When you search" when did you start dropshipping" or"young dropshippers" on Quora, you can find some questions like "I am 19 and I would like to start my own dropshipping business, what are some steps I can take to get started?", “How can a 14-year-old start a dropshipping business and turn a profit quickly?", “What are ways to have a successful dropshipping business for a person who is under 18?" or "What is the best age to start dropshipping?"...

From all these kinds of dropshipping-related questions and answers, we can easily get the conclusion that there is an increasing number of unbelievably young dropshippers pouring into the e-commerce market.

Driven by a number of successful startup stories, more and more dropshippers have stepped on the road to wealth, and some of them achieved six-figure revenues. According to Payoneer's latest Global Seller Index, global e-commerce sales reached nearly 2.36 trillion pounds in 2018, and the number of dropshippers is still increasing. With so many opportunities in the market, which age group is the most successful one?

The report surveyed the location, age, and sales of 100,000 dropshippers in the international market and found the following trends and changes:

Young dropshippers are pouring into the e-commerce market

According to the report, the sales volume increased 26% compared with the first quarter of 2018 as more and more young sellers flooded into the market, and the sellers' number of Generation Z (age from 18 to 24) increased 101% from the first quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019. Besides, the sellers' number of Millennials (age from 25 to 35) was the second-fastest-growing, which is 35 percent.

The Millennials enjoys the highest sales volume, but still fall behind the Gen-X

In previous quarters, half of the sellers in the first quarter of 2019 were the Millennials (age from 25 to 34), which accounts for 46% of total sales. The sales of Generation X (age from 35 to 44) are in hot pursuit, followed by age from 45 to 54 and Gen Z (age from 18 to 24), and then, more than 55 years old. But Gen X is actually ahead of Millennials in terms of actual sales since the sellers' number of that age group only accounts for 27%, but the sales volume of them accounts for 34%.

 

The sellers are getting younger, but the older ones are getting better

Although the number of young sellers is increasing, their sales pace has not improved that significantly. The sellers' number of Gen Z doubled year by year, but total sales only grew by 66 percent. By contrast, the sellers' number of older than 55 (27%) grew more slowly than the younger group, but sales grew even faster, rising 54% from the first quarter of 2018 to the first quarter of 2019. This also means that sellers in this age group have more experience and expertise in e-commerce.

E-commerce is growing at an exponential rate, although it only represents a small percentage of all retail sales worldwide, for now, which is a good thing because it means there are still lots of opportunities to start a successful e-commerce business. Dropshipping is a business model where you can sell physical products online without having to pay upfront for inventory and no need to deal with product delivery.

Starting a dropshipping business does not require large capital, you don't have to invest large capital for inventory. You can start this business for less than $100, thus this business model is an excellent choice for startups and online businessmen newbies.

Starting an online business is not easy and a lot of people failed at the beginning because it's advertised by people who sell courses in this area that it's easy, so people started with the expectation that they will be swimming in the pool of money in no time. But as soon as reality, that normally there's no quick result, many of them just quit.

Actually, there is no best age. The best time to start is always today. If you wait for what seems like the perfect time you're probably never going to start. There is never a better time to start than right now and one of the benefits of dropshipping is that you don't need all that much to get started. It is not a matter of time, but the approach you take that defines your result. If you are equipped with the right tools (skills and knowledge) and follow the updated approach, and put enough effort, you'll succeed.

 

Fail if you need to as quickly as possible. Edison said that he didn't fail 1000 times in making a lightbulb, it just took 1,000 steps to make a lightbulb. 

There's no minimum age if you want to start your dropshipping business. If you're below 18, it is suggested to have your parent's consent because you will need a credit card to purchase inventory and subscribe to an e-commerce platform. Dropshipping is a great entry type business for a young entrepreneur who is just starting his/her first business. It's low cost, easy to duplicate, and easy to pivot.

During the process, you will learn many valuable business lessons, and gain a lot of experience that will help you moving forward.  But like any business, it takes hard work and dedication to succeed.

All in all, most successful dropshippers didn't succeed in their first store. In fact, most even didn't succeed on their second or third try.

But each time you get into it, you gain more knowledge and understand more about the process in this category. It's still a good business to start with, especially if you are young. Contribute your time and energy to dropshipping, you will succeed sooner or later!