Dropshipping Trends & Updates in 2024

dropshipping trends 2024

Do you plan to start dropshipping in 2024?

The very first step is to look at the most prominent dropshipping trends. It's always better to have a firm grip on the current and future trends before you start a business.

Gathering enough knowledge and insights into this business will make you confident about your new business initiative. Thus, in this article, we’ll discuss some notable dropshipping trends that shape dropshipping in 2024.

Let’s dive in!

Is Dropshipping Worth It? The Dropshipping Trends Do Speak

The global eCommerce and dropshipping business was valued at 284.55 billion in 2023. This is one of the dropshipping trends that conjecture business will grow at a CAGR of 22.85% from 2024 to 2033.

dropshipping market size
Image source: Preceden Research

This positive development has drawn many enthusiasts to start dropshipping in 2024, which allows them to avoid physically touching the products.

It's a clear indication that the people who wanted to "get rich quickly" chose this very business. There’s nothing wrong with this aspiration. But do you think getting success with dropshipping in 2024 would be as easy as walking around the joggers' park?

The question of many starters is “Is dropshipping worth it?”

Different dropshipping trends say the success rate of this business is between 10% and 20% and the profit margin is 15%-20%. Lucrative but risky, right? But we are not here to discourage or intimidate you but to make you aware right from the beginning.

How would you stay competitive in the market? Through catching up with the dropshipping trends to choose the right strategies and specialized services, of course.

Let's look at the example of Little Crystal, an online store that sells earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. Their products take between 5 to 15 business days to arrive in the USA. By offering a fast delivery service, the store optimizes customer experience and succeeds in the dropshipping market.

shipping policy
Image source: Little Crystal

Thus, studying the market trends of dropshipping in 2024 is crucial to staying within the frame.

Dropshipping Statistics for 2024

There is a saying that before you take a dive into the water, you must have an idea of the depth of it. The same is applicable to any business, in general, and dropshipping, in particular. Taking a dip into the dropshipping trends is a must.

If you want to start dropshipping in 2024, you must have a crystal clear idea of the dropshipping trends first. These dropshipping trends and statistics are important for you to understand the past, present, and future playing ground of the dropshipping market.

1. Asia Pacific was the largest dropshipping market, with a 33.92% market share in 2022. North America was then in second, and the market was quite strong that year. Along with dropshipping trends, let's provide an example.

dropshipping asia
Image source: Grand View Research

Notebook Therapy is one of the notable East-Asian stationery. They invite customers into their stationery-addicts community. They guarantee dropshipping products from China to different parts of the USA, within 7 to 21 working days.

2. Experts expect the dropshipping business to grow by 22.8% annually between 2023 and 2030. It is one of the prominent dropshipping predictions. These are the percentile growth figures. In terms of figures, it is supposed to attain a value of 931.9 billion USD by the year 2030. So, you can easily understand that the stakes are quite high in this business.

3. The profit margin in the dropshipping business ranges between 10% and 15%. A study finds that Amazon sellers earned a profit margin of 10 to 30%.

4. Around 27% of online retailers have adopted dropshipping as their primary method of fulfilling orders. This popular fulfillment method does not require suppliers to hold their stocks.

Hence, besides the dropshipping trends, you must also look at these statistics to understand the landscape of dropshipping in 2024.

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Dropshipping Trends in 2024

Customers' behavior changes with the advent of new products and services. So, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to preparing the dropshipping strategy, even for beginners.

Moreover, you can not simply make your decisions based on one particular event. That's why it's imperative that you go through a series of events to understand the dropshipping trends.

Hence, the discussion of the dropshipping trends finds pertinence at this juncture. So, without any further ado, let us take a look at the latest dropshipping trends that govern and will govern the industry.

AI-Powered Automation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the rising trends in dropshipping in 2024. When it comes to delivering products to customers' doorsteps, AI has a key role to play. In BFCM 2023, over 17% of all holiday orders were influenced by AI recommendations, amounting to $199 billion in sales.

The dropshipping software powered by AI eases product sync and inventory management compared to manual software. With AI, you can predict a product's future needs and demand trends. In addition, AI chatbots can help you enhance your customer service and provide prospective buyers with personalized product recommendations.

