How to Start Dropshipping
💰 $130–$500 to start
⏱ First sale: weeks
📦 Zero inventory, zero warehouse
The 30-second version
You never touch the product — a customer orders from your Shopify store, you forward it to a supplier, they ship it directly. The real math is thinner than most videos admit: a $29.99 item with $8.50 supplier cost, $4 shipping, payment fees, and ad spend can leave barely $8 profit per order before refunds and returns.
You never touch the product — a customer orders from your Shopify store, you forward it to a supplier, they ship it directly. The real math is thinner than most videos admit: a $29.99 item with $8.50 supplier cost, $4 shipping, payment fees, and ad spend can leave barely $8 profit per order before refunds and returns.
Startup cost
$130–$500
Target markup
2.5x–3x landed cost
Learning phase
3–6 months
▶Watch this first
"How to Actually Start Shopify Dropshipping in 2026" — picked from a real creator, not a GigWiz production.
✓What you actually need to start
- A Shopify plan (~$29/month) or similar platform
- A vetted supplier (AliExpress, Spocket, Zendrop, CJ Dropshipping are common starting points)
- A specific niche and customer — "trending products for everyone" is not a strategy
- Ad budget — organic traffic alone rarely gets a new store to its first sales fast
👣The steps
Choose a niche, not just productsA specific customer and problem beats a scattered catalog of trending items — clarity here makes every later step easier.
Vet suppliers before committingCheck communication speed, order a test product yourself, confirm real shipping times before promising them to customers.
Set up Shopify and connect your supplierLegal pages (privacy, returns, shipping), tax settings, and payment methods all need to work before your first paying customer arrives.
Price for a real 2.5x–3x markupIf a product can't sustain that markup over landed cost (product + shipping + ad cost), it's not viable — don't force it.
Treat the first 3–6 months as a data-collection phaseExpect this period to be about learning what converts, not banking huge profit — that's normal, not a failure signal.
Track true profit, not just salesShopify sales figures are not profit — fees, refunds, and ad spend all come out before you know your real number.
💵The money, honestly
| Cost item | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Shopify plan | $29–439/mo |
| Domain | $8–20/yr |
| Business/startup total | $132–320 |
Example margin math: a $39 item costing $15 gives a 62% gross margin on paper — but ad spend, refunds, and payment fees routinely eat a third or more of that before it's real profit.
⚠ The reality check
- Most dropshipping guides oversell the dream. The realistic path is 7 unglamorous steps — niche, supplier, platform, store, legal/tax setup, launch, then optimize — not a single viral product overnight.
- Margins are thinner than they look. A "$24.99 profit" product often nets under $8 after shipping, processing fees, and ad cost — always do the full landed-cost math before committing to a product.
- You don't control shipping times or quality. Supplier delays and quality issues become your customer service problem, even though you never touched the product.
- Paid ads are usually required for first sales. Organic traffic alone rarely moves fast enough for a brand-new store — budget for Facebook/TikTok/Instagram ad spend from day one.
The GigWiz verdict
✓ Good if
- You're willing to treat the first 6 months as R&D, not income
- You can put $130–$500 toward starting
✕ Skip it if
- You're expecting fast, easy profit from a trending product
- You need something that runs without your ongoing time and attention
The numbers
Startup cost$130–$500
Target markup2.5x–3x landed cost
Learning phase3–6 months
DifficultyLow cost, genuinely difficult to make profitable
⚠ The catch
Never launch a product that can't sustain a 2.5x–3x markup.