dropshipping case study 2022

Tom Fanelli

Unlocking Success in Dropshipping: Real-World Case Studies & Strategies Revealed

Ever wondered how some entrepreneurs manage to turn their dropshipping ventures into gold mines? I’ve been there, too. It’s not about luck, but rather a blend of strategy, perseverance, and yes, a bit of trial and error. In this article, we’ll delve into some fascinating dropshipping case studies that reveal the secrets behind their success.

Each case study is a journey, an adventure, with highs and lows that we can all learn from. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to take your dropshipping business to the next level, these stories will provide valuable insights. So, buckle up and let’s explore the world of dropshipping through the lens of those who’ve been there, done that, and lived to tell the tale.

Understanding Dropshipping

Dropshipping, a pivotal component of e-commerce, operates uniquely yet simply. Let’s dig more into its mechanics.

Basic Principles of Dropshipping

Dropshipping follows a three-stage fulfillment model, acting as a bridge between suppliers and customers. Here’s how it works:

• A customer places an order on a dropshipper’s online store.
• The dropshipper forwards the order details to the supplier.
• The supplier directly ships the ordered product to the customer.

It’s a retail approach that removes traditional inventory storage, streamlining the business process. This enables sellers to launch an online store without maintaining product stock, reducing the investment and risk significantly. For example, in the case of an unconventional product like a “Cat Massage Comb,” the dropshipper isn’t left with unsold inventory if the product fails to attract customers.

The Role of Suppliers in Dropshipping

Suppliers play a crucial role in the dropshipping model. They’re responsible for the storage, packing, and shipping of products. When a consumer buys a product from a dropshipper’s store, the supplier dispatches the product directly. From the customer’s perspective, the product appears to come straight from the dropshipper.

The success of a dropshipper not only depends on the products they sell but also on the supplier they choose. For example, identifying a reliable supplier who provides high-quality products, competitive pricing, and efficient shipping can be the difference between a profitable dropshipping venture and a failed one. A supplier like “AliExpress,” renowned for its vast and varied product range, can serve as a perfect partner in a dropshipping venture.

Keep in mind, building and maintaining a good relationship with suppliers forms the backbone of a successful dropshipping business. This is evident from numerous dropshipping case studies demonstrating the importance of selecting and working closely with reliable suppliers.

Analyzing Dropshipping Case Studies

This section sheds light on two crucial aspects of dropshipping: successful and less successful models. It’s an exploration of real-world experiments that went right, as well as those that stumbled but learned crucial lessons in the process.

Examining Successful Dropshipping Models

The success of a dropshipping approach, as we’ve previously discussed, depends largely on the chosen supplier, management strategies, and customer relationship initiatives. However, examples from real-life entrepreneurs enhance our comprehension.

One such case is that of fashion retailer ‘Fashion Nova’, which started as a small venture but grew exponentially due to proactive partnership strategies with popular influencers. The proactive approach, combined with a seamless supply chain setup leveraging dropshipping, enabled Fashion Nova to feature over 600 new styles on its website every week.

Similarly, ‘BlueCrate’, an online shop selling quirky home and kitchen gadgets, successfully utilized Facebook to drive traffic and generate sales. BlueCrate demonstrated that understanding the target audience and leveraging suitable platforms could yield outstanding results in dropshipping.

A noteworthy mention would also be ‘The Kript’, an online store selling women’s activewear. They managed overseas suppliers adeptly, maintaining inventory quality and delivery timelines – becoming a symbol of excellence in dropshipping within a short span of time.

Unpacking Less Successful Dropshipping Approaches

Though it might seem off-putting, there’s much to learn from models that did not meet expectations. Common pitfalls and challenges can become learning opportunities to refine strategies for future endeavors.

Consider the example of ‘DoxoCase’, a custom-made phone case store. Their stumble with overly ambitious growth plans served as a reminder of the importance of measured scaling backed by ample supply arrangements.

Another venture, ‘Kitchen Pro’, faced problems maintaining quality control due to the lack of proper supplier criteria. Their difficulties underscored the importance of thoroughly vetting suppliers.

Lastly, ‘Stylish Apparel’ struggled to keep up with market trends, thus losing their customer base. The failure to keep the product catalog updated and appealing led to a considerable drop in sales and eventually an exit from the market.

Each case study, successful or otherwise, provides valuable insights that help shape effective dropshipping strategies. The analysis of these instances helps to understand the winning components and the potential setbacks, readying for the uncertainties of the world of dropshipping.

Case Study 1: High-Profit Margins

Diving deeper into successful dropshipping models, let’s take a look at one which shows noteworthy profit margins. This section focuses on a potent case study, detailing the key strategies and lessons learned.

Key Strategies Implemented

The dropshipping enterprise I’m about to disclose realized eminent profit margins by following a conscientious approach. Firstly, they prioritized extensive market research, discovering niche products that appealed to a specific, underserved customer base. Secondly, establishing a strong alliance with a dependable supplier from AliExpress became a primary focus. This ensured quality was never compromised.

They also skillfully managed their marketing campaigns, leveraging multiple platforms such as Facebook and Google Ads. By doing so, they directed a considerable traffic flow to their e-commerce store. Finally, constant website optimization contributed significantly. Reduction in website load time, intuitive UI/UX design, and seamless checkout processes created a favorable shopping experience inducing repeat purchases.

Lessons Learned

While navigating the constantly changing landscape of dropshipping, this business amassed numerous invaluable insights. The most significant learning: there’s power in niche markets. The enterprise triumphed in profitability primarily by targeting a specific customer base that other businesses generally overlooked.

Furthermore, the value of a trustworthy supplier is second to none. Establishing a strong rapport with a reliable supplier can bolster a dropshipping model’s success, leading to consistent order fulfillment and customer satisfaction.

Investments into digital marketing and website optimization also yielded effective results. While these strategies necessitate substantial outlay, the returns, seen in increased site traffic and customer retention, were considerably rewarding.

In sum, while sailing the dropshipping ocean, it is vital to find a lucrative niche, build steadfast supplier relationships, optimize digital platforms, and focus on creating a satisfying customer journey. These learnings underline the essence of a thriving dropshipping enterprise.

Case Study 2: Low Startup Costs

Let’s examine the second case, focusing on a dropshipping model that prioritizes minimal startup costs.

Tactics Used for Cost-Reduction

Several strategic measures contribute to lowering initial costs in this dropshipping model. Among them we find:

• Shopify Utilization : As an economical eCommerce platform, Shopify charges a modest $29 per month. It even offers a 3-day trial at no cost, followed by an enticing $1/month deal for three consecutive months.
• No Upfront Costs for Products : Implementing the Drop Ship Lifestyle model results in zero supplier charges until product orders are placed, significantly decreasing startup expenditure.
• Use of Free Product Research Tools : The application of free tools like the Facebook Ads Library identifies profitable products, cutting down expenses related to product exploration.
• Establishing a Store on ShopBase : ShopBase proposes a 14-day trial, complimentary marketing tools, and a storefront template. This combination establishes it as an affordable approach to erect a dropshipping store.

Insights Gleaned

The efficient cost-reduction strategies employed in this scenario underline the importance of keeping initial expenses in check for a dropshipping venture. These insights reinforce the notion that insightful use of affordable platforms and tools and a sound business model can significantly bring down startup costs, thereby amplifying the probability of success.

Case Study 3: Overcoming Supply Chain Issues

Venturing deeper into the dropshipping landscape, I turn my focus to handling supply chain issues. These problems, no strangers to the world of dropshipping, can pose significant threats to the smooth operation of businesses. To tackle these challenges, I’ll discuss certain tactics and underscore the value of supplier relationships.

Problem-Solving Tactics

To navigate the choppy waters of supply chain management, a few problem-solving find their way to the forefront:

• Vet Suppliers : By meticulously choosing suppliers, one manages not just order fulfilment, but fortifies the overall operations. Factors like competitive fees, reasonable order minimums, industry prowess, customer support, and swift responsiveness are key.
• Communicate Effectively : Transparency drives trust. Thus, clarifying expectations, quality norms, deadlines, and communication channels with suppliers is paramount. Written agreements and contracts help avoid rifts, ensuring smooth sailing.

Understanding the Value of Supplier Relationships

Amid the complexities of dropshipping, it’s essential to realize that supplier relationships aren’t merely transactional; they’re pivotal to success. By fostering strong connections with suppliers, dropshipping ventures tap into a realm of reliability, expert knowledge, and heightened responsiveness, which can be tailored to meet changing market demands. This doesn’t just enhance operational efficiency; it anchors the business in an ever-evolving industry, unlocking secrets to consistent growth and success.

Strategies for Success in Dropshipping

As we dive deeper into the world of dropshipping, it’s essential to understand successful strategies. In this segment, we’ll focus on the valuable aspects of supplier and product selection and the handling of challenges in dropshipping.

Selecting the Right Suppliers and Products

Choosing the right suppliers and products forms the bedrock of a thriving dropshipping business. It’s similar to setting up a restaurant; the success greatly depends on reliable suppliers of fresh ingredients and a menu that entices customers.

First, consider the products. Be certain to pick items that not only have a high demand but also offer decent profit margins. An example would be dropshippers who specialize in luxury watches—they’ve got products that fetch high prices, and if marketed correctly, can be sold at substantial markups.

When it comes to suppliers, their reliability and punctuality play significant roles. If a supplier often slips up on delivery times, it can cause unhappy customers, damage to your website’s reputation, even potentially losing sales. For instance, AliExpress has proven to be a reliable supplier for many dropshippers due to its wide product range and efficient shipping timeframes.

