How To Become A Dropshipper: 5 Easy Steps 

We’ve created several dropshipping stores over the years. By doing so, we’ve learned so much about how to become a dropshipper. 

We’ll share everything we’ve learned to help you create the most successful dropshipping store. 

Let’s get into it.

If you haven’t got time to read the full article, here are the five steps and a brief overview.

These steps include:

1. Find a product to sell. The product needs high demand and low competition. Plus, a healthy profit margin.
2. Source the product from a supplier. Use marketplaces like AliExpress to find a supplier. You can also use an automation tool, like AutoDS, to help you manage your fulfillment process.
3. Choose whether you’re going to create your own website or list your products on a marketplace. Then, create your listings and start selling.
4. Market your products. Create ads, build your social media following, and optimize your website.
5. Analyze and optimize. After you’ve made a few sales, analyze your business. Then, make changes based on your findings. 

Now, let's cover each point in more depth.

1. Find a Winning Product

To be a dropshipper, you need a product to dropship. 

And that product needs to be a winner.

So, let’s look at what a winning product is and how to find one.

What is a Winning Product?

A winning product is any product that has a high volume of sales and can make you a lot of profit.

Usually, these products are unique, in high demand, have a high profit margin, and have low competition. 

As a dropshipper, we want to find winning products as they’re going to make us a lot of money!

What to Look for to Find a Winning Product

Now, we know that we want to find a winning product. But what does a winning product look like?

These are a few things that we look at to identify a winning product:

• High Demand - To make sales, you need a product in demand. High demand means a lot of customers, which means a lot of sales.

• Profit - We always aim for a 20-25% profit margin for our products. So, you need to make sure you can source your product for much less than it’s selling for.

• Low Competition - You don’t want too much competition, as it’ll be hard for your product to stand out. You also need to be able to beat the competition. This could be done with better images, descriptions, product quality, etc. 

• Ad Competition and Spend - Some keywords are more competitive and, therefore, more expensive than others. For example, if you sell on Amazon and use Amazon Ads, you can look at the cost-per-click price for different keywords. You ideally want keywords that aren’t too expensive. Otherwise, you’ll end up spending a lot to generate any traffic to your product.

How to Find a Winning Product

Now we know what we’re looking for, we can start searching. 

There are lots of different methods of finding winning products. Some common ways include the following:

Personal Experience and Recommendations 

Think about your own life and products you like, problems you need solving, or changes you would make to existing products. 

Some of our best products have come from solving our own problems. For example, I have a dog that gets very muddy on hikes. 

But all dog paw cleaners were large and required access to a tap or faucet. This wasn’t convenient when we were out and about. So, we designed a small and portable dog paw cleaner.

Look at Best-Selling Lists 

Online marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and Walmart all have lists of their best sellers. These are a great place to look for products in high demand.

These sites might also have other lists. For example, Amazon has a Movers and Shakers list. These are all products that have increased their sales rank the most in 24 hours.

Social Media 

Social media is the place to go to find what potential customers are looking for. 

Look at product reviews, trending products, hashtags, influencers, and Facebook groups to find winners.

Product Research Tools

In addition to these methods, there are product research tools available. These tools uncover hidden data. The more data you have on products, the higher the chance of success, as you can fully analyze the product before you launch.

But not all tools are made equal. Each tool will show you different data. This might include product sales, store traffic, revenue, launch date, and more. And there are tools to analyze different platforms, such as Amazon, Facebook Ads, Shopify, Walmart, etc.

We’ll look at Dropship, as it’s a Shopify and Facebook Ad product research tool. Plus, it gives you lots of data, including product sales, revenue, and much more. 

There is also a 7-day free trial, so you can check it out completely risk-free.

Let’s look at what Dropship has to offer:

• Product Database - Use the advanced filters to find specific products that fit your winning criteria. For example, you can search for products that make a certain number of sales per month, the product's price, the product categories, and more. The results that Dropship shows are products sold by real Shopify sellers. This allows you to find products with proven results.

• Competitor Research - Once you find a product idea, you can use the Competitor Research tool to find every other Shopify seller with a similar product.Using this tool helps you find how competitive the product is and whether you can compete. It’s easy to see what your competition listings are like, how many sales they’re making, and more. You can also add all of your competitors to your Sales Tracker (more on this next).

• Sales Tracker - Save products you’re interested in to your Sales Tracker. This allows you to keep an eye on products, analyze their sales over time, and monitor your competition.

• Portfolio - Dropship will find winning products for you. Every week they drop a list of products that, based on their criteria, are winners. For every product, Dropship provides lots of information as to why it’s a winner. As well as a list of suppliers, pricing information, and more to help you launch.

• Top Products and Stores - Every 24 hours, Dropship updates its list of top products and stores. As the name suggests, these are the top-performing stores and products you can gain inspiration from.

