it has an easy-to-navigate user-interface. You will save a lot of time with the 1-click add to store and order fulfillment buttons.
If you have an e-commerce store on Shopify, Oberlo is the best option to consider. This application has a friendly user interface. It allows its users to search millions of products, add them to their Shopify store and get them shipped directly to the buyers.
Moreover, it automated the whole process of order fulfillment. It means that you won’t have to work hard once an order has been placed.
If you are hesitant in spending your money, opt for the free starter plan by Oberlo. You can access up to 500 products, unlimited monthly orders, all the basic features, and sales reports. Moreover, you can enjoy automated inventory updates and product pricing.
To access the advanced feature, you’ll need to pay $29 per month. However, if your dropshipping store is huge with a lot of products, you can go for a pro plan that costs around $79 per month. With it, you can access more than 30,000 products and almost every feature.
In short, it is a winning platform if you have a Shopify store because it does not support other e-commerce platforms. That’s the only catch keeping it from ranking first on the internet.
If you are looking for an automated software with fully integrated supplier network, then Inventory Source might be the right choice for you. Automatic inventory syncs, order routing, and uploading are some of its selling features.
Inventory Source is compatible with more than 25 e-commerce platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Big Commerce, etc.
The only downside of this platform is that it does not have a huge supplier network. With only 230 wholesalers and suppliers, it might not the best option on this list.
However, if you are already working with a supplier, you can use it to automate most of the processes in between selling and shipping.
The full automation plan of Inventory Source costs around $150 per month while inventory automation plan costs around $99 per month.
Dropified is what you call an everyday dropshipping solution. Automate every task of running a dropshipping business using Dropified.
You can find hundreds of top-selling products to add to your website. Once you find the products you are looking for, import them directly to your store with a one-click process.
It has helped more than 44,000 people to start their own dropshipping business.
The Dropified builder plan costs around $47 per month while the premium plan costs around $127 per month.
The investment in starting a dropshipping business is minimal. You do not have to spend money on storage space, order fulfillment processes, and pre-paid inventory shopping.
However, dropshippers with 6-figures in sales worked their butt off for the first few months. It’s not easy money!
To make things easier, you can rely on platforms like Oberlo, Sell The Trend, Dropified, etc. Even experts recommend spending your precious time on more important things than manually adding products to your store.
In case of further questions, feel free to leave a reply and I’ll be more than happy to assist.
Starting an online business doesn’t have to drain your savings or tie you down with piles of unsold products. Dropshipping has become a popular way for entrepreneurs to launch a store with minimal upfront costs, flexible work-from-anywhere freedom, and access to millions of products without ever handling inventory.
Dropshipping is an e-commerce business where you, the seller, do not have to buy inventory.
With the right tools, like Sell The Trend, you can quickly discover trending items, automate your store, and focus on marketing and growth.
We will cover everything you need to know about how dropshipping works. We will cover: The basics of dropshipping and whether it is for you; How to get started with dropshipping; How to find a niche, product, and suppliers; How to market the products. We will also discuss common mistakes that dropshippers make.
In the end, we are confident that you will be armed with enough knowledge to start your very own dropshipping company with us!
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
Dropshipping is a retail business model where you sell products through an online store without holding any inventory yourself. Instead, when a customer places an order, you purchase the item from a third-party supplier who ships it directly to the customer. This makes it a low-risk way to start an online store because you don’t need to invest upfront in stock or manage a warehouse.
Many entrepreneurs use tools like Sell The Trend to find trending products, connect with reliable suppliers, and automate parts of their dropshipping process, helping them run a more profitable and efficient store.
How does dropshipping work exactly? In the simplest sense, dropshipping is a form of e-commerce that involves shipping products directly from a dropshipping supplier or fulfillment centers to customers whenever they place an order in your store.
Let’s say you’ve decided to sell sneakers online because you noticed it’s profitable. However, you don’t have enough money to stock up your store. This is where dropshipping comes in handy.
To get started:
Did you notice we didn’t include product prices in the list of things to import? That’s because it’s all up to you to set up your pricing. So if the supplier sells the product for $50, you can sell it for $80.
When a customer orders a product from your store, all you have to do is forward the order to the supplier, who then proceeds with the fulfillment process. In the end, you’d make $30 in profits. Easy money!
As a business person, the first question that will come into your mind after learning about the dropshipping business model is its worth. The simple answer is: it’s totally worth your time, effort, and investment.
If you are worried about the legality of such a business model, and are asking yourself, “Is dropshipping legal?” Yes, it is legal.
Have a look at the following points. They will clear out the doubts about the dropshipping business model and walk you through its perks.
When you start a new eCommerce business or any other business, investment is the foremost problem. At the initial stage, it’s difficult to attain high funding, especially when there is no certainty for the positive outcomes of your dropshipping ideas.
In fact, 29% of businesses fail due to low cash problems before they get fully established.
Fortunately, the dropshipping model can help you deal with all these critical issues. This business doesn’t need you to buy any products from dropshipping suppliers in advance, employ a lot of staff members, and, most of all, invest in an office.
