How to Find Trustworthy, Free Dropshipping Suppliers?
As you may imagine, due to the business model, most of the time when you run into trouble, it is because of your supplier.
Very often, when entrepreneurs are about to start their first dropshipping business, they spend lots of time designing their website, choosing which products they want to offer, writing a catchy product description etc.
Choosing a supplier is often the thing that comes last.
However, if you want to avoid losing sleep over your dropshipping business down the road, it might be worth doing some research before starting a partnership.
In our own experience working with dozens of suppliers, we have found several things you should watch out for.
Warranty and return policy
A good warranty and return policy can act as an insurance policy to your business. Sometimes you might pay a premium, but in the long run it’s generally worth it.
Whenever debating whether a supplier would fit into your business model, definitely take their warranty and return policy into account.
If they don’t list it openly on their site, be sure to send them an email to enquire about it.
Location & Shipping times
In our experience, we’ve noticed that people are willing to pay a lot more to get their order sooner.
As you will learn later in this article, dropshipping does not always have to equal long shipping times. Many of our top-rated dropshipping suppliers have locations in the US or are US-based.
Being able to advertise a short delivery time gives potential customers a distinct reason to choose you over your competitors.
The shorter your shipping times, the less impatient customers you will have to deal with as well.
2. Price
The three P’s of marketing are price, product, and positioning. The first two are dependent on your supplier, the last is up to you.
Dropshipping in its essence is quite simple.
You buy something in-demand for a bargain, post it on your site, market it, and flip it for double the price or more.
To be profitable in our business, you have to ensure your margin is high enough.
All too often we have heard stories of people starting their business boasting about 5 figure revenues only to go broke a few months later due to low margins.
Pay attention to your margin.
3. Shipping fees
A silent profit killer, shipping fees can take a significant chunk out of your margin if you don’t watch out.
A difference between different suppliers often lies in their shipping fees.
Especially when sourcing from Asian markets you should beware of differing shipping fees.
Also: Watch out for tricks like when suppliers are gaming the platform ranking by putting incredibly low prices but absurd shipping fees.
4. Product variety
If your competitors are selling the same things as you, the only thing you can compete on is price.
That’s a story that doesn’t end well.
Generally, you’re best off doing some research to ensure your supplier sells unique products.
By making sure the products you sell are unique, your competitors can’t easily copy your strategy.
This is called an economic moat.
It will allow you to set a comfortable margin while ensuring customer loyalty as well.
5. Quality
Any monkey can make a hundred bucks, the difference between a successful monkey and one that fails it whether they get to keep it.
There is not much benefit in selling a thousand bracelets at a great mark-up, only to have half of your customers demand a refund a month later.
All because your bracelet falls apart the moment you open the package (by then you might have sold another thousand).
In short:
Low-quality products can tank your dropshipping business.
Do yourself a favor and check the user reviews, or perhaps order some samples of your bestsellers. You want to make sure the quality is on par with your price!
6. Fees
Most of the top dropshipping companies we can choose from in our list below, are free to use.
Some of them (especially the US-based ones), charge a one-time fee or a small monthly fee.
In exchange, you can use their promotional material or enjoy shorter shipping costs.
If you are just getting your store started, there is generally no need to pay such fees.
However, if you’re trying to scale and offer shorter shipping times, it might be useful to pay a small fee if the advantages weigh up to it.
7. Customer service:
This is often not the first thing that comes to mind when browsing a new dropshipping website.
However, when push comes to shove and something goes wrong (an order is delayed, a package is damaged,), great customer service will often mean the difference between a lousy experience and a great one for your customer.
If you trust your dropship supplier, you can be assured they will fix your problem by either shipping a new product or refund the order.
Before ordering from a new supplier, try making contact with them first to see how fast they respond.
List of Free Dropshipping Suppliers without membership fees
With the tips and tricks above, you will be well on your way to find great free dropshipping suppliers. To save you some time, we have compiled a list of all free dropshipping companies.
We ranked them by category/niche for your ease of use.
None of these dropshipping sites demand membership fees, although some of them require you to sign up for a free membership first.
#1 Toys, Hobby and DIY
A great niche to get started with dropshipping.
This one is here to stay because as long as we will have kids, we will always need toys.
Furthermore, age group limits and changing trends make for consistent buying pressure.
The past years this niche has seen consistent demand and it’s only going to grow in the future. With Black Friday and Thanksgiving coming around, it’s a great bet as these categories make for excellent gifts.
Ever since the eighties, demand for tech products and electronics has been rising rapidly.
This sector is extremely diverse with lots of options for your website, no matter what your target group.
A good thing about listing electronics products in your dropshipping store is the fact that you can mark-up quite profitably as the difference between the cost of goods and perceived value is high.
