Premade Dropshipping Stores: Are They Worth It?

The dropshipping store craze has been seen all over the internet. Everyone is trying to get in on the action, from 16-year-old kids posing in front of Lamborghinis to developers selling their Shopify programming boot camps. Should you buy a premade dropshipping store to accelerate your path to success?

When I heard about dropshipping about seven years ago, I thought it was too good to be true. I didn't even need my own products; I could be the middleman between a customer in the U.S. and a Chinese supplier on AliExpress or Alibaba. Nowadays, everyone and their grandmother is trying to get in on the dropshipping business.

There's a saying that once you hear your mailman talking about a particular business opportunity, that is when you are now in a bubble. The secret is out now, and the competition is fierce.

Still, there is a reason why so many people are opening dropshipping stores, there is serious money involved, but with most businesses, some people get lucky and go on to have great success. The others fall behind and end up losing.

Should I Buy a Premade Dropshipping Store?

You may be ready to start your dropshipping store and look at your options. On the one hand, you could build the store yourself; on the other hand, you could buy a premade dropshipping store. There are pros and cons to each method.

Pros of Building Your Own Store

The first choice, building the dropshipping store yourself, has some benefits. You will learn about the marketing and advertising that goes into running one of these stores.

Fortunately, you will learn a lot along the way and learn the ins and outs of designing your website, looking up which products are selling, and researching your target market.

In conclusion, you can apply the experience you gain from starting your own business entirely by yourself in your future endeavors if you decide to try your hand at other industries.

Cons of Building Your Own Store

The cons of building your website are time and ability. It can take you weeks, if not months, to perfect your dropshipping store and get it to look the way you want. Creating the store yourself can be a significant headache if you lack design or programming skills.

Website developers and designers train for years to acquire the necessary skills to perform their job efficiently.

Suppose you don't know how to design or develop; learning these skills can take months just to get to a beginner level. Your website may look unprofessional after months of working on it, and all that time may seem wasted.

Another con is marketing and advertising. Learning digital marketing on top of programming and design will take a long time.

Creating success for your brand can take a long time if you don't have a social media presence.

This brings me to the pros of buying a premade dropping store:

Pros of Buying a Prebuilt Dropshipping Store

The pros of buying a premade dropshipping store are all about time. Instead of learning how to develop and design a dropshipping store, you can just buy one from a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork.

You don't need to know a thing about javascript. These stores also often come with their own Facebook page, Instagram page, customer reviews for social proof, and brand loyalty so that you aren't starting your marketing and advertising from zero; you already have an established brand.

Cons of Buying a Prebuilt Dropshipping Store

The cons of a premade dropshipping store are that you won't learn much along the way compared to if you built it yourself. You won't know why a particular product is selling well and who your target market is.

It can be damaging because as the product lifecycle hits the end stage, you won't know which products to bring in next to create more business.

You also won't know about the marketing and advertising efforts done in the past. Brands need to keep growing their following, and your business will stagnate if you don't know how to do that.

Another con of buying a premade dropshipping store is you don't know why the person wants to sell it. The store you purchase could be a scam, and all those revenue and sales statistics could be meaningless if no one trusts your newly acquired brand.

Another issue you could run into is the dropshipping store's supplier is no longer working with your brand. This aspect can be a significant issue because if you don't have a supplier you can trust, how will you deliver your customers their products?

Finding a new good supplier can take weeks of research, especially if you don't have any business connections and don't use AliExpress or another well-known platform to source your products.

Premade stores are also expensive; you could spend hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on your desired store.

A Safer Alternative

Shopify offers its exchange marketplace. It is where business owners sell already established stores for various reasons. The store owner may be looking to start another project or doesn't have time to manage their Shopify store. It is a great opportunity because you will already be buying an established brand with success.

A cheaper alternative is Fiverr, a well-known marketplace for freelancers. You can pay someone to build a store on this site relatively cheaply.

Although there are many great sellers to buy from, you could have someone who is just pumping out stores for a quick profit, so make sure to read their reviews or look at their profile. You always get what you pay for at the end of the day.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many pros and cons of building your dropshipping store or buying a prebuilt dropshipping store.

Building your dropshipping store will teach you how to do many things, including programming and design, advertising and marketing, and many other business skills you can apply to future businesses. The cons are the time it takes to learn all these skills and the uncertainty of whether your finished product will even look good after completing it.

There are pros and cons of buying a prebuilt dropshipping store as well. You will save a lot of time by purchasing a premade dropshipping store and not having to learn about design, programming, marketing, and advertising. The cons are that it is expensive, you could fall into a scam, and you won't have the experience necessary to keep expanding your brand in the long term.

Whichever you choose to do, I am sure you will have success. Sometimes you need to fail first to succeed later.

Please leave a comment if you are considering buying a prebuilt dropshipping store. We will answer any questions you may have.

About The Author

Ecombridges

Sebastian is the founder of Ecombridges and an expert in online business and blogging. After getting his Master's in Business Engineering, he worked in IT and sales for Big Tech. Since then, he's managed a diverse portfolio of SaaS software, blogging businesses, e-commerce stores while also doing freelance consulting for small businesses.

On Ecombridges, he shares in-depth tutorials and insightful product reviews based on his firsthand experience. He recommends tools and strategies he trusts and uses in his online businesses, ensuring you receive genuine and actionable advice.

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