Wondering how much does it cost to start dropshipping? Well, it’s the year 2024, and guess what? Dropshipping has no signs of slowing down!

Nowadays, the dropshipping business is getting quite popular, and according to Grand View Research, the global dropshipping market is forecast to reach $301.11 Billion in 2024, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.4%.

That’s not all! The dropshipping business is becoming even more popular with the fact that it lowers startup costs, lowers inventory management, provides broad product offerings, flexibility, scalability, and more. Sounds like something every business needs. 

And here I am, popping up the most Frequently Asked Question – How much does it cost to start dropshipping in 2024?

Well, there’s no straightforward answer. Therefore, we will review all the matters related to the big question. Let’s begin! 

How Much Does It Cost To Start Dropshipping?

In the beginning, when you’re still looking for products, the number one thing would just be having enough patience to test the products and being okay with making mistakes because that is how you’re learning the process. – Shishir Nigam

If you don’t spend your money carefully, running a dropshipping business might be expensive.

The question is how much knowledge you have regarding the costs you may expect. If you do not obtain enough information before beginning dropshipping, your budget will quickly run out.

👉 Learn How To Start An Online Store Without Inventory In 2024.

Here are a few significant costs that might have an impact on your budget, as well as some advice on how to manage them:

1. Building a Dropshipping Store

You have multiple choices when it comes to building your dropshipping store, like

• Hire a website developer to build it for you, which can cost you a lot.
•  create a website from scratch using just an open-source content management system (CMS) such as WordPress – which can cost you from $100 to $500 to $2000, or even more, depending on your needs.
•  Use a website builder, which might be your best choice as a beginner, since it is cheaper than all other options. There are various website builders you can choose from depending on your needs and budget, which are very affordable. ( usually to $100)

For example, in my opinion, Shopify is the best option. It’s easy to use and offers lots of good-looking themes for dropshipping stores.

And with their drag-and-drop editor, you can easily make and change your store.

Moreover, Shopify works well with different dropshipping apps, ensuring your business runs smoothly. Plus, you can start for free with their 14-day free trial.

2. Finding a Domain

Next, you must obtain a domain that demonstrates your website’s reliability and trustworthiness.

Most of the domains will cost you around $10 in the first year, but keep in mind that this cost might increase after the first year.

For example, you can search for affordable domains on GoDaddy. Thus, they have over a hundred domains available.

Check out The 8 Best GoDaddy Alternatives For E-Shop Hosting In 2024.

3. Hosting

Hosting is a service that provides you with resources to maintain your site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. So, when it comes to how much does it cost to start dropshipping, this one is important to calculate.

Thus, it is a MUST for your dropshipping store. Depending on your needs, it might cost you from $2 to hundreds of dollars every month.

For instance, you can try Bluehost. Its primary advantage is exactly the affordable prices. Hence, for hosting they offer pricing tiers starting from $2.95/month.

4. Marketing Costs

You may need to spend the most money on advertising. However, as a startup, you may always make use of some of the most cost-effective marketing methods to advertise your dropshipping stores, such as SEO and email marketing.

However, if you want to grow your dropshipping business, you’ll need to promote your products to obtain clients and orders. You may promote your business on Google, Facebook, Instagram, or any other network.

 The cost of an advertisement will vary based on the platform and your target audience. But, if you want to succeed, you should plan around $100 or more of your budget for advertising.

💡 Tip: Read about The Power Of Product Advertisement: How To Increase Your Sales?

5. Dropshipping Tool

A dropshipping tool acts as a link between your business and your suppliers. The tool not only aids you in managing your goods and importing them into your dropshipping store, but it also assists you in placing orders with your suppliers and synchronizing their status.

A decent dropshipping tool can undoubtedly save you a lot of time and effort while operating your dropshipping store. As a result, we strongly advise you to select one carefully.

Various dropshipping tools are pretty affordable. For instance, on the Shopify App Store, you can find dropshipping apps that cost as low as $1-5. Also, there are apps that are even free.

Now, let’s see how much does it cost to start dropshipping with a minimum budget.

What Is The Minimum Amount of Money For Starting Dropshipping?

Well, let’s see! According to the previously mentioned costs, let’s say that you want to save at the beginning. 