Each of the suppliers listed below has a large range of products: from smartphone chargers to Bluetooth earphones and portable drones.
Fashion is, by definition, a permanently changing trend.
No matter how diverse the landscape is right now, it will only grow more diverse.
People will always need a way to express themselves. For many, buying trendy and fashionable clothes is their way to do just that.
If you are into fashion and high street trends, this might be the niche for you, as having deep knowledge of your product and customer base is an often-overlooked strategic advantage.
Most of the free dropshipping suppliers listed below are US based and offer a great deal of diversity in terms of product choice.
Over the past decades, health trends are catching up with us more and more.
People are getting more and more aware of how their choices impact their health. As people strive to live older and look younger, the healthcare and beauty sector is set to boom.
Over the next 5 years, forecasts are being set for an average annual growth rate of 4,3%.
As a dropshipper, the low-cost products in this category are especially attractive as they allow fat margins.
One of the greatest hurdles to early-days e-commerce adoption was the time it took between ordering your product and receiving it.
Nowadays, various order automation tools, structural improvements in logistics, and revamped business models allow for next-day delivery in many cases.
If you would like a list of both free and paid us dropshipping suppliers, then we have a bigger article just about the USA.
When getting started, most dropshippers are mainly looking for low cost of goods, so they reach overseas.
When scaling your dropshipping business, you might want to choose a US-based dropshipping supplier to source your goods.
In addition to faster delivery times, benefiting from effortless communication, higher quality products and great customer service are the greatest advantages of choosing a US-based dropshipper.
All of the USA dropshippers listed below are either free or give a free trial, we have vetted each of them and found them to be legitimate partners for your dropshipping business.
National Dropshippers
Located in New-Hampshire, NationalDropshipper is a bare-bones dropshipping service.
Offering more than 250 000 products, they cater to most niches.
They boast delivery times between one and 3 days which is fast compared to the average.
They offer a free 7-day trial but even as a non-member you can browse their catalog freely in order to figure out if they offer what you are looking for.
Prices are generally 30-60% below MSRP giving you plenty of space to fill in the gap.
2. Brybelly
Brybelly has been around for more than 15 years and ships from central Indianapolis. With about 3000 SKU’s and more than a dozen brands in the Toys and Health & Beauty sector, they are a good bet for niche stores in those departments.
They are especially great to get you started if you don’t have excess cash lying around as they offer full services at zero membership fee.
You can view their full product catalogue without signing up, but you need a free vendor account to start ordering.
Important: Brybelly does not allow 3rd party resale on Amazon.
3. Sunrise Wholesale
Sunrise Wholesale has over 15000’s products stocked between a variety of categories. They offer many integrations for all your favorite platforms, among which eBay, Amazon, Shopify and many more.
On their website, they pride themselves on their customer service and offer great warranty and return terms too.
Because of this, they are an ideal partner for you to scale your small store.
You do not need an account to view their catalogue and they offer a free 7-day trial to get started.
Sunrise Wholesales offers a free trial with a small monthly payment afterwards to continue using their service.
4. Wholesale2b
Wholesale2b is more of a sourcing tool than a proper supplier by themselves.
Nevertheless, they offer a search functionality to skim through more than 1 million dropshipping products.
You don’t need to perform precarious sign-up processes with a gazillion different suppliers anymore, with Wholesale2b you have one-stop for all your shopping.
Various tools and plug-ins for Shopify, eBay, Amazon, WooCommerce are available and they offer free product photos and description downloads as well.
This tool is a real powerhouse and has most functionalities you need in one place.
They offer a free plan which allows you to browse through the catalog and contact suppliers and a paid plan (starting at 29.9$) for integration and automation.
5. InventorySource
Another great free dropshipper to make life easier for us.
Inventory source syncs the inventory of hundreds of suppliers. This results in a staggering 1.6 billion products for you to choose from.
Their paid plan allows full integration with several platforms and suppliers as well as an auto-upload function to simplify the process of adding products to your store.
We can really recommend this tool to dropshippers that are growing larger and want to reduce their operational workload at a small fee.
For starters, there is a free plan as well that allows you to browse products and contact suppliers yourself.
6. Megagoods
Megagoods is a large distributor of household and consumer electronics.
They started off in 2004 and are on their way to becoming one of the largest dropshipping suppliers in the industry.
With a portfolio of more than twenty brands in the consumer electronics space, they are an excellent choice for those of you looking to establish themselves in this niche.
A small fee of $14.99 per month is charged for you to use their service but they offer a 30-day free trial as well so you get to try out their offering.
Prices are generally 30-60% below retail, and they show you a target retailing price next to each product.
7. Spocket
One of our favourite tools is one that has grown to become an industry standard.
Spockets main business lies in helping you to find the best dropship supplier for the product but they also offer integration with virtually all of the popular e-commerce platforms.
