Greetings to dropshippers, especially the successful ones xD. I am making a general store specialized in a single niche. Right now, I can allocate $300/month to this store, product-testing is also included (if scaling happens, I can spend more too). Now I am thinking how much money do I need to spend until my store does not look cheap? And how i should manage these spendings? also, I am thinking of buying some udemy courses for designing shopify courses, has anyone bought that courses? what are your opinions?

Aliexpress is no longer a viable platform for dropshipping. I've seen price increases up to 100% across my industry over the past 12-16 months. It's absolutely ridiculous. Some of these increases are due to tax reasons (ie: EU's new €3 customs charge), but most of the increases are just from sellers price gouging. I'm in the US and sellers never brought their prices down after the tariffs were decreased. I've moved most of my orders off platform and now order directly from suppliers, but it still sucks not being able to use Aliexpress anymore when most of my ordering was built around using app integrations.

EU's €3 parcel tax is live today. AliExpress dropshippers need to do the math.**

A lot of people are misreading this. It's not €3 per order — it's **€3 per item category (HS code) per parcel**. A parcel with a phone, charger, and earphones = €9 in duty.

For AliExpress dropshippers, the real problem is that you can't consolidate. Each supplier ships separately. So a 3-item order from 3 different suppliers = 3 parcels = potentially €9 in new customs costs on top of whatever you were already paying.

One exception: if your AliExpress supplier ships from a local EU warehouse, this doesn't apply — goods are already inside the customs territory. But EU local stock on AliExpress is thin and SKU-limited. Step outside the mainstream catalog and you're back to China-direct.

Also worth noting: a €2 per-parcel handling fee is coming in November 2026 on top of this.

If you're selling multi-SKU bundles into the EU, run the numbers before your next orders. The margins math has changed.

If anyone has any experience with manufacturers who offer drop shipping on rashguards and other jiu jitsu gear. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I've known about dropshipping for years, but in the past months I've started looking for a niche that can work in my country (Italy) and whenever I search for products of any kind, I find margins so low that it totally demotivates me.

Hello wonderful people of reddit!

As the title states, I am new to dropshipping. I haven't started but have been wanting to start for years, maybe 3-4 years. I have tried the past couple of years but have always given up right before I start (personal issues mainly). I have made a store for my brand in clothing but not too sure if I want to continue with it (all custom) or start fresh.

My main issue is coming by a certain niche and actually getting started. I have thought about one niche and haven't seen it being used too common but it's the creation of the store, layout, pricing, and sorting out the automatic payment thing (meaning customer buys, it goes straight to the item and the item gets shipped to them without me doing anything).

I'm wanting to really break through and live a somewhat financial-stress-free life. I just don't know how to start. Thank you for reading!

So, I guess this gets asked a heck of a lot but I tried drop shipping back in 2023 when I was unemployed & got nowhere... I tried really crap niches which didn't go anywhere and in all honesty lost money.

Planning to use Shopify & have all the tools to begin marketing, also have stable income to start with & begin investing into marketing etc.

My questions are, firstly, how much do I need to start? I remember people saying you can start with £0 but this seems so unrealistic as I'm sure you have to pay for the products before the payouts are released & the item arrives with the customer.

Secondly, similar to my first question, how do payments work? I remember having to pay before the product reached the customer and you couldn't immediately use the customers payment to purchase the product from the supplier.

Sorry if this is a common question, just really want to do this the right way & as I've already got some capital, really solid marketing strategies & a grounded niche I'm very eager to give this ago.

Thanks :)

Hey all, just want to see what is your current tool stack for shopify?

I’m working with Claude rn and I have a digital product but I feel like Higgs just overall costs too much and there could be better ai elsewhere

I've been burned enough times by suppliers who look fine on paper - decent reviews, good response time and then fall apart on the third or fourth order. What's your actual process for testing someone new before you start sending real customer orders their way?

I run a Shopify store that sells aesthetic, trending lamps and lights. So far I’ve focused mostly on organic content on TikTok, with a little bit of Pinterest, but I haven’t had much success yet.
Starting in July, I’m planning to invest into paid ads. I have a budget of around $8,000–9,000.
My biggest question is if I Should I put that budget into Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, or split it between them?

