15 Dropshipping Tips for a Successful Business (2025)

Dropshipping is an attractive business model for aspiring entrepreneurs because of its low barrier to entry, minimal upfront costs, and the freedom to run your business from anywhere.

The global dropshipping market is expected to grow by 22.8% each year between now and 2030. But the accessibility of dropshipping makes it a hyper-competitive space. To give your dropshipping business the best chance of success, do as much upfront research as possible and take advantage of these 15 dropshipping tips.

1. Research the market

To succeed in ecommerce, you need to understand your target market. Without good research, you might pick products nobody wants or face too many competitors.

Choosing products on a whim or chasing every new trend can be expensive. In the first year, Kamil Sattar, known as The Ecom King, tried to sell too many products and run too many ads, losing a few thousand dollars, he recalls in a recent Shopify Masters episode. He almost quit, but turned things around by focusing on data-driven research.

Here’s how to research your market:

Find what’s popular

Make sure people actually want what you plan to sell. Use Google Trends to gauge interest in broad categories or check social media to see what’s getting attention. For example, you might notice viral videos of people using portable blenders on TikTok, with hashtags like #portableblender getting millions of views. If interest in a product is growing, that’s a good sign.

Pay attention to seasonal products. Some items sell year-round, while others (like Halloween decorations) sell well only during certain seasons. Launching when demand is high can boost your early sales.

Investigate other sellers

Study your competitors. See how they present their products, what they change, and what discounts they offer. Review competitor websites, customer reviews, and advertising strategies.

During your competitive analysis, you might find there are already a ton of successful stores selling what you want to sell, in which case, you’ll need something special to stand out. But if there’s market demand with little competition, you may have found a great opportunity.

Know your customers

When you know your target audience, you can make better choices about product selection and marketing. Create a picture of your ideal customer. Consider their age, lifestyle, income, and shopping habits.

Ask yourself:

What problems do they have that your products can solve?
Where do they spend time online?
How much are they willing to pay?

Good market research helps you build a successful dropshipping store, but remember that it doesn’t stop once you start selling. Markets change and so do customer preferences. Keep tabs on new products from suppliers and shifting customer preferences to stay ahead of the competition.

2. Select a profitable niche

Instead of trying to sell everything to everyone, focus on one market with steady demand.

Here’s how to find your perfect niche:

Consider your interests

List out the products you care about. If you love hiking, check Google Trends to see if searches for “lightweight hiking gear” are growing. Look at Reddit hiking forums to see what products people are asking about. Kamil believes a niche store is a better long-term play—especially if it aligns with your passions.

But instead of running with your first idea, consider:

Specific customer groups. Maybe there’s an opportunity to sell products for new parents or tools for home bakers.
Price levels. Will you offer budget-friendly options or luxury versions?
Product categories. Look at the intersection of different categories, like sustainable kitchenware or smartphone accessories.

For example, if you want to sell pet products, consider more specific niches like eco-friendly dog toys, cat furniture for urban dwellers, or stylish pet travel gear.

💡 Tip: Before fully launching your store, run a $50 Facebook ad campaign to see which products get the most engagement. This could indicate you’re onto a profitable niche.

3. Use high-quality product images

Great product photography is essential for online sales. Customers can’t touch or try your products before buying, so your images should show exactly what they’ll receive.

Some dropshipping suppliers will give you images to use, but proceed with caution. They may not be the cleanest nor the most enticing images compared to what you can take on a smartphone.

Take pictures from multiple angles so customers can see the whole product. Say you’re selling a backpack; include photos of the front, back, sides, inside compartments, and close-ups of zippers and straps. Make sure all your product photos have similar lighting and backgrounds.

Add videos whenever possible. If you sell a desk lamp with adjustable angles, a short video showing how it bends and rotates helps customers visualize using it on their own desks.

