How Much Can You Realistically Earn from Dropshipping in India
When I was doing my MBA at BITSoM I thought my income ceiling would always be tied to my corporate role. Today I work at Hindustan Unilever earning a little over ₹1 lakh a month but my biggest financial breakthroughs have come from dropshipping.
One of my posture corrector stores made about ₹3 crore in revenue and another store selling push up boards crossed ₹68 lakh. These numbers are not just mine. There are brands and individuals around the world who started exactly the same way.
Real brands that began with dropshipping
Gymshark – Founded in 2012 by Ben Francis in the UK, Gymshark started as a dropshipping operation selling fitness supplements and apparel. Ben sourced products from other suppliers and only later began manufacturing. Today Gymshark is valued at over $1.3 billion (Forbes)【source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2020/08/14/uk-fitness-brand-gymshark-hits-13-billion-valuation/】.
MVMT Watches – Started in 2013 by Jake Kassan and Kramer LaPlante using dropshipping to sell affordable minimalist watches online. They scaled via social media marketing and were acquired by Movado Group in 2018 for $100 million (Entrepreneur)【source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/how-two-college-dropouts-built-and-sold-a-100-million-watch/323239】.
Kylie Cosmetics (Early stage) – Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic line initially used private-label dropshipping through a manufacturer that fulfilled orders directly to customers before moving in-house (Vogue Business)【source: https://www.voguebusiness.com/beauty/how-kylie-cosmetics-reinvented-beauty-marketing】.
Indian dropshipping success stories
The June Shop – Kolkata-based home décor brand started as a dropshipping store on Shopify in 2014 and gradually built inventory after validating demand. They now ship globally and have a strong online presence (YourStory)【source: https://yourstory.com/smbstory/june-shop-home-decor-dropshipping】.
Propshop24 – Began as a dropshipping marketplace for quirky lifestyle products before moving to warehousing and private labels. They built a large Instagram following that drove sales (Inc42)【source: https://inc42.com/startups/how-propshop24-scaled-quirky-products-online/】.
What these examples prove
The realistic earning potential of dropshipping depends on two stages.
Stage 1 – Getting proof of concept. This can mean making your first ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 in profit by testing products without holding inventory.
Stage 2 – Scaling into a brand. As Gymshark, MVMT and The June Shop show, dropshipping is just the launchpad. You can move to private labelling, in-house fulfilment and multi-channel sales to reach seven and eight figures in revenue.
My benchmark for India
From my own stores and my students, a realistic and repeatable number is ₹1 lakh a month in profit within three to six months if you follow the right product research, marketing and scaling strategies.
I have seen a 24-year-old student from Pune start with ₹10,000 and make ₹1.4 lakh profit in three months. Another from Delhi scaled a single kitchen gadget to ₹3 lakh a month profit in less than a year.
Why most people never reach it
-
They copy products without validation
-
They give up after a few bad weeks
-
They run ads without understanding buyer psychology in India
-
They fail to measure ROAS, RTO and conversion rates
Fix these and you turn ₹1 lakh a month into a baseline rather than a goal.
If you are starting today
Do not aim for ₹1 lakh a month from day one. Your first milestone is a sale. That is why I built the One Sale in 7 Days Challenge to help you get proof fast with low risk.
Once you have proof the next step is scaling. That is what I teach inside the AI Dropshipping MBA using my systems that have worked for Indian and international markets.
Final word – Dropshipping is not a magic ATM but it is a proven model to break income ceilings if you treat it like a business. Whether you end up at ₹1 lakh a month or build the next Gymshark depends entirely on whether you move from testing products to building a brand.