Managing Challenges in Dropshipping

Dropshipping isn’t just about taking orders and passing it on to the supplier. It’s got its share of hurdles. Dealing with supply chain issues, responding to customer inquiries, managing returns and refunds can be like dealing with a stubborn knot that refuses to untangle.

To overcome these, an effective strategy can involve regular engagements with suppliers to track the shipments effectively and maintain robust communication. This keeps the chain from breaking at any weak links and assures smooth operations.

Also, adopting customer complaint management practices plays an essential role in retaining customers and maintaining their trust in your service. After all, a customer who receives quick and satisfactory redressal of their issues is more likely to return for future purchases, just as a diner is more likely to return to a restaurant where they’ve had pleasant experiences.

To profoundly benefit from the potentials of dropshipping, it’s essential to arm our business with effective strategies for success. These strategies serve as the pillars upon which we can secure higher profit margins, happy customers, and seamless operations. From selecting the right suppliers and products to robustly managing dropshipping challenges, these tactics amplify our chances of thriving.

So we’ve journeyed through the intriguing landscape of dropshipping, unpacking the significance of strategy, grit, and supplier relationships. We’ve seen how the right fulfillment models and dependable suppliers like AliExpress can make a world of difference. We’ve learned from real-life case studies, understanding their strategies and avoiding their pitfalls. Our exploration of successful strategies has underscored the importance of choosing the right suppliers and products. We’ve confronted the challenges this industry presents, from supply chain issues to customer inquiries, and highlighted the value of effective communication and customer complaint management. It’s clear that mastering these strategies can lead to higher profit margins, satisfied customers, and smooth operations in the dropshipping arena. As we move forward, let’s keep these insights at the forefront of our dropshipping endeavors.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the focus of this article.

This article explores the concept of dropshipping, highlighting the significance of strategy development, maintaining perseverance, and forging robust supplier relationships for achieving success.

Which suppliers are recommended for dropshipping?

According to the article, AliExpress is suggested as a reliable supplier for dropshipping.

Does the article offer any real-world case studies?

Yes, the article provides real-world case studies that illustrate various strategies and potential pitfalls in dropshipping.

What are some successful strategies in dropshipping outlined in this article?

The article emphasizes the need for choosing the right suppliers and products, managing supply chain challenges effectively, and addressing customer inquiries efficiently to achieve success in dropshipping.

What is the article’s recommendation for managing challenges in dropshipping?

The article recommends effective communication and prompt customer complaint management as strategies to handle challenges in dropshipping. It also stresses the importance of dealing with supply chain issues.

How can higher profit margins be secured in dropshipping according to the article?

The article recommends selecting products with high demand and profit margins, forging ties with reliable suppliers, and effective customer complaint management to secure higher profit margins in dropshipping.

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4 Dropshipping Success Stories to Inspire You in 2022

So, how successful is  dropshipping , really? To sort things out, we looked through some real dropshipping success stories  on Reddit , where those with actual experience share gather to drop some knowledge and answer questions about launching their stores and making profit. We included dropshipping success stories from the last couple of years as well, and not just the most recent ones — all to get you a broader idea of how some values remain crucial no matter the year and how the dropshipping business allows store owners to adapt to changing and unpredictable economic situations.

Here’s the outcome. 

Important: There’s no doubt that the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic caused fear and doubt in the community. But here’s the thing: you can absolutely make a dropshipping business profitable using the “new normal” to your advantage. You will find the details in Wang’s Dropshipping Success Story .

Success story #1

It absolutely is possible to be successful in this field without even making it your main activity: one of the best ecommerce dropshipping success stories here proves it. Jacky Chou, with his business partner Albert Liu, launched a home decor dropshipping site on Shopify while still working somewhere else: Chou as a founder of an SEO agency Indexsy, and Albert as a freelance Facebook consultant.

The outcome was impressive: 

• going from negative $3k to $250k a month in 8 months at 30-40% margins;
• generating over $700,000 in revenue in less than a year. 

So what are the key points of their success story? 

“Having multiple products that appeal to the same customer will increase your AOV.”

“Losing money initially on Facebook is almost unavoidable but you have to dive into the data to learn from it. Whether it’s one segment of the audience performing better or one creative doing better, you have to continuously tweak your targeting/creatives/product offering based on the results.”

“Better packaging will increase perceived value and help to build trust. Also, make sure suppliers are not putting their own promotions on their products.”

“You can focus on lower-priced items which should stretch your budget further. Doing some outreach on Instagram also is a low-cost way to generate some traffic initially.”

Success story #2

This user, who owns a niche online store, delivers their dropshipping success story in 2021 in the form of a concise month-to-month timeline. They are open about the rookie mistakes and overcoming the uncertainties all the way to making $25k a month in revenue with 40% profits.

January. After learning how successful dropshipping was for many entrepreneurs, u/EcomWizard gave it a try. But he went in blind, with no idea what he was doing, and earned just $643. 

“Initially, I did a free + shipping offer on a baseball cap and I got some decent sales but lost money because of ad spend. Was using Facebook ads only at the time.”

February. After people began to take an interest in the user’s store, he figured out what items were the most sought-after. He ran single image ads to them, which boosted sales significantly — the profit now was $3,000.

 “I also began doing work on SEO this month. That included writing small blog articles, rewriting product descriptions, etc.” 

March. The user’s SEO from the prior work started to pick up so he began getting free traffic from Google searches which increased sales. The profit ended up being $6,900.

“I also started an Instagram page to build an audience related to my niche that I occasionally promote products to. “

April. Using a product web crawler , he searched the web for potentially successful products to test, and, indeed, ended up with some winning ones, which increased sales even more. The revenue doubled, showing $13,200. 

“I also began running re-targeting Facebook campaigns at this point and learning more about effective advertising. “

May. After discovering a new sub-niche for his store thanks to the web scraper bot results, he started targeting a whole new audience, resulting in more sales. The revenue this month was $18,400.

“I [also] added an upsell app to my store which increased my average order value from $20 to $45.” 

June. This month ended up being an important lesson: you can’t afford slacking. The revenue decreased to $15,800 — see the reason below. 

“This was largely because I had recently moved and didn’t have a ton of free time to work on the business. Things like being slow to answer customers, not optimizing ads, etc. can all add up to a revenue loss! Totally my fault. “

July. The best month so far — not only because he made up for the previous month’s loss but also because he started to be more daring with ads. The revenue was a whopping $25,000.

“I scaled all my Facebook ads up a ton and it didn’t end up hurting my conversion cost. I also found another “sub-niche” that contained multiple winning products. I think my lesson here was that I was previously too scared to mess with my winning ads, which included scaling. It obviously worked out in my favor when I decided to get out of my comfort zone! “

How to be successful in a dropshipping business: his tips 

• “ Focus on multiple sources of revenue. I have a lot of sales coming from places like Pinterest, Google searches, my Instagram account, etc. Try not to get caught up in only doing Facebook ads. “
• “ If you have a skill, use it. [This will] get you ahead of everyone else who’s doing the same thing. In my case, I’m a programmer and was able to create the product finding bot. “
• “ Find profitable niche . 80% of your revenue will come from 20% of your products! [Find] that handful of bestsellers that you can rely on to bring you sustainable income. (…) Browse other successful stores to see what they sell. “
• “ Don’t be lazy . It takes hard work and thinking outside of the box! (…) Keep pushing forward and the results will be endless. I could easily maintain the business spending 15 minutes a day on it, but it took a lot of hours to get there. “

Success story #3

This dropshipping success story will be the most helpful for those who may feel a little lost and discouraged. 

“On the 27.02 I made $145 in a single day. It might not be a lot for most of you, but having in mind that I started dropshipping on the 23rd, I guess it’s a good start. So what did I do? “

“[In the] long term it will save me more money trying out different products, as I can test those there for free. I could also sell the page again — probably even with a win!”

“[The ads were] getting reach from around 1’000 to 30’000. (…) First I thought, the organic ads would perform best, but now after a few more days, I found out (at least for my page) that the biggest influence on a post’s performance (and sales of course) is how unique the product is. “

“The first 3 products were a complete fail, even though some of the posts reached thousands of people. Those products had in common that you can buy them basically everywhere in your local shops. Then the 4th product [from AliExpress]  was my first good one and I made $145 in sales (around $80 profit).”

Success story #4

One of the great AliExpress dropshipping success stories comes from this Reddit user who started the whole journey with a VERY modest budget. He started with investing $148 in Facebook ads, $12 in the domain, and $5 to order 3 products from AliExpress. 

“$200 got me my start with no other initial investment. Now I have spent about $8k on Facebook ads to yield that $25k. “

Key points of the success story 

“I started a niche brand because it’s 10000x easier to target on Facebook ads than it is with a general store, I made my first sell within 8 hours of our first $5 Facebook ad. “

“Build a clean niche brand, don’t sell junk, sell useful products that can be used daily, and NEVER give up!”

How to start your successful dropshipping business using Ali2Woo plugin?

Now that you got rightfully inspired with the stories of how to be successful with dropshipping, get started! The best option to launch your store is to use a WordPress platform, with the Ali2Woo plugin making the whole process so much easier. It is responsible for dropshipping success stories across the world, including UK, South Africa, India, Australia, and beyond. 

Cautious about investing in the paid plugin right away? Just start off by using our free plugin version , and switch to the paid one after your store starts growing!

How to find winning dropshipping products using Product Search Tool?

In many dropshipping success stories, including those mentioned in this post, entrepreneurs mention using product web crawler bots. It’s an incredibly convenient tool that: 

• uses web scrapping to go through the entirety of AliExpress
• analyses the data to find the best potentially winning product for your eCommerce dropshipping business

Our Ali2Woo product web crawler is unique and ever-evolving, with dozens of new trendy products being added daily. Try 7 days for free, and check the advantages for yourself! 