• Chrome Extension - Spy on Shopify stores as you browse. The Chrome extension will appear when you visit a Shopify store and will show you the sales, revenue, theme, launch date, product list, best-sellers, and more.

• Facebook Ad Spot -  All of the Dropship tools we’ve just looked at analyze Shopify sellers’ stores and products. However, the Facebook Ad Spot tool allows you to search the Facebook Ad Library to find winning products. You can search by engagement, creative type, keyword, and much more.

In this article, we’ve only looked at Dropship (not to toot our own horn, but we think it’s the best tool on the market). But there are lots of other tools available, so for more options, check out our article on the seven best dropshipping research tools.

If you want more information on product research, we have a complete article on how to do product research that explores all of our points in much more depth.

2. Find a Supplier 

You’ve found a winning product! Now, you need to find a supplier from which to source it. 

The type of product you want to sell will determine where you source it from. 

For example, if you want to sell a branded product, you’ll likely need to source it from a wholesaler. Or, if it’s a specialist product, you might want to use a supplier that specializes in that product, like supplements, health products, cosmetics, etc. 

However, you’ll be able to source most products from one of our recommendations here.

AliExpress

We can’t talk about dropshipping suppliers without mentioning AliExpress.

AliExpress is a B2C online marketplace primarily made up of Chinese sellers. Consumers from across the world can buy from the sellers. 

It’s a popular option for dropshipping as most of the products are cheap, and there is a huge selection, with over 100 million products available. 

AliExpress also works with dropshipping tools. This makes it easy to automate your orders, receive shipping notifications, and process refunds.

AutoDS

AutoDS is more than just a supplier. It’s a dropshipping automation tool that dropshippers can use to connect their stores with suppliers.

AutoDS has its own selection of suppliers. They also work with major retailers, including AliExpress, Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Wayfair, and more. You can source your product from any of these sellers. 

Then, once you’ve sourced your product, you can use AutoDS to import the product easily to your store. And automate orders. This means every time you receive an order, the supplier is notified automatically and ships the product directly to your customer. AutoDS can also help you handle returns and refunds. 

Using an automation tool makes dropshipping very hands-off. This will give you time to spend on launching new products!

Print-on-Demand Suppliers (Printify and Printful)

If you want to sell a customized product, a print-on-demand supplier is the best option.

Printify and Printful are both print-on-demand suppliers. They both offer a wide range of products. Such as:

• Clothing
• Homewear
• Bags
• Phone cases
• Mugs
• Stationary

You can choose the product you want to dropship and upload your design. Then, the platforms will create an image that you can add to your website. 

Both of these platforms integrate with Shopify. Allowing you to easily upload your customized product to your site and automate your orders. 

How to Choose a Supplier

Sites like AliExpress can be pretty overwhelming. Often, there are multiple sellers offering the same product.

We recommend reaching out to several of them and asking the following questions:

• What is the cost per piece?
• How much does shipping cost? And do you ship to the desired location?
• Do they offer dropshipping? (this will include no logos, blank packaging, etc.)
• Do they integrate with any automation tools? (if you’re sourcing from AliExpress, Printify, Printful, or any supplier on AutoDS, then you know you can automate using them)
• How long does it take to process and pack orders?
• What is the return policy?
• Does the product have a warranty or guarantee?

Gather the answers and compare. Then, choose your top few suppliers and request samples.

You can then compare the samples to help you select the best supplier for your product.

We also have an article on what to consider when you choose a dropshipping supplier if you need some help choosing one. 

3. Choose Where You're Going to Sell 

If you’re dropshipping, the most common option is to create your own website to sell your products.

However, you can also sell on marketplaces like Amazon. 

There are pros and cons to both, and we won’t go into depth on that here. In short, if you sell on your own website, you have full control, but you have to build brand trust and drive traffic.

And if you sell on a marketplace, you have instant brand trust and get traffic from the marketplace. However, it is usually more expensive in fees, and you have less control.

Let’s look at a few options.

Shopify

Shopify is, in our opinion, the best platform to use for dropshipping.

It’s an easy-to-use platform that allows you to build your own dropshipping website.

It also integrates with lots of different automation tools, making it super easy to manage your store.

We currently have an exclusive discount with Shopify that gives new users the first month for $1 and the ability to earn credits on every sale! 

WooCommerce

If you already have a WordPress site, WooCommerce might be the best option for you.

WooCommerce is a WordPress-based e-commerce platform. It’s a free and easy-to-use option.

Plus, lots of tools (including AutoDS) work with WooCommerce.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a purpose-built e-commerce platform. 

It’s probably the most comparable to Shopify. However, BigCommerce does have more built-in features, but it is slightly more complex to use than Shopify.

However, it is very customizable and can give you a more unique-looking website compared to Shopify.

