After more than a decade of eCommerce, the most common question I still get is “What is drop shipping?”
The answer isn't so complicated.
Follow along with me as I cover the ins-and-outs of this business model!
237 High-Ticket Dropshipping Niche Ideas
Learn How To Start Your Own Business Without Prior Knowledge or Experience. Click here to learn more!
Section 1: So, What is Dropshipping?
I know a lot of people find out about my eCommerce course 'Drop Ship Blueprint' by searching for the term ‘drop shipping’. And that they aren’t really sure what it is or how it works.
Here's the definition for drop shipping:
Drop Shipping
Drop Shipping is a retail method in which you don't keep products in stock. Instead, you partner with a supplier that stocks its own inventory. You transfer customer orders and shipment details to them, and the suppliers ship the order directly to the customer.
Also, I know people wonder how drop shipping works.
It can seem confusing at first because there are many different ways to build a drop shipping business.
The truth is, some ways work and others don’t.
To start, let’s go over this diagram which sales how this fulfillment method works:
So as simple as possible, this is drop shipping in 4 steps.
- You list the supplier’s product on your store for customers to buy.
- The customer purchases something from your online store.
- You order that same exact item that the customer paid for from your supplier.
- Your drop shipping supplier handles the order fulfillment and ships this item directly to your customer.
To explain a little further, it all starts with building your own eCommerce store and listing products on your website. I recommend building this online store on Shopify and customizing it to fit your target customer.
But whose products are you selling? Well, these are different suppliers’ and brands’ products. You may be thinking, “why don’t these companies sell their products directly to customers?”
The thing is there are companies that only focus on innovating products that rely on retailers to sell them.
That’s where you come in as a drop ship retailer, you’ll be selling for these brands who don’t sell to the public. They look for people to sell their products, to make them money, and grow their business for them. You and your online store are one of these retailers.
You’ll want to focus on getting approved to sell for these different companies. After you’re approved you’ll put their products on your Shopify store. Then you will advertise to bring people to your store.
Customers come to the store, and after they purchase, you contact your suppliers. Then they ship the items directly to the customer. You aren’t buying any inventory. All you’re doing is making an agreement with the drop ship supplier to sell their products on your website.
You get their price lists and put their products for sale on your site. When someone buys, you place that order with the supplier. You only order the product after the customer has paid you. Then you’ll contact that supplier, and say “ship item XYZ to customer ABC.” After that they ship it to your customer and charge you the wholesale price.
The difference between your retail price and what you pay your supplier is the net profit. From my experience, when you drop ship the right way, you’re looking at about 25 to 30 percent average net profit.
That means if you sell a $1,000 item, you make $250. That’s the average I’ve seen in my experience. Sometimes it’s higher, sometimes it’s lower, but that’s a good goal to shoot for. It’s a realistic expectation.
One other thing, if you're wondering "Is Dropshipping Legal?" The answer is yes, of course! There are legal concerns that you want to be aware of, but that is true of every single business.
Section 2: Drop Shipping Advantages & Disadvantages
Now that I’ve covered the question, “what is drop shipping?” I want to go over the benefits and downsides of owning a drop shipping business.
It’s important to me to have transparency when it comes to your options.
That way you have the complete picture and can decide if you want to build a drop shipping business or if you’d prefer one of the other business models.
Advantages of Starting A Dropshipping Business
1. You're Location Independent
The first benefit and probably the one that’s most important to me with drop shipping is being location independent.
Over the past decade I’ve lived in Vietnam, South America, and Thailand. With a drop shipping business, you really can live and work from wherever you want.
Drop shipping allows a level of location independence that not many of these other business models do. That’s why my coaching program is called “Drop Ship Lifestyle,” because you can be location independent.
2. No Inventory Costs
Another benefit is that there are no inventory costs. So when you’re starting out with drop shipping, you aren’t laying out any of your money for inventory.
The truth is that when you’re a traditional retailer, inventory is your biggest expense. You need to physically have the products to sell but with drop shipping, you don’t.
All you need is approvals from suppliers to have products. You only pay for items after you sell them and there are no warehouse costs.
