Do you know what a great way is to increase the chance of your dropshipping store surviving in 2023?
This! Reading about the reasons why most people fail with dropshipping. Let's learn from these mistakes that other dropshipping stores make!
Are you ready? Let's begin!
1. They think about their own pockets first instead of their customers
Customer service is one of the most important things that you need with your dropshipping store.
And more importantly, you need to do it right!
Start thinking about your customers first instead of your own pockets. This will definitely help you kickstart your dropshipping store and will help you keep it alive as well!
You don't want any bad reviews, trust me. (Although, it can have its benefits if you handle it correctly.)
But I know you're probably skeptic.
That's why I've got some examples below for you. You will see what will happen with your reviews or Facebook page after giving bad customer service to your customers.
Status dropshipping store: Offline
Status dropshipping store: Offline
Do you see the trend?
Well, if you're worried now or if you want to see some more examples of dropshipping stores who have bad customer service (or not at all), then I suggest reading my complete guide regarding how to do customer service when dropshipping here.
2. They think they'll be rich overnight with their dropshipping store
If you're new to dropshipping, then you probably think something like “dropshipping equals getting rich fast” or “dropshipping equals easy money.”
Well…
Let me burst those dreams for you, I'm sorry…
A lot of so-called “gurus” talk about this, but do you know what they all have in common? They've got a course (and most are not even that cheap)!
Maybe you should buy their course and follow them step-by-step to get rich, right?
Please don't!
Then what can you do?
First off, you can learn dropshipping for free. See for example my blog posts below that will give you a lot of resources to learn dropshipping for free!
- Top 10 Dropshipping & Ecommerce Blogs
- The 17 Best Free Dropshipping Courses
- The Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money in 2023? I think this article will be interesting for you as well!
Secondly, you need to change your mindset.
Instead of thinking you will be rich the next day, you will need to start treating your dropshipping store like a real business! (Which it is.)
Put your time and effort in it instead of opening up a store in a few hours, importing a few products, and starting advertisements already without trying to be unique at all.
If you're interested in learning more about having the right mindset when dropshipping, then check out this article here which contains six great tips!
If you're interested in learning how to be more unique than your dropshipping competition, you can read this article here as well.
3. They don't put any effort into their dropshipping store
This is what I talked about above! Most people fail with their dropshipping store because they are not unique.
There are so many people learning about dropshipping and starting dropshipping stores right now.
For example, type into Google Trends “Dropshipping”:
Do you see how popular dropshipping is?
Everyone wants a piece of it because so many of these “gurus” advertised it as an easy way to earn money online.
Here is more information about these “gurus” and why they are selling courses.
But do you know what the sad thing is? Most of them don't put any effort into their dropshipping store.
Just like I said above, they open their store, import some products without changing anything and start advertising.
This means that a lot of people that are dropshipping are selling the same products with the same information they got from maybe even the same dropshipping suppliers.
Of course, having the same product is not a bad thing yet, but to also have the same images, descriptions and so on will definitely not help you!
So, how do you be more unique than other dropshipping stores out there?
Don't try to copy everything to save some time!
Here are some great tips to be more unique (I will link the article that can teach you to do that).
- Having your own product images. Most dropshipping stores use the same product images everyone else is using to sell that product. Beat them by having unique product images. There are a lot of ways to do this, for example, by using the new Glorify app! (Click here to learn more about Glorify.)
- Having your own product descriptions. Same as with your product image, most people just copy the descriptions that their suppliers provide. These won't help you sell your product!
- Click here to see all my tips to be more unique than your dropshipping competition.
4. They don't research what kind of products are best to avoid when dropshipping
If you pick the wrong products to dropship, this could haunt you in the future.
I suggest reading my article here to find out 13 products that are best avoided when dropshipping.
But in case you don't know what I mean with this, think about safety equipment products or “waterproof” products (what is going to happen when the product is not as waterproof as you advertised?).
With that article, I want you to think properly before selling a new product. I want you to think about possible things that could happen now, or in the future, when selling the product that you want to sell.
