Is Dropshipping Still Worth It In 2025? (Episode 106)

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🗣In this episode, Lewis Smith and James Eardley tackle the burning question on many entrepreneurs' minds—Is dropshipping still a viable business in 2025? 

With the e-commerce landscape evolving rapidly, it’s crucial to understand the current trends and strategies that can keep you ahead of the game.

👉 Prefer to watch this on YouTube? Check it out here ➡️https://youtu.be/HFqI66JhSwU

Topics Discussed:

★ The Current State of Dropshipping: Lewis discusses how dropshipping has evolved, including the increase in local suppliers and the rise of high-ticket shoppers.

★ Niche Selection and Branding: The importance of focusing on specific niches and building a brand that resonates with customers.

★ Success Stories: Hear inspiring examples of members who have achieved impressive sales figures, showcasing the potential of the right strategies.

★ Strategies for 2025: Learn about the key approaches needed to thrive in the dropshipping industry, such as prioritising customer experience and leveraging automation.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

Pick up a copy of Lewis’ book: https://dropshipunlocked.com/book

Get Shopify for £1 a month for 3 months: https://dropshipunlocked.com/shopify

Get a free trial with a professional phone line: https://dropshipunlocked.com/circle

Key Takeaways:

★ Adapt to the Market: Dropshipping is still worth pursuing in 2025, but you must evolve with new trends and strategies to remain competitive.

★ Value and Trust Matter: Today’s consumers expect reliability and quality, so building a brand that offers real value is essential.

★ The Importance of Mentorship: Having guidance and support can significantly shorten your learning curve and help you avoid common pitfalls in your journey.

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★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★