Now in the previous section, I wrote about how I started in eCommerce by importing. When I first started, I actually had these inventory and warehouse costs. I was spending tons of money every month to store my products.
But if you use the drop shipping business model, you’re not paying for these expenses, someone else is.
All of your suppliers have their own warehouses and they’re paying to store these items. So it’s another cost that isn’t on your shoulders, something you don’t have to worry about when starting out.
3. No Handling Returns
Another benefit to drop shipping is not having to handle returns. To be clear, if your customer wants to return an item, you’ll still have to forward the return slip from your supplier to your customer.
But these items are not coming to you. If you own a drop shipping business, you won’t have returned products showing up at your house.
They’re going to be shipped back to your supplier, and then based on the policy of that supplier, you’ll get a refund or they’ll ship the customer a replacement item.
One thing that I go into detail within the Drop Ship Lifestyle course is how to find suppliers with low return rates. So ideally, you won’t even have to deal with emails about returns.
4. Gather Data While Getting Paid
This next benefit of drop shipping is gathering data while you’re getting paid.
Let’s say that you want to build a brand in the chandelier niche, you want to sell your own lighting fixtures or chandeliers. Also, let’s assume that you want to be an importer and build your own product line. We’ll also say that you even have the money to invest in it right now.
Well, before you throw money at an import business, have products manufactured, and start trying to sell them… I’d still recommend that you start a drop shipping business in that niche first.
As you’re drop shipping, you’ll be learning what sells. You will quickly be able to find out what your customer wants and building resources that you can use for your own product line. All while making money. Basically, you’re testing out the market while making a profit.
You’ll learn what types of products sell best, what price point you make the most with, and which features customers of your niche want most.
Then, after you’re successful in that niche, you can use all that data to launch your own brand with an importing business.
5. It's Easily Scalable
Another huge benefit of a drop shipping business is how easy it is to scale.
For instance, if you are making $100,000 a year in sales from just one drop shipping store, it’s very easy to build more online stores with similar results. The best part is that you can do this over and over again.
I always recommend starting with one drop shipping store, so that you really learn the process, go through it and master it. But after you do it one time, it’s very easy to do it over and over again.
6. You’re Building A Sellable Asset
The next amazing benefit of building a drop shipping business is that you’re building a real asset.
Now when I first started this business, I didn’t realize it, but drop shipping stores are very valuable to a lot of people.
There are a lot of buyers out there that are looking for profitable eCommerce stores, especially drop shipping stores.
Because basically, these buyers could just plug themselves into your business and be making money the next day. All without having to take over your inventory or take over a warehouse.
Here’s an example of what a dropshipping business can sell for:
So let’s say at the low end, you build a drop shipping business that’s making you $1,000 a month in profit.
That’s an amount that I think everyone could wrap their heads around, it’s very reasonable and attainable. That online store could be worth as high as $20,000.
That is what I mean here when I say drop shipping is one of the best ways to make money online, it’s in large part because you’re building a real asset.
One great resource for selling your drop shipping business is Empire Flippers. It’s a marketplace to buy and sell drop shipping stores in all price ranges, from a couple thousand to millions.
Here are some drop shipping stores for sale on Empire Flippers. You can see that having a drop shipping business is a huge asset.
The Disadvantages of Drop Shipping
Now let’s talk about some of the downsides of owning a drop shipping business when compared to owning your own brand.
1. Smaller Profit Margins
First off, there are smaller margins. Because you’re selling someone else’s products, profits are going to be less than if you created your own products.
If you go to China and have your products manufactured you can negotiate better deals for the product price. That’s because you’re doing a lot more work and taking on a lot more of the responsibility. But your profit margins will be higher.
So with drop shipping, there are usually smaller profit margins than with having your own brands. Later in this guide I will cover the exact margins, but on average, I aim for 25% profit margins with my drop shipping stores.
2. No Inventory Control
Another thing that’s not so great about drop shipping, and in my opinion it’s probably the biggest downside, is that you have no control over inventory.
Let’s say you have one supplier whose product sells well on your website, you’re making great money with them. Well, what happens if that supplier has supply chain issues and runs out of stock?
