How To Go From 0-10k With Branded Dropshipping [Full Step By Step Guide]

I always harp on about why getting into branded dropshipping is one of the easiest business models to start in 2025, so, in this newsletter, I’m going to cut completely to the chase and show you step by step how I’d start a branded dropshipping store that’ll make you 10k a month within 3-6 weeks.

I’m not oversimplifying this, if you follow these steps and apply the learnings, you can have a store up and running within a week and be ready to market by week 2.

The reason I say that there’s never been a better time to get into e-com is twofold:

1. The systems and softwares available to start an online business have never been easier to work with.

2. You have almost no cost or downsides associated with setting up. Even if you count the time invested to set up, this is still an investment into skill aquisition. Win.

The problems that arise here are because the equal and opposite reaction to having a low cost and effort barrier to entry means that conversely it’s so much easier for competition to flood the market.

Low barrier to entry = more people can set up with relative ease.

Instead of looking at this as a negative, this is actually a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

The way you do this is by building a brand and selling a hero product.

Don’t be a pump and dump dropshipping store.

This is no way to live life, constantly searching up new products, testing and if you’re lucky, riding the wave in for a week or so and then starting the next month back at zero with no idea where your next sale is coming from.

E-com is supposed to cashflow and make your life easier. You’re meant to build a saleable asset that pays you every day.

Dropshipping random products to strangers online is not the way to achieve this.

That said, let me break down how I’d start a branded dropshipping store today. Feel welcome to steal this information and use it to build your own store today - just promise me you’ll reach out at some point once you’re cashflowing to tell me how it’s changed your life.

PS - If you want to see an example of this in action, go check my first ever YouTube videos out where I took a client from zero to 10k in his first month using this same methodology.

Let’s get into it.

PS: If you’d like to work on a 1-1 basis with me to start and scale your brand to 1M/year, I’m taking applications here.

Step 1: Find a winning product.

Everyone talks about finding the perfect product at the perfect time. Shock horror - this probably doesn't exist.

What I want you to remember is that pretty much every product out there has the potential to make 1M in a year. It’s all about getting it in front of the right people, via the right medium at the right time.

This is the skill.

Don’t obsess about what you’re going to sell too much. Use my 3 commandments of branded dropshipping to ascertain if your product is qualified.

Note: If you skip ANY of these commandments, you’re probably going to fail.

1. You must be able to make a minimum of 65% margin, or 2.5x the cost of the product.

2. The product must solve a HIGH pain point. Think: the higher the pain point, the easier it is to sell.

3. You must use, or get value from this product yourself. If you’re stuck on what to sell; YOU are the niche. Don’t rely on assumptions when picking what to sell, solve your own problems and look for more people like you. After all, no one knows you more than you know yourself.

I could write a whole newsletter on each of these commandments, but for the sake of keeping it short, use these as your basal criteria for now.

Step 2: Search for competitors

Once you’ve found a potential product, it’s time to search the web for competitors selling the same product or range within the niche.

Pay particular attention to their reviews (assuming they’re real, of course) and look at their Meta Ads Library to see how long they’ve been running ads for.

Long time running ads = high likelihood they’re selling well.

Now check their website for inspiration on how they’ve structured the messaging and who they’re selling to.

In order for you to create a strategic point of difference (a brand), look for how you’d be able to reposition the product to sell to a particular subset or niche within the market.

Take inspiration from their site, ads and get into their email flows.

Look for low hanging fruit or simple optimisations to ascertain where you’d be able to improve what they’re sleeping on.

If it’s a big brand, it’s safe to say you can emulate their set up identically, but put your own spin on it. Make it unique to you. Success leaves clues, and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to their digital infrastructure.

If it looks like a dropshipping store (yes, there are some clear ‘tells) then be careful copying them. Most times they’re under-optimised and following the standard pump and dump process.

Now it’s time to focus time and attention on WHO you’re selling to.

Remember - you are the niche. No one knows more about you than you do about yourself, so sell to you.

Make sure you map out as much as possible about who you’re selling to by gathering key data points, usually centered around your customers current situation (in pain) and their desired situation (problem solved).

The more granular you can be here, the easier it’ll be for you to sell your product.

Obsess over your customer.

Solve ONE problem for ONE customer niche. Don’t go broad.

Remember: If everyone is your customer, then no one if your customer.

Step 3: Build a simple Shopify store

Stuck on where to start with this? Cool. Let’s keep it simple.

All you need to build to get off the mark is a landing page (LP), product page (PDP), and an about us page using Shopify.

To get going, it doesn't need to be any more difficult than this.

Don’t worry about home pages or order tracking etc, keep your focus on the main selling pages to streamline the process.

You LP (landing page) needs to be the priority here since this is where we’re also going to be directing paid traffic to when we start to run ads.

