Best Dropshipping Products (8 Key Characteristics for 2023)
They say winning products share a few key qualities.
The products solve a problem, have a “wow factor”, serve an impassioned audience and the list goes on…
But what if you have already selected a few promising products based the criteria you’ve been taught by the gurus, and you’re still not sure which to go for?
There are actually a few other important product characteristics to consider, which you may not know about.
In this article we will go through these characteristics and discuss the best kinds of products to dropship from the perspective of a dropshipping agent.
If you don’t know what a dropshipping agent is, you may want to read this article first:
What is a Dropshipping Agent?
Best Dropshipping Products by Long Term Success Factors
Before we get into the exact characteristics of the products themselves, it is important to understand what factors will fuel long term success and why.
These are 5 key factors that determine the potential of your product:
Easy to manage warehouse inventory & fulfillment
Cost-effective shipping rates
Fast shipping times
Low customer complaints
Easy to Manage Warehouse Inventory & Fulfillment
This will come into play when you’re doing much large numbers.
If you want your scaling process to be as smooth as possible, then it should be easy to manage the product’s warehouse inventory, as well as pick and pack it.
An example of this would be a small product with one SKU. It’s easily stored, doesn’t take up much space and doesn’t require much time or thought from a packing perspective.
Cost-efficient Shipping Rates
You want cheap shipping rates relative to the value of your product.
If shipping is taking away a large percentage of your profit to begin with, then it may be difficult to stay profitable down the line.
High value jewelry or technology that is light in weight but can be sold for a lot, are good examples of cost-efficient products when shipped.
Fast Shipping Times
You probably already know that customers enjoy fast shipping times, but it’s important to consider before choosing which product to dropship.
Some products may contain certain fluids or batteries that can’t be shipped via the fastest cost-effective lines.
The faster the shipping, the less headaches you’ll have when you scale.
Low Customer Complaints (Good Customer Experience)
Choosing a product that is going to have less foreseeable aftersales issues is important.
If you scale a product only to find out that it is susceptible to issues that lead to customer dissatisfaction, you’ll be inundated with support queries at the very least.
The worst case scenario is that you’ll have to deal with advertising account or payment processor shut-downs and freezes.
With the factors to determine long term success out of the way, let’s get onto the best kinds of products to dropship!
Best Dropshipping Products by Characteristics
1. Small & Light Products
A small & light product often has great scalability. It’s easy to store in a warehouse, easy to pack, and is cheap to ship.
If however the product is missing one of these two characteristics, it may not be as viable.
Some products may be light but still quite large, such as a teddy bear or dog bed.
Products that are large in size but low in weight may be charged by volumetric weight, which can be more costly than when they are charged by actual weight.
2. Sturdy Products
As mentioned earlier, you want to choose a product that’s not going to cause lots of customer complaints down the line.
That means if you have a choice between a sturdy or robust product versus a weak or frail product, you should always go for the sturdier one if everything else is equal.
3. Products with Good Compliments
A compliment or addon is a great way to increase your average order value (AOV).
When considering which dropshipping product you’re going to choose, think deeply about the niche, what other products would work well with it, if there are any at all.
Even better, if the product isn’t consumable itself, a consumable component or addon to the product will increase the lifetime value of each customer (LTV).
4. Low Size/Weight to Value Ratio
We touched upon this in point 1. but let’s get more specific.
Look for a product where the size or weight is low compared to the value you’re selling it at.
That means that the product can still be a bit larger, or a bit heavier, as long as it is also considered to be more valuable by your customers, and you can price it appropriately.
A product that is very heavy, and can only be sold for $10-$20 is probably not going to be viable for dropshipping from China as most of your margin will be eaten up by the shipping cost.
A great way to get a handle on this is to either check AliExpress or better yet, ask a dropshipping agent.
6. Customizable Products
If your product turns out to be a winner, then you’re likely to face competition in the future if you aren’t already.
One way to overcome competition is to improve the product itself. Make it a better product than the one everybody else is selling.
The question is, if there is potential to customize it without needing a huge minimum order quantity (MOQ).
Products that require a mold for example, will require a large MOQ to be able to change it…
But if there is a component inside the product that could be switched out for a better version, such as a battery, then that could give you an important competitive advantage.
A better product means a better customer experience, and is a differentiating factor that’ll help you not only rise to the top, but stay there.
7. Brandable Products
Some products require huge minimum order quantities (MOQ) for branding, others do not. Some products can’t be branded at all.
You’ll want to determine, if you can, how easy it will be to brand the product itself.
If you can’t brand the product then ask yourself the question, will branded packaging suffice for what you envision?
If the barriers are low to entry (as they often are in dropshipping), being able to brand the product may be a huge factor in maintaining market dominance down the line, especially if you’re getting in early.
For more on branded dropshipping see this article: What is Branded Dropshipping?
8. Single/Low SKU Products
This characteristic is closely related to how easy it will be to manage the product in the warehouse and fulfill it.
A single SKU product is easy to keep track of, easy to pick and easy to pack.
The more SKUs there are, the more product locations there are, the more complex the packing process becomes, and the more likely it is for mistakes to be made.
Not only do more SKUs make it more costly to scale, but they may also become the root of more customer complaints.
Depending on how well organized the warehouse storage and fulfillment process is, it could skew to one side or the other…
A well organized warehouse may cost more as they have processes in place to reduce the likelihood of mistakes being made.
Whereas a less-well-organized warehouse may be able to keep costs down with a less stringent process, but that may lead to more picking and packing mistakes.
Practically speaking this means that it may be worth trying to bring the number of variations of your product down if possible.
You might ask yourself for example, does your product really need to have so many colors? In some cases the answer might be “No.”
Do a cost/benefit analysis and move forward from there!
Conclusion
You probably already have enough to think about, especially if you’re very early on in your dropshipping journey.
This list is not made to cause paralysis by analysis. Quite the contrary!
Once you’ve used the key mainstream methods for selecting potential winning products, this article is made to help you whittle down that list even further, so that you can finally make a decision.
In conclusion, consider the characteristics of a good dropshipping product, but just as importantly, make a decision and take action once you have!
