General
What Is Dropshipping & How Do You Get Started?
Understanding dropshipping and steps to launch your own online business
May 2, 2024
16 min read
In this article, I will present a list of the top niches to explore in dropshipping. These are niches that have strong product demand all year round.
You will learn:
I will also throw in a bonus section where I will show you how to use a tool to determine if your chosen product is a winner or a loser using hard data. Ready? Let us begin!
Health supplements are one of the most in-demand products you can dropship. Starting an ecommerce store to sell health supplements can provide numerous benefits, including reaching a wider audience and increasing sales. However, the source country must be the same as the destination country, or you may face some issues with customs because not all countries allow products of the medicinal sort to get in their borders.
Here are some food supplements that are in high demand:
Products like these are typically white-labeled. You will have a better chance of success if you work with food supplement suppliers who can print and use your brand labels instead of generic ones. This way, you can position your products as something unique that people will never find anywhere but your store.
Thanks to Instagrammers and TikTokers, there is renewed vigor in the health industry, particularly in building a good body. As you can see from the chart above, there is a consistent trend in searches for “gym.”
Here are some products you can sell:
I do not recommend selling bulky home gym equipment as these are too expensive with ridiculous shipping prices. My recommendation is to stick to small items that people can easily store underneath the bed.
In addition, it is wiser to sell dumbbells that the user can disassemble and turn into a barbell—it is easier to market than typical dumbbells.
There is no part of human history where beauty products were never in demand. Sure, there were rallies against how these products are made in the lab (animal abuse), but many manufacturers have long stopped the abuse of animals to test their products.
Here are some of the best beauty products to sell:
The beauty niche is an excellent choice because these are consumer goods. People who buy a lipstick will buy another one after a few months. Additionally, selling niche products like unique, handmade, or one-of-a-kind beauty items can attract passionate customers looking for something special. Offering both commoditized and niche products can increase profit margins and serve a wider range of customers. Because of this, you are likely to get repeat customers and it is how you can grow your dropshipping business. After all, it is easier to make a sale from a repeat customer than to acquire a new buyer.
Kitchen appliances refer to small ones like potato slicers, french fries makers, and the like. Do not drophip appliances like air fryers or broilers, because customers would naturally expect a warranty for them. The sad reality is that as a drop shipper, there is no way you can offer a warranty.
Here are some of the best kitchen products you can dropship:
The kitchen niche is a highly competitive one. What I can say is that you are more likely to get customers if you create videos demonstrating the usefulness of your product. Do not settle with mere photos. The good news is that this is easy to do—most kitchen products are affordable, and you will not lose a lot of money ordering them from your video and marketing production.
Pet owners are not often repeat buyers. After all, a pet owner will only need to buy a food bowl once. This, however, does not mean that there is no market for it. To reach potential customers in the pet supplies niche, consider strategies such as targeted marketing and branding to better understand and attract your target audience.
Here are some products I would recommend:
My suggestion is to concentrate on one pet sub-niche. For example, target dogs only, or cats only, but not both. What you want is to become the “name” or brand for that niche, not a hack-of-all-trades.
About 300 babies are born every minute, which means you have a new market of at least three hundred parents every minute. The convenience of online shopping for baby products makes it easier for these new parents to find everything they need without leaving their homes. The trick to succeeding in this niche is to become the go-to store for baby products—specialize your store to baby needs only so the parent does not have to go shop somewhere else for other baby items. Online stores make it easier for new parents to find everything they need without leaving their homes.
Here are the best baby products to dropship:
It would help if you create bundles, as this forces the parent to buy more than just one product or unit from you. For example, you can sell a set of five onesies at a lower price, giving the parents massive discounts. Do this, and you will increase your AOV (average order value).
Home decor is not a popular search term on Google, as visible on Google Trends, but if you use specific keywords, you will observe that there is a demand for products in this niche. Having an online store to sell home decor items can help you reach a wider audience and capitalize on this demand. Additionally, having your own online store allows you to create a strong brand message and build a community around your products, rather than relying solely on external marketplaces.
