How much does it cost to start dropshipping kids in the GCC?

The store is the cheap part and almost nobody budgets for the expensive part. A Shopify plan, a domain and a theme come to very little; the real cost is buying the first thousand visitors and discovering what fraction of them convert.

Where the money actually goes

Budget in three buckets rather than one: the shopfront, the traffic to test it, and the reserve for refunds and chargebacks on orders the supplier will not take back. The third bucket is the one that closes stores, because it is spent after the revenue is booked.

Dropshipping trades margin for not holding stock, and the trade only works while traffic is cheap. For a kids and baby store in the GCC, the answer turns on one thing in particular: The customer ages out of every product they buy, so the catalogue has to follow the child or the customer leaves.

What is different about the GCC

The GCC is not one market. Payment habits, delivery norms and language expectations differ enough that a single approach underperforms in at least one country.

Payment preference varies by country more than most planning assumes.

What is different about a kids and baby store

The part nobody plans for is returns: if the supplier will not take one back, the store is the returns department.

Where a mobile app comes into it

Knowing when somebody bought 6-month clothing tells you what they need in six months, and an app is where that is acted on.