Is Dropshipping Really Dead?

Here's the answer to the question you see plastered all over the place if you're interested in ecommerce: "is dropshipping dead?". Everyone from newbies to "experts" asks this question, so of course the frequency at which it's asked would raise some concern. However, It is in fact not dead, so calm down. If you want to make it in this business, don’t let questions and doubt like this scare you off. You’ll be getting a lot of this. It’s just ignorant to think that this widely used business model is going to fizzle out, and I’m going to tell you why. First of all, dropshipping is only one step away from the business model of many huge companies that you see making tons of money every day. Lots of well known companies get a manufacturer to make their product, have it shipped to their warehouse, and then ship it out to retail stores or direct to customer. Dropshipping does this, just without actually having the item shipped to you first. You cut out the middle man of yourself. Now, there are many benefits to having the item shipped to you, but that’s a topic for a future article. With such a basic model, there’s no logical way it can die out. Next is a concern that a lot of people have, and it’s that a lot of people will catch on to what dropshipping and AliExpress are, and they’re not wrong in thinking this. However, the amount of people that know about this strategy are largely outnumbered by the basic, unaware consumer. People don’t care enough to be made aware of how they are being sold their products. Next, and this is a big one, gurus will tell you it’s dead in order to instill fear into you, thus making you buy their course to see how to succeed with ecommerce instead. I’m not knocking these guys, props to them for running a business, but it’s sensationalism that can be seen through with just a bit of research. Finally, if anything, it’ll keep growing. Why wouldn’t it? It’s a very hands-off and passive income source. People will be naturally drawn to it, and the increased attention will thus lead to further advances. You see this in any industry.

Now, don’t worry. Death is still happening, and this is in regards to a certain subsection of dropshipping. That is, lazy dropshipping: making a very basic general store, not standing out from the crowd in any way, and expecting sales to start rolling in. So many stores of this nature exist that you need to do something different to stand out and create conversations. Markets are always changing, and so are people’s interests. You need to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and test many different things to see what people in your target niche best respond to. I’ve had my store running for a year and I’m still making changes all the time. Now, a lot of people will look at this and then think “Oh, there goes my idea for a store. That niche has got to be taken over”. Don’t think like that. If you tackle a niche with a very professional store, you’re instantly above 95% of other stores in that niche. Then, it’s all on you to run your advertisements correctly, which, once again, people don’t know how to do. I did this exact thing in a very saturated niche, and it worked well for me.

If you found this article, you’re probably interested in dropshipping or already have a store. If it’s not working for you, there are many possible reasons why. However, here's a few that I've seen in many different stores over the past year. First, you’re not willing to get wild enough. I’ve seen countless stores that just copy a YouTube tutorial with “proven hot selling products” and they’re just awful. No creative direction has been taken and they’re expecting to sell with a store that’s been duplicated 358 times over. Not going to happen. Alternatively, you may have taken some creative direction and done things differently, but your store still looks horrible. There’s an entire science behind website design, and my best advice I can offer is go look at other popular websites, preferably in your niche, and see what they’re doing. How are their product pictures, how are their descriptions, how are they better? When you dropship, you’re competing with many other people to sell the same product. Why would people want to buy it off of you instead of the 8 other stores they found selling it? Also, and this bothers me, you don’t do research. You throw up a store and then quit when you don’t make sales. I lost $200 before my first sale, and this is because I kept testing different strategies before finding one that worked, and then worked up from that point. The internet is an incredible place. Use it to gain immeasurable amounts of knowledge about selling products online.

Finally, how do I see the future? Easy. Not only will the number of dropshipping sites increase, but so will the quality of dropshipping sites. People will see the great success of dropshipping and hop on board, but quality will always be steadily increasing to compete with each other. Dropshipping will also undergo some changes, mostly in the sense of quality. People will actually order a lot of their products to test for quality, take better pictures, and even ship from their own home (that's a whole article in itself). Additionally, they’ll get in contact with suppliers and customize products to diversify what is being sold, which is a fantastic move that is, once again, for a future article. And probably the biggest reason why dropshipping isn’t going to die.. Retail has already died. More and more people are turning to the internet every day for their shopping needs, and we’re here to scratch that itch. People are able to be increasingly lazy when it comes to making purchases, which means more people are going to turn to this accessible business model to bring them the products that they want.