Your customers are still going to want to order from you, but you won’t be able to fulfill these orders. You are going to lose potential money in that situation. All because you have no control over the inventory, or because maybe your suppliers aren’t so great about managing inventory and keeping every item in stock.
This is something that great suppliers know how to deal with. Regardless, it’s probably something you’ll run into at least a few times if you decide to build your own drop shipping business.
You’ll run into suppliers who don’t have great inventory management and who do run into supply chain issues and that will lead to lost sales.
I cover how to spot bad suppliers in a later section and in-depth with my course Drop Ship Lifestyle.
3. Increased Risk of Competition
The last thing that I could really think of as a negative with drop shipping is the increased risk of competition.
If you create your own brand to sell online, let’s go back to that chandelier niche, and you make ‘Anton Chandeliers’. No one else can go out and create ‘Anton Chandeliers’ because that’s your company and your brand.
When we’re drop shipping, we’re selling other people’s brands that are looking for retailers. And other competitors will likely come across the same supplier and become retailers as well.
So it’s competitive, but if it wasn’t competitive, it would mean there wasn’t money to be made. It would mean there isn’t a market for that niche and it’s probably a bad niche to enter.
Those are my benefits and downsides when it comes to drop shipping. But even with the drawbacks, I always recommend building a drop shipping business.
It’s what I’ve recommended to family and friends, It’s what I teach to people because it works.
It’s a great way to build a location independent business, for little money, with the potential of huge returns, and that could become a major asset.
Section 3: Frequently Asked Questions
Now that we’ve covered some of the biggest mistakes new drop shippers make, I’d like to address some questions you might have at this point.
How much time and effort does it take to build a drop shipping store?
I’ve been building drop shipping sites, again, for years. I could do it myself in about a week to get to the very basic point where I start contacting suppliers. So for me, about a week to actually set up the store.
As for the members of my Drop Ship Lifestyle coaching program, some have done it in 2 weeks, some have done it in a month, some have done in 3 months. It really depends on how much time you want to commit to it.
What I will say is if you decide to work with me in my Drop Ship Lifestyle coaching program, we have a 22 video course that’s specifically about how to do this fast. It walks you through how to build your own highly converting eCommerce store with screen-share videos.
It could take a week or a couple of months to build your store. It all depends on how much time you’re putting into it and if you’re following the proven steps in the Drop Ship Lifestyle system or if you’re just trying to figure it out on your own.
How much can I make drop shipping? What will my profit margins be?
This one is kind of tough to answer because it varies so much.
I own stores now and have owned stores in many different niches. I’ve worked with hundreds of suppliers and I’ve been in situations where I’m okay making a 15% profit margin. I also have some suppliers where my profit margin is over 50%.
So on average, I’d say with drop shipping my profit margin is right around 25% – probably a little higher. Remember, that’s net profit.
Meaning, if you sell a $1000 item after you pay for the product from your dropship supplier, take into account your advertising costs, subtract your merchant account fee, and cost to ship, you can expect on average to be left with about $250 profit on a $1000 sale.
To sum it up, that’s around the margins you can expect and that’s one of the reasons that I recommend selling expensive items, so every time you get a sale it’s actually worth it.
The real reason I can’t tell you how much you’ll make with your drop shipping business…
The biggest reason is that I don’t personally know you and succeeding in drop shipping has a lot to do with personality. So some of what I’ll talk about in this section is what you can do to give yourself the best chances of drop shipping success.
Is drop shipping a proven business model?
The short answer is yes, definitely.
I’ve mentioned earlier that I’ve owned drop shipping stores for a number of years now.
I started off over 10 years ago with importing. And then a few years after that I transitioned into drop shipping.
To give you some idea of my success and business size, my stores alone have done over 8-figures in sales.
Drop shipping has done great things for myself and many of my students in my Drop Ship Lifestyle coaching program.
Because yes, this business model does work. We’ve already covered that in previous sections, so I really believe if it’s going to work for you or not comes down to a few personality traits.
Also, finding profitable niches is crucial for success.
Section 4: Two Different Dropshipping Schools of Thought
I’m going to cover 2 different scenarios. Like I talked about in previous sections, I find that the drop shipping average profit margin is around 25%, so I’ll use that in these scenarios.
