4 Guaranteed Methods for Finding Highly-Profitable Niches in 2022

Find Your Niche with Our Profitable Niche Selection Guide

Note: this post has been updated to reflect the newest information about dropshipping and profitable niches.

Every year we update our guide to selecting profitable niches. If you're familiar with digital and eCommerce trends, you know how fast things change. This is still good news for you though!

That's because it's only getting easier to research the profitability of a niche product before you start building your dropshipping store. This will give you a clear picture of market trends, releases, and ways to be profitable within a broad, over-saturated niche, hint: sub-niches.

This blog post is also available in video form. Click ‘Play’ below to start watching! Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for weekly updates and insights!

This guide will cover the first and arguably, one of the most important steps in building your own profitable eCommerce business: selecting profitable niches.

Don’t Rush the Niche Selection Process

One of the first steps in eCommerce is choosing a niche… it’s also the biggest point where we see people get hung up. While you shouldn’t make niche selection harder than it is, it’s more important to not rush the process.

Selecting a niche can make or break your dropshipping business making it one part of the dropshipping process you don’t want to rush.

Breaking it down, there are two types of niches the bad (non-profitable niches) and the good (profitable niches). Let's start with what makes a niche 'good':

Good Niche

Products that have a lot of styles.
Products that have a lot of variation.
Products that customers can wait for due to its uniqueness.

Examples

Rugs
  • Have Wide Varieties of Size and Design
  • Customizable
Furniture
  • Have Wide Varieties
  • People Don't Mind Waiting
Lighting
  • Hundreds of Style Options
  • No Brand Loyalty

Bad Niche

Products that are too personalized (ie apparel).
Products that have emotional attachment.
Products that have deadlines.

Examples

Seasonal Products
  • Time Sensitive Which Will Cause Customer Service Issues
Electronics
  • Technical Issues Which Will Cause Customer Service Issues
Bedding
  • Very Personalized Products
  • High Return Rate

4 Guaranteed Methods for Finding Profitable Niches

When searching for a profitable niche that's good for the dropshipping model in 2020 you'll want to use these four methods that I have learned from more than a decade in eCommerce.

infographic showing 4 methods for niche selection from the blog post

To give you a little background, my very first eCommerce store started making money within 24 hours of going live.  I made a sale for $485 the FIRST night that my store was able to accept orders.  

I’m not telling you this to show off. I’m telling you because I want you to know the secret to my dropshipping method. The same secret I used to make over $3,000 of sales in just over three weeks.

People are often shocked when they hear this because it sounds like I just threw together an online shop and starting making money through luck. But the truth is I spent A LOT of time prior to launching. In fact, it’s all about the preparation.

Before my store launched, I did a ton of market research in order to have the best chance of success once I was ready to launch. There was one reason that I made $485 within hours of launching. It was because I found a profitable niche that fit a certain criteria.

It's not hard but there are a few methods that you need to know in order to successfully select a profitable dropshipping product. 

Keep reading to learn all the details, plus step-by-steps of my favorite methods to research the current profitability of any eCommerce niche.

Method #1: Focused Brainstorming

Before you can test different niches for profitability you need to think of niches to test. This doesn’t mean you think about it on the ride to a friends house, you need to block off time and focus on brainstorming.

TIP: When first brainstorming profitable niches, make a list of at least 50 good niches that fit the criteria above.

To brainstorm new ideas, I often think of things that I’ve recently bought online. As well as asking family and friends what they’ve recently purchased. Also, think about what you’ve bought in the past.

Here are some more action tasks that will help you brainstorm a long list of profitable niches.
  • What are the last five items you bought online?
  • What do people like to do on vacation?
  • What are the hobbies of your family and friends?
  • What's the most expensive item in the room you're in right now?
  • Think about all your family and friends and what they have in their houses.

Write everything down, even if it seems questionable at the time. I then take this list and begin running them through my “tests". Tons of niches are profitable, but that doesn’t mean you should rush into them.