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Transcript

0:00

Lewis, welcome to the dropship unlocked Podcast. I'm Lewis Smith, the founder of dropship unlocked, and with me is our Client Success Coach James Eardley. Now, when we're not recording the podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own I ticket dropshipping businesses. Keen to build your own six or even seven bigger business. My book, the home turf advantage is your blueprint for launching a profitable online store. Grab your copy@htabook.com today, and let's get you started. Now, sit back, relax, and let's unlock your potential with the dropship unlocked Podcast. Today, we are tackling a hot topic that's on the mind of many entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs, is dropshipping still worth it in 2025 A lot has changed in the E commerce world, and we want to break down where the Drop Shipping is still a viable option as we move into 2025 Louis, I know you've got some strong opinions on this subject, so let's dive straight in. What's the first thing entrepreneurs need to understand about the current state of dropshipping? Thanks, James. Yeah, dropshipping has definitely evolved over the years, as you say. So. I mean, here's what's really important to note, if you're thinking about getting started in 2025 nowadays, there are more suppliers available locally than ever before. And by locally, I mean within the UK, there are more and more UK based suppliers entering the market every day, which means that it's made it easier for new business owners who are coming into the market today to access Better Shipping, better customer service, better customer satisfaction because of that local fulfillment, delivery option that they have from UK suppliers. The other thing is, many of the members that we work with closely at dropship unlocked, who maybe were using the Chinese supplier route previously and importing products in have transitioned their businesses over to using UK suppliers, and they've immediately seen the benefits in their reviews, in the repeat sales and the customer satisfaction. And I know that you and I, James, we've consistently seen faster delivery, better trust with customers because of making this shift over to working with UK suppliers. The other things are that higher value items are being bought online more and more readily. Consumer trust has increased. I remember the time where people were very hesitant to ever put their card details in onto the big, scary internet. But now there's just this much, much larger pool of consumers who are now willing to spend more on quality products. It's just not as much of a scary thing anymore. I've seen a shift where customers are just way more comfortable now purchasing higher priced or higher ticket items, especially when trust is built through the right branding, the right service, the right reviews, things like that. And I think Alongside this, the tech and the automation that is now available to us as business owners has just simplified things dramatically. You've got tools like Google Ads automation and Klaviyo for your email marketing and Shopify, just to name one of the the big feud, 80% of the tasks that we do in our business can pretty much be automated, and the rest of them can be outsourced to a virtual assistant. And so we regularly walk members through this process inside dropship unlock, making that learning curve so much easier. Because if you are just starting today, you've got all of the tech tours that have been invented in the past to solve all of the problems that all of the entrepreneurs that came before you ever had. So nowadays, it's not about being tech savvy, but it's about using the right tools efficiently. That's right, and if you're willing to be open to the tools that are out there. Now, it is incredible time to be getting into dropshipping, I believe, because we've never had so much automation available to us, and the AI tools like chat, GBT now that are out there allows us just to chat, interact with a tool that can give us so much value back in terms of running and operating a drop shipping business, but also getting one started. You can ask it about being your personal advisor when you get up and running with a drop shipping business, and it's incredibly powerful. One thing you mentioned as well, Lewis is about the consumer trends and how different customers are now compared to how they used to be when I started just a few years ago, there's been a big shift. I remember back then, maybe two or three years ago, we would have been a business that was probably the first time a customer had spent over 1000 pounds online. But now we're noticing that the customers that are purchasing with us frequently, we're not the first time they've purchased a high ticket item online, and so the trust is already built up there. They know that they are purchasing from a place where they're going to be secure anyway. And of course, you've got all the right trust signals shown on the website as well to make sure they feel at home. But it's changing, but you have to. That to make sure that you're changing in line with what the market needs, and certainly faster delivery and reliable suppliers, is now something that's much more important than it was few years ago. So just zooming out Louis and really answering that question that are on is on the mind of so many people. Do you think it's still worth starting drop shipping from scratch as we go into and in the year of 2025 Yeah, absolutely, it is still worth it, if you approach it right. Because here are the things that make the difference to succeeding with dropshipping now in this current environment. So the first thing is niche selection is crucial, because General Stores, the days of trying to sell everything to everyone just doesn't cut it anymore. Focusing on a specific niche is the key to really standing out to your market. You want your market and your customers to feel like they're at home when they land on your store, to feel like they are in the right