Look through your contact list; 2 in 10 people sell something online. An online boutique, a digital chocolate store, someone who ships new books and sells to enthusiasts, a phone and accessories seller, a jewelry store with a single landing page. You know at least one person offering one of these.
“Everyone’s dropshipping, and no one’s talking about it,” a report by Inside Retail begins. This is arguably true.
While the pandemic compelled us to adapt to a digital ecosystem, the abounding opportunities online have kept many of us on that trail. Daily, there’s a new ecommerce guru flashing mouthwatering opportunities available on Amazon, Shopify, or Alibaba.
In this article, we review the state of dropshipping in 2024 (are there really mouthwatering opportunities?), what to know before you get on board, platforms to consider for dropshipping in 2024, the best products to dropship in 2024, and future trends.
Is Dropshipping Still Worth It in 2024?
Yes, this is the best time to start dropshipping. More people are searching “dropshipping” and related terms now than any other time. You’re likely to record your first sales within one month if you set up your landing page today.
Source: Google Trends.
Dropshipping has a low-entry barrier. For you, or anyone else, this means you don’t need a college of experience in ecommerce to get started. You also don’t need a lot of capital – there are enough products to sell on Shopify or other platforms with less than $1000.
The relevance of dropshipping also leans on the integration of social media and technology into our daily lives. Picture the sheer volume of internet users camping on Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat, or Facebook per hour.
YouTube isn’t edged out either.
Also, dropshipping is easy to set up. The steps are consistent regardless of location or choice of product: create a website or landing page, find a niche product or one with minimum competition, research the best suppliers, and start selling.
What to Know Before You Start Dropshipping in 2024
Anyone with some dollars and a modicum of interest in selling can start dropshipping today. If you’re thinking, how about the technicalities and legalities of running a business? The name registration and branding and taxes? You can sort those later – once you’ve made a couple of sales.
Because anyone can start anywhere, it’s as competitive as ever. Which leads us to the things to know before you start dropshipping in 2024.
Dropshipping is Competitive
As a dropshipper, you’re not competing with big industry players or household brands, but with other sellers like you. Hundreds of thousands other folks can equally start selling online today, diluting the pool of existing sellers.
To stay ahead of the curve:
- Choose a less competitive niche: Don’t tow the fashion, jewelry, or home and garden route, since these are the most crowded niches in dropshipping. As a newbie, you’re inclined to think, “What else is left?” Organic skincare, pet accessories, tech gadgets and accessories, stationery items, digital arts and products, and more.
The search volume for any product, the margin for profit on said product, and the availability of the product across different geographical locations (beyond the US) are important factors to consider when selecting a product niche to dropship in.
- Find trending products: We’ve all been advocating organic items for a while now. Eco-friendly products are getting a similar attention bandwidth and are a right fit to unlock impulse purchase or emotional buying from folks passionate about climate change and preservation. You can devote your dropshipping outlet to catering to one of these trending products, edging out your peers.
- Be patient: You won’t make your first balance-breaking profit in year one. Be patient. Learn the ropes. Test what works. Understand what ticks buyers, what makes people eager to purchase specific products. Test platforms and channels. See how sellers in other countries – outside your geographical region – work. Test, iterate, and refine.
You won’t survive dropshipping if you’re looking for a quick way to earn cool cash. But if you’re about buying and selling and e-commerce, and if you’ll put in the work, you’d mark out your brand with time.
Suppliers Make or Mar Your Dropshipping Effectiveness
The single, biggest con of dropshipping is that outside of receiving orders, nothing else is totally dependent on you. Not product procurement, not the quality of products shipped, not order fulfillment and delivery.
The right supplier will keep your business in bloom. The wrong one dooms your dropshipping experience and leaves a wrong impression for your customers. Before deciding on a supplier, vet them on trusted platforms like Alibaba, Aliexpress, or DSers. Read through customer reviews and see what others are saying about their product quality.
Branding is a Game-Changer
Stakeholders in e-commerce overlook how much difference branding can make. But think of your favorite companies or industries – what peculiar feature strikes you?
CocaCola with its trademark font and red color. Apple and its sleekness. Shopify and the splash of (mint?) green. Amazon with the orange, curvy arrow. Nike reminding you to just do it.
