How much money can you make dropshipping products that you don’t own?
This is a common question that is important to ask before starting your dropshipping business in order to aware of what to expect and to know if this model can bring you the results you desire or not, before you invest your time and money into this venture.
And although dropshipping is still profitable, and many people make money with it, but the answer to how much money dropshippers can make is different from one person to another depending on many factors that I will explain below in this guide.
Without further ado, let’s jump in!
Table of Contents
How Much Money Can You Make Dropshipping?
You can make anywhere from hundreds of dollars, into tens of thousands of dollars in profit per month with dropshipping, if you put in the time, money and effort that are necessary to learn and build a dropshipping business the right way, and stick enough building and optimizing your dropshipping business until it becomes profitable and you scale it up.
Or, you could make nothing or even lose money if you start with dropshipping thinking that it’s a push button that makes you money on autopilot, and you don’t give it what it takes to build and run an online business based on the dropshipping model.
As a start, if you put in 2-3 hours a day to learn and start your dropshipping business, you could be making around $1,000-$2,000 a month in profit withing the end of the first year, especially if you build it on a platform that you own with your own domain name.
Some more serious dropshippers even make $5,000-$10,000 per month in profit per month by the end of year one, but these put in more time to do the work, invest in more tools to optimize their stores and increase the conversion rate, average order value, and lifetime value of the customers.
And of course, to scale to this level, you need to build your dropshipping store on a domain that you own using a platform like Shopify or WordPress, and not on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay where it is difficult to sell more to the same customer and to build a long term business.
How Much Can You Make Dropshipping on Shopify?
It is realistic to make $2,000-$3,000 a month in profit dropshipping on Shopify within the first year if you learn the necessary skills, build a brandable store, use paid advertising or search engine optimization to get traffic to it, and optimize it for conversions and increase the average cart value.
And you can earn even more than that with Shopify dropshipping if you start giving your business more time to add more products, increase the targeted traffic to your store, do retargetting ads, remarket to existing customers through paid ads and email campaigns to sell them more products, and if you learn more advanced traffic methods.
Also, small investments in useful tools like a reliable and high-converting Shopify theme and tools that help increase the revenue of your store could help you significantly increase the amount of money you can make dropshipping on Shopify.
The top 1% of Shopify dropshippers make tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands per month, like it is with Inspire Uplift and OddityMall that sell a lot of products through dropshipping on Shopify.
Or like BlendJet that makes millions dropshipping one main product, a portable blender.
However, to reach such an income dropshipping on Shopify, these stores were built over the years when their owners kept on optimizing them, improving their marketing and sales processes, and took good care of their customers.
This is the nice thing about Shopify and why it is the best place to do dropshipping if you want to make a lot of money with this model.
You can optimize your store to increase conversion and revenue, and you can use many useful tools to increase your profit from each existing customers, unlike it is with dropshipping on marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
How Much Can You Make Dropshipping on WordPress?
You can make anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per month in profit dropshipping on WordPress using a store that is associated with your own domain name, but you need to build a brandable and trustworthy dropshipping store, get a reliable hosting plan that is capable of hosting an ecom store, and give your business the time and effort it needs in order to reach this level of income.
You might need anywhere from 6-12 months working 2-3 hours a day in order to make $1,000-$2,000 per month in profit dropshipping with WordPress, and another 6-12 months to reach the level of $5,000 or more in monthly income.
But this means that you keep learning more skills to optimize your WP dropshipping store and learn how to get more targeted traffic, following up with your existing customers through retargeting ads and email campaigns, and provide excellent customer support.
WordPress is the next best place after Shopify to do dropshipping to earn good income on the long run as you build your business on your own domain name, and you acquire your customers’ email addresses for later promotions for cheap, which increases your profit.
But the downfall is that WordPress was initially created to host websites for small businesses or bloggers, and you need some tools in order to convert it into a dropshipping store, and you need an expensive hosting plan that is capable of receiving thousands of visitors per day to your store.
While Shopify was originally created for hosting ecom stores and it is reliable and fast, which makes it much easier to deal with and cheaper if you want to build a profitable dropshipping store with it.