If you’re stuck on how to build a high converting LP, follow this psychological flow:

1. Big statement calling out the problem (that your product solves) as the hero banner top section

2. Intro the product as the ultimate solution by boxing off these topics;

• Who (talk to your target audience)

• What (is your product)

• How (does it work)

• Why (should they buy it)

• Who (again, but this time back up with social proof / reviews - others like them)

• Sell (Add in a section for them to be able to buy via a one click checkout

If you’re stuck on this, don’t be afraid to scout the internet for competitors and look at how they’re structuring their LP’s. Just head into their ad library and emulate their layouts.

Next, build a simple PDP (product display page)

The product page is all about selling, so it doesnt need to be so information dense as the LP. Cut to the chase on this one and build out a simple but effective PDP by boxing off all of the potential ojections and questions that you feel customers will have.

Again, look to the big brands in your nice to emulate.

Then, a simple but clean looking About Us page is critical to show that you’re real and ideally a founder lead brand.

Having a founder lead brand in 2025 is one super easy way to stand out from the competition. Why? Because people by from people.

We learn through story telling, and if you’re a real person selling a product that solved a problem for you, there’s a high likelihood that they’re going to resonate with this. Trust me, it works.

Another great way to run traffic is to build advertorials or listicals, but we’ll save this for another newsletter.

Step 4: Build your email marketing using Klaviyo.

This is a whole newsletter series on it’s own, but we’ll keep it short and to the point.

Your first priority here is being able to siphon website visitors into your digital ecosystem by having a lead form pop up that converts.

The secret here is to move away from generic ‘Join my newsletter for updates’ or weak ‘10% off’ pop ups and instead, favour an ask that’s magnetic.

Make it a no brainer.

Offer them a free product or gift.

The key is to make sure the perceived exchange of value favours the customer and is more of a ‘Hell Yeah’ response. You can use physical or digital products, just get creative.

The reason I don’t like leading with discounts is also twofold:

1. It attracts low value customers. In my experience, customers who pay the least complain the most.

2. It devalues your product. If you’re leading with discounts, this means you can’t sell your product. Scarcity and a feel of premiumness around your hero product works wonders to build trust and integrity. It’s OK to use discounts, but just don’t lead with them.

Once you have your email flow, it’s time to build out well designed flow automations. You’re going to need these ones BEFORE you start marketing, not after:

• Welcome series

• Abandon cart

• Abandon checkout

• Browse abandon

Having these flows in place mean that you’re giving yourself the 4-7+ digital touch points needed to convert paid traffic into buyers.

Very few customer buy on impulse and having well designed email flow automations mean you now have the chance to educate and build trust with your customers.

Skip this step and you’re going to burn a ton of cash searching for impulse buyers.

Remember, we’re building a brand, not a pump and dump store.

To put this into numbers, my brands average revenue from email marketing each month is between 40-60%. That’s almost double my revenue just by having email marketing set up.

Ignore this at your peril.

Step 4. Run ads

Now you have all of your core infrastructure in place, it’s safe to run ads.

You can run these on Meta, TikTok and/or Google, depending on your niche.

The key to creating winning Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram) isn’t about obsessing over the account structure.

They key is creative.

To win at branded dropshipping in 2025 is to nail your creative.

Again, this is a whole email series to explain, but to keep it simple, run one broad A+ Campaign, one Ad Set and then multiple creatives within the ad set. Set control mechanisms for the location and maybe age if necessary, but let the algo do it’s thing.

Don’t overcomplicate this part.

The key focus for your time and attention at this time is to lock in and find ways to generate creative. Ask friends, ask family, set up photoshoots at home, reach out to influencers, speak to customers.

I always say modern day e-com brands first and foremost are media companies.

You’re in the business of converting attention to dollars and the way we do this is by making ads that create a pattern interrupt. Educate them, tell stories, make big statements.

The second part of being a modern day e-com brand owner is becoming a glorified data scientist.

This is the meta-skill of being able to interpret data from your advertising and site analytics. This is the long game, and it’s easily learnable.

Content creating to cycle into ads will become your key task once you’re up and running, until you find the point of ‘harmonic resonance’ with your customers.

The key skills to learn here are sales & marketing (the art of persuasion) through strategic copywriting and media (images and videos).

Summary:

Building a branded dropshipping store isn’t difficult. You don’t need to handle any product. All you need to do is source it on Ali Express, build a high converting LP, make sure you have email marketing dialled in and then run ads.

Of course you’re still going to have to handle customer service, but you can do that yourself for the first 10-100 customers. Buying a domain isn’t difficult, you don’t need a fancy logo.

Keep it simple.

Start small, then scale. Nail it, then scale it.

It doesn't need to be any more complicated than this to go from 0-1.

If you’d like my direct support with starting or scaling your e-com brand to 1M, I’m taking on a handful of 1-1 students to work with you to build your store together.

If you’d like more info, you can apply here.

I’m only one person and slots fill up quick, so if you’re serious about building a brand that allows you complete time, location and financial freedom, apply today and we’ll hop on a call to discuss your suitability.

To your continued success.

Lou Antonio