{"id":6443,"date":"2021-06-18T04:36:38","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T04:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/?p=6443"},"modified":"2022-02-11T08:28:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T08:28:30","slug":"dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html","title":{"rendered":"Part-time Dropshipper Reached $100k Monthly Revenue in 1 Year with 1 Process: How and How?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_55 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\">Menu:<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-680c9cf921fba\"><span class=\"\"><span style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-680c9cf921fba\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#%E2%80%9C80_Of_My_Time_Is_to_Find_Test_for_Winning_Products%E2%80%9D\" title=\"\u201c80% Of My Time Is to Find &amp; Test for Winning Products\u201d\">\u201c80% Of My Time Is to Find &amp; Test for Winning Products\u201d<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#Started_with_No_Background_to_the_Point_of_Almost_Giving_Up\" title=\"Started with No Background to the Point of Almost Giving Up\">Started with No Background to the Point of Almost Giving Up<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#Realization_As_a_seller_80_of_your_time_is_to_find_test_for_winning_products\" title=\"Realization: As a seller, 80% of your time is to find &amp; test for winning products\">Realization: As a seller, 80% of your time is to find &amp; test for winning products<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#The_Joy_of_Finding_Winning_Ones\" title=\"The Joy of Finding Winning Ones\">The Joy of Finding Winning Ones<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#Getting_Some_Help_Along_the_Way\" title=\"Getting Some Help Along the Way\">Getting Some Help Along the Way<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-recipe-for-winning-products.html\/#An_Exciting_Future_Ahead\" title=\"An Exciting Future Ahead\">An Exciting Future Ahead<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9C80_Of_My_Time_Is_to_Find_Test_for_Winning_Products%E2%80%9D\"><\/span><b>\u201c80% Of My Time Is to Find &amp; Test for Winning Products\u201d<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone who has done dropshipping knows that it\u2019s no simple feat. Now, imagine starting a business during a global pandemic, with 9-to-5 deadlines still going on. It\u2019s exactly what Aaron did. He started his side business a year ago, thanks to the good amount of spare time when working from home. After one year, starting from 0, hit the point of desperation, now his monthly revenue has reached the level of $100k. Not a big number for many people, but it&#8217;s a satisfying achievement as his second source of income.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Started_with_No_Background_to_the_Point_of_Almost_Giving_Up\"><\/span><b>Started with No Background to the Point of Almost Giving Up<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As told to ShopBase by Aaron Jackson, a part-time dropshipper with $100k+ monthly revenue, owner of 3 dropshipping stores.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a Java developer, with next to no knowledge in business nor advertising, and a very limited network in the dropshipping field, the only thing I had back then was a solid motivation to make money online and 3 hours a day off work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I kickstarted the business by taking some online courses about Facebook Ads &amp; Google Ads, building a business plan on spreadsheets, joining dropshipping communities, and going to websites such as Aliexpress, 1688, Taobao, etc.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I&#8217;m a fast learner so things were going pretty well. It took me about 4 weeks (While still working) to get the hang of dropshipping and basic skills to set up a store, run Facebook Ads &amp; Google Shopping, and fulfillment &amp; stuff&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was pretty fine and dandy until I decided to start dropshipping Hiking gear (the niche that I really liked). I was overwhelmed by &#8220;an ocean of similar products&#8221; and did not have one clue on browsing and choosing which supplier to proceed with.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6449 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/store-mockup.png\" alt=\"store-of-winning-products\" width=\"1080\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/store-mockup.png 1080w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/store-mockup-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/store-mockup-768x398.png 768w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/store-mockup-1024x531.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It went from bad to worse when my first Facebook Ads campaign turned out to be a disaster. Day #1, day #2, then day #3 &#8230; no orders came back. At the end of the first 2 weeks, I already spent $3,000 on the advertising budget, and just a fraction of revenue returned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another problem was my ad accounts being disabled \u201cleft and right\u201d due to various reasons, from violating content policy, wordy images to unusual advertising activities, etc. Basically, it was a house of cards. I\u2019d get things running, but I had to be very, very careful about everything I did to make sure one little thing didn&#8217;t go wrong that would just take everything down.