Passive income is a type of income generated from outside of your day-to-day job. Unlike active income, which requires ongoing work and often a full-time work schedule, passive income streams allow individuals to earn money while putting in less time and effort.

This can include various sources of income such as alternative investments, renting property, affiliate marketing, social media influencers, and certain types of online businesses like dropshipping.

Passive income can be a terrific approach to produce extra cash flow for people with all kinds of different goals – from those who would like to manage a side business to making extra money as a student.

Dropshipping is an eCommerce business model in which entrepreneurs sell products without having to manage an inventory.

To illustrate, when your store receives an order from a customer, the order is forwarded to your dropshipping supplier which then ships the items directly to your customer’s address.

Dropshipping is an excellent business model for all new entrepreneurs starting in the eCommerce market. It’s easy to set up and it doesn’t require a large sum of investment capital.

Earning passive income through dropshipping offers plenty of benefits some of which are:

• Low risk. Due to the fact that you don’t physically own the inventory of your store, the risk is far less imminent in comparison to running a business that requires you to also take care of your inventory. One of the best advantages of dropshipping is that you buy only as many products as your customers order. When managing your own inventory, you can easily be left with an overstock.
• Low logistics and no storage costs. Since the products you offer aren’t in your possession, your costs for storage are basically non-existent. By having a dropshipping supplier stock your virtual shelves, you’ll save a small fortune on warehouse expenses.
• Time efficiency: Compared to traditional retail, dropshipping isn’t that time-consuming. With your dropshipping supplier taking care of the inventory management, order fulfillment, and shipping logistics, you won’t have to be overworking yourself.
• Flexibility. Last but not least, the dropshipping method offers great flexibility. You can run your business any time and from anywhere in the world. All you need is a laptop and a working internet connection.

Earning passive income with the dropshipping business model is not nearly as complicated as it might sound. To give you an idea of what it takes to start a dropshipping business, we’ve prepared an overall step-by-step guide you can use to guide yourself.

Regardless of the type of business you’re pursuing, choosing your niche is the very first step you need to take as your niche will be the one to define your product focus and target market.

To make sure you end up choosing a winning product for earning passive income, it’s recommended to go with products that are labeled as “impulse purchases” such as clothing and accessories. But if you really want to find products that sell fast, you can target clothing sub-niches such as branded fashion—the higher the products’ value the higher the profit margins.

If you really want to make sure that your niche of choice will be profitable, you can use plenty of free tools, such as Google Trends, to see how much interest people are showing in the products you’re planning to sell.

Check out:

• Best Dropshipping Niches for Your Clothing Business
• 10 Dropshipping Niches to Avoid

Researching your market helps you understand your target audience, identify niche trends, and analyze your competitors.

All of these things are important to know in order to be able to learn how to approach your customers and create the best possible business strategy.

Check out: How to Conduct a Competitor Analysis

A well-crafted dropshipping business plan will act as your roadmap, guiding you through tough decisions and ensuring that all actions you take will lead to achieving your objectives.

From pricing methods and profit goals to audience targets and marketing channels, your business plan needs to contain every kind of strategy relevant to managing and growing your store.

Once you’ve chosen your niche and have a thorough image of your market’s demands, it’s time to find the right dropshipping supplier for your business.

Use the checklist below to ensure the suppliers you stumble upon will provide you with only the best dropshipping service:

• Check for product quality
• Make sure they don’t require MOQ
• Choose a supplier with dropshipping automation
• Ask for the frequency of product updates
• Go over their shipping times and locations
• Look for a convenient return policy
• Read online reviews

In order to be able to sell products, you’ll need to choose an eCommerce platform on which you’ll build your online boutique.

Up to 75% of visitors claim that they judge the credibility of a business through its website. That’s why it’s important to focus on creating s storefront that’ll be enough engaging to encourage customers to make a purchase.

Luckily, today there are plenty of web-building platforms to choose from, some of the most popular ones being:

• Shopify: With a friendly user interface, an abundance of built-in features, and a convenient hosting service, Shopify is the perfect platform for both beginners and more advanced users. Check out our Ultimate Guide on Dropshipping with Shopify for a step-by-step tutorial on setting up your Shopify store.

• WooCommerce: WooCommerce is a plugin for WordPress-based stores. Unlike, Shopify, WooCommerce is a better option for those who already have some experience with building an online store as you’ll have to set up a domain name on your own and even need some tech knowledge if you want a particular design. Nevertheless, with a load of ready-to-use free and paid templates and access to thousands of WooCommerce plugins, WooCommerce creates a beginner-friendly environment as well. Take a look at our Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping with WordPress to get an idea of how WooCommerce works.

• Wix: Wix is another great option for building a professional-looking website. It offers plenty of templates and plugins, a drag-and-drop editor, and quite affordable pricing plans. Read our Ultimate Guide on Dropshipping with Wix to learn about the process of building a Wix store from scratch.

• Shift4Shop: Shift4Shop is an amazing alternative to all of the platforms above. It provides users with a design editor, built-in SEO features, and hundreds of themes. Learn how to create a Shift4Shop online store with our Beginner’s Guide to Shift4Shop Dropshipping.

Finally, it’s time to let your customers know about your attractive products by crafting a well-planned marketing strategy.

If you don’t plan on spending a lot on your marketing efforts, there are plenty of free strategies to promote your products:

• Generate engaging blog posts
• Be active on social media
• Regularly optimize your store for SEO
• Create a Google Business Account
• Host live streams

In case you can put aside a small budget, paid advertising is always worth trying out on platforms like:

• Facebook (How to Use Facebook Ads for Dropshipping?)
• Instagram (How to Use Instagram Ads for Dropshipping?)
• Google (How to Create Google Shopping Ads for Dropshipping?)
• YouTube (How to Create YouTube Ads for Dropshipping?)

Check out:

• 30 Strategies to Promote Your Online Clothing Boutique
• 10 Content Marketing Ideas for Your Dropshipping Store

BrandsGateway is a dropshipping supplier that offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to make passive income by selling exquisite collections of luxury clothing and accessories.

• Over 100 luxury fashion brands including Gucci, Versace, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Jimmy Choo, Prada, Swarovski, and many more;
• More than 20,000 high-quality products that can be part of your inventory;
• Profit margins of up to 250% per order;
• Fully automated dropshipping plugin that allows for automatic inventory update and order fulfillment;
• A 14-day return policy that starts from the day the product is received;
• Convenient worldwide shipping across 170 countries via reliable couriers such as DHL, FedEx, and UPS;
• Fast delivery time of 1-3 days for orders within the EU and 5-7 days for those outside the EU.

• STEP 1: Sign up for a free account on BrandsGateway’s registration page.
• STEP 2: Choose your subscription plan on BrandsGateway’s pricing page.
• STEP 3: Connect your store with BrandsGateway (plugin solutions available for Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and Shift4Shop).
• STEP 4: Import your catalog.
• STEP 5: Start selling.

Check out: How to Start Dropshipping with BrandsGateway?

Making passive income through dropshipping opens a gateway to financial freedom and flexibility.

However, it’s crucial to recognize that passive income in dropshipping doesn’t equate to effortless success; ongoing monitoring, customer engagement, and adapting to market trends are vital for sustaining business profitability.

By selecting the right niche, conducting thorough market research, and partnering up with a reliable dropshipping supplier, entrepreneurs can lay the groundwork for a successful side hustle.