Dropshipping Products – The Ultimate FAQ Guide

Dropshipping Products – The Ultimate FAQ Guide

February 9, 2021

 

There are many different types of products that you can choose to sell if you’re thinking about starting a Dropshipping business.

Whether you’re looking for something specific or you prefer to sell as many different things as possible, there are several things you need to know first.

Learn more about Dropshipping business through our Ultimate Dropshipping Products FAQ.

 

What Dropshipping Products Should I sell?

 

The Dropshipping products that you choose to sell should depend on what type of seller you are. If you’re a niched seller, for example, someone who only sells women’s accessories, then you should focus your products in this area.

Some Dropshippers choose to sell various types of products to reach more customers, but this is entirely up to you.

 

There are several ways for you to know what dropshipping products you should sell:

  1. Look for trending dropshipping products to get an idea what are the popular items
  2. Sell based on your niche
  3. Research other competitors to see which types of products you can sell to fill in the gaps in the market
  4. Join online dropshipping groups or communities to decide better

 

What Dropshipping Products Should I Avoid?

There are many dropshipping products you can sell, but there are also several products that you should avoid.

  1. Products you can’t advertise on social media – You can share the link or promote your products on social media with paid ads. All social media has guidelines about what kind of items you can and cannot advertise. Avoid selling products such as adult products, unregulated or unregistered supplements, health products, or tobacco products
  2. Dangerous or explosive items – You shouldn’t sell dropshipping products that are dangerous such as weapons and explosives such as fireworks. Not only this might cause a potential hazard when they’re on their way to your customers, but you also can’t advertise this type of products on social media
  3. Fragile items – It’s best if you avoid fragile items even though they’re often attractive and can fetch a good price. Most dropshipping suppliers are located in China and anything can happen to these items while they’re on the way to your customers.
  4. Consumable or perishable goods – It’s becoming quite common now for dropshippers to sell foodstuff. However, it’s better if you avoid them. Unless you’re 100% certain of their authenticity and quality, selling foodstuff is highly risky and can lead to many potential issues if any of your customers fall sick because of it.

 

                         Figure 1 Dropshipping products to avoid

 

What Are the Best Dropshipping Products?

If you’re a beginner, it’s a good idea if you try to test the market with a mixture of both types of dropshipping products i.e. trending and niched products.

While trending products might sell faster at the moment, but it will slow down once the trend is over.

Selling too many niched products can also be dangerous because if that niche doesn’t get too much traction, your marketing and promotion efforts will go to waste.

Here are some ideas on the best types of dropshipping products you can sell:

  1. Lifestyle products – There is a wide variety of lifestyle products you can sell such as sneakers, headphones, home décor items, phone accessories, etc. The market for lifestyle products is also wide so there’s a good chance you will sell many of these
  2. Beauty – Cosmetics and perfumes are always hot items and there’s always a market for it. You can choose suppliers that carry quality brands so it’s easier for your customers to trust you as a seller
  3. Tech supplies – The ever-increasing demand for tech supplies makes it one of the best dropshipping products to sell. Just make sure you get them from trusted suppliers

 

What Products I Should Not Dropship?

While you can sell many different types of dropshipping products, just make sure you don’t sell items that are prohibited or dangerous.

Since many suppliers are from different countries, you need to make sure the types of products you sell will not cause any harm or injury to anybody.

This includes weapons or explosives as well as foodstuffs such as supplements or health products.

Other than that, avoid selling products that claim to guarantee a result such as slimming products, anti-aging products, or waterproof products.

It’s risky to sell products that “guarantee” something because your customers might get unwanted reactions or results from using them.

 

 

Why Types of Dropshipping Products Sell More?

Typically, trending items will sell more.

You can choose to sell trending dropshipping products to make more sales, but make sure you don’t stock up your store with only trending products because trending products will sooner or later run its course.