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luckily, at that time, I was not in any financial difficulties. But not so much for many other dropshippers out there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was not over-exaggerated to say it\u2019d take some magic for the business to take off. I decided to take my chances one more time and go back to the drawing board&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Realization_As_a_seller_80_of_your_time_is_to_find_test_for_winning_products\"><\/span><b>Realization: As a seller, 80% of your time is to find &amp; test for winning products<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As told to ShopBase by Aaron Jackson, a part-time dropshipper with $100k+ monthly revenue, owner of 3 dropshipping stores.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I started researching closely on dropshipping communities because I knew at that point I needed to do something. I had just read a post on the ShopBase fellow dropshipper community, and the advice hit me like a tornado: Test &#8211; Test a Lot &#8211; And Invest Money to Learn the \u201cNewbie\u201d Lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applying the 80 &#8211; 20 rule, we gotta find the 20% work that drives in 80% revenue. I learned that a lot of my effort invested in planning, coming up with business models, designing, finding the best suppliers, etc. all became in vain. And ironically, my sense of choosing products to <a href=\"\/?utm_source=leads&amp;utm_medium=sbblog&amp;utm_term=blog\">dropship<\/a> is just simply irrelevant.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What really contributes to my success and earns me money is to find &amp; test for winning products.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, I applied the method that I should\u2019ve done a long time ago:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6444 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Testing-process.png\" alt=\"Test-winning-products-process\" width=\"1451\" height=\"753\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Testing-process.png 1451w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Testing-process-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Testing-process-768x399.png 768w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Testing-process-1024x531.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1451px) 100vw, 1451px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pick about 5 products that would be market-fit based on the recent statistics &amp; my personal experience<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Download the media (including videos &amp; images on Aliexpress or Taobao)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Come up with a \u201cdecent\u201d ad content or apply templates from other supporting platforms such as Adspy or Bigspy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Set up ad campaigns, each for one product with different targetings<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Based on post engagement and the number of order requests, pick 2 best-performing products to scale up my ads budget.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purely data-driven, with a practical &amp; efficient approach. Only when 2 winning products are already chosen will I find &amp; contact the suppliers.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For the customers who have already ordered, I send them a message, apologizing &amp; asking them to wait for 5~7 days, giving them a discount for their patience.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This customer service method is only acceptable when you first started. As it contains a lot of risk in bringing negative experience for your customers. Once you have good connections with the fulfillment providers, you can make the testing &amp; fulfillment processes almost simultaneous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s that simple!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Joy_of_Finding_Winning_Ones\"><\/span><b>The Joy of Finding Winning Ones<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As told to ShopBase by Aaron Jackson, a part-time dropshipper with $100k+ monthly revenue, owner of 3 dropshipping stores.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I love the saying from one of the dropshipper fellows in ShopBase community \u201cWith winning products, you\u2019re already 50% guaranteed for success\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because I already had 2 proven-winning products, the next goal is to find the best supplier, scale-up ads budget and optimize the conversion rate for your store.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When choosing a supplier, always pay attention to the 3 factors: Pricing, location &amp; shipping options, and their reputation in the marketplace. I got that and more with PlusBase fulfillment. Aside from the high-quality product sourcing, and speedy packing &#8211; shipping duration (around 6 days), the platform also helps me with the testing process by giving me real-time reports of the hottest products to sell and which have high margins to get profit from our data-backed catalog. It\u2019s a fantastic platform!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I got more and more familiar with the process, in addition to the effortless fulfillment from PlusBase, I was able to have 3, then 5, then 8 winning products simultaneously, improve the brand assets (images, videos, storefront, etc.), and scale up the budget to $5,000 per day.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Getting_Some_Help_Along_the_Way\"><\/span><b>Getting Some Help Along the Way<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As told to ShopBase by Aaron Jackson, a part-time dropshipper with $100k+ monthly revenue, owner of 3 dropshipping stores.