What is “High-Ticket Sales”? Start High-Ticket Dropshipping in 2024

What is “high-ticket sales” or “high-ticket dropshipping”? And is it worth starting a high-ticket eCommerce business?

Let’s unfold:

Imagine this — you’re selling ceramic coffee mugs for $25 and making a $10 profit on each mug you sell.

Now imagine — you’re selling coffee machines for $500 and making a $100 profit on each machine you sell.

That’s the power of high-ticket sales. That said, the difficulty level of selling a $500 item compared to a $25 item is significantly higher too. But it’s doable if you have a reasonable budget and put in the effort with systems and strategies.

In this blog post, we’ll cover all the basics, the detailed guide on how to start a high-ticket dropshipping business, best practices, product ideas or examples, and the pros and cons of a high-ticket eCommerce business.

What are High-Ticket Sales?

“High-ticket sales” is the practice of selling expensive products or services.

These could be premium products with high-quality materials (e.g., rugs or furniture), big or heavy machinery items (e.g., snow blowers, industrial vacuum cleaners), or entertainment or luxury products (e.g., drones, telescopes, guitars). 

Side note: In the context of service-based businesses, high-ticket services require great expertise to deliver high-quality services. However, we’ll be focused on product-based businesses for this article.

There’s no specific threshold for what’s considered a “high-ticket sale”. The price range may vary depending on the industry. Talking of the B2C eCommerce industry, the price range of $200-$1,000 could be considered a high-ticket sale. 

Of course, it could go even beyond $1,000 — but then, it becomes much harder to sell those items if you’re not a known brand already.

Considering the higher cost of products, high-ticket businesses need to operate with premium branding, robust processes, and highly skilled professionals to manage the long sales cycles.

Learn more: Website Branding in eCommerce — a Complete Guide + Examples & Best Practices [2024]

What is High-Ticket Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model where products are sourced from third-party suppliers or manufacturers, and shipped to the customers by the supplier/manufacturer upon receiving an order from your customer. Thus, dropshipping businesses can sell products without holding inventory.

High-ticket dropshipping is the practice of selling high-ticket products through this dropshipping business model.

How to Start a High-Ticket eCommerce Store with Shopify

The process of starting an eCommerce store should begin with choosing the right platform. But you don’t have to worry about it when doing it with Shopify  — it’s one of the best eCommerce platforms in the world.

So, here’s your step-by-step guide on how to sell high-ticket items using the powerful ecosystem of Shopify:

Step #1: Research and Brainstorm the Product Ideas

For a product to be a high-ticket item, it has to be something that people are looking for (the market demand) and would also consider paying a high price.

That’s why you must invest time and effort in researching many different product ideas based on the market demand — and then, shortlist them based on their potential and profit margins.

Learn more: Top 15 Trending Products To Sell on Shopify (2024)

Use tools and platforms like Google Trends, Amazon, Jungle Scout, etc.

For example, let’s say you’re looking for different product ideas and want to evaluate the potential of two different ideas: 1. Solar panel and 2. Garden shed.

Now, you can go to Google Trends and check out and compare the search popularity of both these terms. As you can see in the below results — the solar panel is a much more popular term compared to the garden shed.

Meaning, people are searching way more for solar panels than garden sheds. So, you know which product has the better demand in the market, right?

Step #2: Find the Right Suppliers for Your Product

Finding the right supplier is one of the most important elements for succeeding with a high-ticket eCommerce store.

The right supplier will help you consistently deliver quality products to your customers. So, make sure to thoroughly vet the supplier and choose the one that aligns with your goals.

Here are some important things you must consider:

• Communication: Make sure they’re able to communicate with you properly and timely.
• Merchant Reviews: Read their reviews to assess their credibility.
• Inventory: Check if they can deliver your products in a timely fashion with stock in their warehouse.
• Profit margin: Check their pricing and see if you could make a good profit margin after considering all costs. Ask for quotes from multiple suppliers to compare them. 

There are two ways to go about finding the suppliers:

We’ll go over this topic in more detail in the next section.