place for them as to the products that they're searching for. We've seen this over and over again with our members who niche down early on, and allows them to focus on a really specific market subset so that they can be the go to expert for the specific market that they're serving and the specific products that they sell. And it allows them to see results much, much faster, rather than trying to compete at this high level with the big brands that have huge budgets and deep pockets, and we just fighting a losing battle by doing that. The other thing is, is to really focus on the value, not just the product. So in today's customer environment, they expect more than just a transaction. They want trust. They want reliability. They want value. And so this is something we really hammer home in our program. Building a brand and offering value drives long term success, and that's what will get you repeat business and increase your conversion rate as well. The other thing is the role of branding, because successful drop shipping in 2025 and beyond will be less about just moving products and more about building a brand. Imagine the difference between buying clothes from a local boutique specialist store versus just going to a generic fast fashion store. The local boutique can charge significantly more because there's a brand associated with it, and so we can do the same? Yeah, no, I love the idea of how important branding is now, in dropshipping, it's something we've seen is that customers are now more intent on getting a feeling for what the business represents, what the brand is about, rather than just transacting online. But we can create that with tools like Shopify. We can have our own brand. So whereas in the past, you might have been able to drop ship without having a brand, or you might just attach yourself to the brand of your suppliers nowadays, having a branded store with high quality brands that you're working with, but also your own umbrella brand that's a specialist in the niche is crucial, really, to tap into what customers are looking to see before they purchase. So I think it is really a backbone of E commerce right now. How about some recent success stories to drive this home, some success stories that have happened recently, so we can illustrate what people are achieving at the moment going into drop shipping right now. Yeah, definitely. So here's a few great examples of some of our recent dropship. Unlocked member wins. So Mason is actually someone who springs to mind. And Mason built his brand. He niched down. He didn't try to be The Everything Store to everyone, and he really focused on selling high value niche product. And from that, he generated 43,000 pounds in under four months. And another one of our members actually Phil. Phil's a great example of a member that we spoke to recently. He's hit just under half a million pounds in sales, so 445,000 pounds in sales, and as a combined total of his revenue from his two stores that he's launched since joining us at dropship unlock all by applying these principles and launching his businesses. So that is the kind of momentum that most entrepreneurs just dream of being able to get your business up and running to that level that quickly. Derek is another example of a member we spoke with recently. He recently closed a and a 12,000 pound order. A single Shopify order for 12,000 pound. You know that that's huge. The profit on that order, I imagine a roughly 35 30% profit margin. Whatever the profit margins he has are, they will vary by supplier, of course, is likely higher than the average take home salary in the UK of whatever that is, two and a half, 3000 pounds is probably made more in profit from that, which is incredible. And so yeah, by selling those big, high ticket items that can make all the difference. And by the way, when I say big, I don't mean physically big. I mean big in price tag, but not necessarily in size. And so one of the other stories that springs to mind, and this is going back a little bit, in terms of a member who joined us earlier, but as Re. Recently shared a bit of an update on his business Jared. So Jared applied the exact principles that we teach, focusing on building relationships with suppliers, you know, refining his niche, niching down all the stuff we just talked about. Now, his first store, I sat down with him in an interview we did, and he hit 310,000 pounds in sales in his first six months. So he hit the ground running as well, but he then went on to scale that to well over 4 million pounds, up to today. Now that kind of result is possible when you stay focused and you follow the steps that we outlined and the ones we're going through in this episode today. Yes, it's really incredible success, but love hearing about it every time we bring up these stories, because it just shows what's happening right now in the market. People that are getting started recently, and people like Jared still very much up and running, even though he started, you know, four or five years ago, still the same store that he built is still generating him income every day because of the principles that he put in place. He's obviously going to carry on into 2025 with these multiple stores, and so is everyone else that you've just mentioned, and then ourselves, Lewis, we're still both running high ticket dropshipping businesses, and I've certainly got no plans to give that up going into 2025 Absolutely not. I'm going to go from strength to strength the stores that I'm running. And I know that the industry moves and changes so rapidly, but as long as you adapt to it and understand the key moving parts, then you can keep up with it and keep growing year on year as the market grows year on year as well. So going into those steps then Lewis that people have taken, and especially for somebody listening right now, who is thinking about getting started in 2025 where should they start, if they're coming in at this completely fresh Sure, yes. If you're starting out today and you're thinking, Where do I begin? Here's