5. They don't manage their money flow correctly
Another reason why people fail with their dropshipping store is that they don't manage their money correctly.
They don't know what's coming in (sales) or what's going out (advertisement costs, platform costs, buying the product and so on).
Maybe they didn't even calculate their profit margins. (Click here if you want to know how to calculate your profit margins.)
If this is currently you, please write something down and search for a way to manage your money that suits you well, but for now, just write at least something down, for example in Excel.
This way you will know how much of your sales is profit.
If you know that, you can decide if you want to grow further with that product, (or products) or if you want to choose a different one because maybe your profit margins are not as good as you expected.
Another great reason to keep track of your money is so you will know how much you have left. This way you won't be surprised by a sudden empty budget!
I do have a great article that will explain to you why the profit margins are so tight when dropshipping (and how to increase it). Yes, it's for dropshipping with AliExpress, but you can also use these tips and insights if you dropship from somewhere else:
Dropshipping With AliExpress: Increasing Your Profit Margins
I suggest reading this complete guide here which goes over everything you need to know in order to price your dropshipping products correctly!
6. They focus on too many products at the beginning of their dropshipping journey
This is another mistake most people make when they start with dropshipping. They focus on too many products at the same.
Alright, let me start off by saying that you can focus on as many products as you want, but if you don't have any experience regarding dropshipping, ecommerce, marketing or anything related, then I do suggest focusing on only a few products (1-3 products) at the same time.
The reason I said only really focus on 1-3 products is that a lot of people seem to think quantity equals quality, but if you can’t sell one product, there is no way that you will be able to sell ten products at the same time.
When you’re just beginning, you need to learn so much, like how to market your dropshipping products, how to write awesome converting product descriptions and so on.
It’s just too much work to learn all of that and at the same time put that directly in action for around ten products.
You can read more about this in my article here that goes over how many products I suggest to have when starting out with dropshipping (and also how on many to focus on at the same time)!
7. They try to reinvent the wheel
When you're just beginning with dropshipping and you don't have any experience in ecommerce, marketing or anything related, it's okay to “use the same wheel other people already tried.”
Keep in mind that I'm not saying with this that you should copy everyone, but don't try to come up with many new fancy things like a pop-up checkout that automatically scans your eyes and knows who you are, and then checks out directly without you entering any credit card information (#FutureTalk).
You don't need these kinds of things when you're trying to learn the basics for your dropshipping store! Go with something that's been proven to work already.
So, how do you do this?
What I suggest you do is look at examples from other dropshipping stores. You will see what's working for these dropshipping stores and why they became successful!
I've got some great example blog posts for you below to get you started:
- 5 Bad Dropshipping Store Examples & What They Can Improve
- 8 Product Description Examples for Ecommerce (+ 5 Tips)
- 9 Awesome Dropshipping Facebook Ad Examples
- 14 Awesome Shopify Homepage Examples
- 16 Winning Dropshipping Product Examples
- 23 Awesome Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
8. They pick a niche for their dropshipping store that they are not interested in
This is another big reason why people fail with their dropshipping stores. They pick a niche for their dropshipping store just because they can earn money with it.
They don't think about the future, “the grind,” the time that they need to work on their store before they see success (if they ever do). For example, the time before you see your first sale might be a while.
If you're not interested at all in your niche, this period will be really hard for you.
A lot of people give up after some time, simply because they are bored with their niche.
For example, don't pick gardening as your dropshipping niche if you hate gardening.
You will have a hard time communicating with your customers, making blog posts, coming up with newsletters or simply writing product descriptions that convert your target audience (people that love gardening).
If you want to learn how to pick the best niche for your dropshipping store, I suggest clicking here to read my other article. And you can click here if you want to learn how to see if a dropshipping niche could be profitable.
9. They don't deal correctly with their long shipping times
This is a “deadly” one as well. Definitely if combined with bad customer service, that's a big chance of people asking for refunds and people leaving bad reviews (like the ones you saw at the beginning).
If you're dropshipping from China, I suggest reading this article here to learn five ways to deal with the long shipping times.