Once you have your first list of niches, view them through these five lenses:

  1. Competition - Scout out other dropshipping stores and see what products are over-saturated. You don’t want to sell those.
  2. Loyalty - Don’t go for a niche or product that is dominated by a national brand(s).
  3. Pricing - It’s easy: the higher the price of the products, the greater your profit margin will be!
  4. Weight - Shipping is expensive but a winning combo is a high-priced product that has low shipping weights.
  5. Returns - Don’t pick a product with sizing and style preferences, they will have an astronomical return rate.

Method #2: Research and Evaluate Current Dropshipping Trends

eBay is still a good place to check if items sell online but don’t base your prices off of eBay's.  They’re far too low. Even though it’s not as relevant these days, it’s still a good place to brainstorm profitable niches.

Once you’re on eBay, you want to identify products in different niches that are expensive (to me, that’s $500 or more, but it’s up to you). Then go through different categories on eBay and change your search results to show “completed listings”.

If the completed listing is in red it means the item did not sell.  If it’s in green it means the item sold.

Look closer into the products that are shown in green and search for completed listing only for that specific product.  I used to do this over and over until I identified about 20 products within one niche that almost ALWAYS sold (10+ units per day).

TIP: Tons of niches are profitable, but that doesn’t mean you should rush into them.

When I started I wasn't dropshipping. I was importing from China, so I contacted a few suppliers that I had found on Alibiba.com and requested price lists for these exact products.  I then contacted a customs broker and got shipping quotes for a container of the products.

Next, I factored in all of my other expenses and learned I could sell these on eBay at the same price as many competitors and make a 50%+ profit on each sale! But that was back in 2006...

Method #3: Use Amazon’s Help to Select Very Specific Profitable Niches

Amazon is the world’s biggest retailer and they sell pretty much everything under the sun. That’s what makes it one of the best places to find profitable niches and the products that are "red hot".

Here's the step by step process to finding profitable niches using Amazon:

  1. Click on the 'All' tab at the left of the main search bar it will show a list of categories or 'niches'.
  2. Click on a specific category, that interests you (or at random).
  3. Then leave the search box blank and hit 'Go'.
  4. A new page will display and on the left-hand side a whole list of subcategories or 'sub-niches' will pop up.
  5. Click a subcategory and it'll take you further down into the niche into a more specific sub-niche.
  6. You now have drilled down into specific niches and can even go further still.

Amazon is especially great to help you find a super specific niche and the products that sell best. Even better is you can choose 'best sellers' from the navigation bar at the top of the page just under the search box and see what's currently selling best.

There’s no way you can’t find a profitable niche on Amazon, or at least have a good brainstorming session browsing the site. Amazon’s “Best Sellers” page is updated hourly making it a solid resource for profitable niche selection!

Method #4: Think Like A Marketer

Now, I know that I’m not selling on eBay anymore and I don’t think you should either. But, a lot of this advice is still useful in the world of dropshipping today. The first (and most important) tip I will share on finding a profitable niche when dropshipping is SELL EXPENSIVE ITEMS!!

Based on my experience, the average net profit when dropshipping is about 20% of your total sales. Basically, you’ll make 20% profit on a $1,000 item and a $10 item so you could either make $200 or $2 per sale. If you want to make money, you need to sell expensive items.

There’s nothing else to it. Not that complicated, right?

Once you’ve identified these items you need to find some potential “future competition”. Online retailers who are already selling these items. Unfortunately, there’s no way to find out how much money they make on each sale at this point. BUT you can find out if this niche is profitable by seeing if the suppliers enforce MAP policies.

If your results show different prices, that are all over the place, then this supplier does NOT enforce MAP.  If the results say something like “$999 from 3 stores” and there are no other prices listed for the same exact item then you’ve likely found a supplier that enforces MAP!

You can call these potential suppliers to see if they enforce MAP policies. But the easiest way to check if MAP policies are in place, is to go to Google Shopping and search for some random products in your niche:

map-enforced

Getting Started and Finding Your Winning Niche

Moving into 2020, we're heavily focusing on brandable dropshipping stores. That means we need niches that give us multiple opportunities for monetization.

Finding a profitable niche is the most important factor that goes into building a successful dropshipping store. To help get you started brainstorming dropshipping products, here’s my list for the most profitable niches in 2020

2019 niches

While it's still very possible to make a lot of money with niches that only provide the opportunity for one-off sales, I do believe that as we move into the future, the more opportunities for monetization, the better.

