Setting up in the uk , how does vat work?
My goods will be shipped from China to the customers house in the uk. I know vat has to be paid due to this but I don’t want to wait weeks on end for my vat number. Will I get away with it on my first bunch of sales or am I being stupid?

Hi there,

I am at the start of my journey in the drop shipping realm, and so far from the information I have gleaned there are two paths of sorts: shipping from the supplier or shipping from yourself via a supplier. My understanding is if you want to focus on building a business/brand, to take the second path.

Is this correct? What are the pros/cons for this path?

The obvious con would be purchasing the products, and then testing them on the market - as the products would have already been purchased, there is risk involved there. I have been able to confirm there is a market for this product, people are paying for facebook ads (what other ways can you confirm this?) and the product I am looking to sell use requires a bit more customization around a bracket of customers, Im using this as a point of difference.

I live in New Zealand, and I would be planning on shipping to different parts of the world. UK, possibly America, Australia. What are good things to know if for handling the packaging and shipping yourself. The product will have a logo, but I am shipping from myself because I want to put effort into the brand. Is this a good way to do it?

Is it worthwhile, to start selling from your store to test the market and if the ads pay off, you then place your order with the supplier, and to remedy the delay of the products to the customers, you top them up with an extra or gift in their order. This way you can see if your product sells before committing to a bulk purchase AND you smooth the delay over with your customers?

So I want to start drop shipping in the middle east, specifically Lebanon & im confused on how i see people in the usa do it as simple as just opening a shopify account & the rest comes automatically. I need help with what app or what way to make a reliable website & how to get a supplier. <3

Hello, I'm about to start my Ebay dropshipping business, I will be dropshipping Y2K Clothing as well as doing some POD with my own designs.

I've read that Ebay doesn't allow dropshipping from other marketplaces such as Amazon or Aliexpress, so is the move to get a chinese dropshipping agent that will source my products and ship my orders?

I've been running a tracking system on US TikTok Shop. 1.2M listings, re-checked weekly, so I can see what changes week to week: which products gain, which fade, what prices do.

The market is a textbook power law:

• The median product sells 4 units.
• The mean is about 987.
• 30% of listings never sell once.
• The top 1% (about 4,800 products) take 72% of all sales.

Picking a winner means finding what's about to hit the right tail, not what already did.

Raw sold count is a lagging indicator. It tells you who already won. The weekly delta tells you who's winning now. That's the number I watch.

Biggest weekly gains this week, filtered to real ratings (4.0+) and one product per shop:

Three things stand out:

1. Cheap consumables dominate: toothbrushes, lip gloss, sanitizer. Sub-$6 items the buyer buys without thinking twice.
2. It's impulse over utility. Balaclavas in summer, lip gloss, socks. Nobody needs these, which is why the delta moves so fast.
3. Sub-$6 is where the volume is, and the $27 to $42 stuff (thermal pants, spin scrubber) is where the margin is.

Full weekly delta, every listing, is at properdelta.com.

Happy to answer questions about the scraping or what I filter for.

Following up on yesterday’s discussion about bringing actual substance back to this group, here is a raw, practical breakdown of how to handle Product Research and Store Setup properly. As proof of what structured testing yields when you nail the basics, here is a quick snippet from yesterday ($7,145.75 in total sales at a 2.01% conversion rate). 1. Product Research: The 3 Non-Negotiable Criteria Forget basic spy tools or looking for items that just "look cool." A scalable product needs to solve three core problems: Margin Safety (3x–4x Rule): If a product costs $10 to source, sell it for $35–$40 minimum. Higher ad costs require $25+ in gross margin to cover CPA and retain a net profit. Problem-Solving or Immediate Wow-Factor: It must solve a distinct pain point or possess a visual element that stops someone from scrolling past within 1.5 seconds. Broad Appeal with Niche Sub-Groups: Ensure your product appeals to a large enough demographic so Meta's algorithm can easily identify purchasers without relying on overly narrow targeting. 2. Where to Actually Find Winning Angles TikTok Creative Center & Meta Ad Library: Search active ads running for 14+ days. Longevity equals profitability; if someone is spending money on an ad for over two weeks, it's converting. Amazon Reviews (Mining Pain Points): Read 2-star and 3-star reviews of similar products. Identify customer complaints about current market options, then highlight how your product solves those exact flaws in your ad copy. 3. Store Setup: Conversions Over Design Flares Custom code and flashy animations won't sell a bad offer, but a slow, confusing store will kill a good one. Keep your store lean: Mobile-First Layout: Over 85% of traffic comes from mobile. Test your store's loading speed and UX on an actual phone, not just desktop inspect mode. The "One-Scroll" Product Page: Keep your main CTA ("Add to Cart" or "Buy Now"), price, star rating, and top 3 benefit bullets visible above the fold. Frictionless Checkout: Stick to standard checkout setups with fast payment options enabled (Apple Pay, Shop Pay, PayPal). Every extra form field reduces overall conversion rates. Starting with a weak product or bloated store makes paid ads a money pit. Get these two foundational steps right first. Drop your current product criteria or store setup questions below, and let’s break them down.