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21+ top successful shopify dropshipping stores for inspiration.

Table Of Contents

In this fast-paced realm of e-commerce, Shopify dropshipping has emerged as the ultimate game-changer, and in 2024, it's reaching new heights. 

In this blog, we will show you the Top 21 fastest-growing Shopify Dropshipping stores in 2024 , the nature of Shopify dropshipping, and understand why it has become a force to be reckoned with in the retail world.

Buckle up because this ride will take you on an exciting ride!

Understanding Shopify Dropshipping

Dropshipping is a method of selling products without the need for inventory management. Numerous Shopify businesses opt for dropshipping due to its ease of initiation. In the context of Shopify Dropshipping Stores, when a product is sold, it is sourced from a third party and directly dispatched to the customer. Consequently, the seller is relieved of direct product involvement. 

Shopify Dropshipping presents an excellent business model for aspiring entrepreneurs because it's uncomplicated to set up. It enables the swift exploration of various business concepts with minimal risk, facilitating learning about selecting and promoting high-demand products.

Exciting news! Currently, Shopify is offering an exclusive deal where you can access any of the three Shopify plans (Basic, Shopify, or Advanced) for just $1 for 3 months , and this great deal applies to first-time Shopify store owners. Don't miss out - click the button below to claim this offer!

What makes a Shopify Dropshipping Store successful?

In the exhilarating realm of Shopify dropshipping, success isn't a matter of luck but a meticulously honed formula built upon three fundamental pillars:

- Niche Selection : The very foundation of a prosperous Shopify dropshipping venture hinges on savvy niche selection. Identifying a distinct niche allows you to carve out your own space in the market, reducing competition and making it easier to connect with a receptive audience.

Read more:  19+ Top Trending Niches: Potential and Profitable

- High-quality product selection : The lifeblood of your dropshipping business, product selection demands careful attention. Populate your inventory with high-quality, in-demand items that resonate with your chosen niche. This not only entices customers but also fosters trust and repeat business.

- Engaging website design: Your digital storefront is pivotal in captivating and retaining visitors. An engaging and intuitive website design enhances the user experience, ultimately translating into higher conversion rates. Ensure your site is a platform and an immersive shopping destination that leaves a lasting impression.

Top 21 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Stores

Fashion, beauty, and accessories dropshipping stores, 1. aesthentials clothing.

Aesthentials, a top Shopify dropshipping store, caters to young girls with a flair for unique apparel. With over 1000 trendy products, it's a haven for fashion-conscious youth. 

Key Highlights:

- Distinctive Vibe: Aesthentials encourages individuality in shopping.

- Diverse Traffic Sources: It harnesses YouTube influencers, paid ads on Facebook and Instagram, and collaborations with Instagram models.

- User-Friendly Plugin: A currency add-on makes pricing user-friendly.

- Cool Design: Inspired by 80s computer aesthetics, Aesthentials' website design sets it apart.

Website: aesthentials.com

2. Cloudies

The Cloudies, a remarkable one-product Shopify store, specializes in selling irresistibly comfortable and visually appealing sandals through captivating social media ads. What sets them apart is their impeccable branding, stunning product photography, and ingenious affiliate marketing program.

- Spot-On Branding: The Cloudies have nailed their branding, creating a cohesive and appealing identity that resonates with their target audience.

- Captivating Product Photography: Their product visuals are a visual treat, showcasing the sandals in all their glory.

- Ingenious Affiliate Program: The standout feature of The Cloudies is their affiliate marketing program. Influencers can join forces to promote The Cloudies' products to their dedicated followers. Affiliates earn a generous 15% commission on every order they drive using their unique referral code.

Website: thecloudies.com

3. Pillow Slides

Pillow Slides, a thriving Shopify dropshipping store, offers trendy home sliders with viral potential, especially on platforms like TikTok. They've boosted sales with three key strategies:

- Priority Processing Upsell: Customers can expedite orders for $4.99, a clever revenue booster that caters to speedy delivery demands.

- Cart Upsell: Offering discounts for multiple purchases increases the Average Order Value (AOV), turning €39.99 orders into €75.

- Customized Checkout Page: A tailored checkout highlights benefits like money-back guarantees and customer reviews to boost confidence and drive conversions.

Website: pillowslides.com

4. Fresh Juice Blender

Fresh Juice Blender is a remarkable Shopify dropshipping venture that commenced in June 2021 and swiftly evolved into a registered company in the UK by August 26, 2022—an impressive feat that signals their thriving journey. 

- Design and Branding Excellence: Their homepage reveals a store that exudes professionalism and brand longevity, defying the typical dropshipping store aesthetics.

- Keyword Dominance: Fresh Juice Blender's mastery of the primary keyword, 'fresh juice blender,' on Google showcases their SEO prowess and online visibility.

Website: freshjuiceblender.com

5. Paddie Nails

Paddie, a standout in the beauty niche of dropshipping, specializes in nail kits and wields an ingenious scroll-activated pop-up strategy. What makes Paddie remarkable is its enticing offer: a generous 15% extra discount on the first purchase when customers share their email.

- Smart Pop-Up Strategy: Paddie's pop-up incentivizes new shoppers to purchase by offering an additional discount. This tactic leverages scarcity and urgency, enticing customers with a time-limited deal.

- Email Marketing Arsenal: Recognizing that most first-time visitors won't convert, Paddie captures their emails, opening the door to continued engagement through email marketing. With automated nurturing email flows, they effectively convert subscribers into customers, boosting sales.

Website: trypaddie.com

6. Bee Balm

Bee Balm, a prominent name in the beauty niche of Shopify dropshipping, shines with its top-selling product: a lip balm that offers relief for dry or cracked lips. What distinguishes Bee Balm is its impeccable website, characterized by clean design, strong branding, and captivating product photography.

Key Highlights: UGC-Infused Paid Social Ads: Bee Balm demonstrates remarkable prowess in paid social advertising, notably leveraging User-Generated Content (UGC) to craft ads that seamlessly blend with each platform. Their adept use of UGC contributes to the evident success of their ad campaigns. 

Website: mybeebalmco.com

Home Decor and Furnishings Dropshipping Stores

Haus, a thriving Shopify dropshipping store, takes the furniture world by storm with its unique approach. What sets Haus apart as a successful player in the dropshipping realm?

- Contemporary Chic: Haus specializes in contemporary furniture, carving a niche with a wide array of stylish and distinctive furnishings tailored for modern homes. Their unwavering commitment to the contemporary aesthetic has positioned them as a go-to destination for trendsetting homeowners.

- Minimalistic Interface: Simplicity reigns supreme in Haus's website design. The store's modest yet effective interface employs subtle colors that exude elegance, providing a lesson in the art of attracting customers with simplicity. Furthermore, the user-friendly navigation ensures that visitors effortlessly discover their desired items.

Website: hauslondon.com

8. Warmly Decor

Warmly is a shining example of Shopify dropshipping success, offering valuable insights for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

- Simple Elegance: Warmly's website epitomizes simplicity and elegance. On the initial visit, the site captures attention with its minimalist yet captivating design. Scroll further, and you'll discover an array of enticing product images. A testament to the power of a well-executed, uncomplicated web design.

- Curated Product Selection : Warmly's success hinges on its choice of products. They've navigated the challenge of offering distinctive and unconventional furniture, setting them apart.

- Social Media Prowess: Warmly's Pinterest profile steals the limelight with over 10 million monthly views, showcasing the potential of social promotion. Creating a Pinterest account for your dropshipping store can significantly boost traffic, unveiling the remarkable potential of social media platforms.

Website: warmlydecor.com

9. Sage & Sill

Sage & Sill may appear differently than your typical dropshipping store, but it is! This unassuming store conceals its true nature, as its shipping policy exemplifies. 

- Strategic Color Palette: Sage & Sill adopts a consistent dark green color scheme across its website. This choice imparts a strong sense of branding and cohesion. Remarkably, this color extends to most of their products, contributing to an aesthetically uniform shopping experience.

- Boosting Order Value: Sage & Sill adeptly employs the 'Frequently Bought Together' strategy. Their product pages feature this section, encouraging customers to add complementary items to their cart. This savvy tactic effectively increases their average order value, a critical metric for success in e-commerce.

Website: sageandsill.com

10. MiracleSofa

MiracleSofa is a remarkable dropshipping store that has employed strategic methods to drive its success. 

- Google Ads Mastery: MiracleSofa has mastered the art of Google Ads, making it a primary traffic source. Leveraging paid advertising on a platform as influential as Google showcases a savvy approach to customer acquisition. 

- Ingenious Blogging: The store's blog is a standout feature. It offers avenues for free organic traffic through SEO and keeps visitors engaged with valuable content. This multifaceted approach can foster community and trust among potential customers.

- Engaging Product Descriptions: MiracleSofa enhances its product listings with captivating GIFs embedded in the descriptions. This innovative approach elevates product understanding and engagement, highlighting the power of visual storytelling in e-commerce.

Website: miraclesofa.com

Pets Dropshipping Stores

11. mrfluffyfriend.

MrFluffyFriend is a dropshipping success story about a single, cozy product: pet beds. This thriving store initially launched its primary venture on December 11, 2020, and later expanded its presence globally. 

- Global Expansion Strategy: MrFluffyFriend's decision to establish multiple Shopify stores targeting different countries reflects a well-planned expansion strategy. Tailoring their offerings to specific markets, they tap into pet owners' diverse preferences and needs worldwide. The presence of dedicated stores in Brazil, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France indicates the effectiveness of this approach.

