How To Start Dropshipping With AppScenic – A Guide For Beginners

This is a step-by-step guide on how to start a dropshipping business, one that many of you have been asking us to write.

As this is one of the longest articles we have ever written on this blog, we hope you can make it to the end because it’s worth it.

So, let’s start with the most basic questions about dropshipping.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model where a store owner (aka retailer) can sell products without having an inventory of their own or a distribution center to store and ship the items. 

The products they sell come from a supplier or a manufacturer, who ships those items directly to the customer. In other words, these retailers sell products only by posting beautiful images on their online stores, with the suppliers being the ones who actually fulfill the orders.

Below, is how the process works on AppScenic.

Read more: 50+ most asked questions about dropshipping

Is it still a good time to get into dropshipping?

The interest in dropshipping exploded around 6-8 years ago when millions of people around the world found out about this awesome ecommerce concept. 

Of course, people got extremely excited to find out they could launch an online store and run a business without even touching a physical stock. A business where the supplier is responsible for the entire storage, packing, labeling, and shipping to the customers. How awesome does that sound!

And all these still apply today. But to prove our statement about dropshipping still being a successful business model now, here are some hard facts from credible sources that can back all these up. 

According to a report done by Grand View Research, the global dropshipping market is expected to grow at a rate of 23.4% from 2023 to 2030. Another market study done by Research and Markets states that the global dropshipping market will reach $591.77 billion by 2027.

Did you know that 22-33% of online retailers have adopted the dropshipping model as their primary method of order fulfillment?

Other important statistics show that 61 percent of online sales on Amazon were sold by third-party sellers through dropshipping.

And last but not least, Shopify’s revenue (one of the most popular dropshipping platforms used by online retailers) for the twelve months ending September 30, 2024, was $8.221 billion, meaning a 23.47% increase year-over-year. All these clearly show the force of dropshipping. 

If you want to read more impressive statistics about dropshipping and ecommerce, then read this article on 30+ dropshipping statistics.

Start with choosing the right niche and products

Before even starting a new ecommerce business, you need to put all your efforts into finding the right niche and doing the research to uncover all about it. Finding the right products to sell from the right niche can make your online store a success story. And knowing which products to go for only comes after extensive research.

The right niche is the one that’s not only seasonally trending, but will always be on-demand. You can also check Google Trends to see what’s trending or not or even what other online or physical stores are always out of stock due to high demand. 

Another way to choose the right niche is through browsing the AppScenic Product Catalogue for niche ideas. 

And these are just some of the strategies you can use to identify the best dropshipping niches in 2025.

Here’s a more in-depth article about why we believe niche dropshipping is the right choice

According to Shopify, the best dropshipping niches in 2025 and beyond are the following:

• Apparel and footwear
• Beauty and personal care
• Kitchen and dining
• Baby
• Pet supplies
• Home interiors
• Office products
• Tools and home improvement
• Phone accessories
• Car accessories

Now, once you know which niche to choose, you have to build a strong product strategy, so here’s a great article on the main points you need to consider that can increase your chances of success in the ecommerce and dropshipping industry.

Read more: 10 trending products to dropship in 2025

Choose a name for your online store

Have you decided on a niche? If yes, then now is the moment to choose a name for your online store and then buy a domain name. 

Where can you start? Well, it depends, maybe the name of your store and business will come to you all of a sudden, or while you’re doing a Google search for a certain product and/or niche. Or maybe you schedule a meeting with your business partner if you have one, family, or friends and start brainstorming for a name. You can also look at your competition and see how they named their stores.

Try to come up with a few ideas for a name, don’t settle for just one. Pick a name that’s unique, but that can also represent what your online store and business are. 

As soon as you have your online store name options, then you can check which one has a free domain name. You will see that many domain names are taken, and it’s even more difficult to look for a .com domain name, which we recommend if you want to sell internationally. 

Incorporate your company

Now that you have chosen a name for your online business, it’s time to choose your business’s legal structure. 

It’s very important that you pay extra attention to this step as it will have huge legal and financial implications for everything related to your business. As we don’t want to go into too much detail about this step, we will only give you some points on all of these and direct you to some articles that can help you further. 

So, you can choose a sole proprietorship, general partnership, LLC, or corporation (C-corp). If you want to know more about each of them, we suggest you go check this article. 

Read more: How to incorporate a dropshipping company in the USA

Of course, there are pros and cons to each of them, that’s why you should also consult an attorney or another legal professional for advice on the best option for your business. The business structure you decide to opt for dictates how your business will be legally recognized and taxed. The most common choice for dropshipping store owners, one that’s also the simplest to take, is a sole proprietorship. 

Want to know if you should have a business license or not? Or what are some other legal requirements you may need when starting a dropshipping business? Then go check this article on our blog. 

Read more: How to start a dropshipping business in the UK

Create your ecommerce store 

Now, all you need to do is choose a 3rd party ecommerce marketplace platform and start building your online store. Some of the most popular third-party ecommerce marketplace platforms include Woocommerce, Magneto, BigCommerce or Shopify, among others.

We recommend using either Shopify or WooCommerce if you’re setting up your first online store. So let’s say you chose Shopify and already have a domain name, now is the time to start working on what exactly your online store will look like. 

Most ecommerce platforms will give you all the tools needed to create from scratch your ecommerce store. From picking up a theme to customizing your design, adding your domain (or purchasing one), managing inventory, taking and shipping orders, receiving payment, and more.

Keep in mind that you also need to create your store’s visual identity, such as a logo and fonts or colors to use. Also, don’t forget to purchase a business email address, we recommend Google Workspace (known as G Suite).

