Dropshipping is Dead in 2023: Here’s Why

Dropshipping is dead in 2023. While you might hear a success story here and there, the truth of the matter is that the great majority of dropshipping stores – up to 90% – fail before they ever really get off the ground. Why Unified believes there are seven main reasons why dropshipping is dead, but with their four individual subscription plans, they can bring it back to life. 

Incredible Competition

Of all the reasons why dropshipping is dead in 2023, the sheer volume of competition is the number one killer. There are hundreds of thousands of dropshippers around the world, so no matter what industry or niche an entrepreneur chooses, they will be competing with hundreds of other stores selling very similar products – if not the exact same ones. 

People who ultimately succeed in dropshipping are those who find unique ways to stand out from the crowd and overcome the competition, and that includes the huge retailers like eBay, Walmart, and Amazon. Every store in the world competes with these big names, and if they aren’t offering better prices, better quality, or a better overall experience, they are going to fall into the dropshipping death spiral very quickly.

The Wrong Expectations

Many dropshippers start out as curious folks who want to know what it takes to sell products online. The internet is vast, and information is everywhere, so they inevitably turn to social media – namely TikTok and YouTube – for advice. The trouble is that content creators are paid by sponsors and ad revenue, so the more views they can get, the more money they can earn. Clickbait runs rampant on these sites, so these curious would-be entrepreneurs come away from their social media experience believing they’ll be millionaires overnight if they do exactly what the content creator did – usually, that means buying something. 

The truth is that dropshipping isn’t going to make anyone a millionaire overnight. There are certainly millionaire dropshippers, and a handful probably did get rich fairly quickly, but their stories are atypical. Almost every successful dropshipper built their business over the course of months or even years. When people go into dropshipping with the expectation that they will be rich in a matter of days, they feel defeated when they haven’t earned a profit in the first week, and many of them assume dropshipping is dead, so they give up.

Few Quality Options for Dropshipping Partners 

AliDropship is one of the world’s most popular and well-known dropshipping platforms, and it’s where many entrepreneurs get started. They make many claims, including:

These things sound fantastic, but unfortunately, they don’t live up to their claims. Dropshippers pay top dollar for pre-built websites with high hopes that they’ll start raking in the sales the same day, but it doesn’t happen. Exact replicas of stores don’t perform well due to the competitive nature of dropshipping, either. Worse still, the plugins that AliExpress claim are so easy to use come with a massive learning curve, and there’s no real customer support available from the company. In every case, people spend thousands of dollars only to see zero sales. It’s one of the main reasons why dropshipping is dead, and it’s exactly why Why Unified exists. It solves all the common issues that companies like AliDropship create, and it doesn’t make false promises in the process. 

Unknown Brands & Slow Shipping Times

An NPR study from 2018 found that two-thirds of Americans shop online regularly, and of those shoppers, one in every 25,000 has experienced some sort of shopping scam. Transparency and trustworthiness are huge in today’s ecommerce, and that means consumers are less likely to take chances with unknown brands. Instead, they want products from brands they already know and trust, and they want those products as soon as possible. Sadly, online stores powered by AliDropship and similar companies cannot provide this. The products they sell are mass-produced overseas under unfamiliar brand names. They’re also warehoused overseas, so if and when someone does place an order, they must wait for weeks or even months for their order to arrive. 

This combination of unknown brands and painfully slow shipping is just one of the reasons why dropshipping is dead. Studies and surveys from 2018-2022 found that 52% of consumers will go out of their way to buy products from a brand they are loyal to, and 43% of consumers will happily pay significantly more for those products. What’s more, 47% of consumers will gladly pay more for faster shipping, and 60% of consumers abandon shopping carts due to no other reason than slow shipping. Why Unified’s subscription-based plans give dropshippers optional access to popular brand-name products as well as two-day shipping that competes with retail giants. Surprisingly, many Why Unified subscribers find that they can often beat Amazon or Walmart prices on brand-name products without sacrificing their profits! 

Lack of Professional Marketing

Dropshipping is competitive, and digital marketing is the only surefire way to overcome the competition on the internet. Since the early 2000s, digital marketing best practices have shifted significantly. Once upon a time, entrepreneurs could simply add a few keywords to their website and generate tons of traffic. Today, social media is the crux of digital marketing; putting a brand in front of consumers who have shown an interest in the niche is the best possible way to generate traffic that converts. 

Very few dropshipping entrepreneurs know how to design, execute, and manage a successful ad campaign, and some turn to expensive marketing agencies to get the word out, instead. These agencies are incredibly expensive, so it’s hard to get the most out of meager marketing budgets. Why Unified knows dropshipping is dead in 2023 due to the lack of marketing, and that’s why they put social media marketing and email campaigns in each of their monthly subscription plans. 

Lack of Business Sense

Dropshipping is a business. It isn’t a hobby, and it isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a business like any other, and it must be treated as such. If someone opens a taco stand in their backyard five miles from the city, fails to tell anyone about it, doesn’t stock it with ingredients, and doesn’t show up to make the tacos, that taco stand is not going to succeed. However, this is exactly how many entrepreneurs treat dropshipping. They buy a domain name, add some products to the storefront, then forget about it. Dropshipping is dead because many would-be entrepreneurs aren’t treating it like the real business it is. 

Of course, not everyone has the business sense and know-how to professionally manage an online store, especially when that store experiences exponential growth. Rather than going to college for a degree in business, many people turn to Why Unified, instead. Why Unified’s professionals combine their marketing knowledge and business sense to help their clients enjoy success, and they do it for one simple and predictable monthly subscription fee. 

Poor Customer Experience

If there’s one thing consumers won’t tolerate in 2023, it’s a bad buying experience. Numerous things can negatively influence the experience a customer has with your store, including the look and feel of your website, its speed and navigation, the selection of products on offer, the difficulty of the checkout process, and even their interactions with your customer service. Dropshipping is dead because store owners aren’t putting enough time and energy into creating a seamless experience for their visitors. 

Why Unified has been creating excellent customer experiences since 2011, and they continue to do so for more than 20,000 clients around the world. From your brand’s persona to your website’s speed and layout and even the customer service, Why Unified goes out of its way to ensure that each and every one of your visitors and buyers has the best possible experience. 

Conclusion

Dropshipping is dead in 2023, but thanks to Why Unified, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs are enjoying varying levels of success – and more join the fray every single day! Only Why Unified can give dropshippers access to the brand-name products, two-day shipping, competitive profit margins, full-fledged marketing campaigns, and real-time monitoring that will breathe life back into dropshipping.