1. Low Cost Items
Let’s say you’re drop shipping items that sell for $10 retail. The customer goes to your website and buy your product for $10.
There’s a good chance the product will cost you around $5 from your supplier and your shipping cost will be somewhere around $2 for a smaller item. So in this scenario, you’re left with $3 profit for processing an order.
In scenario 1, your profit per sale in this case will be $3, and that’s only if you didn’t spend any money on advertising. Not impressive, right?
Low ticket niches like this can be setup through websites like Oberlo or Aliexpress, it’s not what I teach in my program and not something I recommend.
2. Dropshipping High Cost Items
The second scenario involves selling more expensive items, what I like to call high-ticket drop shipping. You sell an item for $1000 and the item cost is $500 wholesale. Then your shipping cost is $200.
NOTE: Even though the supplier is going to ship your items directly to your customer, you still have to cover the shipping cost, but you can always reduce costs by charging the customer partial amounts.
So in this scenario, you’re left with $300 profit and that looks pretty good. Much better than $3 and it’s the same amount of work. The process is the same:
- You uploaded the same amount of products to your website
- You sent the same traffic to it
- You got the same order
- You processed it the same way on your end
But in one scenario, the high-ticket drop shipping model made 100x the amount of money than with the other one.
This example gives you an idea of realistic results with the right dropship suppliers and the right niche price points.
This is a pretty average scenario for me, I’m in scenario 2 and also teach this method. I’ve never sold in scenario 1. I always go for high ticket product niches and only work with legitimate suppliers.
Section 5: "What is Dropshipping" Recap
So now you know how dropshipping works:
- You list the supplier’s product on your store for customers to buy.
- The customer purchases something from your eCommerce store.
- You order that same exact item that the customer paid for from your supplier.
- Your drop shipping supplier ships this item directly to your customer.
- The customer receives the item that they’ve ordered from you
You know the Advantages:
- You are Location Independent
- No Inventory Costs
- No Handling Returns
- Gather Data While Getting Paid
- Dropshipping is Easily Scalable
- You’re Building A Sellable Asset
And the Disadvantages:
- Smaller Profit Margins
- No Inventory Control
- Increased Risk of Competition
You know the answers to FAQ's like:
- How much time and effort does it take to build a dropshipping store?
- How much can I make dropshipping? What will my profit margins be?
- Is dropshipping a proven business model?
And you know the strengths and weaknesses of the two primary types of dropshipping products:
- Low Ticket Items
- High Ticket items
For a deeper dive into dropshipping, check out our Ultimate Dropshipping Guide!
Hi Anton!
I hope you’re doing well! 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!
First off, thank you for putting together such an impressive and helpful collection of resources; I also attended your webinar last week and found it very helpful and inspiring. I have a few questions for you if you’re able to answer:
When searching for suppliers for your product type does that mean you are looking for 20 different suppliers that source the same exact product? Meaning, if I am looking at a chandelier in a popular style listed on Google Shopping (“Modern Sputnik Chandelier”) am I looking for this same style from 20 suppliers, or a range of popular chandelier styles from 20 different suppliers?
Should you also apply for a business license before reaching out to suppliers? From what I understand, you don’t need to have a business license to start dropshipping, but it would be a good idea in the long run. What would be the best choice for this business model: an LLC or a Sole Proprietorship?
Lastly, when designing a demo website to present to potential suppliers, where do you source images from? So, the product listings on the demo site are ‘empty’?
(I wanted to ask these during the webinar but didn’t get a chance to type them all/have them answered.)
Thank you for sharing your time and talent!
Sofia
Happy to hear you got value from the webinar Sofia!
You can see my answers to your questions below:
A1) Not the same exact product, but the same exact product type (within the same niche).
A2) This is covered in detail in Module 0 of the Drop Ship Blueprint. In short, it’s up to you but an llc taxed as an S-Corp is a good option for most.
A3) There is a lesson in Module 3 of the Drop Ship Blueprint that covered sites we use to find free stock images (along with how create product descriptions) for the demo store.
Hope that helps and looking forward to working together!