To give you an idea, here are some of dropshipping products that usually sell more:

  1. Household or kitchen items – Electric mixers, coffee makers, microfiber cloths, décor baskets, display shelves
  2. Beauty products – Hairbrush, make up brushes, manicure sets or kits, hair care items, make up accessories
  3. Tech supplies – Headphones, webcam, wireless phone chargers, drone cameras

 

What Are the Most Popular Types of Dropshipping Products?

The most popular type of dropshipping products would be the kind of products that people always need.

Regardless of whether it’s niched or trending, this type of products will always have a market.

Products such as household items, kitchen appliances, beauty products, or body care items are the most popular types of dropshipping products.

If you want to sell popular dropshipping products, you can choose from any of these by selecting several from each type.

You can do a quick research on what are the most popular dropshipping products and choose the ones most relevant to your niche or target audience.

 

 

Figure 2 Examples of popular dropshipping products

 

 

What Should I Do Before Choosing Dropshipping Products?

Don’t make the mistake of choosing your dropshipping products based on your personal preference because you need to see things from your customers’ point of view.

Since the dropshipping business is highly competitive, you should research the right kind of purchasing behavior in your target audience.

This way, you can have a good idea about what your target audience likes.

If you want to make sure what kind of products you should choose to sell, you can have a survey among your network and contacts.

Find out what kind of items they like and what are the “impulse buy” items they would get.

From here, you can make better choices when it comes to choosing dropshipping products.

 

What Should I Do Before Choosing Dropshipping Products?

Don’t make the mistake of choosing your dropshipping products based on your personal preference because you need to see things from your customers’ point of view.

Since the dropshipping business is highly competitive, you should research the right kind of purchasing behavior in your target audience.

This way, you can have a good idea about what your target audience likes.

If you want to make sure what kind of products you should choose to sell, you can have a survey among your network and contacts.

Find out what kind of items they like and what are the “impulse buy” items they would get.

From here, you can make better choices when it comes to choosing dropshipping products.

 

How Do I Choose the Best Dropshipping Products?

There is no right way to choose the best dropshipping products.

Choosing the best dropshipping products depends on your niche as well as the audience you’re selling them to.

However, one of the best ways to do this is to start by choosing a niche that you have experiences with.

Whether it’s related to your profession or personal life, choosing a niche that you know well helps because you can understand if a product is attractive enough for your target audience.

Another way to choose the best dropshipping products is to identify items that are already popular or trending.

You can sell this type of products because you can drive traffic to your shop better via online or social media marketing.

 

How Can I Market My Dropshipping Products?

There are various ways you can market your dropshipping products.

One of the ways many dropshippers choose is to use social media.

You can share the link to your shop on your social media and get your friends and followers to check out your online shop.

If you want to gain more views and reach a wider audience, you can also invest some marketing budget to promote your online shop.

You can do this either on social media via paid ads or you can use Google AdWords to display your online shop on Google search pages.

The trick to successfully market your dropshipping products is not to stop promoting.

You need to be active and constantly come up with attractive posts and captions so people will be interested to know about your products.

How Do I Measure Demand for Dropshipping Products?

Before you decide on what to sell, you need to have an idea of how these items will sell.

One of the easiest ways to do it is to measure the demand via survey.

You can create a simple survey and share it among your friends and ask them to share it too so you can get more data.

You can gauge what kind of products are preferred by your circle of friends or their friends of friends.

Another great way to measure the demand for dropshipping products is to use Google Keyword Planner.

This is an excellent tool to use because it measures the demand for an item online to determine how many people are searching for it.

When you can observe which kind of items people tend to search more online, you can choose the products that are suitable and relevant to these searched items.

 

Figure 3 Google Keyword Planner

 

How Can I Ensure the Quality of My Dropshipping Products?

It can be challenging to ensure the quality of your dropshipping products because most of the time you can’t see it for yourself since most of the suppliers are from another country.

But what you can do to at least make sure you don’t sell bogus things is to purchase some of the items yourself.

