1. Find trending products—they’re perfect for a dropshipping business

Products that are currently trending are great options for your dropshipping store’s inventory. When you can’t figure out the bestselling products, try to look into which products are trending. If you manage to source trending dropshipping products for your store before other entrepreneurs discover them, you’ll be able to take advantage of the low marketing fees and establish your brand as a top retailer of those products.

If you’re interested in finding products that are currently trending, or products that are likely to be popular in the future, you can check out the following resources:

• Kickstarter
• Wish
• Google Trends

Take a look through these platforms and make a note if you find any products with huge profit potential. If you do decide on sourcing trendy products for your dropshipping store’s inventory, take some time to think about how you’re going to market them to your audience. We’ve compiled a list of the top trending products for you to take a look at.

2. Finding a niche dropshipping product

Targeting a niche market with your dropshipping store can be a great way to generate revenue. 

Take a look at Google Trends and do some research into the top niches that have high potential—these could be good niches for gaining a competitive edge in the dropshipping market. Another idea is to target a seasonal niche like inflatable toys, which is likely to sell well during the summer season. 

You’ll have less competition if you start selling items around niche product trends, as you’ll be reaching a smaller audience. This means that your marketing efforts will be much cheaper, especially if you’re thinking of using Facebook advertising or Google Ads. It’ll also be easier to rank your store on search engines when you run a niche dropshipping store, which is good for your business’s long-term growth..

It’s critical to note that starting off with a dropship niche idea doesn’t mean you won’t be able to expand into different areas later on. When you’ve cemented your store as a leader in that dropshipping niche, you can try adding related products that you believe your current customers will be interested in. This will allow you to branch out and target new customers. Alternatively, you can create an online general store and leverage the branding of your niche store to attract, engage and convert customers. 

If you’re looking to play it safe with profitable dropshipping niches, we’ve got you covered there, too. 

3. Competitor product research

Another way to get dropshipping product ideas is to look at possible competitors and research their products. Try to discover how they source and sell items. Maybe you can decipher their pricing strategy or possibly forecast potential new products that they will sell. By being one step ahead of them, you can remain competitive. 

If competitors are selling a product you are considering, but you can’t source this product at a similar price, problems could arise. It would be a good idea to cross this product off your list at this moment. Once you build a strong brand and customer loyalty, you can come back to this product option.

Competitor product research shouldn’t last all day. Doing a quick Google search for a product can highlight a range of competitors in seconds. From there, a quick scan of the websites will provide you with enough information to decide what things to sell online.

4. Research product hashtags on TikTok

There’s a lot to be gained from the product-related hashtags you see on TikTok. You can find ideas for your store’s inventory by seeing what items have been featured in these tags. Some tags to check out include #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt and #viralproduct.

Spend time on videos with the most engagement—if no one commented in the past seven days, the product is likely not that exciting for the audience. Be careful of fake comments, because they might cause you to choose the wrong products to sell online. 

You can use the same tactic on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to get more product ideas for dropshipping.

5. Search social shopping sites for products that sell

Another great way to generate ideas for dropshipping products to sell in your online store is by looking at social shopping platforms. Social shopping sites are essentially ecommerce platforms where the shopping experience is shared with a social network of people. Sharing can include liking, commenting, recommending, or discussing products with others. The main premise for sellers on these sites is using the recommendations and influence of others to gain more sales.

Social shopping sites include:

• Pinterest
• Wanelo
• Etsy
• The Fancy

Look around these websites and discover how people use them. Notice how each platform’s customer reviews are prominent and feedback is important to the UI. This makes it easy for you to find the best products to dropship, as you can quickly identify things that people love and are raving about.

6. Join online communities to find products to dropship

There are tons of online communities and forums that you can join to research what products are high in demand. Facebook and Reddit have hundreds of open and closed communities that can help you understand the needs and wants of people in certain areas of the world. If you want to limit your dropshipping business to a country or region, you can restrict your research to groups in these areas. 

