If you’re new to dropshipping and want to find out how much money dropshippers can make within just one month, here we’ll look at one of our private clients and their results after a 30-day period. Their performance in their first month can give you an idea of how much you can actually earn in that amount of time as a newcomer.
This particular client managed to make $2,500 in their first month, and we’ll review what they did right to get them there, along with what they did wrong. You can then implement what works in your own strategy to potentially see even more monthly earnings.
Many people just starting out with dropshipping come across people claiming to make tens of thousands or even millions on a monthly basis. But it’s important to stay realistic. In reviewing this specific client, we’ll go into detail about how much money dropshippers can make at the start.
How Much Money Dropshippers Can Make: Our Client’s First Month and the Stats Behind It
Before getting into our client’s stats and exploring their strategy, we can’t stress enough the importance of setting specific goals for your dropshipping business. Consider whether you want to get into dropshipping full-time, or if it’s strictly going to be a side hustle for the purpose of earning passive income.
Either strategy can work, but it’s crucial to decide which to pursue at the beginning before you start building your business. Approaching dropshipping as a side project can help you make some extra money. But turning it into a full-time effort will take a lot of work (albeit rewarding work).
With that in mind, let’s review what our client did to succeed in one of their early months.
Looking at the stats for our client over the course of May, they made just shy of $2,500 using a two-step dropshipping sales funnel. This amount is pretty good for dropshippers who are new to this industry. As we take these earnings into account, there are certain stats to pay attention to. They include:
Opt-In Rate
The first stat to look at is the opt-in rate, which is critical. This client had a 53.17% opt-in rate throughout May, totaling 746 email addresses collected. This is an impressive number, as we believe that dropshippers should be making around a dollar per email.
By continually marketing to these leads, dropshippers can maximize each lead’s customer lifetime value (CLV) as they come back for both initial and repeat purchases. You’re essentially throwing away free money if you’re not sending emails to leads on your lists.
Dropshippers often make the mistake of thinking that ad campaigns will be the main breadwinners, but this simply isn’t the case. There’s a lot of competition on social media and other platforms, including advertisers with thousands to spend on campaigns. So you aren’t likely to see a lot of money from ads alone when initially launching your business.
This is why a high opt-in rate and consistent email marketing are both so integral to your success as a dropshipper.
Sales
Our client saw an 8.98% conversion rate in May for their base products, which translates to 126 sales valued at $1,754.53. Again, this is ideal, as your conversion rate should be at around the 7-10% range from month to month. Additionally, one of this client’s upsells saw a 14.67% conversion rate, with 11 sales totaling $164.67.
This is also a perfect percentage, considering most upsell conversion rates for similar products should stay in the 10-15% range. On the other hand, upsells for more premium, complementary products may be in the 8-10% range due to the fact that they’re new.
A general rule of thumb regarding upsells is to sell customers more of the same product they just bought. If this strategy doesn’t work, you can simply visit Amazon; look for related products that people purchase together with your base product. In short, keep your upsells simple, and you’ll likely see ideal conversion rates from them.
In addition to this client’s base conversion rate and that of their first upsell, the client included three other upsells. Their second upsell saw a conversion rate of 17.98%, earning them $239.52 more. Their third and fourth saw conversion rates of 15.66% and 7.89%, respectively.
Altogether, our client’s sales totaled $2,490.15 for the month of May.
The Importance of Subscriptions in Evaluating How Much Money Dropshippers Can Make
It’s worth noting that the fourth upsell was a subscription. The client gained six subscribers, which means six sources of regular monthly revenue. Some people may cancel their subscriptions. But many won’t. These purchases are invaluable for earning free and consistent revenue, as well as more sales.
Consider how many brands have succeeded with subscriptions, from Netflix to Dollar Shave Club. If you’re not offering a subscription of some kind, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
When offering a subscription, there are a couple of ways you can approach it. First, there are full-priced subscriptions like the one our client offered, or you can do a downsell such as a discounted trial subscription.
Stay Realistic and Use the Strategies That Work
Ultimately, we were impressed with our client’s progress during this one-month period. They were able to generate a solid number of sales for their base products, along with upsells and subscriptions.
They also saw a high opt-in rate of almost 1,000 new emails. This can bring in thousands of dollars through consistent email marketing efforts. If you can keep in touch with email leads and optimize sales through upsells and subscriptions, you’ll be able to get the results you want. In turn, you can meet your goals as you grow your dropshipping business and maximize revenue.
Want to learn more about how to excel as a first-time dropshipper? Want more resources detailing the best strategies that drive sales and reach the upper bounds of how much money dropshippers can make? Reserve your seat at the free Ecommerce Masterclass, and you’ll find out how to build a winning dropshipping business. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel for more about what goes into a successful online business.