Let's use Amazon as an example. Amazon features a voice AI named Alexa for voice shopping. With this AI, customers can find products, add them to their carts, and complete the entire purchase when talking. All these are useful in creating a gratifying shopping experience. You can count it among the most vivid, dropshipping trends.

amazon voice shopping
Image source: Readwrite

Recommended Shopify AI tools

To catch up on the AI trend in dropshipping 2024, we recommend these AI tools for your Shopify stores to streamline your work and enhance customer experience:

  • Foxify Smart Page Builder: The visual page builder that helps you build high-converting pages and boost sales without limitations. Foxify distinguishes itself with its advanced visual builder which allows you to design your page from elements like text, images, and icons right in the preview. Its built-in smart AI tool for content creation and translation simplifies the store-building experience and global expansion.
foxify ai page builder
Image source: Foxify
🎁 Special gift: Get Foxify page builder to enjoy a 20% discount for the first 3 months with the code BFCM2024WIN. Offer ends on November 29th.
foxify
  • Tidio Live chat: Tidio provides an AI chatbot named Lyro to autonomously address the most common customer questions, allowing human agents to focus on resolving more complex requests
  • Minta Social Videos Auto Post: Minta's AI helps create an array of product videos from your store's catalog and auto-post on social media: Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It operates like an in-house video production team to save your time and elevate your social retail game.

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Personalization in Customer Experience

Personalization is a dominating trend in the eCommerce landscape as well as dropshipping in 2024 when 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions.

By using the latest dropshipping software, you can get detailed insights into customer preferences and requirements and then customize the different experiences for different customers.

Take Amazon as an example. While buying products from Amazon, you might see personalized product recommendations like “Customers Who Viewed Items In Your Browsing History Also Viewed” or “Customers Also Brought.” Amazon uses the power of personalization to make the recommendations more related and attractive to customers.

amazon product recommendations
Image source: Amazon

Recommended Shopify Apps

Dropshipping in 2024 focuses on personalization, so don’t leave your business behind the curve. Here are useful tools for you to personalize your customer experience in your Shopify stores:

  • Wiser ‑ Product Recommendations: This AI-based recommendation app tracks shopper's on-site behavior, purchase history, and item search then analyzes this data to display product recommendations based on their preferences
  • FoxKit - All-in-one Sales Boost: FoxKit automatically recommends similar products for your customers based on the tracking data in your store to help you upsell and cross-sell effectively.
🎁 BFCM Gift for FoxKit: 20% off on the first 3 months with the code BFCM2024WIN. Deal ends on November 29th, 2024.
foxkit

📚 Related Article: 3 Expert Ideas to Leverage Website Personalization for Shopify Stores

🎁 Expert Tips and Gifts

Interactive Content Keeps Customers Engaged

As interactive content sees 52.6% more engagement than static content, dropshipping businesses are spending their resources on creating the most engaging content. Hence, interactive content has become one of the most notable dropshipping trends in 2024.

But how do you make your content interactive?

In addition to writing the content interactively, you can use interactive design elements like quizzes, polls, videos, etc. to keep consumers interested. Besides providing a fun customer experience, this type of content can be highly useful for gathering insights into customers' preferences.

For example, Meowingtons is a dropshipping pet store, earning around 154,000 monthly visitors to their website. They are one of the prominent dropshippers who incorporate fun-related content with interactive elements, and even messages to increase customer engagement.

interactive content
Image source: Meowingtons

Recommended Shopify Tools

If you want to ride the wave of dropshipping in 2024 and make your stores more interactive, here are some tools you can use:

  • Sleek theme: Perfect tool to build a UX-optimized interactive website. This theme features numerous interactive sections like video hero, lookbook slider, media with collection, etc. The theme design is also enhanced with smooth and captivating animations to bring the most engaging experience for customers.
sleek theme
lucky wheel
Image source: FoxKit - Demo store

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Increased Focus On Sustainability

One of the key dropshipping trends in 2024 is the focus on sustainability. Consumers are becoming increasingly environmentally conscious as 72% of customers said they were actively purchasing environmentally friendly goods.

Sustainability
Image source: Boldist

You may have seen eco-friendly packaging, such as recyclable and biodegradable materials and others. This move can help reduce waste generated by packaging. Also, the efforts improve the brand's reputation with consumers who are eyeing eco-friendly products.

By embracing the dropshipping trends in sustainability, online merchants can reduce their environmental impact while aligning with consumer values and building a reputation for ethical practices. Hence, companies can foster long-term customer loyalty and gain a competitive edge.

For a detailed guide on sustainability practices and tools, explore: How To Create A Sustainable Shopping Season For Black Friday 2024.

Use Of Blockchain For Supply Chain Transparency

Software and tools are revolutionizing dropshipping in 2024. One of them is blockchain technology, which is an advanced database mechanism that allows transparent information sharing within a business network.