You can start a dropshipping business right from your working desk or any other place where you have internet access.
Moreover, you don’t have to pick or drop anything, so there is no hassle of stocking space, inventory control, or sorting products.
The only investment will be the website, store, or portal that you are using to get customer orders and any additional software (some very inexpensive options available) that you will need for coordinating with the suppliers.
Stocking requires the most considerable investment in any business. Stocking is also one of the most time-consuming processes in order fulfillment.
With dropshipping, the goods are transported directly from the dropshipping supplier to the customers, so none of the stocking investment is required. Even the inventory will move to a virtual stage, which is easy to manage with online and real-time applications.
Warehouses have always been an issue for businesses. It’s not only cost-ineffective but is also a significant source of error and problems.
Dropshipping does not require a warehouse. Therefore, there will be no hassle with insurance, rental, or professional warehouse management software.
In the initial stage, you won’t even need staff members, which means you won’t be paying high salaries.
To start a dropshipping business, all you need is a tablet, laptop, or smartphone to keep an eye on the work and an internet connection to stay connected. It means that you don’t have to stick with a particular location or city to ensure the smooth running of the business. You can literally do your business on a warm beach in Miami or during a trip to some abroad country.
When you open a brick-and-mortar store, you have to select a particular source and product for your business and then stick with it.
However, with dropshipping, you have an infinite number of options. You can go for any product, whether it’s baby products, a pet product, or any other popular product. You can even work with multiple suppliers who have an automated fulfillment process.
Another good thing about dropshipping is the choice of selling medium. You can sell through a social media store, a dedicated application website, and many other sources. We will talk about those options a little bit later.
In recent times automation has become a considerable part of the business world. It allows a business owner to speed up the processes, boost productivity, and increase their market awareness.
There are a lot of applications like Sell The Trend that can help you automate a lot of work. These applications help you manage the virtual inventory to reduce pricing errors, improve the efficiency of the business cycle, and save a lot of time.
Dropshipping allows you to sell products from one country to another. In this supply chain, you just need to work to create coordination between your customers and the dropshipping supplier, and leave the heavy lifting to the suppliers.
The thing about dropshipping is that it is not locked to a place. There is no physical location, so you can easily connect to customers in China and sell a product from Indian or any of the nearby countries. There is no limitation on borders, sellers, or customers.
Dropshipping is a flexible, low-risk, and low investment opportunity that can help you create a base for a reliable business. True, the market has become a bit saturated in 2025, but a strategic approach will still make you successful. It will take time, patience, and of course, some work to attain a good level of success in this field.
The entrepreneurs who can get the best results from it are the following:
Unless you have a dropshipping agreement contract with a particular brand, you can use it to sell products of different types without any problems.
What’s even better is that there is no particular shop, store, or dropshipping agreement contract, so you even have the flexibility to add any product or niche of products according to your wishes.
Dropshipping may be a low-budget business, but it is still a business, which means you have to plan every move you make. It also means that you need to know the competition, have clarity about your audience, and find the right tools for the job.
Have a look at the following points. They will guide you on how to start a dropshipping business and also walk you through the steps you will need to ensure its success.
What is a niche? A niche is a product category. “Kitchen” is a niche. “Shoes” is a niche. Then, there are sub-niches. For example, “woman’s shoes” is a sub-niche of shoes. “sports shoes” is also a sub-niche of shoes.
Choosing a niche means building a store for that niche only. So, if you build a shoe store, you will sell nothing but shoes.
The reason we recommend this is simple: specialization. You cannot be a jack of all trades. Just imagine if you have a store that sells shoes and power drills—they do not match and your site visitors will get confused.
Choosing a niche gives you these benefits:
Many dropshippers fail at this step. What they usually do is sell everything, which is fundamentally wrong. If you think about it, successful companies have a niche. Nike’s niche is sportswear. Bosche is about power tools. As such, it would us good to do what they do—be specialists in something.
Draft some questions related to your identified niche or product and set out for a survey. Have a conversation with some customers and note the common problems faced in their day-to-day lives. It will let you know their preferences, drive customer loyalty, and find the product categories that have more selling potential.
For instance, the biggest problem that the majority of the present population is facing is pollution. So, selling items that promote Green Earth to an audience that cares about the environment could be a very potent option to base a business around.
There are a lot of eCommerce websites that are already using dropshipping; you can use those to your advantage. You can visit some of the popular online sites like Aliexpress and Amazon and identify the most sought-after top-selling products.
Using Sell The Trend’s AliExpress or Amazon Explorers, it’s really easy to find such products in no time at all.
Combine that with the Nexus Research Machine, which aggregates the highest-performing products from multiple eCommerce platforms, and it should be a snap to find highly converting, money-making products for your new dropshipping store.
You have to research the products of your chosen niche and choose the most potent one among them. Using a platform like Sell The Trend with Store Intelligence and Dropshipping Product Research tools you can see which products are popular on Facebook and which products would be good to sell in your store as well.