where step one niche down early. So don't try to sell everything to everyone. Choose a niche that you can dominate, but importantly, one that has high demand. Don't be out there trying to drum up interest for the product, it's much easier to go and serve a market that has existing demand already. Step two, once you've got your niche that you're going to focus on selling to, would be to build strong supplier relationships. Now we work with UK suppliers who can offer next day delivery for the reasons we mentioned in this episode, better customer reviews, much better customer experience, much simpler, less admin. The stronger your relationships with your suppliers, the better your margins can be, because over time, they'll give you preferential margins. They'll give you deals that they won't give to other retailers. And the product quality as well is noticeably better, because the checks that they'll have if they're distributing from the UK, the fact that if anything ever goes wrong, you can send the product back, the customer can return the product, and you'd get a full refund. So with the customer, it removes so much of the risk from you as the retailer that it's just worth doing. Get those strong relationships in place. So once you've done that, you've got your niche, you've got your suppliers signed up, next thing, step three, would be to get proper guidance. Don't just rely on free online tutorials. Get some expert help. Our members have access to step by step guidance through our masterclass, which shortens their learning curves significantly, saves them a lot of time, money, wasted energy, probably a year or two of trying to figure it all out for themselves. So imagine the investment to join something like that becomes a drop in the ocean compared to the additional profit that you create as a result of having taken the shortcut the fast track and getting up and running. And speaking of learning, listeners to this episode should also check out episode 77 of the dropship unlocked podcast, which is titled what's possible with drop shipping setting expectations. In that episode, we go through a much deeper dive into how to set the right foundations for success. So that's episode 77 perfect. No, that solid advice, Lewis. We've got loads of resources out there on the podcast for people to know exactly the steps to take. But when you invest in training, certainly when I invested in training, it made me take everything so much more seriously, and also because you could have calls with people and speak one to one with people on Q and A calls, which was yourself, Lewis and and I could just go back and forth on any issues that I had. I remember saying in a video that's still on YouTube when I first joined up, I did like a testimonial within the first month or two months of joining the program, and I said on that that I just wanted to learn from all of your mistakes. I just wanted I wanted to just use your mistakes for my benefit in the nicest possible way, because I didn't want to have to go through all of the same headaches and mistakes myself. And that's still the case now, when you join something and learn from others, you're just standing on their shoulders, because you can learn from all the mistakes. Save time and headaches, so you can just jump straight to the point that they're at now. So for strategies then, because I think there are different strategies to approach dropshipping now compared to back in the dawn of dropshipping in maybe 2015 2016 and moving into. 2025 what sort of strategy would you recommend people implement to stay competitive and profitable from the very start? Yeah, so there are three key strategies that I'm using personally in my own stores to stay ahead of the curve in 2025 so number one would be prioritizing customer experience. Customer expectations are higher than ever now. So offering fast shipping, easy returns, great customer support, all those things are going to set you apart head and shoulders above your competition. So that's the first thing. Number two would be omni channel marketing. So this means not just relying on one single source. I wouldn't rely on just one platform like Facebook ads anymore. Google Ads obviously play a huge part in our home turf advantage strategy. But then things like meta ads, Instagram, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, they're all crucial for reaching your audience in 2025 and those are obviously only the paid marketing channels we're talking about. You've then got all of the organic efforts that can boost your SEO rankings and free traffic as well, which can really help increase your profit margin. And then the final thing that I'll be focusing on is leveraging automation. I think that the biggest advantage that you'll have is automating as much as you can, because by doing that, it frees up your time to focus on growth while still keeping your operations lean. So those are the three big ones that I'm focusing on at this time. It's prioritizing customer experience, making sure I'm not reliant on one single source of traffic, and then automating the business as much as I can. The customer experience angle is crucial today. Perhaps five or six years ago, customers were okay to wait 30 days for your products to be delivered, but now in the age of Amazon and how far we've come with E commerce, if you were told you had to wait four or five weeks per product you've ordered to be delivered, I'm sure you wouldn't be very happy, and neither is the vast majority of people right now. So drop shipping right now is all about having fast delivery from reliable suppliers, creating a brand, and then also in terms of running it, I love that automation angle that you've you've brought up as well. There's because so much of the business nowadays can be automated from the marketing campaigns all the way through to fulfilling orders and looking after improving your store. And then, of course, the beauty as well, of of dropshipping is that you can hire virtual assistants, which is effectively automating the