4. Own your supplier’s mistakes

Even great suppliers make mistakes, and with a dropshipping business model, you’re bound to have fulfillment errors from time to time. So what do you do when your supplier sends the wrong item or nothing at all? Here are three possible options:

Take the blame

Under no circumstances should you encourage your customer to contact your dropshipping supplier about the mistake. This will cause confusion, as your customer is likely to have no idea that your supplier even exists. Instead, you need to own the problem, apologize, and let the customer know what you’re doing to fix it.

Make it up to the customer

Depending on the level of the mistake, you may want to proactively offer the customer something for the error. This could mean refunding the shipping fee or offering an upgrade if the customer needs a new item shipped out.

Have the supplier pay to fix it

You may have to assume responsibility for the error, but that doesn’t mean you need to cut into your profit margin. Any reputable supplier will pay to fix its own errors, including paying for shipping costs to return items. However, it probably won’t pay for any freebies or upgrades you offer the customer. Consider those public relations and marketing expenses.

Again, even the best dropshipping suppliers will occasionally make mistakes, but be extremely wary of a supplier that habitually botches your orders. Unless you can get the supplier to change (unlikely), your business’s reputation will suffer. If this is the case, you should probably start looking for another supplier.

💡 Tip: Ask suppliers if they hold your products in their warehouses. Kamil explains that if they do, it cuts 10 days off the shipping time. This will help you deliver orders faster and with more accuracy.

5. Manage your inventory levels

Most experienced dropshippers would agree that managing inventory across multiple suppliers is the biggest challenge you’ll face running a successful dropship business. Do a poor job of this and you’ll constantly be informing customers that their order is out of stock—not a great way to attract repeat business and loyal brand fans.

Properly managing inventory across your suppliers and distributors—and limiting the number of out-of-stock items you sell—is a complex process. Shopify apps like DuoPlane and Syncee or a web-based service like Ordoro can help you sync inventory on your Shopify store. This is a great option when suppliers offer real-time data feeds, but suppliers don’t always have them.

Below are some dropshipping tips for inventory management that should help drastically reduce the number of out-of-stock items you sell:

Use multiple suppliers

Having access to multiple suppliers with overlapping inventory is one of the best dropshipping tips for improving your order fulfillment ratio. If Supplier A doesn’t have an item in stock, there’s a good chance Supplier B has it.

Additionally, it’s risky to rely on one supplier as the only place to source your product. If they decide not to work with you, raise their prices, or go out of business, the future of your online store could be in jeopardy.

While you won’t find two suppliers that carry all the same products, if they operate in the same dropshipping niche or industry, both will likely stock the bestselling items—and these are your biggest concern.

Pick your products wisely

Once you validate your product, try to sell primarily items that you know are carried by all of your suppliers. This way, you’ll always have two potential fulfillment options for any product you carry.

Use generics to your advantage

Even if they don’t have the exact same item, two suppliers might carry near-identical products that are interchangeable. This is particularly true for smaller accessories and product add-ons. If you can confirm that two products are nearly identical, write a generic product description that allows you to fulfill the order from either supplier.

Also, be sure to list both suppliers’ model numbers in the model field. That way you can forward an order invoice to either supplier without having to make changes.

Check on item availability

Just because a dropshipper lists an item on its website doesn’t mean it carries that item consistently. It’s a good idea to chat with your sales representative about the availability of products you’re considering selling.

Are these items in stock 90% of the time or more? Or does the dropshipper keep only a few on hand and often have trouble getting the product reordered from the manufacturer? You’ll want to avoid stocking the latter type of products.

Dealing with out-of-stock orders

Despite your best planning, you’ll inevitably deal with customer orders you can’t fill. Instead of telling the customer the item is out of stock, offer a complimentary upgrade to a similar—but better—product. Your customer will likely be thrilled, and you’ll be able to retain the customer relationship.

You might not make any money on the order, and that’s OK; after all, you wouldn’t have made any money had your customer canceled the order, either.

6. Fulfill orders intelligently

Using multiple suppliers has several benefits: it increases the likelihood that items will be in stock, offers geographical diversity for faster delivery times, and prevents you from being reliant on any one source for your products. But with multiple options for filling an order, how do you know which is the right supplier to choose? There are a few different methods to consider:

Route orders to a preferred supplier

If you have one supplier that stocks most of your items and is easy to work with (superior service, great selection, etc.), you can simply route all orders to that supplier by default. This is particularly easy to implement, as you can simply add your supplier’s email address as a recipient for all new order confirmations, automating the entire process.