I’ve asked this question before in subreddits like Meta Ads, Facebook Ads, and dropshipping. Almost everyone told me to use Meta. While I understand why, I also feel those answers are often very general e-commerce advice, and I’m not sure they’re coming from people who are familiar with the lamps home decor/interior niche.

My products and selling points are very visual, and Pinterest feel like the right choice. It was also what Claude and Chat gpt suggested, and my research also show that a lot of my competitors are getting their visits from Pinterest, although it may be organic traffic.

At the same time, when I do see ads for products similar to mine on Pinterest, they’re often from Temu or AliExpress at much lower price.
My website and creatives are much more aesthetic than them of course , and I’m trying to sell the feeling of a premium product rather than simply competing on price.

I have also seen a few brands in my niche running both organic content and paid ads successfully on Pinterest.
My main concern is whether Pinterest will actually perform better than Meta for a business like mine.
A few specific questions:

- Does having very little previous organic activity on Pinterest put me at a disadvantage when starting paid ads, or does that not really matter?

- How does Pinterest’s learning phase compare to Meta’s? I’ve often heard Meta can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months before the algorithm really starts finding the right audience.

- Is Pinterest’s algorithm similar, or can you see profitable results sooner?
Ideally, I’d like to see at least some positive return within the first month or two. I don’t expect huge profits immediately, but I’d rather not lose money for several months while the platform is still “learning.”

So, for those of you who have real experience with Pinterest Ads, especially in the home decor or furniture niche:
-Would you focus mainly on Pinterest?
-Would you go all-in on Meta?
-Would you split the budget between Meta, Pinterest, and maybe TikTok?
-Or would you avoid Pinterest until you’ve built a larger organic presence there?
I’d really appreciate hearing from people who have actually spent money on Pinterest Ads and understand how the platform works.

Welcome to the Weekly Q&A & Store Critique Thread

Welcome to r/dropship's weekly discussion thread!

Whether you're just getting started with dropshipping, looking for guidance on your next steps, or want feedback on your store, this is the place to ask questions and share your work.

What This Thread Is For

• Beginner questions
• General dropshipping advice
• Store reviews and critiques
• Quick questions that don't require a separate post

Comment Requirements

To participate, your account must:

• Be at least 24 hours old
• Have positive comment karma (post karma and total karma do not count)

We're glad you're here. Ask away, help others, and keep the discussion constructive!

Do you know that with Brand Authorization and MoCRA Exemption Letter, you can avoid the stress of getting an LLC, business registration, etc for your health-related products while trying to sell on TikTok? Yes, it is super possible.

It is not a new thing to dropshippers that TikTok is the new goldmine and currently the best tool for dropshipping (if you're not aware, your current Shopify dropshipping store can be linked to TikTok Shop). However, lots of brands, dropshipers, or ecommerce merchants in general usually face limitation issues as TikTok Shop policies are very strict.

So, just in case your product category is not approved or you're asked to provide a registration ID for your brand, you can prepare:

1. Brand Authorization letter: Basically a written letter stating you own the brand legally (your signature, brand name, and address should be included)

2. MoCRA Exemption Letter: This is to declare your income status and let TikTok know that you've not made up to a million dollars in revenue yet. It'll make you appear as a status and the limits will be lifted.

There's someone out there who's thinking of closing their store soon, please don't, there are thousands of sales channels to consider. If you've tried many and still didn't get results, you probably didn't do them right enough so there's always a time for review.

Do you have questions?

I pray we all win

Just for context I'm talking about Meta/FB ads.

Sometimes I start new ad sets at budgets of $40, $50 or $60 at 12am hoping to wake up to sales and then all I wake up to is disappointment and an extra hole in my wallet. Maybe one sale if I'm lucky.

Then when I do the same thing with budget of $6 or $10 and I get a sale, sometimes early into the spend.

Does anyone else find it works out better when you do a bunch of ad sets at $6 or $10 instead of 1 ad set at $40-$60? I feel like at higher budgets FB tries to burn through the budget as quick as possible or there is a lot of poor quality/bot traffic that gets mixed in.

Desk setups are huge right now and I want in. Which POD has the best desk mats, stitched edges, won't curl?

Hi everyone, I'm new to this and trying to learn all I can about dropshipping. If you have a few minutes to spare, I would really appreciate if you could fill this form out. Thanks a ton!