Here are some examples:
Home decor is an excellent niche because it has a low refund rate. The key here is transparency. Do not use words in your product title if your product cannot back it up. For example, do not say “cashmere wool” carpet if your product isn’t cashmere, or people will perceive you as a fraud.
Drones have pretty much become part of our lives. From YouTubers to professional photographers, you will not run out of customers for drones.
The thing is that you need to target a specific market here. If you sell toy drones, do not sell aerial photography drones. It is better this way because you can position yourself as a provider of drones to a specific type of user only.
Here are some other things you can sell:
Your marketing will not work if you only use photos. Make sure you find suppliers who have videos demonstrating how their drones work.
The term ‘phone electronics’ includes phone accessories. Examples of these are:
The phone accessory niche is a crowded one. The growth and potential of online sales for phone electronics are significant, with e-commerce platforms providing a vast market for these products. It is crucial to calculate shipping costs and choose the right shipping carrier for phone accessories to ensure competitive pricing and customer satisfaction. Many suppliers on AliExpress offer phone cases for as low as $2. Because of this, you will compete against so many dropshippers.
What I recommend is you take the print-on-demand route to dropshipping phone accessories. This way, you are in control of the print or design of a product. Any customer who sees what you sell will soon realize that he cannot find this anywhere but your store.
To do this, you would have to create your graphic art. You can either use AI to do this or pay designers from freelance sites. The other option is to subscribe to graphic arts sources like Creative Fabrica and get an unlimited number of digital artworks for commercial use.
However, as with any other niche, there are unique products that you can sell without the need for extensive customizations. This phone accessory, for example, is a classic illustration of a product that has a “wow-factor”:
There is a demand for car accessories, albeit it is much more difficult to dropship them than other products because cars have different standards. For example, a floor mat for one car model will certainly not fit another car of another make and model.
Here are some of the best car accessories to sell:
Avoid selling car accessories for specific make and models. Instead, find and sell car accessories that anyone can use. This approach expands your market and therefore makes it easier to find buyers.
It is up to you to choose which sub-niche you want to penetrate. As you can see from the chart above, the search trend for sneakers has been consistent over the last five years.
Sneakers and rubber shoes come in all sorts of designs. Here are some of the most in-demand:
The market is also huge, so you may want to narrow your focus or specialization. For example, you can target fashion sneakers for casual wear for both men and women. One thing I will not recommend that you do is try to sell all types of sneakers all at once as it can overwhelm you.
Like sneakers and rubber shoes, there is a huge market for leather shoes. It is best to target men for this niche, as it is often men who need leather shoes for work or school.
There are many types of leather, such as:
On top of this, there are other subtypes of leather like cow, reptile, goat, ostrich, and others. If you sell fake or synthetic leather, never sell authentic leather in the same store. You need to choose either authentic or synthetic so as not to confuse customers.
The biggest dip in the demand for luggage happened during the pandemic. As you can see, the interest rate now is the same as what it was in the past.
Here are some of the items you can sell:
The travel industry is now back to normal. In addition, travel is a versatile niche that you do not even have to focus on air travel only. The one thing that all travelers need is luggage, so I recommend that you focus on selling luggage.
The one challenge I see in this niche is the sample. Luggage is expensive and it is not financially practical to buy samples from your suppliers. In this regard, I recommend that you read reviews—a lot. Take the time to investigate.
Or, you can buy a product from a supplier, and if you are happy, sell products from that supplier only. Once you have enough money, you can buy samples again from other suppliers and add their products to your store.
The clothing niche is a tricky one, but it is a high-demand dropshipping product. In addition, there are a lot of sub-niches that you can choose from.
Here are some examples:
To succeed, focus on one niche only, and do not mix up all these other niches. For example, do not sell cosplay and women’s office wear—just choose one and build around it.
Another way to approach this is to approach a group of people. For example, sell printed shorts that support a political movement, or goth, rock and roll, etc. Do this because it would be easier for you to find your target market.
The last niche that I recommend is jewelry, with a specific focus on print-on-demand jewelry. Here are some examples:
I do not recommend that you sell real gold or real gems. It takes only one missing item in the mail to set you back big time. Concentrate on faux jewelry made of brass or stainless steel. It is fine to sell jewelry with gold plating, but not pure ones as it is too risky to ship these items.
