Can you get rich with dropshipping? The honest answer: rarely fast, but a solid side income or a real business is possible if the numbers add up. If you want to get rich or build a successful business through dropshipping, you need a sober calculation above all. Here it is, with real cost items instead of promises.
What is dropshipping, in short?
With dropshipping, you sell products you don’t hold in stock yourself. When a customer orders, you forward the order to your supplier, who ships directly to the customer. That means no warehouse and little starting capital. You’ll find the full explanation in our article What is Dropshipping?
How much do you really keep per order?
Social media videos usually only calculate selling price minus purchase price. In practice, every order still has VAT, shipping, payment fees, advertising, and returns coming out of it. Here’s an example with a garden furniture set, the kind wholesalers like vidaXL offer:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Selling price in the shop (gross) | €79.99 |
| of which 19% VAT | − €12.77 |
| Purchase price from the wholesaler | − €38.00 |
| Shipping by the wholesaler | − €5.90 |
| Payment fee (approx. 2%) | − €1.60 |
| Advertising cost per order | − €12.00 |
| Reserve for returns and losses | − €2.00 |
| Profit per order | €7.72 |
Out of nearly €80 in revenue, you’re left with roughly €8 profit, about 10%. Advertising cost is the biggest lever here: if an order costs you €20 instead of €12 to acquire, every sale turns into a loss. You can run your own numbers with our margin calculator.
When does dropshipping actually pay off?
On top of the cost per order come fixed monthly costs: shop system, product import software, bookkeeping, legal texts. Budget roughly €150 a month. With €7.72 profit per order, you need around 20 orders just to cover those fixed costs.
If you want to earn €2,000 a month, that’s about 280 orders, or just over 9 a day. That’s not rocket science, but it’s not a side project for two evenings a month either. You won’t get rich with this overnight. But if you calculate properly and automate the process, you can build a real business.
Does dropshipping really work? What a German TV documentary found
A German public-broadcast documentary on “Getting rich through dropshipping” looked behind the scenes of the business. Dropshippers interviewed in the report explained how much work actually sits behind their success. The documentary also addressed the downsides: cheap goods from Asia, long delivery times, and unhappy customers.
Why do most dropshippers fail?
- Too little margin: cheap goods with a €3 margin can’t carry advertising costs.
- Long delivery times: shipping from Asia means fighting returns and bad reviews. Suppliers with warehouses in Europe have a clear edge here; you’ll find a selection in our wholesaler overview.
- Wrong stock levels: selling items that are long out of stock at the supplier costs you money and trust through cancellations.
- Expensive coaching programs: many courses promise fast riches. Usually only the course sellers made money from them.
How do you actually succeed with dropshipping?
- Calculate first, then start: check the margin for every product after all costs, not just the markup.
- Choose higher-priced products: furniture, tools, or tech leave you more per order than phone cases.
- Use European suppliers: shorter delivery times mean fewer returns and better reviews.
- Automate the manual work: managing prices, stock, and orders by hand eats exactly the time you need for marketing.
How does Import2Shop help you with this?
Import2Shop takes over the work that trips up many dropshippers. The app automatically imports your wholesalers’ items into Shopify, WooCommerce, or Shopware, and keeps prices and stock levels up to date. That way, you never sell something the supplier no longer has. With pricing rules, you set your margin once, and every item automatically gets a price that works for you.
Order processing also runs automatically: orders go straight to the supplier, and the tracking number comes back into your shop.
Want to see what this looks like with your own wholesaler? Request a demo or take a look at our pricing directly. Import2Shop can be cancelled monthly, so you’re not taking on a long-term risk.
