We’ve all heard this question before, haven’t we? It’s a question that’s been asked year after year. Heck, even 10 years ago, this question was asked already (yes, even before 2010, people have been asking this question)… but for real though, is dropshipping dead?

To be completely honest with you… NO, it’s not (I’ll tell you why in a bit).

It couldn’t be further from the truth. Wanna know why? Because dropshipping is just beginning. Ecommerce is expected to be a helluva lot of money by 2020 (I’m talking trillions here). This means, if you start today, you’ll be taking a piece of that pie. Dropshipping works today and it will still work in 2019, so why do people keep asking this question?

Why People Think Dropshipping Is Dead

There are 2 simple reasons why people think dropshipping is dead…

1. You’re part of a 1%

If you wanted to learn a specific skill, where would you go? To the people with that said skill, yes?

Same story goes for dropshippers. If you wanted to learn dropshipping, you’ll go out to Google, Reddit, Facebook Groups, etc. to learn how to dropship.

Now, what happens when you’re surrounded with dropshippers?

You’ll think you’re late to the party – that everyone else is already doing it – when in reality, you’re just part of a community having similar interests.

2. A lot of people dropship – “Competition”

To be more specific, a lot of people have tried dropshipping, but eventually failed. Not all dropshippers succeeded anyway. In order to be successful with dropshipping, you need to learn how to sell and know if dropshipping is really right for you.

Guess what happens if someone doesn’t succeed? They become bitter.

They blame saturation, they blame the course they bought, they blame everything else but themselves for their failures.

For this reason, these kinds of people could influence you to think in certain ways that would lead you to believe dropshipping is dead or doesn’t work anymore… don’t. Dropshipping’s certainly not dead – and after this section, you’ll know why (and what you can do to make it work instead).

A lot of people might be dropshipping but not all of them succeed.

There are more and more beginners in the space, but beginners aren’t real competition anyway.

Why Dropshipping Isn’t Dead (The Truth)

Dropshipping isn’t dead, but the “traditional” way of dropshipping is (e.g. low-effort websites, poor backend, poor customer service, etc.). Dropshipping is only dead for people who have zero creativity and just follow what thousands of other dropshippers did.

“What’s wrong with following others?”

Well, the majority of those dropshippers? They’ll either fail, be at a loss or simply run their store at breakeven until “luck” finally comes to play. Not a good role model IMO.

Dropshipping is only a business model, not the entirety of the business itself.

When I said “dropshipping is only just beginning”, I meant it. The number of Dropshipping stores are increasing daily – and so is the quality of these new stores.

As more and more people get into this business model, dropshippers don’t just compete for traffic anymore. They compete with each other in terms of quality. Because of this kind of competition, the industry to will surely rise to a more respectable level.

With that said, want to know how you can win this competition?

What You Can Do To Succeed With Dropshipping

First things first, you have to understand dropshipping is a real business. I could also be a passive income, but when you’re just starting out, you need to put in the work.

Low effort = Low return

If you really want to succeed with dropshipping, I’ve listed down 3 things you can immediately do to propel yourself forward. (assuming you already have a niche and found a winning product)

Create strategies and systems to achieve your goal

To succeed and achieve any goals you have, there’s a 4-step-process you can follow.

First, you have to plan. You can do this by beginning with the end in mind. What’s your overall goal? What are you trying to reach? Do you have an exit strategy? This is the part where you create ideas and plan out the process you will take to achieve your goal.

Second, you have to organize. This is the part where you make ready everything you’ll ever need from A-Z (if possible). This is the part where you identify, classify, assign and correlate the tasks to help you have a smooth process to success.

Third, you have to act. You have to keep putting in the work if you want to succeed.  There’s no way around this. If you can’t act upon the laid-out plan that you made, you don’t deserve to succeed. Go out there and follow the process!

Lastly, control. From time to time, you’ll get tired, lose motivation or want to quit. DON’T. To become your own boss, you have to be responsible and accountable to your actions. You want to live a life where you’re financially free, right? You want to live a life where you’re able to do anything you want just because you can, yes? Then lead, motivate and push yourself. Establish a standard of performance and stick to your process.

Nobody talks about this.

Keep Testing

“Test, test, test” – this is probably my motto in life. Jokes aside, this is what everyone has to do if they don’t have a winning campaign yet (the combining efforts of a winning product, creative, audience, etc.).

You must have thick skin and take risks (spend money) until you find what works, otherwise, you’ll quit like everybody else.

Know the potential of your niche, learn what it is capable of and keep testing different things to see what your target market resonates with. The data you’ll be able to gather in this part will ensure your success.

Build A Real, Solid Brand

Build a brand on social media in addition to your paid advertising efforts.

To have a solid brand, you must have a personality/theme that a specific market loves. You must focus entirely on a specific market and turn that market into 1 customer (a.k.a. a customer avatar).

“But wouldn’t that cut down the number of your current audience?”

Yes it could – but it could also find you new ones. Don’t get me wrong though, there are a lot of ways to build a brand, but I prefer building it this way. Why? Because a brand built this way focuses on the people who already want you.

You don’t need to convince them to buy your product, you only have to persuade them… and that makes things unbelievably easier.

Long term, you would also develop FOMO for the people outside your target market. It’s inevitable… but if you’re still on the early stage of your brand, and you want to profit more, then build out the backend of your store: email marketing, upsells, overall funnel and etc. as soon as you have a profitable product – that’s all.

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