This structure ensures that the data remains consistent and unchangeable, as altering or deleting any part of the chain requires consensus from the entire network. This system helps stakeholders attain supply chain transparency and assures accountability.

Blockchain can also pinpoint errors and frauds, helping build trust between buyers and sellers. Lastly, this technology can automate the payment process, reducing transaction delays.

An example of blockchain implementation in the supply chain is IBM Food Trust. They leverage blockchain to improve transparency and traceability in the food industry, which can be applied to the dropshipping of food products.

blockchain supply chain
Image source: IBM Food Trust

To implement blockchain effectively to start dropshipping in 2024, consider the following how-to tips for Shopify:

  • Choose a blockchain-enabled app or plugin: Start by exploring apps or plugins available in the Shopify App Store that support blockchain integration for supply chain management. You can search the keyword blockchain and choose the suitable one for your store. Here are some top apps for you
Verisart: Create blockchain certificates, bundle your physical and digital sales, and sell museum-quality prints.
SHOPX: By using SHOPX tech, you can leverage RWA's - the fastest growing blockchain application to reduce fraud, boost customer engagement
  • Communicate transparency to customers: Highlight your commitment to transparency and ethical sourcing. Inform your customers about how blockchain is used to verify the origins and authenticity of your products, which can build trust and enhance brand loyalty.
  • Automate payment processes: Leverage blockchain’s capability to automate payments with smart contracts. Smart contracts can be programmed to release payments automatically once certain conditions are met, such as confirmation of delivery. This reduces manual intervention and ensures timely and secure payments.

With these tips, when starting dropshipping in 2024, you can consider using blockchain to ensure the accuracy and security of their supply chain data, fostering trust among suppliers, retailers, and customers.

The Success Journey Ahead

After having a firm grip on dropshipping trends, if you want to start dropshipping in 2024, there is nothing better. Yes, it opens the doorway to attaining self-reliance and prosperity. But simultaneously, you must be aware, restrain your emotions, and, most importantly, be patient. Let us give you a few guidelines that can help you comfortably start dropshipping in 2024.

First, choose a less crowded niche. It will be difficult to choose a popular business with a low barrier to entry.

After all, you must earn and sustain profits in the long run. Hence, rather than charging extra for the same product, you must select the niche with low competition.

Secondly, you have to work on building your own brand. It is "the only way to be successful in dropshipping nowadays." So you have to focus on these dropshipping trends.

Finally, you have to prioritize customer service. You have to escape the trap of extensive marketing and avoiding the existing customers. There is always a great opportunity waiting if you focus on:

  • Better product quality
  • Faster shipping
  • Better search/UX

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🎁 Expert Tips & Gifts

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: Is Dropshipping Worth It?

The profit margin can be up to 30% for beginners but the success rate is just between 10% and 20%. Thus, dropshipping is worth trying but you need a thoughtful plan and a comprehensive knowledge base to start dropshipping in 2024.

Q2: How Long Does It Take to Success with Dropshipping Business?

Ans: As you all know, the dropshipping business is a low-risk business model, which is why people opt for it. Even with the low-risk terrain, one has to devote a substantial amount of time to gain deeper knowledge of this trade.
Dropshipping success depends on a few initiatives like starting an eCommerce store, sourcing the latest customers, finding the most reliable suppliers, and slowly building your brand.

Q3: How do you get the right dropshipping suppliers?

Ans: Success in the dropshipping in 2024 depends on how well you manage suppliers' complexities. Navigating the supply chain involves problems like shipping delays and control issues.
Managing them all requires effective communication and proactive management.
Websites like DSers and Alibaba have thousands of suppliers ready to dropship store owners' products to prospective buyers.

Q4: Which type of store will be popular in the Future Of Dropshipping?

Ans: There are two types of dropshipping stores: a general store and a niche store. Both are doing well in terms of business.
The general dropshipping store allows you to import any product type into your store. It is more elastic in nature. Hence, this business is most suitable for beginners. However, if you have a liking towards a particular product, the niche store could be your choice. However, you need to develop your expertise in the niche. Moreover, you need to be involved in product research.

The Future Of Dropshipping Is Bright

The future of dropshipping in 2024 is going at a good rate, and according to the projections discussed above, you have a good opportunity to shine in this business.
It would help if you were mindful of the different dropshipping trends, mainly the evolution of technology and customer preference. It will help understand the scenario surrounding the dropshipping business. Hence, be aware of these major dropshipping trends and kiss the shores of success with this business.