Here are some online communities I recommend joining:

• Shut Up And Take My Money
• Wholesale Products to Sell
• BestProducts.com

Alternatively, you can open your search to many different areas or just search for niche groups that have people from around the world in them. There are many worldwide groups and forums around areas like veganism, gardening, fitness, and many other subjects. Check these groups out and notice if any products or pain points are mentioned. If problems are discussed, find a product you could sell to overcome this.

7. Go old school with Google 

Google remains one of the best tools to find dropshipping products that sell. Simply type the phrase “products” following your niche—baby, wellness, fashion, etc.—and you’ll be presented with many websites discussing or featuring relevant items. Bookmark the ones that pique your interest so you can revisit them later to research items for your store. 

You can also try out these queries:

• People are going crazy over this product
• This item went viral 
• Most interesting items in 2022
• Unique last-minute gift ideas

Go through the results and you’re likely to find great products to offer to your customers.

8. Use a product research tool

A product research tool is a software that uses sophisticated algorithms to analyze millions of products across different marketplaces. Its purpose is to help store owners evaluate an item’s potential based on data points like current order volumes, sales history, and the number of Shopify stores selling this product.

There are several dropshipping product research tools available in the market, but we recommend sticking with the tried-and-tested ones, like Sell the Trend.

Sell the Trend helps you find thousands of winning products to dropship based on hard data. It also lets you import the items into your Shopify store and even create Facebook video ads from AliExpress product images so you can market them to your customers. 

Other product research tools worth checking out include Niche Scraper, Ecomhunt, and AliShark.

Key considerations when selecting products to dropship

Determine your price range

Like with all businesses, you need to make a profit with dropshipping for it to be a good decision. After doing your product research and noting the prices that competitors charge, you need to look at shipping rates, supplier pricing, and other business costs to decide if this business model is for you and your online store. 

Reasonable markup opportunities

The cornerstone of any successful ecommerce business is the ability to generate profit, and your products should be sourced with this in mind.

Try to find dropshipping products that you can sell for at least $10 more than the price you sourced them for. For example, if you’re sourcing a baseball hat for $5, try to sell it in your store for $15.

In this case, your sale will cover the price it costs you to source the product, shipping costs, and the cost of your marketing efforts—and will still leave you with a nice profit margin at the end of the transaction.

If you’re struggling to set the price for your dropshipping products, we’ve got a ton of useful pricing tips and tactics to help you choose a price strategy that will make you a profit.

Select a supplier for your dropshipping products

A successful dropshipping business will have suppliers who can provide high-quality products at an affordable price.

There are a wide variety of dropshipping suppliers available to ecommerce entrepreneurs around the world. Platforms like Modalyst make it easy to find reliable suppliers for different products. 

Dropshipping suppliers with a high feedback score and a long business history are legitimate suppliers who provide entrepreneurs with good service. When sourcing products for your store, stick to these guys—reliable suppliers are ideal for a dropshipping business.

We even talk about how to select the best dropshipping suppliers, so all your questions are answered.

Deal with delivery times

When running your online store with a dropshipping model, you’ll need to be prepared to deal with longer delivery times. Your products may be shipped from suppliers in China, meaning the delivery times can be slightly longer than usual. You can remedy this issue by sourcing products that have the ePacket delivery option. 

This delivery method allows for faster delivery of lightweight products from Chinese suppliers. Products that weigh up to two kilograms (4.4 pounds) are eligible for ePacket delivery. This is something you’ll need to consider when you’re sourcing products for your dropshipping store’s inventory. For example, stores that deal in crafts and those that sell jewelry online should be able to take the ePacket route with ease. 

There are a wide variety of countries that can benefit from ePacket delivery, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Brazil, France, and Germany. 

Start dropshipping today

Once you’ve decided on the perfect dropshipping products, you’ll need to add them to your store. If you haven’t created a store yet, you can check out our guide to starting your own ecommerce store in less than 30 minutes. We’ll help you find winning product ideas, guide you to locate the best dropshipping suppliers, assist you with setting the right price, and give you all the information you need to decide which dropshipping niche to tap into. Don’t worry—it’s simple to get started.

When your store is up and running, you can install the Modalyst app—it’s one of the leading platforms for finding and selling ecommerce products without stocking any inventory. You can use Modalyst dropshipping to run your ecommerce business with ease.