25 Top Dropshipping Statistics And Trends For 2024

Need a quick reference for the latest dropshipping statistics?

In this post, we share the latest dropshipping statistics in a variety of different categories.

We have general statistics, statistics for dropshipping companies, statistics for dropshipping products, stats on the print-on-demand industry and stats on the ecommerce industry as a whole.

General dropshipping statistics

1. The global dropshipping market was valued at $155.6 billion in 2021

According to data uncovered in Allied Market Research’s report on the global dropshipping industry, the global dropshipping market size was $155.6 billion in 2021.

Source: Allied Market Research

2. The global dropshipping market will reach $1.67T by 2031

Allied Market Research’s data on the global dropshipping industry also included forecasts on the industry’s market size between 2021 and 2031.

They predict the global dropshipping market will reach $1.67 trillion by 2031 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.1%.

Source: Allied Market Research

3. The global market size for dropshipping in the electronics and media categories is expected to reach $376.5 billion by 2030

According to an analysis report on the global dropshipping market industry, published by Research and Markets, the electronics and media segment of dropshipping will reach a market size of $376.5 billion by 2030.

This means the market for this segment will grow a CAGR of 19.1%.

The fashion segment will have a CAGR of 26.4%.

Source: Research and Markets

4. The dropshipping market size in the United States was valued at $80.5 billion in 2022

Research and Markets’ report reveals how the dropshipping market size in the United States had a value of $80.5 billion in 2022.

Source: Research and Markets

5. The dropshipping market size in China will reach $399.6 billion by 2030

Research and Markets’ analysis of the global dropshipping market includes forecasts on the market’s growth in various regions.

The global market size in China will reach $399.6 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 29.8%.

They also included forecasts for a few additional regions:

• Japan – This market will grow at a CAGR of 15.2%
• Canada – 18.8%
• Germany – 16.9%

Source: Research and Markets

6. 532,185 clothing products were dropshipped on Shopify stores in April of 2021

According to data collected by Statista on the dropshipping segment of Shopify stores, clothing is by far the most popular dropshipping category on the ecommerce platform.

532,185 clothing products were dropshipped through the platform in April of 2021 alone.

Here are metrics for a few additional product categories:

• Home & Garden – 369,727 products were dropshipped through Shopify in April of 2021.
• Jewelry & Watches – 282,333 products.
• Health & Beauty – 194,964 products.
• Fashion Accessories – 193,952 products.
• Food & Beverages – 106,194 products.
• Electronics – 95,151 products.
• Art – 93,221 products.
• Car & Truck Parts – 92,781 products.
• Sporting Goods – 90,317 products.

Source: Statista¹

7. Interest in dropshipping remained dormant for years before finally taking off in 2018

According to global data available on Google Trends, the topic “dropshipping” had little to no interest for years, as far back as Google Trends’ data goes in 2004.

The graph shows a rise in interest in 2018, and interest in the topic truly skyrocketed in 2020 during the pandemic when many consumers started researching ways to start online businesses, such as starting a dropshipping business.

Dropshipping is on a slight decline since it plateaued on Google, but it’s still quite prominent.

Source: Google Trends

8. Consumers with the highest level of interest in dropshipping reside in Pakistan

Pakistan has the highest level of interest in the topic of dropshipping with Sri Lanka, Morocco, Nigeria and Nepal following close by.

Additionally, related queries include “shopify,” “shopify dropshipping,” “dropshipping amazon,” “aliexpress” and “aliexpress dropshipping.”

Source: Google Trends

Statistics on dropshipping companies

9. Alibaba Group generates $780 billion annually

Alibaba Group generated over $780 billion in 2022.

Alibaba Group owns AliExpress, one of the most popular dropshipping sources out there.

Alibaba is often compared to its closest competitor Amazon, whose revenue reached $690 billion in 2022.

Statista predicts Amazon to surpass Alibaba by 2027 by generating more than $1.2 trillion in revenue.

Source: Statista²

10. Alibaba is the largest retailer in the electronics, office and entertainment segments of ecommerce

Statista’s research on the ecommerce industry has revealed Alibaba as being the largest retailer in the following categories: electronics, office, leisure and entertainment.

These categories generated $318 billion in ecommerce sales in the United States alone in 2022.