Any questions? We’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and we'll keep the conversation going!

Ready To Learn More?

STEP 1:

Join me for my dropshipping masterclass. You'll discover how our members are earning $300 or MORE per sale with the Drop Ship Lifestyle system:

STEP 2:

Not sure what the best items to dropship are? Maybe, you don’t even know where to begin... Start your journey off right by exploring our articles on dropshipping niches.

Be sure to register for our next free web class. Then, explore these helpful articles to help you source, contact, and get approved with the best suppliers.

profitable ecommerce niches
niche specific
high ticket dropshipping
  • Hi Anton!

    I hope you’ve been having a great week! Just another question for you about niches:

    If you’re looking at niches that already sell well on big sites like Wayfair, would this be considered too competitive?

    For example, things like front doors, lighting fixtures, rugs, or bedroom furniture sets, etc.
    Looking at products like these on Google shopping meet the criteria of less than 10 stores, have an optimal search volume, and have 30+ suppliers, etc., but it still seems like there is too much competition from sites like Overstock and Wayfair because they are very established and trusted brands. These niches are already widely available on those sites, so should popular products/niches on sites like those be avoided?

    Thank you!

    Sofia

  • Hi Anton!

    I hope your week is going great! I am having some difficulty deciding on a niche. I’ve put together a list of almost 50 niche ideas that meet the criteria and that I like; however, I watched one of your YouTube videos (“Profitable Niche Selection in 2023”), and you recommended that the price point be $1,000+ in 2023, as costs have gone up for ads, etc.

    So now, not all the niches I selected on my list meet that $1,000+ mark; I honestly feel a bit overwhelmed by this step, as I don’t want to invest in an oversaturated or non-profitable niche for 2023.

    One more question: out of curiosity, what was your first niche? And what—besides a lot of necessary research—drew you to that niche in particular?

    I’ve been reading every article here on your website and almost all your YouTube videos, which are amazingly helpful, and I have a book full of notes before I officially get started.

    Thank you so much for all your help!

    Sofia

    • Anton Kraly says:

      My first niche was cookies from a Brooklyn bakery 😆 That was back in 2007 and a year or so before I moved into high-ticket dropshipping. I choose it because I was right out of college and had bought a delivery route for that bakery so it was a product I had access to (not yet aware of dropshipping).

      And you’re welcome for the help! If you’re a member of Drop Ship Blueprint my advice would be to use the “Niche Selection Verification” tool which you can find in the sidebar of the members area. You can submit your top niche ideas there and myself and/or my team will validate your niche idea by either saying it’s good to proceed with, or giving you a related idea to pivot to with a higher probability of success.

      Hope that helps!

      • Yes, I remember the cookie story from the webinar…I’d probably eat them all–haha. (;
        I think what I meant to say was what was the chosen niche of your first E-commerce dropshipping store? And what, beside a lot of planning and research, made you choose it.
        I am not a member of Dropship Lifestyle yet, but I hope to be soon when I am able.
        In the meantime, thank so much for your help; I really appreciate it!

        Sofia

        • Anton Kraly says:

          So my research methods back then were nowhere near as complete as they are now as I didn’t know what to look for… but one of my first research methods >10 years ago was checking completed eBay listings for new high-ticket products that sold at BIN prices over and over again.

  • Thanks for the awesome tips Anton. I’m a little confused by something you’ve said though. In 2020 you’ve said that focusing on selling custom products is a really good idea. But in this post in the Bad Niche infographic, you included “Products that are too personalized (ie apparel)” are bad niches. I guess I’m a little confused because these two statements seem contradictory to each other. I have a custom product idea that I think could be awesome but I want to make sure I understand your position on custom products first.

    • You’re welcome, Taylor!

      To clarify, with apparel I’m referring to things like different sizes that can lead to returns.

      With customized products, I’m referring to things that can come with different add-ons and accessories.

  • The webinar was intuitive and fun to watch and learn. The host was very through in his research. A deep learning of what it is to do business on your own.

    • I am happy to hear that you got value, Jay!

      Looking forward to working together 🙂

  • hassania ben says:

    i have to add something!
    thanks for the article very interesting.. however we cant really have access to the google ad planner without setting a campaign..

