15 Best & Worst Countries to Target in 2021 as a Dropshipper

When dropshipping, you will have to thoroughly think about which countries you are going to target.

Why?

Picking the right countries to target can be the difference between succeeding and failing.

Not only do you have to think about which countries to target, picking the right countries to avoid and exclude from your targeting is crucial as well.

In this article, you will learn what aspects make a country good or bad to target as a dropshipper. I will also show you a list of the 10 best countries to target as a dropshipper, as well as 5 dropshipping countries you should avoid.

Enough of the introduction, let’s get started!

Can you start dropshipping worldwide?

You might be asking yourself: “Is it possible to start dropshipping worldwide?”

Well, it is possible, but you can imagine that not every country will react the same when presented with your dropshipping ad.

There are some good countries to target, but also some dropshipping countries that you should avoid, especially when you are still a beginner.

If you’re interested in worldwide dropshipping, then don’t forget to check out this article here later on. It contains the pros and cons of doing this and some tips on what to keep an eye on.

Like I’ve said, picking the right countries to target and the right countries to exclude when dropshipping worldwide is crucial for your success.

But how do you pick the right countries to target?

What makes a country good or bad to target as a dropshipper?

That’s exactly what I will be discussing here!

The best countries to target will give you the highest chance of a sale, while the countries you should exclude from your targeting probably won’t bring you any revenue.

So, what are the requirements of a good dropshipping country?

ePacket shipping or better available

The first requirement of a good country to target is the availability of a faster shipping method like ePacket.

For a long term success, you will have to get your products to your customers in a timely manner. So, make sure that the delivery times for the countries you are targeting aren’t too long!

If you are dropshipping with AliExpress, here’s an article that will explain how to deal with long shipping times.

Note: During the pandemic, ePacket shipping might not be that reliable anymore. We recommend you to pick Aliexpress Standard Shipping over a method like ePacket. You can read more about shipping times during the pandemic here.

High GDP per capita

GDP per capita is a metric that measures the average income of a person in a country per year.

The GDP per capita is highly correlated with the average disposable income, since the more you earn, the more you can spend (online).

Targeting countries with a low GDP per capita will often give you a low conversion rate since your products will often be too expensive for them and they will be used to the lower prices in their country.

That is why the best dropshipping countries to target are the ones with the highest GDP per capita.

Try to target countries with a GDP per capita of at least $30k, so you will know that the average person will have some income left to purchase your products.

Here’s a list of 15 countries with the highest GDP per capita:

High social network penetration

When dropshipping, it’s likely that you are advertising your store on a social media platform.

When the social network penetration in a country is high, the majority of people are present on social media like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This allows you to reach the most amount of people possible!

Here’s a list of the percentage of people active on social media per country:

Note: Keep in mind that if you are advertising with Google Ads only, this requirement is not important.

Large population

While this isn’t the most important requirement, it’s good to target countries with a large population, especially if you are just targeting a few countries.

By targeting countries with a large total population, you will have more potential customers, which means: a bigger scaling potential!

That’s not the only advantage though. The chances of market saturation or ad fatigue happening are smaller too, since you will have more people to show your ad to.

The 10 best countries to target for dropshipping

Good job! You have just learned which characteristics make a country perfect to target as a dropshipper.

With these characteristics in mind, we have compiled a list of the 10 best countries to sell to when dropshipping!

Hint: Bookmark this list in your browser, so that you can always come back to get some targeting ideas for your next Facebook or Google Ads campaign!

1. United States

When thinking of the best country to sell to, the United States quickly comes into mind.

Did you know that it is the largest consumer market in the world?

The US has a high GDP per capita of $63.5k, an enormous ecommerce spend of $709.78 billion in 2020, and a large population of 328.2 million people. It’s the holy grail for ecommerce businesses.

Pros:

• High average disposable income
• Enormous ecommerce spend
• Large population
• Many fulfillment centers available (and thus fast shipping)
• Ecommerce sales vs. In-store sales ratio is rising each year
• English speaking country

Cons:

• One of the most expensive countries to target
• Huge competition

2. United Kingdom

The second best country to target as a dropshipper is the United Kingdom. It features a highly developed ecommerce market, a GDP per capita of $40.28k, and the world’s highest ecommerce spend per capita of $4,201.

If you’re looking for dropshipping suppliers in the United Kingdom, then check out this article here. It covers the 15 best UK dropshipping suppliers.

Pros:

• Highest ecommerce spend per capita
• 98% of the population speaks English
• A large population of 66.6 million people

Cons:

• High competition in the dropshipping market

Bonus country: Ireland

Whenever you’re targeting the United Kingdom, you can also target Ireland.

Just like for the UK, Ireland’s main language is English. And, with a GDP per capita of $83.8k, people in Ireland earn even more on average in comparison with the UK!

So, whenever the UK is performing very well for your ad campaigns (or not), you still have Ireland to advertise to!

3. Australia

Another great country to target as a dropshipper lies in Oceania.

Can you guess which one it is?

Yes, Australia, of course!