Source: Statista³

11. Alibaba generates more than $58 billion in the health and beauty category annually

Statista’s reports also included data on the leading retailers in each category.

For the health and beauty category, that retailer is Alibaba, who generate $58 billion in annual sales from health and beauty products alone.

Source: Statista⁴

12. Spocket has raised $2.03 million in investments from two rounds of funding

Traxcn’s market watch has revealed that dropshipping service Spocket has received $2.03 million in funding from two investment rounds.

Five investors have contributed to the rounds, and the company received $1.5 million alone from a single investment round.

Source: Tracxn

Statistics on dropshipping products

Let’s use this section to go over what dropshipping is in case you’re not fully informed.

Dropshipping is a business model in which a dropshipping supplier, known as a dropshipping service, offers products for you to sell.

The company maintains stock of the item, processes customer orders for you, packages products and ships them out to your customers on your behalf.

You can dropship almost any type of product these days.

There are even print-on-demand services that also use the dropshipping business model to offer order fulfillment services for merchandise like t-shirts, coffee mugs and phone cases.

In this section, we’re sharing a few statistics we uncovered while researching the best dropshipping products to sell online.

13. Air fryers are the best product to dropship

According to Google Trends data, which we reviewed in October of 2022, search queries for the term “air fryers” skyrocketed in November of 2021.

Almost 1.5 million consumers search for the term “air fryers” on Google every week.

Because they also cost quite a bit, you’ll be able to earn a decent profit margin on each unit sold.

Source: Blogging Wizard

14. Kids’ toys like Tamagotchis are high in demand

Tamagotchi is a toy brand that took off in the 90s and early 2000s.

They fell off the map just as soon as they arrived in the United States, but now, the brand is making a huge comeback.

20,000 consumers search for the toy on Google worldwide every week.

Source: Blogging Wizard

15. Shapewear is high in demand

When Kim Kardashian launched her shapewear brand Skims, search queries for the term “skims” soon reached numbers in the hundreds of thousands eventually million.

While you can’t dropship Kim’s own brand, you can dropship shapewear of your own.

You’ll probably even see decent profit margins for it.

Source: Blogging Wizard

16. Candles make great dropshipping products for merchants targeting the gift industry

Many merchants decide to only offer products consumers primarily buy as gifts for others.

Candles are that product.

While they have an inconsistent level of interest throughout the year, it’s clear their popularity soars during key gift giving holidays throughout the year.

Source: Blogging Wizard

Print-on-demand statistics

Print-on-demand is a type of dropshipping model in which a company prints, packages and ships branded products to customers on your behalf.

The way it works is pretty simple. You upload your design to a print-on-demand service’s software.

Then, you optimize that design for various print-on-demand products, such as t-shirts, coffee mugs, accessories, smartphone cases, etc.

You then create an online store with an ecommerce store builder and integrate that platform with your print-on-demand service.

When you receive an order, your print-on-demand service will, once again, get work on printing it, packaging it and sending it off to your customer.

17. The global print-on-demand industry will reach a market size of $7.67 billion by the end of 2023

Grand View Research conducted a market analysis on the print-on-demand industry.

They discovered the global market size for this industry was valued at $6.18 billion in 2022.

This number is expected to grow to $7.67 billion by the end of 2023.

Furthermore, the print-on-demand industry will experience a CAGR of 25.8%, meaning the market size for this industry is expected to reach $38.21 billion by 2030.

The North American dropshipping market is quite active, and the same is true for the North American print-on-demand industry.

The region’s market share in the print-on-demand industry was 35% in 2022, the largest of any region.

Source: Grand View Research

18. Most successful print-on-demand merchants have profit margins of 40-45%

Printify collected data from its own merchants and found that the majority of mid to high volume merchants use profit margins ranging from 40 to 45%.

A profit margin is how much you add to the cost of a product you dropship so you can pay for the product and still make a profit.

For example, if you’re dropshipping coffee mugs through a print-on-demand service, but each mug costs $15, you’d charge 40-45% more for it, which is $21 to $21.75.

Your print-on-demand service keeps the $15 while you pocket the additional $6 to $6.75 you received in profits.