Step #3: Build Your Store with a Premium Website Design

Your customers’ first impression is most likely to be based on your website.

If your store looks clunky and has poor functionalities, customers will leave the store without even thinking about buying from you.

GemPages is the solution you need to create a premium Shopify store that can sell high-ticket items. GemPages has many professionally designed templates. But you don’t have to rely on templates.

You can even start building your store from scratch, on your own. GemPages’ intuitive drag-and-drop editor makes designing simple and easy. On top of all that, you also get to use the power of AI with the image-to-layout feature.

The About page is a crucial part of any brand’s website. It helps you tell your brand’s story and build credibility and trust with your customers. Again, GemPages can help you create a stunning About page or other important pages on your website.

Some other best practices to follow on your website:

• Have clear store policies, especially return and refund policies.
• Include FAQs on product pages and landing pages
• Add trust badges and social proof.
• Make sure your contact details are listed, i.e., physical address, phone number, and email address.

Learn more: Shopify Tutorial: Everything For Success

Step #4: Understand and Clearly Define Your Buyer Persona

Marketing and selling high-ticket products is not easy, especially when you’re selling online. You need to have robust marketing and sales strategies in place.

But first, you need to understand your potential customers as best as you can. Research your target audience and create buyer persona(s).

What’s a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional character of your ideal customer with a description of traits like gender, age, profession, location, income, goals, pain points, etc.

Once you have clearly defined buyer persona(s), keep that persona at the center of all your branding and marketing strategies which we will cover in the next step.

Step #5: Build Impeccable Branding and Marketing Strategies

This is the longest part of the process. In fact, it’s a process in itself that never ends. So, we’re going to cover the key aspects of this process:

5.1 Branding:

You must have well-defined branding based on your buyer persona and what you’re selling to your customers.

Make sure your brand has a unique style and tone of voice. Also, define and publish your mission and vision statements on your website.

5.2 Organic marketing

Implement organic marketing strategies such as content marketing (blog content, YouTube, eBooks, podcast, etc.), social media marketing, email marketing,  search engine optimization (SEO), and so on.

Pro tip: When buying expensive products, customers tend to do a lot of research online to see what they should consider or be careful of. Help your customers with this research by creating blog articles on the topics around your product. It will not only provide value to your customers but also help boost SEO.

5.3 Funnel strategies

Implement a robust funnel strategy to attract potential leads and convert them into customers. There are various funnel strategies like a sales funnel, click funnel or website conversion funnel. Analyze which one best fits your business and specific goals, and implement the funnel accordingly.

5.4 Paid marketing and ads

You can run paid ad campaigns on Facebook and Google. One more popular paid marketing strategy you can implement is influence marketing. Collaborate with influencers in your niche to promote your brand and products.

Learn more: Shopify Collabs: What Is It and How Do You Use It?

Where to Find High-Ticket Suppliers?

As mentioned in the guide, there are two ways to find the suppliers: 1. Shopify apps and 2. Individual suppliers. So, let’s go through these methods:

Find Suppliers through Shopify Apps

Many B2B (Business-to-Business) eCommerce platforms provide retail store owners with high-ticket dropshipping products. On the Shopify App Store, you’ll be able to find such B2B marketplace apps and the apps that have partnered with such marketplaces.

Here are some of the highly-rated Shopify dropshipping apps for high-ticket dropshipping:

1. DSers‑AliExpress Dropshipping

DSers is AliExpress’ partner dropshipping app with the highest number of reviews in the dropshipping category on the Shopify App Store. It has an overall rating of 5.0 with over 24,000 reviews.

2. Spocket ‑ US & EU Dropshipping

With over 5,000 reviews and an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, Spocket is one of the most popular dropshipping apps on the Shopify App Store. 

3. CJDropshipping

CJDropshipping is another popular Shopify dropshipping app with more than 7,400 reviews and an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.

Just to give you an example, while searching for products on CJDropshipping, you can sort pricing from highest to lowest to find high-ticket products.