How Much Can You Make Dropshipping on Etsy?
You could make anywhere from a few hundred dollars in to a couple of thousand dollars per month dropshipping on Etsy, but it is a bit harder to scale your dropshipping “business” on Etsy compared to dropshipping on Shopify or WordPress.
There are many reasons that limit the potential income of dropshipping on Etsy, such as:
- It’s a marketplace that sells products from many other merchants, which makes it easy for a potential customer to get distracted from your products and buy from others.
- You cannot do a lot of conversion optimization on Etsy through upselling and group discounts, which makes it difficult to make a lot dropshipping on Etsy.
- You cannot do retargeting to those who didn’t buy after visiting your products, neither you can remarketing to those who already bought from you as you can’t install a Facebook or Google remarketing pixel on Etsy.
- You don’t acquire your customers as you don’t get their email addresses, which means that you can’t invite them to buy from you again in the future.
This all means that the way to make more money with Etsy dropshipping is by adding a lot of products that people search to buy on Etsy, and optimize your listings for specific keywords that shoppers use.
However, what makes Etsy still a better option for making money with dropshipping compared to other marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, is the fact that most shoppers on Etsy are looking to buy unique and quality products, either for themselves or as gifts to others.
This makes Etsy a good place to make money dropshipping quality and unique products or print on demand products with good margins.
How Much Can You Make Dropshipping on Amazon?
It is really hard to make more than few hundreds to a couple of thousands per month dropshipping on Amazon as it is a very competitive marketplace where lots of sellers sell the exact same product with the exact same images.
And lots of people go to Amazon to look for the cheapest option, especially when it is the exact same product that is sold through many other merchants.
This will mean that you cannot increase your margins in order to make a healthy profit, and you will always be subject to war prices.
Also, like it is with Etsy, Amazon is full of distractions that will take your potential customers away from your products to other sellers’ products, and you have no control over increasing the order value and it is difficult to sell previous customers as you don’t get the email addresses of those who purchased from you on Amazon.
Honestly, I don’t recommend dropshipping on Amazon unless it was your only option.
How Much Can You Make Dropshipping on eBay?
Like it is with Amazon, dropshipping on eBay has a very limited potential of income as it is full of distractions by products of other eBay sellers, and it is a place where people are used to look for cheap options when the product is sold by different merchants.
Also, with eBay, you don’t get the emails of customers who buy your products, and you cannot do a lot to increase the order value when someone is buying from you.
And the fact that eBay gets much less traffic than Amazon, this makes it even more difficult to make a couple of thousands of dollars per month in income dropshipping on eBay.
The only way to make good money dropshipping on eBay and Amazon is to add as many products as you can, and to be the first seller to add these products before other competitors add them to their stores and lower their prices to acquire the customers that are looking for the lowest price.
5 Factors That Determine Your Dropshipping Earnings
There are many factors that affect how much money you can make with dropshipping, but here are the main five factors:
Overall Business & Marketing Strategy
How much you could make with dropshipping differs depending on how you build your dropshipping business and how you advertise it.
If you want to make the most out of a dropshipping business, then you need to think long-term, and build a brandable dropshipping store that shows trust, in order to increase your revenue on the short run and on the long run.
Also, you need to determine whether you want to sell a lot of items, or to focus on one item and ask the manufacturer to improve on the current version in order to sell it under your brand’s name, like BlendJet did with the portable blender that all other dropshippers can sell, where they created a better version and added their branding to it in order to differentiate themselves.
But you can still make a lot of money with a general dropshipping store like Inspire Uplift that sells general products that are useful to a large group of people.
But they are successful because they source quality products, provide clear details on product and shipping in advance, and provide the best customer support for long-term success.
Also, the way how you advertise your dropshipping products affects your potential income.
Facebook ads are good for finding potential customers based on their interest, but this might not be always the way to go as some products are better advertised with search ads or with organic search traffic.
And in many cases, you can use both paid and free traffic methods to get visitors to your Shopify store.
Conversion Rates & Customer LTV
Having a brandable and trustworthy dropshipping store can significantly increase your conversion rates, which means that you get more sales from the same number of targeted visitors, which increases how much you can make with dropshipping.