business as well by delegating to people who are able to look after your customers and fulfill orders and keep the business running. It's all part of the same business, and more important than ever now, as we need to provide a great customer service for the customers of our store. So with all this in mind, how important or what kind of role do you think mentorship and guidance plays in dropshipping in 2025 a bigger role than ever, and it's for the reason that you just mentioned James, like when you joined dropship, a lot You did so because you wanted to learn from all of the historical mistakes that I had made. I did the same with my mentors, by the way, like, I think anyone who's not learning from their mentors previous mistakes is just trying to push a boulder up a mountain. It's like, you know, why would you not those mistakes have happened? They exist, so don't let them be in vain. You know, I've made plenty of mistakes, hundreds of really costly mistakes cost me 10s of 1000s of pounds in opportunity cost, lost profits because of things that I did wrong. You're the same right. You've made lots of mistakes along the way. Our members in our community have made lots of mistakes, but because we have them all collectively in this community, helping each other, we can constantly update our training to make sure that when you're going through this, if you're just starting out today, you get to learn from all of those mistakes, stand on our shoulders and just begin from where we left off. So it's absolutely crucial if you want to shorten your learning curve, you're welcome to do it the other way around, but you will be just unnecessarily making those mistakes in vain because they've already been made. So having someone guide you through the process saves you from making the typical mistakes that many beginners face. It's one of the reasons why dropship unlocked the members that join see much faster results, because they're not trying to figure out everything alone. They save a huge amount of time and money. So if those two things are a concern to you, time to get this business up and running, or money to make it happen, I would absolutely look to getting some expert guidance. The other thing is accountability. You know, if you're trying to do this on your own, it can be a lonely, overwhelming path, and you can easily lose focus, but having a mentor and having a community like ours to support you makes a huge difference, and I know that's one of the big factors that we hear time and time again on our two live calls that we do per week, our community collaboration call, even in our quarterly live member in person meetups that we do, those are the things that our community members are talking about. It's the accountability. It's holding each other accountable so that the next time we will come and meet up in person and have a drink and something to eat and talk. Our business again, a few months later, we're saying, Hey, did you do the thing you said you were going to do last time? I'm going to hold you to it. And there's that kind of friendly, healthy accountability that helps us all become better versions of ourselves. Exactly. Yeah, those live meetups are great fun, and we were getting feedback and having conversations with people, of course, around the room while we're all meeting up, and the overriding feedback is that people love getting around like minded people getting around a community that are also going after the same goals. Because there's an energy that kind of collects once you're in a room of people that have the same goals, the same values as you incredibly powerful, because that accountability part is so crucial. Like running an E commerce business, building a drop shipping business is obviously not a get rich quick scheme. You have to put in the work to build a business that can then pay you like properly and allow you to have a lifestyle that you just that you decide. But it takes time and and it takes work. So in order to put that time and work in, if you've got people around you holding you accountable, the whole journey is then enjoyable and you stick to it consistently, and that's when the results comes in over time, of course, with anything that you want to achieve. So Lewis to summarize some final words for somebody wondering and on the edge, perhaps they're about to think about getting into dropshipping. They're not sure if now is the best time. What would you say? Or how would you summarize that answer to the question of whether dropshipping is still worth it in 2025 Yeah, I'd say this, dropshipping is absolutely one of the best online business models to get started with, even in 2025 but only if you treat it like a real business, not a get rich quick scheme. It's not a shortcut to quick cash. We are building a brand, a long term asset, something that we can use to pay our bills and pay for our family expenses for years to come, and eventually, maybe even sell that asset to an investor one day. The other thing I'd say is focus on delivering value. Don't just chase sales too quickly. That's the temptation a lot of entrepreneurs fall into they just want to make money as quickly as possible, but focus on providing real value to your customers. People will pay for quality and service, so try and make that your priority, and you'll see the sales come in naturally. Don't skip the groundwork either. Laying the right foundations for your business means that getting the process right understanding the market, refining your strategy, those are all things that when you follow the right process and do those things in the right order, success just inevitably follows. It's kind of like if you're thinking of planting a tree, the sooner you start, the sooner you get that seed in the ground, the sooner the tree can grow, and the sooner you can start to enjoy the shade that the tree then provides you. So if you're listening to this, or if you're watching us now and you're ready to start and scale your dropshipping business, head over to htabook.com and get your seven