Dropshipping pros, anyone?

I've been reading comment on dropshipping, does anyone have a positive thing to say about it? does it really work? has anyone had a good experience with dropshipping? can you make some money with dropshipping products to customers?

Hi and welcome to SaleHoo, khudson12!

If you use a drop shipper, then you aren’t getting the best wholesale prices. This is because you are essentially ordering one item at a time – very much like a consumer. The benefits of drop shipping lie in being able to test a product without risk, and being able to offer a larger product line without a huge investment. Drop shipping is just not the way to get the best wholesale prices. But that's not to say that drop shipping is a bad idea altogether. It is a simple way to start a business, however, you have to remember that the online retail market is very competitive so you're going to need to purchase in bulk at some point to ensure that you get maximum profit margins on each item you sell.

Welcome to the site, khudson12 :)

Dropshipping is a great way to start if you are on a limited budget. Like Satya said, it allows you to buy the item a piece at a time. If you know your way around it, it can be a decent source of income. We have many members who do dropshipping and yet earn quite well.

I suggest going over these guides to help you optimize your dropshipping business -

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And don't forget to down load your copy of our dropship handbook, to download please go to Link hidden: Login to view

If you need help locating suitable dropshippers please feel free to let us know.

Cheers!

Thank-You for your fast response.

Just to add to the girl's advice, the biggest issue with drop shipping is that it isn't used correctly in my opinion.

What tends to happen with new sellers coming into the market is they see it as a way of easy selling on eBay, but they don't really think about just how many other sellers they're are around the world all trying to do the same thing. Secondly, they go straight for the hot selling items to try and make money from.

It's a very simple equation if you consider the facts. As the girl's have said, low margin in drop shipped products to start with, then add that together with an over saturated marketplace like eBay, and then add the fact that you are looking at products that everyone is already trying to sell....... the mathimatics of the whole thing are not brilliant!

Now it's not impossible to make money on eBay with drop shipping, far from it. Plenty do use the resource to establish a foot hold with certain products, but I would suggest that most have success with products that are not the hottest selling and therefore don't have as much competition.

Other's build complete drop shipping businesses on eBay, so it can be done, all be it with a MASSIVE amount of research and trial marketing. A successful drop shipping business on eBay doesn't happen over night anymore!

Where there are truly serious drop shipping opportunities lays in developing and marketing your own website. Not an easy task by any imagination, and certainly not one that I would be suggesting that anyone new to the industry actually tries. However, given some experience, that is where drop shipping can be a fantastic resource model to go with.

It all comes down to horses for courses. Your average mechanic in a little street on they're own usually won't struggle for business, but if you put 20 of them in the same little street, then that dynamic would have a completely detrimental effect on all of them.

Position in business is important, and it makes no difference if it's bricks and mortar or online, position is still king when it comes to making money in business!

I agree with you about selling on ebay it's very competitive, I use to sell some on ebay, it was a good place to sell when they first started but now it's saturated with sellers and wasn't thinking about selling on ebay I want to get away from that and do my own website to see how it goes.
I'm going to try it and see how it works, what's good is that my son is good at internet marketing and we both have business skills, he's a good motivational coach (very positive attitude) very proud of him he's a go getter, he's had his own landscaping since he was 16 he's now 21. I think we will do ok and if it doesn't work then that's ok too. I do know it will take time to build a web business and eventually I will look at other options to invest in. But for right now this is just a trial run. I really appreciate the fast response. I'll be around

Thanks!

Sounds to me like you have a lot of your ducks already lined up, not much to do until you start knocking them over one by one : )

Sounds to me like you have a lot of your ducks already lined up, not much to do until you start knocking them over one by one : )

I sure hope so. :)

Hi there,

The major upside to drop shipping is that you are not tying up all your money by holding stock that will depreciate. The downside down side is delivery time frames and warranties claims back to the likes of china.

If you are starting out and looking to drop ship here is a good way start.