BigCommerce has many dropshipping apps that make it easy to source, import, and automate your dropshipping store. Some of these include Spocket, Doba, Dropified, DSers, and more.

Wix

Wix is a free website-building platform. You can use Wix for blogs, portfolios, reservation sites, and anything else.

To create an e-commerce store, you can upgrade from a free account to a premium plan. This allows you to accept payments, access storefront templates, and more.

Wix also works with a tool called Modalyst. Modalyst is a marketplace with millions of products available. You can source your products from here. And use the automation tools to make it easy to manage your store.

Amazon

You can use Amazon to list your dropshipping products.

Amazon gives you an existing audience to sell your products to. Plus, customers often find it easier to trust your brand as they trust that Amazon will handle any issues. This can help increase your sales.

However, Amazon is a competitive platform with millions of other sellers. And Amazon often favors FBA sellers over dropshippers, which can make it hard for your product to be visible. 

If you’re interested in FBA, check out our article on Amazon FBA vs Dropshipping.  

You’ve chosen where you’re going to sell. It’s time to set up your website, customize your storefront, create your listings, and start accepting orders!

4. Market Your Products 

Your listing and supplier are ready to go. It’s time to start driving traffic to your site. And start making sales!

Before you do so, you need to make sure you know who your audience is. You will likely already have done this during your product research. As you will want to build a product listing and website to suit that audience. 

However, if you haven’t - make sure you do some research on your target audience. Think about their location, age, occupation, relationship status, interests, hobbies, etc. This will help you create targeted ads. It’ll also help you create a better website and social media content that your audience will want to engage with.

There are lots of ways to drive traffic to your store. With the most popular being running paid ads. But let’s look at a few ways you can market your products:

Paid Ads

Paid ads are the quickest way to drive traffic and make sales. 

If you have your own store, you’ll likely use Meta ads. These are ads on Facebook and Instagram. You can add your creative to the ad and link to your site or product page. You’ll also need to add the demographics of your target audience and set your budget. 

Facebook ads are pay-per-click. So, every time someone visits your site, you’ll pay Meta.

We have a whole selection of Facebook ad articles. Check out how to run Facebook ads and ways to use Facebook Ad Library to beat your competition.

If you’re using a platform like Amazon to sell your products, then you’ll probably use Amazon’s ad console to advertise your products. Amazon ads require you to bid on keywords and search terms rather than targeting a specific audience. 

Optimize Your Website 

It’s one thing to get traffic from Facebook and Instagram to visit your site and another to get them to check out.

To encourage your visitors to become customers, you need to make sure your website is optimized. There are lots of ways you can do this, but some of the best ways are the following:

• Improve load times - Customers don’t want to wait for your pages to load. If they take too long, they’ll leave. 
• Mobile optimized - Statistics show over 70% of online purchases are made through mobile [1]. So, it’s vital all of your content is designed for mobile.
• Design - You know who your audience is, so design a website they’ll like. Think about the colors, design, style, and language you use.
• Listing - Your product listing should clearly show your product and its function. Make sure your description and title have all your product information. Plus, add relevant keywords. Your images should also look professional, and use a video if you can. 

Look at your biggest competition if you’re a bit stuck for ideas. You don’t want to become a copy of them. But as they’re your biggest competition, they’re clearly doing something right. 

Improving your website can also increase its visibility on Google. This can also boost your traffic.

These are our top recommendations for dropshipping. But there are many other things you can do to market your products. Such as working with influencers, doing giveaways, and creating an organic social media following.

5. Analyze and Optimize 

You’re officially a dropshipper! You’ve started making sales and are seeing a profit. 

However, it’s not time to take your foot off the pedal. You need to analyze everything you’re doing so you can optimize it. This will help increase your traffic, profit, and sales.

You can analyze every aspect of your dropshipping business. Including the following:

• Ads - You need to constantly monitor your ads. It’s super easy to overspend, which can result in losing profit. And it's easy not to spend enough and miss out on customers. Test different creatives, text, buttons, and links and see what’s converting. And if you’re seeing a high number of clicks but a low number of purchases, you might need to change your website or product page.You can also adjust your budget and audience targets.

• Returns and Refunds - What is your return rate? And why are people returning your product? Make sure you reach out to all of the customers that return your product and ask them why. The returns might be due to the product quality, slow shipping, incorrect item received, not as expected, etc. Based on their answers, you can make changes. As reducing your return rate will improve your profit margin.

• Feedback - Arguably, feedback is one of the most important things to look at. Look at what your customers are saying. The feedback might be around the product quality, delivery time, shipping, packaging, how they’re using the product, etc. All of this is valuable information. For example, let’s say the product arrived broken. Then you’ll know you need to speak to your supplier about how they’re packaging the product and changes you can make.Or, let’s say the customer uses your product for something totally different than its intended purpose. You can use this feedback to change your listing and create ads to target a different audience. 

