How to Dropship on Amazon without Money?

Maybe you’re aware that Amazon doesn’t really maintain stocks of everything that we order. Regardless it is an expensive gadget or a cheap pen, Amazon doesn’t buy anything that it sells to customers. Instead, there’re independent sellers that advertise and sell their products on Amazon, the single largest online store in the world.

A lot of these sellers are also dropshippers. This means they sell stuff on Amazon through the dropshipping channel of business. As a matter of fact, Amazon provides an ideal platform for dropshippers to sell their stuff everywhere in the world.

There’s just one main reason for Amazon to allow dropshippers to sell their products on their platform: Amazon wants to give a very wide choice of products for each shopper.

For example, Amazon also sells watches. It sells watches that cost thousands of dollars for those who can afford the price as well as watches worth three to four dollars only, for people that prefer this price range.

This is a clear indicator that Amazon also allows dropshippers to sell on its global platforms.

Before proceeding further, here are some facts and figures about sellers on Amazon.

Facts & Figures of Amazon Sellers

As of January 2024, Amazon has over 9.7 million sellers worldwide, with 1.9 million of them actively selling on the platform. The United States has the highest number of sellers on Amazon or over 47 percent.

Over 50% of Amazon's sales are generated by third-party sellers. Furthermore, 35% of sellers are selling home and kitchen products. Beauty and personal care is the second most popular category among sellers, with 26% of sellers.

During 2022, US-based sellers sold more than 4.1 billion items to customers worldwide. Also in 2022, US-based sellers averaged more than $230,000 in sales.

Products Listed on Amazon

As of March 2024, Amazon has over 600 million products listed on its marketplace, with 12 million of those items sold by Amazon. All other stuff is sold on Amazon by third-party sellers. 

This total doesn't include e-books, media, or services that’s also available on Amazon. According to research, only between 10 per cent and 12 per cent of all the 600 million products are sold by Amazon.

More than 3,000 new products or their variants are added to the Amazon marketplace every day by sellers. And over 4,000 new sellers register themselves on Amazon every day, of which some 26 per cent are from the US and 10 per cent, are from India. Most of these new sellers bring some new products or variants. These include dropshipped items too.

Understanding Dropshipping and Selling on Amazon

As we can see from the above facts and figures, there are millions of sellers on Amazon and over 600 million products available for you to purchase worldwide. As I mentioned earlier, some of these products are drop shipped by sellers.

Therefore, it’s essential to comprehend these important facts.

Firstly, selling on Amazon is a different process altogether. The company has its own set of standards, policies, guidelines and systems in place for every seller. That means you have to meet these criteria before you can dropship on Amazon with or without money.

Secondly, dropshipping by itself is a different ballgame altogether.

To drop ship products, you will have to study the market and find reliable suppliers that can provide you with stuff at minimum possible costs and ship it directly to the buyer when they get a confirmed order.

You can get special or preferential rates only if you commit that your business will sell a specific number of each product. You will have to pay them cash immediately when you order a drop-shipped item from any supplier.

While there’s only a single seller agreement between you and Amazon, you will surely require multiple buyer agreements between you and the supplier for dropshipping. In simpler words: you are a seller on Amazon but a buyer from the company that sells products for dropshipping.

If these fundamentals are clear, let’s look at how to dropship on Amazon without money.

Dropshipping on Amazon without Money

I will explain in simple steps how to go about selling dropshipped items on Amazon, even if you don’t have money to invest in your business. This could help you create your own business with almost zero investment and bag your necessary profits.

1. Learn About Dropshipping

The first and most important step that you should take is to learn everything there is about dropshipping. There are two ways you can get products for sale on Amazon.

One is to buy from local dropshippers, who will definitely charge more and reduce your profit margins. The other is to import stuff from foreign manufacturers and suppliers directly, which is much cheaper.

Also Read: Dropshipping Business Ideas

2. Study Dropshipping Sources

Dropshipping isn’t as simple as it may appear to most people. The majority of products available for dropshipping are made in Asian countries primarily China. With the US and China sparring on various issues, there are strict restrictions on the kind of stuff you can import and sell from the Asian country.

The other option is India which also has a large manufacturing industry and ample products that you could consider.

3. Identify Niche

Once you get these basics clear, the next step is to identify your niche. That simply means, deciding what you would like to sell on Amazon from dropshipped items. It could be clothing, mobile phone accessories, footwear or watches.