The following are the things that you have to consider before selecting any product for your dropshipping store.
In dropshipping, the retail product price plays a critical role. If your product is too costly, customers will rarely buy it while if it is too cheap, the profit margin will not be enough for you.
Considering the profit margin of 15%-45%, you have to aim for a product that can balance both the price and the selling rate. You have to find the products that can work for your startup as well as fulfill the customers’ expectations.
Sell The Trend’s NEXUS Product Research page allows you to quickly check a product’s profit margin as well as see the average price that it’s being sold for in stores around the world. It’s also a great way to gauge the popularity and profit margins of a product.
The dropshipping supplier who delivers the product will deduct any shipping price from the total sales price of the product. That means heavier items affect your bottom line as more money goes towards shipping.
One obvious way to mitigate this is by managing the size and weight of the products you pick for your store. So, go for a product that has good market value but is lighter in weight. It will be cheaper to ship and will boost your profit.
As an online retailer, a lot of your time will be spent researching and adding new products to your store. If you go for a product that keeps on changing or upgrading, you will have to keep changing this content. It will be costly, time-consuming, and eat up a portion of your profit. You may also have to undergo the stress of keeping up with changing product pages.
20% of the eCommerce products return to the supplier due to damage. It may not cost you investment, but it will cost you time and decrease your brand value. So, search for the products that are more durable and have less chance of damage during delivery.
Sell The Trend’s Product Research Page is also a great way to see if a product is experiencing a lot of returns from customers. Make sure to avoid those products; otherwise, you could end up losing money as returns eat up not only your profits but your time and even your patience.
Another important aspect to consider when choosing a product for your store is whether it has a WOW factor that can entice a prospective buyer.
Products that have that special quality will fly off the virtual shelf a lot faster than common or boring products. If you encounter a product that makes you think “huh… that’s a really cool product,” then you might have located such a product.
You know the profit margins you want to earn and the products you want to sell, so the next thing you need is a supplier that offers these products at a low price.
The following are the more common ways to find the best dropshipping suppliers for your business. You can use them to prepare a list of potential retailers and then evaluate them to identify the ones that suit your needs.
Open up your web browser, and type your product’s name with “supplier” at the end. You can then gather the contact information of some suppliers from there and then contact them through email or phone. Most businesses also have online forums for queries and services on their website.
If you are planning on selling branded goods, find the contact information of their manufacturers and contact them directly. Some of the manufacturers will readily provide you with the services you need, and if they don’t, you can ask them for their outlets or wholesale dealers.
Contact some shop owners and delivery services, and find out about the wholesale dealers who work in your area. You can then directly visit them with your idea and ask for their support. If your proposal is good enough and the wholesaler finds it profitable, you will get your product in no time.
This is by far the easiest and most immediate method. There are a lot of supplier directories that show you millions of products with their associated suppliers.
Websites such as AliExpress and DHGate provide a convenient way to connect with suppliers selling the exact products you are interested in.
All you have to do is search for the product you need, find a supplier that is selling it, add that product to your store, and use a dropshipping order fulfillment software to automate the whole process.
Sell the Trend automatically connects you with low-cost Aliexpress suppliers for the exact product you are considering, using the convenient “Source from Aliexpress” button Located on product pages.
You have to rely upon the supplier for stock keeping, upholding product quality, order fulfillment, timely delivery, and almost all the primary aspects of the product management of your business.
The choices you make at work will have a direct effect on your business reputation and profit. Therefore, even a slight mistake in this step is not tolerable.
The following are the things that you should consider when selecting a supplier:
Not all manufacturers or wholesale sellers are open to dropshipping. Making contact with a supplier will mean time wastage and disappointment. Therefore, before visiting any supplier or manufacturer, check their background and make sure that they are dropshippers.
As a startup business, the last thing you will need is a supplier with a lack of experience. It will make your business more complicated and might cause it to fail. You cannot rely on anyone who is not a pro to handle this essential aspect of your business. So, if you suspect that the supplier is not experienced, go elsewhere.
Keep searching until you find the seller with a record in dropshipping and who can ensure the smooth flow of the business. It may take some time, but it’s vital.
Dropshippers will handle all the functionality of the work, from packing to delivery. So it’s pretty apparent that they will charge you a small part of your profit for their services. They have to pay the rent and storage charges after all.
However, this fee is usually limited to a few dollars (depending upon the product price). If the supplier costs you more than that say 50% of your profit, just let them go.
Even with the most competitive prices or range of products, they won’t do you any good.
According to studies, 95% of e-commerce shoppers stated that the shipping prices are a significant point for making a purchase. Another survey by Walker Sands also revealed that 79% of US customers are more likely to buy products with free shipping.
53% of the US customers even said that they wouldn’t buy a product if they didn’t know about its exact arrival.
The stats make it pretty clear that a majority of your orders will be impacted by your shipping policy and prices. So you have to ensure that the supplier you choose is up to standards for this aspect of the business. The supplier should offer an exact estimate of the delivery time and keep the customer informed with real-time data.
