Do you want to start a business but have no money to invest upfront?
If so, dropshipping might be the perfect solution for you.
With dropshipping, you don’t need a big budget—or any budget at all—to get started.
If you know what tools and strategies to use, you can start a dropshipping business without spending any money.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to do just that, step by step.
Let’s start!
Starting a dropshipping business with no money in 5 steps
Here are the exact steps to take:
1. Use free tools to find a dropshipping product
One of the first steps of starting a dropshipping business is finding the right product to sell.
This is super important because not every product will sell well.
You want something that people want to buy, but is not overly competitive.
Luckily, you don’t need to spend money to figure this out—there are plenty of free tools you can use to find winning products.
Here is an overview of some of the best free product research tools:
| Research tool | Pricing | Read Review | Try Out? |
| AliExpress Dropshipping Center | Free | AliExpress Dropshipping Center Review | Click here |
| Thieve | Free / $15 / $49 per month | Thieve Review | Click here |
| Sell The Trend | $49.97 / $99.97 per month | Sell The Trend Review | Free 7-day trial |
| Niche Scraper | $49.95 per month (or $13 per month with our discount code) | Niche Scraper Review | Use code 'DoDropshipping' for 75% off (register here) |
| Dropship.io | $29 / $49 / $79 per month | Dropship.io Review | Free 7-day trial |
As you can see, not all tools in the table above are free, but most of them at least provide a free trial that should give you enough time to create a list of potential products to sell.
For example, Sell The Trend is one of our favorite dropshipping product research tools:
It's a paid tool, but you can explore all its features for free during a 7-day trial.
In these seven days, you could find so many products to sell with a feature like NEXUS:
Full review: Sell The Trend Review: Best Dropshipping Tool in 2025?
2. Set up your dropshipping store with no money
Now that you’ve found a product to sell, the next step is setting up your online store.
Normally, we always recommend using Shopify for starting a dropshipping store.
Although the platform comes with a 3-day free trial (which you can extend once as well), it costs $39 per month after it ends.
(However, on the plus side, Shopify has some great free apps and free themes, so you may also save some money there!)
The good news is that there are several other platforms you can use to build your dropshipping store for free:
Ecwid
Ecwid is an ecommerce website builder that you can use to set up a dropshipping store for free.
It offers live support, an Ecwid app store, and even an Ecwid mobile app to manage your business on the go!
Ecwid merchants have already accumulated over $4.6 billion in revenue, so the potential is definitely there.
One note is that Ecwid’s free plan does lack some features. For example, you are limited to just five products in your store and won’t have access to Ecwid’s support:
Shift4Shop (free for US merchants only)
Shift4Shop is an ecommerce platform that, according to its homepage, has 200,000 customers and processes approximately $200 billion annually.
However, the free pricing is why Shift4Shop is unique.
Shift4Shop's free plan includes hosting and a long list of features that are usually only available for higher-priced plans elsewhere:
The downside?
Well, if you have a sharp eye, you have already seen it in the small letters at the bottom of the pricing page.
The free plan is only available for US customers!
So, if you don’t qualify for the free plan, you will end up paying a monthly fee similar to Shopify's.
Tip: Another website builder with a free pricing plan is Big Cartel, but it's more focused on artists.
3. Find a free supplier for your dropshipping business
Now it’s time to find a supplier who will provide the products you want to sell.
Several platforms connect you to suppliers for free.
These platforms make it easy to browse products, import them to your store, and fulfill orders automatically.
Here are some of the most popular ones:
| Supplier | Primary Location | Pricing | Read Review |
| AliExpress | China | Free | AliExpress Review |
| CJdropshipping | China | Free | CJdropshipping Review |
| Alibaba | China | Free | Alibaba Review |
| Modalyst | US/EU | $0 to $90 per month | Modalyst Review |
| Wiio | China | Free | Wiio Review |
| HyperSKU | China | Free | HyperSKU Review |
| Spocket | US/EU | $39.99 to $299 per month | Spocket Review |
If you are especially interested in suppliers that are located in a specific region, you can find them here:
- Best suppliers in Canada
- Best suppliers in the United States
- Best suppliers in Europe
- Best suppliers in the United Kingdom
- Best suppliers in China
- Best suppliers in Australia
- Best suppliers in New Zealand
When you’re just starting, it’s a good idea to keep things simple.
Focus on a few products from one or two suppliers, and as your business grows, you can start expanding your product range.
4. Build out your dropshipping store with free apps
You can now start adding some extra features to make your store run smoothly and look more professional.
Once again, you can do this without spending any money by using free apps and tools.
Here are some essential types of apps you’ll want to consider:
DIY branding and design
- Canva. Canva is a free design tool that lets you create logos, banners, and other visuals for your store. It’s super easy to use, even if you have no design experience.
- Free themes. Most website builders offer free themes that you can use to design your store. You just need to customize them with your colors, fonts, and product images:
Inventory management
You want to keep track of your stock, even if you’re not physically handling the products.
Apps like DSers will automatically sync your supplier’s inventory with your store so you don’t accidentally sell out-of-stock items.
It also makes order fulfillment super easy—just click a button, and your supplier will handle the rest.
Customer support
Providing excellent customer service is important for any ecommerce store, including dropshipping.
You can use a free app like Chatway to offer live chat on your store and allow your customers to ask questions and get help in real time:
Product reviews
Adding customer reviews to your product pages can build trust and increase sales.
An app like Judge.me lets you display real reviews from previous customers, showing new visitors that others have had positive experiences with your products:
Google Analytics
This free tool from Google gives you insights into your store’s traffic.