And there are many other was to increase the conversion rates such as the way you write the product description and CTA’s, pricing, …etc.
Also, you can increase your dropshipping income using ways to increase the average order value through quantity discounts and group upsells, offering free shipping after reaching a certain cart value, …etc.
And you can also increase the lifetime value of a customer by following up through email and remarketing ads to encourage previous customers to buy more products from you.
Platform
A very crucial factor that affects your potential income with dropshipping.
Building a dropshipping business on a domain name that you own using a platform like Shopify or WordPress makes it easier for you to convert visitors into buyers as your store’s visitors see only your products, and don’t get distracted with others’ products like it is with Amazon and Etsy.
Also, when dropshipping on Shopify and WordPress you can use different ways to increase the average order value through offer upsells and quantity breaks, and you can use email marketing as you get your customers’ emails when they buy from you.
And it is possible to scale your dropshipping business with different paid and free traffic methods as you can get back the cost of advertising through high margins and long-term revenue.
While when dropshipping on marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy, it is hard to increase the average order value as you have no control over upsells that are offered to your customers, and you cannot contact previous buyers through email as you don’t get their contact details.
Also, marketplaces like Amazon and eBay makes it difficult to get good margins with dropshipping as they are a lot of other dropshippers there, and most shoppers are looking for the cheapest seller when the product you sell is the same as every other merchant sells.
That’s why I recommend going with Shopify if you want to make a lot of money with dropshipping, as it allows you to build a brandable store that shows trust, and it allows you to use different tools to increase the conversion rate and the customer LTV for long term success and bigger profits.
Niche
The number and the spending ability of your target customers, along with the availability of products to sell to them, all affect how much you can make with dropshipping.
Trying to dropship products to people who are passionate about fireflies or sea turtles makes it a bit hard to come up with many product ideas to sell them, other than accessories and print on demand products with relevant designs.
While when your audience are cross fitters, home-owners, new moms, nurses, engineers, yoga practitioners, …etc., you have a wide range of items that can be sold to them through dropshipping, whether items that they need in order solve a certain problem or to get a certain result, or items that make them feel proud about themselves like hoodies and phone covers with a certain design that talks about them.
Also, the demographics of your target audience might affect your dropshipping income potential, as it is hard to sell online to people who are 65+ years old who don’t spend a lot of time online, and the same goes when targeting people who don’t have a lot of disposable income to spend in the first place.
Consistency
Many people come to the dropshipping world as a fast way to get rich, and they give up too soon as they discover that this is not the case.
If you want to make any money with dropshipping, let alone a full income, then you need to treat it as a business and give it the necessary time to learn, build, test, and optimize the different aspects of your business.
This requires consistency in taking real action by putting a certain number of hours on daily basis into building your dropshipping store, driving targeted visitors who would benefit from the products you sell, optimizing product pages and the store for conversions, and working on increasing the long term success by providing great customer support and following up with existing customers to increase their lifetime value.
Conclusion – Make Lots of Money with Dropshipping by Not Being The Cheapest
Dropshipping can make you a rich millionaire, but only if you treat at as a business that serves your customers, and give it the necessary time to learn the required skills, build a trustworthy store, find good products, optimize your store, drive targeted visitors to it, and follow up with existing customers for long term success.
How much money you can make with dropshipping depends on different factors, including the main five factors I explained above.
If you are serious about creating a full-time income with dropshipping, then you better give it the necessary time and effort, build a brandable store on a reliable and beginner-friendly platform like Shopify, sell only good products, drive targeted traffic, and provide the best customer support.
I have created a step-by-step guide for selling without inventory on Shopify through dropshipping, which can help you start your store today.
And if you want step-by-step video tutorials, then Ecom Elites by Franklin is the best Shopify dropshipping course that is sold at a very low price, especially when most of the videos on YouTube are outdated and might make you waste time and money without any results.
I hope that my article helped you to know what to expect when considering how much you can make with dropshipping.
If you still have any other question or need any help, please, tell me in the comments’ section below, and I will do my best to help you out 🙂