Dropshipping statistics 2026
What 27,373 Facebook product ads, the 5,806 websites behind them and 8,678 AliExpress listings show. Measured, not modeled, and free to cite.
Download the figuresHow we measured
- 28 daysmedian age of a Facebook product adLink to this figure
- 22.2%of ads had been running for 90 days or moreLink to this figure
- 57.5%of advertised websites are run from pages with under 10,000 likesLink to this figure
- $10.50median price of an AliExpress best-sellerLink to this figure
Half the product ads we caught were under a month old
We looked at 27,373 Facebook ads from 8,979 advertisers that send shoppers to a website, shown in the United States and found by searching the product categories we track. For each one we compared the day Meta says it started with the last day we saw it running.
| Days running | Share of ads |
|---|---|
| 0 | 100.0% |
| 7 | 77.6% |
| 14 | 64.9% |
| 30 | 48.6% |
| 60 | 32.9% |
| 90 | 22.2% |
| 180 | 9.4% |
Of the 31,301 ads we collected, we left out 3,736 that point at an app store, a marketplace, a Facebook or Instagram page or nowhere, and 192 that had stopped before we started collecting. Everything on this page is about the 27,373 that remain.
- 171 days
Nine ads in ten had been running for 171 days or less, just under six months.
Link to this figure - 2.9%
had been running for a year or more. Long-running ads exist, but they are rare.
Link to this figure
Most advertisers have small audiences
The ads send shoppers to 5,806 different websites, most of them online shops. We measured each one by the number of likes on the Facebook page that ran its ads.
The median page has 5,725 likes, and 28.6% have fewer than 1,000. Page likes measure audience, not sales: a well-known brand can run a modest page, so read this as reach rather than revenue.
The busiest single advertiser ran 137 ads we could find. Counts cover the ads our searches caught, so an advertiser with other products may run more.
- 58.0%
of advertisers ran a single ad we could find, while the busiest tenth ran 50.7% of all the ads.
Link to this figure
Some categories keep their ads for months, others drop them in days
The 131 product categories we search that had 100 or more ads. Median age is how long the typical ad in that category had been running when we last saw it.
- 183 days
Necklace ads had been running a median of 183 days when we last saw them; diaper pail ads, only 3 days.
Link to this figure
| Category | Ads | Median age | 90+ days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Necklace | 131 | 183 days | 74.0% |
| Dash cam | 115 | 180 days | 66.1% |
| Screen protector | 101 | 174 days | 80.2% |
| Car seat cushion | 109 | 130 days | 65.1% |
| Earrings | 116 | 117 days | 58.6% |
| Makeup | 119 | 110 days | 55.5% |
| LED lights | 162 | 110 days | 61.1% |
| Sunglasses | 177 | 103 days | 58.2% |
| Category | Ads | Median age | 90+ days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diaper pail | 115 | 3 days | 0.9% |
| Dog agility set | 156 | 3 days | 0.6% |
| Bike repair stand | 146 | 4 days | 3.4% |
| Dog bike basket | 172 | 4 days | 5.2% |
| Cat scratching post | 205 | 4 days | 7.8% |
| Vegetable chopper | 276 | 4 days | 1.1% |
| Motorcycle boots | 180 | 5 days | 13.3% |
| Car paint repair kit | 220 | 5 days | 2.3% |
The full list of 131 categories is in the download below. Categories are the search terms we use, so an ad counts under the search that found it.
AliExpress best-sellers cost about $10
We track 8,678 AliExpress listings across 132 product categories. The median listing costs $23.02, and the middle half cost between $9.49 and $49.90.
TikTok Shop is a store, not a supplier, and its products are a different mix from the AliExpress listings, so the two medians are not a markup.
| 25th percentile | $9.49 |
|---|---|
| Median | $23.02 |
| 75th percentile | $49.90 |
| Median of listings with 1,000 or more sold | $10.50 |
Part of that gap is how AliExpress counts: it adds up units sold over the life of a listing, and a cheap item reaches 1,000 units sooner than an expensive one.
| Category | Listings | Median price |
|---|---|---|
| Baby monitor | 165 | $48.64 |
| Ab roller | 162 | $18.77 |
| Balance board | 150 | $25.15 |
| Kids scooter | 143 | $50.30 |
| Electric toothbrush | 135 | $12.33 |
| Baby travel bed | 133 | $18.92 |
| Massage gun | 131 | $28.06 |
| Massage chair pad | 131 | $61.99 |
| Tow recovery kit | 129 | $22.29 |
| Dog grooming kit | 126 | $21.09 |
| Pet stairs | 126 | $25.05 |
| Pet stroller | 126 | $117.59 |
- $23.02
Median price of 8,678 AliExpress listings across 132 product categories.
Link to this figure - $20.65
Median price of 9,843 products from 5,572 shops on TikTok Shop's US store. This is what shoppers pay.
Link to this figure
How we measured
Collected from June 27, 2026 and last measured September 16, 2026. We update these figures every quarter and date every edition.
Ads
Collected in weekly runs of Meta’s public Ad Library for the United States, searching the product categories we track and asking only for ads that were running. We keep ads that link to a website and were seen on or after the first day of collection. An ad’s age is the number of days between the start date Meta shows and the last day we saw it running.
What the ages mean
An ad still running when we last saw it may run longer, so these ages are a minimum. Long-running ads are also easier to catch in a weekly sample, which pushes the figures up. The two effects work in opposite directions.
Websites and advertisers
A website is a domain at least one of these ads links to, not counting app stores, marketplaces and Facebook or Instagram pages. Most are online shops, some are not. Its size is the like count of the Facebook page that ran the ad; where one website was advertised from several pages, we used the largest.
AliExpress
Search results for our product categories, sorted by best-selling and priced from a United States connection. Prices are the lowest price on the listing, before tax and shipping. Listings under $4 are left out.
TikTok Shop
Search results for the same product categories from TikTok Shop’s US store, sorted by best-selling. Every product link we kept points at the US store. Prices are what shoppers pay.
What this is not: these are the ads and listings our searches find, not a count of every shop in the world. Treat them as a large sample of what is being advertised and sold. Nothing on this page comes from a forecast or a model.
Use these figures
You are welcome to use any figure on this page in your own writing. Please link to this page, or to the exact figure: every number above has its own link and a ready-made citation.
SpotPeaks, “Dropshipping statistics 2026”, measured September 16, 2026, https://spotpeaks.com/dropshipping-statistics
The text and figures are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Writing about this and need a number we have not published? Email hello@spotpeaks.com.
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