Are you interested in starting dropshipping for free? Awesome, but starting a dropshipping store still equals starting a real business, a business where you not only need to put time and effort into but also your money. At one point, you will need to spend money to earn money!
Dropshipping for free, most people dream about doing that. The good thing is that you can start dropshipping for free. But “unfortunately”, you’re still starting a real business. Sooner or later, you will need to spend money to make money. Please don’t believe all these “gurus” that dropshipping can be done for free!
So, follow me below to learn more about starting with dropshipping for free!
What Is Dropshipping and Why Do People Do It?
Let’s start by understanding what starting a dropshipping business means.
If you already understand it, then you can click here to scroll down to the first tip to start dropshipping for free!
If not, then I will explain it really simple to you:
- You got an online store where you sell products, but you don’t have any of these products in your storage, or in your house. (You’re not holding any inventory)
- When someone places an order on your dropshipping store, then you place that same order directly with your dropshipping supplier. Don’t worry. There is a lot of automation software out there that helps you with this. For example, DSers, or these 14 DSers alternatives.
- Then your dropshipping supplier will handle the rest (the order fulfillment). Think about preparing the package and sending the order straight to your customer.
- Now your customer will receive the package straight from your dropshipping supplier, and you never touched the product in between!
For the visual learners, this is how it will look like then:
The most common question people have now is, won’t my customer know that the package didn’t come from me?
For example, aren’t there any advertisements or recipes from the supplier in the package?
No.
You just need to make sure that your supplier accepts dropshipping and blind dropshipping.
You can learn more about blind dropshipping by reading this article here.
Alright, but why are people interested in dropshipping? And why do people want to dropship?
Most people that are researching about dropshipping, and want to start/are running a dropshipping store do this for one or more of these reasons:
- Earning more money. If done right, then dropshipping could earn you a lot. Just take a look at these success stories.
- Being their own boss. Some people don’t like to work for a boss, so they search for other ways to earn an income.
- Location-independent work. A dropshipping store can be run from just about anywhere with an internet connection. As long as you can communicate with suppliers and customers easily, you can run and manage your business. This is also called being a Digital Nomad.
If you’re interested in learning more about dropshipping, then I suggest reading this article:
Dropshipping for Beginners: What Is It & How to Start Today?
5 Tips to Start Dropshipping for Free in 2023!
I hope the beginning was helpful for you in case you didn’t understand the dropshipping business model yet or if you didn’t know why people do dropshipping.
So, let’s begin with the 5 amazing tips to start dropshipping for free!
1. You can start dropshipping for free, but you will need to spend money sooner or later
This article will guide you on how to start dropshipping for free, but please note that you will need to spend money sooner or later.
Starting a dropshipping store is the same as starting a real business.
Yes, it’s a lot cheaper to start in comparison to opening a retail store, and the taxes might be different if you’re just starting, but you’re still starting a real business! (More information about dropshipping taxes here)
This means that, sooner or later, you will need to spend money to make money.
I know that a lot of so-called “gurus” (more about these “gurus” below) talk about easily starting a dropshipping business with zero investment, but it is simply not true.
And if it’s true, then it’s almost not possible for a beginner.
You will need to learn so many new things like dropshipping, creating ads, deciding which apps to start with, and ecommerce in general.
And you will probably make a lot of mistakes, which will probably cost you money.
But that’s great! It’s great to make mistakes. Just take a look at this amazing quote:
I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.
Neil Gaiman
I’m sorry if that just burst your whole dream.
But don’t worry. I’ll guide you through some amazing tips that will help you to get started for free.
This tip for you will be that you need to understand that you can start dropshipping for free, but you will need to save some money to keep your dropshipping store running!
If you want to learn more about the costs of running a dropshipping store, then I suggest reading the article I linked to below:
Complete Guide: Can You Start Dropshipping Without Money?
2. It is possible to extend your Shopify trial
This tip is for people that want to get their dropshipping store online with the help of the Shopify ecommerce platform.
If you’re not sure yet about which platform to choose, then I suggest reading one of these articles below:
- The 5 Best Ecommerce Platforms for Dropshipping in 2023
- How To Get Your Dropshipping Store Online in 5 Steps? (2023)
If you’re still reading this now, then that probably means that you’re interested in Shopify!
