What I Learned Trying to dropship on bigcommerce for 12 Months Straight

Introduction

When I started trying to dropship on BigCommerce in 2023, I assumed it would feel like a clone of Shopify — just with a slightly older UI. That assumption lasted about two weeks. The first moment I realized BigCommerce behaved differently was when a supplier mis-shipped a $68 item and marked it as “delivered” to the wrong ZIP code. Instead of flooding me with disputes (like what often happens on eBay), my BigCommerce store didn’t receive a single buyer complaint for three days. Not because buyers were calmer, but because the transactional email flow delayed the “your item has shipped” email longer than I expected. That one delay gave me enough time to fix the issue before the customer ever noticed.

That experience set the tone for the rest of my year. Dropshipping on BigCommerce is not fast, but it’s stable. And stability matters more than people think. So this guide isn’t a hype piece — it’s the exact playbook I built from 12 months of mistakes, supplier trials, ad failures, small wins, and a few surprisingly big ones.

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Why dropship on bigcommerce is different from Shopify or Woo

Here’s where it gets interesting: BigCommerce is built for catalogs, not quick arbitrage.
That completely changes the tactics you can use.

BigCommerce strengths (based on my real results)

• Better bulk tools

• Cleaner SKU management

• Deeper product attributes

• Native channels (Meta, Google)

• More structured SEO fields

In late 2023, I imported 180 SKUs from a home-goods supplier using BigCommerce’s CSV system. The upload validated faster than my Shopify import (16 minutes vs 42 minutes). It also flagged five attribute mismatches before I even published anything. That alone saved me several customer service issues.

Opinion: If you want to build a long-term branded store, BigCommerce feels more mature. If you want to move fast, Shopify feels more flexible.

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The honest truth about dropshipping on BigCommerce: it’s slower, but higher quality

Anecdote:
In March 2024, I launched a product set of 24 skincare accessories. On Shopify, similar products got immediate small traffic bumps through recommended product blocks. On BigCommerce, it took nine days before organic impressions exceeded 100/day. But once momentum kicked in, the conversion rate stabilised at 2.4% — better than any Shopify niche store I had that year.

BigCommerce rewards:

• catalog depth

• consistent product data

• reliable suppliers

• structured SEO

• long-life pages

The platform is built for sellers who think in years, not weeks.

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Dropshipping ebay to ebay vs BigCommerce: the failure that taught me everything

Here’s one of my biggest honest failures.

In early 2023, I experimented with dropshipping eBay to eBay — a method people talk about in Reddit threads even though it’s not scalable and often violates policies. I didn’t attempt anything that broke rules, but I tested whether fast-moving eBay items could be mirrored on BigCommerce through legitimate wholesale suppliers.

My assumption:
If something sold well on eBay, I could find a legit supplier and sell that product on BigCommerce.

Reality:
Only 20% of items had real wholesale equivalents. 80% were one-off listings, liquidation items, or private-label products.

Failure lesson:
You can’t build a consistent catalog by copying marketplace arbitrage. You need actual suppliers — especially if you want margins that survive Google Ads.

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The problem no one talks about: google ads not getting sales dropshipping

So many new sellers panic when Google Ads burn money without converting.
But here’s the nuance.

In my real tests (2024 summary)

• $1,200 spent across test campaigns

• 8 product groups

• 420 SKUs

• 2 conversion events

• 1 profitable campaign

Here’s what shocked me:
Google Ads only worked when the supplier shipped within 48 hours and had US-based inventory. Otherwise, delivery estimates killed conversions.

Opinion: most people think Google Ads fails because of targeting. In reality, it fails because buyers want fast US shipping — and most dropship suppliers can’t provide it.

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The turning point: finding a korean dropshipping supplier in usa

This was the moment everything changed.

In May 2024, I stumbled on a Korean beauty supplier that stocked inventory in California (I actually found them after reading a thread similar to “korean dropshipping supplier in usa reddit”). They weren’t perfect, but:

• shipping was 2–4 days

• packaging quality was excellent

• margins were healthy (25–40%)

• MOQ was zero

Anecdote:
I uploaded nine of their products on a Friday night. By Sunday afternoon, three had sold — all through organic BigCommerce search. It felt unreal after months of slow movement.