Before you decide to start selling, make several purchases from different suppliers to get an idea on the quality of things they sell.

If you happen to receive something below your expectation, you can still ensure the quality and credibility of the supplier by asking for a refund or return.

Whatever experience you get from the supplier will be an indicator of what your customers will experience once you start selling.

This is also why it’s important to make sure you deal with reputable and trusted suppliers so your chances of getting low-quality products is lower.

 

 

How Do I Price My Dropshipping Products?

Dropshipping is highly competitive.

Many other dropshippers are selling the same things you’re selling.

However, each seller’s target market is unique even though the demographics of the customers are the same.

Research the price range of the dropshipping products you’re planning to sell and take a look at who you’re selling them to.

You may think that you can sell more if your products are priced lower than the market.

But sometimes, this can backfire because customers will get suspicious and question why your price is lower than everyone else’s.

It may take you several trials and errors before you can find the sweet spot where your price range is, but it’s worth taking the time to figure out and decide.

 

How to Mark Up the Price of My Dropshipping Products?

Knowing how to mark up the price of your dropshipping products has to depend on:

  1. Your commission – Suppliers usually provide commission through either a fixed price per item or percentage based on the sale. You need to factor this amount in when you mark up your price so you’re able to both make a profit and earn the commission
  2. Price range – You need to know what’s the price range for the items you’re selling. Don’t mark up too high than the market price because you wouldn’t be able to make much sale. If you choose to mark it up higher, then offer something else other sellers don’t offer so your customers will see why your price is slightly higher
  3. Shipping cost – Even though shipping cost is paid by your customers, don’t make the mistake of including this amount in your profit

If you’re able to find a supplier that offers you low prices for your dropshipping products, then you wouldn’t have much problem in marking up the price.

However, if the price from your supplier is close to the market price, you need to consider several things before deciding how much to mark up.

 

How to Find the Best Dropshipping Products Online?

There’s no easy way to do this.

You have to put in the time and effort to research for the best dropshipping products online.

There are many major dropshipping products suppliers such as AliExpress and Megagoods, but there are also many lesser-known suppliers.

However, just because they’re lesser-known, it doesn’t mean they’re not reliable and trustworthy.

You need to spend time researching the lesser-known suppliers and take your time to communicate with them to understand their processes and procedures.

Sometimes, lesser known suppliers are easier to deal with since they want to grow their brand so they will often work well with dropshippers who choose them.

Here’s a helpful video on how to find the best dropshipping products:

 

 

How to Market My Dropshipping Products Online?

While it’s not entirely necessary to have an online shop set up, it’s highly advisable that you do.

Some dropshippers feel using social media is enough, but this isn’t entirely true.

Yes, you can use social media as one of the ways to market your products but having an online shop will help you to conduct online marketing better.

It’s easier to have an online shop because the link to your shop can be opened in any browser regardless if the person who clicks it has any social media account or not.

If you sell and market your dropshipping products on a specific social media, for example on Facebook, someone who doesn’t have a Facebook account may not be able to buy your products.

If you have an online shop, you can market your products virtually anywhere online because you can input the link to your online shop in the ads setting.

 

How to Increase Sale for My Dropshipping Products?

Since there many sellers might be selling the same things as you, you need to be creative in terms of how you promote your products.

You can offer bundle packages to encourage your customers to buy more different types of products.

You can also offer discounts to your customers when they check out their cart on your online shop.

You can set up these offers and promotions on your online shop.

However, remember that you may need to absorb some of the promotion costs because dropshipping products suppliers don’t usually provide an extra margin for your own promotion.

Another important thing you can do is also to provide excellent customer service.

Even though you can’t offer attractive bundle packages or high discounts, your customer service quality can still make a difference in boosting your sale.

 

How Do I Know Which Dropshipping Products Will Sell?

If you understand what drives the customers in a niche, you can determine which kind of products will appeal to them.

Other than knowing which are the trending products, it’s also important to know understand well certain products can sell within a niche.