Source: Printify

19. Successful print-on-demand merchants distribute products to eight to 16 countries

Printify’s data on its customer base revealed that mid-volume merchants tend to sell to eight different countries.

High volume merchants sell to as many as 16 countries.

20. The most successful print-on-demand merchants are based in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada

Printify is a US-based print-on-demand service, so these numbers are likely skewed.

However, they still reveal the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada as being the top three countries where successful print-on-demand merchants are based.

Other countries include Australia, Germany, Vietnam, Turkey and The Netherlands.

Source: Printify

Key ecommerce statistics

Dropshipping and ecommerce go hand in hand.

Let’s go over a few general ecommerce statistics for this reason. These can all be found in our dedicated report on the latest ecommerce statistics.

21. There are more than 26 million ecommerces online

According to data collected from millions of ecommerce stores on the web, there are over 26 million ecommerce stores online.

13 million are in the United States at a market share of 49.1%.

The rest of the market share for regional ecommerce stores is as follows:

• United Kingdom – 4.7% of all ecommerce stores are based in the UK
• Germany – 2.7%
• Brazil – 2.7%
• Australia – 2.4%

Source: BuiltWith

22. Revenue from global ecommerce sales will surpass $4 trillion by 2024

According to data collected by Statista on the ecommerce industry, global ecommerce sales will generate more than $4 trillion in revenue by 2024.

From a regional standpoint, that revenue looks like this:

• Asia – Revenue generated by ecommerce sales will reach $2.06 trillion
• North and South Americas – $1.1 trillion
• Europe – $722 billion
• Australia & Oceania – $49 billion
• Africa – $40.2 billion

Source: Statista⁵

23. The ecommerce industry will make up 21.9% of all retail sales by 2025

Statista predicts that ecommerce sales will make up 21.9% of all retail sales by 2025.

Ecommerce sales made up 14.2% of all retail sales in 2021 for comparison’s sake.

Source: Statista⁶

24. Specifically, ecommerce sales will grow at a CAGR of 11.34% globally between 2023 and 2027

Statista’s research on dropshipping reveals predictions on the growth rate of retail ecommerce sales.

They predict global ecommerce sales to grow at a CAGR of 11.34%.

Growth rates for other markets are as follows:

• Brazil – This country’s CAGR will be 14.63% by 2027.
• Argentina – 14.61%
• Turkey – 14.33%
• India – 13.91%
• Mexico – 13.67%

Source: Statista⁷

25. 25% of all ecommerce stores use Shopify

Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform for dropshippers.

It’s affordable and incredibly easy to use. Best of all, it integrates with a number of different dropshipping services.

BuiltWith’s data on the ecommerce market is collected from over 26 million ecommerce sites, as previously stated.

They discovered that of those 26 million sites, 25% use Shopify.

The remaining market share is split between the following platforms:

• WooCommerce – 20% of all ecommerce sites use WordPress’ ecommerce plugin WooCommerce
• Wix – 13% use Wix’s ecommerce solution
• Squarespace – 11%
• Ecwid – 6%

25% use a variety of other platforms, all of which have negligible market shares each.

Source: BuiltWith

Sources

Final thoughts

As the ecommerce industry continues to grow, other industries that rely on the ecommerce industry continue to grow alongside it.

Dropshipping in one such industry.

Dropshipping has simplified ecommerce for thousands of merchants.

Instead of having to worry about inventory management costs, buying products in bulk and storing them, packaging online orders and shipping them out to customers, merchants can now rely on a dropshipping service to handle all of that for them.

Dropshipping has many additional benefits as well, including:

• Allowing you to test new product types without having to buy them yourself.
• Giving you the opportunity to launch online stores a lot quicker than if you had to manage inventory or fulfill orders yourself.
• Letting you save on upfront costs.
• Making it possible to offer new products as soon as they become available, which will help you stay on top of the latest trends in your niche.
• Give you more flexibility over the products you sell as you can add and remove products from your store with ease without having to worry about storing too much unmoved merchandise.

In short, dropshipping is the perfect way to get started in ecommerce if you don’t plan on making your own products and aren’t quite sure of what to sell.

Related reading:

• 10 Top Dropshipping Websites To Supply Products
• The Best Ecommerce Platforms To Build An Online Store
• 11 Best Dropshipping Alternatives (Pros + Cons)