Dropshipping Startup Costs: How Much Money Does It Take to Get Started?

One of the most common questions I get is “How much does it cost to start dropshipping?”

The truth is, it can cost a lot– or almost nothing to start a dropshipping business…

And the honest answer is you’re better off with the option that costs almost no money.

It Doesn’t Cost Much to Start Dropshipping the Right Way

To be honest, dropshipping can cost you a lot of money or it can cost you next to nothing.  Contrary to what people will often say, the right way to get started dropshipping doesn’t cost much. 

The other way to get started dropshipping is working with a third party that asks for money upfront. We call these people “Middlemen”.

Companies that want to charge you to access to sell their products are middlemen. With these companies, you’ll lose a lot of money and you’ll never be successful with this online business. It’s a losing proposition.

Middlemen are the WRONG Way to Dropship

As you start doing research, you’ll come across companies that want to charge you a lot of money just to get started dropshipping. More often than not, these companies are nothing more than middlemen that are charging you for access to resources for building your site and selling their products.

Whenever anyone wants to charge you for things like that, especially when you're a total eCommerce beginner, they're only trying to make money off of you and your lack of experience.

Companies that claim they’ll build you a dropshipping website with products ready to dropship without you ever lifting a finger will never make you money.

That's the wrong way to build any business. This way will actually end up costing you a lot of money to get started.

Companies like this are not exactly scams. However, it’s a losing proposition for the person on the retail side. The third-party middleman is the one who is benefiting most from this system.

Now the other way to start dropshipping– the one that will make you profitable– is if you build your own store and get approved with real suppliers.

But how and where should you do that? 

One word: Shopify

Don’t Waste Your Money– Start Dropshipping the Right Way

Now the other way to start dropshipping costs almost nothing. Yes, you read that right.

Not only does this way cost next to nothing to get started, it’s the right way to build a long-term online business.

Shopify Costs to Start Dropshipping

First off, when building your store this way, you’ll use Shopify.

This is the eCommerce platform we’ve been using (and recommending) for the past several years. It’s the only platform we 100% stand behind.

Shopify costs $29 a month, and that comes with a free 3-day trial + 3 months of access for only $1/month. It’s well worth it.

The process to building a good-looking drop shipping store isn’t complicated.

You don’t need to have the best designed, most beautiful Shopify store in the world to make 7-figure sales. All you need is a Shopify dropshipping store that people will visit and see is trustworthy enough to buy from.

For more information about building your Shopify dropshipping store, check out our tutorial.

Dropship Supplier Startup Costs

As for as getting products to sell, remember you’re following the Drop Ship Lifestyle model. There is no upfront costs for sourcing products to sell.

The Suppliers You Want to Work With, Won’t Charge You Until You Send Them Orders!

The type of dropship suppliers you will work with following our model will never charge you for access to their products. That means you're not paying for these items until you sell them.

If you use real suppliers, they won’t charge you until you’re sending them orders. Then they'll charge you for the orders. It’s a win-win for you and your supplier.

To learn more about the do's and don'ts of contacting dropshipping suppliers, read this article. In it, I answer seven common questions for securing relationships with top notch suppliers.

Paid Traffic Costs

As far as some of the other typical costs of starting a dropshipping business, you might be wondering how much it costs to actually start making money? Well, there’s good news for that as well.

The beauty of using the Drop Ship Lifestyle model is you can actually get $100 in credit from Google for running ads. By the time you spend that $100, you should definitely get at least one sale in your store.

Then you take that profit and reinvest, and continue building a successful dropshipping business!

Bottom Line: The Startup Cost for a Shopify Dropshipping Store Can be as Little as $40

To wrap up: With our method, and Shopify, the only costs when getting started dropshipping are hosting your website and buying a domain.

Shopify comes with a 3 day free trial, plenty of time to build a store people will buy from, and it costs $29 a month that. Of course, you need a custom domain. That can be for under $15 paid once a year!

For paid traffic, we recommend using Google Ads first because they offer you $100 in free ad dollars when signing up, which will help you get your first sale.

So many people waste money when they pay for access to a list of products. In reality though, it is so much easier and so much cheaper, if you do things the right way and avoid these middlemen.

Hopefully this explanation shows you where not to go wrong when you're first starting a dropshipping store. For once, the right way to get started is the cheap way.

If you got value from this, please do let me know in the comments below. And if you have any questions, definitely post them as well! I’m always happy to continue the conversation there.