Thank you for answering my questions, Anton! This is very helpful. Have a great week! (:
You’re welcome 🙂 Wishing you nothing but success on your dropshipping journey!
What about taxes? Do I have to start a business account at a bank?
This is covered in Module 0 of the Drop Ship Blueprint – the short of it is if you earn profit, you pay tax just like any other business. Also, a business bank account is not needed, but it is recommended.
Hope that helps!
Domestic dropshipping app for Shopify
Nothing worthwhile… we never want to to drop ship through a middleman. We also want to go direct to the source.
yes
If you’re looking to get started with dropshipping just reach out and I’ll be happy to help!
Hello I’m interested in starting a drop shipping business I have looked a few products like : toys, elec, and candle supplies can you tell me where to start to get supplies I looked at Ali barba but they seem to have massive shipping cost I have looked if don’t get from china you tend to pay much higher price
Hey Bernie, Check out Antons free webinar here: Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
He explains why he wouldn’t recommend toys, candle supplies etc.
I am interested in your business, you may contact us by email
Hi Roy, If you have any specific questions feel free to reach out via any of the methods listed here: Drop Ship Lifestyle – Contact Us.
i have a home decor website is it possible for your system to work for me
100%! If you’d like to learn more be sure to go to Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle to register for a free training I’m hosting. If you have any questions after the training my team and I can answer them there 🙂
Hi Anton,
I am a U.S. citizen currently living in China but would like to start a dropshipping store before I’m able to go back to the U.S.. You’ve mentioned living in other countries and selling in U.S., do you have any insight on how I can start my online business while I’m still in China? I want to have my business for when I leave China and likely go back to the U.S..
Thanks so much in advance!
Best,
Christina
Hi Christina,
I’m not sure if there are any “China-specific” limitations, but you should be able to open a business entity with LegalZoom and simply use Shopify and Shopify Payments to accept payments. You can also use a virtual address while there.
Hope that helps!
Need to learn more before I start.
You should check out my upcoming free training webinar. I’ll cover the basics and also give out a list of 237 profitable products ideas for high-ticket dropshpping 🙂
Why don’t you recommend drop shipping from China?
Slow shipping times, no quality control, and overall a poor customer experience.
I write all about it here”
Drop Shipping From China
Where can you find products other than china?
Hi Diamond,
Check out my free training webinar.
I show exactly where to find them, and I also provide a list of 237 profitable products to sell online.
You can register here:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Enjoy!
Anton
why do we have to get products from China. Can’t we get suppliers from North America (USA/Canada) or Europe?
Hey D,
I actually do not recommend dropshipping from China.
We only work with US based suppliers.
You can learn more in my free training webinar here:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Hope that helps!
Anton
which company to use for product advertisement and how much it will cost for advertisement. example if i am selling product under high ticket as an example you mentioned i am making net $300/= so how much i need to deduct for advertising my product?
Hi Hummaira,
We do not like going below a 10x ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
This means we would be willing to spend up to $100 to get a $1,000 sale.
I hope that helps!
Anton
When picking a supplier, what certifications should they have, and what trade trends ste best?
Hi Nathanael,
Unless you’re selling some type of restricted product, certifications are not important.
Regarding trends, we always try to sell in evergreen markets so that we can build stores where sales compound over time.
I discuss this in detail on my free training webinar here:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
I hope that helps!
also is high tciket consistent with daily sales
Like with any business a # of units sold per day is not guaranteed. With that being said, there is absolutely no reason you should not be receiving daily sales if everything is set up correctly 👍
hey anton with your experience what are the average sales you have daily with one store
Hi Josh,
There’s not a one sized fits all answer because it varies from store to store. But on average I would say anywhere from 3 to 15 sales per day per store.
Is it possible to handle drop shipping business in the USA market if I live in another country? I am not a USA citizen. Are there any regulations by tax, legal regulations? Should I register a company in the USA?
Great question, Yurii! The short answer is yes, you can do business in the states.
Check out this my post on the subject:
Dropshipping Outside Of The USA – How Much Does It Cost?
Hope that helps!