pound trial to the dropship unlocked accelerator. You'll also get a free copy of my book when you sign up the home turf advantage and you get access to our private accelerator community as well. It's the perfect way to get started enjoying the podcast. We'd love to hear from you leave a comment or a review, and we might just feature it on an upcoming episode, also for detailed show notes and resources. Head to dropship, unlocked.com, forward slash podcasts. If you found value from any episode of this podcast, please take just 10 seconds to leave us a quick five star review on your podcast app of choice. It helps us more than you could imagine. And who knows, you might just hear your comments on the show. Thanks for being part of our community. Your support helps us keep delivering a new episode every week. Now it's that part of the podcast episode where we're going to answer a question that we've had in from a listener. And remember, if you have a question on your mind that you'd like answered on an upcoming episode, simply comment beneath the YouTube video version of this episode, and not only will it be answered in the comments, but it also might be read out and answered by Lewis or myself on an upcoming episode. So that's exactly what Lewis Palin five, one double five has done. So thank you, Lewis for your question. I'll ask you now, Lewis, the question from another Lewis. So Lewis has asked, Can you please help me to start my drop shipping store in the UK? I am 17 years old and I'm just starting. Wow. Thank you for your question, Lewis, first off, 17 is a fantastic age to be getting started. I'm genuinely impressed that you're already thinking about building your own business. You have got a great head start. So credit to you for thinking about it. So I mean from a legal standpoint, and yeah, it's perfectly legal to set up a limited company in the UK once you're 16 and but remember, it does come with significant responsibilities, so take the time to understand what it means to be a director of a limited company, and just be sure that you're ready for that commitment. You know, the HMRC website has some great resources for understanding what's involved to have a look through there first, but ultimately, your. Age is an advantage. Your age shouldn't hold you back. I know you mentioned it in your question, but in fact, being 17 gives you a lot of time to learn, to grow, to make mistakes early, right? So most successful entrepreneurs will tell you that the sooner you start, the better. The other thing is, guidance is key, right? So if you are going to go for it, great, but don't do it blindly. Don't make the same mistakes that we've all made in the past. Get the right guidance. It's really easy to just make mistakes when you're figuring things out on your own, but it's so much better if you can learn from people who've already been down the route that you're about to start walking down. So I'd recommend starting out with my book for home turf advantage. As I mentioned, you can grab a copy@htabook.com not only will that walk you through the steps of getting started, but it also includes a free trial to the dropship unlocked accelerator, where you can gain extra training and support from others who have been in your shoes perfect loads of resources out there for you to start, Lewis, and likewise, I'm also very impressed by you wanting to get started at such a young age. And the key is just action of some sort every day, and that goes regardless of your age. Just taking some sort of action means that your momentum builds and consistent over time you'll get to the goals that you have, no matter how big they are. So we're also going to highlight a recent review that we've had in for the podcast, because we love to do this, and we want to make sure that we thank you for people that are leaving reviews for the podcast. So a big thank you to Callum Dean for sharing your thoughts in an apple podcast review. So I'm going to read out Callum's review. Callum said, Hi, I'm Callum, and I am a dropship unlocks member. I absolutely love these podcasts as they give you such a relatable insight into the business world, not only with dropshipping with the home term advantage, but hearing this from people who have been through so much struggle and adversity, especially Lewis, to grow into the successful entrepreneurs they are, and sharing that knowledge and experience to allow others to pursue their dreams and ambitions, it gives me so much hope and out every single business course I have looked up Lewis's dropship unlock mastercast course is the one I really believed and also the course I needed to believe in myself to make this happen and live the life I dream about every single day. Wow. Thank you so much for your review. Callum, great to hear that you're enjoying the program as well, and really glad to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast, finding it inspirational and believing in yourself, ultimately, which is all that matters, right? So, fantastic work. And yeah, best of luck with your business. Now, if this episode resonated with you, would you consider sharing it with someone who might benefit from it? Your recommendations help us grow our community and continue delivering valuable content. A quick share could make a big difference to someone you know. Thanks for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you're walking away with insights and inspiration to kickstart your ecommerce journey. Grab a copy of my book, the home of turf advantage@htabook.com it's a distilled guide based on real experience to help you build your E commerce venture. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button for more strategies and success stories. And if you like what you heard, a five star review would mean the world to us, and you might just get a shout out on an upcoming episode. And finally, thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We can't wait to bring you more insights on the next episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. You.