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What Is Dropshipping & How Do You Get Started?
Understanding dropshipping and steps to launch your own online business
May 2, 2024
16 min read
Dropshipping is very much alive and kicking, especially this year. Many people claim that Trump is killing e-commerce, but if life has taught anyone anything, it is that trade policies change all the time.
In this article, you will see what the dropshipping market looks like in 2025. In addition, you will learn:
The information you read here will give you sufficient knowledge to compete and do the right thing. This should help you set yourself apart from cookie-cutter dropshippers who rely on “formulas” that do not work.
Every year, there will always be people preaching doom and gloom about dropshipping. Their mantra is the same. They say that dropshipping is oversaturated.
Everything in demand is saturated. You need to accept this fact now, or you will never find any business opportunity; you will always say it is saturated.
As far as the dropshipping outlook goes, the chart above from a reliable source (Statista) indicates that there is positive growth in the e-commerce industry. It is only a matter of how well you penetrate it.
The numbers above are by the billions, which means that in 2024, the projected e-commerce revenue is 6.330 trillion dollars. This revenue is expected to increase to 6.876 trillion dollars this year.
Before starting a dropshipping business, here are some things you need to consider:
This article will cover all these issues, with particular attention to the top niches you must consider dropshipping in 2025.
There is a saying: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.” The same concept applies to dropshipping.
There is no such thing as being too late to the party. The reality is that dropshipping is not a matter of saturation, but a matter of skills and business decisions. It is a competition, and you will only succeed if you have the right strategy and skills.
Year after year, there will be people who blame the system. The truth is that it is not the dropshipping system that failed them, but themselves. Dropshipping is a war of attrition, and you will win if you stay long enough to learn and execute good business plans.
Is dropshipping dead now that Trump is back in office? No, it isn’t. Too many people blame everything on politicians. Trump was elected in 2016 and raised the tariffs, which Biden continued. Dropshipping did not die. So, why should it become less profitable now just because Trump is back?
Trump raised tariffs on products that come from China. In addition, he suspended the de minimis exemption.
De minimis is a tax exemption for goods coming into the US worth less than $800. Products that do not cost $800 are free of customs duties and taxes.
He abolished the de minimis exemption for China, and this is where all the noise is coming from. However, the de minimis is still in effect for goods coming from other countries.
While Trump is also raising tariffs for Canada, Mexico, and other countries, these tax raises are not as much as for China. What Trump wants is to strengthen the support of US consumers for locally made products and prevent the massive influx of goods from China.
Here are the workarounds you can consider:
While the USA is the biggest profitable market for dropshipping, it is not the only e-commerce market. You can dropship to Japan, Germany, South Korea, the UK, and many other countries.
You can also source products that are already in the United States. Do this, and you do not have to worry about taxes, import, and customs duties. You can also source products outside of China, and this should not have a big impact on your business because Trump’s tariff raises are mainly focused on China.
The dropshipping challenges for 2025 are different from the previous years. In the past, the most common challenges were supplier reliability, product quality, shipping, and competition. With technological advances creeping in, there are some new factors in the game you should prepare for.
No one can stop artificial intelligence. Surely, some hate it, but one cannot deny that AI is now in the process of normalization.
You have to use it. If you don’t, don’t be surprised if you get left behind. Below are some ways in which you can use AI.
Here is an example of an ordinary product mock-up from a supplier:
Here is a mock-up generated with AI:
Most of your competitors will use AI in many ways they can, and you must keep up. It is high time that you begin learning how to use AI to advance your business interests.
Trump’s tariff wars will impact supplier availability. If suppliers are not willing to trade with the US because of taxes, you may find yourself groping where to find suppliers.
Many dropshippers rely on AliExpress, which surely will be impacted by Trump’s policies. The good news is that you can use a supplier like Tradelle to solve this problem.
Tradelle is both a supplier and supplier database, among other things, where you can find profitable products to sell. Since Tradelle has direct contact with manufacturers, they have leverage on pricing.
Here is an example of a product in AliExpress:
Now here is the same product, but in Tradelle:
If you work with the AliExpress supplier, you will purchase the bag for $24.10, whereas you only pay $19.18 if you get the same product from Tradelle.
That is a huge difference. If the AliExpress sellers raise their prices due to tariffs, you can expect all supplies from China to go up. However, Tradelle knows how to make special arrangements with suppliers to keep the prices reasonable.
You will have a hard time receiving support from a human being in 2025. Most companies now use AI, which means suppliers will take some time to respond to your inquiries. Most of the answers you get are canned.
This is not to say that what they are doing is wrong. The truth is you should also use chatbots in your dropshipping store, especially for basic inquiries.
There is no going around this issue. Instead, expect support to take longer than 24 hours. Knowing this, you can publish this same information to your customers, so they do not get upset if they do not get a quick response from you.
2025 is going to be a wild ride for dropshippers. While many stores may fail, yours will not if you work on these top three challenges right now.
First, learn how to use artificial intelligence. Do not hate it. Instead, use it as leverage for your business. Next, sign up for Tradelle and use it to find products and suppliers. It is free to use, and you can upgrade but only if you want to, or when you need to.
To succeed in dropshipping this year, there are three things you must focus on. Gone are the days when you could just put up an online store, slap some images and videos together, run ads, and make sales.
These are different times. The consumer climate has changed, and technology has made everything easier compared to the past. Niching down, focusing on becoming a brand, and using a tool like Tradelle are the top three focus areas you need to work on.