Route orders based on location

If you use multiple suppliers that each stock the majority of your products, you can simply route the order to the supplier closest to your customer. This not only expedites delivery to your customer, but also saves on shipping fees.

Route orders based on availability

If you stock a large catalog of products spread out over numerous suppliers, you’ll likely need to route each order based on which dropshipper has the item in stock. This option requires more work if you’re doing it manually, but you can automate it with a service like eCommHub if your suppliers provide data feeds.

Route orders based on price

This sounds great in theory, but unless one supplier has significantly better pricing, it can be difficult to automatically determine which supplier will be cheapest. Any automated solution will need to consider potential drop fees, real-time shipping rates, and real-time supplier pricing. So while not impossible, it can be difficult to implement an accurate automated system to accomplish this.

Even if you don’t route all your orders on price, have your suppliers bid against each other to achieve the best pricing possible as your business grows. Just don’t try doing this too early—if you’re asking for pricing discounts as a newbie, you’ll likely only annoy your suppliers.

7. Implement security best practices

In today’s world, there’s no excuse for running an online business with weak security or poor fraud prevention practices. Here are some dropshipping tips for keeping your customers’ personal information safe while they’re shopping online:

Storing credit card numbers

Storing your customers’ credit card information allows for convenient reordering and may increase sales. But if you’re hosting your own site, this typically isn’t worth the security issues and liability.

To store credit card data you’ll need to abide by complex Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) compliance rules and security audits. And if your server is hacked or breached, you might be liable for the stolen card information.

The best solution is not to store your customers’ credit card data. Consider offering one or multiple payment options from third parties like Shop or PayPal, which speeds up checkout, reduces cart abandonment, and frees you to focus your efforts on marketing and customer service instead of security audits.

If you dropship on Shopify, you won’t need to worry about any of this. But if you’re using a self-hosted cart or another ecommerce platform, make sure to disable the “store card information” feature in your configuration panel.

Dealing with fraudulent orders

The possibility of fraudulent orders can be scary when you’re starting out, but with some common sense and a bit of caution, you can prevent the vast majority of losses due to fraud.

The most common and widely used fraud prevention measure is the AVS, or Address Verification System. When AVS is enabled, customers must enter the address on file with their credit card for the transaction to be approved. This helps prevent thieves with just the raw credit card number from successfully making purchases online.

The vast majority of fraudulent ecommerce orders occur when the billing and shipping addresses are different. In these cases, a thief enters the card owner’s address as the billing address and enters a separate shipping address for the goods. Unfortunately, if you don’t allow customers to ship to addresses other than the billing address, you’ll lose out on a lot of legitimate orders.

The good news is that fraudsters tend to follow patterns that make it easier to spot illegitimate orders before they ship. Individually, these signs won’t help you flag a fraudulent order, but if you see two or three of them you should investigate:

Different billing and shipping addresses. Again, more than 95% of all fraudulent orders will have different billing and shipping addresses.
Different names. Different names on the billing and shipping addresses could be a red flag for fraudulent orders. That, or a gift purchase. A little investigating can help you determine which is the case.
Unusual email addresses. Most people have email addresses incorporating some part of their name, allowing you to match part of an email address to a customer’s name. But if you see an address like dfssdfsdf@gmail.com, there’s a good chance it’s a made-up address and is one sign of fraud.
Expedited shipping. Since they’re charging everything to someone else’s card, fraudsters will often pick the fastest—and most expensive—delivery method. It also reduces the amount of time you have to catch them before the item is delivered.

If you spot an order you suspect is fraudulent, simply pick up the phone. Fraudsters almost never put their real number on an order. If the order is legitimate, you’ll likely have a 30-second discussion with someone that clears everything up.