Hi Anton Kraly,
Thank you so much for your help here, it’s very helpful for new entrepreneurs. You are doing a great job 🙂
Thanks Babu! Happy to hear you’re getting value 🙂
Hi Anton,
First thank you for your detailed info covering many points. I’d like to ask why you haven’t mentioned anything about WooCommerce. I’m normally planning to set-up my business using WooCommerce, your comments pls
Hi Hasan,
We’ve used WooCommerce in the past… while it gets the job done, I see no reason to ever use it when Shopify exists.
The security and support you get from Shopify are worth the small monthly fee, but you get many more features that would require a ton of time and money to implement on WooCommerce.
What’s the first thing I need to do to get started? also what is the price? thanks!
Hi Arnetha,
If you’re brand new to eCommmerce and to Drop Ship Lifestyle, I would recommend that you get started with my free webinar!
Here’s the link: Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Just let me know if you have any questions 🙂
Hey Anton, I’ve been looking at starting my own drop shipping business and will be attending your training this evening, really looking forward to it. I know the time is right for me to make the move into my new venture.
thanks
Happy to have you on board, Lorraine!
Hello Anton.
I live in Canada, I have no idea how I can open a drop shipping business. I heard about shopify but I am not sure how to start. Can I start my shopify store? how long does it take to build a profitable store. and how much it does cost.
thank you
MH
Hi MH,
I cannot (legally) make any income claims, but you should check out my webinar.
That is where I explain exactly how to get started along with how much it costs:
Drop Ship Lifestyle Webinar
Also, this model works great in Canada. We have many successful students from there.
Very, very helpful.
I appreciate that, Akosua!
Hi Anton! Great article!
I have a questions regarding the suppliers. What about posting products from Oberlo on my website? What I mean is, make it my main supplier so I don’t have to keep track and even contact other suppliers
Thanks!
Thanks, Emily!
Regarding Oberlo, I wouldn’t recommend using them. Check out this post I made called: Drop Shipping On Shopify: Amazon vs Oberlo vs Domestic Dropship Suppliers
Thanks for the info here. I had a shopify store before but wasnt that successful was using the aliexpress model with facebook ads as traffic driver. Correct me if I am wrong, but according to your method the supplier should not be from china (rather straight from the USA for example albeit will be charging higher prices for their items) and for driving traffic Google Shopping should be the #1 source whilst FB is better used for re targeting people who already visited your page via google shopping?
Thanks!
100% correct with the caveat being we aim to sell for at least 20 suppliers (aka brands) on each niche store.
Hey Sir Anton
I’m currently living in Lebanon, I would like to open an eCommerce business here. Do you know if this specific Dropship Class is applicable in the Lebanese market?
Hi Elie,
I don’t know of anyone drop shipping in Lebanon… however, we have members from over 25 countries. Many of them are drop shipping in their own countries, and many are drop shipping in the U.S. from abroad.
Here’s a blog post that should help you get started:
Dropshipping Outside of the USA
Thank you!
Anton
Where do I go to get your training on Drop Shipping and what is the cost?
Hi Willie,
You can view our coaching programs and pricing here:
Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Feel free to email anton[at]dropshiplifestyle.com if you have any questions.
Thank you!
To clarify, I live in China and want to drop-ship to the Chinese market. I would like to Drop-Ship goods made in China, to the Chinese Market. I have the ability to pretty conveniently go meet a Chinese supplier myself. Foreign goods are also on my mind as middle class incomes are rising, but I see your point about the transit issues- in the short run, maybe this isn’t worth it. Anyway, in this context, would you still advise against China? Is this possibly a relevant business model for me?
Hi Eron,
If it’s China to China dropshipping (or any country to any country) I see no reason why it wouldn’t work.
– Anton
Hey there!
I’m currently living in China, I would like to open an eCommerce business here. Do you know if this specific Dropship Class is applicable in the Chinese market?
Hi Eron,
I’m personally not aware of any drop shipping in China, sorry!
I see. This market seems premium since so many sales are based on personal relationships and trust. One last question, should I take a course in Digital Marketing before I start your course?
Great question!
The answer is NO, you don’t need anything else. I literally break down every step from A – Z inside of Drop Ship Lifestyle. And if you ever have any questions you can reach out anytime. We really are here to help 🙂
Great Information Anton thank you.