Moreover, the supplier should also have clear policies for product returns. About 68% of online shoppers consider it before buying a product.
The pictures you place on your site need to be clear and real. About 22% of the total products that are returned to the dealer are because of the difference between the real-life product and its photographs.
According to an article on internet retailing, 47% of respondents said they had to return products because they did not match their expectations.
So, it’s pretty clear that a supplier who cannot produce quality images and ensure product quality isn’t a good option for your business. You need a committed professional who is dedicated to customer expectations to grow in the dropshipping market.
After you have learned the necessary steps on how to start dropshipping and have completed the initial work, it’s time to face the market. It’s time to find a platform to upload the product picture and start selling your products.
There are lots of available platforms that you can use. Here are the most preferred options available.
Sell The Trend is the absolute best platform to start, especially if you are completely new to dropshipping. Beginners should use Sell The Trend because it combines powerful product research, marketing tools, and store automation in one easy-to-use platform.
A.I.-powered search and analytics help you discover trending products fast, while tools like the Facebook Audience Builder and Video Ads Creator make promoting your store much easier.
You also get access to a step-by-step Success Academy, real success stories for inspiration, and smart automation for order fulfillment and shipment tracking.
Plus, with seamless integrations for Shopify and WooCommerce, and direct access to trusted suppliers like AliExpress and CJDropshipping (with USA, European, and international shipping options), Sell The Trend gives beginners everything they need to build and manage a profitable dropshipping store with less hassle and more confidence.
The best way to start and run a profitable dropshipping business is to build your own store. You can use websites like Shopify, WooCommerce, and many more to create a customizable store for your eCommerce.
Selling through Facebook or Instagram stores is also an excellent option for a startup. Facebook single-handedly acquires over 2.38 billion monthly users around the world. If you manage to divert even a fraction of these users to your Facebook store, the profits will be much more than you can expect. More than 50 million businesses are already using Facebook to sell their product and are getting approximately 2.5 billion comments per month.
The only con of developing a store is traffic acquisition. The customers are unaware of your new store, which means you will have to put in extra effort in promoting your business.
It is also possible that you don’t get much attention in the initial phase of your business, which might lead to disappointment, but don’t despair. In the following section, we will discuss how to bring in a flood of customers to your new eCommerce store.
If you want to sell hassle-free and quickly, Amazon is a must for you. The store is, by far, one of the largest eCommerce businesses in the world. Studies have revealed that this giant in the industry single-handedly acquires over 45% of the total eCommerce market in the United States.
The net worth of the company is approximately 232 billion US dollars, and its annual earnings in the previous year (2018) were to 10.07 billion US dollars.
Fortunately, 34% of the sales by Amazon are through third-party dealers. It means you, too, can become a part of this large company and earn a profit by selling through its platform.
Every good thing always has some flaws, and Amazon services are no exception. While most of them are not deal breakers, it is a must that you know everything before you dive into being an Amazon seller.
So, have a look at the cons of using Amazon dropshipping:
eBay started as an auction website for selling old products, but has now become one of the biggest eCommerce websites. It has over 180 million active users and stands as the second-largest eCommerce store, right next to Amazon.
According to some studies, the website earned revenue of 10.746 billion in 2018. The following are the reasons that will help you with your choice regarding eBay as a selling channel.
eBay is pretty much similar to the Amazon store. It may be a bit smaller in scale, but all its policies are almost the same. Therefore, the pros of these two stores are also identical. Here are the benefits that you will get with eBay:
Here are a few cons that come with dropshipping on eBay:
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
The most substantial aspect of any startup is marketing. It is critical because you can’t earn if consumers don’t have a reason to trust your service or even know about your existence.
You have to tell them about the benefits of your services and give them a reason to shift from trusted eCommerce giants and buy from you instead.
Studies reveal that 14% of startups fail because the business owner doesn’t pay much attention to marketing.
One thing that every business person knows is that money attracts money. It means that the more wise investment you make, the more profit you will earn. The same thing applies to dropshipping. You can attain fast recognition and much more profit if you are ready to invest more finances in it.
Here are the investments you can make:
Finally, you can also do video marketing on YouTube or TikTok. Uploading a video of your product or services is an excellent way of teaching the customer about your offerings.
After knowing all about how to start a dropshipping store and promote your business, it’s time you learn about the secrets of making it successful.
Here are the critical elements of a profitable dropshipping online store that you should know and must always employ in your startup.
To beat the competition, you have to personalize every element of your business. You have to add value to the whole dropshipping startup. What makes you unique? Why should someone choose you over another?
The results on the first page of the Google search engine get 91% of the traffic, and 32.5% of the clicks are on the first link itself. Therefore, use SEO techniques to increase your ranking on Google.
If you try to sell a product that you use or are passionate about it will give you clarity in all its aspects. You will find it easier to see it from the customer’s perspective, which will increase your chances of selling it much more comfortably. Moreover, the passion for the product will help you to focus on the work and will make it more interesting and enjoyable.