If not, you’ll get a dead number or someone who has no idea that she ordered a 25-foot boat scheduled for overnight delivery. At that point, you can cancel the order and issue a refund to avoid any chargebacks or problems.

8. Order samples

Even though you won’t handle products directly, ordering samples is a smart move. Testing your products gives you insight into quality, shipping, and packaging. Samples matter for a variety of reasons. You can:

Check product quality. Holding the product yourself lets you see if it’s good enough for your customers. If you find the craftsmanship is cheap, you can find a better supplier.
See how shipping really works. When you order a sample to your address, you learn how long shipping takes, how the package arrives, and what the packaging looks like. This allows you to improve the shipping and unboxing experience for customers.
Build better supplier relationships. Ordering samples shows suppliers you care. When you find an issue, you can give feedback with evidence. Suppliers often take your concerns seriously and will improve quality for future orders.

Ordering samples costs a little upfront money, but saves you from bigger problems later. It helps you market better, set expectations, and build a reputation for quality goods.

9. Handle chargebacks quickly

When a customer calls their bank or credit card company to contest a charge, you’ll receive a “chargeback.” Your payment processor will temporarily deduct the amount of the disputed charge from your account and ask you to prove that your dropshipping business delivered the goods or services to the customer.

If you can’t provide proof, you’ll lose the amount in question and be slapped with a chargeback processing fee. Rack up too many chargebacks and you could even lose your merchant account.

The largest cause of chargebacks is usually fraud, but customers will also dispute a charge because they didn’t recognize your business, forgot about the transaction, or simply didn’t like the product they received.

When you receive a chargeback, you often have just a few days to respond, so you need to act quickly. To have a shot at getting your money back, you’ll need to provide documentation of the original order, tracking information showing delivery, and likely a wholesale packing slip showing which items you purchased and shipped.

Unfortunately, if the chargeback is related to an order with different billing and shipping addresses, you’re almost certainly not going to win. Most processors will only compensate you for fraudulent orders shipped to the billing address on the card.

10. Write an effective return policy

Before writing a return policy for your dropshipping store, ensure you understand how all your suppliers deal with returns. If they have a lax 45-day return window, you can afford to be generous with your terms. A strict return policy from just one supplier can cause you to re-evaluate the terms you can afford to have in place.

When a customer needs to return an item, the process will look like this:

A customer contacts you to request a return.
You request an RMA (return merchandise authorization) number from your supplier.
The customer mails the merchandise back to your supplier, noting the RMA # on the address.
The supplier refunds your account for the wholesale price of the merchandise.
You refund the customer for the full retail price of the merchandise.

It’s not always this straightforward, however. The following variables can complicate returns:

Restocking fees

Some suppliers will charge a restocking fee, which is essentially a surcharge for having to return an item. Even if your supplier charges these fees, we strongly recommend not passing them along to your customer, as they’ll make your online store seem outdated and unfriendly.

Although you may have to eat a fee here and there, you’ll recoup that expense in more customers who decide to do business with you.

Defective items

The only thing worse than receiving a defective item is having to pay additional postage to return it. Most dropshipping suppliers won’t cover return postage for defective items. In their view, they didn’t manufacture the item so they aren’t liable for defects.

You, however, should always compensate your customers for return shipping fees on defective items if you’re interested in building a reputable business. This is simply part of the cost of running a successful dropshipping business.

If the defective item is relatively inexpensive, it often makes sense to just ship the customer a new product without requiring them to return the old one. This has several advantages compared to making them return the old item, including:

It can be cost effective. It doesn’t make sense to pay $10 to return an item that only cost you $12 from your wholesaler. You’ll get a $2 net credit, but it’s not worth it for the hassle to your customer, supplier, and staff.
The customer is blown away. By offering the convenience of a replacement without the hassle of a return, you’ll increase customer satisfaction and even drive repeat sales. The customer will also get the new product much faster than they would if the old one had to be returned to the warehouse prior to shipping a replacement.
Your supplier may pay for shipping. Suppliers won’t pay for return shipping on a defective product, but many will pay to have a replacement sent to the customer. Because they’ll be paying for return shipping anyway, most suppliers can be talked into covering the shipping on a replacement product that you simply purchase separately.

