How to Select a Dropship Product
Becoming an ecommerce entrepreneur is looking better than ever! As many Chip sellers already have discovered, dropship is a highly profitable business model. Dropshipping allows sellers to source products ranging from apparel and everyday items all the way to kids’ toys and pet-friendly products.
The key to creating a successful dropship listing is selecting the right product from a reliable supplier that’s also trending or in demand. There are also several factors you should consider to become a successful dropship seller.
Learn more about Chip’s newest tool in our Introducing Dropship blog post.
AliExpress suppliers
AliExpress is a China-based ecommerce platform that offers a variety of low-cost products from different suppliers ideal for dropship. In addition, sellers can choose a tailored product mix to add to their ecommerce store.
When a customer places an order, the selected AliExpress supplier will automatically get the order and ship it directly to your customer, allowing you to keep the profit of the transaction.
With AliExpress, dropship sellers have plenty of options when choosing their suppliers as long as they offer the option to ship to the U.S. You can also go with different product quality ranges or pick between suppliers with faster shipping times. Check out AliExpress’ product selection!
Also, check out our blog post on How to Create a Dropship Listing to learn about everything you need to get your dropship business going on Chip.
AliExpress product categories
AliExpress is home to over 100 million products ranging from apparel, beauty, and appliances to sports equipment, consumer electronics, and pet products. Your dropship store’s possibilities are endless!
Browse through AliExpress’s product categories to discover hidden gems your customers will immediately want to buy.
- Women’s & men’s fashion: Find various clothing and accessories fit for almost any dress style - tops, bottoms, outerwear, underwear, and even swimwear. You can create a dropship store focused on online fashion.
- Bags & shoes: Fast fashion is called fast for a reason. Get inspired by current and upcoming fashion trends to sell the most stylish bags, trendy luggage sets, and the best footwear on the online market.
- Beauty, health, & hair: Discover a wide variety of hair weaves, lace wigs, hair extensions, and more. Stay up to date on the newest beauty trends on social media and add cool skincare devices, make-up, and oral hygiene accessories to your store.
- Phones & telecommunications: Get the best deals on smartphones, walkie-talkies, and trending accessories. Source low-priced phone cases, wireless chargers, screen protectors, and more. Find smartphone accessories for almost every new model in the market!
- Computer & office: Home offices are getting cool upgrades in the following months. Many are choosing to work from home permanently, making now an excellent opportunity to add products like laptops, printers, scanners, and memory cards to your branded dropship store!
- Consumer electronics: This generation is technology-obsessed. Offer your geek target niche video game sets and accessories, TVs, smartwatches, and wearable devices. Finding the next big product hit can make you big cash if you act fast.
- Home, pets, & appliances: Source everything a customer needs to redecorate their home and living spaces. Get the best household items to upgrade your customers’ life experiences. Also, find cool pet products furry family members will love!
- Toys, kids & babies: Parents of young kids and babies are a profitable niche you may want to consider. Build a store with trending baby products and viral toys to keep your customers coming back, plus throw in baby clothes and pregnancy and maternity accessories for good measure.
- Outdoor fun & sports: Make your dropship store your customers go-to for everything water sports-related, cycling and fishing accessories, and a variety of gear for almost any type of sports.
- Home improvement & tools: Add to your store innovative power and gardening tools, led strips and downlights, paint tools, and more. Offer the perfect mix of tools and lighting accessories so your customers can find everything they need, and you can also upsell them.
How to identify winning products
- Set your price range: When pricing your products, think about shipping rates, supplier pricing, and other business costs. Then, make sure that after calculating your expenses, you’re still getting a decent profit percentage. Anything above a 20% margin is considered profitable, but on some products, sellers can easily get away with a 3x markup.
- Consider your level of expertise: If you’re already familiar with specific product categories, take advantage of your previous experience and amplify your product selection within that category. At the same time, start experimenting with new products and take notes on what’s working and what’s not.
- Go for trending products: Jumping on product trends is a big YES! Take advantage of low marketing fees and high-profit potential to establish your brand as that category leader. Use resources like Google Trends, Kickstarter.com, Wish.com to find current trends.
How to determine if there’s a market for your product
Before adding a new product to your dropship selection, do your due diligence and bulletproof your marketing strategy. Discover if data supports a potential market for your product and visualize how you will promote it on marketing platforms like social media.
- Pick a niche: Target a particular audience and think about people with similar interests, such as cat owners or ballet dancers. You can also select seasonal products for big shopping holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, or Mother’s Day.
- Research your competitors: Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! Find out everything you can about how your competitors are doing. How extensive is their product selection? Are they offering discounts? Are they running social media campaigns? How long do they take to ship their products?
- Engage on social media: Give your ecommerce store as much exposure as you can! Advertise on social media, prepare a solid organic content strategy, and share your product selection on platforms like Pinterest, Etsy, Facebook, and among popular online communities.
Learn more about Chip Dropship
Create a Dropship listing
Go to Dashboard