This country features a rapidly-growing ecommerce market with:

• A big ecommerce spend per capita of $1,764.
• A social network penetration of 79.9%.
• And the ecommerce revenue annual growth rate is expected to be 5.8%!

You can check out our infographic below on why Australia is such a great country to target:

If you’re looking for dropshipping suppliers in Australia, then check out this article here. It covers the 16 best suppliers in Australia.

Pros:

• Lots of people are active on social media
• Less expensive to target in comparison with the US
• High ecommerce revenue annual growth rate
• Each resident spends almost 150$ a month on ecommerce purchases

Cons:

• Shipping could be more expensive and could take longer

4. Canada

Canada is next in line with an ecommerce spend per capita of $1,746 which is very similar to Australia’s.

Canada offers 26.1 million online buyers, and the share of millennial online shoppers is 28%.

If you’re looking for dropshipping suppliers in Canada, then check out this article here. It covers the 12 best suppliers in Canada.

Pros:

• Average ecommerce spend per capita is high
• English speaking population
• A high share of millennial online shoppers

Cons:

• Often targeted by US dropshippers
• More competition

5. Germany

Germany is another great country to target as a dropshipper. It is Europe’s largest economy, and after Russia, it’s also Europe’s most populous country.

If you’re looking for dropshipping suppliers in Europe, then check out this article here. It covers 14 of the best suppliers that ship from Europe. We included both free and paid options for you!

Germans have a good income since the GDP per capita is $45.7k.

The predicted online sales for 2021 are €103.4 billion, which is why it isn’t hard to pick a piece of this huge sales cake.

Pros:

• High GDP per capita
• Large population
• A high percentage of English speakers compared to other European countries
• Less competition in comparison with the US or UK
• With a German dropshipping store, you can target Germany, Austria, and Switzerland all at once

Cons:

• Germans are known for loving high-quality products, so make sure that you don’t sell cheap Chinese bad quality products on your store
• Not everyone speaks English

6. France

France is one of the biggest ecommerce countries in the world. It’s ranked as the sixth biggest ecommerce market worldwide and in Europe, only Germany and the United Kingdom are bigger.

France is a great country to target as a dropshipper, especially if you make a French dropshipping store. The French are known for loving their own language, which makes it more difficult to succeed if you target them with an English store.

With a French store, however, you will have great potential in this country. France comes in at rank 4 of the highest ecommerce spend per capita with a yearly spend of $1,946.

Pros:

• Lots of potential customers
• French people are one of the biggest ecommerce spenders in the world
• Best for fashion and cultural products

Cons:

• Full scaling potential is only for French dropshipping stores
• With a French dropshipping store, you can’t target other countries like Germany or the UK anymore

7. Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Denmark)

First of all, the countries in Scandinavia have a lot of spending power. People are used to high prices.

If you’ve ever been to Scandinavia, you will know that those countries are expensive.

Norway, for instance, has a GDP per capita of $67.3k (compared to the US’s $63.5k).

The beauty of targeting Scandinavian countries when dropshipping is that you can sell your products for high prices, while not paying an expensive Scandinavian factory or paying a lot of rent for a physical store.

Pros:

• Enormous GDP per capita (Spending power)
• Increase the price of your products without a lower conversion rate
• More than 85 percent of the population speaks English

Cons:

• Not the biggest population (21 million people)

8. Spain

When thinking about countries in Europe to target, Spain probably won’t be the first country to pops into your mind.

But you should definitely consider this country for dropshipping!

As you can see here, Spain is one of the top emerging ecommerce countries in Europe, with a growth rate of around 18% year over year!

Pros:

• Top emerging ecommerce country
• Large population
• Less competitive than Germany or France (therefore lower CPMs)
• Spanish people are used to slightly longer delivery times
• Great for a Spanish dropshipping store

Cons:

• Only 27.7% of the population speaks English
• Not the best GDP per capita (source)

9. United Arab Emirates

Ecommerce in the United Arab Emirates is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. Many experts predict a shift away from the typical shopping experience and towards online shopping and ecommerce transactions.

Ecommerce sales are expected to grow by an average of 23% between 2018 and 2022.

Not only that, but the UAE also ranks number 1 on the list with the highest social network penetration, coming in at 99%!

Pros:

• Highest social network penetration in the world
• Expected exponential ecommerce growth
• Suitable for high-ticket dropshipping

Cons:

• A population of just 9.6 million people

10. Israel

The final country on this list is Israel.

You might not expect this, but Israelis actually spend more annually on ecommerce purchases ($1,361) than Germans do ($1,283).

This is one of the biggest reasons that it’s a good country to target as a dropshipper!

Not only that, but ecommerce in Israel is growing at a rapid rate of 30.1% year over year!

Pros:

• High ecommerce spend per capita
• 30.1% year over year ecommerce revenue growth

Cons:

• Smaller population (8.9 million)

The 5 worst countries to target for dropshipping

Now that you have an idea of what countries to target when dropshipping, I will now go over some of the countries you should exclude in your dropshipping ads!