Branding creates an emotional connection with your buyers, bridging the gap between your products and those who need them. A well-done branding experience eases other aspects of your business including marketing, promotions, business identification, and setting customers’ experience.
You can customize a single landing page to match a brand intent. Meetcary, a Hong Kong-based skincare business that uses Adoric to promote their products via campaigns, has a website composed of three individual pages. However, these pages are customized such that you get a sense of comfort and beauty within seconds of arriving on their homepage.
That’s the underrated effect of branding as a dropshipping agent.
Platforms for Dropshipping in 2024
Did you think of Amazon? Well, you’re not so wrong. Amazon is arguably one of the biggest names in e-commerce. Yet, some of their policies, such as a 15% sales cut, displace Amazon as the most preferred platform to consider. Instead, we have, amongst other options, these:
AliExpress
Aliexpress is an international platform serving more than 200 countries and supplying over 100 million products. As an established dropshipping brand, they’ve simplified the process for both newbies and veterans to find trending products, review suppliers, ship products, and fulfill orders.
To successfully dropship with AliExpress:
- Order product samples and test them yourself.
- Be realistic with shipping times. AliExpress, headquartered in China, takes at least seven days to deliver any product.
- Set profitable product prices.
- Persuade customers and prospects with attractive product pictures and product captions.
Alibaba
Alibaba, also domiciled in China, is fitting for B2B sellers who want to shop wholesale products and then distribute in the form of retail. Alibaba offers over 20 million products and a large volume of trusted suppliers.
Due to location, delivery can take at least one month, which means you need to plan your orders in advance to prevent customer complaints. You can also consider shipping by air or freight, though this would require heavy capital investment.
If you’d like to know which is better for dropshipping between AliExpress and Alibaba, see our case study here.
Worldwide Brands
Worldwide Brands describes themselves as the “directory of wholesalers and dropshippers.” With over two decades of skin in the game, they ease the entrance into dropshipping by ensuring that you find vetted suppliers and a wide range of product categories to choose from.
Niches include electronics, pets accessories, home decor, tech accessories like earphones and phone cases, home and garden items, footwears for all purposes, etc.
Other platforms to consider for dropshipping in 2024 include Wholesale2b, Wholesale Central, Doba, DSers, and CJDropshipping.
Products to Dropship in 2024
You can’t exhaust the list of possible product categories to dropship in 2024. And you won’t start by selling the Apple Vision Pro. If you’re a newbie looking for your first rodeo, these categories make a great takeoff point:
- Baby Products: This is a no-brainer. The baby product market is valued at $300+ billion, and is projected to surge in the coming years, as we continue to populate the world with newborns. Now’s the time to get in, discover the right products for different regions, find suppliers that know the market, and sell.
- Phone and Laptop Accessories: Eight years ago, this meant earpieces and phone cases. Now, phone accessories include ring lights, lapel mics, 3D screen guards, airpods and other pods, phone grips, phone stands and mounts, and other accessories that will enter the market as content creation (for tech and non-tech individuals) becomes a dominant career field.
- Office Supplies: Got robust capital? Invest in office supplies and items. Sure, the global workforce is tilting towards a hybrid/remote work structure. This is more reason why people will need office items, from printers and scanners to orthopedic chairs and worktables.
- Pet Supplies: It’s 2024 – most people, including your neighbor, keep a pet. Research the best pet supplies for both first-time pet owners and veteran pet keepers. The hack is to entice them with the quality of your products, then convert them to loyal customers.
Other niches worth considering include clothes and fashion wears, beauty and personal products, and fitness equipment.
Future Dropshipping Trends
The singular most important trend in dropshipping is that dropshipping will remain a subset of running a business, and not an entire business in itself.
As one Reddit user puts it, “Millions of people still don’t know what AliExpress is. Millions of people are still impulse buyers.”
If business is your forte, or you dream of a future running an ecommerce venture, dropshipping is a great way to gather entry-level experience. If you’re looking to earn revenue but would rather not play the long-term, ten-year game, dropshipping is a worthwhile adventure too.
As we spend more time on our phones and laptops, the temptation to quickly add another item to cart, or to grab those awesome Puma sneakers, will flourish.
And isn’t that what dropshipping ultimately caters to, what it really is? Getting products from those who make them to those who keep them, without having to keep those products yourself.