1) set up an area for yourself that is quiet, like an office this way you can be in your own head space :o)

Start by getting in contact with U.S Customs and visit their website to see the in's and out of importing so you do not get in any trouble. Salehoo staff are very helpful in this area as well :o)

Second i would sit down and write yourself a plan of what you would like to sell, uses the directory in salehoo as it offers a massive category range of different types of suppliers offering different products. Compare your suppliers and introduce yourself and see what they can do for you to help your business with dropshipping. Prices etc

3) i would do a market anaysis and see what products are selling for on the likes of e-bay so you remain competitive and make $$$.

4) Start with one supplier you are happy with and bulid from there. As you will get more confidant and want to strech your wings further to look for better suppliers and better deals as time goes on.

5) once you have been trading for around 3 months i would take the time to make an appointment to see a local accountant as these guys will help guide you in the right direction when it comes to paying taxes. they will also help you with tax advantages.

6) Built a webiste and advertise, advertise, advertise!!!!!
there are lots of free website building sites like
www.muncom.com

7) Don't ever stress, customers can be demading at times especially with delays in delivery around xmas. Keep in constant contact with your customers and suppliers as you will find dealing with customers that HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY. Some people you just cannot change the they way they think but at least you know in your heart you did everything you could.

When using e-bay and other auction sites:
Bad feed back is inevitable, NO ONE IS PERFECT and YOU CANT PLEASE EVERYONE. do not let this get you down as it will eat you alive!!!! people will still buy from you!!!

once you feel like you have the ball rolling start a database of customers and offer them special deals to make sales.

thats all i can really think of at the moment but please PM me if you have any questions, i am only too happy to help :o)

Kind Regards

Cody
Director
Cozziemomo NZ

Another good one Cody!

Delivery time is indeed a down side. Although a dropshipper may promise to deliver the items in 3-5 days there are factors beyond our control that may cause a delay and this will certainly upset customers, good thing if you get the more understanding ones then your feedback may be pretty safe! If not, then it's bye-bye feedback :(

Again, thanks for helping out on the forum :)

Cheers!

Some great advice above, and a topic I'm sure we could all debate about for hours (call me a product-sourcing geek!).

Overall I think drop shipping can be a great option, but too many people underestimate the work that is required to make it succeed.

One of the best ways a seller can use drop shipping is by taking advantage of the fact that you don't have to buy items to test out new product lines.

For example, if I was selling dining furniture and wanted to also try selling cutlery sets to expand my product range, I could team up with a drop ship supplier and try selling them and see how buyers react.

If they sell, then great - more profits for me, but if they don't, well no harm done.

For me, the biggest "don't" in drop shipping is expect to be able to compete on eBay, especially if you are a new seller.

As previously mentioned, you can compete on eBay with drop shipped items as the numbers just won't add up.

So instead, if you really want to try out drop shipping, try selling on a free marketplace like eCrater or Addoway (or Bonanza which is free to list, but they do take a small fee when you make a sale).

Everyone has been very helpful to me, thanks I really appreaciate the help.

Hi khudson12,

I'm sure everyone was more than happy to ha been of help! On behalf of everybody who contributed on this thread - You're Welcome :)

All the best!

Your Welcome :o)

Cody
Cozziemomo NZ

I have to say, it's easy to create an account from Ebay, even it's not difficult to create your own website selling items. As the dropshipper, more important thing is how to find as more as possible the final users.

You have to list as more as possible items and the reasonbale price is more significant if you are E-bay reseller.

If you sell items from your own website, you have to promote your website, try to get as more as possible traffic. Of course, it's necessary before the promotion, you must do the website optimization, we call it SEO. No need much items posting on your website, but all products on your website for sell must be available anytime, as the delivery time will be the top important for your local market clients..

ChinaZRH.com is going to help her customer to increase their sales by any possible way if you need. Not only items resouces, also, we can provide technical support, like website make, optimize and promote. Even we can desgin more convenient control panel for your backstage, and improve checkout process, etc.

We can send you all of our items for your use if your are E-bay reseller. There are more than 4,000 items on the website Link hidden: Login to view, most of them are available in our warehouse. All items with clear picutres and detailed specification.

If you sell products via your own website, we may have our SEO team contact with you, so that you get more visitors and higher Bounce Rate, too.

I have to say here, above all we offer for free to any Salehoo memebers - Dropshipper all over the world!

Thanks the gound from Salehoo, we may making more friends here.

Good luck!