Dropshipping for beginners: what it really costs (honest numbers)

"Dropshipping is free to start" is the most expensive sentence on the internet. It is cheap, not free. Here is what a beginner actually pays, so you can decide with real numbers instead of hope.

Fixed costs per month

• Shopify plan: the basic plan after the trial. Budget roughly what a phone subscription costs.
• Domain: optional at first; cheap per year when you buy it.
• Apps: zero to start. Reviews, upsells and email can wait until you have sales.

Costs per sale

• Product + shipping from the supplier. Check the real price for your country, including the "ePacket" or similar shipping option, not the headline price.
• Payment fees: a few percent of every order.
• Refunds and lost parcels: plan for a few percent of orders. It happens to everyone.

Ads: the real variable

Ads are where beginners lose money, not on the store. Before you spend anything, calculate your break-even cost per sale:

selling price − product cost − shipping − payment fee − refund reserve = the maximum you can pay for one sale in ads.

If a product sells for $35 and that number is $14, then any ad that costs more than $14 per sale is losing money, no matter how many views it gets. Write the number down before you launch; it is the only thing that tells you when to scale and when to stop.

A realistic first month

Most beginners spend a modest, fixed ad budget in month one, learn what a click costs in their market, and change the product or the page once or twice. That is normal. The goal of month one is not profit; it is a product page that converts and a cost per sale you know.

Three mistakes that cost the most

1. Scaling an ad after one good day. Wait four days.
2. Selling a product that is cheaper on Amazon with faster shipping.
3. No refund policy and no real contact details, which gets payment accounts blocked.

In the Ecom Masterclass the dropshipping track (7 lessons) walks through supplier choice, pricing and the day-2 / day-4 ad rules on the real screens. The full price list is in the FAQ.