It is ideal if you try to stick with products that don’t break that easily. It will help you attain more straightforward delivery options and also prevent the hassle of product returns.
Don’t stick with only one or two selling platforms; go for multiple platforms. It will help you to attain more traffic and more options. You can also prefer to sell through regional sellers. It makes the customer more satisfied than orders from an international dealer, as the shipping times will be much more reasonable.
The customers don’t have a physical way to feel your product; the images and descriptions are the only way to check it. Therefore, try to provide them with high-quality and clear pictures.
In dropshipping, you have to integrate with a lot of suppliers and connect them with the customer. Therefore, it is crucial that you have to maintain a healthy relationship with all your suppliers. You need to have excellent communication skills and pressure handling capability.
Often when a person steps into the world of business, they are unaware of the reality of this field. Even if you know how to start a dropshipping business and master all aspects of marketing, there are still some pitfalls you have to be aware of. There are inevitable mistakes that you have to avoid to ensure the survival of your business. The common and destructive mistakes that dropshippers make are:
Dropshipping is one of the most accessible ways to launch an ecommerce business in 2025 and beyond, but success comes from planning, testing, and using the right tools to stay ahead of the competition.
With Sell The Trend, you have everything you need in one platform: powerful product research, trusted supplier connections, store automation, and step-by-step training to guide you through the entire process. Start small, learn as you grow, and stay focused on delivering value to your customers — and you’ll be well on your way to building a profitable dropshipping store.
Dropshipping can be profitable if you choose the right products, price them well, and market effectively, but profit margins are usually lower than traditional retail.
Yes, $100 is enough to set up a basic store and run some ads, but you’ll need to reinvest profits and scale gradually.
Pick a niche, find suppliers (platforms like Sell The Trend can help), build an online store, and run ads to attract customers.
It’s not easy to get rich quickly; most success comes from testing products, learning marketing, and scaling what works.
Lightweight, trending items with good profit margins and steady demand—gadgets, accessories, and home goods often work well.
Welcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. We have another hit product that dropshippers are selling this Christmas. Though it’s seasonal, you can make some good money before New Year.
These Santa Claus pet clothes are the perfect product for dropshippers that are targeting the Christmas event.
Finding hot products for your Christmas or New Year Shopify store? We’ve got just the right choice for you.
The cute design, breathable & soft cotton fabric, and adjustable size make it the perfect choice for pet owners.
That’s obvious, dog owners will not be able to resist buying this cute and cool clothing for their chum. Some more reasons why this is a winning product includes:
We found this product last Christmas it sold like hotcakes. Dropshippers are again adding this to their store and the sales are rising rapidly.
It has over 1200 orders this Winter with 600+ orders in the last 30 days only. The product price is less than $2 and the average selling price is $29.56.
The orders trend is up since mid-October, and we expect the total number of orders will reach around 5000 before New Year.
Guess what? This product was last added to a dropshipping store only 3 days ago. Dropshippers are still finding it profitable and selling dozens of pieces every day.
Again, dog owners won’t hesitate to buy this cool dress for their dogs. If you’re a pet owner, you’ll understand the emotional connection between owner and pet and how we want our little friend to look more attractive and cool this time of the year.
This Santa Claus clothing has an excellent 4.5 product insights rating. We have listed 5 reliable suppliers on Sell The Trend and you can add this to your store with our 1-Click Push To Store feature.
Curious about how to optimize your Facebook Ads for this product? Well, our competitors’ spy gives you a list of Top Shopify Stores selling this product.
Click on the “See Ads” link and see your competitor’s Facebook Ads.
And yes, these Santa Claus clothes are trending on Facebook. We found one of the top Shopify stores selling the same product and their Ad engagement is enormous.
Overall, there’s still time to add this winning Christmas product to your store. Use our Push-To-Store, Store Intelligence, Video Ads Creator, and Facebook Audience Builder features to get started in less than a day.
Find More Winners in the Members Area
*|SIGNUP_LINK|*
You may be missing out if you are still a little reluctant about jumping on board the eCommerce advertising bus and exploring advertising platforms like Google Ads, Instagram Ads, and TikTok Ads. One of the most effective ways to grow your dropshipping business is to run ads tailored to your audience’s preferences.
Key Takeaways
*|SIGNUP_AD|*
To effectively run dropshipping ads on Google Shopping in 2025, it is essential to follow a structured approach that maximizes visibility and sales potential.
Start by creating a Google Ads account and linking it to a Google Merchant Center account, where you will upload your product feed containing essential details like titles, descriptions, prices, and images. This product feed is crucial as it directly influences the ads displayed in search results.
Once your accounts are set up, initiate a Shopping campaign within Google Ads, selecting “Sales” as your objective to focus on conversions.
When configuring your campaign, choose a daily budget that aligns with your financial capacity—typically starting between $10-$20 per day for newcomers—and select a bidding strategy such as “Maximize clicks” to efficiently drive traffic to your store.
