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6 Tips for How to be a Successful
Dropshipper

6 Tips for How to

be a Successful
Dropshipper
by Corey Ferreira Source Products
2 Jun 2021 13 minute read
Leave a comment

Dropshipping isn’t dead. In fact, the

opposite is true. The 44% rise in
ecommerce sales in 2020 indicates
we’re entering a golden age for
ecommerce entrepreneurs.

But using the dropshipping model isn’t

easy. Most people think you just add
products to your online store and
customers come to buy.

Dropshipping without a plan can make

you feel invisible. You feel like you’re
shouting into an empty room where
nobody is listening. Every dropshipper,
big or small, knows this feeling. It’s a
part of the process that most
entrepreneurs want to escape as fast as
possible.

Luckily, there are ways to become a

successful dropshipper, which is why
we created this guide. Read on to learn
from expert dropshippers what success
looks like and how to achieve it.

Become a successful
dropshipper

What’s the average

dropshipping success rate?
Dropshipping success
stories
How to be a successful
dropshipper
The most important step to
successful dropshipping
Dropshipping business
success FAQ

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Store

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store, and start selling—fast.

Reserve your seat now

What’s the average

dropshipping success
rate?
Top dropshippers from around the web
estimate that between 10% and 20% of
dropshipping businesses succeed. Yet
success is only defined by the owner,
which is you.

If success to you means making $1

million per year with your dropshipping
store, then it may take a long time to be
“successful.” If your idea of success
means breaking six figures, there are
many dropshippers making $100,000
per year, you just need to find good
dropshipping suppliers and build a
brand.

This online business model is often seen

as a get-rich-quick scheme. But it’s not.
To see dropshipping success, you’ll
need to put in hard work and time to
make your business profitable.

What Is Dropshipping? …

Dropshipping success
stories
Starting a dropshipping business can be
competitive. The dropshippers are
always coming up with new and
innovative ways to stay ahead. So what
are they doing that others are not?

Let’s learn by example from the

following top Shopify store owners
using dropshipping in their businesses.

Tze Hing Chan: $19,000 in

profit over two months

Our first case study comes from

Malaysian entrepreneur Tze Hing Chan,
who ran the Shopify dropshipping store
Subtle Asian Treats. It’s the go-to store
for 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

dropshipping to making bank. There
were many failures and lessons along
the way. Tze started selling phone
cases, then moved on to kitchenware
and martial arts products before finding
his most profitable product idea: plush
toys.

Lessons learned:

Choose 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.
Create 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.
Interact with customers. Tze also
was transparent in the buying
process with customers. His product
pages included shipping times and
origins of the products, so
customers had the right
expectations. He also 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.

There’s a lot to take from Tze’s

experience as a dropshipper. Learn
more by reading Luck and Learning
From Failures Led This Entrepreneur to
Make $100K From Bubble Tea Plush
Toys.

Cole Turner: $2 million in

just over one 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 and turn it
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.

EMar1,2019-May31,2020 Totalorders

54,946
Totalsales
ORDERSOVERTIME

$2,150,717.91 20K

15K
OnlineStore $2,139,563.85
10K
QuantityBreaks&Discounts $5,935.61
FacebookShop $2,504.11

ReConvertpostpurchaseupsell $1,606.52
May Sep
DraftOrders $1,107.82

InthefifteenmonthsbetweenMarch2019andMay2020,Cole'sstoregenerated
over$2.15millioninrevenue.

Thesesalescamefrom54,956orders,withanaverageordervalueof$39.14

Lessons learned:

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

“If you want your website to be sleek

and elegant looking and you want to sell
real sleek jewelry, just take some time at
the beginning to make sure things look
right. People are very aware nowadays
of what’s a cheap dropshipping store
from China and what’s a real store.” —
Cole Turner

Provide 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.

Learn more by reading Meet The College

Student Trying to Graduate While
Building a Million Dollar Empire.

Andreas Koenig and

Alexander Pecka: 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 as of 2019.

Today, Andreas and Alexander’s pet

business is making over $10 million per
year.

Lessons learned:

Decide on a niche based on people’s

emotional connections, like pets or
children.
Andreas and Alexander’s first
ventures failed because of lack of
advertising and marketing
experience. So learn Facebook ads
and organic marketing tactics.
Remember that dropshipping is a
real business that you invest time
and energy into. It’s not just setting
up a website and selling random
stuff online.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
See what works in your niche, make
a better version, and become a
market leader.
Build good relationships with
suppliers because they are crucial to
running a successful dropshipping
business.
Don’t expect to make money in the
beginning. Never give up.

Want to bring in $10 million per year

dropshipping? Learn more by reading
Making $10 Million In One Year With
Dropshipping.

Sarah and Audrey: $1 million

in sales through influencer
marketing

Sarah and Audrey are two French

ecommerce entrepreneurs recently
profiled by Oberlo. The two women, 25
and 26 years old, respectively, 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.

Lessons learned:

Create a beautiful website that

attracts and appeals to your target
audience.
Work with as many influencers as
possible. Sarah and Audrey sent up
to 200 emails per day looking for the
perfect influencer match.
Use Instagram Stories for product
placement and promotion.
Establish direct, long-term
partnerships with influencers; try to
avoid agencies.

Learn more by reading Two French

Women Entrepreneurs Build an Empire
Leveraging Influencer Marketing.

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.

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 tra%ic to your new site. The
#1 problem and frustration new
ecommerce merchants face is a lack of
tra%ic 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 tra%ic are

absolutely essential to the success of
your business and are di%icult 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, SEO,
and tra%ic 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