High Ticket Dropshipping


High Ticket Dropshipping

High ticket dropshipping is dropshipping products that are typically of higher value. These are usually products that are over $100 retail cost and can be as high as you are willing to go. With ad costs rising every quarter, high ticket dropshipping is becoming more popular.

If you do the simple math you can see why dropshipping high ticket items can be so lucrative. Let’s look at an example.

High Ticket Dropshipping products

Lets look at the Airpods Dock/Case first. The cost on Aliexpress is $0.60 and we have the option to ship from the USA (fast shipping = less headaches) with $3.68 shipping. This gives us a total COG of $4.28. This will easily sell for$24.95 – leaving us with a $20.95 profit. This is a really healthy profit margin and these cases sell like hotcakes to the right audience.

Advertising this on Facebook you will see a cost per purchase of around $10 – $15 (you can probably do better with great ads and retargeting). At a $15 cost per purchase this leaves us with a profit of only $5.95. Not great at all.

COG: $4.28
Sell for: $24.95
Cost Per Purchase: $15 (average)
Profit: 5.95

This is the problem with Facebook ads. It eats into your profit margins quite quickly. You can add upsells, cross sells and email marketing to improve this but relying on that alone to make money is incredibly stressful.

On top of that we have to factor in returns and refunds and we can quickly start running at a loss. Here we can see how a great product with a big profit margin can still not be profitable on Facebook ads.

High Ticket Dropshipping products 2

Lets now look at a high ticket dropshipping item. For consistency we will stick to Aliexpress. This RC Buggy is a great toy with a very healthy sales volume meaning that this is selling very well (there is a huge demand).

The COG is $20.34 with free shipping – but it only ships from China. I could probably have found it with USA shipping but for testing purposes this does not really matter. High end RC buggies like this one can easily sell for $129.95 but I decided to price it low at $99.95 – leaving us with a healthy profit of $79.61.

COG: $20.34
Sell for: $99.95
Cost Per Purchase: $45 (average)
Profit: 34.61

This does not factor in returns and refunds but the reviews on both Aliexpress and Amazon was really good and most of the complaints was due to shipping – something we can overcome.

Side note: if the Amazon reviews are bad in the sense that it knocks the functionality or quality of the product. Stay away! Especially with high ticket products).

Advantages of Dropshipping High Ticket Items

1. Profit margins
This goes without saying and as we can see in our example above, you can make so much more money with high ticket items. It has so much “fat” built into it that one bad day on Facebook won’t make you turn to alcohol.

2. Advertising opportunities
Along with higher profit margins come additional advertising opportunities. With high ticket items you can advertise on Native Ad networks like RevContent.

These ads are usually much more expensive than Facebook but it has an immense amount of volume and you can scale quite big very quickly.

3. Sets you apart
Dropshipping high ticket items sets you apart from 90% of dropshippers who are fighting for the scraps. Most just don’t have the budget, the experience or the balls to go after high ticket items. You won’t be just another dropshipper selling a posture corrector or knee brace – lol.

Disadvantages of Dropshipping High Ticket Items

1. Budget
While it all sounds like a no-brainer to do high ticket dropshipping, there is a big barrier to entry and that is budget. You will need a much higher testing budget. High ticket items are generally NOT impulse buys and it takes a lot more to get a sale.

2. Much harder to sell
Since these items are generally not impulse buys, you rarely make your sales on cold audiences. You will usually rely heavily on remarketing and using Lookalike Audiences to get the sale. This takes time. It takes money and it takes a vastly different advertising strategy than going for impulse buys on a $30 item.

3. You will need to do a much better job at selling the item.
While you can get away with average videos, images and ads on selling a $30 – $50 item you just won’t get away with it when dropshipping a high ticket item.

All your marketing needs to be on-point and getting someone to part with a $100 – $200 you will need to go beyond looking like a spammy store selling crap from China.

4. Refunds and returns
Refunds and returns on high ticket items can be a huge problem – especially when you ship from China. Due to the higher COG you probably can’t afford to lose on the returns which is why you need to source locally as soon as possible.

You also need to make sure that your supplier takes responsibility for defective items.

Pro tip:
With defective products you ALWAYS need to offer a refund. If someone just wants a refund because they don’t like it, make them send it back BEFORE you issue the refund. In many cases they never do because your return policy states that they need to pay return shipping. If you are in the US, accept the return and sell it again yourself. If you are outside the USA you can also do this with services like ShipitTo – which is free to accept the parcel and a bit more expensive to ship out, but it is a great option.

High Ticket Dropshipping Products to Avoid

Generally speaking there are no limits to what you can sell but there certainly are some high ticket products you need to avoid.

The first ones I would avoid are products that are big, bulky and/or heavy. This usually means high (and slow) shipping costs and whether you ship from a US warehouse or from China, you will still need to deal with the high shipping costs.

The next category I would try and avoid is anything that has a lot of sizes involved – typically clothing. Selling anything with sizes from China is a real gamble and you may end up dealing with a lot of exchanges. This can get really pricey and keep your customer support busy.

I would also avoid medical equipment or anything related to health. Things like blood pressure meters, blood sugar meters ec. can be great but you need to make very sure that your supplier has all the necessary approvals and certifications. It can open you up to some serious legal trouble.

Supplements can be great high ticket items (you can sell some of them for more than $150 if you bundle it correctly) but sourcing them from China is a big no-no. Find local suppliers and whitelabel it to avoid any legal issues.

Conclusion

The real secret to selling high ticket dropshipping products is to find products that ‘sell themselves’. This will make life a lot easier than if you are trying to create a desire with your marketing. Certainly not impossible but much harder to do.

I like Google Ads better for these products because you get people who are directly searching for what you are selling. If you can offer it at a good price then you can print money with both Google Search Ads and Google Shopping Ads.

You will HAVE TO be unique though because these buys usually click around and know what’s available at what prices.

With Facebook and Native ads you need to do a lot more selling and you rely a lot on emotion to get the sale. It can take a lot of testing and money to find out what’s not working.

Be prepared to lose a lot more money than when you are testing a cat toy. Don’t be afraid either. People DO buy high ticket items and if you can build a great brand around one of these products you can build a great business.

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