Premade Dropshipping Stores: Buy One or Build Yourself?

If you are thinking about starting a new dropshipping venture, you may have stumbled upon the possibility of buying a premade dropshipping store from one of the many websites that offer them.

A lot of discussions are made about whether it is smart to buy a premade dropshipping as a beginner. In this article, I will give you my thoughts!

In my opinion, it is better to build your dropshipping store from scratch, rather than buying a premade dropshipping store. By building a store yourself, you will learn a lot, you won't get scammed and you will know everything about your store! However, if you are committed to buying a premade dropshipping, be careful not to step into one of the many pitfalls!

Let's first take a look at the different types of premade dropshipping stores that you can buy.

Types of premade dropshipping stores

Starting a new dropshipping store involves several steps. This is why you will see that there are different types of premade dropshipping stores available. Some have only run through the first few steps and don't have sales yet. But, you will also find stores for sale with thousands of sales.

If you are interested in the steps involved to create a new dropshipping, you should definitely check out this article, which covers every step of creating a brand-new dropshipping business yourself!

1. Brand-New Premade Dropshipping Store

The type of premade dropshipping store you will see most often is the brand-new one. Here, the simplest steps of creating your own business, like creating a Shopify account, picking a domain, products, and design your website, are already done.

This type of premade dropshipping store will cost you around 50 to 150 US dollars and will come with the following assets:

• Green = Included
• Orange = Depends on the package
• Red = Not included

2. Turnkey Dropshipping Store

A turnkey dropshipping store is built to help beginners start their business really quickly. Almost everything is already done on the website itself. It often includes good products, a premium domain name, product descriptions, etc.

The concept is to just "turn the key" and start selling! Be careful, however, because sales don't come by themselves and you will have to promote the store yourself. If you're interested in methods to drive traffic to your website, check out this section on our blog!

There are many third-party sellers who offer premade turnkey dropshipping stores. If you really want to buy a turnkey dropshipping store, I would recommend one from AliDropship.

This type of premade dropshipping store will cost you between 300 and 900 US dollars and depending on the package you choose, will come with the following assets:

• Green = Included
• Orange = Depends on the package
• Red = Not included

• Domain
• Products
• Logo
• Suppliers
• Product descriptions
• Optimized for speed
• Optimized for conversion rate
• Installed Meta Pixel
• Advertising videos/photos/creative
• Existing mailing list
• Social media accounts with followers
• Mature Meta Pixel
• Returning customers
• Marketing plan

If you are interested in learning more about AliDropship, or about their awesome dropshipping plugin, check out our complete AliDropship review here!

3. Already-Running Premade Dropshipping Stores

We have now covered premade dropshipping stores that don't have any sales yet, but, sometimes owners of existing and running dropshipping stores want to start a new project or focus on something else and will therefore sell their current store.

This is what we call already-running dropshipping stores!

And guess what? You can buy these dropshipping businesses!

I recommend searching for these through Shopify's own Exchange Marketplace platform.

Important note: On November 1, 2022, Shopify made the decision to shut down the Exchange Marketplace. This article includes mentions of the Exchange Marketplace, but you won’t be able to use the platform now!

The advantage of these type of premade dropshipping stores in comparison to the others is that first of all, you know that the product will sell, you have creatives for your advertisements, customer data and social media accounts with followers.

These kinds of premade dropshipping stores will cost you anywhere from 1.000 to multiple millions of US dollars for the most successful ones. Oof!

In most cases, they come with the following assets:

• Green = Included
• Orange = Depends on the package
• Red = Not included

• Domain
• Products
• Logo
• Suppliers
• Apps installed
• Product descriptions
• Optimized for speed
• Optimized for conversion rate
• Installed Meta Pixel
• Advertising videos/photos/creative
• Existing mailing list
• Social media accounts with followers
• Mature Meta Pixel
• Returning customers
• Marketing plan

Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying Premade Dropshipping Stores

Now that you know what a premade dropshipping store is and what types of premade dropshipping stores exist, we will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of buying a premade dropshipping store to conclude whether or not it is worth it to buy one!

Advantages

• Less work: You don't have to pick a name, make a domain, pick your products, design your website.
• Saves time: You will be able to start selling after just a couple of days. Most elements of your dropshipping business are already set up.
• No worries about picking a name: Some people know what online store name they want from the get-go, but for most of us, this is a difficult decision. If you want, you can check out this article for more information about picking a store name.

Disadvantages

• No product research: With a premade dropshipping store, you didn't do your own product research. Therefore, you won't know exactly who your audience is and if you have a winning product. Check out our latest article about finding winning dropshipping products for more information.
  
• No distinctive website: When creating a dropshipping store yourself, you will have the chance to think about the design of your website. You should try to make it unique from other dropshipping stores to stand out. With a premade dropshipping store, chances are that your store will look like a typical dropshipping store. If you want to learn how to make a unique dropshipping store, check out this article!
  
