Should I start a dropshipping business?

Should you start a dropshipping business? Here's the honest breakdown. Dropshipping means you sell products online without holding any inventory — your supplier ships directly to customers. Our verdict is 'Depends' with a 48% confidence score, meaning this is genuinely situational. The appeal is obvious: minimal upfront investment. A Shopify store costs $39 per month, and since you don't buy inventory until customers order, your main cost is advertising — typically $1,000 to $2,500 to start testing. But here's what the guru courses don't tell you: margins are razor-thin. A typical $30 dropshipped product yields only $2 to $4 in actual profit after ad spend, payment processing, and returns. You need hundreds of sales monthly to earn meaningful income. Competition is extreme — millions of sellers list identical products from the same suppliers, creating constant price wars. Our scorecard rates startup capital highly at 8 out of 10 but gives profit margin only 4 out of 10 and long-term sustainability just 3 out of 10. The biggest risks people underestimate: supplier disappearance without warning, chargeback fees from unhappy customers receiving slow shipments from China, and the 30 to 50 percent increase in advertising costs over recent years. Who should try this? People with strong paid advertising skills, $1,000 to $3,000 for testing, and realistic expectations. Who shouldn't? Anyone expecting fast passive income or premium margins. Our recommendation: if you want to learn e-commerce, dropshipping is a low-risk classroom. But treat it as a stepping stone toward building a real brand with your own products, not as a long-term business model. Start with a free Shopify trial, invest small in testing, and validate demand before scaling.