- Supporting a Noble Cause: Beyond commerce, MrFluffyFriend incorporates a socially responsible dimension. They proudly declare their commitment to supporting WWF with every purchase. This resonates with socially conscious consumers and adds a compelling layer to their brand narrative. Aligning with a cause can foster customer loyalty and a sense of purpose.

Website: mrfluffyfriend.com

12. iLoveMy Pet

iLoveMy Pet is a thriving dropshipping store that has been making waves in the pet merchandise niche since its inception in August 2019. With approximately $75,000 in sales, they've carved a solid presence in their market. 

- Robust Review Page: iLoveMy Pet prioritizes transparency and trust-building by maintaining a dedicated review page on its website. This page showcases all the reviews their store has received, allowing potential customers to gauge the satisfaction levels of previous buyers. 

- Strategic Category Pages: iLoveMy Pet focuses on category pages, emphasizing specific product segments. These category pages are thoughtfully designed and integrated into the website's footer menu, making navigation seamless for users. Well-organized category pages enhance the shopping experience, helping customers find products of interest quickly.

Website: ilovemy.pet

13. Silky Brush

SilkyBrush sets a remarkable example of a successful dropshipping store, particularly in the pet niche, where its branding and personality resonate effectively with its target audience. 

- Strategic Branding: SilkyBrush has invested significantly in branding, effectively differentiating itself in a competitive market. Their brand identity and personality are tailored to connect with pet owners and enthusiasts, fostering a sense of trust and relatability.

- Harnessing Customer-Generated Content: By encouraging customers to share images of their groomed pets, they tap into the power of authentic user-generated content. These testimonials and visuals are potent social proof, reinforcing trust and driving conversions.

Fitness and Wellness Dropshipping

14. bicycle booth.

Bicycle Booth, a dropshipping store catering to cycling enthusiasts, employs several strategies contributing to its success.

- Customer-Centric Approach: Bicycle Booth excels in customer engagement by dedicating a Happy Cyclists page to showcase satisfied customers. This page likely features testimonials, reviews, and user-generated content, reinforcing trust and positive brand perception.

- Google Ads Utilization: Unlike many dropshipping stores, Bicycle Booth leverages Google Ads as a significant part of its marketing strategy. This approach opens new avenues for reaching potential customers beyond social media platforms. 

Website: bicyclebooth.com

15. Stretched Fusion

Stretched Fusion's strategic branding, effective use of visuals, convenient payment options, and value-added content showcase the importance of a comprehensive approach to dropshipping success. Incorporating these strategies can help you create a standout dropshipping store in your niche.

Key Highlights: 

- Strategic Branding: The store's branding strategy revolves around a simple yet effective color scheme of purple and white. This minimalist approach to branding looks professional and maintains consistency throughout the store, reinforcing brand identity.

- Product Visualization: Stretched Fusion wisely employs GIFs to showcase its products in action. This dynamic visual representation helps potential customers understand product functionality and benefits, boosting conversions.

- ShopPay Integration: The store utilizes ShopPay, a feature of Shopify Payments that allows customers to split the cost of items into multiple payments. This feature reduces the barrier to purchase, particularly for higher-priced items, enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Website: stretchedfusion.com

GripXT provides a noteworthy example of a successful dropshipping store primarily focusing on grip strengtheners and complementary products. 

- GIFs in Product Descriptions: GripXT effectively utilizes GIFs within its product descriptions. This approach is precious for products like grip strengtheners, where potential customers may need help to grasp how the product works or its benefits fully. GIFs visually demonstrate product usage, making it easier for visitors to understand and engage with the product.

- Affiliate Marketing Strategy: The store employs affiliate marketing as a powerful sales strategy. GripXT can expand its reach and tap into new customer segments by partnering with affiliates. Affiliates promote the products to their audiences, driving traffic and sales to the store. This collaborative approach can significantly boost sales and brand exposure.

Website: gripxt.com

Other Dropshipping Stores

17. notebook therapy.

Notebook Therapy is an exemplary model among successful Shopify dropshipping stores specializing in journals, stationery, bags, and more. 

- Attractive Design: Notebook Therapy's store design stands out with its visually appealing layout and a pastel color palette. This design approach targets a younger demographic, creating a sense of aesthetic appeal. 

- Multi-Platform Promotion: Beyond relying solely on paid Facebook ads, Notebook Therapy invests in creating exceptional content to generate organic traffic from platforms like YouTube and Instagram. With over 1 million Instagram followers, the store has cultivated a substantial customer base of returning patrons. 

Website: notebooktherapy.com

18. Epic Loot Shop

Epic Loot Shop is a distinct and customer-centric dropshipping store that has been steadily growing since its establishment around September 2020. 

- YouTube Videos: Epic Loot Shop has leveraged YouTube to create compelling videos showcasing their products. These videos serve as engaging promotional material and have also been effectively utilized on Instagram, expanding their reach to a broader audience.

- Product Descriptions: The store's product descriptions stand out, offering inspiration for crafting distinctive and appealing narratives that set products apart. 

- Size Guide Pages: Epic Loot Shop has thoughtfully created size guide pages, addressing common issues related to ordering the wrong size. 

- Customer Service Phone Number: Epic Loot Shop has prominently displayed its customer service phone number in the website menus. Including a phone contact option demonstrates a commitment to customer support, a feature that distinguishes them from many other dropshipping stores.

Website: epiclootshop.com

19. Kawaiies

Kawaiies is an enticing dropshipping store focusing on Kawaii products, exceptionally plush toys. The store's emphasis on the Kawaii aesthetic and its business longevity since November 2019 suggest successful strategies in play. 

- Effective SEO: Kawaiies' notable traffic from Google indicates a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

- Longevity and Consistency: Being in business since November 2019 signals consistent growth and performance. 

- Freebies Page: Kawaiies offers a 'downloadable freebies' page where their target audience can access free wallpapers. While unsuitable for all niches, this tactic can engage customers and enhance brand loyalty. 

- Influencer Marketing: Explore Kawaiies' 'Kawaiies Ambassadors' page to gauge their influencer marketing efforts. Collaborating with influencers can significantly expand a brand's reach and connect with a broader audience.

Website: kawaiies.com

Burga is a standout Shopify dropshipping store specializing in phone accessories. While recent traffic may have dipped, the store's impressive track record of nearly 800k website visits is a testament to its success.

- Clear Product Presentation: Burga clearly presents its products. The combination of concise text and well-placed product images immediately communicates the store's offerings, saving visitors valuable time finding what they need. 

- Mobile Optimization: The store prioritizes user-friendly mobile design, automatically customizing product displays based on the visitor's smartphone model. 

- Comprehensive Information: Burga offers visitors access to more information. Customers can directly explore product reviews, warranties, promotional deals, and FAQs on the website. 

- Instagram Success: With a remarkable Instagram following of over 456K followers, Burga continues to grow its presence and attract customer attention. The store maintains an engaging and visually appealing Instagram feed by regularly showcasing new items with professional and artistic designs.

Website: burga.com

21. Zoberlo

Zoberlo is a thriving Shopify dropshipping store specializing in baby carriers. It exemplifies the trend of niche and one-product stores, simplifying targeting on paid advertising channels. Focusing on a single product for a specific audience streamlines messaging and resonates with potential customers.

- Niche Specialization: Zoberlo's thriving Shopify dropshipping store specializes in baby carriers, aligning with the trend of niche and one-product stores. This strategic focus simplifies targeting and messaging, resonating with potential customers.

- Flash Sale Tactic: Zoberlo effectively utilizes Shopify's compare-at-price feature to offer significant product discounts, attracting impulse buyers. Careful use of this strategy maintains trust with customers.

- Benefits-Centric Messaging: Zoberlo's unique selling point centers around enhancing mother-child bonding. Their product descriptions and reviews emphasize the emotional and practical benefits, a powerful persuasion tactic.

Website: zoberloco.com

How to Build a Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store

Dropshipping has revolutionized e-commerce, offering profound advantages that reshape how we approach online retail. In partnership with Shopify, a leading eCommerce platform, dropshipping unlocks a world of possibilities for entrepreneurs. It provides an all-in-one solution, from effortless store setup to seamless payment processing, inventory management, and integration of third-party apps .

What sets dropshipping apart is its accessibility. Shopify's user-friendly interface caters to all levels of expertise, ensuring a smooth experience. Plus, it's cost-effective, allowing you to start your store with minimal capital, eliminating financial risks tied to unsold products, and freeing up resources for strategic allocation.

Looking to create your own Shopify Dropshipping Store?  

Learn more in the blog Shopify Dropshipping: 7 Steps to Start , which lays out a seven-step blueprint for building a thriving Shopify Dropshipping Store . Save it for reference, and you'll be well-equipped to launch your successful dropshipping venture effortlessly.

Bonus: Excellent Tactics for Dropshipping Store Design

Now that we've explored thriving Shopify dropshipping stores let's dive into tactics that can make your store shine among competitors

Crafting Remarkable Landing Pages

Landing pages are the backbone of the sales funnel for online retailers. They serve as the bridge between prospective customers who come across your advertisements and those who visit your online store and make purchases.

Optimized landing pages can transform prospects into valuable leads by gathering data that helps you better understand your target audience, enabling you to market to and engage them effectively. Landing pages are critical in driving conversions, making planning, creating, and deploying them meticulously essential.

Running a dropshipping store successfully requires dedication and effort, although you can also enlist the help of an agency to achieve profitability. Managing and operating your Shopify dropshipping site can be challenging, especially in the initial stages. Some entrepreneurs opt for a shortcut by purchasing an established dropshipping store with proven landing pages.