• Price - Is your product priced correctly? Is the price off-putting? This could be either too expensive or too cheap. If the product is too cheap, customers might think it’s a scam. And if it’s too expensive, customers might be able to find the same product from another seller. Look at how much your competitors are selling for and how you compare. But make sure to factor in all your costs. We have a complete article on How to Price Your Product if you want to learn all our tips and tricks for maximizing profit.

• Competitors - It’s always worth keeping an eye on your competition. We do this by adding all of our main competitors to our Dropship Sales Tracker. We like to do this to keep ourselves competitive. As well as generate the most profit possible. For example, you see your biggest competition has stopped selling. Then, you can increase the price of your product as you’re not competing with them anymore. Or your competition drops the price. Then, you’ll know you might need to decrease yours to boost sales.

• Abandon Checkout Rate - Look at how many people are leaving your checkout page once they add the product to their basket. Then, try to work out why they’re leaving. This could be for multiple reasons. Such as:
  • Too much information requested
  • Not enough payment options
  • Doesn’t ship to the right address
  • Expensive shipping
  • Shipping is too long

Based on your findings, make changes to your checkout. 

Analyzing and optimizing are probably the most vital when you launch. As you’ll need to test different things to find out what works. However, this is ongoing. You should always keep an eye on everything and make changes accordingly. 

What Makes a Dropshipper Successful? 

All dropshippers are different. And they are successful in different niches for different reasons. 

But there are a few things that all successful dropshippers have in common. These include the following:

• Persistence - You can end up getting constant knockbacks. Dropshipping is such a learning curve, and you’re very unlikely to succeed on your first attempt. Figuring out how to learn from this and picking yourself up afterward is vital.

• Financial Backing and Knowledge - You can absolutely start dropshipping on a budget. However, there is no guaranteed chance of success. So don’t spend any money that you can’t afford to lose initially. You’ll also need to have some financial knowledge. This will help you accurately price your products, work out taxes, calculate ad spend, and know how much to reinvest into your next launch.

• In-Depth Product Research - Don’t jump into launching a product. Make sure you research it in-depth. The more knowledge you have about your product, the more likely you are to succeed. It will help you know how much you need to launch and spend on ads. As well as your expected sales. We recommend that you do the following:
  • Analyze your competition
  • Look at market demand
  • Work out your profit margin
  • Compare suppliers and prices
  • Look at ad costs 

• Ads - As a dropshipper, most of your site traffic will come from running paid ads. So, if you’ve not run ads before, we recommend doing a lot of research. There are plenty of YouTube videos to help, courses to do, and we’ve got tons of articles all about Facebook ads on our blog.

• Dedicate Time - We’ve all seen e-commerce sellers say that dropshipping is a passive income. But it’s not. It requires time. Especially at the beginning. We’ve spent months searching for the right products. And countless hours tweaking our site, listing, and ads to become successful. 

How Much Can I Make Dropshipping? 

There really is no limit to the amount you can make dropshipping.

But you need to be realistic. Especially at the beginning, as it’s unlikely you’ll earn a lot quickly. 

It takes a lot of trial and error, and at the beginning, you can end up losing money.

That said, lots of people can replace their full-time income with dropshipping. However, like with any business, you need to remember that your revenue is not all profit.

For each product sale, we make around 20% profit. So, to make the average US salary of $63,000 in profit, you’d need to make $315,000 in sales. 

As well as the day-to-day expenses of dropshipping, you also need to factor in other costs. These include accountant fees, insurance, etc. 

So, how should I get started?

We always recommend starting small. Only spend what you’re not afraid to lose initially. Then, once you’ve learned more about dropshipping, you can increase your spending and, therefore, hopefully, profit.

Use the tips in this article to start out. And if you’re looking for some dropshipping success stories, check out this article on the 27 Best Dropshipping YouTubers to Learn From. All of the YouTubers have all had real success dropshipping and can teach you.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Is Dropshipping Still Worth It? 

Yes! There are so many products to choose from and markets to target. We’ve explored this topic in depth in an article here. 

Is Dropshipping a Good Option for Beginners?

Yes, dropshipping is one of the best e-commerce options for beginners. It’s a lower-risk option as you don’t need to buy stock in bulk. 

Can I Start Dropshipping with $100?

Yes, however, it will be tight. There are plenty of introductory offers you can utilize, like with Shopify. So, you won’t need to pay for a full subscription until you start making sales, which will help. 

For more tips and tricks on dropshipping on a budget, we have a full article on How to Dropship for Free!

Final Thoughts

Follow our five simple steps, and you’ll become a successful dropshipper in no time!

To get started, sign up for Dropship’s 7-day free trial. It’s the best way to uncover data on other sellers. So you can make informed decisions before you launch a product.