    • Anton Kraly says:

      True… this is one reason why we built our own version of the tool for Drop Ship Lifestyle members. If you’re a member just login and you can access it under “Research Tools”.

  • Bonjour, je vis en france, es ce que votre formation fonctionne pour les français, et avez vous des formateur qui parle français ? Merci

    • Bonjour, Kamel. Je pense que la répose est non. Il est américain et ne parle pas francais. Je ne pense pas qu’il ait traduit son programme dans d’autres langues.

  • Hi I’ve just finished listening to your dropshipping webinar and found it really interesting. I’m unable to buy the full package atm but want to know how I download the free niche book bonus. Asked already but was told to follow the website link which just keeps asking me to sign up for the webinar again

    • Sorry about that, Carly. It seems like there was some sort of glitch. If you email support[at]dropshiplifestyle.com we will get you a copy of the book 🙂

  • colette grail says:

    I’m really enjoying all the DSL videos and articles. Thank you for providing so much content free and open. It’s obvious there’s more to it but I appreciate all the insight!

  • It has puzzled me for a while now – why are those have been successful with online selling so keen to share their secret to success by creating courses about their struggle – to sell to others.

    If I was successful as an affiliate with a blog (which I hope to be) or with Amazon FBA, the last thing I would want is more sellers on the market as that means more competition.

    It’s like winning the lottery and then sharing your winnings with complete strangers.

    (Yes I align with Darwin’s ‘Selfish Gene’ theory 🙂

    • Hi Paul,

      I’m not affiliated to Drop Ship Lifestyle, nor am I a successful Dropshipper – yet…I’ve designed many beautiful websites and have extensive experience in SEO, etc., but I guess the answer to your question will be that these Entrepreneurs saw just another opportunity to leverage from their years of “mistakes”, another opportunity to create an additional income stream.

      What I saw on the webinar was great, it all makes sense, and I believe that I soon will be able to apply it to my own Drop Shipping venture. I will keep you posted!
      (There are many ways, which “Giving” is good for you… 😉 )

  • Hey!
    Sure you’re saying the real deal ??
    How sure are you to have made $485 in one night??

    The same figure I saw in another article online, hope you didn’t copy and paste

  • Nice and informative article. Thanks for sharing the information with us. I run an online shop and this article was a great help to me.

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Very happy to hear that, Rahul!

  • I start my business on Amazon ,but cannot get products to my customers on time I tried dropship from China, it’s a disaster, I had to cancel a lot and all my customers are cancelling ,please help.

    • I’m sorry to hear that, Maisie!

      This is excatly why I do not recommend dropshipping from China

      My advice would be to pivot on your business model. You can learn more about how to dropship high-quality products that get to customers fast here:

      Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle

      Hopefully, you can think of this as a learning experience and look back and laugh after you set up your business the right way 🙂

  • Deific Lyon says:

    What do you got or have to say for alidropshipers, and a begginer in the dropshiping business I am planing on selling mobile device accessories… What do you think of that? I need your advice and opinion, thank you

  • Oksana Serdiuk says:

    Hey. I have my own business in Ukraine since 2002 selling goods. My company is expanding and I want to sell to Amazon on a dropshipping system is it possible, how can I find suppliers who are willing to cooperate with me. I would appreciate the advice.

  • Thank you for this very helpful guidance.

  • When I click the “Download: 187 Profitable eCommerce Niche Ideas” it doesn’t give me any downloads,
    but thank you for all the great information.

  • Very helpful… But my I am still confused about finding good products for dropshipping.

  • Dude…aren’t you contracdicting yourself?

    First you say Style and variation is good…then you said “Returns – Don’t pick a product with sizing and style preferences, they will have an astronomical return rate.”

    Next you say Electronics are bad niche due to technical support etc, and then, you said one of the best niche for 2019 are workstation, home theaters and gaming setup?

    • Hey TK,

      I understand the confusion, so allow me to clarify.

      1) When I say sizing and style I’m referring to apparel. I will update the post to draw attention to that.
      2) Like I discuss in the video in the top 10 niches post, I recommend selling the non-electric parts of those items (ie; desks, gaming chairs, arm mounts, home theater seating, popcorn machines, noise insulation pads, etc), and then promoting the electronic components as an affiliate.