Imagine if the Shopify page builder could facilitate the swift, convenient, and cost-effective creation of landing and website pages. Enter EComposer , the premier landing page builder app within Shopify . EComposer offers a wealth of pre-made pages for inspiration and provides access to various extensions and elements to enhance your pages. An added perk is EComposer's round-the-clock live chat support, ensuring immediate assistance whenever required. Thanks to its remarkable functionality, you won't regret using this app.

SEO Rankings and Efficient Marketing

Attracting visitors to your new website is crucial for success. Many new e-commerce businesses need more organic traffic. Effective marketing and traffic generation are essential, but they can be challenging to outsource, especially when starting with a limited budget.

Marketing, SEO, and traffic development should be priorities once your website is live. Elements within your online store, such as high-quality images, keywords, theme colors, and page loading speed, influence search results. Enhancing these aspects can improve the customer experience and keep visitors engaged.

Excellent Customer Experience

Exceptional customer service is a common trait among top-earning dropshipping Shopify stores. A poor customer experience can drive 80% of customers away from your online store, as per a survey.

Enhancing user experience involves simple layouts, eye-catching visuals, pleasing color palettes, and top-notch photography. Factors like online browsing experience, checkout processes, intuitive navigation, minimal pop-ups, and 24/7 chatbot support contribute to customer satisfaction.

Diverse Customer Testimonials and Social Proof

Customer testimonials are a powerful way for top Shopify dropshipping stores to showcase their satisfied clients. Store owners can engage with customers and share their business mission. Potential buyers often look at other people's experiences to determine if the shop's products will solve their problems.

According to Science Direct , 70% of consumers consult online reviews before making decisions, and 63% are more likely to buy products with better ratings and favorable reviews.

Final Thought

In this comprehensive exploration of the 21 fastest-growing Shopify dropshipping stores of 2024, we looked at many different niches and store types. These success stories inspire aspiring entrepreneurs like you, demonstrating the incredible potential of dropshipping.

Seize the moment, get creative, and create your success story in Shopify dropshipping. Your business dreams are waiting - make them come true!

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4 Real Dropshipping Success Stories + Beginner Tips

Want to make your dropshipping business successful? Learn how these top Shopify dropshippers plan, build, and manage their stores.

The dropshipping business model continues to grow, with the global market valued at $301 billion as of 2024.

While the opportunities dropshipping offers are clear, knowing how to build a successful dropshipping business is less obvious. Many dropshippers struggle to find  trending products , partner with reliable suppliers , and attract traffic to their stores.

That's why it's valuable to hear from experienced dropshipping entrepreneurs who have found ways to scale their businesses.

Read on to learn from expert Shopify dropshippers on what success looks like and how to achieve it.

What’s the average dropshipping success rate?

Search Reddit, Quora, or other online forums, and the general consensus is that most dropshipping businesses fail . But it can often be hard to distinguish between businesses that have no prospects of success, and those that simply require more time and investment.

To see dropshipping success, you’ll need to put in hard work and time to make your business profitable—just like the established entrepreneurs below.

4 dropshipping success stories

Starting a dropshipping business means entering a fast-paced industry. Every month brings new competitors and new strategies to stay ahead. So what are the winners doing that others aren't?

See how these Shopify store owners using dropshipping in their businesses:

• Tze: $19,000 profit in 2 months
• Cole: $2 million in just over a year
• Andreas and Alexander: Hitting the $10 million per year mark
• Sarah and Audrey: $1 million sales with influencer marketing

1. Tze: $19,000 in profit 2 months

Tze Hing Chan co-founded the dropshipping store Subtle Asian Treats , which sells bubble tea plush toys and other hand-picked cute merchandise. Started during the COVID-19 pandemic, Tze made $19,000 in profit in just two months of dropshipping bubble tea plush toys.

But he didn’t go straight from startup to success. There were many failures and lessons along the way. Tze started out selling phone cases , then moved on to kitchenware and martial arts products before finding his most profitable product idea: plush toys.

What made this dropshipping store a success?

A trending dropshipping niche.

Tze knew that bubble tea was up and coming within Asian communities, so he looked for bubble tea-related products on AliExpress. He started selling bubble tea-themed phone cases—they were good things to make and sell —but he didn’t see good profit margins.

A professional store

Tze made sure to take care of his store. He edited each product photo and wrote compelling product descriptions . He wanted to replicate the look and feel you get from stores like Nike and Adidas.

Interactions with customers

Tze also was transparent in the buying process with customers. His product pages included a shipping policy : shipping times and origins of the products, so customers had the right expectations. He took time to engage with followers on Facebook and Instagram, building relationships with people and influencers. He also kept support response times low so customers never felt they were dealing with a scam site.

2. Cole: $2 million in just over a year

After hearing about dropshipping when he was 18, Cole Turner became obsessed with learning how to sell online. In just four years, the young entrepreneur built an ecommerce store that made over $2 million in sales between March 2019 and May 2020.

Cole first built a general store to test a variety of products. He eventually found a piece of jewelry that grabbed shoppers’ attention. He quickly scaled up Facebook ads and worked to redesign his general store into a one-product shop. That one store netted him over $75,000 in sales before he sold it to another ecommerce entrepreneur.

It wasn’t until his third dropshipping store that he brought in over $2.1 million in sales in just over a year.

Scaled Facebook ads

Cole generally uses Facebook advertising as his primary sales channel. He starts by identifying two different groups interested in a product and targets ads at them. Then he collects enough data to see which group the ads worked best on, and increases his budget.

A long-term brand

The only way a store can compete today is through brand identity and unique selling propositions. Even if you are dropshipping from AliExpress , you need to look and feel like a legitimate business. People need to trust you.

Good customer service

One way to build trust with customers is through excellent customer support . Cole adds a phone number for customers to call or text with concerns or questions, along with available support times. During business hours, all queries are answered within 30 minutes of receiving them, which makes customers feel heard and valued.

3. Andreas and Alexander: Hitting the $10 million per year mark

When Andreas Koenig and Alexander Pecka first started dropshipping, their goal was to hit $1,000 per day in turnover. After a year of trying and making no money, they found their niche in the pet industry and started making $500,000 per month in 2019.

Today, Andreas and Alexander’s pet business is making over $10 million per year.

An emotional connection

Niches based on people’s emotional connections, like pets or children, may give you more opportunities to differentiate your products.

Facebook ads and organic marketing

Andreas and Alexander’s first ventures failed because of lack of advertising and marketing experience. They found success after investing more energy into Facebook ads and organic marketing .

Invested time and energy

Andreas and Alexander didn't give up when their first efforts failed. They knew that making money online was a matter of perseverance and continuous learning.

4. Sarah and Audrey: $1 million sales with influencer marketing

Sarah and Audrey are two ecommerce entrepreneurs who each started a dropshipping business before joining forces in 2019.

The typical sales channel for successful dropshipping is Facebook ads, but these two women saw the potential in influencer marketing , which proved to be profitable in the long run.

After meeting at an entrepreneur event, Sarah and Audrey worked hard to expand their brand into the US market. They worked with influencers on Instagram and numerous product placements.

The pair were wildly successful during US lockdowns, bringing in over $1 million in sales in just a few weeks through their dropshipping business.

Audience appeal

Sarah and Audrey carefully considered their target audience and the marketing channels they prefer.

Influencer power

Influencers can make all the difference to your success. Sarah and Audrey sent up to 200 emails per day looking for the perfect influencer match. Try to establish direct relationships with influencers, eschewing agencies.

Use Instagram Stories for product placement and promotion

Once you establish relationships with influencers, use their most effective platform to promote your products.

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How to be a successful dropshipper

Inspired and ready to become an ecommerce entrepreneur yourself? Here are six key elements you’ll want to master to become a successful dropshipper.

• Focus on marketing and SEO
• Have a long-term perspective
• Offer outstanding service
• Don’t get hung up on the details

1. Add value

Having a solid plan for how you can add value for your customers is the most crucial success factor. This is important for all businesses, but much more so in the world of dropshipping, where you’ll be competing with legions of other “me too” shops carrying similar products.

With dropshipping, it's easy to think you’re selling customers a product. But successful small merchants understand that it’s not only the product they offer—they’re selling insights, information, and solutions. You think you’re an ecommerce merchant, but you’re also in the information business.

So how are you going to add value and help solve problems for your customers? If you’re unsure, spend some time reading about dropshipping niches to understand the best ones in depth. If you’re struggling to answer this question for a given niche, you may want to consider picking a different market.

If you’re not able to add value through quality information and guidance, the only thing you’re left to compete on is pricing. While this has been a successful strategy for Walmart, it’s not going to help you build a successful dropshipping business.

2. Focus on marketing and SEO

Coming in a close second to adding value as a key success factor is being able to drive traffic to your new site. The #1 problem and frustration new ecommerce merchants face is a lack of traffic to their websites. Too many merchants slave away for months on the perfect site only to launch it to a world that has no idea it exists.

Marketing and driving traffic are absolutely essential to the success of your business and are difficult to outsource well, especially if you have a small budget and are bootstrapping your business. You need to take the personal initiative to develop your own SEO, marketing, outreach, and guest-posting skills.

This is particularly crucial during the first six to 12 months, when no one knows who you are. Following your site launch, you need to dedicate at least 75% of your time on marketing , search engine optimization ( SEO ), and traffic generation for at least four to six months—that’s right, four to six months. Once you’ve established a solid marketing foundation, you can scale back and coast a bit on the work you put in. But early on, it’s impossible to place too much emphasis on marketing.