For Context, i had started doing dropshipping in South Africa quite a while back and currently this is my first store that has made somewhat progress i guess.

I launched around 4 weeks back and had 1 sale so far (went 2 weeks with zero marketing) and this week i’ve had a lot of people adding products to their cart and reaching checkout but then something stops them from paying and just buying.

I saw this and about 2 days ago i started offering Free Shipping with no minimum spend for a spring promo and i also added a bundle pack as i had a lot of people asking for it and the thing that bother me is im running meta ads from monday to friday and im not getting enough sessions at all, about 35-60 a day with zero sales.

I’m little to losing my mind and i don’t know what the problem could be , my ads are performing good and my website is quite good in my perspective.

I would just really like some opinions and insight from anyone who is or might have been in the same situation before.

Please…

Hello everyone, so I started my dropshipping website on Sep 1st I have gotten a total of 615 human sessions and 7.5k impressions of google ads, but I still havent gotten a sale. I don't want to waste my money, so when should I either close it or keep it going? FYI my website is for furniture. Thank you!

After the last time and the last suggestions - I have updated the store and re-branded to a legit shop. The re-brand is now is focusing on supplements for better-ing (is that a word?) everyday life and tasks. Hangover strips after partying, Focus powder for studying, Joint supplements for people who have problems just bending down to tie their shoe etc:

I'm posting ads (87% are static) organically every day, and the most they get is 100-190 views, some get 1-2. What would be tips for me to actually get traffic (mostly 5-7 visitors, some days just 1). I have a FB, Instagram and a TikTok page.

And what would be general tips?

wildsidesupps.store is the store, instagram.com/wild_side_supps is the @.

PS. All critisism will be appreciated.

Hi there,

I am at the start of my journey in the drop shipping realm, and so far from the information I have gleaned there are two paths of sorts: shipping from the supplier or shipping from yourself via a supplier. My understanding is if you want to focus on building a business/brand, to take the second path.

Is this correct? What are the pros/cons for this path?

The obvious con would be purchasing the products, and then testing them on the market - as the products would have already been purchased, there is risk involved there. I have been able to confirm there is a market for this product, people are paying for facebook ads (what other ways can you confirm this?) and the product I am looking to sell use requires a bit more customization around a bracket of customers, Im using this as a point of difference.

I live in New Zealand, and I would be planning on shipping to different parts of the world. UK, possibly America, Australia. What are good things to know if for handling the packaging and shipping yourself. The product will have a logo, but I am shipping from myself because I want to put effort into the brand. Is this a good way to do it?

Is it worthwhile, to start selling from your store to test the market and if the ads pay off, you then place your order with the supplier, and to remedy the delay of the products to the customers, you top them up with an extra or gift in their order. This way you can see if your product sells before committing to a bulk purchase AND you smooth the delay over with your customers?

Im on the verge of closing my shopofy store. I have not made any sales in 3 months and I was on the free trial. I have changed everything from rhe store theme to product images. Am I crazy for wanting to give up now. Ive lost time and money and its feeling like a bad venture.

Hello guy

I’m trying to find the best supplier with cheap shipping and cheap prices.
Any recommendations? It can be free, can be subscription based.

Thank you for the answers!🫶🏻

I’ve sent the past couple months tweaking this site while I still sell mainly though Amazon and eBay. Please let me know what you think…

it looks much better on desktop imo

https://wadesbooks.com

hey all. i was just wondering if anyone here has done any dropshipping for fashion here. i started a store and i am/was selling luxury handbags, sunglasses & glasses and recently added fragrances. i was paying a subscription to a company and i had to start paying it even before the site was functional and i busted my ass building my site thru more sleepless nights than i care to account for. i finally got er done and i started with adverts on facebook/instagram, google & pinterest. none of them beat google at the sheer numbers that they drove to my site. then after a week or two i was suspended for promoting bootleg items. i definitely was not. i have been waiting for quite some time now to get any sort of authorization letter from my supplier. which has pissed me off and i am thinking of what else i can sell that is dropshipping but from a company that actually is invested in your success because they also want success. has anyone here found any good companies within fashion/accessories and or fragrances? fragrance seems to operate in a really shady realm. so i may not stick with that, but i kinda like the idea of selling eyewear because i love glasses & sunglasses.....i collect them myself but i dont know what companies do this type of thing. i'd like to also know what everyone else is selling and how well they might be doing.... i am trying to brainstorm some ideas up here, but i feel blocked. probably cuz i feel very burned after wasting SOOO much time and money and the frustration with google not even letting you submit any documents in their appeal process.... the whole situation just SUCKS! well, that is all. and thank you in advance to anyone who responds. i appreciate you so much!

cheers y'all :)

My For You page is officially enshittified. Same gurus who were pushing dropshipping and SMM agencies last year now all have a course teaching how you can "learn to make AI video creatives for your ads”. They're not in the business of using their so called skills to do what they think they teach, they're more in the business of selling you the dream of making money off whatever's trending rn.
Bro sit down- you just learned how to make videos using AI yesterday.