One of the safest ways to know which dropshipping products will sell is to sell something that every household need.

This usually means anything from bath and body care to home and kitchen appliances to gardening equipment to home décor items.

However, be careful when choosing the products for these areas.

As much as household items tend to sell well, it doesn’t mean you sell everything under the sun.

Pick and choose the ones most relevant and make sense to your customers.

 

How Do I Ship My Dropshipping Products to Customers?

Since you don’t have to keep any stock as a dropshipper, all shipping is taken care of by your dropshipping products supplier/s.

Even though you don’t have to worry about logistics, you still have to make sure you provide excellent customer service to your customers regarding shipping.

Many customers readily know that their products will not come from you but from a supplier that’s in another country, but they still expect you to resolve any issues they have.

This means you need to make sure you understand your suppliers’ shipping processes and/or any terms and conditions.

This way, you can answer any questions your customers have, you can advise them on the things they need to do as well as you can let them know what to expect, etc.

 

Who Are the Best Suppliers for Dropshipping Products?

There are many dropshipping companies or wholesalers you can choose from for your dropshipping products.

However, since it can be quite overwhelming to find out about all of them, here’s a short list of the most popular dropshipping products suppliers:

  1. AliExpress – One of the major dropshipping suppliers that’s reliable and trustworthy. With more than 30 niche categories, there are millions of products you can choose from
  2. Spocket – This is a great marketplace that offers you various products from the US and Europe. There’s no fee to sign up and they offer a 14-day trial for their online shop
  3. Megagoods – This is one of the most popular dropshipping suppliers in the US. They offer many household products such as kitchen appliances, TVs, and tech supplies
  4. Dropshipper.com – A good platform if you’re looking for a more niched products such as jewelry or beauty products. They have more than 1.7 million products from more than 800 registered suppliers
  5. WeFullFill – This is a good all-in-one dropshipping solution that’s suitable for those who have just started. It’s simple to use and they have a good range of quality products

 

Where Can I Market/Promote My Dropshipping Products?

One of the easiest ways to market/promote your dropshipping products is on your social media.

You already have some visibility there from your friends and followers, so you can advertise there.

However, don’t just post a photo of your product.

It’s best if you can do a video reviewing the products your selling or testimonies from your customers.

You need to make it personal so your friends and followers will be interested to learn more about your products.

You can also advertise your dropshipping products on instant messaging services such as iMessage or Facebook Messenger.

Many instant messaging platforms now offer stories function.

You can post stories about your products and get your friends to contact you if they’re interested.

You can also use Google Ads as a place to market/promote your dropshipping products.

 

Where Can I Find the Best Dropshipping Products?

Finding the best dropshipping products can be challenging because there are many suppliers and companies that offer various products.

When you’re researching for the right place to get the best dropshipping products, here are a few things you need to remember:

  1. Get in touch with the companies – Your conversation with them can tell you a lot about their commitment to delivering quality products. If it’s hard to get in touch with them, then you’ll probably have the same problem when you need to contact them if your customers have any issue with the products they bought
  2. Research extensively – Many legitimate and reliable suppliers or wholesalers have a poor online presence. Even though they have a website, they don’t usually spend a lot of time to come up with stunning websites. So, make sure you dig up as much information as you can
  3. Order from your competition – Since dropshippers don’t ship the items themselves, there’s a chance the supplier’s address will be on the package. However, this may not work all the time because some dropshippers choose to do blind dropshipping to shield their suppliers’ information
  4. Supplier directory – Many dropshippers use the supplier directory as a last resort mainly because you need to have a paid membership to access this directory. However, for some sellers, this is the easiest way and the paid membership is a small price to pay

 

Where Can I Find the Best Supplier for Dropshipping Products?

The easiest way to do this is through online research.

While dropshipping wholesalers and/or suppliers usually have a poor online presence, many parties who write about them.