Well, I got great news to push it a bit further before you start paying your monthly Shopify payment.
You can ask the Shopify support to extend your trial one time! I saw that somewhere online, but I thought I ask it to them just to be sure:
The only thing is that your checkout is disabled while on a trial, but it’s still great to have some extra time to create an amazing Shopify store!
3. Prepare, prepare, and prepare!
Yes, you read that right haha!
Prepare!
Definitely, if you want to go with Shopify, then it’s great if you prepared the things that I’ll cover below!
This way, you won’t pay Shopify anything extra while you’re still preparing everything for your dropshipping store.
And it’s not only if you’re on an ecommerce platform like Shopify, but it’s also true if you’re hosting your dropshipping store yourself with, for example, WooCommerce.
Hosting yourself will cost you more money upfront (you will pay yearly instead of monthly), but it will most likely save you money in the end.
So it’s great that you prepared these things before paying your yearly bill for your host!
Another amazing option is Sell The Trend Shops, an ecommerce platform you can currently use for free!
With Sell The Trend Shops, you get the following features:
- A dropshipping store ($30 per month value at Shopify)
- A complete store automation tool (+/-$50 per month value)
- A customer reviews app (+/-$10 per month value)
- A currency converter app (+/-$10 per month value)
Awesome, right?
To learn more about Sell The Trend Shops, check out our full review of it here!
So, what can you prepare before opening your dropshipping store?
If you’re interested in learning what you can prepare before you open your dropshipping store, then you’re in luck!
I wrote another article where I cover 10 things that you can do before starting with dropshipping. If you’re interested, then you can click below:
Dropshipping Startup Checklist: 10 Things to Do Before Starting
4. Don’t spend money to learn dropshipping!
Alright, this is an important one if you want to start dropshipping for free.
Please don’t go into this with the mindset that you want to dropship for free, but then you purchase a dropshipping course of $500…
That’s a bit weird for me, I’m sorry.
Plus, you need to be careful, there are a lot of “internet gurus” out there claiming you will be rich the next day (or very soon) if you purchase their course and follow them step-by-step.
Maybe you have met them before; they are mostly found on YouTube.
The only goal that these gurus have is to sell you something, like a course. And trust me a lot of 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 2023 for Free?
You can get so much information from that already, and you didn’t have to pay for anything.
Well, okay, maybe your internet connection!
5. You can advertise your dropshipping store and products for free
Alright, this is an amazing one as well.
There are options out there that will help you keep your marketing spend on $0.
Just keep in mind that these free traffic tactics will take time and consistency. Don’t expect to start today with trying to get free traffic, and then expect free traffic tomorrow already!
One example is organic traffic (or SEO); if I write an article on Do Dropshipping, then it will take around 6 months before Google has ranked it correctly. Sometimes even longer.
This could be shorter when your website or store is older and you published more content already, but if you’re just a beginner, then this will definitely be a tough pill to swallow!
Because you might decide to focus on free traffic, like organic traffic, but to know that it will take a long time before Google will show it in the search results (if they ever will), it might make you decide to not try it at all.
If you’re interested in learning more about getting free traffic to your dropshipping store, then I suggest reading my other articles that I linked to below:
- SEO for Dropshipping Stores: 7 Ways to Increase Your Organic Traffic
- 8 Amazing Ways to Get Free Traffic to Your Dropshipping Store in 2023
Do You Want to Learn More? Here Are My Recommendations!
Are you currently dropshipping? Or do you want to start dropshipping?
Awesome! I’ll link to the articles below that I recommend you read next.
This way, you will be fully prepared to take your dropshipping store to the next level in 2023!
I just want to say one thing; my blog doesn’t endorse any paid dropshipping courses. (I hate them, they are the reason I created this blog)
If you’re interested in learning why I think paid dropshipping courses are a waste of money, then you can click here.
Below you will find the articles that I suggest you read next:
- Dropshipping Basics: 7 Surprising Things to Know as Beginner
- 23 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
- Shopify Dropshipping Complete Guide 2023: Create Your Store!
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 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months (don’t forget to extend it!)
Conclusion
You made it to the end! Congratulations!
I hope that my tips will help you further with your quest to start with dropshipping for free.
Just please understand that starting a dropshipping store is like starting a real business.
Sooner or later, you will need to spend money to make money.