1. Indonesia

The first country on this list is Indonesia.

Curious to know why?

Well, it has one of the highest fraud rates for ecommerce transactions in the world. According to research, 44.1% of online transactions in Indonesia are actually fraudulent.

Also, the GDP per capita in Indonesia is just $3.9k, so people won’t have a lot of money to spend on your products.

2. South Africa

Next up is South Africa!

South African people rank the highest (or lowest) on a special ranking: percentage of salary spent on ecommerce purchases.

The average South African spends only 1.04% of their annual salary on online purchases, which amounts to $171.

This means that the chance of you selling a product in South Africa is very slim. This is definitely one of the dropshipping countries to avoid.

Note: If you’re interested in learning more about dropshipping in South Africa, then check out this article:
Dropshipping in South Africa: Is It Possible in 2021?

3. China

China has a huge population, but this isn’t a country you would want to target when dropshipping.

Often, dropshippers only source their products in China, not sell them.

Households in China are used to shop online for cheap prices from massive ecommerce brands like Alibaba, Taobao, or Jingdong.

Fun fact: Did you know that Chinese people actually aren’t allowed to purchase products on AliExpress?

Advertising in China doesn’t work that well, since most Chinese people will know that you’re just dropshipping from AliExpress or Alibaba. As a beginner, you should definitely stay away from targeting this country.

However, if you’re interested, there’s something called ‘reverse dropshipping’, which you can learn more about here!

4. India

Just like China, India has a massive population of 1.353 billion people.

As you can see here, the population numbers of China and India are actually very close, and it looks like India is even going to overtake China in terms of the total population.

When targeting India, you will notice that you get insanely cheap clicks, however, you will sell next to nothing.

For beginners, it’s extra hard to dropship in India since more than half of all online purchases there are made based on Cash On Delivery. This payment method often goes hand in hand with higher transaction costs for you, which will make your margins even smaller.

5. Russia

We are going to end this list of countries to exclude when dropshipping with Russia.

Russia is on this list for two main reasons.

First of all, AliExpress is insanely popular in Russia. Most of the people already use it there to buy stuff online, so they will probably know that you’re dropshipping if you try to sell them something. When looking at reviews on AliExpress, you will notice that there are tons of Russian reviews on most products.

The second reason is Russia’s bad postal package system. The delivery times will typically be longer than one month, which will cause you to get many chargebacks, PayPal holds, and all other bad stuff that comes with it.

Conclusion: avoid Russia when dropshipping!

How to include & exclude countries when advertising on Facebook?

With all of this information and these countries in mind, you are almost ready to start making your first Facebook Ad campaign.

Did you notice that I said almost?

Because first, make sure to read our article about the 13 Most Common Facebook Ad Mistakes.

This article will go over all common Facebook Ad mistakes beginners make and is very valuable. By reading that article, you will probably save yourself some advertising budget!

Now that you know what mistakes you must avoid when advertising on Facebook, you might be wondering, “How do I include & exclude countries when advertising on Facebook?”

It’s actually very simple!

The setting for this is located in Ad Set -> Audience:

Once you are there, you will see the “Locations” section of the Facebook Ad setup.

To include a country, make sure that the Include/Exclude option is set to “Include” and type in your country of choice in the search bar!

Excluding a country is the same process, but you should make sure that the Include/Exclude option is set to “Exclude”!

Pro tip: Make sure to select “People living in this location”, and not “People living in or recently in this location”.

By selecting the second option, you will also target people who have recently been in that country, such as business people or tourists, which are less likely to buy from you and may place an order with the shipping address to a country you don’t normally ship to.

If you’re interested in learning more about using Facebook Ads for dropshipping, then don’t forget to check out our complete beginner’s guide here.

Conclusion

There it is!

You should now have enough information to decide to which countries you are going to target with your dropshipping ads!

When making that decision, remember to keep the characteristics in mind that I’ve told you about. They determine if a country is good to target or should be avoided!

But you shouldn’t just think about the country itself.

For example, another thing to consider is your supplier. Does he or she ship to the countries you have to chosen to sell to, and if he does, what will the delivery time be?

To conclude, there is much to learn about dropshipping. Keep in mind that this isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but a real business.

Luckily, we have lots of articles on Do Dropshipping that will cover pretty much everything you need to know to succeed with dropshipping.

So, whenever you are in need of specific information, just search on the blog and you will likely find it. And, in case you don’t, contact us and we will likely make a new article from your question!

Have a great rest of your day!

Getting Started with Dropshipping in 2021

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, then I suggest reading this 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 2021. It’s like a dropshipping course, but then for free!

Reading this article will surely help you to get started and to 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 Complete Guide 2021: Create Your Store!

And here are the articles I suggest you read next:

• The 17 Best Free Dropshipping Courses | Learn for Free!
• 23 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
• Dropshipping Startup Checklist: 10 Things to Do Before Starting
• How to Find Winning Dropshipping Products? (Product Research Methods)

And also, if you didn’t create a Shopify account yet (to get your dropshipping store online), then you can click here to get a free 14-day trial!