So, these were the few apps we reviewed in this article; however, please feel free to check out more Shopify dropshipping apps. There are many other highly-rated and impressive apps such as:

• AutoDS: Dropshipping & POD
• Zendrop ‑ Dropshipping & POD
• Zopi ‑ AliExpress Dropshipping
• Dropshipman: Easy Dropshipping
• Trendsi: Fashion Dropshipping

Find Individual Suppliers from Outside Shopify

4. Furniture in Fashion

Furniture in Fashion is a UK-based online furniture supplier. On its website, it’s clearly mentioned that they do provide products for dropshipping purposes. This is actually one of the recommended high-ticket suppliers by Kamil Sattar, aka “The Ecom King”.

You can find a variety of high-ticket furniture items on this website such as:

• Home furniture
• Office furniture
• Lighting equipment
• Outdoor gears

The company has an impressive rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from 2,570 reviews on the third-party review platform — Trustpilot.

5. Ma Labs

Ma Labs is one of the leading IT distributors offering a wide range of computer-related products such as desktops, notebooks, motherboards, audio and video equipment, and many more products.

For finding more suppliers and wholesale distributors, you can check out this directory shared by Inventory Source. Inventory Source can also help you with integration and automation with these dropshipping suppliers.

Pro tips: Finding independent suppliers instead of using B2B marketplaces could be more helpful because marketplace suppliers might be selling the same item to many dropshippers. But in any case, connect with the supplier to build a great business relationship. See if you can customize your product to stand out from the competition. Working with an experienced supplier can also help you get insights into product ideas.

High-Ticket Sales Examples

If you’re looking for some inspiration about what products to sell on your store, we’ve got you covered. In fact, we’ll not only share high-ticket product examples from different categories but also the best niches for high-ticket dropshipping.

Best Niches for High-Ticket Dropshipping Stores with Product Examples:

• Home Decor & Interior

Home decor and interior is a segment that consists of plenty of different product ideas and many of them are suitable for high-ticket dropshipping.

For example, “luxury feather floor lamps” are among the popular products in this category. We found one of the stores selling this product for £699.00.

Now, if we go to CJDropshipping and search this item, you’ll find similar as well as different versions of this product — at different price points:

Here are some more home decor and interior products you may consider:

• Luxury chandeliers
• Recliner chairs
• Dining table sets
• Rugs
• Jewelry cabinets

Learn more: All About Shopify Jewelry Stores: A Beginner’s

• Kitchen Appliances

You can find some great product ideas on Amazon by filtering the price range and number of reviews. Products with a high number of reviews will mean that there is a high demand for that product.

Here are some high-ticket product ideas for kitchen appliances:

• Smart coffee grinder
• Induction ranges/cooktops
• Espresso machines
• Blenders
• Ice makers
• Kitchen storage cabinets

Fitness & Sports Equipment

The sports equipment market in the US alone was valued at nearly $17.5 billion (USD) in 2022 and it's estimated to reach more than $20 billion by 2025.

Here are some of the high-ticket products in the fitness and sports segment:

• Treadmills
• Indoor cycling bikes
• Massage chairs
• Basketball hoops
• Golf equipment

Learn more: The Top 15 Shopify Fitness Stores: What Are They Doing Right?

Consumer Electronics

According to Statista, the three major contributors in the consumer electronics segment in 2023 were:

• Telephony
• Computing
• TV, Radio & Multimedia

Here are some of the high-ticket consumer electronic items:

• Smartphones
• Desktops and laptops
• Home theater systems
• Bluetooth audio systems
• Headphones
• Drones with 4K Camera
• Digital cameras
• Video projectors

Outdoor Equipment

Selling outdoor equipment can be a great business idea for a high-ticket dropshipping store as you can target a very niche audience of camping enthusiasts — and even build a community around them.