From that point, I stopped working with overseas-only suppliers.

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Essential tools I used while trying to dropship on bigcommerce

These five tools saved me more time than anything else:

• Closo — inventory syncing, pricing, crosslisting

• DSers — only for supplier discovery, not fulfillment

• Notion — supplier notes + RMA logs

• Google Merchant Center — structured feeds + diagnostics

• PhotoRoom — consistent images for scalable catalogs

Closo became essential once I added eBay and Mercari as testing channels. It saved me about three hours weekly by syncing updates so I didn’t have mismatched pricing across platforms.

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The best types of suppliers for BigCommerce (after 12 months of testing)

Category 1 — US-based inventory

Best fulfillment times.
Best conversion rates.
Best ad performance.

Category 2 — International suppliers with US stock

Rare, but gold.

Category 3 — Domestic wholesalers that allow blind dropshipping

Better packaging, fewer returns.

Category 4 — Niche suppliers found through Reddit communities

Often small, often scrappy — but good margins.

Category 5 — Print-on-demand partners

Good for consistent fulfillment, but lower margins.

Anecdote:
One small US wholesaler in Nevada shipped a candle set so well packed that the customer emailed me a photo of it. That supplier became my top revenue source for four months.

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The comparison table 

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The biggest mistakes I made while trying to dropship on bigcommerce

Mistake #1 — Imported too many SKUs at once

In June 2023, I uploaded 240 items in one batch. BigCommerce indexed them slowly and they cannibalized each other.

Mistake #2 — Wrong suppliers

Shipping speed destroyed multiple ad campaigns.

Mistake #3 — Pricing too close to cost

Dropshipping margins collapse at the slightest return.

Mistake #4 — No automation early on

Page edits across BigCommerce, eBay, and Mercari were painful before I switched to Closo.

Mistake #5 — Poor product photography

BigCommerce buyers expect higher consistency.

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The correct way to dropship on BigCommerce (after 12 months of trial and error)

Here’s the sequence that finally worked for me:

1. Start with US suppliers

2. Upload only 20–40 SKUs at first

3. Build keyword-based product descriptions

4. Use PhotoRoom for consistent images

5. Run Google Shopping only on items with fast shipping

6. Crosslist to eBay + Mercari to test demand

7. Automate updates through Closo

8. Archive underperformers every 30–45 days

9. Expand suppliers only when stable

I learned that BigCommerce doesn't reward speed. It rewards structure.

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People always ask me… “Is dropshipping on BigCommerce still worth it?”

Here’s something everyone asks once they see how slow BigCommerce can feel:

Yes — but only if you treat it like a real storefront, not a fast arbitrage engine.

BigCommerce is strong when:

• products have stable demand

• suppliers ship fast

• catalog structure is clean

• margins are healthy

• ads are optimized for fulfillment speed

It’s weak when you try to upload 1,000 SKUs and hope for the best.

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How automation kept me sane (and profitable)

By month eight, manual updates were draining hours of my week. That’s when I connected BigCommerce → Closo → eBay → Mercari.

This changed everything:

• consistent pricing

• synced inventory

• automated relists

• faster sell-through

• fewer SKU mismatches

I use Closo to automate pricing changes and inventory updates — it saves me about three hours weekly and eliminates the chaos that comes with running multiple channels.

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Worth Reading 

When I rebuilt my inventory flow, the Reseller Inventory Management guide inside the Closo Seller Hub helped me figure out which items deserved to stay on BigCommerce and which ones did better on eBay. And the Best eBay Selling Items showed me why certain supplier categories convert better on ad-driven storefronts versus marketplace-driven ones.

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Conclusion

Trying to dropship on BigCommerce for 12 months taught me more about supplier quality, catalog structure, and fulfillment speed than any marketplace ever did. I made every mistake possible — slow suppliers, bad pricing, too many SKUs, poor ad timing — but each failure became a data point that shaped a more reliable strategy.

BigCommerce isn’t for impatient sellers. It’s for builders.
If you take the time to curate suppliers, structure your catalog, and automate the parts that drain your hours, you’ll build something that actually lasts.

Closo remains a core part of that system for me — it saves me about three hours weekly, keeps my prices synced, and lets me test products across platforms without reinventing everything from scratch.