If a customer wants to return a non-defective product for a refund, most companies will expect the buyer to pay for the return freight. If you’re willing to offer free returns on everything, you’ll definitely stand out (and companies like Zappos have made this part of their unique business model).

That said, universal free returns can get expensive, and most customers will understand that you shouldn’t have to cough up return shipping fees simply because they ordered a product they ultimately didn’t want.

Note: If you’re dropshipping on Amazon or eBay, your returns policy is subject to that marketplace. What you state in your return policy may not apply if using these sites.

11. Adopt simple shipping rules

Calculating shipping rates can be a big mess for dropshipping business owners. With so many different products shipping from multiple locations, it’s difficult to accurately calculate shipping rates for orders.

There are three types of shipping rates you can use:

Real-time rates. With this method, your online shopping cart will use the collective weight of all items purchased and the shipping destination to get an actual real-time quote. This is very accurate but can be difficult to compute for shipments from multiple warehouses.
Per-type rates. Using a per-type method, you’ll set flat shipping rates based on the types of products ordered. So all small widgets would ship for a flat $5 rate, while all large widgets would be $10 to ship.
Flat-rate shipping. As the name implies, you’d charge one flat rate for all shipments, regardless of type. You could even offer free shipping on all orders. This method is the easiest to implement but is the least accurate in reflecting actual shipping costs.

When it comes to fulfilling your orders, our dropshipping tip is to refer to the core principle of simplicity over perfection, especially if you’re just starting dropshipping.

Some dropshipping store owners will spend days—or weeks—struggling with shipping rules for an ecommerce store that has yet to generate a sale. Instead, they should focus optimization efforts on marketing and customer service and quickly implement a simple shipping policy that sets a flat rate based on your average shipping fee. You’ll probably lose money on some orders but make it back on others.

Even if you could implement a system that passed along extra shipping fees based on supplier location, would you really want to? Most customers balk at excessive shipping fees, especially when they assume their order is originating from one location.

Instead, try to limit multiple shipments by using suppliers with overlapping inventory and by being selective about the items you sell. This is a much more practical and simple long-term solution.

International shipments

International shipping has become easier, but it’s still not as straightforward as domestic shipping. When you ship internationally, you’ll need to consider:

Different weight and length limitations for different countries
Additional charges from suppliers for processing international orders
The added expense of resolving problematic orders due to higher shipping fees
Excessive costs for shipping large and/or heavy items

Is the hassle worth it? It depends on the market you’re in and the margins you earn. If you sell small items with higher profit margins, the increased market reach may make it worthwhile to deal with the hassle and expense of offering international shipments. For others, especially small business owners that sell larger or heavier items, the added benefit won’t be worth the expense and inconvenience.

Choosing a shipping carrier

Selecting the right carrier is important, as it can save you a significant amount of money. In the US, the largest decision you’ll need to make is between UPS/FedEx and the US Postal Service.

UPS/FedEx. These privately run giants are great for shipping large, heavy packages domestically. Their rates for big shipments will be significantly lower than those charged by the USPS.
US Postal Service (USPS). If you’re shipping small, lightweight items, you can’t beat the rates offered by the USPS. After dropshipping fees, the cheapest UPS shipping fee you’re likely to see is around $10, while you can often ship items for $5 or less through the post office. The post office tends to be a better choice for sending international shipments, especially smaller ones.

When setting up your shipping options, consider categorizing them by shipping time (“Within 5 Days” or “Within 3 Days”), as this gives you the flexibility to pick the carrier that’s the most economical for each order and delivery time.

12. Provide great customer support

Managing all your customer emails, requests, and returns in an Excel spreadsheet is not ideal as a dropshipping store owner. Similarly, as your business and team grow, managing support with a single email inbox also quickly breaks down and leads to problems and service lapses.

Implementing a help desk and writing FAQ articles is one of the best dropshipping tips to ensure quality service for your customers. Help desk software comes in a number of different forms, but all provide a centralized location to host an FAQ page and manage your customer support correspondence and issues. Most desks make it easy to assign issues to team members and maintain communication history among all related parties.