You can see which pages are most popular, how long people stay on your site, and what sources (like social media or search engines) are bringing in the most visitors.
Setting up Google Analytics is easy, and it gives you tons of valuable data to help improve your marketing strategy!
Payment gateways
You’ll want to make it easy for customers to pay for their orders, and luckily, most platforms offer free payment gateway options.
You can use options PayPal, Stripe, or Square to accept payments directly into your bank account.
These platforms don’t charge any setup fees—you’ll only pay a small transaction fee when you make a sale!
5. Marketing your dropshipping business with zero budget
Last but not least, it’s time to focus on marketing.
With a little creativity and some free tools, you can start generating traffic to your store with no money.
Just keep in mind that these free traffic tactics will take time and consistency. Don’t expect to start today and see traffic tomorrow already!
Here is a list of some free marketing methods you can try:
- Search engine optimization (SEO). Build a blog on your dropshipping store or optimize your store for search engines! (More info here.)
- Instagram/Facebook. Build an organic Instagram or Facebook page, advertise your store in Facebook Groups, or sell on the Facebook Marketplace.
- Pinterest. Advertise your dropshipping store by posting content on a Pinterest account! (More info here.)
At last, if you do want to invest some money into marketing (we recommend it), here is a nice infographic that can help you choose the marketing method that fits you:
3 More tips for dropshipping with no money in 2025
We hope the steps above have convinced you that it is possible to start a dropshipping business with no money.
But we have some more tips for you!
1. Sooner or later, you will need to spend money
It's totally possible to start your dropshipping business without money, but at some point, you’ll need to spend some money to grow.
Don’t worry, though.
You don’t have to save up just yet!
In fact, the beauty of dropshipping is that you can start small, make some sales, and then reinvest the profits back into your business.
In that sense, starting a dropshipping store is the same as creating a real business.
Yes, it's a lot cheaper to start in comparison to opening a retail store, but you're still starting a real business!
This means that, sooner or later, you will need to spend money to make money.
For example, while you can definitely use free marketing methods to get started, paid ads (like Facebook Ads or Google Ads) can help you reach a bigger audience more quickly.
When you’re ready to scale, investing in paid advertising can bring in more traffic and, hopefully, more sales.
Likewise, free subdomains (like yourstore.myshopify.com) work fine in the beginning.
But eventually, you’ll want to invest in a custom domain (like www.yourstore.com).
A custom domain makes your store look more professional and trustworthy, and it’s a small investment—usually around $10–$15 a year.
If you want to learn more about the typical costs of running a dropshipping store, we suggest reading the article below:
Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money?
2. You can get your first 3 months at Shopify for just $1 per month
This tip is for people who want to get their dropshipping store online with Shopify:
With this great offer from Shopify, you will get a free 3-day trial + 3 months for $1 each.
This means you can enjoy your trial for even longer; the only downside is that it will cost you $1 per month.
However, that’s a lot less than the normal $39/month price!
Also, a great benefit of this $1 plan is that you can start selling! (Normally, with the trial, the checkout is disabled, but that’s not the case for this deal)
Click this link here to sign up for your extended Shopify trial!
Tip: Not sure yet about this Shopify deal? Check out our Shopify 3 Months for $1/Month deal page here!
3. There's no need to pay for dropshipping courses
When you first start researching dropshipping, you’ll probably come across a lot of online courses promising to teach you the “secrets” to success.
These courses often come with hefty price tags, and it’s easy to feel like you need them to get started.
But here’s the truth: you don’t need to pay for dropshipping courses.
So, please don't go into this with the mindset that you want to start a dropshipping business with no money but, at the same time, purchase a dropshipping course for $997...
The only goal that these gurus have is to sell you something, like a course.
And trust me, many people purchase these courses. You can learn more about these 'gurus' here.
The thing is that you can learn so much about dropshipping, ecommerce, digital marketing, and so on for free!
Just take a look at this article:
Where to Learn Dropshipping and Ecommerce in 2025 for Free?
You can get so much information from that already, and you don’t have to pay for anything.
Well, okay, maybe your internet connection!
Summary
Before we go, we've created a quick summary of this article for you so you can easily remember it:
- You can start a dropshipping business without any money by using free tools.
- Use free product research tools like AliExpress Dropshipping Center and free trials from others to find products to sell.
- Set up your dropshipping store on platforms that offer free plans, like Ecwid or Shift4Shop.
- Find suppliers using free platforms such as CJdropshipping.
- Use free apps like Canva for branding, DSers for inventory management, and Chatway for customer support to build out your store.
- Market your store using free methods like SEO, social media (Instagram, Facebook), and Pinterest.
- Although you can start without money, eventually, you’ll need to invest profits back into your business to grow.
- Shopify offers a deal with a 3-day free trial and a first month for just $1 to help you get started.
Conclusion
Starting a dropshipping business without money might sound challenging, but as we’ve seen, it’s absolutely possible if you’re smart with your resources.
From finding the right products and setting up your store to promoting your business for free, the key is to take action.
You don’t need a lot of money to get started—you just need determination, a willingness to learn, and a bit of patience.
Of course, as your business grows, you’ll eventually want to reinvest in tools and strategies that can help you scale.
But for now, focus on getting that first sale, building a brand, and learning as you go.
Good luck!
Want to learn more about dropshipping?
Ready to move your dropshipping store to the next level? Check out the articles below:
- How to Start Dropshipping for Free in 2025? (5 Unusual Tips)
- 24 Best Free Dropshipping Websites to Grow Your Store (2025)
- 8 Best Free Dropshipping Suppliers in 2025 (+ Niche Suppliers Included)
Plus, don’t forget to check out our in-depth guide on how to start dropshipping here!