If you’re not a marketing or SEO expert yet, the following resources and blogs are a great way to get started:

SEO resources

• Moz . One of the most popular SEO communities online. Moz's beginner’s guide to SEO is a particularly good resource for those starting out.
• Seach Engine Land . An extremely prolific SEO blog, with dozens of new posts each day.
• SEOBook . A popular SEO blog and the home of a paid private community for SEO professionals.
• Brainlabs . This marketing and SEO agency has a top-notch blog and a number of high-quality training courses and tutorials, many of which are free.

Marketing resources

• Seth Godin’s blog . Solid high-level advice on marketing and building an audience.
• Copyblogger . Content marketing tips with an emphasis on writing effective, compelling copywriting.
• Mixergy . Interviews with successful entrepreneurs in the technology and online fields. Not focused exclusively on marketing, but lots of applicable information for aspiring entrepreneurs, including marketing and early-stage advice.

Ecommerce marketing resources

• Shopify blog . A comprehensive ecommerce blog with frequent posts on how to effectively promote and market your online store.
• EcommerceFuel . Tips from an active ecommerce entrepreneur on how to found, grow, and market online stores. Written specifically for individual store owners and smaller stores.

3. Specialize

Almost every successful dropshipping store we encounter has one thing in common: it specializes in certain products . The more that stores specialize, the more successful they tend to be.

You don’t want to just sell backpacks. You want to sell backpacks designed for around-the-world travelers obsessed with lightweight gear. You don’t want to just sell security camera equipment. You want to focus on security systems for gas stations.

Many think narrowing their focus limits their potential customer base and will cost them sales. Just the opposite is true. Specializing allows you to communicate more effectively with your customers, stand out more easily from the competition, and compete against a smaller field. Specializing is rarely a bad move to make in a dropshipping venture.

If you’re launching a store in a new niche you probably won’t know what segment of your customers to focus on, and that’s OK. But as you gain experience with your customers you should identify the segment that’s the most profitable and that allows you to add the most value. Then, try positioning your business to focus exclusively on those customers’ needs and problems. You’ll be amazed at how your conversion rates skyrocket, even if you're charging a premium price.

Remember: if everyone is your customer, then no one is. Specialization makes it easier to differentiate yourself, charge a premium price, and concentrate your marketing efforts more effectively.

4. Have a long-term perspective

Building a dropshipping business is like building anything else of value: it takes a significant level of commitment and investment over time. Yet for some reason people assume they can build a passive six-figure income with dropshipping after a few months of part-time effort. That’s just not the way it works.

It will realistically take at least a year to build a business that generates an average full-time income.

It's also important to understand that the first few months are the most difficult. You’ll struggle with doubts, run into issues with your website, and likely have an underwhelming website launch that generates zero sales. Understand that this is normal. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were any successful dropshipping businesses.

If you mentally prepare for a challenging beginning and don’t expect to get rich overnight, you’ll be much more likely to stick with your business until it becomes a success.

5. Offer outstanding service

The Internet has always been a fairly transparent place, but the recent rise of social media has made your business reputation even more important to your success online. If you don’t treat your customers well, they’ll often let the entire world know—including many potential customers.

The biggest customer service risk for dropshipping merchants is having tunnel vision on per-order profits and losses when fulfillment issues go awry. As discussed in our Amazon dropshipping guide , it’s critical to accept that dropshipping can get messy, that you’ll be paying to clean up some messes, and that you shouldn’t always try to pass those messes on to your customer. If you aren’t occasionally losing money on individual orders to make customers happy, you’re probably not providing very good service.

Having happy customers is the best form of marketing. As is true in all businesses, it’s much easier to make a sale to a satisfied customer than to try to convince a new prospect to buy. If you treat your customers exceptionally well, they’re likely to spread the word and refer others your way. With top-notch service, you can build a business where repeat customers generate much of your revenue.

Making customer service a priority sets your dropshipping business up for success, so ensure it’s a priority from the outset.

6. Don’t get hung up on the details

Don’t focus too much on the details. Your company name, logo, theme, or email marketing service aren’t going to determine your success.

What makes a business successful are the things we just talked about: adding value, marketing, outstanding customer service, specializing, and a long-term commitment. Still, new merchants will spend weeks, sometimes months, struggling to make a decision between two shopping carts or providers. That’s valuable time better spent developing the core aspects of the business.

Do your research and make an informed decision, but don’t let small decisions paralyze you.

The most important step to successful dropshipping

The most important step—the one that most people never take—is to actually get started building your ecommerce business. This is the hardest thing for most people, usually due to fear and uncertainty.

It’s a common misconception that successful entrepreneurs have a rock-solid certainty about their business at the outset. When you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that most had fears and reservations about how things would turn out. Yet they moved forward with their plan despite these doubts.

If you’re serious about building your own dropshipping business, you’ll need to do the same. Do your research, evaluate your options, and then move forward with that information in spite of your fears and reservations. It’s what entrepreneurs do.

• The Ultimate Guide To Dropshipping (2024)
• How To Source Products To Sell Online
• AliExpress Dropshipping- How to Dropship From AliExpress
• The 9 Best Dropshipping Websites for Your Online Store
• Amazon Affiliate Program: How To Join and Earn More
• Product Ideas: 17 Places To Find Profitable Products
• How To Start Affiliate Marketing With No Money
• Is Dropshipping Worth It in 2024?
• 8 Dropshipping Software for New Dropshippers

Dropshipping business success FAQ

Is dropshipping still profitable, can you get rich with dropshipping, how long does it take to become a successful dropshipper, what are the best dropshipping niches.

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What are some real stories of success in dropshipping.

If you are looking for some inspiration, in this article we have put together a list of real stories of success in dropshipping in 2024.

It is an achievement to say you have achieved success in dropshipping.

Dropshipping stores are on the rise day by day, but sadly, not all of them manage to have a great outcome. However, it only takes a few examples to follow to find success in dropshipping nowadays.

Table of Contents

Is Dropshipping Worth It?

Oh yes, it is! Dropshipping is one of the best ways to earn money and quit your full-time job. The only reason many won’t start a dropshipping store is because of the money you need to set aside to start it.

Starting one from scratch definitely costs more but also even starting on Shopify can make you pay over $1000.

Although, with the needed research and steps taken, it is always worth it. The reward is greater than the risk.

👉 Read about AC Hampton: From Dorm Room Dreams to E-Commerce Glory .

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A Few Individual Dropshipping Success Stories and How They Started

Marc chapon.

Marc Chapon, an entrepreneur who quit his full-time job to start an e-commerce business. Chapon made sales worth 60 thousand dollars per month, and now even has his own course on Spocket Academy .

His story is that when he started out he had $5000 set aside just for his store. $1000 was enough to start a store on Shopify but still, the extra cash was a good stretch for running paid ads.

His overall budget spent at the beginning was about $3000. In only less than a year, Chapon managed to make over half a million dollars!

What did Marc Chapon do? He mainly:

• Did Product research in his niche
• Set up paid ads
• Found suppliers for packaging
• Invested some of his cash in a long-term benefit.

One user from Reddit only invested $150 in Facebook ads, $12 in his domain, and a few bucks to order products from AliExpress.

His total investment was only $200 at the beginning. He made his first sale within the day he invested in his Facebook ads!

Some of his advice is to find your niche and to sell products that really impact affect the lives of someone, something they actually need.

👉 Check out the story of Justin Woll Success: From a Middle-Class Kid to a $15 Millioner.

Kristina- sixads

Started running Facebook ads in the jewelry niche. Started out with about 10 different types of ads which she only found out later that posting photos of these pieces of jewelry will help her more.

Kristina started from losing over $2,000 to making $1,000k a day with lots of struggle in her first 2 months.

She learned from her mistakes and found out that posting on other social media channels had a great impact on her dropshipping sales. Kristina removed all the ads that were not doing very and that had a CTR (click-through rate) lower than 1.5%.

👉 Check out the Top 11 Richest Dropshipping Store Owners In The World .

Top Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples in 2024

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Unconditional 

Part of Shopify, Unconditional started over 10 years ago in London. Just by looking at their design, you realize that they are all about premium clothing.

When you scroll through their website, you get to feel their stylish website and make you want to buy just from the classic design & photography they have.

Notebook Therapy 

A site mostly focuses on Japanese and Korean stationery, Notebook Therapy gives colorful vibes to an Eastern-culture audience.

They reach around 50 thousand monthly visitors. Notebook Therapy is ranked #1 in the U.S for Japanese & Korean stationaries.

You can also call them the masters of personalized gifts. Bluecrate is really good at focusing on delivering personalized gifts for its customers.

Once you visit their website, you also realize all the funny product images they include are there to make their products more interesting when they are presenting them to you.

You can view blue crate’s unique self-made videos here .

When we talk about the best Shopify dropshipping store examples, we definitely should mention one of the top stores concentrated on eyewear and accessories for success in dropshipping.

The website has different kinds of product collections you can pick from. There is no way you can miss out since they are always keeping you updated on their most recent eyewear through their social media channels.

Oddity Mall 

The website loves to give out random gifts and generates revenue from affiliate links while not even selling its own products. It is all advertising. Their peak traffic is around 250 thousand monthly viewers just from affiliate links!

If you visit their social media channels, they have millions of fans and are ranked #1 in the entire U.S for a lot of their products.

How To Stay Motivated When Dropshipping 

Just like the stories you read before about successful Shopify dropshipping store examples and individuals who struggled at the beginning, you have to know that success doesn’t come overnight.

Starting a dropshipping store isn’t free, but it doesn’t require a lot of money to reach success in dropshipping. A small investment is necessary to get things going.