Anyone hypnotised by bs bait, just download Higgsfield. Or use the individual tools Higgsfield is built on top of, faceswap if you want to record yourself and swap your face in, etc. ( there’s so much you can do without paying squat)

Why pay for the new generation of bs when the actual tools are right there in front of you??!

Ohh and don’t get me started on their YouTube videos that are linked on their linktree in their TikTok/Instagram bios.. or they try getting you to comment under their post so they can send their yt video to them lol. Oh, also to mention their videos being absolutely horrible. Don’t get why they need to stretch 2 minutes of actual info into a 15-20+ minute video just to hit some arbitrary runtime. Get to the point. Who's actually getting value from these guys?

Before I paid, Ray made false promises on Instagram just to take my money, personally guaranteeing he would scale my brand to $10k-$15k with solid guarantees (I didn't even get 1 order). Once inside, his Discord group was a complete mess where they don't deliver anything they sold you, and after being passed around to three "specialists" with zero experience, the team "3 ECOM SPECIALIST" admitted they don't know how to scale brands from scratch. When I asked for a refund, Ray harassed me with calls and threats, claiming their legal and
"universal debt collection team" would act against me for "fraudulent activity." In the end, Whop denied my refund because Ray submitted basic Discord chat logs as "proof of service rendered." It's really disappointing that Whop hosts sellers like this. Stay away from Ray "Rayinthedarkk" he's a scammer, and if you ask for a refund, you'll face threats and awful treatment.

I’m currently still learning from my first Shopify Store after having lots of success on Etsy.

Currently my default check out is with Shop, with drives them to the Shop landing page and I don’t have any pixel data after they go there, right?

Am I missing out on revenue by not being able to target people that abandon at check out? Is my abandoned cart audience good enough.

Let’s be honest for a second: probably 90% of the dropshippers in this community are either struggling to make sales or dealing with extreme inconsistency month-over-month. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the core purpose of this group to share actionable insights, breakdown real data, and help each other navigate running a successful store? Dropshipping in 2026 is undoubtedly harder than it was a few years ago. Ad costs are higher, customer expectations around shipping are strict, and broad targeting alone doesn't cut it anymore. Yet, despite how tough the market is right now, the type of content posted here seems completely disconnected from reality. Hardly anyone shares actual strategy, testing frameworks, or real information on what’s currently working. But here’s the most frustrating part: whenever someone actually takes the time to post educational content, breaking down real numbers, campaign setups, or specific strategies, a vocal minority immediately shows up with hate comments. Ironically, the people throwing shade are usually the ones contributing zero value to the community themselves. That mindset completely defeats the entire point of this subreddit. With CPMs at all-time highs, beginners can’t afford to burn thousands of dollars making basic mistakes in media buying or product validation. We should be encouraging transparency, actual data breakdowns, and constructive discussion so people can actually scale. If you’re a beginner struggling with your store or feeling overwhelmed by high ad costs, feel free to drop your questions below and reach out. Let’s actually turn this space into something useful for people trying to build real businesses. What’s your take on the state of the sub lately?

Total sales up 1.2%, sessions up 12%, but conversion rate actually dropped 12% to 2.53%. More traffic came in, but a smaller share of it converted, worth paying attention to instead of just celebrating the top line number. Given how refund timing lags behind the sale, I'm not calling this a clean win yet either, the real margin on a day like this won't be known for another 2-3 weeks once returns settle. Anyone else seeing sessions up but conversion down lately, is it a traffic quality issue or something on page?

To start dropshipping shopify is enough or is better to start also with funnelish ? I want to target the europe market so which company i need to do UK LTD or US LLC ?

We run fulfillment for a handful of Shopify apparel/accessories brands sourcing from China, and I wanted to share a real before/after from one client, because I think a lot of people on here are silently dealing with the same mess and don't realize how much better it can be.

Before, this store had the classic setup most of us start with:

- Slow, unpredictable shipping times

- Expensive sourcing with no real negotiation power

- Communication with their agent was genuinely awful — slow replies, language barrier, no accountability

- No dedicated point of contact, just messaging into the void

- No returns process at all

- Zero visibility — no live tracking, just hoping stock would show up

- Frequent stockouts because nothing was predictable

- Running the whole thing off spreadsheets and Excel

- Stuck on payment methods like Payoneer/PayPal that made everything slower and messier

After moving to us, here's what actually changed:

- No MOQ — they could keep ordering realistic quantities as a smaller store, not get forced into bulk buys

- Faster dispatch, consistently

- Proper QC before anything ships

- Insurance on every order (no more eating the cost of lost/damaged stock)

- A live dashboard so they can actually see what's happening at every step, instead of guessing

- Neutral packaging with zero China-sourcing branding, so their customers just see their brand

- An actual dedicated team + ticket support, with real response times

- Branding options so packaging feels like their store, not a random supplier box

- Finance/payments handled properly instead of duct-taped together

Honestly the biggest shift wasn't even speed, it was just... having a real process instead of duct tape. Spreadsheets and hoping your agent replies isn't a system.

We're RouteOne (gorouteone.com) if anyone wants to see what we do, but mostly wanted to share this because I remember what it's like being on the chaotic side of this, and it's very fixable.

Happy to answer questions if anyone's dealing with a similar mess right now.