However, here you’ll also have to consider whether products meet the standards of the USA. For example, foreign-made toys aren’t allowed in the US unless they’re from a renowned company due to the risk of these products containing toxic colours. The same holds true for cosmetics and health supplements, among others.

4. Agreements with Suppliers

The key to building a successful dropshipping business is your agreements with suppliers. That’s because they’ll be offering a special, low rate if you can assure that you’ll sell a specific quantity each month or every year.

Agreements are also necessary to agree on terms and conditions for returns from customers, payments, after-sales service and warranties, shipping and lots more.

You’ll have to find how much money you can realistically make by selling any drop shipped product on Amazon by finding the total cost price from your supplier.

5. Sign as an Amazon Seller

Upon finalizing deals with suppliers and your niche, the next and most obvious step is to sign up as a seller on Amazon. To do so, read their terms and conditions carefully. Also study the charges that Amazon levies on each product you sell and platform fees, shipping costs and returns policies.

You will have to strike a balance between similar terms and conditions on payments, shipping and returns with your dropshipping supplier.

Unless this fine balance is struck, you might not be able to make any profits or the business might favour either Amazon or the dropshipper more and not you as the entrepreneur.

6. Upload Superb Photos

Ask for a few superb photos of the products you wish to sell, from your dropshipped goods suppliers. These are for uploading on Amazon for customers to see. Also, you can make videos where possible. Write superb, attractive descriptions for each product.

Never make tall claims because if your product doesn’t match what you say, the customer could return it and you would lose business. For writing attractive product descriptions, leverage the power of Artificial Intelligence tools such as ChatGPT-4.5 or Rytr.ai. These might cost you some money. Or, try free AI tools such as ChatGPT-3 and Gemini AI.

7. Learn Pricing Your Product

While uploading product photos and descriptions, it’s also important to mention the price of the real stuff on Amazon. This involves learning a lot about Amazon’s pricing policies. While there’re no upper or lower limits set by Amazon for prices, it’s better to study what your competitors in the same field are offering.

You will either have to match their price or offer your products cheaper to attract more customers. However, never enter into a price war with any competitor. They might have enough resources to sustain a price war but you could end up in losses for underselling a product.

8. Participate in Amazon Sales

As you know, Amazon has several sales and promotions during the year. Common ones include the New Year Sale, Halloween Sale, Black Friday Sale or Independence Day Sale and so on. You can drop the prices of your products to vie with other competitors.

It could tempt a few customers to try your products. While the amount of profit you make per product during a sale might seem low, it could be more than compensated by the volume of sales that you might record during the period.

Furthermore, you can launch special promos on Amazon such as price drops or combo offers to attract more customers.

9. Diversify Your Suppliers

Always diversify your dropshipping suppliers. That way, you could offer more products and variants at the right time. This is more important if you’re dealing with products such as mobile phone accessories or clothing or even electrical appliances.

People want to buy trendy stuff and hence, you should be in a position to fulfil this demand. Weed out products that aren’t selling or offer them through another marketplace such as Shopify or Facebook Marketplace.

After all, there’s no point in trying to sell stuff that hasn’t any takers or very few takers. This can occur only when you’re providing the wrong mix of products. Take seasonal demands as well as occasional rises and falls into consideration too. Nobody is going to buy sweaters when the Spring and Summer are around the corner.

10. Promote Via Social Media & Blogs

And finally, promote your dropship products on Amazon on social media and blogs. If you take a close look at some of the products listed on Amazon, it will be clear they have supporting websites or blogs. You might come across a link stating: “Visit the xyz store,” or “Click here to learn more.” When people click on such links, they’re guided to another website or blog which is of the seller- in this case- you.

Here you could give superb product descriptions and show more pictures of a product. Also, provide affiliate marketing for your products sold through Amazon. That way, you get some free reviews and publicity. Affiliates are paid only when you record a confirmed sale.

Also Read: 50 Best Ways to Promote Your Business Online

Wrap Up

These 10 steps could help you to dropship on Amazon without money. Remember, without money doesn’t mean with totally empty pockets. You will have to spend on using the Internet and other stuff to set up the dropshipping and Amazon seller business.

Both are distinct businesses and blending them together takes a lot of time and extra efforts. You will require a superb business plan and if possible, some unique yet affordable products to enter the business.