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was lucky enough to choose ShopBase as my ecommerce platform. In the beginning, I did look at other platforms such as Magento, Shopify Plus, BigCommerce and Salesforce. But, it was ShopBase that got down to Earth and tackled my problems instead of simply selling the platform to a desperate guy like I was. Basically, they gave me the keys and said, \u201cHere, take it for a drive and see if it works for you.\u201d I was able to put it through the paces and try to do what we needed to do to see if the testing formula would work for us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jessica was my ShopBase Customer Success Manager. I couldn&#8217;t have done this without her. She helped me understand what this entire process entailed from start to finish, and what I needed to do in the correct order to achieve setting up these processes. Once I got through that first winning product with her, I was able to fluently apply the process and use it to scale up my business pretty quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In past implementations, I discovered there was so much work to do in past implementations in past implementations just paralyzed the whole business. What do I do first? And then you just don&#8217;t do anything because you don&#8217;t know what to do.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So to have her there right from the start saying, \u201cOkay, here&#8217;s the order that we&#8217;re going to do it, here&#8217;s the timeline that each thing should take, and here&#8217;s a complete list of everything that my past customers have come across that you want to make sure you address as well,\u201d was invaluable.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"An_Exciting_Future_Ahead\"><\/span><b>An Exciting Future Ahead<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As told to ShopBase by Aaron Jackson, a part-time dropshipper with $100k+ monthly revenue, owner of 3 dropshipping stores.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Knowing how to find and test for winning products is going to help us be successful in the dropshipping fierce competition. It is what contributes 80% to your business success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a pretty interesting &amp; intensive experience to start dropshipping and still have a 9-to-5 job: Failed in the beginning, then learned along the way about the simple yet most important <a href=\"\/?utm_source=leads&amp;utm_medium=sbblog&amp;utm_term=blog\">dropship<\/a> rule. One of the coolest things was seeing my income during Covid-19 is not going to fully depend on my job. It was like, \u201cOh, this is cool. I\u2019m having 2 reliable sources of income now\u201d So it&#8217;s neat to see where things are going.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going forward in the next 1 year, I&#8217;d love to see a very big increase in sales. I hope that the business can really grow to open my own company and hire new staffs. With the great service and support from the ShopBase team, I\u2019m having high hopes&#8230; <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a class=\"fasc-button fasc-size-large fasc-type-flat fasc-rounded-medium fasc-style-bold\" style=\"background-color: #1ca8ff; color: #ffffff;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/accounts.shopbase.com\/sign-up\/?utm_source=cs&amp;utm_medium=sbblog&amp;utm_campaign=aaron-case-study\">Kick-off your business and mark your own milestone now!<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Other strategies to improve sales of your online business you might interest:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/dropshipping-case-study-make-money-during-pandemic\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How I made $126,927 from dropshipping during the Covid-19 pandemic<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/tiktok-ads-dropshipping\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Skyrocket your dropshipping sales with TikTok ads<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/en\/improve-user-experience-with-product-customization\/\">How to Improve User Experience with Product Customization<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/how-to-find-winning-products\/?utm_source=leads&amp;utm_medium=bkt&amp;utm_term=blog\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6464 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/winning-product-ebook-1-1024x537.png\" alt=\"An Exciting Future Ahead\" width=\"1024\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/winning-product-ebook-1-1024x537.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/winning-product-ebook-1-300x157.png 300w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/winning-product-ebook-1-768x403.png 768w, https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/winning-product-ebook-1.png 1334w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c80% Of My Time Is to Find &amp; Test for Winning Products\u201d Anyone who has done dropshipping knows that it\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":6448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[6,2,3,409],"tags":[50,1018],"gutentor_comment":65,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6443"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11646,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6443\/revisions\/11646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shopbase.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}