Another way to deal with this is to get a faster delivery time on your dropshipping store. You can learn here:
How to Have a Fast Delivery Time When Dropshipping in 2023?
10. They didn't select the right dropshipping suppliers for their store
Let me ask you this question: do you want the person who handles the production of your products and the shipment to your customers to be reliable or not?
Most people who start with dropshipping pick their supplier based on price. They go to their platform where they find dropshipping suppliers (like AliExpress), sort by price and pick the lowest one.
Because this will make you rich, right?
Wrong – although this may work for you in the short-term, it will definitely haunt you in the long-term.
What if your supplier doesn’t respond to your messages asking where the package is? What if your supplier cannot keep up when your getting hundreds of orders each day?
So, yes, I suggest you take your time when selecting your dropshipping suppliers for your dropshipping store.
You can read this article here if you want to learn how to find the best AliExpress dropshipping suppliers. Yes, that article is mainly for people that are dropshipping with AliExpress, but you can definitely use these tips if you're not using AliExpress!
11. They don't do their product research and testing correctly
Most people fail with their dropshipping store because nobody wants to buy their products.
This could have two reasons.
The first one is, their product is not a good product to dropship (maybe they are dropshipping toilet paper from China or something).
You can click here to learn 15 awesome dropshipping product research methods!
If you don't want to do the product research yourself, I highly recommend you check out Sell The trend.
You have probably never heard of them before, but trust me, after looking, you won't want to use anything else anymore!
They made this tool to help you find your next winning product in seconds.
If you're interested in Sell The Trend now, you can either click here (or the image below) to start your free 7-day trial, or you can click here to read my full review of Sell The Trend.
Otherwise, you can click here to see the 17 best product research tools for dropshippers in 2023!
Secondly, their testing could be better.
You can test products with PPE (on Facebook) before fully advertising that product. This way you will see if that product is worth to continue advertising or not.
If you want to learn how to quickly test your dropshipping products, I suggest reading my other article here.
12. They just give up
This is the last reason people fail with dropshipping, and it may be the biggest.
Some people give up early, some people after a long time (like a year), but most of the time when people don't see any progress, they give up.
If you're at this stage of not seeing any progress, I suggest you keep learning. Keep trying new things. Just don't give up!
Ok, your budget might not allow it anymore, but know that there are ways to do the things that you think only cost money, for free. You can read more about this here:
The Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money in 2023?
You could pause your dropshipping store and advertisements for a month or so while you're learning new things.
While you pause your store, you can also think about stuff that you can change at your dropshipping store. Like the design, products, product descriptions, different images and so on.
If you really want to give up, then at least bring the things you learned from your dropshipping store into your new adventure!
Conclusion
So, there you have it! 12 reasons why people fail with dropshipping in 2023.
Are you confident now that your dropshipping store will succeed?
If so, I wish you so much luck!
Otherwise, I suggest you read the article that I've linked below that goes over the most common dropshipping mistakes:
10 Most Common Dropshipping Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
If you've got any more reasons on why people fail with dropshipping, or if you have any questions regarding dropshipping, let me know by commenting below or contacting me directly by pressing the “Contact Us” button at the top!
Getting started with dropshipping in 2023
So, are you ready to get started with dropshipping? Or maybe you have already started, but you’re looking to get some inspiration?
If so, I suggest reading my complete Shopify dropshipping guide!
It's a huge article, but it contains everything that you need to know to create your own Shopify dropshipping store in 2023. It's like a dropshipping course, but for free!
Reading this article will help you to get started and stay motivated while beginning and continuing your dropshipping journey!
Just don’t forget that success takes time. Keep improving each and every day!
Shopify Dropshipping: A 20-Step Guide to Starting Your Store
Here are some of our best articles:
- AliExpress Dropshipping: A 20-Step Getting Started Guide (2023)
- The Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money in 2023?
- 8 Amazing Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Dropshipping Store in 2023
- How to Find Winning Dropshipping Products? (Product Research Methods)
Also, if you want to get started with Shopify, then you can click here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!