How does one manage sales tax issues when drop-shipping products in the US using US drop-shippers, given that every state has a different rate?
I don’t live in US so, does this complicate the tax process even further?
Looking forward to your reply.
Thanks
Hi Darryl,
Our S-Corp is registered in NY so we charge sales tax on orders that ship to NY. However, that’s not advice for what you should do and I’d highly recommend talking to a CPA regarding anything tax related.
Thanks!
Thanks Anton, will do.
Hello. How much money should I have to start dropshipping on shopify including monthly payment,ads and marketing and things like? And what if I don’t make sales and lose money first month?
Hi Elio,
Here’s a blog post I wrote about startup costs for drop shipping.
I don’t know how long it will take you to make money because it’s different for everyone (you’re starting a real business), but I can say that we’ve had many students start making sales within 21 days.
You can check out our eCommerce courses here: Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Thank you!
Dear Anton,
Thank you so much for all the info that you are sharing. I am a working mom and I am really hoping to have my own business so I can spend more time with my family especially my daughter … this is why I started reading & watching about ecommerce. Your website is amazing, you are amazing!
I appreciate that MJ, and I wish all the best for you and your daughter 🙂 Stay motivated and focused and you’ll make it happen!
Thank you
Iam a student now and i have a full-time warehouse jop, I wanted to start an online business of my own, this beautiful honest information will help me to make a good decision on where, how and when to start it.
Thanks agian and see you on the other side.
Hi Hamza,
I’m happy I could help! Keep hustling and trying to make the most of your hours outside of school and work 🙂
Hello Sir.
I had two Shopify stores that failed. I closed them down after only 1 or two sales in three months. . I was advertising in FB only.so I have the basics of Shopify. So do you have something for a little advanced guy on a single dad’s budget. What do you recommend. Also will you be offering monthly payments for your new program? Thank you
Hi Mike,
Were you using the AliExpress model? I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but I do not recommend drop shipping from China or running direct response FB ads when first starting out…
If you follow my system and focus on selling expensive items (from domestic suppliers) with Google Shopping Ads being the main traffic source then your Shopify design knowledge should help you get up and running a little faster.
Hope that helps!
Hi Anton,
Question I have seem people using 3dcart and there is also lemonade stand have you heard of these hosted shopping carts?
Great question, Avi. The truth is that there are DOZENS of different hosted carts out there. The big players (in 2023) are Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and Volusion. When you compare them all side-by-side for cost of use + features offered + support Shopify wins hands down. I haven’t done a comparison video for years but I may do one in the near future. For now, just know I’ve tried almost every platform out there and Shopify is the clear winner.
Hi Anton,
Thank you so much for your help here, it’s very helpful for new entrepreneurs, like me. You are doing a great job 🙂
I must say that I don’t quite agree with you about not working with Chinese suppliers, I’ll explain.
If we just think a moment we’ll remember that almost our everyday use are Made in China. Our computers, phones, clothes, shoes, bags, cars, TV and much more.
I do not need to go any further, you know what I mean.
Also, Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, is one of the richest people in the world, the platform is one of the largest in the world, as well as AliExpress and they all made in China 🙂
I think that what used to be thought in the past, is no longer the same today, with the same fear of defective or non-quality products, you can also get from large companies in the US or Europe.
Nobody can guarantee you anything.
There are a lot of good and reliable suppliers in China, all we need to do is find them. And I think that “Oberlo” is doing a lot for us in that matter.
This is my opinion after I learned a lot and read a lot about DROPSHIPPING, now it’s my time to implement.
Having said that, I thank you so much for the great stuff you share with us.
Hi Sigal,
I appreciate the comment but I think you missed my point on working with Chinese suppliers 🙂
I have no problem at all with products that are made in China. In fact, I’ve imported dozens of containers over the years and seen excellent quality manufacturing from reliable suppliers in Shenzhen.
My issue is with blindly drop shipping random products from China from suppliers with whom you have no real relationship. As stated in the post, this often results in inconsistent quality of product + long lead times for your customers.
I go into more detail on this in my drop shipping from China video.