Most dropshippers think that the more products you sell, the more likely you make sales. It is like casting a big net. A bigger net equals more fish.
This is not always true. The opposite is better. You must niche down if you want to attract consumers. Here are the benefits of niching down:
If you have ever been to a mall, you may have probably seen stores that sell nothing but flip-flops or slippers. They do not even sell shoes. This is the best example of niching down.
The only people who will go to that store are people interested in flip-flops, not other footwear. And what happens when these people get inside the store? They buy. Why else would they go to a flip-flop store if they have no plan of buying a pair?
The same thing goes with dropshipping. If you decide to go into the pet niche, focus on one pet. Do not mix horse and dog products in one store. Just focus on dogs, and you will only attract people interested in dogs.
The next focus area is becoming a brand. You must create an entity from your brand because generic dropshipping no longer works.
Do this because:
A good example of this is YouTubers whose content revolves around fishing. There are three models they use to earn money:
These YouTubers provide valuable content where they teach people how to fish. From here, they tell the viewers to visit their shop and buy their products. Their links are in the description. In the YouTube world, this is called “merch.”
You do not have to show your face if you do not want to. What matters is that you publish content that adds value to people’s lives.
The last focus area is to use Tradelle for the following:
Here is an overview of a product page:
The button to the right will take you to the pages that have the same product. This will tell you how much these products cost from these sites.
Tradelle is not just a product-sourcing tool. They are suppliers themselves, and they provide accurate data about the products found in their system.
To help you start your road to success in 2025, below are five of the best niches for dropshipping. These selections are based on data. Specifically, the information comes from the CURRENT TRENDS section of the tool.
Parents spare no expense for their babies. Suppliers know this, and it is why there is always a new product for these little angels.
Here are the pros of selling baby products:
Here is a list of the best baby products you can sell:
The baby product in the image has a profit margin of $9.86. Its cost is only $2.99, and shipping fee is typically around $4.99. Now, only seven shops are dropshipping it, and there is a huge interest in it in Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia.
The search trend is upward, with a projected audience or target market of 63.3 million people. Checking on Amazon, a product like this has around 1,000 plus orders already, which means people are buying it. In addition, a product like this is unisex, so the baby’s gender is not an issue as far as the market goes.
Modern times require modern solutions. Machines that automate things are in high demand, and it is because life has become busier.
Here are the pros of selling smart gadgets:
Here are some products you may be interested in selling:
The trash bin above is a good example of a smart gadget. The product cost is only $19, yet you can sell it for as high as $40.
The trash bin has a high demand in the US, Canada, and Australia, with around 12 dropshippers carrying it in their stores. Checking on AliExpress, there are 4,500 orders for this product as of this time, which means it is performing better than the previous example.
You can compete against other sellers for this, especially on Amazon where this same product sells for $55. The trend is going up. Based on Tradelle’s scoring system, this product had a poor interest level score of 50 back in 2020. As of early 2025, the interest score is at 94.
Health and fitness will always be a top niche in any e-commerce business. It is also the most competitive, and it is always best if you are the first to sell a new product.
Here are the pros of selling beauty and health products:
Here are some of the best products you can sell:
The product above has a profit margin of about twice the product cost. Right now, there are only four dropshippers that sell this product, and yet it already has 750 orders in AliExpress. The product trend is going up, and it has a projected audience size of 306 million.
Home décor and kitchen gadgets are competitive spaces. The trick here is to sell products that complement each other. For example, instead of just selling food covers, why not sell food containers, too?
Here are the pros of selling home and kitchen items:
Here are some of the best products you can offer:
The product above, the lid, has a market or audience size of one billion people. Although you cannot reach all of them, getting your product to a small percentage of these people is enough to make a huge revenue.
The lid has a profit of around $5 per piece. There are only five dropshipping stores that sell it and about 250 orders in AliExpress. It is a new product that was introduced only recently.
Like the first product, this one has a high interest level in the UK, the USA, Canada, and Australia. The trend is also picking up, with an all-time interest score of 98 in March 2025.
Pet products took a turn with technology. Now, you do not need to sell simple feeding bowls because you can sell automated ones. You will make a big profit in the pet niche if you bake technology into it.
Here are the pros of selling pet products:
Here are some good products you can sell:
The product in the image above is an example of incorporating tech with pet items. It is a simple robot that dispenses treats. It is not just useful but also fun.
Right now, there are only four dropshippers you will be competing against. The product has over 200 sales in AliExpress despite being newly launched. Based on Tradelle’s data, there is a huge interest in this product in Australia, Canada, and the US.
One challenge about pet products is their seasonality. The demand for these products typically peaks between December and February during the holiday season only.
The future of dropshipping is bright. Despite what doomsayers say, dropshipping will be here to stay. For as long as there are manufacturers, there will be dropshippers.
Yes, e-commerce is a business worth pursuing in 2025. An abundance of tools is now available to you, unlike five or ten years ago when everything was too manual.
The best product to dropship is one in a niche you understand. Use Tradelle as a product selector as it tells you things like demand, competition, and profitability.
Dropshipping is highly profitable in 2025, but only if you keep up with the changing times. The old approach of slapping ads together is no longer as feasible as it used to be.
To succeed in dropshipping this year, use a tool like Tradelle to determine what products have a demand with low competition. Next, focus your marketing efforts on becoming a reliable influencer or creator, not on advertising to random people on social media.
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