I get asked a lot how much money is required to start a drop shipping store. So let me break down the costs for you in a realistic way.
First of all, here’s what you’ll need:
1) Shopify
I recommend using Shopify to build your drop shipping store. The basic Shopify plan costs $29 per month, but you get a two week free trial which gives you a lot of time to make sales before you even pay a single dollar to Shopify. It just requires that you execute fast.
You don’t need Shopify, you can also use Woocommerce or any other e-commerce platform. But most of them will cost you something.
2) Shopify Plugins
Additionally to the $29 per month fee for Shopify, you’ll probably want to install a few plugins. The one’s I recommend are “Hurrify” and “Recent Sales Notification“. That’s an additional $12 per month.
These aren’t a requirement, but will help increase conversions.
3) Domain Name
I strongly recommend getting your own domain name and not using the native Shopify subdomain URL. A domain name costs between $10-20 per year depending on the ending you’re going for.
4) Facebook Testing Budget
Additionally the the above costs, you need to have a daily budget that you can spend on Facebook ads. I think $5 per day is more than enough to test your way forward without burning your money.
In the beginning you need some money to test different items, niches and audiences until you find something that sells profitably. So at first your Facebook ad budget will be an expense. But as soon as you start making consistent sales, this is going to turn into an investment.
Many of my students make their first sale within 30 days of running their ads, and some of them even within 48 hours. Others it takes a few months and then again others give up and make no sales.
Ultimately it’s a good idea to “expect” the worst case scenario and have enough money to test Facebook ads for a few months.
Remember, this is a business and every business has startup costs.
All together you should be able to build a drop shipping business with around $200 per month startup costs. Obviously, this initial expense will turn into an investment later on and one good month of sales will usually make up for the initial money you spent on testing ads.
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