Dropshipping Which Countries To Target and Which Countries To Avoid


When you are dropshipping which countries to target can make or break your success. Not all countries are great for dropshipping. In fact, some countries you need to exclude completely because they will cost you.

The best way to include or exclude which countries to target is with your shipping set-up. If a country is not in your shipping setup then a customer can not complete the order and that is the easiest way to exclude countries.

If you buy traffic from facebook Ads then getting your country targeting right is crucial to the success of your campaigns and your dropshipping store.

Dropshipping: Which Countries To Target?

Lets start with the best countries to target for dropshipping. What is commonly referred to as the “Big 4” is the USA, UK, Australia and Canada and these are Tier 1 or the top 4 countries to target. I usually include Ireland in this list as the buying behaviour is very similar to the UK.

Tier 1 Countries

  • USA
  • United Kingdom (including Ireland)
  • Canada
  • Australia

These 4 countries alone can sustain a huge dropshipping business. The USA is the largest consumer market and they are usually the biggest and best market to target. The UK and Australia can be even better i.t.o conversion rates but the market is smaller and traffic can be more expensive.

Canada is also a great market to target but shipping has been an ongoing problem to Canada since mid 2019 and the Corona Virus has made this an even bigger problem.

For Tier 2 countries we target slightly smaller countries but it is usually only smaller because of language.

  • Germany
  • France
  • Italy
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • The Netherlands

They all have great economies and large first world populations.

Language is the issue though. If you speak any of these languages then I would highly recommend you get into just that market.

German is GREAT because you can target Germany, Austria, Switzerland and parts of Italy that are all German speaking.

This will eliminate a lot of competition and give you an edge. Most dropshippers go after the USa market and even though it is great, it is very crowded.

For Tier 3 countries I target:

  • Denmark
  • Norway
  • Iceland
  • Belgium,
  • Switzerland
  • Austria
  • New Zealand
  • Israel
  • Turkey

These are smaller countries but they have large parts of the population that speak or understand English. Dropshipping to these countries can be very lucrative but the sales volume will be lower.

For Tier 4 countries:

  • Brazil
  • India

Both have huge populations. The problem is that their currencies are worth a lot less than USD and dropshipping products will be quite expensive for them. Still, the sheer volume of these populations have massive buying power – for the right products.

India also have a different mail system and many deliveries work with COD – cash on delivery. This is a huge untapped dropshipping model but it comes with risk since someone can reject a delivery – leaving you out of pocket.

For Tier 5 Countries I include:

  • Thailand
  • Philippines
  • Malaysia
  • Poland
  • Israel
  • UAE

These can all be a hit or miss. Traffic is generally very cheap but conversions can be poor. Keep a close eye on your conversion reports and exclude any of them that gets a lot of traffic but no conversions.

The general strategy is to start with Tier 1 and work your way down once you find products that work well in Tier 1. Sometimes it works better when you scale to Tiers 2 to 5 but it rarely works well across all tiers.

Dropshipping Countries To Avoid

There are a few dropshipping countries to exclude EVERY TIME. They are:

  • China
  • Africa
  • Pakistan
  • Indonesia
  • Russia

China, for obvious reasons. Most Chinese people will buy directly from Aliexpress and it would take some selling to convince them they should buy from you. You will also have to sell in Chinese as English is not a prominent language.

The whole of Africa, Pakistan and Indonesia should be on your ban list. These countries have high rates of fraud at every level and will hurt your business.

There is either a lot of fraud with purchases from these countries or the mail systems are riddled with theft and you will end up having a lot of headaches dealing with these sales.

It is just not worth it.

Russia and some Eastern European countries are to be avoided as well. Aliexpress is hugely popular in Russia which is one of the main reasons to avoid dropshipping to Russia.

On top of that, there is a lot of fraud and their mail system is not great.

Drop Shipping ePacket Countries

For those who don’t know, ePacket is a Chinese shipping line that provides tracked parcels at cheap rates across selected countries. For years this was the shipping option preferred by dropshippers since it provides your customer with tracking numbers.

Since mid 2019, ePacket started running into issues with several countries. The increase in ePacket’s popularity has increased its control and customs checks. It also started getting more expensive.

The Corona Virus looked to be the final nail in the coffin for ePacket but only time will tell.

Dropshipping to ePacket countries was a great strategy because it ensured that you only ship to countries that have ePacket – countries where you can track the parcels and ensure delivery.

Here’s my list of ePacket Countries for Dropshipping

I’ve excluded a few countries that are proven to be poor performers. You can still use this list of countries if you use AliExpress Standard Shipping.

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Ireland
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Malaysia
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

Do not discard ePacket for dropshipping completely. Eventually it will be resurrected but will most certainly undergo changes.

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