A few popular options to choose from include:

Help Scout. Help Scout treats each issue as an email and removes all the traditionally appended ticket information that customers see with support requests. Support tickets appear like standard emails to customers, creating a more personalized experience.
Zendesk. Highly customizable and powerful, Zendesk offers a variety of tools and integrations and is one of the most popular help desks available. It takes some customization but is very powerful once tailored to your company.
Gorgias.Built specifically for your Shopify store, Gorgias manages all of your support queries in one place, helping you reduce response time and increase the efficiency of your customer support. Gorgias has automation tools to personalize responses to your most frequent questions.
HelpCenter.Access all customer inquiries from email, Live Chat, and FB Messenger in a single platform and save time. It’s easy to create an FAQ page from scratch to help customers self-serve and find answers to their issues.
Richpanel. See order data next to each ticket, send tracking info, edit orders, and issue refunds without leaving the help desk. Create self-service scenarios in the help center and instantly answer common repeat questions.

13. Consider phone support

If you’re bootstrapping a business while working your 9-to-5, implementing phone support might be too tall an order. That said, it can be well worth it depending on the type of dropshipping products you’ll be selling. If you’re a diamond boutique selling jewelry in the $1,000 to 5,000 range, for example, many customers won’t be comfortable placing an order that large without talking to a real person. For products in the $25 to $50 range, the average customer won’t need phone support if you’ve built a professional, information-rich website.

If you do decide to offer phone support, be strategic about it. Slapping a large 800 number on the top of every page can lead to a surfeit of low-value phone calls that cost more to support than they’re worth. Instead, consider adding your number in targeted locations like the contact and shopping cart pages, where you know the visitor has a high probability of purchasing.

Fortunately, there are plenty of third-party services that can help you set up a toll-free phone number and sales line. For example, Grasshopper offers phone services and is geared toward smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. You can get a toll-free number, three extensions, call forwarding, and voicemail for a reasonable monthly fee. Check Grasshopper for pricing details.

14. Focus on marketing

Making sales ultimately depends on customers finding your dropshipping store online. Here are some dropshipping tips to help you increase website traffic as a new dropshipper:

Maintain SEO

SEO is the process of fine-tuning your website to increase its chances of ranking highly in search results.

Ideally, you want your product pages to rank for relevant keywords so people can naturally discover your brand through search engines. Most searches are short-tail queries (two to three words long), and as a result of that search volume, they are more competitive and hard to rank for.

When you’re just establishing your brand, try focusing on long-tail keywords—search queries that are three or more words in length. Although the search volume for these queries will be lower, they are much less competitive to rank for.

You can discover these using tools like Google Ads or keyword.io. Plug the name of your product into the tool and you’ll see a list of related queries you can incorporate into your product descriptions.

Use Facebook Ads to leverage social media

Creating Facebook ads allows you to directly access an active and engaged social media user base.

All the likes and connections made on Facebook create detailed user profiles that advertisers can tap into through targeted ads. The perk of advertising on Facebook is you can home in on social media customers based on these demographics, interests, and behaviors.

With Facebook’s Ads Manager platform, you can match the products in your dropship store against a long list of social media users’ interests, traits, and behaviors, resulting in a higher likelihood of reaching the ideal customer in your target market.

From there, you can bid to put your product in front of a user. Try out different ad types for your Facebook offers (image, video, carousel, or collection), and see which paid campaigns convert most effectively.

Target customers with Google Ads

Google Ads lets you advertise directly to your ideal customer on the two largest search engines: Google and YouTube. Similarly to other ad platforms, Google Ads lets you set both a budget and max daily spend, as well as pay-per-click ads that only bill you when someone visits your site. These features make it a great entry-level ads platform.

What makes Google Ads uniquely attractive is its ability to reach consumers in three distinct ways: search ads, Google Display Network, and YouTube ads. You can target your audience based on specific behaviors, how they’ve interacted with your site or brand before (from visiting a certain page to abandoning their cart), demographics, interests, and other traits.

