5 Types of Products That First-time Dropshippers Need to Avoid

Dropshipping is a good business model for all. Because it allows us to easily source and sell anything online almost instantly. But it doesn’t mean all type of products is suited for this, especially if you are newcomers. Some of them have unnecessary risks associated with them:

And I recommend you avoid it. Why? Because :

• To reduce the ‘return and refund’ rate.
• To avoid legal issues relating to trademarks and patents.
• Restrictions by advertising platforms.

If you are aware of and carefully plan your product selections, you are more likely to succeed in dropshipping than those who don’t do that. Every time I have a new student in Kartel Digital, I will explain the same thing to them.

So what are the types of products I am talking about? I will explain more in this article. Let’s go.

5 Types of Products That First-time Dropshippers Need to Avoid

1. Tight attire

To be honest, this kind of product is hot in the market. But unfortunately, I recommend you avoid listing it in your dropshipping store. Why? When you sell this kind of product, sizing will be the major cause of the ‘return & refund request’.

This is due to different manufacturer standards, depending on brands, location, and many more. Generally, pants size from China will be two sizes smaller than the US manufacturer.

Yes, you can display a size chart in your store. But it doesn’t affect much in terms of reducing your store’s ‘return & refund’ rate. Because some customers find the size chart a little bit confusing and time-consuming. So most of them just order the size that they usually wear. In that case, you have to be prepared to receive high requests for product returns, from customers.

So what is the alternative for this? I suggest you sell oversized or loose pants. Or maybe any pants that have stretchable material like leggings, or yoga pants. Still, you need to have a chart that describes how ‘stretchy’ the material is. Customers can make faster and easy decisions without worrying too much about sizes.

2. Black-colored items

Maybe you wonder why I suggest avoiding this product. It looks nice and simple. Yes. I agree. But the problem is, it is too simple and generic.

Remember, any products you sell, make sure it is visually appealing and able to attract your potential customers feel it is special. To an extent, they immediately feel like they want to have it after just looking at the pictures. Any successful dropshipper understands this concept. Sell what your customer wants, not yours.

Furthermore, if you have a ‘visually appealing’ product, it will look good when you advertise it on paid platforms like Facebook Advertising. The pictures will be attractive enough to make them stop scrolling and view your products.

3. Branded and trademarked items

It tempted to sell any products, from well-established brands in your store, like Nike or Adidas shoes for example. I know why. Because it has proven to sell over and over again.

But please don’t fall into this trap. Because to sell this kind of items, you need what we called ‘reseller license’. If you don’t have it, you may put yourself into legal problems in the future.

You set up everything. Spend so much time, energy and money, just to find out sooner or later, that this is ‘illegal’ to do. It’s not worth the risk.

We don’t want to just do business in the short term. We want to build our own brand for the long term. So what’s the alternative?

Sell similar items that allow us for private labeling, or just sell under the manufacturer’s brand. Most of them don’t trademark their products and are made for reselling. So you can freely sell it in your store without having to infringer any trademarks or patents.

4. Health and Beauty items

The health and beauty market is definitely a hot market. It is a multi-billion industry. It’s no surprise every year they are thousands of new entrepreneur selling open up eCommerce store selling related items.

As for me, I try to avoid this niche at all costs. Why? Because it’s the hardest niche to penetrate and make good money from it. There are two reasons why it is so hard.

One, to get the right products that meet the safety standards to be used on humans. A lot of beauty products in the market are not being reviewed and tested for effectiveness and safety, especially if they come from ‘disreputable manufacturers’. Moreover, If your products do harm to your customers, you might get sued and kicked out of business.

Second, strict advertising policies enforce by major online advertising platforms like Facebook and Google. This is due to their responsibilities to protect their users from ‘dangerous products’.  Hence, if you are not savvy in online marketing and sales, this is not for you. You will be frustrated and tired when your advertising account gets banned, over and over again.

5. Furniture

There are lots of things you need to look at if you want to sell furniture in your dropshipping store. Yes, you can generate hefty profits from one sale, but it’s not easy. Especially if you are new to dropshipping.

You need to consider two major things.

• One, expensive shipping charges.
• Two, longer shipping times.

These two are the major ‘turn-off’ for most customers when buying furniture online. But if you really want to go into this niche, you need to remember one thing. Your products must be small and light enough, to make sure the shipping charges and times are reasonable for customers. The dimension must be below 90 x 60 cm, and weight below 2 kilograms.

Above that, avoid it. So what can you sell if you are into this niche? I recommend you to sell home decoration accessories. Things like table cloth, perfume candle, desk lighting, bed linen, etc. These are small and easy to ship. Happy customers, happy you.

Conclusion

If you are new to dropshipping, avoid these types of items in your store.

• Tight attire
• Black-colored items
• Brand and trademarked items
• Health and beauty items
• Furniture

All of this is in a hot market. But the risks associated with, it’s not worth it. However, if you are not into dropshipping anymore, want to make your own product, and handle the fulfillment by yourself, then you can try these types of products later. For now, avoid it.