Learn how to start a dropshipping store in 30 days

Create a retailer account on AppScenic

Now and only now, after you set up your online business and built an ecommerce store, you can sign in and/or register for an AppScenic Retailer Account. 

AppScenic is a dropshipping platform that gives store owners like you access to over 1 million dropshipping products from top-tier suppliers worldwide. With us, you can connect with the fastest and most reliable suppliers from the USA, EU, UK, CAN (and beyond). 

To help you set up your AppScenic Account, here’s a bit about all the steps you need to complete. Don’t worry, it only takes a few minutes.

Step 1 – Connect your store

You need to add your store and integrate it with AppScenic. At the moment, you can integrate Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, eBay and Ecwid stores with AppScenic. More integrations will be available soon. Below you can watch how you can connect your Shopify store to AppScenic. 

Step 2 – Select your plan

After setting up your store, you need to pick a subscription plan. You can find more about plans on this page. The steps to follow are in the video below. 

Step 3 – Set up your Shipping and Store Settings

Now you need to set up and configure all your Shipping Details. Watch the video below to see how easy is to do that.

Step 4 – Set up your Price Formula

The next step is called Price Formula and it has to do with configuring the default price formula for the products in your store. In other words, here you can set up your profit margins. 

Step 5 – Set up your Store Wallet and Payment Details

This is where you need to set up your Store Wallet and all Payment Details for delivering your first orders. You can also fill in these forms later on.

Step 6 – Import your first products

It’s time to add your first products. So, browse through our extensive catalog and choose what to sell from over 1 million products and more than 100 categories. 

That’s all, now you can start importing and selling more products.

How to discover, browse and import new products from AppScenic to your store

As you can see above, once you connect your store to our platform, you can browse our catalogue and start importing products to your store.

At the time we are writing this article, our catalog has over 1 million dropshipping and wholesale products. New items are added every month, that’s why we know how easy it is to get lost quickly if you don’t know how to navigate through our catalog and identify the winning products that you want to sell.

So, to get you started in the best possible way, here are some best practices regarding our product catalog. 

Search, browse and filter – You can filter products by category, stock status, premium only, shipping time, prime availability, ship from and ship to countries, shipping cost, free returns, and many other helpful filters. The idea is to help you get fast and easy to the products that interest you the most.

Explore the right category – with over 100 categories and thousands of sub-categories you can choose from, you need to know your niche before starting your AppScenic journey. 

How to import products to your store – Once you find the product you want inside our catalogue just click on the “IMPORT NOW” button that’s below the product card. This will send the item to the “My products” section of your account where you can read through its description and all the info provided by our suppliers, from product variants to supplier policy, before deciding to publish it in your store. Check the video below for how to use our product catalogue. 

Push products to your store – When you’re sure about selling a specific product, you also need to push that product to store in order for it to actually be published. Here’s how to do that: go to “My products” section of your account, and find the product you want to add to your store, then just click on the “PUSH TO STORE” button placed on its right side. Confirm your choice and your product is now published in your store! Hurray!

Start advertising your products

Once your AppScenic Account is ready and all the products are imported to your ecommerce store, you should start advertising your products. 

Of course, there are multiple ways you can market your products, from Google Ads, and Social Media Ads to the more traditional ones like word of mouth. What we recommend is to have your website optimized for Google and implement all the features included on the ecommerce platform your’re using.

After you do all that, you are ready to set up your first Google Ads and Facebook Ads. These are the 2 most important platforms that we think you should start with. 

If you are new to advertising on Google and Facebook, here are some free courses for you:

Google Ads courses: Coursera and Google Skill Shop

Facebook Ads courses: Coursera and Facebook

Also, we have now released our new Marketing AI tool that can help you create ads for Google, Facebook and Instagram.

How much money do you need to get started?

Now, many of the dropshipping beginners out there ask this question – what is a realistic minimum budget to start a dropshipping business?

Well, honestly, that is quite difficult to say as it really depends on the type of store, niche, type of products, audience, competition, and many other things.

But if you want to do this right, and set up a proper store with everything it’s needed, all the features and the tools included, and also keep some budget for advertising, you need around $1500-2500 to start with. 

Of course, we’ve seen people having success at dropshipping with less money than that but if we want to be completely honest with you, and help you set up a realistic budget then this is what you should start with. This amount will help you be prepared for what could happen and let you test at least 15 products, also improving your chances of success.

Read more: The True Cost of Dropshipping

Why is AppScenic the best way to start dropshipping?

AppScenic has everything you need to start a dropshipping business. It’s a smart AI dropshipping platform that gives you access to top and fast suppliers and a catalog of unique, premium products. 

Also, we even dare say that AppScenic is not at all expensive and, if you only want to test the dropshipping business, you can even choose a Free Account that lets you connect one store, but you won’t be able to import or push any products to your store or have access to its awesome AI Ecommerce features.

Now, once you decide to switch to one of our paid plans, our app will automate the entire dropshipping process for you, from product sourcing, product import, and 24/7 stock & price sync to auto-ordering, automatic payments, auto-import tracking numbers, and many other powerful features. 

It will mean you have one platform for everything – handle orders and find high-quality scalable products from trusted and top-rated suppliers. 

How come there are so many people failing at dropshipping?

Despite all we have been telling you above, there are still more than 90% of dropshipers failing. Why? Well, mostly because they make a few basic mistakes that set them from the start on the wrong path. 

One important reason they fail is going for the wrong suppliers, as are the ones that ship from China. These types of suppliers have long delivery times and offer products of low quality.

That was one of the reasons we created AppScenic, we wanted to give you a platform where you can work only with top-tier reliable suppliers that follow high-quality standards and can deliver high-quality products super fast.

Ready to start your AppScenic journey?

If you are still here, then we hope we did convince you we are worth a try.

Register now