      Hope that helps!

  • Tim Chuks says:

    Was helpful to me in my early days.

    • Anton Kraly says:

      That’s awesome Tim. Wishing you nothing but success!

  • Hi Anton!
    My all works were fail because I can’t connect any payment provider. I live in Azerbaijan. Paypal,Stripe etc. doesn’t work in my country.I have only chance that is 2checkout. Then it doesn’t accept my account. I have many e-comm ideas but , but i can’t.
    Please help me.

  • Geniece Chidester says:

    When I click on the “Download: 237 Profitable eCommerce Niche Ideas” it redirects me to the home page and I do not get a download.

      • The “Download: 187 Profitable eCommerce Niche Ideas” never send an email. I waited for days to receive the email but didn’t get any email, even in spam folder. Does it really has any niche list download?

  • super helpful, thanks a lot

  • I want to know more about dropshipping

  • Hello Anton , thanks for sharing these ideas , I would love to know is it best if i dropship from Aliexpress ?

    And you said something about dropshipping from China , is Aliexpress a part of that ?

    Can I have more than one country as my target market ?

    Thank you

    • You’re welcome, Mary! You can see my answers to your questions below:

      1) You should not drop ship using AliExpress.

      2) I would advise you to not drop ship from China.

      3) You can sell to as many countries as you’d like to. However, if you are selling large and heavy items shipping costs will likely restrict you to sticking to one country.

      Hope that helps!
      Anton

  • Isaac Chung says:

    Hello Anton,
    Regarding the top 10 niches, do you recommend us trying to build a website in one of these niches now that you have offered these niches to us? Would they not start to become oversaturated?

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Great question, Isaac!
      While you certainly can build a profitable store in any of these niches, I think it’s best to look at WHY they’re so great and then find other related niches to go into. The truth is there are literately hundreds and hundreds of them out there 🙂

  • Mario ElCham says:

    Hi Anton,
    Do you recommend shopify for dropshiping?

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Yes, 100%. They are the easiest platform to use, they have the best apps, and they offer world class support.

  • Thanks for an informative article Anton!

    • Anton Kraly says:

      You’re welcome, Tim. Happy to share!

  • Hi Anton,
    I’m totally brand new to this, and don’t yet have a niche or a store – but I’m working on it!
    A few questions that I keep coming back to are;
    1. If you don’t have any products and you’re contacting suppliers for the first time in order to get products, how do you populate your website, so that you look established, so that the new supplier will consider you?
    2. Once you do have a product to sell, how do you go about getting quality imagery for your website? Would the supplier provide imagery?
    Finally, how do you have a returns and shipping policy in place, if you don’t yet know what your suppliers terms are?
    Thanks in advance. I’m enjoying the DSL ride!
    Mike

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Hi Mike,
      Happy to hear you’re making progress!
      1. I recommend uploading just a handful of demo products. These are not “real” products from “real suppliers”.. but instead, you can just do a royalty free Google Image Search for your niche and choose some randoms ones that look good. Then you make up names, prices and just write one line descriptions.
      It’s important to note you’re not doing this to trick anyone, you just want the suppliers to see what actual product pages look like on your store so that they can envision their product line on there as well.
      It’s also important to note that your payment processor (most like Shopify Payments) should not be enabled at this point so no one can actually order from you.
      2. That’s correct! The suppliers provide all the high-resolution photos for you 🙂
      Hope that helps. And welcome to Drop Ship Lifestyle!

  • Emad Louka says:

    Thank you so much Anton for the great article. I’m taking your course now and I’m at the niche selection stage. The information you gave here amazingly integrate with what I learned at the course. I’m sure I’m on my right way to choose a profitable niche with your help and advice.
    Thanks again 🙂

    • Anton Kraly says:

      That’s awesome, Emad! Wishing you nothing but success!