It’s wise to learn a lot now about dropshipping, creating videos, ecommerce in general, and so on; and to earn more money in the meantime via your job!
Plus, keep in mind that learning more about digital marketing is important as well.
If you’re wondering now how fast you can earn money with dropshipping, then you can check out this great article here.
And if you got any other tips to start dropshipping for free or if you have any questions regarding dropshipping, then let me know by commenting below or contacting me directly by pressing the “Contact Us” button at the top!
I wish you the best if you’re going to start with dropshipping now!
8 Comments
You just saved me so much damn money! Thank you so much. I thought it might be impossible to find actual legitimate free content but it also never occurred to actually just search it out either. I get so mad because usually when I try to go to YouTube university to learn something the gurus seem to always be charging a lot of money and I hate that. I understand being paid for services but at least make content affordable. I vow to do this very same thing with my own blog and website that I am currently working on now. Again, you just saved me money I didn’t really have in the first place!
Hi Tristan,
Thank you so much for your amazing comment! Your comment made my day 😊
I wish you the best with your blog (and everything else you’re going to do), and let me know if you ever have any questions!
– Richard
Thanks for this Great piece. I started building my store on shopify but it proved to expensive for my budget. so I decided to contact someone who is a web developer to build the website for me, please when i have the website ready where do I go from there?
Thanks again
Hi,
Thank you for your comment! Great question, I think you’re talking about WordPress & WooCommerce, right?
If so, you can check out our WooCommerce dropshipping guide here.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
– Richard
I really like the way you explain the dropshipping thank you so much you make my way to learn free i really feel happy to learn and then earn please pray for me to earn as soon as possible.
Hi,
Thank you for your amazing comment! I wish you the best with everything 😊
Don’t forget that you can always contact us if you have any questions!
– Richard
Thank you so much! Ive learned so much by just glancing through your blog. I was trying to get an idea how much opening a store would cost me, and I gotta say your content is great and surprising, I was prepared to pay at least 5000. or more to start.
My question is, what has held me back is SEO, I know it can be expensive, and organic time consuming, as well as taking time to see results, so Ive been contemplating starting out with Amazon, or ebay since I have 500+ men’s suits, ties, shoes, (150 pairs in boxes) my bf passed away and loved beautiful suits some in unique fabrics, and they all look new, I have unusual sweaters with leather on some too, and designer jeans with leather appliques, and lion heads embroidered on back pocket, I believe their called Coogie jeans, and sold for 150. – 200. and a dozen high end leather coats and jackets. So it made sense to open a resale store, but I also have a ton of products, some new in the boxes, he had a HSN habit for a while. Lol So I figured ebay for the clothing after researching platforms, and Amazon for the products, I even have a brand new top of the line mountain bike that with a flip of a switch turns into a street bike with 24 speeds he bought for 800. and road around the block 3 or 4 times, and car rack for it. But the only thing keeping me from signing up for my own store with Shopify is Im overwhelmed by having to get traffic myself, I have had a business online and the SEO, and e-mail lists, article writing was a lot harder 20 yrs ago. I thought Id start with Amazon and ebay and their help with advertizing, and possibly move up to my own store after learning what Im doing. Now your blog has me 2nd guessing my options, as I had no clue about dropshipping, and learned a lot just in an hour reading your blog, and I’ll definitely be back to read more of the wonderful articles. Have you done any selling on other platforms like Amazon, and how long did it take till customers were finding your store and you really started making money from it? What your doing for other sellers wanting to get started is just amazing, and again thank you so much. Deb Kelly
Hi Deborah,
Thank you so much for your amazing comment! And I’m sorry to hear that your bf passed away.
Those are great questions, but we’re mainly focused here for now on the dropshipping part with an ecommerce platform like Shopify or WooCommerce – rather than selling directly on Amazon or eBay. (You can read more about that here)
Secondly, we have a beginner’s guide coming up that will include the basics of how to choose a marketing method (like Facebook Ads) – I’ll update this comment once it’s live, and you can also subscribe to our email newsletter to be updated. You can, however, already check out our marketing articles here, but that could be overwhelming if you’re indeed not sure what to pick first.
Update: You can find the beginner’s guide to picking the right marketing method here.
Let me know if that leaves you with any more questions and good luck with everything!
– Richard