Let’s be dead honest, is dropshipping, in late 2023/early 2024 viable as a way to make a living? Technically speaking, it's not dead. Lots of people and businesses utilize dropship fulfillment, and many are thriving. Practically speaking however, it's been dead for years and years. The problem here is the mindset that most newbies have, in the way that they approach this whole thing. Many of these newbs watch and follow Youtube "gurus" and "bros", and various quack articles. So they built up this weird idea of "dropshipping", and mentally approach it by believing that it's this fun easy way of potentially earning lots of money, fast, and with nearly no effort needed. Essentially it's some variation of hoisting a store up "real quick", slapping random junk to it, with easy content given by suppliers, and then spend 95% of their time and money playing with ads. That's not a business though, not really. All they're doing is gambling with ads, like a slot machine in Vegas. At best maybe it's an exercise on how to toy with ads, and at worst, it's just plain scammy. Regardless, there's little to no value to what they do, and what they implement. And customers, average everyday people aren't idiots, they see it clearly too. Many have even been burnt by these low-effort stores in the past, with subpar products that broke hours after receiving it, with weeks long deliveries that sometimes never arrives, with a completely different product than what was purchased, all with a complete lack of support following the sale (which of course there is, because many of them are literal kids). Many dropship stores have this same-samey feel about them, which is how customers have learnt to recognize them, and associated them with garbage stores, never to shop in them again. That is precisely why the vast majority of dropship fail. And that is why it's not a viable way to make a living. Specifically, that whole approach isn't a viable way anymore. Once upon a time it may have worked with clueless masses, but not anymore. Those days are long over. Audiences and customers these days are more refined, they know what they want. They're not going to whip out their credit cards to purchase from a low-effort store that doesn't try very hard. If so, what’s the key to stand out and not fail like so many people I’ve seen? And if not, what could be done to make it viable again? It's not that hard. You don't follow strategies and approaches that lead to failure. You don't follow "bro" logic to run a business. You don't follow other dropship stores that are prone to failure. Instead, you follow and get inspiration from actual legit eCommerce stores out there. Established businesses that have been successfully earning profits for years and years and years. But most importantly, you look at the very people who are supposed to be buying from you. Thoroughly understand them. How they think. What they do. Who they are. Every single piece of information needed to run a viable store. This is needed because that's just how the market is these days. After doing thorough research on both your target audience and your competitors, you'll then need to craft an actual image. An impression. Something that greatly appeals to who you want for your customers. Aka, your brand image. You'll need to do in all this effort and homework before putting in a single second and cent into the store. Going in half-cocked will get you fully cooked. And to be clear, dropshipping isn't a business strategy nor a business model. It's not this big thing separate from everything else. All it is, is a fulfillment method. And that's all. You don't hold stock, and your suppliers ship products out for you. That's all it is. It's just a small small part of your overall business venture. Many keep mistaking it as a long-term strategy, overly relying on it, and those who do find success with it, ultimately burn themselves to the ground. If you want your business to survive long-term, minimize your risks as much as possible. Which ideally means moving away from dropshipping via suppliers once you find yourself with consistent sales. Either use 3PL or preferably, fulfill orders yourself. Answer from StiffnHard on reddit.com