Consider using Google Display Network to retarget people who have recently viewed certain products in your online store. As they explore websites that use Google’s display ads network, these users will see the products they checked out previously, giving you more chances to convert them into customers.

Market your business with Shopify’s marketing automation tools

Shopify has everything you need to capture more leads, send email campaigns, automate key marketing moments, segment your customers, and analyze your results. Plus, it’s all free for your first 10,000 emails sent per month.

Discover Shopify’s marketing automation tools

15. Leverage email for dropshipping

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to grow a dropshipping business, even with all the social media options available. It lets you connect with people who already like your brand, which encourages repeat purchases. Here’s how to use email marketing effectively:

Grow your email list

Your email list works best when you have the right people on it. Offer something valuable to get people to sign up, like a discount on their first order or free shipping.

You can also run contests or create special clubs for subscribers. Focus on getting subscribers who really care about your products and want to hear from you.

Segment your subscribers

Not everyone wants the same things. Divide your list into groups based on things like what they’ve bought, what they like, or how they’ve engaged with your brand. You can send more relevant emails and create personalized campaigns that drive sales.

With Shopify’s segmentation tools, for example, you can:

Target high-value customers with special offers or discounts to increase their customer lifetime value (CLV)
Send loyalty rewards to frequent shoppers or give them early access to new products
Gently nudge people who abandoned their shopping carts
Reconnect with previously engaged customers who haven’t purchased in a while
Convert email subscribers into first-time customers with targeted introductory offers

Your segments will automatically update as you add new customers or as their information changes over time. You can create unlimited customer groups using templates or build custom segments based on:

Customer demographics (location, age, etc.)
Purchasing behavior (specific products bought, order frequency)
Email engagement (opened, clicked, etc.)
Custom attributes you’ve added to customer profiles

Set up automation

Save time by creating emails that send automatically. Common automatic emails include:

Welcome emails. Introduce your store and show best-selling products.
After-purchase emails. Thank customers, confirm shipping info, and ask for reviews.
Win-back emails. Encourage people who haven’t opened your emails lately to come back with a special offer.

With Shopify Email, you can get started quickly with pre-built automation templates. These templates come with pre-selected conditions, triggers, and actions, making them active with just a few clicks. You can also create custom workflows by setting your own triggers and conditions, and adding conditional logic or wait steps.

Before sending, you can preview your emails to see how they’ll look in your customers’ inboxes. You can even choose a recommended send time powered by Shopify Magic to automatically drive higher click-through rates to your store.

Ready to start your dropshipping business?

While beginning a dropshipping business is one of the fastest ways to get a business up and running, remember it’s not a fast track to passive income. A successful dropshipping business takes active work and a commitment to customer satisfaction. Implement the dropshipping tips above, and you’ll be off to a strong start.

Dropshipping tips FAQ

How do I find reliable suppliers?

Research supplier directories like AliExpress, SaleHoo, or Spocket, and always order samples to test quality and shipping times. Check supplier ratings, response times, and customer reviews before committing to a partnership.

What are the easiest products to dropship?

Lightweight, durable items with minimal return rates like phone accessories, beauty products, and fashion accessories tend to be easier to dropship. Products that don’t expire quickly and have universal appeal typically face fewer shipping complications and customs issues.

How do I build a successful dropshipping business?

Building a successful dropshipping business starts with managing inventory effectively to ensure you can always fulfill customers’ orders. You’ll also want to implement security, adopt simple shipping rules, provide great customer support, and invest in marketing to drive traffic to your online store.

How do I market my dropshipping store?

Start by fine-tuning your website with search engine optimization (SEO) to increase your chances of ranking highly in search results for relevant keywords. From there, you can invest in paid campaigns on Facebook and Google Ads to target specific audiences for your products.

Is dropshipping hard?

While it’s not exactly a fast track to passive income, dropshipping makes it easy to get started selling online. You don’t need to invest heavily in inventory, yet you can still get access to the products your customers want at competitive prices.