These parties review and share the experiences they have with several wholesalers or suppliers, which can be very helpful for you.

After you have a list of several popular suppliers, you can get in touch with them personally.

 

Do I Need to Make Upfront Purchase for My Dropshipping Products?

No, you don’t have to.

That’s one of the great things about dropshipping business.

You don’t have to make any purchase from the suppliers to start dropshipping.

If a supplier wants you to make upfront purchases and charge you unnecessary fees, there’s a high chance that the supplier is not legitimate.

You can purchase from the supplier if you want to see the quality of their products for yourself, but you don’t have to buy anything in advance if you’re going to be their dropshipper.

 

Do I Have to Worry About Competition for My Dropshipping Products?

Almost every seller worries about competition, especially in dropshipping because the business is highly competitive.

However, remember that another seller is not selling directly to your target market.

Even though someone from your target market may also cross over as your competitor’s target market, it doesn’t mean you can’t sell.

Focus on marketing your products efficiently and effectively as well as work towards growing your market visibility.

This way, you can still work towards making a sale even though it’s competitive.

 

Do I Need Marketing Budget to Promote My Dropshipping Products?

It’s not mandatory, but it would be better if you have it.

You don’t need a large amount because you can tailor your marketing budget to how much you can and are willing to spend.

For example, you can spend as little as $1/day on Facebook for paid ads impression.

It’s good to have visibility other than from your friends and followers.

You don’t have to fork out a lot of money right away because you can plan your marketing budget and use them as and when you need to add a little extra boost to your sale.

If you can invest more, you can also use paid ads on Google Ads to promote your dropshipping products even more.

 

Can I Make Profit by Selling Dropshipping Products?

Yes, you can.

However, you need to make sure you put in the effort and time to market and promote them.

Don’t fall for it when some sellers claim they can make a six-figure income every month just from dropshipping.

While this is entirely possible, it’s not that easy to gain a six-figure income through dropshipping alone.

Look into various ways to market your products and find for ways on how you can get paid when potential customers click on your ads.

This way, not only you’re making a profit from selling your dropshipping products, but you can also get paid through promoting them.

 

Can I Sell Dropshipping Products from Any Supplier?

Yes, you can.

You can either sign up with several suppliers on their online platform and promote each shop to a different target audience.

You can also advertise them in one place e.g. your online shop.

While you can sell dropshipping products from any supplier, make sure you’re confident in the quality of their products.

You might think you’re catering to many different types of customers since you have various products under one roof.

But it can damage your reputation as a seller if most of your products are of low quality or if your customers find it difficult to communicate with you regarding their purchase issues.

 

Can Unique Dropshipping Products Make More Sale?

Yes and no.

Unique dropshipping products often have their own targeted and niche customers.

Usually, unique products are not something customers buy regularly because these items are often collectible types.

However, unique dropshipping products can, at times, fetch a good price, so even though you may not sell a lot of them, it can still bring in a big profit for you.

Decide on suitable unique dropshipping products before you decide to sell only this type of item.

 

Should I Sell Trending Dropshipping Products?

Yes, but you shouldn’t sell only trending products.

Sooner or later, trending products are going to stop trending.

If you only concentrate on selling trending products, you will find yourself exhausted after a while because you have to keep finding and identifying what are the trending products.

It’s good to have a balance of both trending and niche products in your shop.

This way, your customers will know that you offer products that make sense to them and that they can find things they regularly need from your shop.

 

Should I Sell Different Types of Dropshipping Products?

Yes, but try to sell different types of products within the same niche.

For example, you can sell many different products for household niche such as cooking tools or laptop tables or shower caddy, etc.

This way, your customers will come to know and trust you as a specific seller.

This is important because once your customers know you sell various products in a specific niche, they will most likely think of your shop when they need something.

If you were to sell everything under the sun, your customers might see you as just another wholesaler who will sell anything and everything.

So, sell different types of dropshipping products so you can expand your customer base, but make sure you stick within the niche.

 

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