Dropshipping AI Experiment

Summary

In this meeting, Mark Tilbury documented his experience testing the viability of setting up a passive income dropshipping business using only free AI tools on Shopify, with a total setup budget under $1 and a time constraint of one hour.
The experiment included finding and customizing a store with Build Your Store AI, selecting and listing winning products via AutoDS, securing a free .store domain, and promoting the store through Instagram micro-influencers.
After a small promotional campaign, the store achieved 10 real sales and a modest profit, providing insight into the scalability of AI-assisted, low-cost e-commerce.
Key decisions included niche and product selection, promotional strategy, and concluding the test with a review and minor updates to the store for fairness and privacy.

As soon as possible – Mark: Complete and update the store’s footer, terms, and contact details before posting video.
Before publishing video – Mark: Change the name of the store so new viewers do not find and purchase from the test store.
If continuing experiment – Mark: Consider scaling up product promotion or expanding product range for a follow-up video.

Objective: Test if it’s possible to create and launch a profitable Shopify store using only free AI tools, under $1 setup cost, from a laptop, and in under 1 hour.
Chose Build Your Store AI to automatically create and customize a Shopify storefront for the sports & fitness niche.
Selected appropriate store banners and completed basic customization for a broad customer appeal.
Registered a Shopify account, selected the basic plan (free trial, then $1/month for three months), and installed necessary apps.
Utilized AutoDS (with a 30-day $0.99 starter plan) to import, price, and fulfill trending fitness products, completing setup within the $1 budget.
Secured a free .store domain through Build Your Store AI for improved branding and discoverability.

Products automatically added included a breathing trainer, golf club clips, resistance band, and jogging hat.
Checked and adjusted product photos, pricing, and descriptions for professionalism and clarity.
Reviewed policies, footer, and legal pages, noting only minor tweaks were needed (store name, location, contact details).
Noted the importance of a suitable domain name and secured “tilburyfitness.store” for the site.

Chose to promote the store using micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) for cost-effectiveness and high engagement; in this case, The Graze Brothers (Instagram: 145k followers).
Paid $50 for a story promo featuring the breathing trainer product, with a link directly to the product page.
Quality checked ordered products and confirmed satisfactory build and presentation.
Result after 24 hours: 12 units sold (10 to real customers, 2 for testing), total product revenue of $178.50, costs totaling $90.50 ($39.50 product/shipping, $50 influencer, $1 Shopify fee), resulting in a $0.35 profit for the campaign.
Identified single-product promotion as effective for initial sales, but broader product promotion could improve multi-item sales.

Selected 'Sports & Fitness' niche — Rationale: Large and active market, personal knowledge, and alignment with current trends.
Promoted only the breathing trainer via micro-influencer marketing — Rationale: Cost-effective testing of product-market fit before scaling up spend or promoting broader catalog.
Used a .store domain for branding — Rationale: Improved clarity for shoppers and potential boost in SEO and traffic.

Will scaling the number of promoted products or increasing influencer outreach significantly improve profit margins?
What are the longer-term challenges (returns, customer service, store management) if scaled up beyond this initial test?
Would different influencer platforms (e.g., TikTok, YouTube) or macro-influencers yield different results for similar effort and spend?
Should other AI tools or additional automation be tested in a future follow-up?