You’ll face failures, just like many others have, but learning from those failures is key. Keep improving your approach based on what you learn.

Here are some simple ways to stay motivated and find out what works:

• Replace ads that have low click-through rates (CTR). For example, if you notice that an ad on Facebook isn’t getting many clicks, try changing the image or headline to make it more appealing.
• Use high-quality photos on Instagram and Facebook along with paid ads. For instance, share clear, attractive pictures of your products and pair them with a small ad budget to increase visibility.
• Don’t spend a lot of money on ads until you know they perform well. Test your ads with a small budget first. If an ad is getting good engagement, then increase the budget.
• Increase spending on ads that are performing well . If an Instagram ad is driving a lot of traffic and sales, consider allocating more funds to that ad to maximize its reach.
• Focus more on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. These platforms have a large user base and offer various tools to target your audience effectively.
• Read about other success stories to stay inspired. For example, read how others have grown their dropshipping businesses by experimenting with different ad strategies and learning from their experiences.

Dropshipping isn’t easy, but by being consistent and adjusting how you approach your audience and promote your ads, you can stay motivated. New methods and small changes will keep you moving forward.

To make it easier, you can also check out our article on how to create a dropshipping business model here .

Want to find success in dropshipping?

These were a few stories of individuals and dropshipping stores that got to taste success in dropshipping. Of course, we wrote this blog to tell you that it isn’t only they that can do this but you can too!

To find out more helpful practices in your daily dropshipping life, or even if you haven’t started yet, make sure to visit our website’s Resouce Center .

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Tales From a Beginner Dropshipper: The Highs and Lows of a Newbie Starting a Store

Over the years I’ve read countless stories and case studies from successful dropshippers, but they never seemed to go in-depth about the struggles and mistakes they’d made as beginners.

And let’s face it, there are always mistakes.

It’s hard to start as a dropshipper, so I decided to open a store as a relative newbie and write a case study about it so you can ride the highs and lows with me.

This is how I ended up opening a Halloween store.

Over the space of four weeks, I built my store, took my first proper steps into the world of Facebook ads, and tried to make as many sales as I could.

And I documented it all so I could share my findings with fellow dropshipping newbies.

Read on to find out what happened when I tried to cash in on the spooky season, including the unorthodox way I made my first few sales and the numerous moments I realized I had played myself . And you’ll see the mistakes I made on the way to losing over $900 on Facebook ads.

Post Contents

Getting Started: Choosing a Niche and Building the Store

Choosing products and writing descriptions, tapping into social media, confronting my facebook ads nemesis, using the wrong facebook pixel, my first sale: minimal effort for great reward, cross-selling and upselling using an app, retargeting and creating lookalike audiences, sending abandoned cart recovery emails, always double-check your shipping settings, the customer’s always reeeeeeally happy to hear from you, choosing a steady, year-round niche, adding seo content to my store’s blog, trying influencer marketing, what to learn more.

Knowing that shoppers are prepared to part with cash during the holidays, I wanted to get involved. With Christmas and Valentine’s Day a little far away, Halloween seemed the perfect event to build a store around. Especially as I love all things spooky.

I know that this might seem like I was giving myself a hard deadline – and in retrospect, I would agree – but the fact that people spent $9 billion last Halloween was enough to entice me.

With a theme in mind, I got to work building my website. I chose a name, purchased a domain, made a logo, and picked a color scheme. I wanted the website to feel legitimate, so I created an About Us page and FAQ section as well – pages I often look for when I shop online.

I also connected my website to Google Analytics, so I could monitor traffic more precisely, as well as Google Search Console, so I could keep an eye on how my store performed on Google.

With the bones of the store created, I needed to fill it with products. I wanted products that had low costs, ePacket delivery , and were carried by a good supplier .

Using Automizely , I searched for Halloween products that I could see were popular and found others that had great order counts on AliExpress when sorting by orders. On the listings, I could easily see whether or not they could be delivered by ePacket.

With a 2-3 week delivery on dropshipping items, I wasn’t going to have time to order the products myself, so I had to figure out another way to check if the products and suppliers were reliable. I sorted the customer reviews from new to old so I could see if there were any recent issues with suppliers.

Checking the reviews was helpful for a couple of other reasons as well. It allowed me to see what things customers mentioned over and over, giving me ideas for what to include in my product descriptions.

After this research I settled on 14 products to sell, ranging from light-up masks to animal costumes, jewelry, and large props.

Taking all of this information – and the information I had gathered from competitors’ sites – I started writing product descriptions for my items and pricing them competitively.

I wanted my product descriptions to highlight the best features of each item so I spent time to make sure they were thorough. I also tried to optimize my titles and descriptions as much as possible, using information gathered on free SEO tools like Ubersuggest .

I chose to include a note about shipping on each page to inform each potential customer that their item may have a 2-3 week shipping time. This is something I think a lot of people worry about with ecommerce shipping , but many successful merchants advise being upfront about it to set expectations so I took their advice.

Next, I set up my shipping profiles, opting to ship to what I thought would be the biggest five markets for Halloween products: the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. While the last three countries aren’t totally into celebrating Halloween, it’s growing in popularity, so I figured they were worth including.

When uploading the images, I chose the best ones the supplier had, cropped them all into a square shape to keep them uniform, and painted over any obvious watermarks. This was all fairly straight forward using the tools built into Shopify.

One interesting thing I later discovered was that there were numerous high-quality photos of a couple of my products available on free stock image websites. One of them – a light-up mask – had photos from multiple photographers.

This product had been popular for Halloween 2018 and it seemed as though many photographers enjoyed using it in their images. This was great news for me as I could use these high-quality images on my product pages and also in my advertising.

Before I used them, however, I was sure to compare the professional photos with the supplier photos, as the last thing I wanted was to misrepresent my products. Thankfully, it was a perfect match.

If you’re selling a popular product, try your luck on stock image websites – you never know!

With my store set up, I wanted to create a Facebook page and Instagram account to add authenticity. I always like to see that a store has a presence on social media as I think it adds a sense of legitimacy.

And besides, I wanted to see if I could use the accounts to get some free traffic.

Instead of using these social media accounts to solely push my products, I decided to build them primarily around general fall and Halloween content, including memes, pop culture references, and relevant articles. This relatable content appealed to people, especially on Instagram where my use of hashtags meant I got some great engagement on posts.

To get initial followers on Instagram I first made posts and used a lot of popular hashtags and I also liked a bunch of related pages. While I didn’t get a ton of followers – I ended up with around 155 – I regularly received more engagements through my use of hashtags.

Meanwhile, on Facebook, I mainly gained followers from those who liked my ads. Once someone reacted to one of the Facebook ads I then invited them to like my page. I didn’t focus on growing my Facebook page quite as much as Instagram, but I still ended up with 89 likes.

With my store built and social media accounts created, I felt pretty good. This was the second Shopify store I’d created, so I thought I’d nailed the basics and was ready to move into more unfamiliar territory with Facebook ads – an area I’d only briefly dabbled in before with no success.

After adding a Facebook pixel to my page I was ready to start collecting some data and launched into my first ad campaigns.

Although I had used Facebook ads once before, I quickly realized I didn’t understand them at all. Turns out this is pretty common amongst dropshippers – successful merchants like Burak Doğan and Andreas and Alexander have also had this issue – so I needed to do some research.

Because ads can be a confusing beast, I found it best to breakdown like this:

• Campaigns: Basically what it sounds like, a campaign to advertise your products.
• Ad sets: At this stage, you decide which audiences you’re going to target for your ads. You probably want to have multiple ad sets targeting different audiences running at once to figure out who is most likely to buy your products, then you can refine it over time.
• Ads: This is where you design your ads and decide where it will be shown – Facebook feed, Instagram stories, Facebook messenger, and so on.

To kick things off I set up three campaigns for three different products, with each campaign consisting of three ad sets. Altogether it was a total of nine ads. I wanted the ads to be videos, so I used a tool called Magisto to make them. This way I could just upload any images or footage I had and Magisto would instantly turn it into a video. It was much easier than doing it myself and it was just $9.99 for a month of access.

With my videos made, I targeted audiences I thought might be somewhat interested in the products, aiming for an audience definition of between 1-5 million.

For example, for the light-up masks, I tried one ad set for people who were interested in Halloween costumes, one for those who were music fans, and one for those who like horror movies as the mask was similar to the one used in The Purge: Election Year .

I let the ads run for a few days before assessing how well each set was doing.

It was at this point I realized I had made a mistake.

Instead of assigning my Halloween store pixel to the ads, I had assigned the pixel I had for my very first store . As a result, the data from my store hadn’t properly filtered back to Ads Manager, including Results and Cost per Result. The pixel on my store was still collecting the data fine, but Facebook wasn’t receiving this information because it was expecting data from the other pixel.

While I was annoyed that I hadn’t caught such a simple error, it wasn’t the end of the world. I changed the pixels and let Ads Manager collect the proper data for a few more days. I also learned a valuable lesson and knew I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

That’s not to say I wouldn’t make any mistakes again, but now I’m just getting ahead of myself.

Using Facebook Ads Manager, I could see which age groups were responding best, so I refined the audience further, cutting out the age groups that weren’t engaging. Eventually, I turned off the worst-performing ad, which in the case of the light-up mask was surprisingly the ad I had expected to perform the best – the horror movie fans.

But while these ads had reached a lot of people, none of these three campaigns had resulted in a sale. I was a little disappointed, but I also knew that the true point of these initial ads was to generate traffic and feed my newly minted pixel.

Eager for more traffic to the store, I decided to try a free source of traffic: Reddit.