Their user base consists of nearly 60 000 members as well as several hundred suppliers, 80% of which are US or EU based.
This tool is especially interesting if you are looking to scale and want to automate some of the manual labor (like adding products, for instance).
They offer a free 14-day trial to try the application, after which they charge a fee to continue using their service. There is a free option available as well, but it solely allows you to scroll through the catalog.
8. Fragrancenet
A great niche player, one that has been around since 1997.
Fragrancenet is active in the beauty and healthcare sector and carries 17,000 genuine, brand name fragrances, skincare, makeup, haircare, aromatherapy, and candles all at discount prices for dropshippers to profit from.
They do not have a subscription model and charge zero fees for shipping either (minimum order size applies).
Upon request, they can offer you a detailed copy of their catalogue as well.
All of this makes Fragrance net an excellent choice for those of you that are active (or looking to start) in this particular niche.
9. Wholesale central
No list of Best free US dropshippers would be complete without including Wholesale central at least once.
As one of the oldest resources on dropshipping, this directory provides you with a free list of suppliers’ contact information in nearly any niche or category you could with.
The site design might be outdated, but their database is updated frequently. They offer no paid plans and no automation or integration options.
Their business model is simple: Listing all the top suppliers for each category. You can’t go wrong with this one
10. Oberlo
Oberlo’s slogan is ‘Find, Sell, Dropship’ and that is exactly what they allow you to do.
Less of a supplier and more of an automation tool, Oberlo can help you to quickly choose between more than a million products, modify details and quickly add them to your store.
All while avoiding heaps of monotonous work that used to be part of the hustle.
They help you find the hidden gems between heaps of product data and hone your product searching skills.
For beginning dropshippers, this tool can literally kickstart your store.
They allow you to join for free, and their free plan is good enough for most tasks. As you grow, you might want to consider the premium options.
There you have it, our complete list of free dropshipping suppliers, both in and outside the usa.
If you think we might have missed a great free dropshipping supplier, let us know in the comments below.
FAQ: Free Dropshipping Suppliers
How do I contact dropshipping suppliers?
Once you have found your ideal niche and product, the next step to completing the business circle is finding your supplier.
Dropship suppliers aren’t known for their ability to market themselves well, so finding a suitable supplier might be a task.
However, using the list above, you should be able to reduce the workload by a lot.
Before listing your product, be sure to always check the reviews (if available) on your product and perhaps on your supplier as well.
As you start selling the product, it isn’t a bad idea to order a sample for yourself as well. That way, you can make sure the products you sell are of adequate quality.
2. Is dropshipping still profitable in 2020?
A common misconception among digital entrepreneurs is that dropshipping is a thing of the past.
In the beginning days, dropshipping wasn’t nearly as profitable as it is now.
There were limited tools and platforms to build your store and logistics was often a nightmare.
There is no better time to start your dropshipping business than right now.
Using the right tools, platforms and knowledge sources, you have everything you need to start building your profitable dropshipping business.
Obviously, it is no get-rich-quick scheme.
But others have made it before you and so can you.
Start today.
3. How much do dropshippers make?
Due to the attractive nature of the model, dropshipping can make you anything from 200$ to $3000 per month as you are getting started.
After that, there are no limits to how large or how profitable you want to grow your store.
Many people have gone before you with their dropshipping business and are now comfortably making five figures a month.
The amount of money you make hinges on several things:
Your determination, the marketing of your products, and how many great suppliers you can find and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with.
In order to get you started on that last part, we have compiled a list of great dropshipping suppliers in the article above.
4. Can you start dropshipping with no money?
Yes! The great appeal of starting a dropshipping business lies in the fact that you need next to no money to get started.
The only things you do require are a computer and a working internet connection.
Most of the tools you need to start your profitable dropshipping business are free to use until you reach a set number of products or revenue.
That means you can set up your store, sell your first products and make your first bucks without investing a penny!
The only thing you absolutely do need to get started is a determination to succeed and the willingness to work hard at it.
5. Can you dropship from any website?
Dropshipping as a business can be performed entirely online. The only thing you need is a working computer and an internet connection.
As long as you can connect with both your suppliers and your customers, you can make it in dropshipping.
You don’t even need to start your own website to get started, websites like Amazon and eBay offer you the chance to start a store and offer your products on their platform.
6. Do all dropshippers ship internationally?
No, most of the time when people think of dropshipping, they connect it with ‘buying something in Asia and selling it in the US/Europe’.
Nowadays, there are many great dropshipping suppliers that operate from the US and Europe as well.
Sourcing from the US or Europe allows you to advertise fast delivery and gives you the chance to add higher quality products to your store.
Many dropshipping suppliers even only sell to domestic buyers.
By looking through the lists in this article, you can find free high-quality US dropshipping suppliers.
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