High Ticket Dropshipping is probably not the type of dropshipping you heard about initially. Most people hear about dropshipping from China, realize all the flaws in the business model and are then drawn to the positive aspects of high ticket. I’ll give you a rundown of how it all works and help you decide whether it’s for you.
What is High Ticket Dropshipping?
High Ticket Dropshipping is generally for products priced upwards of $200. There’s no real limit as to how highly-priced a product can be for dropshipping, but you are more likely to run into problems the higher the price. The perfect zone for high ticket items is around the $500 to $1000 mark.
This price point seems high enough to make a very nice profit whilst still being a reasonably comfortable amount for people to spend online. When prices start going over the $1000 mark people can start having trust issues making large purchases online.
High Ticket items are generally of higher quality and can sometimes be brand name products. Most high ticket dropshippers try and source products from reliable domestic suppliers. This assures their customers of fast shipping times and quality products which is essential for customer satisfaction.
Best High Ticket Items to Dropship
The best high ticket products to dropship are high-quality products that either solve a problem or are something people are extremely passionate about. People are not willing to spend money on a high ticket product just because it’s nice they must feel compelled to spend a large sum of money online.
When considering high ticket items to dropship, firstly look around your house at everything which is valued over $200. Think about all the items you have stored away in your cupboards, garage and attic. Then consider what high ticket items your friends and family have around their house. Think of all the interests, hobbies and sports you all play.
For a full list of niches, check out my article for 300+ High Ticket Niche Ideas!
When you’re at the mall check out all the stores and everything they sell. Just looking out your window at the road you’ll see cars, motorbikes, bicycles, RV’s, caravans and each one of them has a bunch of high ticket accessories. There are endless amounts of high ticket items to dropship when you really open your eyes and look around you.
When it comes to high ticket dropshipping, you need to find products that people are compelled to purchase. People won’t purchase $1,000 items online because the product will be nice to have. They need a strong reason to make a large purchase online. I always make sure the products I dropship meet certain criteria.
Passion/Problem Products
I won’t dropship any high ticket product that people are not either extremely passionate about, solves a big problem, or ideally is a product that falls under both categories. With passion, think of niches such as pets, religion, sports, cars, crafts, martial arts, cooking, and the list goes on.
Problem-solving products are extremely profitable. The bigger the problem you solve, the more compelled people will be to purchase. The problem you solve could be related to appearance, to pain or it could be a problem related to a sport or hobby. The problems people face in just about every niche are endless.
Aligning passion and problem products together will give you your best chance of success. If someone is passionate about camping all the problem-solving products that can be solved, portable fridge/freezers, batteries, generators, vehicle covers, and solar products, just to name a few.
Currently Selling
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to finding products to sell. Finding products that are already selling will make your life much easier. Yes, over-saturation in certain niches can be bad, but saturation also means that the products are selling which is what you want.
If people are running paid ads you know the product is in demand and is currently selling. Even if a product is saturated, there are always ways you can separate yourself from your competitors and still make sales. Think different deals, target a different audience, different product descriptions, images and videos.
Evergreen
There’s much more work involved in setting up a high ticket dropshipping store than a low-ticket store. For this reason, you want to make sure the products you dropship will be in demand for years to come and are not just short trends.
You will never know 100% if certain products will remain in demand in the future. Checking out Google trends will give you an accurate view of the long-term potential for products. You’re able to view the search volume over the past 5 years and see if the product has been popular in short bursts or has had a steady interest.
Advertising
This is actually the very first thing you’ll want to make sure of when deciding on a product and is a must. Making sure your products are aligned with the policies on the platform you plan to advertise on. This will generally be Google Ads with high ticket items but also Facebook ads if you plan to advertise there. Facebook Ads are ridiculously strict so don’t assume the product you plan to dropship will be allowed without reading their policy first.
There are other factors I look for when deciding on high ticket products to sell but these 4 factors are non-negotiable. Other things to consider are size and weight due to shipping, products with limited moving parts, products that are not sold at many standard retail shops and avoiding big brand name products.
If you are having trouble coming up with some high ticket items to dropship, check out my article for some unique high ticket products.
High Ticket Dropshipping Suppliers
Connecting with the best High Ticket Dropshipping Suppliers won’t be as easy as connecting with low ticket suppliers. This is because most people go straight to AliExpress for dropshipping which is generally low-priced and low-quality products. With high ticket suppliers, you’ll need to use Google to find domestic suppliers and contact them by phone.
As tempting as the prices are, I’d recommend staying away from AliExpress if you want high ticket, high-quality items for your store. You can find some quality suppliers on wholesale/dropshipping directories like Salehoo and Spocket.
To secure top-tier suppliers, you may need to really persuade them to do so. Don’t let this deter you, as long as you sound somewhat professional and you tell them how this will benefit them, it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Brand Name Dropshipping
Should you dropship all the best brands on your eCommerce store? No. I’ll explain why.
- Firstly as a beginner, you’ll never get approved to sell Sony products on your little eCommerce store. Big-name brands will only work with large established companies with a good reputation.