Additionally, consider utilizing Performance Max campaigns, which leverage Google’s AI to optimize ad placements across various platforms including YouTube and the Display Network.
Throughout the campaign, continuous optimization is key; monitor performance metrics and adjust your strategies accordingly to ensure that you are targeting the right audience and achieving a high return on investment (ROI). Lastly, implement retargeting strategies to engage visitors who did not convert initially, thereby increasing the chances of turning interested users into buyers
Setting up Google Shopping Ads is just the beginning. The real challenge—and opportunity—lies in managing and scaling your campaigns effectively. That’s where Sell The Trend steps in to transform how you work.
Imagine automating tedious tasks like product feed creation, leveraging AI to uncover winning products, and building high-converting pages with just a click. With access to over 7 million trending products and advanced market analysis tools, Sell The Trend empowers you to run smarter, more efficient Google Shopping Ads.
Struggling to align your product feed with Google’s strict requirements? Our platform simplifies this process, reducing errors and ensuring your products are approved faster—so you can focus on growing your store.
The first step in creating a Google Shopping Ad campaign is to convert your dropshipping store’s products into shopping ads. For this you will need the following elements that interconnect to ensure a successful campaign:
A Google Merchant Account will let you create and manage how your product inventory will appear on Google (both in-store and online). The Google Merchant Center is designed to help your store reach millions of people who are searching for and looking to buy products like yours.
After setting up your account, you will have to both claim and verify your domain name and also prove that you own it.
Pro Tip: Sell The Trend’s 1-click push to store integrates seamlessly with popular platforms like Shopify, ensuring your store is optimized and ready for Google Shopping Ads.
Creating your product feed is a critical step—think of it as the backbone of your Google Shopping Ads. This spreadsheet contains all your product information, from descriptions to prices and images. Google has strict requirements for product data, and errors can lead to disapproval. Follow Google’s product data specifications to avoid errors.
This is where Sell The Trend can save you time and headaches. Our platform automates the creation of product feeds, ensuring compliance with Google’s data specifications. No more manual uploads or worrying about errors—just a smooth path to getting your products approved and live.
Make sure your product feed contains all the details Google requires, such as product titles, descriptions, and images.
You’ll need to allow your product data to flow from Merchant Center into your Google Ads account so you can use it to create and launch your campaign. For this, you’ll need to approve a link between the two accounts. Note that only a Merchant Account user can initiate this request.
Before setting up and launching your campaign, you’ll need to upload your store’s product feed to the Google Merchant Center. If your dropshipping store is already hosted on eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, it may already be connected via its API and hence no need to upload your product data feed since the data is automatically sent to Google Merchant Center.
If this isn’t the case, then you can choose any of the four upload options that Google provides:
Once your products have been approved, you are now ready to create and launch ads that target your desired audience effectively. Go to your Google Ads dashboard and click on the plus sign on the “Campaigns” tab and then select “New Campaign.”
On the campaign type select “Shopping” and then fill out additional settings such as budget, the locations you want to show the ads, and other general settings.
Give your campaign a name then press “Save” to create your campaign.
Consider experimenting with formats like story ads, which perform exceptionally well on Instagram and Facebook.
As soon as you get your shopping campaign up and running, you’ll have to monitor its performance to ensure you are getting the desired results. Some of the key performance areas of a campaign you should analyze and monitor include:
Pro Tip: Monitoring performance doesn’t have to be guesswork. With Sell The Trend’s Marketing Tools, you can gain insights into which products are trending and optimize your campaigns for better conversions.
Google created the “Shopping” tab as a way to enter online marketplaces and counter the growing dominance of eCommerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Alibaba, all of whom were already providing easy-to-use platforms for online retail.
In a nutshell, Google Shopping works by allowing online stores and merchants to upload either a portion of or their entire product catalog to the platform, complete with information such as the price, the brand, and the product image. Merchants can then place ads on the platform and provide additional information such as shipping, promotions, inventory, promotions and reviews, and customer ratings.
When potential customers conduct a product search, your product details appear directly within the Google search results, under the “Shopping” tab, in a grid-like product. This, of course, depends on whether Google will deem the search to be relevant to one of your products and how much you bid for the particular ad spot.
Google allows you to have both a Google Merchant Account and a Google Ads account. Google Ads also allows you to create ads that highlight specific product categories, even if you are a dropshipping store. There’s no specific verbiage in the Google Merchant Account’s terms and conditions that addresses dropshipping.
That being said, some dropshipping stores have had their accounts suspended for various reasons. Like every other commercial company, Google wants all its users to have the best possible experience so it will always be on the lookout for any potentially bad business practices or stores that try to game the system for quick profits.
A common reason Google can suspend an eCommerce store is when an eCommerce store uses a Merchant account to upload products it’s promoting as an affiliate rather than selling the products directly on their side. This also includes online stores that run on an arbitrage model, i.e. having no real connections to the products or the brands they are selling on their website.