Summing it up, you will probably choose a website builder for building your dropshipping store, and we suppose this will cost you around $25, by choosing a starter plan. 

Next is the domain name for $10, Hosting for around $13 which is average, for advertising around $100, and dropshipping tool for around $29, by choosing any starter plan.

So, calculating it all, you will probably have around $177 in startup costs.

Furthermore, let’s learn how much does it cost to start dropshipping at its max!

💡 Tip: Learn about Dropship Baby Products: A Step-By-Step Guide + Top 24 Products

What Is The Maximum Amount of Money For Starting Dropshipping?

You may start selling after spending less money to set up your dropshipping business, but there is always a potential for improvement.

Sourcing extra money or reinvesting your sales proceeds might assist you to improve your store’s operations.

So, if you are willing to expand your business, you will probably need to expand your costs too.

In this case, let’s say that you will probably want to use a better website theme, or more functionalities, etc., so you will settle to pay for some other plan from the website builder options, rather than the starter plan, which might cost you even $100. Moreover, as your business grows, you would probably need more dedicated hosting which might cost $80 – $200.

Furthermore, if you want to attract even more customers and boost sales, you should consider even double your advertising costs, so we can calculate them to around $200.

And, last, the dropshipping tool costs will also rise too, because, as your business grows, you will probably need more functionalities to manage it. 

So, switching to other plans rather than the starter plan might lead you to costs around $100, or an even more expensive enterprise plan up to $500.

Summing it all up, you could increase your costs to $500, or even more to $1000. 

But, what’s the realistic dropshipping budget? Let’s see what this dropshipper has to say!

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Starting Dropshipping With No Money

 Is it even possible to start a dropshipping business with no money?

Well, I can say yes at some point, but you will have to spend some money sooner or later. Sounds interesting? Let’s see what you can do!

First, there are various website builders, like Shopify, Wix, Spocket, and many others that offer free trials for building your dropshipping store.

Secondly, Finding a supplier can also be done for free. There are various platforms like Dropshipping.com, Aliexpress dropshipping center, etc., that provide you with a list of a few dropshipping suppliers for free.

Third, advertising your dropshipping store and products is also possible for free. You can use various strategies to generate organic traffic through SEO. Want to learn how? Just click here.

Last but not least, you can ship your products for free!

As you can see, starting a dropshipping business with no money is possible, but not in the long term.

If you are willing to grow your business or willing to succeed, you should start calculating your dropshipping costs. So, let’s see! 

💡 Tip: Learn How To Escape The Rat Race The Real Way? – Leaving The 9 To 5.

However, when it comes to how much does it cost to start dropshipping, it mostly depends on you. So, next, I will show you my way of starting out.

How I Would Start Dropshipping With Lower or $0 Costs? (My Advice)

Well, I will first start by conducting market research about which products sell best. Thus, for that purpose I start with Google Trends, checking on results about customer demand for a specific dropshipping product. So,  let’s give it a try! 

Thus, this is completely free, so we are at the $0 cost at the moment.

Next, I personally subscribe to AutoDS for $1 with their 14-day trial. This way I can do more in-depth market research, and check on the product’s profit margins, competitors, customer engagement, and more.

Plus, once I build my website I can source the products from there, for only $1!

Thus, as I already mentioned above, for building a website, I personally use Shopify starting with their 14-day free trial, and then I continue using their starter plan which costs $32/month.

Also, for marketing, I use TikTok marketing to market my dropshipping business organically. Hence, video marketing is in trend now, plus TikTok shorts can really go viral.

Furthermore, you can use AI Tools like ChatGPT to help you out with organizing your content, like writing SEO-friendly product descriptions, titles, headlines, blog article content, and more. Plus, it is completely free.

Conclusion

Much valuable data nowadays shows that Dropshipping business has no signs of slowing down.

Moreover, it brings even more advantages to itself in the online business world in 2024, like lowering startup costs, lowering inventory management, providing broad product offerings, flexibility, scalability, and more.

However, people who are interested in starting up their own dropshipping business have many questions and search for considerable information.

Therefore, in this article, we gave you an answer to the most FAQ – How much does it cost to start dropshipping in 2024?

Collect your information, make a decision, and start!