Hi Anton,
Nice tips to avoid bad suppliers. But my question is that after removing supplier how we can find the real one because most of the guide & guru recommenced supplier which some how falls in the above mention category of yours.
I would love to hear a solution on that?
Thanks
Glad you find it helpful, Osama!
If you started with bad products and/or bad products the first thing you could do is try to find better (Silver & Gold) suppliers within your current niche.
However, if these suppliers are not available in your niche, I would just recommend starting over.
It may sound painful to have to build a new store but I promise you it’s better then holding onto one that will never make you any money 🙂
I know that MAP is essential for the products, but does Oberlo have MAP? If it does, I’ve just not seen it yet. Or is that the price they have listed as the price I pay them to ship it?
That is correct. MAP is a HUGE part of the reason why we can maintain such high profit margins when drop shipping.
With that being said, I highly doubt any suppliers on Oberlo offer MAP pricing. This is one of the many reasons why we do not drop ship from China. You can learn more about that in this video.
One question, but I’m feeling everything in this post is what you get as they may be part of the course. About finding the right manufacturers to do drop shipping with, as this can be very very tedious.
Hi Henry,
Yes, finding suppliers is part of our Drop Ship Blueprint program (it’s covered in Module 2: Market Research).
With that being said, the hard part is finding the right suppliers (the ones you can actually make money with). I call these Gold and Silver suppliers. If you are a member of Drop Ship Lifestyle you can learn more about how to get in approved with these suppliers in Module 4: Supplier Approvals.
Hope that helps!
Hi Anton
You mention only the big guys eBay, Amazon, Shopify and many others you skip . Just an educated opinion …. What do you think about Instant Ecomm?
I’ve never heard of them so I cannot say anything good or bad… what I will say is that I’ve tried all of the big eCommerce platforms over the past decade + of selling online and no one compares to Shopify.
I cover a lot of reasons why I’m such an advocate for them in this video:
ClickFunnels vs. Shopify
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’m going through your mini 10 video course and may I say it’s fantastic. I’ve been dabbling with dropshipping on EBay UK and find that most EBay customers just want a cheap deal. Successful sellers are selling thousands of their items and are only making a few pence or £1 per sale and I don’t want to compete with these. Should I start off selling higher priced items on EBay UK in the right niche, maybe connect listings to my Shopify store (have not got one yet) if EBay UK allows this, or should I go ahead and create my first store and sell only from there?Ebay seems to be saturated.
Regards
Brian
Hi Brian,
Happy to hear you’re loving the “What Is Drop Shipping?” mini-course!
Regarding selling on eBay – this isn’t something we don’t do (and haven’t done) for the better part of the past decade.
IMO you’re much better off selling through your own store (I use and recommend Shopify) and driving your own traffic. We use lots of different traffic strategies but our highest converting source of traffic is still Google PLAs.
Also, here is a link to a video I made about drop shipping on Amazon. I mention eBay on there as well so you can see why we no longer sell on their platform.
Hope that helps!
I have a catchy name for my ecommerce business and a few supplier to get started but need the help to reach my maximum potential buyer
Hi Naim,
If you’re enrolled in Drop Ship Lifestyle I’d highly recommend checking out our Adwords 2.0 PPC Course along with our Paid Social Traffic Course.
With those two courses combined you’ll be able to find as many buyers as you can handle 🙂
I really appreciate the info would love to have some mentorship from someone like you I know your a big fish in a huge pond im looking to learn from you and your team eny info you can give is appreciated thank yours truly Eddie Vicenty
I’m looking forward to this opportunity to do this and make money with ya’ll…
Hey Brittney,
If you’re willing to do the work I’m sure you’ll succeed!
If you’re new to drop shipping & Drop Ship Lifestyle be sure to check out our free dropshipping webinar.
Here’s the link – Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Welcome to Drop Ship Lifestyle, Brittney!
Hi Eddie,
If you want to learn directly from me I would highly recommend enrolling in Drop Ship Lifestyle as soon as we open. I’m currently creating the new training but if you get on my email list I will email you as soon as it is ready.
Also, here’s an article I wrote about how to find a mentor that you should find useful:
Our Step-by-Step Guide for Finding a Business Mentor
Check it out and let me know what you think!