Another reason is when the information on your Merchant Account such as pricing, discounts, and business information, doesn’t match the information on your website. All the details should be correct; even the smallest things like listing a $0 shipping price on your products on your Merchant Account and then listing a $20 shipping price on your website can easily attract a suspension or complete ban.
In short, don’t try to game the system.
One of the most effective ways to increase sales for your dropshipping store is to generate more traffic. Begin with one traffic source, master it, and then branch out to other sources.
There are three reasons why we recommend starting with a Google Shopping campaign:
You’ll only need one campaign to market all your products since you’ll only be creating a single shopping feed. With only a few clicks, you can quickly set up your campaign and simply wait for it to gather more data.
This is far much easier than setting up Facebook Ads where you have to set up a campaign for each product and at times, having to deactivate some underperforming ad sets/creatives within campaigns
Quality traffic almost always will increase sales. While Facebook Ads allow for more precise targeting, Google Shopping Ads will garner a much higher quality of traffic. Most of the leads generated from your ads will have a higher buyer intent since they are already searching for the products.
Facebook is a much more mature platform and analysts indicate that its CPC rates tend to be slightly higher than Google Shopping ads. Depending on the size of your campaign or your budget, it’s always prudent to look for areas where you can save some dollars while achieving the same results.
The short answer is yes! While other eCommerce platforms like Amazon still have the bigger chunk of retail advertising, Google Shopping is tipped to become the new storefront since it’s more focused on driving traffic to independent online retail stores rather than selling its own version of the products. It’s the ultimate anti-Amazon marketplace. After all, who wants to live in a world where there’s only one place to buy something online?
Google’s overall domination of search gives it a clear edge since it promises to deliver greater brand visibility, impressions, and high-quality traffic, all of which will help boost your dropshipping store’s revenues.
Still interested in finding out how it works and how you can set up Google Shopping Ads for your dropshipping store? Keep reading for more information.
But first, what’s the fundamental difference between Google Shopping Ads and Facebook advertising?
Pro Tip: Google Ads are always worth it, if you have the right product. Use Sell The Trend’s Product Explorer to stay on top.
Google Ads and Facebook Ads have a fierce and longstanding history as advertising platforms. Digital marketing experts often have to grapple with the fundamental question; which of these two platforms provide the best ROI for eCommerce businesses?
The answer, of course, is always the same; it depends. Several factors such as target audience, business objectives, and your budget will determine which of the two platforms would be the most suitable for your eCommerce store.
One of the most basic differences between Google Shopping Ads and Facebook Ads is how they appear or how they are displayed to potential shoppers. Google Shopping Ads are search-based and they appear at the top of search query results. Potential shoppers will only see the ad if they directly search for the relevant product.
Facebook Ads on the other hand are interruption-based. This means you will see products that you are not directly searching for as you scroll down your timeline. They will often appear as ‘Sponsored’ posts in between the regular posts on your feeds.
Since Google Shopping Ads are click-based, they are priced per click and tend to have lower costs per click (CPCs) in comparison to the products. Therefore, Google Shopping Ads would be more cost-effective if your eCommerce store is selling high ticket products.
Facebook Ads on the other hand provide more flexibility and can charge per impression or per click. Most product prices on Facebook tend to be on the lower end and Facebook Ads would be ideal if your product prices are at the low to medium price points. And since Facebook is a much more mature platform, CPCs tend to be a little higher in comparison.
In terms of quality of traffic, Google Shopping Ads have a slight edge due to the simple fact that website visitors are actively searching for your products, which translates to a much higher buying intent. Therefore, Google Shopping Ads will give your store a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than Facebook Ads for the same products.
Facebook Ads have better targeting capabilities. And since you can target audiences by age, gender, interests, and even exact location, Facebook Ads have a much larger potential reach.
Pro Tip: Building a product feed manually can feel overwhelming. Let Sell The Trend’s Store Automation do the heavy lifting with automated feed generation, ensuring your products meet Google’s strict specifications without errors.
Google’s suite of advertising tools provides diverse options to showcase your products. From text-based search ads to eye-catching Google Display Network banners, you can reach audiences who might not be on social media platforms.
With millions of sites and apps under the Display Network, your ads can appear almost anywhere online. This is ideal for building brand awareness and staying top of mind with potential customers.
Retargeting lets you re-engage shoppers who’ve previously visited your store. By placing carefully timed ads on their favorite sites, you stay in their line of sight and encourage them to complete their purchase.
YouTube’s massive user base offers an excellent space to showcase product videos. Demonstrate key features, offer tutorials, and include strong calls to action to encourage viewers to explore your store.
Google Ads provides robust analytics so you can monitor impressions, clicks, and conversions. Use this data to adjust bids, refine targeting, and continuously improve your campaigns for better results.
One of the best approaches to designing new ads is to combine video creation with influencer marketing. We will see more of this in 2025.
By focusing on user-generated content and sharing it across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook Groups, you can effectively showcase the videos created for your products in a relatable and engaging way.
With strategic planning, a single video can capture attention and drive conversions, proving that a well-executed video creation process is worth the investment. From the initial videos created to the final videos created, authenticity and storytelling remain key to resonating with potential customers.
