Select Niche and Supplier
1 weekChoose defensible niche, vet AliExpress or US suppliers for ship times and samples.
Field context
This workflow is part of 5 niche fields
Free step-by-step dropshipping for e-commerce beginners. Plan dropshipping with calculators and checklists covering select niche and supplier, calculate.
Choose defensible niche, vet AliExpress or US suppliers for ship times and samples.
Include product cost, shipping, ads, refunds, and platform fees in margin.
Create Shopify store, import products, rewrite descriptions, set policies.
Run small ad tests, measure ROAS against break-even, kill losers fast.
Verify gross margin after COGS and shipping.
Calculate break-even ROAS and daily order count.
True landed cost per unit including packaging.
Net profit after ad spend and refunds.
Compare ad channel ROI before scaling.
Sample $40 retail item economics.
| Line Item | Amount | % of Price |
|---|---|---|
| Product+ship | $18 | 45% |
| Ads | $10 | 25% |
| Fees | $3 | 7.5% |
| Net profit | $9 | 22.5% |
Branded thank-you card costs $0.15 and cuts refund requests.
Selling branded items without authorization gets store banned.
Focus beats catalog sprawl — master five winners first.