The two characteristics of a winning niche are consistent demand and reliable suppliers. Identifying trending, popular, and profitable products is crucial to ensure that your niche meets these criteria. If any of these two missing ingredients are missing, you will have a hard time succeeding in dropshipping.
Consistent demand means there will always be people needing or wanting what you sell. These are not seasonal products. I am not saying that you should not sell seasonal products—you should, but only as a supplement to what you already sell regularly.
One tool you can use to find demand consistency is Google Trends. Staying updated on market trends and identifying trending products can help ensure consistent demand. What you want to see is a consistent score of at least 50 for the last five years.
Take a look at this:
The only big dip we see happened at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. As you can see, there has been a consistent search trend for rubber shoes in the last five years, which tells us that there are always people looking for them all the time.
Once you order from a supplier, you are now at the mercy of that company. The way they perform is out of your control. Sadly, you will bear the brunt of their shortcomings.
Here are some of the most important things to look for:
There are many winning niches if you only look at the numbers. However, you still must validate if the suppliers of your chosen products are reliable enough to work with.
The key here is to be diligent enough to read reviews and assess them—some reviews are fake, so you need to listen to what your guts say sometimes. If it is too good to be true, or if there is a shred of doubt that a supplier is unreliable, move on and find a better one.
The niches you must avoid are those that have questionable legality and morality. Some countries do not permit entry of these products, and many social media and advertising networks also do not allow ads of these products on their platforms.
If you dropship in these niches, you will have a hard time finding customers because you cannot advertise on traditional platforms. Worst, these items may get confiscated at customs borders. I cannot provide an exhaustive list, as legal standards vary from one country to another.
However, below are general niches you must avoid:
You can dropship these items, but your road to success will be a hard one. If you are confident enough that you understand the legal expectations for these things, then go ahead and dropship them. However, know that you will have a hard time advertising your products anywhere.
Tradelle is a dropship supplier tool that shows you the market strength of a product. You can get a lot of insights as to whether or not your product choice is marketable. Tradelle can help you start selling online by providing essential data on product viability and market trends.
Once you have an account with Tradelle, you will see the dashboard above. All you need to do is type a product in the search box. Choose one from the results, click it, and this is what you will see:
The top portion shows the images and profitability of the product. You should be able to assess if this product is worth selling based on the potential profit per sale. You can also click the links below the price points to find ads on Facebook, and product details on Amazon.
Next, scroll down and you will see this:
Now, we have visibility on the market strength of this product on an annual basis. The cost to ship is also available. In this example, we know that the cost to ship to Germany is $4.99. You have the option to change the country by clicking on the drop-down.
The Saturation indicator is a measurement of how competitive the market is. As you can see, there are only four stores (Tracked by Tradelle) selling this exact item. As such, we can say that this is not a heavily saturated product to dropship.
The regional interest is also visible to you. We can say that this product has a huge demand in Australia, the USA, and Canada.
Scrolling further, we can see this:
This area is your guide to advertising the product. From here, you can view the potential audience size based on interest, gender and age demographics, and the monthly revenue of other sellers selling it.
The numbers at the bottom right provides you with actionable information as to the product’s market performance. There are 500 orders from AliExpress suppliers, and the average selling price on Amazon is $9.99. As we know by now, the capital cost is only $2.86, so it leaves us a lot of room to compete (sell it for lower than $9.99).
Finally, at the bottom, you will see this:
These are reviews that the Tradelle AI scraped from Amazon listings of the same item. You will also find Instagram influencers who can help you market the product because their content is related to this niche or product type.
Dropshipping is an excellent business, but only if you target the right market. The potential for success in duing online business is significant, especially when offering products like white-label items and probelm-solving products.
One common mistake I see all the time is that dropshippers choose a niche that they love—but the niche has not enough market size, so they fail.
I recommend that you pick a niche from this list, but only if that niche is something you are passionate about. In addition, pick a niche that you understand—this way, you won’t have issues or difficulties marketing your products.
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