  • Hi Anton,
    An important advice you share to us is “sell an expensive product”. I read that this also increase the probability to see your product blocked by the customs either in China or in the product you are selling to. Do you have any experience about that and how to avoid it?
    Thanks a lot for your great content btw.
    Theo

    • Theo Guillaumin says:

      *or in the country you are selling to (sorry)

      • Anton Kraly says:

        Hi Theo,

        We actually do not drop ship from China (nor do we recommend doing so) so we don’t have to worry about that.

        This video I made should help to clarify things:

        Dropshipping From China

        Hope that helps!

  • Hi I am looking for someone asap to do some niche research for a dropship site that I hope to establish but not in the USA can you provide this service and how much.

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Hi Danni,
      To be honest, you’re much better off doing the research yourself. You can get more information in our niche selection system if you’re not ready to invest into the entire course 🙂

  • Thanks so much Anton for this article. I also really appreciate your guide to drop shipping outside of the U.S. Very helpful!

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Very happy to hear that, Rajan! Wishing you nothing but success with your dropshipping business.

  • Hey, great article.
    Can you give us some examples of websites from your students. would be great to see the real deal

  • Anton – this is a great article. I also love how much engagement you get and that you actually respond to the comments. Keep up the amazing work! #dropshiplifestyle4life

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Thanks Madeline! I’ll keep posting as long as our amazing community keeps watching…. based on our growth over the past few years I don’t think that’s going to be slowing down any time soon 🙂

  • Hi Anton, I am just starting and therefore can’t afford your course just yet, but I do appreciate the 10 mini courses you sent me. Was very informative and helpful.
    Thanks again for the step by step information you shared.
    Hope to make enough to purchase your course soon.

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Thanks for the comment, Carl. And you’re welcome for the free drop shipping mini-course.
      If you have any questions about any additional resources please email us at [email protected] and we will get you taken care of ASAP.

  • Hi Anton! You helped me so much. Your information is very detailed and easy to understand… Thank You

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Hi Annette,
      Thank you for the kind words! I am glad to hear you’re getting value from the content that we produce 🙂
      And if you love our blog you’ll 100% love our coaching program 😉

  • There was no list of profitable niches of doing less and earn more but from the post I got the scope. Not bad at all.

  • Anton sir – before I buy all in – I want the free mini-course. When I go to the link – it looks like the larger paid version – … or.. is it? Do I input my info there? ooor

  • In the name of genuine fashion dropshippers, there are many out there. But, there is always that one dropshipping company that stands out from the rest. We’ve essentially re-invented the way dropshipping should be done. 🙂 And when it comes to profitability, our dropship program is MEANT to make you, the dropshipee, more money than the company itself.

    • What is your company name and website so I can see what you offer. Thanks

    • Anton Kraly says:

      The problem with selling apparel online is EXTREMELY high returns rats. For this reason, we do not advise drop shipping these products.

  • What if I can’t decide what package to sign up for? Who can I contact to see what’s right for me?

  • Hello Anton,
    how is the dropshipbusiness in Europe in germanspeaking countries working, compared to USA ? Should I start here or go to englishspeaking countries ?

    • Anton Kraly says:

      Hi Geri,
      We have many students who are drop shipping successfully all over the world, including in Germany 🙂

  • Thanks Anton, im reading everything i can get on your course.

    • I can’t bevilee I’ve been going for years without knowing that.

      • Anton Kraly says:

        At least you found us now 🙂 If you’re ready to take things to the next level definitely checkout our full course 🙂

  • Anton Kraly says:

    Hey Everyone,

    As many of you already know I created Drop Ship Lifestyle after selling a network of eCommerce stores and then trying to find a community of other store owners to network with… What I found was a bunch of scammers who promised newbies they would get rich quick by following their push-button systems!

    This led me to create a new community along with online training that shares how to build a REAL online business.

    I’d love to hear what you think… it’s a 2.5 hour dropshipping webinar designed to help you drop ship profitably… all for free.

    Be sure to click here to check it out and send me your feedback!

    If you go through the How To Drop Ship Profitably webinar and still have questions just contact me and I will help you out.

    – Anton

    • Hi Anton! I am wanting to join your mini course and receive your list for 187 profitable niches, but neither of the links work to bring me to those offers to receive them and only to your home page. Can you please help with this and provide the right links because I would love to receive them and start right away? Thank you very much and look forward to your reply

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