The e-commerce market is one of the biggest retail elements in the world. E-commerce is also a crucial component in driving revenue in the retail of adult pleasure products and sex toys. We at Adult Site Broker have dealt with many companies in this space, including retail sex toy sales.
In this blog post, we are thrilled to discuss in greater depth the sex toy dropshipping trends we have been following over the past year and how this market will continue to grow well into the new year. We also outline the requirements for this type of work and how you, as an owner, can benefit from dropshipping sex toys and pleasure products yourself as an augmentation to your adult site.
What is Dropshipping and How Does It Appeal to Adult Owners?
As a reminder for some of you, we need to discuss what dropshipping is. Rather than stocking the products it sells, the typical dropshipping business uses an order fulfillment system in which the seller purchases inventory from an external source—usually a wholesaler or manufacturer—to fill orders as needed.
Unlike warehousing and shipping products themselves, dropshippers use the dropshipping model, purchasing inventory and fulfillment from an external source. This means that a dropshipping operation can be run by a single business owner or by many employees.
In the context of the adult entertainment industry, retailing sex toys online through a dropshipping model follows a similar structure. Several companies in this space provide dropship and wholesale fulfillment services, including One-DC Wholesale, Eldorado Trading Company, and more.
2022 Numbers, Dropshipping, and Adult Products
Grand View Research, a market intelligence company, reported in April 2021 that the global sex toy market was valued at roughly $30 billion and was projected to reach $32 billion in 2022. This figure is corroborated by Research and Markets, another leading provider of market research, which found in its study this year that these numbers are likely to match and even increase.
Their findings indicate that the sex toy and pleasure product segments are projected to be worth $54.6 billion by the end of 2026, with the United States holding the world’s largest market share of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers.
The sex toy market is projected to swell to $62.3 billion by 2030, with a combined annual growth rate of 8.4%. Online retailers, particularly those operating on both specialized and mainstream e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, account for the majority of this market share. It’s no surprise that Americans are utilizing pleasure products to enhance intimate activities; this trend is likely only going upward due to interest in sex toys and pleasure products.
E-commerce and Dropshipping As A Whole
Recent figures indicate that the global dropshipping market is projected to reach $196.78 billion in 2022, up 23.7 percent from 2021. Being that 2023 just started, 2022 numbers are expected to be more accurate in the coming months from publication.
This increased growth looks set to continue, with projections indicating that the whole market will surpass the $200 billion milestone for the first time in 2023, reaching an estimated $243 billion. According to research from eMarketer and Statista, total online retail sales are projected to reach a staggering $6.51 trillion in 2023, with e-commerce sites accounting for 22.3% of retail sales.
China is still the biggest e-commerce market, with 46.3% of all retail e-commerce sales worldwide amounting to over $2.8 trillion in 2022, and 842.1 million digital buyers, making up 39.4% of the global total.
Regarding the US market, it is predicted that it will reach $904.9 billion by 2022 – a bit more than a third of China’s score – while the UK follows as the third-largest e-commerce market with 4.8%. Japan and South Korea are ranked behind the UK, noting 3% and 2.5%, respectively, according to an analysis of the market by Shopify Plus analyst Michael Keenan in a November post.
Some of the Best Platforms for Sex Toy Dropshipping
Some of the best platforms for sex toy dropshipping are mentioned here. Adult Site Broker has also written about some of these platforms, noting that they were featured in a post on content management systems and the various types of adult industry websites. We kept this list brief, but it does accurately outline the flexibility and capabilities of these businesses.
Shopify
Shopify is a content management system and e-commerce solution that, while not the ideal choice for adult content, provides many tools to aid in the sale of many adult products, such as fetish toys and sexual wellness products.
Furthermore, it offers integrations with dropshipping services that provide consumers with sex toys, lubricants, and other sexual wellness items. These add-ons and services available on the Shopify platform include VelvetShip and integrations with other dropshipping sites such as Sex Toy Distributing (.com), Eldorado Trading Company, and One-DC. There are many additional add-ons and services that can be integrated into building an e-commerce platform on Shopify. These websites also offer full creative control, blogging functionality, social media and email marketing integrations, and more.
Adent.io
Adent.io created xMarketplace, a pre-made e-commerce script. This script offers a website build, content management system, as well as add-ons and integrations with dropshipping distributors that specialize in various pleasure and fetish products.
xMarketplace now has a new dropshipping API, giving you access to over 70,000 products. Even those with limited experience in website building can use WordPress to create an online adult store that can be highly lucrative.
Adent.io is one of the most popular providers of dropshipping software and access to products to sell through this format. Start-up costs with xMarketplace are also quite reasonable, since the Adent.io team only requires a one-time fee for the software license and full rights to operate the site. Shopify, on the other hand, is quite cost-prohibitive for those just starting with no funds.
Extreme Restraints
When exploring the diverse range of products available in the adult dropshipping space, notable providers include Extreme Restraints or UberKinky, etc, which specialize in high-quality BDSM and fetish gear. They offer a wide variety of items that are well-suited to adult e-commerce sites. By partnering with trusted distributors, sites can tap into a rapidly growing market and offer customers unique products that cater to specific desires and interests.
Dropshipping Automations
Not all major e-commerce platforms offer full integrations with adult dropshipping services. However, several services bridge the gap to integrate with e-commerce platforms like BigCommerce.
As one of the largest market participants in the e-commerce industry, BigCommerce discourages adult product dropshipping for a variety of reasons. But firms like SparkShipping have developed open API protocols and integrations that help companies that wish to dropship adult products through more restrictive content management platforms circumvent blocks on product listings.
SparkShipping has integrations with all major adult dropshipping and wholesale retail companies, including Sex Toy Distributing and Eldorado. A cursory Google search for similar services to SparkShipping will provide several other API options.
Own or Want to Acquire an Adult E-commerce Property?
If you are the owner of an online adult e-commerce property and you’re looking to sell, feel free to reach out to the Adult Site Broker team for more information on our selling process.
Our brokers are the best in the adult entertainment industry, and we do everything to ensure that you get top-dollar for your property. A similar message goes to our potential buyers. We work with both buyers and sellers to ensure continuity and transparency, supporting open negotiations.
Related articles:
- What Are The Best Sex Toys To Sell For Maximum Profit?
- Why You Should Break Into the Pleasure Products & Sex Toys Business
- Best Sex Toys Affiliate Programs
Adult Site Broker hopes that you enjoyed this blog post. Want to know more? Reach out to us.