I’ve been a Reddit user for a few years and it was actually where I first heard about dropshipping. I knew that you can pay for ads on Reddit, but they’d never enticed me enough to click on them like a Facebook or Instagram ad. And, after reading a few articles on the topic it seemed like others who have tried paid Reddit ads agreed they weren’t a big traffic driver.

However, a well-placed post is another story.

Reddit has a reputation for being unfriendly to people or companies blatantly trying to use the site for their own monetary gain, which personally I think is fair enough. Instead, if you want to get something out of Reddit, you should first be a part of the community and offer something of value. That could be entertainment, useful advice, or the exchange of information. Whatever it is, make sure it’s somewhat worthwhile and isn’t an obvious grab for cash or traffic.

With that in mind I made a post in the subreddit r/deals . This sub has over 126,000 members and welcomes posts about good consumer bargains of all varieties.

I knew I would only have one chance to convince the community that this was a good deal, so I wanted to go in hot with a big discount. I also wanted to easily tell which traffic had come from Reddit, so I chose to promote a product I wasn’t featuring in Facebook ads.

In the end, I created a 60 percent off discount for a different variant of the light-up mask, which I thought would appeal to the Reddit community. I adjusted the price so I still made a profit, and posted it.

To ensure the post got a little momentum, I asked a few friends with Reddit accounts to upvote it but soon enough other Redditors were joining in. Almost immediately I could see traffic streaming into the store via Reddit and hours later I had my first sale.

With an 89 percent upvote rate, the Reddit post continued to be fruitful for a long time, giving me three sales in total and more than 700 clicks – all for free. And all that free traffic was useful when I expanded into retargeting campaigns on Facebook ads a little later on.

After a few days of running my store, I decided to check out what apps in the Shopify app store could be useful. I found the Upsell Cross-Sell Smart Tool by Autoketing and added it.

Using the app, I decided to set up an offer so that when customers added a single light-up mask to their carts, a popup then offered them two other types of masks that each had a discount.

With traffic from Facebook ads and Reddit making its way to my store, I wanted to try and win these people back and convert them to buyers. I set up a retargeting campaign to woo those who had already visited my site.

I also created two campaigns targeting lookalike audiences – first I set up a campaign with “view content” as the goal, later adding an additional campaign with “add to cart” as the goal. With my “view content” ad, the idea was people would click on them and view my product page. Meanwhile, with my “add to cart” I wanted the audience go one step further and actually put that item in their basket. Ideally, you want to run “view content” ads first, receive a bunch of eyes on your product page and then run “add to cart” ads. This is why I started the “add to cart” campaign a few days after the “view content” one.

I added an additional discount to my retargeting ads to really try and entice shoppers. However, I later realized that I probably didn’t make a very good choice with creative I chose to use.

I was retargeting traffic that had come to my store from a variety of ads, including those for inflatable decorations and animal costumes. But the creative for my retargeting ads was a video solely for the light-up masks. I was showing people who had come to my store via those other ads an entirely new product – one they probably weren’t so interested in.

What could have been a better solution is using the creatives I was using for “add to cart” campaign – a carousel ad that showed multiple products.

While both the retargeting and “add to cart” campaigns received two sales each (with the “view content” ad receiving one sale), the audience for the retargeting ad had already engaged with my website, so I would’ve expected that to have a higher rate of purchase. I couldn’t help but think that my choice in ad creative had been a factor.

It was a good lesson to really think about who was going to see your ads. Because my sales had all been for the light-up masks, I had tunnel vision and just pushed the ad showing the masks in my retargeting campaign. If I had taken a step back and thought about it properly, I would’ve realized hundreds of other visitors had come to my store via ads for other products and opted for a different creative instead.

Like my other dropshipping failures , I could only learn from this one and move forward. But it certainly got me thinking about other opportunities I could grab that I hadn’t yet made the most of.

While I was processing an order one day, I spotted the abandoned checkout section in Shopify. Not only had a lot of people visited my store, but many had come super close to actually buying something only to abandon their cart at the last minute.

The abandoned checkout section shows the contact details of the shoppers who had filled out their information, ready to purchase, but for some reason had navigated away from the store.

If a shopper had given their email address before leaving, Shopify could automatically send them an email to entice them back.

With nothing to lose, I went to my Checkout settings in Shopify and made sure that emails were automatically sent out to anyone who abandoned checkout 10 hours after they abandoned. I also added additional details to the emails, offering a special email-only discount. Altogether 14 emails were sent out and I managed to recover one sale – bonus!

Between my Facebook ads, the Reddit post, and the recovery email I had made a few sales, but there was still nothing major. I had one product in particular – a Halloween-themed ring – that I had expected to gain a little more interest. It was cute, fairly inexpensive, and it had been included in one ad and a couple of social posts that had seemed popular.

Then I got a message from an Instagram follower.

I had posted the ring on Instagram with a discount code and could see that it was getting traffic but no sales . I was frustrated but figured people were just curious and then clicking away. It was only after receiving this message from a customer in the US who said she had issues with ordering that I realized it might have been something else.

After the Instagram user messaged me, I quickly went through the process of ordering items and saw where things were going wrong.

Potential buyers could add the item to cart and fill in their information, including choosing which of the five countries they wanted to ship to. However, in the next step – the shipping section – they were told shipping wasn’t offered.

Pretty soon I figured out what I’d done wrong.

When I was building my store, I had set up a new shipping profile to establish free shipping to the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. At this point in time I had imported some products to my store, but not all. So, while the existing products in my store were added to this shipping profile, any new products I imported – such as the ring – went into the general profile.

And, stupidly, I hadn’t set up any rates for the general profile so it assumed we didn’t ship those products anywhere .

I know, I know, I’m a genius.

The whole thing was particularly frustrating because I had actually gone through the process of placing a fake order – but only with the items I had initially added to my store, not with the ring.

I fixed the problem and relayed the information to the Instagram user, who then placed an order. Obviously, it was good to get the sale, but it was still frustrating to realize this mistake went totally unnoticed until she had contacted me. After all, how often do you contact a website owner if you notice a mistake on their store? Basically never.

Looking in Google Analytics, I’m not sure how much this mistake cost me. The exit rate for the Shipping page – where the shipping error would be first noted – was 14 percent, or around three customers. Compared to an exit rate of 33 percent on the Contact Information page and 34 percent on the Payment page, it’s not too bad, but I still can’t help but feel I played myself out of a few sales.

In saying that, while it was frustrating, at least I was able to fix it – with the help of a customer.

And on that note, one of my biggest learnings from this whole project was how much people appreciate good customer service .

Heck, not even good customer service, just an adequate level of customer service.

I hadn’t imagined many customers would get in touch with me over the course of this case study – especially when I only had 10 – but I was mistaken.

Firstly, I had an email from a customer who wanted to cancel an order, then a customer who wanted to check if his order had been shipped, and finally, another customer wanted to know when his package would be delivered.

I replied to all messages, either with personalized emails or by sending out email notifications directly from my store (such as the cancellation confirmation or tracking code). Overall I found people were extremely thankful someone replied to them.

It might seem obvious, but even in this age of chatbots and automation we still like to know there’s a human on the other end if we have queries or concerns.

It was a big moment of learning for me. Even though I didn’t make a ton of sales, at least the customers I did have seemed to have a pleasant experience.

So, What Else Could I Have Done?

After just over four weeks of my store, I had made 10 sales and $251 in revenue. However, I spent around $1000 on various Facebook ads campaigns, so didn’t anywhere close to turning a profit.

It’s fair to say that my first proper foray into the dropshipping business has failed, but at least I know that I’m in good company. After all, the vast majority of successful dropshippers all have stores that fail before they strike the jackpot.

And, while I’m not going to be a Lamborghini-driving millionaire any time soon, I experienced a lot and learned even more. And I definitely plan on continuing my dropshipping journey.

So, if I was to have a do-over, would I change anything? Absolutely. On top of the mistakes I already mentioned in this article, there are a few other things I would reconsider as well:

I’ll admit that I was blinded by the numbers when it came to picking a Halloween store and all I could see were dollar signs. In reality, all I did was give myself a hard deadline. After all, no one wants Halloween costumes on November 1. And actually, I had to stop selling well before Halloween because of the long shipping times that come with dropshipping.

If I were to choose again I’d pick a niche with products that could be sold all year. I could even still cash in on these holidays depending on my products – for example, a decoration or costume store would have been perfect.

I think this would have had a flow-on effect with my Facebook ads, as I had a theory that people weren’t thinking about Halloween in early September, so my ads were even less effective than if I had an evergreen niche.

Although it doesn’t get results as fast as Facebook or Instagram ads, writing search engine optimized content can result in steady, long-term sales. By writing good SEO content, my articles would have shown up in Google and people may have found their way to my store that way.

While I had tried to optimize my product descriptions, if I had written a handful of well-optimized articles when I very first launched the store, they could have been ranking well by the time my store was hitting its peak.

SEO can seem intimidating, but there are a lot of free and well-written resources online to help. And, if you’re not a confident writer you could even outsource your SEO content. A lot of dropshippers don’t consider SEO very important, but in reality, it’s an investment that could pay itself off many times over.

If there are two things I realized running my store’s Instagram account it’s that people really love Halloween and there are a ton of influencers . If I had been prepared enough then I could have researched a bunch of Halloween influencers and sent them products to share with their followers. This would have been an easy way to raise awareness of both my store and its social media accounts, as well as providing good social proof.

These are just three examples, but in reality, there’s probably a whole more I could experiment with in the future. After all, I may have tried and failed, but now there’s only one more thing to do: Try again.

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