You’re seriously considering going into the dropshipping business, or have already decided but are still new to dropshipping. The next question in your mind is, “What are the best dropshipping products to sell in 2021 and beyond?” You’ve tried searching online but you only end up more confounded, as there are as many recommended products as there are websites giving advice out there. This article provides you with essential guidelines in picking dropshipping products to sell, then presents you with the answer to the question in your mind.
Choosing Dropshipping Products
The first thing to remember is that “best” is relative, depending on what’s important for you and what your dropshipping goals are: do you want to make quick money fast, even if it won’t last long? “Best” for you might mean risking on top-trending products of the season only, but not necessarily evergreen. Do you want to be profitable over the long term? Then, “best” for you might mean products that continue to meet people’s needs and wants given their changing lifestyles over time.
So, this brings us to the most important first consideration in any business: choosing your niche. Usually, people first go into business based on their interests and passions, but you also have to add good business sense into your dropshipping business decision-making. Do you want to serve a particular country market or do you want to go global? What demographic will you serve? These are starter considerations to mull on.
Do product research. Before you can even decide on which niche to serve, you must do product research to see if there is enough demand for the customer market you’re considering. No matter how interested or passionate you are about your ideas, if there is insufficient demand for it given your dropshipping business goals, your business will not last long.
Recommended free online tools for doing product research are Facebook Audience Insights, Google Keyword Planner, and Google Trends. (Click on the links for free in-depth tutorials on how you can use these tools.)
Facebook Audience Insights helps you learn more about your intended audience. It accumulates information about its 2.23 billion Facebook users and helps you find out the size of your potential dropshipping niche as well as their interests in relation to that niche, which could be potential sub-niches for you.
Google Keyword Planner can help you measure demand for a particular product by simply typing in keywords related to that product, and Google will tell you how many people are searching for it every month.
Google Trends gives you more detailed insights by providing information for search interests over time, top and rising search terms, geographical concentration, and seasonality, for example. This helps you determine trends in what people are searching for in relation to the niche and products you are considering.
You can also research Amazon Best Sellers, Ebay’s Watch Count, Sale Hoo Market Research Lab, and AliExpress Dropshipping Center to find out what are the current and long-term trending products.
It is important to target the right demographic for you and your dropshipping business.
If you want customers who are not so price-sensitive, you might want to target hobby niches since it’s the hobby enthusiasts’ passion that drives them and they are willing to pay good money for good products that fulfill them in their hobbies.
If you want volume orders even from only a few customers, you might want to target business niches that might be price sensitive but order by bulk.
If you want repeat business from existing customers, you might want to target product niches that provide recurring revenues like technology/gadget niches that include accessories and upgrades.
Test your products. Cloudways recommends doing both niches and trends. For dropshipping beginners, go within a niche first to test several products at once but don’t go too deep. Balance this out with trendy products and monitor which products sell well in your business over time.
Best Dropshipping Products to Sell in 2021
As previously discussed, “best” is relative, so the selected listings below are provided to point out significant product demand patterns rather than specific definitive products themselves. Discerning patterns is key to identifying present and future trends and an important skill to learn and hone in any business.
Shopify recommends top product niches in health and personal care, wardrobe and accessories, kitchen and grocery, home and bedroom, office products, tools and home improvement, camera, and cellphone accessories, gaming, and car accessories. The demand pattern indicates people’s product preference for personal or household use, given the pandemic lockdowns and social distancing limitations. In other words, since a lot of people now work from home and stay at home, products aligned with these new lifestyles are what are most purchased.
Oberlo bases its list of recommended products on its analysis of its product statistics which you can sign up for, Google Trends, and social media patterns. Its high-demand products are shapewear, weekly planners, cellphone accessories, projector screens, and posture correctors. These, again, indicate the so-called New Normal lifestyle focus on health and fitness, the ubiquitous use of phones and cameras for work and play, and even turning to Netflix as home entertainment (thus the projector screens), with long, sedentary hours of sitting on chairs in work-from-home settings.
Cloudways’ top niches are power tools (consistent demand over the last five years), technology supplies (due to the technology industries’ exponential growth with new innovations almost every day), lifestyle, beauty and health, and drones and accessories. Again, these indicate a demand pattern for personal and household consumption, aligned with health and beauty, comfortable lifestyle and entertainment, and technology trends.
Cloudways also notes that dropshipping customers are usually impulse-buyers and people will promptly buy if products are presented attractively. So, what you basically need to do is to offer a trending product, make your ad attractive, and keep your prices low. Recommended product selection criteria for dropshippers are:
- products under $10 that look cute or useful (like keychains, stuffed toys, jewelry, smartphone covers, pet products);
- products that are rare to find online, especially on Amazon (U.S. customers tend to compare with dropshipping products with Amazon offers before they buy);
- very useful products, even if higher-priced (video ads showing usefulness are very effective)
You may also be interested in these:
How to Start a Dropshipping Business in 2021
Top 10 Fashion Dropshipping Suppliers in 2021
Finding Dropshipping Products to Sell
Once you have a selection of your initial dropshipping products to offer, you can find them using good product-finding platforms like the Spocket – Oberlo – Printful – Shopify & Wix Dropshipping for Entrepreneurs FB group, Product Mafia, Pexda, Thieve, Repick, and Shopify-Oberlo.
Choosing the best dropshipping products to sell in 2021, or beyond, basically requires that you do very thorough product research first to identify your niche, finding good products to sell aligned with that niche, and then testing that niche with your initial selection of products offered. It also requires that you stay attuned to the market and changing trends, even as you learn how to discern patterns to anticipate future trends.