- Lots of competition. As a beginner, you’ll never compete with the big guys.
- Margins are very small because all the big stores are ordering the big brand names in bulk. As a dropshipper ordering one product at a time, your margins will need to be small to compete.
When considering products to dropship, try and avoid products that consumers have brand loyalty to. Try to think of products that you can’t really name too many of the brands. Think outside the box with this concept and don’t discount certain products and consider alternatives.
For example, most families want a brand name fridge for their household as they want to trust its reliability. But people aren’t as concerned with brand name bar fridges, wine fridges and portable battery fridges. People have brand loyalty to cameras, however, they don’t have brand loyalty to accessories, security cameras and tripods.
There are brand name items you can dropship successfully but the biggest brands everyone has heard of will be the most difficult, especially as a beginner.
How to Advertise your High Ticket Dropshipping Products
Facebook Advertising
Joining Niche specific Facebook Groups can be a powerful tool in promoting your business. Facebook has some rules and policies when it comes to these groups so don’t just go in there posting links to your store or you’ll be kicked out. You need to add value to the group by giving away free content and building a community around your specific niche.
Facebook paid advertising can be a whole course in itself. Because of the huge targeted audience you can reach, it’s something you will need to learn if you want to be successful.
SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is required to help your store rank on Google for organic free traffic. You can go deep into SEO to fully optimize your store, however, it’s not essential. There are many SEO tutorials on YouTube to give you a rundown on the basics. You’ll require a good keyword tool to help find as many searched variations to your specific niche and include them throughout your store. A blog with unique content on your niche will go a long way in helping your ranking.
Google Shopping Ads
Google Ads or Product Listing Ads (PLA’s) are one of the most powerful forms of advertising. This is the most common type of paid advertising for high ticket products. As they cost more than Facebook ads they are not really feasible for low ticket items. The reason they are so powerful is they are highly converting.
Best Platform for High Ticket Dropshipping
If you are undecided on which platform is right for your dropshipping store, I’ll make it easy. Shopify wins hands down in my opinion. The other platforms have pros and cons, some are easy to use, some have great themes, some are better for smaller stores, some are better for blogging.
Shopify is essentially all the good aspects of the other platforms combined. Shopify was built from the start as an eCommerce platform. Most of the other platforms were designed for other uses and eCommerce was added as an afterthought.
The only reason I would not recommend Shopify is if the monthly fee of around $30 a month was not affordable for someone. If this was the case, I would recommend either Wix or WooCommerce as it is a free plugin for WordPress. Both are great platforms but lack the overall capabilities of Shopify.
Pros and Cons of High Ticket Dropshipping
Pros
- Once you have done all the initial work, it can be a sustainable long-term business that can keep the money rolling in for years to come.
- With high ticket products, Google PLA’s (Product Listing Ads) is the ideal place to advertise your products. Google PLA’s deliver high converting traffic. You’re not just placing random ads in front of random people, the people who see your ads are people who were searching for your product, so your ads are being placed in front of the right people.
- Once your eCommerce store is established and making a steady income. It is now a valuable asset that you can sell for a large sum of money.
- It’s much less work selling high ticket items compared to low ticket products. Think about it, if you sold a $900 baby stroller and your commission is 30%, that’s $270 profit to you. If you were selling travel mugs for $12 each and your commission was 30%, you would need to sell 75 for the same amount of profit. That means more customer service and more order fulfillment.
- If you find quality suppliers in your own country shipping times come down considerably. This means happier customers and less customer service.
Cons
- Your website needs to look very professional and legitimate. You can’t just throw a website together and expect it to make sales. With high ticket products, people need to feel like they can trust you and a cheap looking website won’t do it.
- You won’t be able to get the same sales volume as you can with cheaper products. There may be times when you go days without a sale as the consistency of your sales may not be there. Think about a store selling fire pits and another selling phone covers, which will have more consistent sales.
- It can be tougher to talk someone into purchasing a high ticket item. People will be far more apprehensive to make a large purchase. You will require HD unique images, videos and well-written product descriptions.
- Even though Google PLA’s are high converting ads, they’re also generally more expensive.
- You may need more capital initially with high ticket dropshipping. If someone makes a $1500 purchase from your eCommerce store, you’ll need to pay for that item from your supplier before they ship it.
Summary of High Ticket Dropshipping
The most difficult part of the high ticket dropshipping model is getting reliable suppliers in your own country to accept you as a reseller of their products. Platforms like Salehoo and Spocket can help with this, however, you need to contact some yourself to be successful. If you can onboard some reliable suppliers the rest is a learning process anyone can do.
High ticket dropshipping is definitely a more long-term sustainable business model. It will require more time and more money than dropshipping cheaper products from AliExpress, but it may provide you with a long-term source of income and eventually, a valuable asset.
It’s a great time to find items to dropship because people are spending more time at home and more money than ever online due to the pandemic. Opportunities arise with disaster.
I suggest you read my article on high ticket product ideas for a huge list of 400 high ticket products.