Dropshipping ads act as your store’s virtual billboard, grabbing attention and guiding potential customers to your products. They’re typically designed to showcase unique products, highlight offers, and differentiate your brand in a crowded online marketplace.
Video ads quickly capture attention and let you present product details in a visually appealing way. Plus, video content often leads to higher engagement and better conversion rates, making it a valuable tool for growing your online business.
Pro Tip: Don’t have an idea how to create a single video? Use Sell The Trend’s Video Ad Creator!
Keep your videos concise to maintain viewer interest. Feature the product’s benefits, demonstrate how it solves a problem, and close with a clear call-to-action that encourages clicks or purchases.
Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube excel at showcasing video ads. Test different formats to see which audience responds best, then refine your strategy to maximize ROI.
Monitor key metrics like click-through rate (CTR), view-through rate (VTR), and conversions. Use split testing to identify winning creatives and continuously optimize for better performance.
As eCommerce evolves, video advertising will play an increasingly important role. Stay adaptable, monitor industry trends, and experiment with fresh concepts to keep your ads relevant and engaging.
The best ads for dropshipping are visually engaging and tailored to your audience. Short video ads showing your product in action, carousel ads highlighting multiple product options, and influencer-style ads that feel authentic can drive great results. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram thrive on this type of content. YouTube ads, such as overlay ads or longer video formats, can also drive traffic when paired with strong targeting.
Start by understanding your audience—who they are, what they like, and where they spend their time online. Choose a platform that aligns with your audience (Facebook, TikTok, or Google), create eye-catching ad content, and leverage tools like Sell The Trend to optimize your targeting and ad creatives. Monitor your performance regularly to tweak your campaigns for better results.
The best platform depends on your audience and product type. For most dropshippers: Facebook and Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads, and Google Ads. Each platform has strengths, so testing multiple options is essential to determine what works best for your business.
Yes, ads are almost essential for dropshipping. Since dropshipping often involves selling unique or niche products, paid ads are the fastest way to get those products in front of potential customers. While organic traffic (e.g., from SEO or social media posts) can complement your strategy, relying solely on it is typically slower and less predictable. Ads provide the scalability and visibility most dropshipping businesses need to thrive.
Setting up your dropshipping store for massive success isn’t easy. But tools such as Sell The Trend can take the legwork out of your dropshipping store’s campaigns using exclusive and cutting-edge AI-powered tools.
As your competition spends weeks or even months in research and strategizing, you can give your dropshipping store a healthy headstart with a repertoire of Product Research, Store Intelligence, Store Automation tools, and marketing tools such as Facebook Audience Builder, Influencer Engagement Calculator, and Video Ads Creator.
Whether you want to get your feet wet in the eCommerce world or you want to level up your skills, Sell The Trend’s Success Academy can quickly transform you into a dropshipping expert.
Start your free, no-commitment trial today.
Welcome to another episode of winning product Fridays. Today we have another product with awesome stats and an unbreakable emotional connection to the audience.
This baby sleeping story book is not just an ordinary book. It is a flashlight projector that simulates animals, vehicles, and even outer space scenes to stimulate your child’s imagination and curiosity.
This product is selling like hotcakes and is still not over-saturated in the market.
First, the selling stats are awesome. Moreover, parents wouldn’t hesitate to spend a few bucks to buy their child this flashlight story book.
Some other reasons why this product should be a part of your parenting or toy niche Shopify store are:
This flashlight can either be used to give your child a sense of security at night or as an interactive way of learning while playing. Meaning, parents wouldn’t hesitate to buy their child something out of the box.
It comes with 3 pc cards (8 patterns each). The patterns can be animals, outer space scenes, vehicles, or plants.
So, this can be a permanent listing on your Shopify store.
The product has almost 30k orders and it was added to Sell The Trend only 4 months ago. This book flashlight has over $432,000 in sales and the number is rapidly increasing.
The product cost is less than $1, however, dropshippers are selling it for like $15. That’s a $14 profit margin. Moreover, the product is not oversaturated in the market.
It has had 7,727 orders in the last 30 days. The daily order estimate is 235. Even though the sale price is only $15 but the huge sales volume makes up for it.
The product was added to Sell The Trend’s directory 4 months ago and was last added to a store only 8 days ago. Dropshippers are still finding it hot enough to list on their stores. Don’t wait now!
Finally, this children’s story book flashlight is not a seasonal product. It is not over-saturated in the market and can be a permanent listing on your store.
Curious how other dropshippers are doing selling this product? Take help from Sell The Trend’s Store Intelligence and track your competitor’s real-time sales data and insights i.e. orders, profit, Facebook Ads, and more.
Overall, this flashlight book is a good choice for novice dropshippers. Due to the product cost and sales price, only a few stores are selling this product but you can make some good amount with the huge sales volume.
Now add this product to your store with the 1-Click Push To Store feature.
Find More Winners in the Members Area
*|SIGNUP_LINK|*