Here are some of the high-ticket outdoor items:

• Camping tents
• Trampolines
• Beach tents
• Outdoor storage boxes
• Solar security cameras
• Outdoor lighting equipment
• Snowblowers

B2B or Office Equipment

Selling to consumers doesn’t have to be the only choice. You can even sell to other businesses. Here are some product ideas for the same:

• Manufacturing machineries
• Office furniture
• Commercial vacuum cleaners
• Security systems
• Commercial cooking equipment

Luxury Hobby & Novelty Items

Many customers buy expensive products just for fun or entertainment or even to gift to their loved ones. Here are some product examples for this category:

• Music instruments
• Telescopes
• Robotics
• 3D printers
• Gaming chairs

As you can see here, we compared three such items in Google Trends. All three of them have good search popularity.

Best Practices for High-Ticket Businesses:

• High-Ticket, High-Quality

Sounds obvious, right? But we must emphasize this because it’s critical if you want to build a long-term, sustainable future for your brand.

Focus on the quality in every aspect of your business, especially the product. When finalizing the supplier, order a sample to check the product yourself even before selling a single item.

• Offer Installment Payments

When purchasing expensive items, if customers can get the option to make the payment in monthly installments, it will entice them to for it. And as a result, it will also help you to increase your conversion rates.

• High-Quality Product Images

When shopping online, customers can’t touch or feel the product. So, their perceived value of your product is majorly based on how it looks in product images. Make sure you totally nail the product images. Hire a professional photographer if you can.

• Top-Notch Customer Service

The quality of customer service can make or break your business. Deliver excellent customer service to ensure the customers are satisfied and are willing to recommend your brand to others. While it’s okay to use chatbots for FAQs, make sure customers can easily get in touch with human support when needed.

• Offer Product Insurance as an Add-On Product

Customers want to feel secure against any potential theft or other damages that cannot be recovered. Offering product insurance can help them buy stress-free. Also, it can increase your average order value and profit margins.

Pros and Cons of Selling High-Ticket Items

Like any other business model, selling high-ticket items comes with some advantages and disadvantages.

Pros of High-Ticket eCommerce:

• Higher profit margins

Since these are expensive items, you get to keep a higher profit margin compared to low-ticket dropshipping businesses. For example, if you’re selling a $1,000 drone and you have a 20% profit margin, you make a $200 profit on a single sale.

• Opportunity to build a long-term business

You’re required to engage frequently and deeply with your customers — and that becomes an opportunity to build a long-term relationship with them. As a result, you can build a loyal customer base.

• Relatively less competition

We’re in the modern era of eCommerce where selling online is easier than ever before. So, businesses are bound to have some level of competition. However, when selling high-ticket within a niche, you’ll have relatively less competition.

Cons of High-Ticket eCommerce:

• Requires higher budget and risk-taking ability

Since you’re selling expensive items, it requires a reasonably higher budget to operate the business even if you’re planning to sell them on the dropshipping business model.

For example, let’s say you sold a $750 item to a customer, and the customer returned the item due to the damaged item within your returns policy (which you’ll need a good one for selling such items). In that case, you may have to suffer a big loss on that sale.

• Not suitable for beginners

This business model is not suitable for new entrepreneurs who are just getting started with their eCommerce journey. It’s highly recommended to gain some experience with low-ticket products first before jumping into selling high-ticket items.

• Takes more effort due to the long sales cycle

You need to go through a long sales cycle as customers take time to make the final decision on the purchase. You may even need to be involved in sales calls to convince the customers to buy your product.

• Smaller customer pool within a niche

You may find it hard to compete with big players if you’re trying to sell in general categories. Thus, you need to find niche items to target a specific audience and you might not have a huge customer base.

Final Thoughts on High-Ticket Dropshipping

Starting a high-ticket dropshipping store could be a lucrative business, but again, keep in mind that it takes serious efforts to get things going.

So, you need to be prepared and willing to contribute time, money, and resources as required. As far as resources are concerned, you can get help from freelancers to get specific things done, e.g., branding, website copy, product photography, and even for creating user-generated content.

Joining the GemPages Facebook community could be helpful in this journey to meet fellow entrepreneurs and like-minded people. Also, it can help you gain some great insights into all the happenings in the eCommerce world.

FAQs about High-Ticket Sales