• You won't learn anything: By purchasing a premade dropshipping store, you are missing out on a large learning experience. When building your own store, you will learn about product research, store design, and marketing.
  
• No knowledge of previous activities: You don't know how the previous owner has treated their customers. Maybe the store you are buying has a reputation for being a scam! Check out our complete guide about customer service for dropshipping!

What is the conclusion?

When weighing up these advantages and disadvantages, my opinion is that it is better to build your own dropshipping store from scratch.

You will learn so much more by doing everything yourself. You will also save yourself some money which you will be able to use later to market your store.

There is also no chance of getting scammed with a bad deal and when you succeed with your dropshipping store, it will feel much better knowing that you've built and designed everything yourself!

However, if you really like the idea of purchasing a premade dropshipping store, I have compiled an extra list of common pitfalls for you!

Pitfalls of Buying a Premade Dropshipping Store

I've already told you about some of the disadvantages of buying a premade dropshipping store, and sadly I have to tell you that there are other issues you could experience when buying a premade dropshipping store. These are some of the pitfalls you will have to look out for!

Are the stats true?

Sometimes, people buy a premade dropshipping store, only to find out stats such as sales, profit/loss, and number of visitors were faked.

When buying from Shopify's own Exchange Marketplace, this won't be a problem since Shopify can verify the stats themselves. But, be extremely careful with this when buying a premade dropshipping store from someone you don't know outside of the Exchange Marketplace!

Supplier issues

Be careful with this one, it could be the reason why the previous owner decided to sell his dropshipping store.

Imagine buying a premade dropshipping store, get some orders, and start fulfilling them. But suddenly after 1 or 2 weeks, you get a message from your supplier telling you they can not fulfill your orders and don't want to support dropshippers anymore.

You will lose a lot of time, effort, and customers when this happens to you, as you will have to look for a new supplier and wait till they fulfill the remaining orders.

Lack of product research

Many people make it their "job" to make and try to sell as much premade dropshipping stores as possible in the shortest amount of time.

This means they will fill the store with any products they can find and won't do any product research. I advise against buying one of these stores because the chance of succeeding is very low in my opinion.

Who owns the social media accounts?

Be careful when you buy a premade dropshipping store with included social media accounts, because there are two ways you can get scammed here.

First of all, be sure that the seller will provide you with the social media accounts. Also, keep in mind that even if the seller provides you with the social media accounts, they can hijack them back a few days or weeks later.

For example, someone can claim back their Instagram account by contacting Instagram's support and telling them their account was hacked.

Lack of knowledge about the competition

Be sure to do some research about the competition in the premade dropshipping store's niche you're planning to buy.

Let's say that, for example, you bought a store selling cheese graters, only to later find out that you have eight other direct competitors selling the same or a higher quality version of your product. You will need to work extra hard to overcome this competition and stay profitable!

Premade Dropshipping Stores: Conclusion

Hurray! You've made it to the end of the article. You now know what a premade dropshipping store is, what kinds of premade dropshipping stores exist, and what the advantages and disadvantages of buying a premade dropshipping store are.

As a conclusion, I would advise against buying a premade dropshipping store for most people. However, if you are in an extreme hurry to acquire a dropshipping business and want to start selling immediately, it is a possible shortcut.

Related article: If you're interested in buying a premade dropshipping store, check out our list here with the best platforms where you can find premade dropshipping stores for sale.

I also think that building a store is relatively simple, it is the marketing that you should ace. If you need help with driving traffic to your dropshipping store, check out these articles!

Also, don't get stuck thinking inside the box and only advertising with Facebook and Instagram. Did you know you can advertise your dropshipping store with Pinterest too?

Rather than purchasing a premade dropshipping store, I would recommend you to follow our step-by-step Shopify dropshipping guide.

Then, use that money to purchase video ads or pro photography for your product. An awesome ad is so helpful in generating more sales!

You can easily create your own video ads by using this awesome tool Promo, or you can hire someone from Fiverr to do it for you!

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me or leave a comment!

Have a nice day!

Getting Started with Dropshipping in 2024

So, are you ready to get started with dropshipping? Or maybe you have already started, but you’re looking to get some inspiration?

If so, then I suggest reading this complete Shopify dropshipping guide.

It’s a huge article, but it contains everything that you need to know to create your own Shopify dropshipping store in 2024. It’s like a dropshipping course, but then for free!

Reading this article will surely help you to get started and to stay motivated while beginning and continuing your dropshipping journey.

Just don’t forget that success takes time. Keep improving each and every day!

Shopify Dropshipping: A 20-Step Guide to Starting Your Store

And here are the articles I suggest you read next:

• The 17 Best Free Dropshipping Courses | Learn for Free!
• 23 Most Successful Shopify Dropshipping Store Examples
• Dropshipping Startup Checklist: 10 Things to Do Before Starting
• How to Find Winning Dropshipping Products (13 Research Methods)

And also, if you didn’t create a Shopify account yet (to get your dropshipping store online), then you can click here to get a free 3-day trial + pay $1/month for the first 3 months!